noon
The leaflets appealing to the working people to celebrate the first of May flooded the village and the factory . Every night they were posted on the fences , even on the doors of the police station ; and every day they were found in the factory . In the mornings the police would go around , swearing , tearing down and scraping off the lilac-covered bills from the fences . At noon , however , these bills would fly over the streets again , rolling to the feet of the passers-by . Spies were sent from the city to stand at the street corners and carefully scan the working people on their gay passages from and to the factory at dinner time . Everybody was pleased to see the impotence of the police , and even the elder workingmen would smile at one another : `` Things are happening , are n't they ? '' All over , people would cluster into groups hotly discussing the stirring appeals .