course, was smashed by the October Revolution,
and "Uncle, after being forced, as a property
owner, to pay considerable contributions, watched
the newspapers closely, realized that after the na-
tionalization of the banks resistance was hopeless,
and resigned himself to do what he could, not to
lose his factory altogether."

He called together all the workmen, and pro-
posed that they should form an artel or co-opera-
tive society and take the factory into their own
hands, each man contributing a thousand roubles
towards the capital with which to run it. Of
course the workmen had not got a thousand roubles
apiece, "so uncle offered to pay it in for them, on
the understanding that they would eventually pay
him back." This was illegal, but the little town
was a long way from the centre of things, and it
seemed a good way out of the difficulty. He did
not expect to get it back, but he hoped in this way
to keep control of the tannery, which he wished to
develop, having a paternal interest in it.

Things worked very well. They elected a com-
mittee of control. "Uncle was elected president,
I was elected vice-president, and there were three

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