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+*.txt text eol=lf
+*.htm text eol=lf
+*.html text eol=lf
+*.md text eol=lf
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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #52811 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52811)
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Anarchy and Anarchists, by Michael Schaack
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: Anarchy and Anarchists
- Communism, Socialism, and Nihilism in Doctrine and in Deed
-
-Author: Michael Schaack
-
-Release Date: August 15, 2016 [EBook #52811]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANARCHY AND ANARCHISTS ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Giovanni Fini, Richard Hulse and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE:
-
-—Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected.
-
-
-[Illustration: Michael J. Schaack.]
-
-
-
-
- ANARCHY AND ANARCHISTS.
-
- A HISTORY OF
- THE RED TERROR AND THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION
- IN AMERICA AND EUROPE.
-
- COMMUNISM, SOCIALISM, AND NIHILISM
- IN DOCTRINE AND IN DEED.
-
- THE CHICAGO HAYMARKET CONSPIRACY,
- AND THE DETECTION AND TRIAL OF THE CONSPIRATORS.
-
- BY
- MICHAEL J. SCHAACK,
- CAPTAIN OF POLICE.
-
- WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS FROM AUTHENTIC PHOTOGRAPHS,
- AND FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS
-
- BY WM. A. MCCULLOUGH, WM. OTTMAN, LOUIS BRAUNHOLD, TRUE
- WILLIAMS, CHAS. FOERSTER, O. F. KRITZNER, AND OTHERS.
-
- [Illustration]
-
- CHICAGO:
- F. J. SCHULTE & COMPANY.
- NEW YORK AND PHILADELPHIA: W. A. HOUGHTON.
- ST. LOUIS: S. F. JUNKIN & CO. PITTSBURG: P. J. FLEMING & CO.
- MDCCCLXXXIX.
-
-
-
-
- COPYRIGHT, 1889,
- BY MICHAEL J. SCHAACK.
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
-
- _THE ILLUSTRATIONS IN THIS WORK ARE ALL ORIGINAL, AND ARE
- PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT._
-
-
-
-
- TO
- HON. JOSEPH E. GARY
- AND TO
- HON. JULIUS S. GRINNELL
- THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY
- THE AUTHOR.
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE.
-
-IT has seemed to me that there should be a history of the development,
-the revolt, and the tragedy of Anarchy in Chicago. This history I have
-written as impartially and as fairly as I knew how to write it. I have
-kept steadily before my eyes the motto,—
-
- “Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice.”
-
-It will be found in the succeeding pages that neither animosity against
-the revolutionists, nor partiality to the State, has influenced the
-work. I have dealt with this episode in Chicago’s history as calmly
-and as fairly as I am able. I have tried to put myself in the position
-of the misguided men whose conspiracy led to the Haymarket explosion
-and to the gallows; to understand their motives; to appreciate their
-ideals—for so only could this volume be properly written.
-
-And to present a broader view, I have added a history of all forms of
-Socialism, Communism, Nihilism and Anarchy. In this, though necessarily
-brief, it has been the purpose to give all the important facts, and to
-set forth the theories of all those who, whether moderate or radical,
-whether sincerely laboring in the interests of humanity or boisterously
-striving for notoriety, have endeavored or pretended to improve upon
-the existing order of society.
-
-After the dynamite bomb exploded, carrying death into the ranks of men
-with whom I had been for years closely associated—after an impudent
-attack had been made upon our law and upon our system, which I was
-sworn to defend—it came to me as a duty to the State, a duty to my
-dead and wounded comrades, to bring the guilty men to justice; to
-expose the conspiracy to the world, and thus to assist in vindicating
-the law. How the duty was performed, this story tells.
-
-It is a plain narrative whose interest lies in the momentous character
-of the facts which it relates. Much of it is now for the first time
-given to the public. I have drawn upon the records of the case, made
-in court, but more especially upon the reports made to me, during the
-progress of the investigation, by the many detectives who were working
-under my direction.
-
-I can say for my book no more than this: that from the first page to
-the last there is no material statement which is not to my knowledge
-true. The reader, then, may at least depend upon the accuracy of the
-information presented here, even if I cannot make any other claim.
-
-It would be unfair and ungrateful if I did not seize this opportunity
-to put on lasting record my obligations to Judge Julius S. Grinnell,
-who was State’s Attorney during the investigation. His support, steady
-and full of tact, enabled me to go through with the work, in spite of
-obstacles deliberately put in my way. My position was a delicate and
-difficult one: had it not been for him, and for others, success would
-have been almost impossible.
-
-Nor can I forego this occasion to bear testimony to the magnificent
-police work done in the case by Inspector Bonfield and his brother,
-James Bonfield, and by the officers who acted directly with me. These
-were Lieut. Charles A. Larsen and Officers Herman Schuettler, Michael
-Whalen, Jacob Loewenstein, Michael Hoffman, Charles Rehm, John Stift
-and B. P. Baer. Mr. Edmund Furthmann, at that time Assistant State’s
-Attorney, as I have elsewhere recorded, worked upon the inquiry into
-the conspiracy with an acumen, a perseverance and an industry which
-were beyond all praise. I knew, when he was first associated with me
-in the case, that the outcome must be a victory for outraged law, and
-the result vindicated the prediction. To Mr. Thomas O. Thompson and to
-Mr. John T. McEnnis much of the literary form of this volume is to be
-credited, and to them also I am under lasting obligations.
-
- MICHAEL J. SCHAACK.
-
- _Chicago, February, 1889._
-
-
-
-
-TABLE OF CONTENTS.
-
-
- CHAPTER I.
-
- The Beginning of Anarchy—The German School of Discontent—The
- Socialist Future—The Asylum in London—Birth of a Word—Work
- of the French Revolution—The Conspiracy of Babeuf—Etienne
- Cabet’s Experiment—The Colony in the United States—Settled
- at Nauvoo—Fourier and his System—The Familistère at
- Guise—Louis Blanc and the National Work-shops—Proudhon,
- the Founder of French Anarchy—German Socialism: Its Rise
- and Development—Rodbertus and his Followers—“Capital,”
- by Karl Marx—The “Bible of the Socialists”—The Red
- Internationale—Bakounine and his Expulsion from the
- Society—The New Conspiracy—Ferdinand Lassalle and the
- Social Democrats—The Birth of a Great Movement—Growth of
- Discontent—Leaders after Lassalle—The Central Idea of the
- Revolt—American Methods and the Police Position, 17
-
-
- CHAPTER II.
-
- Dynamite in Politics-Historical Assassinations—Infernal
- Machines in France—The Inventor of Dynamite—M. Noble
- and his Ideas—The Nitro-Compounds—How Dynamite is
- Made—The New French Explosive—“Black Jelley” and the
- Nihilists—What the Nihilists Believe and What they
- Want—The Conditions in Russia—The White and the Red
- Terrors—Vera Sassoulitch—Tourgenieff and the Russian
- Girl—The Assassination of the Czar—“It is too Soon to Thank
- God”—The Dying Emperor—Two Bombs Thrown—Running Down the
- Conspirators—Sophia Perowskaja, the Nihilist Leader—The
- Handkerchief Signal—The Murder Roll—Tried and Convicted—A
- Brutal Execution—Five Nihilists Pay the Penalty—Last Words
- Spoken but Unheard—A Deafening Tattoo—The Book-bomb and
- the Present Czar—Strychnine-coated Bullets—St. Peter and
- Paul’s Fortress—Dynamite Outrages in England—The Record of
- Crime—Twenty-nine Convicts and their Offenses—Ingenious
- Bomb-making—The Failures of Dynamite, 28
-
-
- CHAPTER III.
-
- The Exodus to Chicago—Waiting for an Opportunity—A
- Political Party Formed—A Question of $600,000—The First
- Socialist Platform—Details of the Organization—Work at
- the Ballot-Box—Statistics of Socialist Progress—The
- “International Workingmen’s Party” and The “Workingmen’s Party
- of the United States”—The Eleven Commandments of Labor—How
- the Work was to be Done—A Curious Constitution—Beginnings
- of the Labor Press—The Union Congress—Criticising the
- Ballot-Box—The Executive Committee and its Powers—Annals
- of 1876—A Period of Preparation—The Great Railroad
- Strikes of 1877—The First Attack on Society—A Decisive
- Defeat—Trying Politics Again—The “Socialistic Party”—Its
- Leaders and its Aims—August Spies as an Editor—Buying the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_—How the Money was Raised—Anarchist
- Campaign Songs—The Group Organization—Plan of the
- Propaganda—Dynamite First Taught—“The Bureau of
- Information”—An Attack on Arbitration—No Compromise with
- Capital—Unity of the Internationalists and the Socialists, 44
-
-
- CHAPTER IV.
-
- Socialism, Theoretic and Practical—Statements of the
- Leaders—Vengeance on the “Spitzels”—The Black Flag in the
- Streets—Resolutions in the _Alarm_—The Board of Trade
- Procession—Why it Failed—Experts on Anarchy—Parsons,
- Spies, Schwab and Fielden Outline their Belief—The
- International Platform—Why Communism Must Fail—A French
- Experiment and its Lesson—The Law of Averages—Extracts
- from the Anarchistic Press—Preaching Murder—Dynamite
- or the Ballot-Box?—“The Reaction in America”—Plans for
- Street Fighting—Riot Drill and Tactics—Bakounine and the
- Social Revolution—Twenty-one Statements of an Anarchist’s
- Duty—Herways’ Formula—Predicting the Haymarket—The Lehr
- und Wehr Verein and the Supreme Court—The White Terror and
- the Red—Reinsdorf, the Father of Anarchy—His Association
- with Hoedel and Nobiling—Attempt to Assassinate the German
- Emperor—Reinsdorf at Berlin—His Desperate Plan—“Old Lehmann”
- and the Socialist’s Dagger—The Germania Monument—An Attempt
- to Kill the Whole Court—A Culvert Full of Dynamite—A Wet
- Fuse and no Explosion—Reinsdorf Condemned to Death—His Last
- Letters—Chicago Students of his Teachings—De Tocqueville and
- Socialism, 74
-
-
- CHAPTER V.
-
- The Socialistic Programme—Fighting a Compromise—Opposition
- to the Eight-hour Movement—The Memorial to Congress—Eight
- Hours’ Work Enough—The Anarchist Position—An _Alarm_
- Editorial—“Capitalists and Wage Slaves”—Parsons’
- Ideas—The Anarchists and the Knights of Labor—Powderly’s
- Warning—Working up a Riot—The Effect of Labor-saving
- Machinery—Views of Edison and Wells—The Socialistic
- Demonstration—The Procession of April 25, 1886—How the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ Helped on the Crisis—The Secret Circular of
- 1886, 104
-
-
- CHAPTER VI.
-
- The Eight-hour Movement—Anarchist Activity—The Lock-out at
- McCormick’s—Distorting the Facts—A Socialist Lie—The True
- Facts about McCormick’s—Who Shall Run the Shops?—Abusing the
- “Scabs”—High Wages for Cheap Work—The Union Loses $3,000 a
- Day—Preparing for Trouble—Arming the Anarchists—Ammunition
- Depots—Pistols and Dynamite—Threatening the Police—The
- Conspirators Show the White Feather—Capt. O’Donnell’s
- Magnificent Police Work—The Revolution Blocked—A Foreign
- Reservation—An Attempt to Mob the Police—The History
- of the First Secret Meeting—Lingg’s First Appearance
- in the Conspiracy—The Captured Documents—Bloodshed at
- McCormick’s—“The Battle Was Lost”—Officer Casey’s Narrow
- Escape, 112
-
-
- CHAPTER VII.
-
- The _Coup d’État_ a Miscarriage—Effect of the Anarchist
- Failure at McCormick’s—“Revenge”—Text of the Famous
- Circular—The German Version—An Incitement to Murder—Bringing
- on a Conflict—Engel’s Diabolical Plan—The Rôle of the Lehr
- und Wehr Verein—The Gathering of the Armed Groups—Fischer’s
- Sanguinary Talk—The Signal for Murder—“Ruhe” and its
- Meaning—Keeping Clear of the Mouse-Trap—The Haymarket
- Selected—Its Advantages for Revolutionary War—The Call for
- the Murder Meeting—“Workingmen, Arm Yourselves”—Preparing the
- Dynamite—The _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ Arsenal—The Assassins’ Roost
- at 58 Clybourn Avenue—The Projected Attack on the Police
- Stations—Bombs for All who Wished Them—Waiting for the Word
- of Command—Why it was not Given—The Leaders’ Courage Fails, 129
-
-
- CHAPTER VIII.
-
- The Air Full of Rumors—A Riot Feared—Police
- Preparations—Bonfield in Command—The Haymarket—Strategic
- Value of the Anarchists’ Position—Crane’s Alley—The Theory
- of Street Warfare—Inflaming the Mob—Schnaubelt and his
- Bomb—“Throttle the Law”—The Limit of Patience Reached—“In
- the Name of the People, Disperse”—The Signal Given—The Crash
- of Dynamite First Heard on an American Street—Murder in the
- Air—A Rally and a Charge—The Anarchists Swept Away—A Battle
- Worthy of Veterans, 139
-
-
- CHAPTER IX.
-
- The Dead and the Wounded—Moans of Anguish in the Police
- Station—Caring for Friend and Foe—Counting the Cost—A City’s
- Sympathy—The Death List—Sketches of the Men—The Doctors’
- Work—Dynamite Havoc—Veterans of the Haymarket—A Roll of
- Honor—The Anarchist Loss—Guesses at their Dead—Concealing
- Wounded Rioters—The Explosion a Failure—Disappointment of the
- Terrorists, 149
-
-
- CHAPTER X.
-
- The Core of the Conspiracy—Search of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_
- Office—The Captured Manuscript—Jealousies in the Police
- Department—The Case Threatened with Failure—Stupidity at
- the Central Office—Fischer Brought in—Rotten Detective
- Work—The Arrest of Spies—His Egregious Vanity—An Anarchist
- “Ladies’ Man”—Wine Suppers with the Actresses—Nina Van
- Zandt’s Antecedents—Her Romantic Connection with the
- Case—Fashionable Toilets—Did Spies Really Love Her?—His
- Curious Conduct—The Proxy Marriage—The End of the
- Romance—The Other Conspirators—Mrs. Parsons’ Origin—The
- Bomb-Thrower in Custody—The Assassin Kicked Out of the Chief’s
- Office—Schnaubelt and the Detectives—Suspicious Conduct at
- Headquarters—Schnaubelt Ordered to Keep Away From the City
- Hall—An Amazing Incident—A Friendly Tip to a Murderer—My
- Impressions of the Schnaubelt Episode—Balthasar Rau and Mr.
- Furthmann—Phantom Shackles in a Pullman—Experiments with
- Dynamite—An Explosive Dangerous to Friend and Foe—Testing the
- Bombs—Fielden and the Chief, 156
-
-
- CHAPTER XI.
-
- My Connection with the Anarchist Cases—A Scene at the Central
- Office—Mr. Hanssen’s Discovery—Politics and Detective
- Work—Jealousy Against Inspector Bonfield—Dynamiters on
- Exhibition—Courtesies to the Prize-fighters—A Friendly
- Tip—My First Light on the Case—A Promise of Confidence—One
- Night’s Work—The Chief Agrees to my Taking up the
- Case—Laying Our Plans—“We Have Found the Bomb Factory!”—Is
- it a Trap?—A Patrol-wagon Full of Dynamite—No Help Hoped
- for from Headquarters—Conference with State’s Attorney
- Grinnell—Furthmann’s Work—Opening up the Plot—Trouble
- with the Newspaper Men—Unexpected Advantage of Hostile
- Criticism—Information from Unexpected Quarters—Queer Episodes
- of the Hunt—Clues Good, Bad and Indifferent—A Mysterious
- Lady with a Veil—A Conference in my Back Yard—The Anarchists
- Alarmed—A Breezy Conference with Ebersold—Threatening
- Letters—Menaces Sent to the Wives of the Men Working
- on the Case—How the Ladies Behaved—The Judge and Mrs.
- Gary—Detectives on Each Other’s Trail—The Humors of the
- Case—Amusing Incidents, 183
-
-
- CHAPTER XII.
-
- Tracking the Conspirators—Female Anarchists—A Bevy of
- Beauties—Petticoated Ugliness—The Breathless Messenger—A
- Detective’s Danger—Turning the Tables—“That Man is
- a Detective!”—A Close Call—Gaining Revolutionists’
- Confidence—Vouched for by the Conspirators—Speech-making
- Extraordinary—The Hiding-place in the Anarchists’
- Hall—Betrayed by a Woman—The Assassination of Detective Brown
- at Cedar Lake—Saloon-keepers and the Revolution—“Anarchists
- for Revenue Only”—Another Murder Plot—The Peep-hole
- Found—Hunting for Detectives—Some Amusing Ruses of the
- Revolutionists—A Collector of “Red” Literature and his
- Dangerous Bonfire—Ebersold’s Vacation—Threatening the
- Jury—Measures Taken for their Protection—Grinnell’s Danger—A
- “Bad Man” in Court—The Find at the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_
- Office—Schnaubelt’s Impudent Letter—Captured
- Correspondence—The Anarchists’ Complete Letter-writer, 206
-
-
- CHAPTER XIII.
-
- The Difficulties of Detection—Moving on the Enemy—A
- Hebrew Anarchist—Oppenheimer’s Story—Dancing over
- Dynamite—Twenty-Five Dollars’ Worth of Practical Socialism—A
- Woman’s Work—How Mrs. Seliger Saved the North Side—A
- Well-merited Tribute—Seliger Saved by his Wife—The Shadow
- of the Hangman’s Rope—A Hunt for a Witness—Shadowing a
- Hack—The Commune Celebration—Fixing Lingg’s Guilt—Preparing
- the Infernal Machines—A Boy Conspirator—Lingg’s Youthful
- Friend—Anarchy in the Blood—How John Thielen was Taken into
- Camp—His Curious Confession—Other Arrests, 230
-
-
- CHAPTER XIV.
-
- Completing the Case—Looking for Lingg—The Bomb-maker’s
- Birth—Was he of Royal Blood?—A Romantic Family History—Lingg
- and his Mother—Captured Correspondence—A Desperate and
- Dangerous Character—Lingg Disappears—A Faint Trail
- Found—Looking for Express Wagon 1999—The Number that Cost
- the Fugitive his Life—A Desperado at Bay—Schuettler’s
- Death Grapple—Lingg in the Shackles—His Statement at
- the Station—The Transfer to the Jail—Lingg’s Love for
- Children—The Identity of his Sweetheart—An Interview with
- Hubner—His Confession—The Meeting at Neff’s Place, 256
-
-
- CHAPTER XV.
-
- Engel in the Toils—His Character and Rough Eloquence—Facing
- his Accusers—Waller’s Confession—The Work of the Lehr
- und Wehr Verein—A Dangerous Organization—The Romance
- of Conspiracy—Organization of the Armed Sections—Plans
- and Purposes—Rifles Bought in St. Louis—The Picnics at
- Sheffield—A Dynamite Drill—The Attack on McCormick’s—A
- Frightened Anarchist—Lehman in the Calaboose—Information
- from many Quarters—The Cost of Revolvers—Lorenz Hermann’s
- Story—Some Expert Lying, 283
-
-
- CHAPTER XVI.
-
- Pushing the Anarchists—A Scene on a Street-car—How
- Hermann Muntzenberg Gave Himself Away—The Secret
- Signal—“D——n the Informers”—A Satchelful of Bombs—More
- about Engel’s Murderous Plan—Drilling the Lehr und Wehr
- Verein—Breitenfeld’s Cowardice—An Anarchist Judas—The
- Hagemans—Dynamite in Gas-pipe—An Admirer of Lingg—A
- Scheme to Remove the Author—The Hospitalities of the Police
- Station—Mrs. Jebolinski’s Indignation—A Bogus Milkman—An
- Unwilling Visitor—Mistaken for a Detective—An Eccentric
- Prisoner—Division of Labor at the Dynamite Factory—Clermont’s
- Dilemma—The Arrangements for the Haymarket, 312
-
-
- CHAPTER XVII.
-
- Fluttering the Anarchist Dove-cote—Confessions by
- Piecemeal—Statements from the Small Fry—One of
- Schnaubelt’s Friends—“Some One Wants to Hang Me”—Neebe’s
- Bloodthirsty Threats—Burrowing in the Dark—The
- Starved-out Cut-throat—Torturing a Woman—Hopes of _Habeas
- Corpus_—“Little” Krueger’s Work—Planning a Rescue—The Signal
- “? ? ?” and its Meaning—A Red-haired Man’s Story—Firing the
- Socialist Heart—Meetings with Locked Doors—An Ambush for the
- Police—The Red Flag Episode—Beer and Philosophy—Baum’s Wife
- and Baby—A Wife-beating Revolutionist—Brother Eppinger’s
- Duties, 334
-
-
- CHAPTER XVIII.
-
- The Plot against the Police—Anarchist Banners and
- Emblems—Stealing a Captured Flag—A Mystery at a
- Station-house—Finding the Fire Cans—Their Construction and
- Use—Imitating the Parisian Petroleuses—Glass Bombs—Putting
- the Women Forward—Cans and Bombs Still Hidden Among the
- Bohemians—Testing the Infernal Machines—The Effects of
- Anarchy—The Moral to be Drawn—Looking for Labor Sympathy—A
- Crazy Scheme—Gatling Gun _vs._ Dynamite—The Threatened Attack
- on the Station-houses—Watching the Third Window—Selecting a
- Weapon—Planning Murder—The Test of Would-be Assassins—The
- Meeting at Lincoln Park—Peril of the Hinman Street
- Station-house—A Fortunate Escape, 364
-
-
- CHAPTER XIX.
-
- The Legal Battle—The Beginning of Proceedings in Court—Work
- in the Grand Jury Room—The Circulation of Anarchistic
- Literature—A Witness who was not Positive—Side Lights on the
- Testimony—The Indictments Returned—Selecting a Jury—Sketches
- of the Jurymen—Ready for the Struggle, 376
-
-
- CHAPTER XX.
-
- Judge Grinnell’s Opening—Statement of the Case—The
- Light of the 4th of May—The Dynamite Argument—Spies’
- Fatal Prophecy—The Eight-hour Strike—The Growth of the
- Conspiracy—Spies’ Cowardice at McCormick’s—The “Revenge”
- Circular—Work of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ and the _Alarm_—The
- Secret Signal—A Frightful Plan—“Ruhe”—Lingg, the
- Bomb-maker—The Haymarket Conspiracy—The Meeting—“We are
- Peaceable”—After the Murder—The Complete Case Presented, 390
-
-
- CHAPTER XXI.
-
- The Great Trial Opens—Bonfield’s History of the Massacre—How
- the Bomb Exploded—Dynamite in the Air—A Thrilling
- Story—Gottfried Waller’s Testimony—An Anarchist’s
- “Squeal”—The Murder Conspiracy Made Manifest by Many
- Witnesses, 404
-
-
- CHAPTER XXII.
-
- “We are Peaceable”—Capt. Ward’s Memories of the Massacre—A
- Nest of Anarchists—Scenes in the Court—Seliger’s
- Revelations—Lingg, the Bomb-maker—How he cast his Shells—A
- Dynamite Romance—Inside History of the Conspiracy—The Shadow
- of the Gallows—Mrs. Seliger and the Anarchists—Tightening
- the Coils—An Explosive Arsenal—The Schnaubelt Blunder—Harry
- Wilkinson and Spies—A Threat in Toothpicks—The Bomb
- Factory—The Board of Trade Demonstration, 419
-
-
- CHAPTER XXIII.
-
- A Pinkerton Operative’s Adventures—How the Leading Anarchists
- Vouched for a Detective—An Interesting Scene—An Enemy in the
- Camp—Getting into the Armed Group—No. 16’s Experience—Paul
- Hull and the Dynamite Bomb—A Safe Corner Where the Bullets
- were Thick—A Revolver Tattoo—“Shoot the Devils”—A Reformed
- Internationalist, 445
-
-
- CHAPTER XXIV.
-
- Reporting under Difficulties—Shorthand in an Overcoat
- Pocket—An Incriminating Conversation—Spies and Schwab in
- Danger—Gilmer’s Story—The Man in the Alley—Schnaubelt
- the Bomb-thrower—Fixing the Guilt—Spies Lit the Fuse—A
- Searching Cross-Examination—The Anarchists Alarmed—Engel
- and the Shell Machine—The Find at Lingg’s House—The Author
- on the Witness-stand—Talks with the Prisoners—Dynamite
- Experiments—The False Bottom of Lingg’s Trunk—The Material
- in the Shells—Expert Testimony—Incendiary Banners—The
- Prosecution Rests—A Fruitless Attempt to have Neebe
- Discharged, 457
-
-
- CHAPTER XXV.
-
- The Programme of the Defense—Mayor Harrison’s
- Memories—Simonson’s Story—A Graphic Account—A Bird’s-eye
- View of Dynamite—Ferguson and the Bomb—“As Big as a Base
- Ball”—The Defense Theory of the Riot—Claiming the Police were
- the Aggressors—Dr. Taylor and the Bullet-marks—The Attack
- on Gilmer’s Veracity—Varying Testimony—The Witnesses who
- Appeared, 478
-
-
- CHAPTER XXVI.
-
- Malkoff’s Testimony—A Nihilist’s Correspondence—More
- about the Wagon—Spies’ Brother—A Witness who Contradicts
- Himself—Printing the Revenge Circular—Lizzie Holmes’
- Inflammatory Essay—“Have You a Match About You?”—The Prisoner
- Fielden Takes the Stand—An Anarchist’s Autobiography—The Red
- Flag the Symbol of Freedom—The “Peaceable” Meeting—Fielden’s
- Opinion of the _Alarm_—“Throttling the Law”—Expecting
- Arrest—More about Gilmer, 491
-
-
- CHAPTER XXVII.
-
- The Close of the Defense—Working on the Jury—The Man who
- Threw the Bomb—Conflicting Testimony—Michael Schwab on the
- Stand—An Agitator’s Adventures—Spies in his Own Defense—The
- Fight at McCormick’s—The Desplaines Street Wagon—Bombs and
- Beer—The Wilkinson Interview—The Weapon of the Future—Spies
- the Reporter’s Friend—Bad Treatment by Ebersold—The Hocking
- Valley Letter—Albert R. Parsons in his Own Behalf—His
- Memories of the Haymarket—The Evidence in Rebuttal, 506
-
-
- CHAPTER XXVIII.
-
- Opening of the Argument—Mr. Walker’s Speech—The Law
- of the Case—Was there a Conspiracy?—The Caliber of
- the Bullets—Tightening the Chain—A Propaganda on the
- Witness-stand—The Eight-hour Movement—“One Single Bomb”—The
- Cry of the Revolutionist—Avoiding the Mouse-trap—Parsons and
- the Murder—Studying “Revolutionary War”—Lingg and his Bomb
- Factory—The Alibi Idea, 525
-
-
- CHAPTER XXIX.
-
- The Argument for the Defendants—“Newspaper Evidence”—Bringing
- about the Social Revolution—Arson and Murder—The Right to
- Property—Evolution or Revolution—Dynamite as an Argument—The
- Arsenal at 107 Fifth Avenue—Was it all Braggadocio?—An Open
- Conspiracy—Secrets that were not Secrets—The Case Against the
- State’s Attorney—A Good Word for Lingg—More About “Ruhe”—The
- “Alleged” Conspiracy—Ingham’s Answer—The _Freiheit_
- Articles—Lord Coleridge on Anarchy—Did Fielden Shoot at
- the Police?—The Bombs in the Seliger Family—Circumstantial
- Evidence in Metal—Chemical Analysis of the Czar Bomb—The
- Crane’s Alley Enigma, 535
-
-
- CHAPTER XXX.
-
- Foster and Black before the Jury—Making Anarchist History—The
- Eight Leaders—A Skillful Defense—Alibis All Around—The
- Whereabouts of the Conspirators—The “Peaceable Dispersion”—A
- Miscarriage of Revolutionary War—Average Anarchist
- Credibility—“A Man will Lie to Save his Life”—The Attack
- on Seliger—The Candy-man and the Bomb-thrower—Conflicting
- Testimony—A Philippic against Gilmer—The Liars of
- History—The Search for a Witness—The Man with the Missing
- Link—The Last Word for the Prisoners—Captain Black’s
- Theory—High Explosives and Civilization—The West Lake Street
- Meeting—Defensive Armament—Engel and his Beer—Hiding the
- Bombs—The Right of Revolution—Bonfield and Harrison—The
- Socialist of Judea, 545
-
-
- CHAPTER XXXI.
-
- Grinnell’s Closing Argument—One Step from Republicanism to
- Anarchy—A Fair Trial—The Law in the Case—The Detective
- Work—Gilmer and his Evidence—“We Knew all the Facts”—Treason
- and Murder—Arming the Anarchists—The Toy Shop Purchases—The
- Pinkerton Reports—“A Lot of Snakes”—The Meaning of the
- Black Flag—Symbols of the Social Revolution—The _Daily
- News_ Interviews—Spies the “Second Washington”—The
- Rights of “Scabs”—The Chase Into the River—Inflaming
- the Workingmen—The “Revenge” Lie—The Meeting at the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ Office—A Curious Fact about the Speakers
- at the Haymarket—The Invitation to Spies—Balthasar Rau and
- the Prisoners—Harrison at the Haymarket—The Significance of
- Fielden’s Wound—Witnesses’ Inconsistencies—The Omnipresent
- Parsons—The Meaning of the Manuscript Find—Standing between
- the Living and the Dead, 560
-
-
- CHAPTER XXXII.
-
- The Instructions to the Jury—What Murder is—Free Speech and
- its Abuse—The Theory of Conspiracy—Value of Circumstantial
- Evidence—Meaning of a “Reasonable Doubt”—What a Jury May
- Decide—Waiting for the Verdict—“Guilty of Murder”—The
- Death Penalty Adjudged—Neebe’s Good Luck—Motion for a New
- Trial—Affidavits about the Jury—The Motion Overruled, 578
-
-
- CHAPTER XXXIII.
-
- The Last Scene in Court—Reasons Against the Death
- Sentence—Spies’ Speech—A Heinous Conspiracy to Commit
- Murder—Death for the Truth—The Anarchists’ Final
- Defense—Dying for Labor—The Conflict of the Classes—Not
- Guilty, but Scapegoats—Michael Schwab’s Appeal—The Curse of
- Labor-saving Machinery—Neebe Finds Out what Law Is—“I am
- Sorry I am not to be Hung”—Adolph Fischer’s Last Words—Louis
- Lingg in his own Behalf—“Convicted, not of Murder, but of
- Anarchy”—An Attack on the Police—“I Despise your Order, your
- Laws, your Force-propped Authority. Hang me for it!”—George
- Engel’s Unconcern—The Development of Anarchy—“I Hate and
- Combat, not the Individual Capitalist, but the System”—Samuel
- Fielden and the Haymarket—An Illegal Arrest—The Defense
- of Albert R. Parsons—The History of his Life—A Long
- and Thrilling Speech—The Sentence of Death—“Remove the
- Prisoners,” 587
-
-
- CHAPTER XXXIV.
-
- In the Supreme Court—A _Supersedeas_ Secured—Justice
- Magruder Delivers the Opinion—A Comprehensive Statement of
- the Case—How Degan was Murdered—Who Killed Him?—The Law of
- Accessory—The Meaning of the Statute—Were the Defendants
- Accessories?—The Questions at Issue—The Characteristics
- of the Bomb—Fastening the Guilt on Lingg—The Purposes
- of the Conspiracy—How they were Proved—A Damning Array
- of Evidence—Examining the Instructions—No Error Found
- in the Trial Court’s Work—The Objection to the Jury—The
- Juror Sandford—Judge Gary Sustained—Mr. Justice Mulkey’s
- Remarks—The Law Vindicated, 608
-
-
- CHAPTER XXXV.
-
- The Last Legal Struggle—The Need of Money—Expensive Counsel
- Secured—Work of the “Defense Committee”—Pardon, the Only
- Hope—Pleas for Mercy to Gov. Oglesby—Curious Changes
- of Sentiment—Spies’ Remarkable Offer—Lingg’s Horrible
- Death—Bombs in the Starch-box—An Accidental Discovery—My
- own Theory—Description of the “Suicide Bombs”—Meaning of
- the Short Fuse—“Count Four and Throw”—Details of Lingg’s
- Self-murder—A Human Wreck—The Bloody Record in the Cell—The
- Governor’s Decision—Fielden and Schwab Taken to the
- Penitentiary, 620
-
-
- CHAPTER XXXVI.
-
- The Last Hours of the Doomed Men—Planning a Rescue—The
- Feeling in Chicago—Police Precautions—Looking for a
- Leak—Vitriol for a Detective—Guarding the Jail—The Dread
- of Dynamite—How the Anarchists Passed their Last Night—The
- Final Partings—Parsons Sings “Annie Laurie”—Putting up the
- Gallows—Scenes Outside the Prison—A Cordon of Officers—Mrs.
- Parsons Makes a Scene—The Death Warrants—Courage of the
- Condemned—Shackled and Shrouded for the Grave—The March to
- the Scaffold—Under the Dangling Ropes—The Last Words—“Hoch
- die Anarchie!”—“My Silence will be More Terrible than
- Speech”—“Let the Voice of the People be Heard”—The Chute
- to Death—Preparations for the Funeral—Scenes at the Homes
- of the Dead Anarchists—The Passage to Waldheim—Howell
- Trogden Carries the American Flag—Captain Black’s Eulogy—The
- Burial—Speeches by Grottkau and Currlin—Was Engel
- Sincere?—His Advice to his Daughter—A Curious Episode—Adolph
- Fischer and his Death-watch, 639
-
-
- CHAPTER XXXVII.
-
- Anarchy Now—The Fund for the Condemned Men’s Families—$10,000
- Subscribed—The Disposition of the Money—The Festival
- of Sorrow—Parsons’ Posthumous Letter—The Haymarket
- Monument—Present Strength of the Discontented—7,300
- Revolutionists in Chicago—A Nucleus of Desperate Men—The
- New Organization—Building Societies and Sunday-schools—What
- the Children are Taught—Education and Blasphemy—The
- Secret Propaganda—Bodendick and his Adventures—“The
- Rebel Vagabond”—The Plot to Murder Grinnell, Gary and
- Bonfield—Arrest of the Conspirators Hronek, Capek, Sevic and
- Chleboun—Chleboun’s Story—Hronek Sent to the Penitentiary, 657
-
-
- CHAPTER XXXVIII.
-
- The Movement in Europe—Present Plans of the Reds—Stringent
- Measures Adopted by Various European Governments—Bebel and
- Liebknecht—A London Celebration—Whitechapel Outcasts—“Blood,
- Blood, Blood!”—Verestchagin’s Views—The Bulwarks of
- Society—The Condition of Anarchy in New York, Philadelphia,
- Pittsburg, Cincinnati, St. Louis and other American Cities—A
- New Era of Revolutionary Activity—A Fight to the Death—Are we
- Prepared? 682
-
-
- APPENDICES, 691
-
-
-[Illustration: THE FRENCH REVOLUTION—“THE FEAST OF REASON.”]
-
-
-
-
-ANARCHY AND ANARCHISTS.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I.
-
- The Beginning of Anarchy—The German School of Discontent—The
- Socialist Future—The Asylum in London—Birth of a Word—Work
- of the French Revolution—The Conspiracy of Babeuf—Etienne
- Cabet’s Experiment—The Colony in the United States—Settled at
- Nauvoo—Fourier and his System—The Familistère at Guise—Louis
- Blanc and the National Work-shops—Proudhon, the Founder of French
- Anarchy—German Socialism: Its Rise and Development—Rodbertus and his
- Followers—“Capital,” by Karl Marx—The “Bible of the Socialists”—The
- Red Internationale—Bakounine and his Expulsion from the Society—The
- New Conspiracy—Ferdinand Lassalle and the Social Democrats—The Birth
- of a Great Movement—Growth of Discontent—Leaders after Lassalle—The
- Central Idea of the Revolt—American Methods and the Police Position.
-
-
-THE conspiracy which culminated in the blaze of dynamite and the groans
-of murdered policemen on that fatal night of May 4th, 1886, had its
-origin far away from Chicago, and under a social system very different
-from ours.
-
-In order that the reader may understand the tragedy, it will be
-necessary for me to go back to the commencement of the agitation,
-and to show how Anarchy in this city is the direct development of
-the social revolt in Europe. After “the red fool fury of the French”
-had burnt itself out, the nations of the Old World, exhausted by the
-Titanic struggle with Napoleon, lay quiet for nearly a quarter of a
-century. The doctrines which had brought on the Reign of Terror had not
-died. After a period of quiet, the evangel of the Social Revolution
-again began. There was uneasiness throughout Europe. In France the
-Bourbons were driven out, although the cause of the people was betrayed
-by Louis Napoleon. In Germany the demand for a constitution was pushed
-so strongly that even the sturdy Hohenzollerns had to give way before
-it. In Hungary there was a popular ferment. Poland was ready for a new
-rising against Russia. In Russia the movement which subsequently came
-to be known as Nihilism was born. In Italy Garibaldi and Mazzini were
-laying the foundations for the throne which the house of Savoy built
-upon the work of the secret societies.
-
-Nor must the reader believe that all this turmoil had not beneath it
-real grievances and honest causes. The peasantry and the laboring
-classes of Europe had been oppressed and plundered for centuries. The
-common people were just beginning to learn their power, and, while the
-excesses into which they were led were deplorable, it is not difficult
-to understand the causes which made the crisis inevitable.
-
-There is nothing ever lost by endeavoring to enter fairly and
-impartially into another’s position—by trying to understand the
-reasons which move men, and the creeds which sway them. Anarchy as a
-theory is as old as the school men of the middle ages. It was gravely
-debated in the monasteries, and supported by learned casuists five
-centuries ago. As a practice it was first taught in France, and
-later in Germany. It caught the unthinking, impressible throng as
-the proper protest against too much government and wrong government.
-It was ably argued by leaders capable of better things,—men who
-turned great talents toward the destruction of society instead of
-its upbuilding,—and the fruit of their teachings we have with us in
-Chicago to-day.
-
-[Illustration: STORMING THE BASTILE.]
-
-Our Anarchy is of the German school, which is more nearly akin to
-Nihilism than to the doctrines taught in France. It is founded upon
-the teachings of Karl Marx and his disciples, and it aims directly at
-the complete destruction of all forms of government and religion. It
-offers no solution of the problems which will arise when society, as
-we understand it, shall disappear, but contents itself with declaring
-that the duty at hand is tearing down; that the work of building up
-must come later. There are several reasons why the revolutionary
-programme stops short at the work of Anarchy, chief among which is
-the fact that there are as many panaceas for the future as there are
-revolutionists, and it would be a hopeless task to think of binding
-them all to one platform of construction. The Anarchists are all agreed
-that the present system must go, and so far they can work together;
-after that each will take his own path into Utopia.
-
-[Illustration: KARL MARX.]
-
-Their dream of the future is accordingly as many-colored as Joseph’s
-coat. Each man has his own ideal. Engels, who is Karl Marx’s successor
-in the leadership of the movement, believes that men will associate
-themselves into organizations like coöperative societies for mutual
-protection, support and improvement, and that these will be the only
-units in the country of a social nature. There will be no law, no
-church, no capital, no anything that we regard as necessary to the life
-of a nation.
-
-The theory of Anarchy will, however, be sufficiently developed in the
-pages that follow. It is its history as a school which must first be
-examined.
-
-England is really responsible for much of the present strength of the
-conspiracy against all governments, for it was in the secure asylum
-of London that speculative Anarchy was thought out by German exiles
-for German use, and from London that the “red Internationale” was and
-probably is directed. This was the result of political scheming, for
-the fomenting of discontent on the continent has always been one of the
-weapons in the British armory.
-
-In England itself the movement has only lately won any prominence,
-although it was in England that it was baptized “Socialism” by Robert
-Owen, in 1835, a name which was afterwards taken up both in France and
-Germany. The English development is hardly worth consideration in as
-brief a presentation of the subject as I shall be able to give. Before
-passing to an investigation of the growth and the history of Socialism
-and Anarchy, I wish to express here, once for all, my obligations to
-Prof. Richard T. Ely’s most excellent history of “French and German
-Socialism in Modern Times.” This monograph, like everything else which
-has come from the pen of this gifted young economist, contains so clear
-a statement and so complete a marshaling of the facts that it is not
-necessary to go beyond it for the story of continental discontent.
-
-The French Revolution drew a broad red line across the world’s history.
-It is the most momentous fact in the annals of modern times. There is
-no need for us to go behind it, or to examine its causes. We can take
-it as a fact—as the great revolt of the common people—and push on to
-the things that followed it.
-
-[Illustration: MICHAEL BAKOUNINE.]
-
-Babeuf—“Gracchus” Babeuf, as he called himself—after serving part
-of a term in prison for forgery, escaped, went to Paris in the heat
-of the Revolution, and started _The Tribune of the People_, the
-first Socialistic paper ever published. He was too incendiary even
-for Robespierre, and was imprisoned in 1795. In prison he formed the
-famous “Conspiracy of Babeuf,” which was to establish the Communistic
-republic. For this conspiracy he and Darthé were beheaded May 24, 1797.
-
-Etienne Cabet was a Socialist before the term was invented, but he
-was a peaceful and honest one. He published, in 1842, his “Travels in
-Icaria,” describing an ideal state. Like most political reformers, he
-chose the United States as the best place to try his experiment upon.
-It is a curious fact that there is not a nation in Europe, however
-much of a failure it may have made of all those things that go to make
-up rational liberty, which does not feel itself competent to tell us
-just what we ought to do, instead of what we are doing. Cabet secured
-a grant of land on the Red River in Texas just after the Mexican War,
-and a colony of Icarians came out. They took the yellow fever and were
-dispersed before Cabet came with the second part of the colony. About
-this time the Mormons left Nauvoo in Illinois, and the Icarians came to
-take their places. The colony has since established itself at Grinnell,
-Iowa, and a branch is at San Bernardino, California. The Nauvoo
-settlement has, I believe, been abandoned.
-
-Babeuf and Cabet prepared the way for Saint Simon. He was a count,
-and a lineal descendant of Charlemagne. He fought in our War of the
-Revolution under Washington, and passed its concluding years in a
-British prison. He preached nearly the modern Socialism,—the revolt of
-the proletariat against property,—and his work has indelibly impressed
-itself upon the whole movement in France.
-
-Charles Fourier, born in 1772, was the son of a grocer in Besançon, and
-he was a man who exercised great influence upon the movement among the
-French. He was rather a dreamer than a man of action, and, although
-attempts have been made to carry his familistère into practice, there
-is no conspicuous success to record, save, perhaps, that of the
-familistère at Guise, in France, which has been conducted for a long
-time on the principles laid down by Fourier.
-
-[Illustration: PIERRE JOSEPH PROUDHON.]
-
-All these men had before them concrete schemes for a new society in
-which the evils of the present system would be avoided by what they
-considered a more equable division of wealth, and each made the effort
-to carry his scheme from theory into practice, so that the world might
-see the success and imitate it. Following them came the men who held
-that, before the new society can be formed, the old society must be got
-rid of—the men who see but one way towards Socialism, and that through
-Anarchy.
-
-Louis Blanc was the first of these, although he would not have
-described himself as an Anarchist, nor would it be fair to call him
-one. He represented the transition stage. He attempted political
-reforms of a most sweeping character during the revolution of 1848. The
-government of the day established “national work-shops” as a concession
-to him. Of these more is said hereafter.
-
-Pierre Joseph Proudhon, born in Besançon July 15, 1809, is really
-the father of French Anarchy. His great work, “What Is Property?”
-was published in 1840, and he declared that property was theft and
-property-holders thieves. It is to this epoch-making work that the
-whole school of modern Anarchy, in any of its departments, may
-be traced. Proudhon was fired by an actual hatred of the rich. He
-describes a proprietor as “essentially a libidinous animal, without
-virtue and without shame.” The importance of his work is shown by the
-effect it has had even upon orthodox political economy, while on the
-other side it has been the inspiration of Karl Marx. Proudhon died in
-Passy in 1865.
-
-Since his time until within the last year or two, French Socialism has
-been but a reflex of the German school. It has produced no first-rates,
-and has been content to take its doctrine from Lassalle. Karl Marx and
-Engels, the leaders of the German movement, and Bakounine and Prince
-Krapotkin, the Russian terrorists, have impressed their ideas deeply
-upon the French discontented ones. The revolt of the Commune of Paris
-after the Franco-German war was not exactly an Anarchist uprising,
-although the Anarchists impressed their ideas upon much of the work
-done. The Commune of Paris means very much the same as “the people
-of Illinois.” It is the legal designation of the commonwealth, and
-does not imply Communism any more than the word commonwealth does. It
-was a fight for the autonomy of Paris, and one in which many people
-were engaged who had no sympathy with Anarchy, although certainly the
-lawless element finally obtained complete control of the situation. The
-rising in Lyons several years later was distinctly and wholly anarchic,
-and it was for this that Prince Krapotkin and others were sent to
-prison.
-
-At the present day there is no practical distinction between Socialism
-and Anarchy in France. All Socialists are Anarchists as a first step,
-although all Anarchists are not precisely Socialists. They look to the
-Russian Nihilists and the German irreconcilables as their leaders.
-
-German Socialism is really the doctrine which is now taught all over
-the world, and it was this teaching that led directly to the Haymarket
-massacre in Chicago. It began with Karl Rodbertus, who lived from 1805
-to 1875. He first became prominent in Germany in 1848, and he was for
-some time Minister of Education and Public Worship in Prussia. He was
-a theorist rather than a practical reformer, but competent critics
-assign to him the very highest rank as a political economist. His first
-work was “Our Economic Condition,” which was published in 1843, and
-his other books, which he published up to within a short time of his
-death, were simply elucidations of the principles he had first laid
-down. His writings have had a greater effect on modern Socialism than
-those of any other thinker, not even excepting Karl Marx or Lassalle.
-His theories were brought to a practical issue by Marx, who united into
-a compact whole the teachings of Proudhon and of Rodbertus, his own
-genius giving a new luster and a new value to the result. Marx is far
-and away the greatest man that the Socialism of the nineteenth century
-has produced. He was a deep student, a man of most formidable mental
-power, eloquent, persuasive, and honest. His great book, “Capital,”
-has been called the Socialist’s Bible. Ely places it in the very first
-rank, saying of it that it is “among the ablest political economic
-treatises ever written.” And while the best scientific thought of the
-age agrees that Marx was mistaken in his premises and his fundamental
-propositions, there is accorded to him upon every hand the tribute
-which profound learning pays to hard work and deep thinking.
-
-Coming from theory to practice brings us naturally from Marx to the
-International Society. It was founded in London in 1864 and was meant
-to include the whole of the labor class of Christendom. Marx was the
-chief, but he held the sovereignty uneasily. The Anarchists constantly
-antagonized him. Bakounine, the apostle of dynamite, opposed Marx
-at every point, and finally Marx had him expelled from the society.
-Bakounine thereupon formed a new Internationale, based upon anarchic
-principles and the gospel of force. The Internationale of which Marx
-was the founder has shrunk to a mere name, although the organization
-is still kept up, and the body with which the civilized world has now
-to reckon is that which Bakounine formed after his expulsion from the
-old body in 1872. It is a curious fact that many of the Socialists in
-Chicago to-day are enthusiastic admirers of Marx and at the same time
-members of the society and followers of the man Marx declared to be the
-most dangerous enemy of the modern workingman.
-
-Marx is dead, however; many things are said in his name of which
-he himself would never have approved, and the “Red Internationale”
-proclaims the man a saint who refused either to indorse its principles
-or to consult with its leaders. It is the same as though, twenty years
-hence, the men who last year followed Barry out of the Knights of Labor
-were to hold up Powderly to the world as their law-giver and their
-chief.
-
-Louise Michel, who was a very active worker in the radical cause
-during the outbreak of the Paris Commune, was born in 1830, and first
-attracted attention by verses full of force which she published very
-early in life. She was sentenced in 1871 to deportation for life,
-and was transported with others to New Caledonia. At the time of the
-general amnesty, in 1880, she returned to Paris, and became editor of
-_La Révolution Sociale_.
-
-Ferdinand Lassalle, like Marx of Hebrew blood, and of early
-aristocratic prejudices, was the father of German Anarchy as it exists
-to-day. He was a deep student, and a remarkably able man. He took his
-inspiration from Rodbertus and from Marx, but applied himself more to
-work among the poor. Marx was over the heads of the common people. His
-“Capital” is very hard reading. Lassalle popularized its teachings.
-On May 23, 1863, a few men met at Leipsic under the leadership of
-Lassalle and formed the “Universal German Laborers’ Union.” This was
-the foundation of Social Democracy, and its teachings were wholly
-anarchic. It aimed at the subversion of the whole German social
-system, by peaceful political means at first, but soon by force.
-
-Lassalle was shortly afterwards killed in a duel over a love-affair,
-but he was canonized by the German Social Democrats as though his death
-were a martyrdom. Even Bismarck in the Reichstag paid a tribute to his
-memory. Lassalle died just about the time that a change was occurring
-in his convictions, and had he lived longer, and if contemporary
-history is to be believed, he would have taken office under the German
-Government and applied himself heartily to the building up of the
-Empire.
-
-[Illustration: LOUISE MICHEL.]
-
-After Lassalle’s death the movement which he had initiated went
-forward with increased force. The German laborer was finally, as the
-Internationalists put it, aroused. The German Empire, following the
-example of the Bund, decreed universal suffrage in 1871. Before this,
-in Prussia especially, the laborer had but the smallest political
-influence. The vote of a man in the wealthiest class in Berlin counted
-for as much as the vote of fifteen of the “proletariat,” so called.
-Lassalle died in 1864, and suffrage was first granted in 1867. The
-Social Democrats at first were in close accord with Bismarck. It was
-the Social Democratic vote which elected Bismarck to the Reichstag in
-the first election after the suffrage was granted. In the fall of 1867
-they sent eight members to the parliament of the Bund. In the elections
-after the formation of the Empire the Socialistic vote stood: In 1871,
-123,975; in 1874, 351,952; in 1877, 493,288; in 1878, 437,158. The
-Social Democrats poll nearly 10 per cent of the whole vote of Germany
-at the present time.
-
-In 1878 occurred the two attempts on the life of the Emperor of Germany
-described in a succeeding chapter, and the result was severe repressive
-measures against the Social Democrats. Their vote fell off, and their
-influence declined, but in the past two years, 1887 and 1888, they have
-more than recovered their past strength, and they now poll more votes
-and seem to exercise a greater political control in Germany than ever
-before.
-
-[Illustration: FERDINAND LASSALLE.]
-
-The passage of the “Ausnahmsgesetz,” the exceptional law against
-German Socialists, drove many of them to this country, but had no
-effect in diminishing the propaganda in Germany. The result was an
-exodus of Socialists, or rather Anarchists, to America—by this time
-the two terms, wide apart as they may seem, had become one—and
-to Chicago came most of the irreconcilable ones. The American
-sympathizers, thus formed, at first fixed their attention upon the
-political situation in the old country, and they applied themselves
-closely to work in connection with the agitators who had not
-expatriated themselves. Money was sent in large quantities to the old
-country.
-
-In Germany, in the meantime, the movement varied and shifted with
-each wind of doctrine; one president after another was tried and
-found wanting, until at last Jean von Schweitzer was chosen, and he
-guided the party until it was finally swallowed up in the organization
-perfected by Liebknecht and Bebel. Liebknecht was really but an
-interpreter of Marx, but he was honest, enthusiastic and devoted, and
-no man in the whole line of German political energy has left his name
-more thoroughly impressed upon the time. Out of these conditions and
-born of these ideas came the Anarchy which hurled the bomb whose crash
-at the Haymarket Square first aroused us to the work which is being
-done in our midst.
-
-The Anarchists of Chicago are exotics. Discontent here is a German
-plant transferred from Berlin and Leipsic and thriving to flourish in
-the west. In our garden it is a weed to be plucked out by the roots
-and destroyed, for our conditions neither warrant its growth nor
-excuse its existence.
-
-The central idea of all Socialistic and Anarchic systems is the
-interference with the right of property by society. If we can convince
-ourselves that society has the right and the duty thus to interfere,
-then there is to be said nothing more. As long as the American citizen
-can buy his own land and raise his own crops, as long as average
-industry and economy will lead a man to competence, Socialism can only
-be like typhus fever—a growth of the city slums. There is no real
-danger in it. There is no peril which those charged with the protection
-of law and order are not ready to face, for every officer of the law
-that unreasonable discontent may menace is backed by the whole power of
-the republic; and the republic is founded upon principles which this
-alien revolt can neither harm nor affright.
-
-There is a fact which, before I leave this chapter, I wish to bring
-home to the mind of every reader, and that is this:
-
-The police of Chicago, like the police of every city in the Union, are
-actuated by no feeling of hostility to these people. We understand the
-genesis of their movement; we can put ourselves in their places and
-feel the things which actuate them; we are prepared to make as many
-excuses for them as they can make for themselves; we are ready to grant
-everything that they could claim, and more; but we see beyond this, and
-above this, facts which they forget and forego.
-
-We have a government in these United States so firm and so elastic that
-it has every bulwark against either foreign or domestic attack, and
-yet it provides every opportunity to adjust itself to the will of the
-people.
-
-The majority must rule, and does rule; but under our Constitution
-it rules only along lines decreed by the fathers long ago for the
-protection of the minority. There is a legal and constitutional means
-provided for every man to carry his theories of good government into
-actual practice. Every citizen has the right to vote, and to have his
-vote counted, and this right belongs to Anarchist and conservative,
-to radical and reactionist. There is no man can stand before the
-American people and say we have refused him his right: if it were
-done, the whole power of the Government would be marshaled to do
-him justice. When, then, we have provided every man with a means to
-impress his convictions upon the government of the country—when we
-have done everything that human ingenuity can do to secure a full and
-free expression of the popular will, as the final and supreme test
-upon every public question, we may be excused for refusing to let the
-Anarchists have their way. They are a minority of a minority, yet
-they would impose their system and their doctrine upon the majority.
-They would substitute for the ballot-box the dynamite bomb—for the
-will of the people the will of a contemptible rabble of discontents,
-un-American in birth, training, education and idea, few in numbers and
-ridiculous in power.
-
-Thus, while the police entertain no animosity against these men, we
-feel—I feel and every officer under my command feels—that we are
-bound by our oaths and by our loyalty to the State and to society
-to meet force with force, and cunning with cunning. We are the
-conservators of the law and the preservers of the peace, and the law
-will be vindicated and the peace preserved in spite of any and all
-attacks.
-
-If our system is wrong, which I do not believe; if the principle that
-the majority of the citizens is to be ruled by an alien minority is
-to be accepted, which I do not accept, still there is the orderly and
-well-protected means provided by law, and guaranteed by the Government,
-to transform that idea into a governing fact. There is the ballot,
-free to every citizen, safe, satisfying, final. The men who try
-other methods are rushing to their own destruction. We pity them, we
-sympathize with them; but our duty is clear and manifest. We have a
-government worth fighting for, and even worth dying for, and the police
-feel that truth as keenly as any class in the community.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II.
-
- Dynamite in Politics-Historical Assassinations—Infernal
- Machines in France—The Inventor of Dynamite—M. Nobel and his
- Ideas—The Nitro-Compounds—How Dynamite is Made—The New French
- Explosive—“Black Jelly” and the Nihilists—What the Nihilists Believe
- and What they Want—The Conditions in Russia—The White and the Red
- Terrors—Vera Sassoulitch—Tourgeneff and the Russian Girl—The
- Assassination of the Czar—“It is too Soon to Thank God”—The Dying
- Emperor—Two Bombs Thrown—Running Down The Conspirators—Sophia
- Perowskaja, the Nihilist Leader—The Handkerchief Signal—The Murder
- Roll—Tried and Convicted—A Brutal Execution—Five Nihilists Pay
- the Penalty—Last Words Spoken but Unheard—A Deafening Tattoo—The
- Book-bomb and the Present Czar—Strychnine-coated Bullets—St.
- Peter and Paul’s Fortress—Dynamite Outrages in England—The Record
- of Crime—Twenty-nine Convicts and their Offenses—Ingenious
- Bomb-making—The Failures of Dynamite.
-
-
-THE attempt to gain political ends by an appeal to infernal machines
-is not a new one. It is as old as gunpowder—and the evangel of
-assassination is older still. Murder was the recognized political
-weapon of the Eastern and Western Empires, and the Chicago Anarchists
-have proved themselves neither better nor worse than the “old man of
-the mountain” or the Italian princes of the middle ages. During the
-reign of Mary Queen of Scots the mysterious explosion occurred in the
-Kirk of Feld in which Darnley lost his life. Somewhat later was the
-“gunpowder plot,” in which Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators tried
-to blow up the Houses of Parliament. The petard and the hand-grenade
-were the grandfather and the grandmother of the modern bomb, and
-murderous invention came to its new phase in the infernal machine which
-Ceruchi, the Italian sculptor, contrived to kill Napoleon when First
-Consul—a catastrophe which was avoided by the fact that Napoleon’s
-coachman was drunk and took the wrong turn in going to the opera-house.
-
-France was fertile in this sort of machinery. Some years later Fieschi,
-Morey and Pepin tried to kill Louis Philippe with a similar apparatus
-on the Boulevard de Temple. The King escaped, but the brave Marshal
-Mortier was slain. Orsini and Pieri made a bomb, round and bristling
-with nippers, each of which was charged with fulminate of mercury, to
-explode the powder within, meaning to assassinate the Emperor Napoleon
-and the Empress Eugenie.
-
-In the year 1866, according to the most trustworthy authorities,
-dynamite was first made by Alfred Nobel. In speaking of the invention,
-Adolf Houssaye, the French litterateur, recently said:
-
- It should be remembered that nine-tenths, probably, of the dynamite
- made is used in peaceful pursuits; in mining, and similar works.
- Indeed, since its invention great engineering achievements have been
- accomplished which would have been entirely impossible without it. I
- do not see, then, much room for doubt that it has on the whole been
- a great blessing to humanity. Such certainly its inventor regards
- it. “If I did not look upon it as such,” I heard him say recently, “I
- should close up all my manufactories and not make another ounce of the
- stuff.” He is a strong advocate of peace, and regards with the utmost
- horror the use of dynamite by assassins and political conspirators.
- When the news of the Haymarket tragedy in Chicago reached him, M.
- Nobel was in Paris, and I well remember his expressions of horror and
- detestation at the cowardly crime.
-
- “Look you,” he exclaimed. “I am a man of peace. But when I see these
- miscreants misusing my invention, do you know how it makes me feel? It
- makes me feel like gathering the whole crowd of them into a storehouse
- full of dynamite and blowing them all up together!”
-
-Few people know what dynamite is, though it has attracted a good deal
-of attention of late, and before considering its use as a mode for
-political murder it may be well here to give an account of its making.
-
-Nitro-glycerine, although not the strongest explosive known to
-science, is the only one of any industrial importance, as the others
-are too dangerous for manufacture. It was discovered by Salvero, an
-Italian chemist, in 1845. It is composed of glycerine and nitric
-acid compounded together in a certain proportion, and at a certain
-temperature. It is very unsafe to handle, and to this reason is to
-be ascribed the invention of dynamite, which is, after all, merely
-a sort of earth and nitro-glycerine, the use of the earth being to
-hold the explosive safely as a piece of blotting-paper would hold
-water until it was needed. Nobel first tried kieselguhr, or flint
-froth, which was ground to a powder, heated thoroughly and dried,
-and the nitro-glycerine was kneaded into it like so much dough. Of
-course, many other substances are now used, besides infusorial earth,
-as vehicles for the explosive—saw-dust, rotten-stone, charcoal,
-plaster of Paris, black powder, etc., etc. These are all forms of
-dynamite or giant powder, and mean the same thing. When the substance
-is thoroughly kneaded, work that must be done with the hands, it is
-molded into sticks somewhat like big candles, and wrapped in parchment
-paper. Nitro-glycerine has a sweet, aromatic, pungent taste, and the
-peculiar property of causing a violent headache when placed on the
-tongue or the wrist. It freezes at 40° Fahrenheit, and must be melted
-by the application of water at a temperature of 100°. In dynamite
-the usual proportions are 25 per cent. of earth and 75 per cent. of
-nitro-glycerine. The explosive is fired by fulminate of silver or
-mercury in copper caps.
-
-Outside of the French arsenals it is to be doubted if anybody knows
-anything more about the new explosive, melinite, further than that
-it is one of the compounds of picric acid—and picric acid is a more
-frightful explosive than nitro-glycerine. I find in my scrap-book the
-following excerpt from the London _Standard_, describing the artillery
-experiments at Lydd with the new explosive which the British Admiralty
-has lately been examining. The _Standard_, after declaring that the
-experiments are “entirely satisfactory,” says:
-
- The character of the compound employed is said to be “akin to
- melinite,” but its precise nature is not divulged. We have reason
- to believe that the “kinship” is very close. The details of the
- experiments which have lately been conducted at Lydd are known to
- very few individuals. But it is unquestionable that the results were
- such as demonstrate the enormous advantage to be gained by using a
- more powerful class of explosives than that which has been hitherto
- employed. There could be no mistake as to the destructive energy of
- the projectiles. Neither was there any mishap in the use of these
- terrible appliances. The like immunity was enjoyed at Portsmouth. A
- deterrent to the adoption of violent explosives for war purposes has
- consisted in the risk of premature explosion. But there is still the
- consideration that the advantage to be gained far exceeds the risk
- which has to be incurred. France has not neglected this question, and
- she is ahead of us. Her chosen explosive is melinite, and with this
- she has armed herself to an extent of which the British public has
- no conception. All the requisite materials, in the shape of steel
- projectiles and the melinite for filling them, have been provided for
- the French service and distributed so as to furnish a complete supply
- for the army and the navy. Whatever may be said as to the danger which
- besets the use of melinite, the French authorities are confident
- that they have mastered the problem of making this powerful compound
- subservient to the purposes of war. Concerning the composition of
- this explosive great secrecy is observed by the French Government, as
- also with regard to the experiments that are made with it. But Col.
- Majendie states that melinite is largely composed of picric acid in
- a fused or consolidated condition. Of the violence with which picric
- acid will explode, an example was given on the occasion of a fire at
- some chemical works near Manchester a year ago. The shock was felt
- over a distance of two miles from the seat of the explosion, and the
- sound was heard for a distance of twenty miles.
-
- The conduct of the French in committing themselves so absolutely to
- the use of melinite as a _material_ of war clearly signifies that
- with them the use of such a substance has passed out of the region of
- doubt and experiment. Their experimental investigations extended over
- a considerable period of time, but at last the stage of inquiry gave
- place to one of confidence and assurance. So great is the confidence
- of the French Government in the new shell that it is said the French
- forts are henceforth to be protected by a composite material better
- adapted than iron or steel to resist the force of a projectile charged
- with a high explosive. In naval warfare the value of shells charged
- in this manner is likely to be more especially shown in connection
- with the rapid-fire guns which are now coming into use. The question
- is whether the ponderous _staccato_ fire of monster ordnance may not
- be largely superseded by another mode of attack, in which a storm of
- shells, charged with something far more potent than gunpowder, will be
- poured forth in a constant stream from numerous guns of comparatively
- small weight and caliber.
-
- Combined with rapidity of fire, these shells cannot but prove
- formidable to an armor-clad, independently of any damage inflicted
- on the plates. The great thickness now given to ship armor is
- accomplished by a mode of concentration which, while affecting to
- shield the vital parts, leaves a large portion of the ship entirely
- unprotected. On the unarmored portion a tremendous effect will be
- produced by the quick-firing guns dashing their powerful shells in a
- fiery deluge on the ship.
-
- Altogether the new force which is now entering into the composition of
- artillery is one which demands the attention of the British Government
- in the form of prompt and vigorous action. While we are experimenting,
- others are arming.
-
-Dynamite, however, is the weapon with which the “revolution” has armed
-itself for its assault upon society. A terrible arm truly, but one
-difficult to handle, dangerous to hold, and certainly no stronger in
-their hands than in ours, if it should ever become necessary to use it
-in defense of law and order.
-
-A number of Russian chemists, members of the Nihilist party, were
-the first to apply dynamite to the work of murder. It is to their
-researches that is to be credited the invention of the “black jelly,”
-so called, of which so much was expected, and by which so little was
-done.
-
-Nihilist activity in Russia commenced almost as soon as the emancipated
-peasantry began to be in condition for the evangel of discontent.
-It was Tourgeneff, the novelist, who baptized the movement with its
-name of Nihilism—and the truth is that it is a movement rather than
-an organization. It is a loose, uncentralized, uncodified society,
-secret by necessity and murderous by belief; but it is a secret society
-without grips or passwords, without a purpose save indiscriminate
-destruction, and its very formlessness and vagueness have been its
-chief protection from the Russian police, who are, perhaps, after all
-is said and done, the best police in the world. A statement of Nihilism
-by that very famous Nihilist who is known as Stepniak, but who is
-suspected to be entitled to a much more illustrious name, runs thus:
-
- By our general conviction we are Socialists and democrats. We are
- convinced that on Socialistic grounds humanity can become the
- embodiment of freedom, equality and fraternity, while it secures for
- itself a general prosperity, a harmonious development of man and his
- social progress. We are convinced, moreover, that only the will of
- the people should give sanction to any social institution, and that
- the development of the nation is sound only when free and independent
- and when every idea in practical use shall have previously passed the
- test of national consideration and of the national will. We further
- think that as Socialists and democrats we must first recognize an
- immediate purpose to liberate the nation from its present state of
- oppression by creating a political revolution. We would thus transfer
- the supreme power into the hands of the people. We think that the will
- of the nation should be expressed with perfect clearness, and best, by
- a National Assembly freely elected by the votes of all the citizens,
- the representatives to be carefully instructed by their constituents.
- We do not consider this as the ideal form of expressing the people’s
- will, but as the most acceptable form to be realized in practice.
- Submitting ourselves to the will of the nation, we, as a party,
- feel bound to appear before our own country with our own programme
- or platform, which we shall propagate even before the revolution,
- recommend to the electors during electoral periods, and afterwards
- defend in the National Assembly.
-
-The Nihilist programme in Russia has been officially formulated thus:
-
- _First_—The permanent Representative Assembly to have supreme control
- and direction in all general state questions.
-
- _Second_—In the provinces, self-government to a large extent; to
- secure it, all public functionaries to be elected.
-
- _Third_—To secure the independence of the Village Commune (“Mir”) as
- an economical and administrative unit.
-
- _Fourth_—All the land to be proclaimed national property.
-
- _Fifth_—A series of measures preparatory to a final transfer of
- ownership in manufactures to the workmen.
-
- _Sixth_—Perfect liberty of conscience, of the press, speech,
- meetings, associations and electoral agitation.
-
- _Seventh_—The right to vote to be extended to all citizens of legal
- age, without class or property restrictions.
-
- _Eighth_—Abolition of the standing army; the army to be replaced by a
- territorial militia.
-
-It must be remembered that the conditions in Russia are peculiar. The
-country is ruled by an autocracy; government is not by the people,
-but by “divine right.” The conditions which the English-speaking
-people ended at Runnymede still exist in Muscovy. There is neither
-free speech, free assembly, nor a free press, and naturally discontent
-vents itself in revolt. There is no safety-valve. Russia is full of
-generous, high-minded young men and women, who find their church
-dead, and their state a cruel despotism. They find themselves face to
-face with the White Terror, and they have sought in the Red Terror a
-relief. Flying at last from the hopeless contest, they have carried
-the hate of government born of bad ruling into Western Europe, and it
-is the infection of this poison that we have to deal with here. The
-average Russian Nihilist is a young man or a young woman—very often
-the latter—who, by the contemplation of real wrongs and fallacious
-remedies, has come to be the implacable enemy of all order and all
-system. Usually they are half-educated, with just that superficial
-smattering of knowledge to make them conceited in their own opinions,
-but without enough real learning to make them either impartial critics
-or safe citizens of non-Russian countries. We can pity them, for it is
-easy to see how step by step they have been pushed into revolt. But
-they are dangerous.
-
-When one reads such a case as that which gave Vera Sassoulitch her
-notoriety, it is easier to understand Russia. General Trepoff, the
-Chief of Police of St. Petersburg, had arrested Vera’s lover on
-suspicion of high treason. The young man was by Trepoff’s order
-frequently flogged to make him confess his crime. Sassoulitch called
-on Trepoff and shot him. She was tried by a St. Petersburg jury and
-acquitted. Immediately a law was declared that no case of political
-crime should be tried by a jury, except when the Government had
-selected it. The arrest of the woman was ordered that she might be
-tried again under the new regulation, but in the meantime her friends
-had spirited her away.
-
-A very similar crime was that attempted by another Nihilist heroine,
-Maria Kaliouchnaia, who attempted to kill Col. Katauski for his
-severity to her brother. In the assassination of the Czar, as I shall
-relate, a number of women were concerned, and their bravery was greatly
-more desperate than that of their male companions. The Russian woman
-is peculiar. I know no better picture of the “devoted ones” than that
-given in Tourgeneff’s “Verses in Prose”:
-
- I see a huge building with a narrow door in its front wall; the door
- is open, and a dismal darkness stretches beyond. Before the high
- threshold stands a girl—a Russian girl. Frost breathes out of the
- impenetrable darkness, and with the icy draught from the depths of the
- building there comes forth a slow and hollow voice:
-
- “Oh, thou who art wanting to cross this threshold, dost thou know what
- awaits thee?”
-
- “I know it,” answers the girl.
-
- “Cold, hunger, hatred, derision, contempt, insults, a fearful death
- even.”
-
- “I know it.”
-
- “Complete isolation and separation from all?”
-
- “I know it. I am ready. I will bear all sorrows and miseries.”
-
- “Not only if inflicted by enemies, but when done by kindred and
- friends?”
-
- “Yes, even when done by them.”
-
- “Well, are you ready for self-sacrifice?”
-
- “Yes!”
-
- “For anonymous self-sacrifice? You shall die, and nobody shall know
- even whose memory is to be honored?”
-
- “I want neither gratitude nor pity. I want no name.”
-
- “Are you ready for a crime?”
-
- The girl bent her head. “I am ready—even for a crime.”
-
- The voice paused awhile before renewing its interrogatories. Then
- again: “Dost thou know,” it said at last, “that thou mayest lose thy
- faith in what thou now believest; that thou mayest feel that thou hast
- been mistaken and hast lost thy young life in vain?”
-
- “I know that also, and nevertheless I will enter!”
-
- “Enter, then!”
-
- The girl crossed the threshold, and a heavy curtain fell behind her.
-
- “A fool!” gnashed some one outside.
-
- “A saint!” answered a voice from somewhere.
-
-With such material it was not difficult to build up the tragedy of
-1881. Before the day of the Czar’s death came, there had been desperate
-attempts upon his life. Prince Krapotkin, a relative of the Nihilist
-of the same name, was murdered in February, 1879, and following this
-deed the terrorists applied themselves resolutely to the removal of the
-Emperor.
-
-[Illustration: EXCAVATED DYNAMITE MINE IN MOSCOW.]
-
-For instance, in November, 1879, was the mine laid at Moscow. It was
-intended to blow up the railway train upon which the Czar was to enter
-the city, and for this purpose Solovieff and his comrades laid three
-dynamite mines under the tracks. Hartmann, who subsequently figured in
-the assassination, was one of the leaders, and here, too, was Sophie
-Peroosky, another of the regicides. They hired a house near the railway
-tracks and tunneled under the road amidst incredible difficulties and
-always in the most imminent danger. One hundred and twenty pounds of
-dynamite was in position, but the Czar passed by in a common train
-before the imperial one on which he was expected, and his life was
-saved. On February 5, 1880, the mine under the Winter Palace was
-exploded; eleven persons were killed, but again the Czar escaped.
-
-For some time before March 13, 1881, Gen. Count Loris Melikoff, the
-officer responsible for the safety of Czar Alexander II., had received
-disquieting reports which gave him the greatest anxiety. On the 10th
-of the month Jelaboff, the ringleader of the conspiracy, was arrested
-by accident, and the direction of the attempt on the Czar’s life was
-accordingly left to Sophie Perowskaja, a young, pretty and highly
-educated noblewoman, who had left everything to join the Nihilists. It
-is said that on the morning of the 13th Melikoff begged the Czar to
-forego his purpose of reviewing the Marine Corps, and keep within the
-palace. The Emperor laughed at him, and declared there was no danger.
-There was no incident until after the review. As the Emperor drove back
-beside the Ekaterinofsky Canal, just opposite the imperial stables, a
-young woman on the other side of the canal fluttered a handkerchief,
-and immediately a man started out from the crowd that was watching the
-passing of the Czar, and threw a bomb under the closed carriage. There
-was a roaring explosion, a cloud of smoke. The rear of the vehicle was
-blown away, and the horror-stricken multitude saw the Czar standing
-unhurt, staring about him. On the ground were several members of the
-Life Guard, groaning and writhing in pain. The assassin had pulled
-out a revolver to complete his work, but he was at once mobbed by
-the people. Col. Dvorjitsky and Captains Kock and Kulebiekan, of the
-guards, rushed up to their master and asked him if he was hurt.
-
-“Thank God! no,” said the Czar. “Come, let us look after the wounded.”
-
-And he started toward one of the Cossacks.
-
-“It is too soon to thank God yet, Alexander Nicolaivitch,” said a
-clear, threatening voice in the crowd, and before any one could stop
-him, a young man bounded forward, lifted up both arms above his head,
-and brought them down with a swing. There was a crash of dynamite,
-a blaze, a smoke, and the autocrat of all the Russias was lying on
-the bloody snow, with his murderer also dying in front of him. Col.
-Dvorjitsky lifted up the Czar, who whispered:
-
-“I am cold, my friend, so cold,—take me to the Winter Palace to die.”
-
-The desperate Nihilist had thrown his bomb right between the Czar’s
-feet, and had sacrificed his own life to kill the Emperor.
-
-Alexander was shockingly mutilated. Both of his legs were broken,
-and the lower part of his body was frightfully torn and mangled. The
-assassin—his name was Nicholas Elnikoff, of Wilna—was even more badly
-hurt. He died at once.
-
-[Illustration: “IT IS TOO SOON TO THANK GOD!” THE ASSASSINATION OF CZAR
-ALEXANDER II.]
-
-The Czar was taken into an open sled, and although it was claimed he
-received the last sacrament at the Winter Palace, most of those who
-know believe that he died on the way there.
-
-In the meantime the police, with the utmost difficulty, rescued the
-first bomb-thrower from the maddened mob. The man, whose name proved to
-be Risakoff, coolly thanked the officers for preserving him, and then
-tried to swallow some poison which he had ready. In this he was foiled,
-and he was taken to prison.
-
-[Illustration: THE CZAR’S CARRIAGE AFTER THE EXPLOSION.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-The infernal machine used by Elnikoff was about 7½ inches in height,
-and its construction is exemplified in the annexed diagram. Metal tubes
-(_b b_) filled with chlorate of potash, and enclosing glass tubes
-(_c c_) filled with sulphuric acid (commonly called oil of vitriol),
-intersect the cylinder. Around the glass tubes are rings of iron (_d
-d_) closely attached as weights. The construction is such that, no
-matter how the bomb falls, one of the glass tubes is sure to break. The
-chlorate of potash in that case, combining with the sulphuric acid,
-ignites at once, and the flames communicate over the fuse (_f f_) with
-the piston (_e_), filled with fulminate of silver. The concussion thus
-caused explodes the dynamite or “black jelly” (_a_) with which the
-cylinder is closely packed.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-I said above that Jelaboff, the real leader of the conspiracy, had been
-arrested on the 10th. He was merely a suspect, and it was some time
-before the police realized what an important arrest had been made.
-Only two hours before the murder of the Emperor, Jelaboff’s house was
-searched, and there was found a great quantity of black dynamite,
-India rubber tubes, fuses and other articles. Jelaboff had been living
-here with a woman who was called Lidia Voinoff. This Lidia Voinoff was
-arrested on the Newsky Prospect, on March 22nd, and almost immediately
-identified as Sophia Perowskaja, the young woman who had given the
-handkerchief signal to the bomb-throwers, and who was wanted besides
-for the Moscow railway mine case. On the prisoner were found papers
-which led to the search of a house on Telejewskaia Street, where a
-man named Sablin committed suicide immediately on the appearance of
-the police, and a woman named Hessy Helfmann was arrested. A regular
-Nihilist arsenal of black jelly, fuses, maps of different districts of
-St. Petersburg, with the Czar’s usual routes marked upon them, copies
-of papers from the secret press, etc., were found. While the police
-were still engaged in the search of the premises Timothy Mikhaeloff
-came in by accident. He was taken, and on him was found a copy of the
-new Czar’s proclamation, and penciled on the back were the names of
-three shops with three different hours in the afternoon. The officers
-descended on these places and gathered in customers, shop-keepers and
-everybody else about the place,—a process which brought in Kibaltchik,
-the Nihilist chemist and bomb-maker.
-
-The evidence was soon got in shape, and early in April the trial
-began. It was shown that Jelaboff was agent in the third degree of
-the Revolutionary Executive Committee; that he had issued the call
-for volunteers for the killing of the Czar, and that forty-seven
-persons had offered themselves, out of whom Risakoff, Mikhaeloff,
-Hessy Helfmann, Kibaltchik, Sophia Perowskaja and Elnikoff had been
-accepted. Elnikoff was dead, but the others, with Jelaboff, were put
-in the dock. They all confessed except Hessy Helfmann, and upon April
-11th all were condemned to death, with the proviso needed under the
-Russian law that the sentence of Sophia Perowskaja should be approved
-by the Czar, as she was a member of the class of nobles, and a noble
-may not be put to death without the Emperor’s concurrence. The Czar
-concurred, and on April 15th, at 9 a. m., all the prisoners save
-Hessy Helfmann were hung. This woman was reprieved because she was
-about to become a mother. The execution was a most brutal one. It
-took place on a plain two miles out of the city, in the presence of a
-hundred thousand people. The prisoners were taken out of the fortress
-on two-wheeled carts, surrounded by drummers and pipers, who played
-continuously and loudly, so that nothing the condemned might say could
-be heard by the crowd. At the scaffold the drummers were stationed in
-a hollow square around the gallows, and a deafening tattoo was kept up
-from the time the prisoners were brought in until their bodies were
-cut down. The hanging was very cruel. Each person was mounted on a
-small box, after kissing each other passionately all round. They said
-something, but it could not be heard for the drumming. The executioner
-was said to be evidently drunk. There was no drop. When the signal was
-given the condemned were pushed off their boxes and left to strangle.
-Mikhaeloff’s rope broke twice, and the attendants held him up while
-the executioner tied a new cord around his neck and over the beam. The
-bodies were buried privately.
-
-The present Czar has had several narrow escapes, none of them more
-nearly fatal than the conspiracy of the book-bomb in March last. On the
-13th of March, 1888, the anniversary of his father’s terrible death,
-the Czar made the usual visit to the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul,
-where the body of Alexander II. is buried. For some time before the
-ceremony St. Petersburg was full of rumors that a catastrophe was
-impending, and, although the police took the most careful precautions,
-the Czar himself paid no attention to the warnings of the “Third
-Section,” and would permit no alteration in the preparations for the
-requiem.
-
-In Christmas week of 1887, the Russian agents at Geneva, in
-Switzerland, reported the presence in that city of two revolutionary
-agents who seemed to have the closest relations with the committee of
-the discontents in London and Paris. They were shadowed for a time, but
-lost. In February they reappeared in Berlin. They were known to be in
-communication with the St. Petersburg Nihilists. Before facts enough
-had accumulated to justify their arrest they disappeared once more
-and were believed to have gone to the Russian capital. The facts were
-reported to the Czar, but he laughed at Chief Gresser of the capital
-police.
-
-[Illustration: THE NIHILISTS IN THE DOCK.
-
-1. Risakoff. 2. Mikhaeloff. 3. Hessy Helfmann. 4. Kibaltchik. 5. Sophia
-Peroffskaja. 6. Jelaboff.]
-
-In solemnizing the requiem of the late Czar a public progress was made
-to the Cathedral, amid a dense throng of citizens, among whom were
-all the detectives that Chief Gresser could get together. In a small
-café in one of the side streets of the Morokaya two of the detectives
-ran across a couple of uniformed university students—in Russia the
-students have a peculiar costume—who were acting suspiciously. They
-were conversing in a most excited manner with a man dressed as a
-peasant. The trio were watched. At the café door they separated, but
-all three made by different routes for the Newsky Prospect, the chief
-drive of the capital and the one along which the Czar was to return.
-The peasant was lost by the detectives, but the other two were kept in
-sight, and the suspicions of the police were made all the more keen
-by the fact that the young men passed each other in the crowd several
-times with an elaborate appearance of not knowing each other. One of
-them had a law-book in his hand; the other had a traveling-bag over his
-shoulder.
-
-[Illustration: EXECUTION OF THE NIHILIST CONSPIRATORS.]
-
-A few moments before the Czar was to pass on his return from the
-Cathedral the students came together and whispered, and the two
-were immediately and quietly arrested. Their names were given as
-Andreieffsky and Petroff, university students, and this was proven to
-be the truth.
-
-A thrilling discovery was made, however, at once. The innocent-looking
-law-book was really a most dangerous infernal machine—sufficiently
-powerful not alone to kill everybody in the Czar’s carriage, but many
-in the crowd, and perhaps to have blown down some of the neighboring
-houses. The traveling-sack was full of dynamite bombs of the ordinary
-spherical pattern.
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 1. Interior. Fig. 2. Exterior.
-
-A. Glass Tube. B. Fulminate. C. Bullets. D. Dynamite.]
-
-I reproduce here a diagram of the book-bomb from the excellent account
-of the attempted assassination given by the New York _World_ a few days
-after it occurred.
-
-The outside was made of wood and pasteboard, so artistically that only
-the closest inspection would discover the fact that the machine was
-not really a book. In the center of the interior, in the place marked
-_C_, were a number of hollow bullets filled with strychnine, which
-poison was also plastered upon the outside of the missiles. Above this
-were small compartments filled with fulminate, with a glass tube of
-sulphuric acid. To the tube was tied a string, which would break it
-when thrown, spilling it into the fulminate and thus exploding the
-dynamite with which the whole of the hollow parts of the interior was
-densely packed. Fully a hundred people must have been killed had the
-bomb been exploded as intended. The expert who examined the bomb, after
-handling the bullets carelessly put his finger in his mouth, and was
-seriously, though not fatally, poisoned.
-
-Hardly had the arrest been made when the Czar was notified at the
-Cathedral. He ordered that the news should be withheld from the
-Empress, although he was himself visibly affected. He sprang into his
-sleigh with the Czarowitz, and drove by an unused route to the railway
-station. The Czarina followed shortly after in a carriage, greatly
-agitated by a presentiment of evil. Not until the train had started
-was she informed of the occurrence. She burst into tears, and was
-inconsolable for the rest of the journey. Once safe in his Gatschina
-Palace, the Czar is said to have given vent to his feelings in the
-strongest language, heaping anathemas upon the heads of the Nihilists,
-and threatening dire revenge.
-
-Less than two hours after the arrest of Andreieffsky and Petroff their
-companion peasant fell into the hands of the police. His name was
-Generaloff, a native of Jaroslav, South Russia. He had been actively
-engaged in the Nihilist propaganda for some time past. He also carried
-bombs on his person.
-
-These arrests were supplemented by numerous others. The lodgings of
-the prisoners in the suburbs of St. Petersburg known as the Peski
-(the Sands) were searched, and other explosives as well as documents
-incriminating other persons were found. As a result the procession
-of prisoners to the Peter and Paul’s Fortress for a time was almost
-unremitting, and no one felt safe against police intrusion. All three
-of the prisoners were subsequently executed.
-
-England shortly afterward became the mark for the next development of
-the dynamite war. It is the fact that shortly after the assassination
-of the Czar an attack on the British Government was begun.
-
-Prior to this there had been two outrages in 1881—one an attempt to
-blow up the barracks at Salford with dynamite, the other a gunpowder
-explosion at the Mansion House, London.
-
-The record of the year, as compiled by Col. Majendie, the Inspector of
-Explosives, then runs on:
-
- _1881: 16 May._ Attempt to blow up the police barracks at Liverpool
- with gunpowder in iron piping. Damage to the building was
- inconsiderable, and no one hurt.
-
- _10 June._ Attempt to blow up the Town Hall, Liverpool, by an infernal
- machine probably filled with dynamite. A great number of windows
- broken, and some iron railings destroyed, but no one injured. The two
- perpetrators captured.
-
- _14 June._ A piece of iron piping filled with gunpowder exploded
- against the police station at Loanhead, near Edinburgh. Some windows
- broken, but no other damage effected.
-
- _30 June._ An importation of six infernal machines at Liverpool from
- America in the “Malta,” concealed in barrels of cement. They contained
- lignin dynamite, with a clock-work arrangement for firing it.
-
- _2 July._ An importation of four similar machines at Liverpool in the
- “Bavaria.”
-
- _September._ An attempt to produce an explosion at the barracks,
- Castlebar. A canister containing gunpowder was thrown over the wall,
- close to the magazine. The lighted fuse which was attached fell out,
- and no harm was done.
-
- _1882: 26 March._ An attempt to blow up Weston House, Galway, with
- dynamite in an iron pot enclosed in a sack. Five persons were
- afterwards convicted of the outrage.
-
- _27 March_. A 6-inch shell charged with explosive thrown into a house
- in Letterkenny. The explosion caused considerable damage.
-
- _2 April._ An attempt to destroy a police barrack in Limerick by
- firing some dynamite on the window sill.
-
- _12 May._ A discovery of a parcel containing 12 lbs. to 20 lbs. of
- gunpowder, with lighted touch-paper or fuse attached, at the Mansion
- House, London.
-
- _1883: 21 January._ An explosion of lignin dynamite at Possil Bridge,
- Glasgow. Two or three persons passing sustained slight injury.
-
- _21 January._ An explosion of lignin dynamite at Buchanan Street
- Station, Glasgow, in a disused goods shed.
-
- _15 March._ An explosion at the Local Government Board Office,
- Whitehall, causing considerable local damage.
-
- _15 March._ An abortive explosion of lignin dynamite outside a window
- at the _Times_ office.
-
- _April._ Two infernal machines, containing 28 lbs. of lignin dynamite
- (probably home-made), discovered at Liverpool. Four persons were
- convicted and sentenced to penal servitude for life.
-
- _April._ The discovery of a factory of nitro-glycerine at Birmingham,
- and of a large amount of nitro-glycerine brought thence to London.
- The occupier of the house and others were subsequently convicted and
- sentenced to penal servitude for life.
-
- _30 October._ An explosion in the Metropolitan Railway, between
- Charing Cross and Westminster, unattended with personal or serious
- structural injury.
-
- _30 October._ An explosion on the Metropolitan Railway, near Praed
- Street. Three carriages sustained serious injury, and about sixty-two
- persons were cut by the broken glass and debris, and otherwise injured.
-
- _November._ Two infernal machines discovered in a house in
- Westminster, occupied by a German named Woolf. Two men were tried, and
- in the result the jury disagreed and a _nolle prosequi_ was entered on
- behalf of the Crown.
-
- _1884: January._ The discovery of some slabs of Atlas Powder A
- (American make), in Primose Hill tunnel.
-
- _February._ An explosion in the cloak-room of the London, Brighton,
- and South Coast Railway at Victoria Station of Atlas Powder A
- (American make), left in a bag or portmanteau.
-
- _27 February._ The discovery of a bag containing some Atlas Powder A,
- with clock-work and detonators, at Charing Cross Station.
-
- _28 February._ A similar discovery at Paddington Station.
-
- _1 March._ A similar discovery at Ludgate Hill Station.
-
- _April._ A discovery of three metal bombs, containing dynamite
- (probably American make), at Birkenhead, in possession of a man named
- Daly, who was afterwards sentenced to penal servitude for life.
-
- _30 May._ An explosion of dynamite at the Junior Carlton Club, St.
- James’ Square. About fourteen persons were injured.
-
- _30 May._ An explosion of dynamite at the residence of Sir Watkin
- Williams Wynn, St. James’ Square.
-
- _30 May._ An explosion of dynamite in a urinal under a room occupied
- by some of the detective staff in Scotland Yard. It brought down a
- portion of the building, besides severely injuring a policeman and
- some persons who were at an adjacent public-house.
-
- _30 May._ A discovery of Atlas Powder A, with fuse and detonators, in
- Trafalgar Square.
-
- _28 November._ An attempted destruction of a house at Edenburn, near
- Tralee, occupied by Mr. Hussey. The injury, which was doubtless
- accomplished with dynamite, was less serious than was intended, and no
- one sustained bodily harm.
-
- _12 December._ An explosion of a charge of dynamite or other
- nitro-compound under London Bridge, fortunately doing very little
- damage.
-
- _1885: 2 January._ An explosion in the Gower Street tunnel of
- the Metropolitan Railway, caused by about two pounds of some
- nitro-compound fired apparently by a percussion fuse. Damage
- inconsiderable.
-
- _24 January._ An explosion in the Tower of London, caused, beyond
- all reasonable doubt, by about five to eight pounds of Atlas Powder
- A (American make). Three or four persons were slightly injured, and
- considerable damage was done to the Armory.
-
- _24 January._ An explosion of Atlas Powder A (American make), in
- Westminster Hall. Three persons were injured severely, and others
- slightly, and very considerable damage was done to the Hall and
- surroundings.
-
- _24 January._ An explosion in the House of Commons (probably caused by
- a similar amount of the same explosive). No persons were injured, but
- very considerable damage was done to the Houses of Parliament.
-
- _February._ A discovery of dynamite (of American make) in a house in
- Harrow Road, Paddington.
-
- _9 March._ A discovery of Atlas Powder A in the roof of a saw-mill at
- Bootle.
-
-As a result of these various conspiracies and political outrages,
-twenty-nine persons were convicted.
-
-Some of the bombs used in the London explosions were very ingeniously
-made. Usually they had a clock-work arrangement which released a hammer
-and exploded the infernal machine at the time set. Others again had a
-time fuse depending upon the percolation of acid through parchment.
-In every case, however, the destruction wrought by the explosives was
-ridiculously disappointing to the conspirators, and in England as
-elsewhere the event proved that high explosives are a delusion and a
-snare from the revolutionist’s point of view. They are greatly more
-dangerous to the persons who employ them than to the people or the
-property against which they may be aimed.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III.
-
- The Exodus to Chicago—Waiting for an Opportunity—A Political Party
- Formed—A Question of $600,000—The First Socialist Platform—Details
- of the Organization—Work at the Ballot-Box—Statistics of Socialist
- Progress—“The International Workingmen’s Party” and The “Workingmen’s
- Party of the United States”—The Eleven Commandments of Labor—How
- the Work was to be Done—A Curious Constitution—Beginnings of the
- Labor Press—The Union Congress—Criticising the Ballot-Box—The
- Executive Committee and its Powers—Annals of 1876—A Period of
- Preparation—The Great Railroad Strikes of 1877—The First Attack on
- Society—A Decisive Defeat—Trying Politics Again—The “Socialistic
- Party”—Its Leaders and its Aims—August Spies as an Editor—Buying
- the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_—How the Money was Raised—Anarchist Campaign
- Songs—The Group Organization—Plan of the Propaganda—Dynamite First
- Taught—“The Bureau of Information”—An Attack on Arbitration—No
- Compromise with Capital—Unity of the Internationalists and the
- Socialists.
-
-
-AFTER the enactment of the stringent Socialist law in Germany, and the
-determined opposition of Prince Bismarck to the creed of the Social
-Democrats, the exodus to America began, and Chicago, unfortunately for
-this city, was the Mecca to which the exiles came. At first but little
-attention was paid to the incoming people. It was thought that free
-air and free institutions would disarm them of their rancor against
-organized society, and but little attention was paid to the vaporings
-of the leaders. We had heard that sort of thing before,—especially
-in the years following 1848,—and it had come to nothing; and people
-generally, when they heard the mouthings of the apostles of disorder,
-told themselves that when these apostles had each bought a home, there
-would come naturally, and out of the logic of facts, a change in their
-convictions.
-
-Hence, although there were some inflammatory speeches, and a pretense
-of Socialistic activity, it was not until the year 1873 that any
-serious attention was paid to the movement. Even then the interest it
-excited was that solely of a political novelty.
-
-The period was one of general business depression, however, and
-additional impetus was given to the feelings of discontent by the
-labor troubles in New York, Boston, St. Louis and other large cities.
-In New York the labor demonstrations were particularly violent. The
-special object sought to be accomplished there was the introduction
-of the eight-hour system. Eastern Internationalists saw in this an
-opportunity to strengthen their foothold in America, and they were
-not slow in fomenting discord among the members of the different
-trades-unions which had inaugurated the movement. They even went so far
-as to proclaim that, if there was any interference with the eight-hour
-strike, the streets would run red with the blood of capitalists. The
-Communists of Chicago sympathized with their brethren in the East, but
-they lacked numbers and similar conditions of violent discontent to
-urge force and bloodshed in the attainment of the same object, which,
-however, had been for some time under discussion by the Trades Assembly
-of Chicago. They consequently contented themselves with wild attacks
-upon the prevailing system of labor and urged a severance from existing
-political parties and the formation of a party exclusively devoted to
-the amelioration of the condition of workingmen.
-
-Toward the end of the year 1873, the leaders seem to have concluded
-that they had a sufficient number of adherents to form a party, and a
-committee was appointed to prepare and submit a plan of organization.
-On the 1st of January following, this committee reported. They
-suggested organization into societies according to nationalities, and
-that all societies thus organized should be directed by a central
-committee, to be appointed from the several sections. At the same time
-it was publicly announced that “the new organization did not seek the
-overthrow of the national, State or city government by violence,” but
-would work out its mission peaceably through the ballot-box.
-
-While the formation of a party was under consideration, times were
-exceedingly dull in the city. Thousands were idle, and there was a
-general clamor among the unemployed for relief. This discontent was
-seized upon to influence the minds of the poor against capital, and
-the remedy was declared to lie only in Socialism. The Relief and
-Aid Society formed the first point of attack. The Socialist leaders
-loudly proclaimed that it had on hand over $600,000,—the charitable
-contributions of the world sent to Chicago after the fire for the
-benefit of the poor,—which sum was held, they claimed, for the
-enrichment of the managers of that society and the benefit of “rich
-paupers.” In the early part of December, 1873, a procession of the
-unemployed marched through the streets of the city and demanded
-assistance from the municipal authorities. They finally decided to
-appeal to the Relief Society, and, backed by hundreds in line, a
-committee attempted to wait upon the officials of that organization.
-They were excluded, however, on the ground that all deserving cases
-would be aided without the intervention of a committee.
-
-The condition of labor now formed the pretext for many a diatribe
-against capital in general and the alleged favoritism of the Relief
-and Aid Society in particular; and many allied themselves with the
-Socialistic organization—not comprehending its meaning, but because it
-happened at the moment to appeal to their passions.
-
-It was this state of affairs which spurred on the Socialist leaders
-to the formation of a party. Having accepted the general plan of
-organization as recommended by the committee, another meeting was held
-in January, 1874. A declaration of principles was then formulated.
-There were nine articles, which may be summarized as follows:
-
- Abolition of all class legislation and repeal of all existing laws
- favoring monopolies.
-
- All means of transportation, such as railroads, canals, telegraph,
- etc., to be controlled, managed and operated by the State.
-
- Abolition of the prevailing system of letting out public work by
- contract, the State or municipality to have all work of a public
- nature done under its own supervision and control.
-
- An amendment to the laws in regard to the recovery of wages, all suits
- brought for the recovery of wages to be decided within eight days.
-
- The payment of wages by the month to be abolished, and weekly payments
- substituted.
-
- A discontinuance of the hiring-out of prison labor to companies or
- individuals, prisoners to be employed by and for the benefit of the
- State only.
-
- Adoption by the State of compulsory education of all children between
- the ages of seven and fourteen years; the hiring-out of children under
- fourteen to be prohibited.
-
- All banking, both commercial and savings, to be done by the State.
-
- All kinds of salary grabs to be discontinued; all public officers to
- be paid a fixed salary instead of fees.
-
-Specifically stated, the organization was made to consist of sections
-and divisions and a central committee. Each section was made to consist
-of twenty-five members, and was entitled to one delegate to the
-conventions of the order, with one delegate for every additional one
-hundred members or fraction thereof. The central committee was to be
-composed of nine members, to be chosen by the delegates. The duties of
-the committee were fixed under such rules as might be adopted by the
-organization. Their term was from one general convention to another.
-Each delegate was allowed as many votes as there were members of the
-section he represented. Delegates from each section were obliged to
-assemble every week to report all party affairs, and, if necessary,
-were expected to make similar reports to the central committee.
-Sections and divisions elected officers for six months. Two-thirds
-of the members of each section were required to be wage-workers.
-Each member had to pay only five cents initiation fee and five cents
-monthly dues. One-half of the income from fees was given to the central
-committee for printing and general expenses. All in arrears for three
-months, barring sickness or want of employment, were expelled. Each
-section was given the power to dismiss such members as acted by word,
-writing or deed to the detriment of the party and its principles. The
-right of appeal to the central committee was given to any member in
-case three of his section favored it. Monthly reports to sections and
-quarterly reports to the central committee as to the condition of the
-organization and the treasury were required of the secretary. In the
-event that any officer lost the confidence of his section, he could be
-expelled before the expiration of his term by a majority vote.
-
-Such were the principles and plans of the organization at the outset.
-There does not appear anywhere anything to show that the ulterior
-object of the party was to use violence to enforce its demands. On the
-contrary, at a subsequent general gathering a preamble to the platform
-expressly stated that the party was organized “to advocate and advance
-the political platform of the Workingmen’s Party, to acquire power
-in legislative bodies and to uphold the principles of the platform.”
-Subsequent mass-meetings, held in January, ratified the declaration of
-principles, and the various speakers urged that, inasmuch as the “other
-political parties were for the benefit of unprincipled scalawags,”
-their party had come into existence “pure and undefiled, to secure to
-workingmen their rights.” The prime movers in the party at this time
-were John McAuliff, L. Thorsmark, Carl Klings, Henry Stahl, August
-Arnold, J. Zimple, Leo Meilbeck, Prokup Hudek, O. A. Bishop, John
-Feltes, John Simmens, Jacob Winnen, J. Krueger, William Jeffers and
-Robert Mueller. The organization was styled “The Workingmen’s Party of
-Illinois.”
-
-Active agitation at once commenced in various parts of the city.
-Meetings were held wherever possible in the poorer sections of the
-North and West Divisions. In all speeches the prevalent distress was
-dwelt upon and the people were urged to combine against capital.
-Some of the points made at these gatherings may be judged from the
-remarks of the agitators at a meeting of the various sections of the
-party at No. 68 West Lake Street on the 1st of March, 1874. While the
-sentiments were somewhat rabid, there was no encouragement to deeds
-of violence. One of the speakers, Mr. Zimple, spoke of the object of
-the meeting as being “to devise means for marching on the bulwarks of
-aristocracy, and gain for the working classes that social position
-to which they were by right entitled.” Then followed an invective
-against capital and society. “All existing things must be torn down,”
-he continued, “and a new system of society built up.” Slaves even were
-allowed to live, but, as things were then, workingmen, who could work
-no longer, had to starve. If they stood together and elected good men
-to the Legislature next fall, this state of affairs would be changed.
-Legislators were too stupid to make a living by honest work, therefore
-they had to subsist by robbing the people. Mr. Thorsmark expressed
-confidence in the success of Socialism and said that if all workingmen
-would do their duty “the present state of society would be re-formed,
-not only for their benefit, but for the benefit of mankind.” Carl
-Klings could conceive of “nothing more inhuman, cruel and outrageous
-than the present state of society,” and it was for this reason, he
-said, that they had banded together to “strike a blow which would
-effect a change for all time to come.” The same tyrants, he argued,
-who had slaughtered their brethren in cold blood and oppressed them in
-France, could be found in Chicago. The workingmen of America had not
-accomplished anything as yet, because they were not yet fully prepared,
-but gradually they were becoming a great power, and soon would “no
-longer be compelled to drink the bitter poison from the cup of the
-aristocrats.” Mr. McAuliff touched on the wrongs of the existing state
-of society as he saw it and held that “they all had to unite in one
-common body and seek success at the ballot-box.”
-
-To gain political power, the Socialists made their first attempt by
-placing a ticket in the field. A convention was held in Thieleman’s
-Theater, in the North Division of the city, on the 29th of March, 1874.
-Although there were general city officers to be elected the following
-month, the Socialists confined their efforts to making nominations only
-for the town offices of North Chicago, in which section their theories
-seemed, at that time, to have found the most fertile soil. Their
-ticket was made up as follows: Assessor, George F. Duffy; Collector,
-Philip Koerber; Supervisor, August Arnold; Town Clerk, Frederick Oest;
-Constable, James Jones.
-
-At this convention an impetus was given to the new organ of the
-party, the _Vorbote_, which had just issued its initial number, and,
-although this journal was given a considerable circulation to boom the
-new-fledged candidates, the ticket only polled 950 votes.
-
-But the leaders were not disheartened. They continued their political
-agitation, and at the approach of the fall campaign they decided to
-branch out more extensively, and to measure swords with the other
-political parties for all the offices in sight. On the 25th of October,
-1874, a convention was held in Bohemian Turner Hall, on Taylor Street,
-near Canal, and Congressional, county and city tickets were put into
-the field. For Congress they selected, for the West Side, W. S. Le
-Grand; for the North Side, F. A. Hoffman, Jr. It was left an open
-question whom they should support on the South Side. Their candidates
-for the Legislature were: Madden, Rice, Hudek, Kranel, Thrane and
-Hymann; and for the Senate, Rowe, Bishop, Methua and Koellner. County
-Commissioners, Mueller, Bettetil, Bley and Maiewsky for the West Side,
-and German and Breitenstein for the North Side. Their candidate for
-Sheriff was E. Melchior, and for Coroner, Dr. Geiger. The aldermanic
-selections were: In the Second Ward, Wasika; in the Fourth, Tuer;
-in the Sixth, Grapsicsky; in the Seventh, Maj. Warnecke and E. A.
-Haller; in the Eighth, Leonhard; in the Ninth, George Heck; in the
-Tenth, Sticker; in the Eleventh, Urenharst; in the Twelfth, Zirbes;
-in the Fourteenth, Sirks; in the Fifteenth, Schwenn and Anderson;
-in the Sixteenth, Seilheimer; in the Seventeenth, H. Jensen; in the
-Eighteenth, Frey; and in the Twentieth, Otto F. Schalz. In the wards
-not given no nominations were made.
-
-The strength of the ticket may be gathered by the fact that at the
-election, on November 5th, Melchior received only 378 votes, while his
-opponent, Agnew, Democrat, scored 28,549, and Bradley, Republican,
-21,080. The Socialist candidate who polled the largest number of votes
-was Breitenstein, for County Commissioner—790.
-
-The leaders now became convinced that a German morning daily was
-necessary to further the interests of their party. The _Illinois
-Staats-Zeitung_ and the _Freie Presse_ had almost neutralized their
-efforts on the stump, and they saw that they must have an organ to
-meet these papers and reach the masses. They had seen the effects
-of workingmen’s papers in Germany, where several representatives had
-been sent to the Reichstag, and as their party shibboleth then was
-“to secure power in legislative bodies” in Illinois, they determined
-to found a paper of their own. On the 13th of December, 1874, on
-Market Street, they held a secret meeting. The leading spirits in the
-proceedings were Mueller, Simmens and Klings. It was proposed that
-stock to the amount of $20,000 should be issued for a daily, but as
-no one seemed to be thoroughly posted in the matter of publishing a
-paper, it was decided to select a committee. Messrs. Klings, Helmerdeg,
-Simmens, Methua, Kelting, Winner and Finkensieber were so selected,
-but whether they made any progress, or submitted a report as to their
-conclusions, is not known. It is certain that no daily appeared to
-supplement the efforts of their weekly organ at that time, and it was
-not until four or five years later that such a paper finally made its
-appearance.
-
-In the winter of 1874 and the spring of 1875 the Socialist agitators
-were not openly aggressive, but they nevertheless kept quietly at
-work sowing the seed of discontent. Finally, in October, 1875, they
-resumed open and active agitation. The only meeting they held that
-fall was at No. 529 Milwaukee Avenue, and their wrath was directed
-especially against the Republican and Democratic candidates for County
-Treasurer. The speakers were J. Webeking, John Feltis, Jacob Winnen, A.
-Zimmerman and John Simmens. The burden of their harangues was that “the
-workingmen should no longer believe the scoundrels” put up by the other
-parties. It was time, they urged, to “destroy the power of the robber
-band.” Workingmen must “organize, place laborers on the throne, and
-drive capitalists from power.”
-
-In the election, held the following month, they took no active part,
-and this fact, together with the apparently quiescent condition of the
-organization, prompted the _Tribune_ to remark:
-
- No longer do they work openly (smarting under former failures), nor do
- they allow outsiders like Oelke, Gruenhut and others to get into their
- ranks. The Workingmen’s Party of Illinois, as the Communists of this
- city style themselves, no longer acts as an independent organization,
- but has placed itself under the protectorate of the society of the
- Internationalists, which has branches in every city in the world. The
- executive committee of this society, which formerly resided in Paris
- and Leipsic, has now its headquarters in New York, and its mandates
- are implicitly complied with by all the local organizations. The
- central committee believe that during the winter large numbers will
- be without employment, and hence a proper time will come to strike
- a blow. For months they have been organizing military companies and
- maturing plans to burn Chicago and other large cities in the United
- States and the Old World.
-
-At about this time a secret meeting was held at No. 140 West Lake
-Street. Only members of the local committee of the Internationale and
-the executive committee of the Workingmen’s Party were present. It
-came to the surface that other than political measures were discussed.
-The Socialist leaders denied all intention of abandoning politics, but
-they did not hesitate to avow a belief that some startling blow would
-facilitate the success of their movement. What seemed to give a strong
-color of truth to reports about their incendiary intentions was the
-action they took with reference to Carl Klings. He had been one of the
-most active spirits in their organization. He was a fiery, impetuous
-speaker and carried the crowds with him in all his harangues. For some
-unknown reason, not explainable upon any other hypothesis than that
-some violent demonstration was contemplated as a change from their
-past policy, the party had decided to take no hand in the election of
-November, and yet, in spite of this decision, Klings had entered into
-it most bitterly and violently to accomplish the defeat of a candidate
-against whom he cherished the greatest enmity. It would seem that this,
-viewed from a Socialistic standpoint, ought to have commended him to
-his brethren, especially as the candidate was beaten in the election,
-but, on the representation that he had violated an order of the party,
-Klings was summarily expelled from the organization on the 13th of
-December, 1875. The fact that he had never secretly advocated violent
-means undoubtedly accounts for his expulsion.
-
-It is unquestionably true that at this time the Communists were
-beginning to think of more serious matters than politics, and gradually
-drifting away from their peaceful mission as avowed in their early
-party platform and public declarations, and it is not unwarranted to
-attribute their non-intervention in politics that fall to the efforts
-and influence of the Internationale. They proved in more ways than one
-that they had at heart revolutionary methods, and that they were only
-awaiting an opportune time to boldly proclaim their sentiments. Even
-if there could exist a doubt on this point, it was dissipated by the
-utterances of the Socialists at a mass-meeting held December 26, 1875,
-at West Twelfth Street Turner Hall, to protest against the treatment of
-Communist prisoners in New Caledonia by the French Government.
-
-As already stated, the Socialists had established in 1874 an
-“International Workingmen’s Party of the State of Illinois,” and for
-some time they held meetings under that pretentious title, principally
-on Clybourn Avenue. The organization struggled along for awhile and
-finally was lost to sight. Subsequently a “Workingmen’s Party of the
-United States” appeared in the Socialistic world, and some of the
-leaders of the old local organization began to identify themselves with
-its establishment and success. They held frequent meetings on North
-Avenue. The declaration of principles of the new party was as follows:
-
- The emancipation of the working classes must be achieved by the
- working classes themselves, independently of all political parties of
- the propertied class.
-
- The struggle for the emancipation of the working classes means not a
- struggle for class privileges and monopolies, but for equal rights and
- duties, and the abolition of all class rule.
-
- [Illustration: SCENES FROM THE RIOTS AT PITTSBURG, 1877.]
-
- The economical subjection of the man of labor to the monopolizers
- of the means of labor, the sources of life, lies at the bottom of
- servitude in all its forms, of all social misery, mental degradation
- and political dependence.
-
- The economical emancipation of the working classes is, therefore, the
- great end to which every political movement ought to be subordinate as
- a means.
-
- All efforts aiming at that great end have hitherto failed from want of
- solidarity between the manifold divisions of labor in each country,
- and from the absence of concerted action between the workingmen of all
- countries.
-
- The emancipation of labor is neither a local nor a national, but
- a social problem, embracing all countries in which modern society
- exists, and depending for its solution upon the practical and
- theoretical concurrence and coöperation of the most advanced countries.
-
- For these reasons the Workingmen’s Party of the United States has been
- founded. It enters into proper relations and connections with the
- workingmen of other countries.
-
- Whereas, political liberty without economical freedom is but an empty
- phrase; therefore, we will, in the first place, direct our efforts
- to the economical question. We repudiate entirely connection with
- all political parties of the propertied class without regard to
- their name. We demand that all the means of labor, land, machinery,
- railroads, telegraphs, canals, etc., become the common property of
- the whole people, for the purpose of abolishing the wage-system,
- and substituting in its place coöperative production with a just
- distribution of its rewards.
-
- The political action of the party will be confined generally to
- obtaining legislative acts in the interest of the working class
- proper. It will not enter into a political campaign before being
- strong enough to exercise a perceptible influence, and then in
- the first place locally in the towns or cities, when demands of
- purely local character may be presented, provided they are not in
- conflict with the platform and principles of the party. We work for
- organization of the trades-unions upon a national and international
- basis, to ameliorate the condition of the working people and seek to
- spread therein the above principles. The Workingmen’s Party of the
- United States proposes to introduce the following measures as a means
- to improve the condition of the working classes:
-
- 1. Eight hours’ work for the present as a normal working day, and
- legal punishment for all violators.
-
- 2. Sanitary inspection of all conditions of labor, means of
- subsistence and dwellings included.
-
- 3. Establishment of bureaus of labor statistics in all States as well
- as by the National Government, the officers of these bureaus to be
- taken from the ranks of the labor organizations and elected by them.
-
- 4. Prohibition of the use of prison labor by private employers.
-
- 5. Prohibitory laws against the employment of children under fourteen
- years of age in industrial establishments.
-
- 6. Gratuitous instruction in all educational institutions.
-
- 7. Strict laws making employers liable for all accidents to the injury
- of their employes.
-
- 8. Gratuitous administration of justice in courts of law.
-
- 9. Abolition of all conspiracy laws.
-
- 10. Railroads, telegraphs and all means of transportation to be taken
- hold of and operated by the Government.
-
- 11. All industrial enterprises to be placed under the control of the
- Government as fast as practicable and operated by free coöperative
- trades-unions for the good of the whole people.
-
-The Constitution of the “Workingmen’s Party of the United States” was
-as follows:
-
- The affairs of the party shall be conducted by three bodies: 1. The
- Congress. 2. The Executive Committee. 3. The Board of Supervision.
-
- ARTICLE I. THE CONGRESS. 1. At least every two years a Congress shall
- be held, composed of the delegates from the different sections that
- have been connected with the party at least two months previously and
- complied with all their duties. Sections of less than one hundred
- members shall be entitled to one delegate; from one hundred to two
- hundred, to two delegates; and one more delegate for each additional
- hundred.
-
- 2. No suspended section shall be admitted to a seat before the
- Congress has examined and passed judgment on the case. It shall,
- however, be the duty of every Congress to put such cases on the order
- of business and dispose of them immediately after the election of its
- officers.
-
- 3. The Congress defines and establishes the political position of the
- party, decides finally on all differences within the party, appoints
- time and place of next Congress and designates the seat of the
- Executive Committee and of the Board of Supervisors.
-
- 4. The entire expenses of Congress, as well as mileage and salaries
- of the delegates, shall be paid by the party and provided for by a
- special tax to be levied six weeks before the Congress meets before
- the year 1880; however, no mileage will be paid beyond the 36th degree
- of northern latitude, nor beyond the 59th degree of western longitude.
-
- 5. All propositions and motions to be considered and acted upon by
- Congress shall be communicated to all sections at least six weeks
- previously.
-
- ARTICLE II. THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 1. The Executive Committee
- shall consist of seven members and shall appoint from its own midst
- one corresponding secretary, one recording secretary, one financial
- secretary and one treasurer. The Executive Committee shall be elected
- by the sections of the place designated as its seat, and vacancies
- shall be filled in the same way.
-
- 2. The Executive Committee shall hold office from one Congress to the
- ensuing one.
-
- 3. The duties of the Executive Committee shall be to execute all
- resolutions of Congress, and to see that they are strictly observed by
- all sections and members, to organize and centralize the propaganda,
- to represent the organization at home and abroad, to entertain and
- open relations with the workingmen’s parties of other countries, to
- make a quarterly report to the sections concerning the status of
- the organization and its financial position, to make all necessary
- preparations for the Congress as well as a detailed report on all
- party matters.
-
- 4. _Right and Power of the Executive Committee._ The Executive
- Committee, with the concurrence of the Board of Supervision, may
- refuse to admit to the organization individuals and sections as well
- as suspend members and sections till the next Congress for injuring
- the party interests. In case of urgency the Executive Committee may
- make suitable propositions, which propositions shall become binding,
- if approved of by a majority of the members within two months. The
- Executive Committee has the right to establish rules and regulations
- for the policy to be observed by the party papers, to watch their
- course, and in cases of vacancies to appoint editors _pro tempore_.
- The Executive Committee may send the corresponding secretary as
- delegate to Congress; the delegate will have no vote and shall be
- prohibited from accepting any other credentials.
-
- 5. The salary of the party officers shall be fixed by the Executive
- Committee with the concurrence of the Board of Supervision.
-
- 6. The corresponding secretary shall copy all documents and writings
- issuing from the Executive Committee, place on file all communications
- received, and keep a correct record thereof. He shall receive a proper
- salary.
-
- 7. The financial secretary shall keep and make out the lists of
- sections and members, receive and record all money and hand the same
- over to the treasurer, taking his voucher therefore.
-
- 8. The treasurer shall receive all moneys from the financial
- secretary, pay bills and honor all orders of the Executive Committee,
- after they are countersigned by the corresponding secretary and one
- more member of the Executive Committee, make a correct report on the
- status of the treasury to the Executive Committee at every meeting and
- to the whole organization every three months, and give security in the
- amount fixed by the Executive Committee. The report of the treasurer
- must be examined at a regular session of the Executive Committee and
- indorsed by the same.
-
- ARTICLE III. THE BOARD OF SUPERVISION. 1. The Board of Supervision
- shall consist of five members, to hold office and be elected in the
- same way as the Executive Committee.
-
- 2. The duties of the Board of Supervision shall be to watch over the
- action of the Executive Committee and that of the whole party; to
- superintend the administration and the editorial management of the
- organs of the party, and to interfere in case of need; to adjust all
- differences occurring in the party within four weeks after receiving
- the necessary evidence, subject to the final decision of the Congress;
- to make a detailed report of its actions to Congress.
-
- 3. In case of any urgency the Board of Supervision may suspend
- officers and editors until the meeting of the next Congress, such
- suspension to be submitted at once to a general vote, the result of
- which shall be made known within four weeks thereafter.
-
- 4. The Board of Supervision is entitled to send one delegate to the
- Congress under the same conditions as the Executive Committee.
-
- ARTICLE IV. SECTIONS. Ten persons speaking the same language and
- being wage-workers shall be entitled to form a section, provided they
- acknowledge the principles, statutes and Congress resolutions and
- belong to no political party of the propertied classes. They shall
- demand admission from the Executive Committee by transmitting the dues
- for the current month, and their list of members, their letter to
- contain the names, residences and trade of members, and to show their
- conditions as wage-laborers. At least three-fourths of the members
- of a section must be wage-laborers. There shall be no more than one
- section of the same language in one place, which meet at different
- parts of the town or city for the purpose of an active propaganda.
- Business meetings shall be held once a month. Each section is
- responsible for the integrity of its members. Each section is required
- to make a monthly report to the Executive Committee concerning its
- activity, membership and financial situation, to entertain friendly
- relations with the trades-unions and to promote their formation, to
- hold regular meetings at least once every week, and to direct its
- efforts exclusively to the organization, enlightening and emancipating
- the working classes. No section shall take part in political movements
- without the consent of the Executive Committee. Five sections of
- different localities shall be entitled to call for the convention of
- an extraordinary Congress, such Congress to be convened if a majority
- of the sections decides in its favor.
-
- ARTICLE V. DUES AND CONTRIBUTIONS. A monthly due of five cents for
- each member shall be transmitted to the Executive Committee to meet
- the expenses of the propaganda and administration. In case of need,
- and with the consent of the Board of Supervision, the Executive
- Committee is empowered to levy an extraordinary tax.
-
- ARTICLE VI. GENERAL REGULATIONS. All officers, committees, boards,
- etc., shall be chosen by a majority vote. No member of the
- organization shall hold more than one office at the same time. All
- officers, authorities, committees, boards, etc., of the organization,
- may be dismissed or removed at any time by a general vote of their
- constituencies, and such general vote shall be taken within one month
- from the date of the motion to this effect; provided, however, that
- said motion be seconded by not less than one-third of the respective
- constituents. Expulsion from one section shall be valid for the whole
- organization if approved by the Executive Committee and the Board of
- Supervision.
-
- All members of the organization, by the adoption of this constitution,
- take upon themselves the duty to assist each other morally and
- materially in case of need.
-
- The Congress alone has the right of amending, altering or adding to
- this constitution, subject to a general vote of all sections, the
- result of which is to be communicated to the Executive Committee
- within four weeks.
-
- ARTICLE VII. LOCAL STATUTES. Each section shall chose from its
- ranks one organizer, one corresponding and recording secretary, one
- financial secretary, one treasurer and two members of an auditing
- committee. All these officers shall be elected for six months, and the
- Executive Committee shall take timely measures to make the election
- of newly formed sections correspond with the general election of
- the whole party. The organizer conducts the local propaganda and is
- responsible to the section.
-
- The organizers of the various sections of one locality shall be
- in constant communication with each other in order to secure
- concerted action. The secretary is charged with the minutes and the
- correspondence. The financial secretary shall keep and make out the
- list of members, sign the cards of membership, collect the dues, hand
- them over to the treasurer and correctly enter them. The treasurer
- shall receive all moneys from the financial secretary and hold them
- subject to the order of the section. The auditing committee shall
- superintend all books and the general management of the affairs, and
- audit bills. All officers shall make monthly reports to the section.
- A chairman is elected in every meeting for maintaining the usual
- parliamentary order.
-
- The monthly dues of each member shall be no less than ten cents, five
- cents of which shall be paid to the Executive Committee. Members being
- in arrears for three consecutive months shall be suspended until
- fulfilling their duties, always excepted those who are sick or out of
- work. Persons not belonging to the wages-class can only be admitted
- in a regular business meeting by a two-thirds vote. The result of
- every election within the section must be at once communicated to the
- Executive Committee.
-
- _Regulations concerning the Press of the Workingmen’s Party
- of the United States._—The _Labor Standard_ of New York, the
- _Arbeiter-Stimme_ of New York and the _Vorbote_ of Chicago are
- recognized as the organs and property of the party. The organs of
- the party shall represent the interest of labor, awaken and arouse
- class feelings amongst the workingmen, promote their organization as
- well as the trades-union movement, and spread economical knowledge
- amongst them. The editorial management of each one of the papers of
- the party shall be intrusted to an editor appointed by Congress or
- by the Executive Committee and the Board of Supervision jointly, the
- editor to receive an appropriate salary. Whenever needed, assistant
- editors shall be appointed by the Executive Committee with the advice
- and consent of the chief editor. The chief editor is responsible
- for the contents of the paper and is to be guided in matters of
- principle by the declarations of principles of the party; in technical
- and formal matters by the regulations of the Executive Committee.
- Whenever refusing to insert a communication from a member of the
- organization, the editor is to make it known to the writer thereof,
- directly or by an editorial notice, when an appeal can be taken to the
- Executive Committee. The editor shall observe strict neutrality toward
- differences arising within the party till the Board of Supervision
- and the Congress have given their decision. For each one of the
- three party papers there shall be elected at their respective places
- of publication a council of administration of five members, who,
- jointly with the Executive Committee, shall appoint and remove the
- business manager and his assistants. The council of administration
- shall be chosen for one year in the first week of August of each
- year. The council of administration shall establish rules for the
- business management, superintend the same, investigate all complaints
- concerning the business management, redress all grievances, pay
- their weekly salaries to the editors and managers, and make a full
- report of the status of the paper every three months to all sections
- by a circular. The manager is bound to mail punctually and address
- correctly the papers; he shall receive all moneys, book them and hand
- them over to the treasurer of the council of administration, and he
- shall keep the office of the paper in good order; his salary shall be
- fixed by the Congress or by the Executive Committee. All sums over and
- above the amount of the security shall be deposited in a bank by the
- council of administration. The receipts of all moneys from without
- shall be published in the paper.
-
- The treasurer of the council of administration and the manager shall
- give security to the council of administration in the amount fixed
- by the Executive Committee. The chief editor’s salary shall be from
- $15 to $20 per week. All complaints against the editorial management
- shall in the first place be put before the Executive Committee, in
- the second place before the Board of Supervision. All complaints
- against the business management shall be first referred to the council
- of administration, in the second place to the Board of Supervision.
- The sections are responsible for the financial liabilities of the
- newspaper agents appointed by them. The Congress alone can alter,
- amend or add to these regulations.
-
-The spring of 1876 found the local party in a quiescent state as
-regards active participation in politics, but they did not abandon
-their meetings. The First Regiment of the National Guard at this period
-had assumed goodly proportions, and it naturally came in for a good
-deal of attention at the hands of the speakers. They never failed to
-denounce it; but, to cover their own sinister designs and lull others
-to a sense of security, they invariably declared that the Communists
-intended no war. They continued their “vacant-lot” oratory and in every
-way sought to increase the number of their party adherents.
-
-Toward the end of July, 1876, a Union Congress was held in
-Philadelphia, and these new declarations of principles were formulated:
-
- The Union Congress of the Workingmen’s Party of the United States
- declares: The emancipation of labor is a social problem concerning the
- whole human race and embracing all sexes. The emancipation of women
- will be accomplished with the emancipation of men, and the so-called
- woman’s rights question will be solved with the labor question. All
- evils and wrongs of the present society can be abolished only when
- economical freedom is gained for men as well as for women. It is
- the duty, therefore, of the wives and daughters of the workingmen
- to organize themselves and take their places within the ranks of
- struggling labor. To aid and support them in this work is the duty
- of men. By uniting their efforts they will succeed in breaking the
- economical fetters, and a new and free race of men and women will
- arise, recognizing each other as peers. We acknowledge the perfect
- equality of rights of both sexes, and in the Workingmen’s Party of the
- United States this equality of rights is a principle and is strictly
- observed.
-
- _The Ballot-box._—Considering that the economical emancipation of the
- working classes is the great end, to which every political movement
- ought to be subordinate as a means; considering that the Workingmen’s
- Party of the United States in the first place directs its efforts
- to the economical struggle; considering that only in the economical
- arena the combatants for the Workingmen’s Party can be trained and
- disciplined; considering that in this country the ballot-box has long
- ago ceased to record the popular will, and only serves to falsify the
- same in the hands of professional politicians; considering that the
- organization of the working people is not yet far enough developed
- to overthrow at once this state of corruption; considering that
- this middle class republic has produced an enormous amount of small
- reformers and quacks, the intruding of whom will only be facilitated
- by a political movement of the Workingmen’s Party of the United
- States and considering that the corruption and misapplication of the
- ballot-box, as well as the silly reform movements, flourish most in
- years of Presidential elections, at such times greatly endangering
- the organization of workingmen: For these reasons the Union Congress,
- meeting at Philadelphia in July, 1876, resolves:
-
- [Illustration: THE GREAT STRIKE IN BALTIMORE. THE MILITIA FIGHTING
- THEIR WAY THROUGH THE STREETS.]
-
- The sections of this party as well as all workingmen in general are
- earnestly invited to abstain from all political movements for the
- present and to turn their back on the ballot-box. The workingmen
- will thus save themselves bitter disappointments, and their time and
- efforts will be directed far better towards their own organization,
- which is frequently destroyed and always injured by a hasty political
- movement.
-
- Let us bide our time! It will come.
-
- _Party Government._—Chicago shall be the seat of the Executive
- Committee for the ensuing term; New Haven, the seat of the Board of
- Supervision.
-
- _The Next Congress._—The Executive Committee, in connection with
- the Board of Supervision, shall select a place for holding the next
- Congress in the following named cities: Chicago, Ill.; Newark, N. J.;
- Boston, Mass. The end of August shall be the time for the meeting of
- the next Congress, and the Executive Committee jointly with the Board
- of Supervision shall decide whether the next Congress shall be held in
- 1877 or 1878.
-
- _The Party Press._—As editor of the _Labor Standard_, J. P. McDonnell
- is appointed at a salary of $15 per week; at least one member of
- Typographical Union No. 6 shall be employed as a compositor. As editor
- of the _Arbeiter-Stimme_ Dr. A. Otto Walster is appointed at a salary
- of $18 per week; the paper is to be enlarged in a proper way in
- October next. As editor of the _Vorbote_ C. Conzett is appointed at a
- salary of $18 per week. In consideration of the claim of C. Conzett
- upon the paper for past services it is resolved that after a thorough
- investigation of the books the Executive Committee shall give to C.
- Conzett a promissory note for an amount not exceeding the sum of
- $1,430; for payment of this note two-thirds of the net gains made by
- party festivities in Chicago and the whole of the gain resulting from
- a general New Year’s festivity in the year 1876 shall be appropriated.
- Stock and assets to pass into the hands of the party. A coöperative
- printing association like the one in New York shall be formed in
- Chicago, which shall publish the _Vorbote_ at cost price, adding the
- usual percentage of wear and tear, and which shall buy the stock
- for not less than $600. A diminution of the size of the _Vorbote_
- is proposed, and Conzett is empowered to act in this matter with
- due regard to the interests of the party. Dr. A. Douai is appointed
- assistant editor of all three papers. It is also resolved to employ
- the late editor of the English paper as assistant editor for numbers
- 18 and 19 of the _Labor Standard_ and pay him his usual salary of $12
- per week for two weeks more. It is resolved to levy an extraordinary
- tax of ten cents per member, and to continue said extraordinary tax
- every three months until all liabilities of the party shall be paid.
- All sections are invited to hold festivities in honor of the Union,
- now accomplished, and to devote the proceeds of these festivities to
- aid the press of the party and to pay the extraordinary taxes.
-
-It was further resolved that “no local paper shall be founded without
-the consent of the Executive Committee and the Board of Supervision.”
-It was resolved to place the agencies of all foreign publications in
-the hands of the party. After having come to an understanding with the
-various publishers of labor papers in other countries, a central depot
-was to be established. The two councils of administration of the party
-organs in New York were charged with making the necessary preparations
-for opening the central depot on the first day of October in New York.
-It was also recommended to the party authorities to publish labor
-pamphlets adapted to the conditions of this country.
-
- _Decisions of the Executive Committee._—In order to insure the
- collection of the extra tax of ten cents per quarter, levied by the
- Congress, the moneys sent in for dues will be credited to the extra
- tax account for the preceding quarter year, should such delinquencies
- occur. Any section in arrears for three months will be notified, and
- if within one month thereafter the section has not restored its good
- standing, it will be declared defunct. Where sections cannot appoint
- their own newspaper agent from among the members, they may appoint any
- person as their agent, but such agent must be personally responsible.
- Where sections fail to report gain or loss of members, they will be
- charged for dues and extra tax, according to the number of members
- enrolled at the last report. Every section shall be judge of its own
- members, but no expulsion from the whole party can be effected except
- as provided for by the constitution. No person can be a member of two
- sections at the same time.
-
- _Amendments to the Constitution._—Paragraph 3, division 4, under
- “Sections.” First amendment, adopted December 16th by a general
- election: In addition to one section (composed of men of each language
- of any locality) there may also be organized one section of women
- under the same regulations as the others. Second amendment, adopted
- July 15: Article 1, paragraph 4, is amended to read: “For the Congress
- to be held in the year 1887, the expenses of each delegate will be
- borne by the section or sections represented by him.”
-
-During the winter of 1876 the excitement on the possible outcome of the
-national election prostrated business throughout the country. There
-were even rumors and threats of bloody conflict. Capital naturally
-hesitated, and investments were confined to projects in which there
-was no element of chance and for which the returns were measurably
-certain. The Socialists of Chicago sought in every possible way to make
-the most of the situation by inflaming the minds of the unemployed
-against capital, and labored to secure proselytes by urging that such
-a state of affairs could never exist under Socialism. Meetings were
-held wherever either a hall or a vacant lot could be secured. A. R.
-Parsons, Philip Van Patten, George A. Schilling, T. J. Morgan and Ben
-Sibley, who had hitherto figured only before small street crowds, now
-became prominent as speakers at large gatherings, and their harangues
-proved that they were apt students in the Socialistic school, and ready
-expounders of the proposed new social system.
-
-The Legislature of Illinois was in session at the time under review,
-and in March, 1877, the Socialist leaders entered into a discussion
-of the necessity of forcing that body to pass the bills then pending
-before it with reference to the establishment of a bureau of statistics
-on wages and earnings, cost and manner of living, fatal accidents in
-each branch of labor and their causes, coöperation, hours of labor,
-etc., and for the collection of wages. They urged that the laboring
-classes should demand these measures and insisted that the “boss
-classes, the capitalistic classes, the aristocrats, who lived in riot
-and luxury on the fruit which labor had tilled and ought to enjoy,”
-should not stand in the way of their passage. Time and again they rang
-the various changes on the “iniquity and inequalities of the present
-social system,” and fairly howled themselves hoarse in declaring that
-“the Labor party was organized not only to destroy that system, but
-to secure a division of property, which Socialism demanded and was
-determined to have.”
-
-Early in July, 1877, the firemen and brakemen of the Baltimore and Ohio
-Railroad began a strike at Baltimore against a reduction of wages. This
-strike soon reached Martinsburg, W. Va., and caused an immense blockade
-of freight traffic. The strikers finally grew so riotous that the local
-authorities were powerless, and President Hayes, being appealed to by
-the Governor of Maryland, issued a proclamation. United States troops
-were at the same time dispatched from Washington and Fort McHenry to
-the scene of disturbances, and order was finally brought out of chaos.
-
-Following close upon the heels of this strike came one on the
-Pennsylvania Railroad at Pittsburg, against an order doubling up trains
-and thus dispensing with a large number of employés. The railroad
-people, in explanation of their action, showed that during June
-preceding not only had there been a great depreciation of railroad
-stocks, but a shrinkage in the value of railroad property from 20 to 70
-per cent., caused by a great falling-off in business. It is needless
-for the purpose of this chapter to recount the wild scenes of riot and
-bloodshed that ensued at Pittsburg, when troops numbering two thousand,
-sent from Philadelphia, engaged in deadly conflict with the unbridled
-mob and when millions of dollars’ worth of property was destroyed by
-the incendiary torch.
-
-While this carnival of fire, death and bloodshed still startled the
-world, a strike broke out in Chicago among railroad men. While the
-strikers here sought to contend in an orderly manner against their
-employers, the same element which had inspired and carried out deeds of
-violence in the East—the Communists—were not slow to seize upon the
-opportunity in Chicago to widen the breach between capital and labor.
-Threats and riotous demonstrations were their weapons. They virtually
-took possession of all the large manufacturing establishments in the
-city, and by intimidation and force compelled men willing to work and
-satisfied with their wages to join their howling mobs. Not alone did
-they succeed in stopping freight traffic, but they clogged the wheels
-of industry in the principal factories and shops of the city. The
-leaders were active during the day directing the riotous movements
-of their followers, and at night they assembled to devise methods
-to increase the general turmoil. Their headquarters were at No. 131
-Milwaukee Avenue, and here all-night sessions were sometimes held.
-Proclamations were frequently sent out to workingmen, urging them to
-stand firmly in defense of their rights.
-
-The leading spirits at this time were Philip Van Patten, now of
-Cincinnati, J. H. White, J. Paulsen and Charles Erickson, who
-constituted the executive committee of the Workingmen’s Party, and A.
-R. Parsons and George Schilling.
-
-Some of the meetings referred to were quite stormy in character.
-Threats were made to “clean out” the police, and some speakers
-advised attacks on the guardians of the peace with stones, bricks and
-revolvers. The leaders were too cautious, however, to advise anything
-of the kind in their public declarations. Violence was reserved for the
-mobs on the inspiration of the moment, or at the instigation of trusted
-adherents at the proper time.
-
-That such were their intentions is apparent from a statement of one of
-the members, who said:
-
-“To-morrow Chicago will see a big day, and no one can predict what will
-be the end of this contest.”
-
-Sure enough, on the day following—the 25th of July—a conflict ensued
-between the police and strong mobs at the Halsted Street Viaduct and
-elsewhere, in which several of the rioters were injured. On the day
-following, the riots reached their culminating point, and between the
-police, infantry and cavalry the Communistic element were driven to
-their holes with many killed and wounded. That effectually terminated
-the reign of riot, and the city resumed its normal condition. The
-trouble in the East also subsided about the same time.
-
-The Communists, after this severe lesson, remained dormant for some
-months. Evidently they saw that the time had not arrived for the
-commencement of that revolution which they had at heart. In the fall of
-1877 they seem to have reached the conclusion that they would exchange
-the art of war for arts political. Accordingly, in October they were
-again to be found on the campaign stump—for the first time since 1874.
-There were then four parties in the field,—Democrats, Republicans,
-Industrials and Greenbackers,—and this situation may have suggested
-a chance for the success of their ticket or an opportunity to secure
-concessions from the dominant parties that would result to their
-advantage. C. J. Dixon was then chairman of the “Industrial Party.”
-This party claimed to seek redress for the grievances of workingmen
-without resorting to destruction of society or government, and if
-it had denied affiliation with the Socialists it might have become
-a factor in politics. It may be stated that for a time after the
-election Dixon held to his principles, but a few years later became a
-representative in the Legislature of the Communistic element.
-
-The outcome of the political agitation of the Socialists that fall
-was the nomination of the following ticket: For County Treasurer,
-Frank A. Stauber; County Clerk, A. R. Parsons; Probate Clerk, Philip
-Van Patten; Clerk of the Criminal Court, Tim O’Meara; Superintendent
-of Schools, John McAuliff; County Commissioners, W. A. Barr, Samuel
-Goldwater, T. J. Morgan, Max Nisler and L. Thorsmark. For Judge, John
-A. Jameson, then on the bench, was indorsed, and Julius Rosenthal—not
-a Socialist—was nominated for Judge of the Probate Court. The election
-held on the 8th of November showed some gains for the party. Omitting
-the “Industrials” which were swallowed up by the other parties in the
-way of “election trades,” the Socialists secured a vote of 6,592 in the
-contest for the County Treasurership, while McCrea, Republican, polled
-a vote of 22,423; Lynch, Democrat, 18,388, and Hammond, Greenbacker,
-769.
-
-In 1878 a session of the Congress was again held, and then it was
-decided to change the name of the “Workingmen’s Party of the United
-States” to the “Socialistic Labor Party,” and it was also resolved to
-“use the ballot-box as a means for the elevation of working people” and
-for “electing men from their own ranks to the halls of legislation and
-to the municipal government.”
-
-The different wards of Chicago were subsequently organized into ward
-clubs, each with a captain and secretary as permanent officers for
-a year. It was made the duty of the captain of a ward to find halls
-for public meetings and to report to the central committee. He was to
-open the meetings in his ward and see that a chairman was chosen from
-among those attending. The duty of the secretary was to issue cards of
-membership to new members, to collect monthly dues of ten cents from
-each member, and to receipt for the same on the back of the cards; he
-was also to keep minutes of the meetings and have them published in
-the party papers. The captain was authorized to appoint a precinct
-captain for every precinct in his ward, whose duty it was to control
-the distribution of tickets at elections. The precinct captain was also
-directed to appoint lieutenants in his precinct, one for each block if
-possible, to assist him in the work of agitation and the distribution
-of tickets.
-
-Under the plans formulated by the Socialistic Congress a central
-committee was again organized in the city of Chicago. It was composed
-of a chairman, a secretary and a treasurer, who were elected by a joint
-meeting of the different sections every six months. In 1878 there were
-four sections in Chicago—one German, one English, one French and one
-Scandinavian. The German section had the largest number of members,
-between three and four hundred, and was steadily gaining. The English
-section numbered only about one hundred and fifty. The Scandinavian
-branch had about an equal number. The French only mustered fifty
-members. During a campaign the ward captains were made members of the
-central committee. They were charged with the duty of reporting the
-progress of the ward clubs, notifying the committee where halls had
-been rented and indicating what speakers were needed. It was the duty
-of the central committee to advertise all club meetings, pay for the
-halls rented when the clubs could not pay, and settle all bills and
-expenses incident to an election. The committee was the only body
-authorized to order the printing of tickets, and for all their acts
-they were held responsible to the “Socialistic Labor Party.” The money
-needed to defray expenses was raised mostly through subscriptions
-and collections in the various clubs. The meetings of the committee
-were conducted openly. Representatives of the press were permitted to
-be present if at any prior meeting they had not purposely distorted
-the proceedings. During the years 1878 and 1879 the meetings of the
-committee were generally held in a hall on the second floor of No. 7
-South Clark Street.
-
-[Illustration: THE LABOR TROUBLES OF 1877. RIOTS AT THE HALSTED STREET
-VIADUCT, CHICAGO.]
-
-With an organization thus perfected under the plan of the Socialistic
-Congress, the Socialists felt themselves in condition to cope with the
-other parties. They saw in the vote of 1877 a chance for seating some
-of their members in the City Council, and set out to talk politics at
-all their gatherings for the spring of 1878. On the 15th of March of
-that year they held a convention at No. 45 North Clark Street, and
-put up a ticket for Aldermen in all the wards except the Eleventh and
-Eighteenth, and for the various town offices in the three divisions
-of Chicago. Inasmuch as the “old timber” was worked over for these
-various offices, it is needless to repeat names. Their platform
-reiterated the demands made in the first declaration of principles,
-and, in addition, asked for the establishment of public baths in each
-division of the city; extension of the school system; annulment of the
-gas and street-car companies’ charters, the same to be operated by the
-city after payment to the owners of principal and interest on moneys
-actually invested, out of the profits; prompt payment of taxes, and
-employment for all residents of the city that needed it.
-
-During the campaign incident to the election, Paul Grottkau, then a
-recent arrival from Berlin, proved a conspicuous figure and made a
-number of stirring appeals. He expounded the principles of Socialism
-and invariably wound up by characterizing the members of the Democratic
-and Republican parties as “liars and horse-thieves.” Through his active
-participation in the Socialistic movement in Chicago Grottkau became
-editor of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, but, fortunately for himself, was
-displaced in 1880 by August Spies.
-
-The election of April, 1878, resulted in placing one member in the City
-Council—Stauber, from the Fourteenth Ward.
-
-This was the first political victory the Socialists had achieved in the
-city, and, having noticed a small but steady increase in their voting
-force, they proceeded to organize and agitate more diligently than ever
-before in a political way. Meanwhile they saw the growing strength of
-the State militia, and as an offset to the organization of the various
-military companies in Chicago they determined to raise and equip
-companies from their own ranks. They had begun in a quiet way to start
-the nucleus of military companies some time after the First Regiment
-had been organized, but it was not until 1878 that it became generally
-known that they had men armed and drilled in military tactics, to be
-marshaled against society upon a favorable opportunity. In the early
-part of 1878 the very flower and strength of their military was the
-Lehr und Wehr Verein, composed of picked men and veterans who had been
-baptized with fire on European battlefields. Its strength was variously
-estimated at from four to six thousand, but it never exceeded four
-hundred members. The “Jaeger Verein,” the “Bohemian Sharpshooters”
-and the “Labor Guard of the Fifth Ward,” each with no more than fifty
-members, were auxiliary organizations and composed mainly of raw
-recruits. Their instruction in the manual of arms was mainly given by
-Major Presser, a trained and skilled European tactician.
-
-Meantime the party had been greatly strengthened by the aid of
-newspapers printed in its interest. In 1874, _Die Volks-Zeitung_ had
-been started by a stock company called the Social-Democratic Printing
-Association. This paper was published at No. 94 South Market Street,
-with Mr. Brucker as editor. Shortly thereafter, the _Vorbote_, a weekly
-paper, was started under the auspices of the Workingmen’s Party at the
-same number. C. Conzett, formerly a resident of Berne, Switzerland,
-became its editor. He subsequently bought out the _Volks-Zeitung_
-and thereafter published a tri-weekly paper under the name of the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_, which became a private enterprise in the interest
-of workingmen. His assistant editor was Gustav Leiser. They made the
-paper an advocate of revolutionary methods and urged the organization
-of trades-unions. They encouraged strikes and held that only through
-such means could workingmen secure their rights. They published without
-charge all grievances of laboring men on the score of non-payment of
-wages and abuses of manufacturing concerns, but each article had the
-full name of the writer. At first the editors did not favor a resort
-to the ballot-box to remedy grievances. It was not until after the
-great railroad strike of July, 1877, that they advocated an organized
-fight in elections independently of the old parties. The workingmen,
-they urged, must elect men of their own in order to secure favorable
-legislation.
-
-In 1878 an English weekly called the _Socialist_ was started under the
-auspices of the main section of the Socialistic Labor Party of Chicago.
-This main section was composed of the German, English, Scandinavian and
-French sections, and they employed Frank Hirth as editor at a salary
-of $15 per week and A. R. Parsons as assistant at a salary of $12 per
-week. This paper was made the organ in the English language of the
-Socialistic Labor Party, and, while it made some headway at the start,
-it succumbed within a year, owing to jealousies and differences of
-opinion between the German and English sections.
-
-About the time the _Socialist_ was established another paper was put in
-the field by the Scandinavian section. It was called _Den Nye Tid_, and
-was edited by Mr. Peterson.
-
-In 1878 the proprietor of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ signified a
-willingness to sell his paper to the Socialistic Labor Party, and, in
-order to consummate the transfer, the main section held a meeting in
-May of that year at Steinmueller’s Hall, No. 45 North Clark Street.
-Plans were then and there matured for its purchase. It was decided to
-borrow the money and issue notes at 6 per cent. interest, payable as
-soon as the treasury had secured enough from collections and other
-sources to take them up. Collectors were appointed for each division of
-the city, and they were directed to collect money from workingmen and
-storekeepers. On the evening of June 29, 1878, a meeting was held at
-No. 7 South Clark Street, and the reports showed that enough money had
-been raised to purchase the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. Subsequently a general
-meeting was held and a society was organized called the “Socialistische
-Druckgesellschaft.” A board of trustees was chosen, and they applied to
-the Secretary of State for a charter. That official declined to issue
-the charter because the name of the society was in German. Another
-meeting was held at No. 54 West Lake Street, and the name was changed
-to the “Socialistic Publishing Company,” after which the charter was
-readily secured. The paper was then transferred by Herr Conzett to
-the new company, and subsequently the managers added a Sunday edition
-called _Die Fackel_. Paul Grottkau, formerly editor of the Berlin
-_Freie Presse_, was appointed editor under the new management at a
-salary of $15 per week, and F. J. Pfeiffer, of Chicago, was made
-assistant editor. The society which now had charge of the paper was
-composed of _bona fide_ members of the German section. Their meetings
-were conducted in the same manner as those of the Socialistic Labor
-Party. The price of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ was reduced, and all money
-realized from its sale over and above expenses was applied for purposes
-of agitation. While the paper was reported in a prospering condition,
-it was decided to take steps to pay off its indebtednes as represented
-by the outstanding notes, and to this end a grand festival was to be
-held, the proceeds of which should be devoted to the press fund. Some
-trouble was experienced in getting a hall large enough for the purpose.
-The Exposition Building was finally decided upon, and it was secured
-without much delay, with results as noted further along in this chapter.
-
-Soon after the _Socialist_ had expired, the members of the Workingmen’s
-Party felt the need of an English organ, and, having meanwhile come
-to a better understanding, they decided that they would make another
-effort to put one before the people. The result of several conferences
-was a monster picnic at Wright’s Grove on the 16th of June, 1878.
-The procession formed to make the occasion imposing numbered about
-three thousand, and side by side with the American flag was borne
-the red banner of Anarchy. This emblem, although it finally crowded
-out the “stars and stripes,” had hitherto been reserved in public
-demonstrations for a minor place. Some of the mottoes displayed on
-this occasion ran as follows: “No Rich, no Poor—All Alike.” “No
-Monopolies—All for One and One for All.” “Land belongs to Society,”
-and “No Masters, no Slaves.”
-
-The result of the picnic was that the _Alarm_ was established, and A.
-R. Parsons became its editor on a weekly allowance of $5, subsequently
-raised to $8.
-
-In the fall campaign of 1878 we find the Socialists again in the field
-with a full ticket for Congressmen, the Legislature and local offices.
-Former party platforms were reaffirmed, and mass-meetings to fire
-the hearts of workingmen were frequently held. At these gatherings
-capitalists were denounced as usual, and the police came in for some
-attention. The campaign song was also introduced, and the chorus
-of one, rendered by an untamed troubadour named W. B. Creech, and
-referring to the police, ran after this style, to the air of “Peeler
-and Goat”:
-
-[Illustration: DR. CARL EDUARD NOBILING.]
-
- Then raise your voices, workingmen,
- Against such cowardly hirelings, O!
- Go to the polls and slaughter them
- With ballots, instead of bullets, O!
-
-One Dr. McIntosh could always be depended on for grinding out any
-quantity of doggerel of this kind for any occasion. The Socialists
-claimed that they would poll on the day of election—Nov. 5th—from
-9,000 to 13,000 votes. Their calculations, like their utterances, were
-wild and wide off the mark, however, as their candidate for Sheriff,
-Ryan, only secured 5,980 votes, while Hoffman, Republican, had 16,592;
-Kern, Democrat, 16,586, and Dixon, Greenbacker, 4,491. They secured,
-however, a member of the State Senate, Sylvester Artley, and three
-members of the lower house of the Legislature—Leo Meilbeck, Charles
-Ehrhardt and Christian Meier.
-
-[Illustration: MAX HOEDEL.]
-
-This gave them great confidence, and they pushed with greater vigor
-than ever their political work. Meetings were kept up throughout the
-winter, and, among other things, they discussed measures which they
-demanded from the Legislature in the interest of labor. These demands
-included reducing the hours of labor; the establishment of a bureau of
-labor statistics; abolishment of convict labor; sanitary inspection of
-food, dwellings, factories, work-shops and mines; abolition of child
-labor; liability of employers for all accidents to employés through the
-employers’ neglect, and priority of demands for wages over all other
-claims. They found time also to give their attention to their brethren
-in Europe, and at a meeting held Sunday, January 19, 1879, they adopted
-resolutions denouncing Bismarck for persecutions of workingmen in
-Germany. The pretext for these persecutions, they claimed, grew out of
-the attempts on the life of Emperor William by Hoedel and Dr. Nobiling.
-The would-be assassins, they confessed, had once been Socialists, but
-at the time of the attack had had nothing in common with the order.
-Hoedel, they said, had been expelled, and had subsequently joined the
-“Christian Socialistic Party,” which they asserted had the favor of
-the Government, and at the head of which was a Government official.
-They claimed that Hoedel had been instigated to the deed by the German
-court, and they even doubted that he had been beheaded in expiation
-of his crime. Hoedel, they said, had been simply an instrument in the
-hands of Bismarck, who wanted a pretext to persecute the Socialists and
-secure the passage of a bill in the Reichstag for their suppression.
-Under the provisions of that bill, they asserted, men, women and
-children were thrown into dungeons without trial, and they insisted
-that the Congress of the United States should voice their protest
-against such persecutions.
-
-At nearly every large meeting held during the winter in question,
-Creech was to the front with new songs, among one the chorus of which
-ran thus:
-
- Raise aloft the crimson banner, emblem of the free;
- Mighty tyrants now are trembling, here and o’er the sea.
-
-On the evening of March 22, 1879, they held the celebration in the
-Exposition Building already referred to. This was ostensibly in
-commemoration of the establishment of the Paris Commune in 1848 and
-again in 1871. The real purpose, however, was to obtain funds to defray
-the expenses incident to the coming spring campaign and to aid in
-making a daily out of their tri-weekly organ, the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_.
-There were from 20,000 to 25,000 people in the building, and the
-amount reported realized reached $4,500. There was speech-making by
-Dr. Ernst Schmidt, A. R. Parsons, Paul Grottkau, and lesser lights,
-and the various military companies of the organization strutted about
-in their uniforms, with belts, cartridge-boxes, bayonet scabbards and
-breech-loading Remingtons.
-
-With part of the proceeds of this celebration, the Socialists fitted up
-campaign headquarters in a top-story room on the northeast corner of
-Madison and La Salle Streets, in the very heart of the business center.
-Their ticket covered all the offices from Mayor lo Aldermen. The only
-new names that figured on this ticket were those of N. H. Jorgensen,
-J. J. Alpeter, Robert Buck, Henry Johnson, Max Selle, George Brown, R.
-Lorenz, James Lynn and R. Van Deventer. The election occurred on the
-1st of April, 1879, and their candidate for Mayor, Dr. Schmidt, secured
-11,829 votes, while Carter H. Harrison, Democrat, scored 25,685,
-and A. M. Wright, Republican, 20,496. They elected three Aldermen,
-however—Alpeter from the Sixth Ward, Lorenz from the Fourteenth, and
-Meier, then in the Legislature, from the Sixteenth, which made, with
-Stauber, four representatives in the City Council.
-
-[Illustration: BANNERS OF THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION—I. FROM PHOTOGRAPHS.]
-
-With the inauguration of Carter Harrison’s administration, a good deal
-of attention was given to the Socialists by him as well as by his
-Democratic co-laborers. Some of their men were given employment in the
-departments of the city. Although they still continued their agitation,
-these appointments and other favors had the effect of undermining their
-political strength.
-
-In the next Mayoralty election they made a show of keeping up their
-organization and nominated George Schilling for Mayor and Frank Stauber
-for City Treasurer. But in the election held April 5th, 1881, the
-former only polled 240 votes, and Stauber 1,999, thus demonstrating an
-almost complete collapse of the party.
-
-This virtually took them out of politics. Thenceforward the Socialists
-seem to have decided to abandon the ballot-box, and to rely on force
-only for the attainment of their objects. Accordingly their harangues
-were directed to the dissemination of the doctrines of revolution. They
-endeavored still, it is true, to maintain a representation in the City
-Council, but in 1884 the Socialistic element was entirely eliminated
-from that body.
-
-[Illustration: CARTER H. HARRISON.]
-
-At the session of the Congress of the International Workingmen’s
-Association held at Pittsburg from the 14th to the 16th of October,
-1883, there was a large delegation of Chicago Anarchists. A question
-arose as to the use of the ballot for remedying the wrongs of the
-laboring people. The delegates from Baltimore insisted that recourse
-should be had to the ballot-box, but those from Pittsburg were of
-another mind, and favored something stronger. This suggestion gave
-the Anarchist contingent from Chicago an opportunity to come to the
-front, and, while some of these did not hold to extreme measures,
-they all agreed that the ballot-box only served to keep capitalistic
-representatives in office. The radical Chicago element went still
-further, holding that the theory of Karl Marx, the use of force, was
-the correct one, and that that force should be dynamite. But here a
-split occurred in their own delegation, the milder ones holding to the
-theory of Lassalle, that they should first give the ballot a thorough
-trial and use force only in the event of failure. The sentiment of
-the convention predominated in favor of force, and the conservative
-Anarchists ceased to be members.
-
-The controversy thus begun was carried back to Chicago, and the
-radicals set themselves strenuously to work to bring their disaffected
-associates to the advocacy of dynamite. The members of the Lehr und
-Wehr Verein were particularly opposed to the use of the bomb. They
-had equipped themselves and drilled in the use of guns so as to be
-able to meet the police and militia after failure at the polls, and
-they contended that men carrying bombs would be apt, through lack
-of experience, to hurt themselves as much as their opponents. Men
-thoroughly drilled in the handling of a gun, they argued, could
-accomplish something, and to that end every one should be instructed in
-military tactics. The radicals of the various “groups” did not believe
-in guns, however, and held that, inasmuch as they had experimented with
-dynamite with some success, they should adopt it as a means of warfare.
-They finally brought all to their ideas, and from that time to the
-present they have given the subject of dynamite and explosives a great
-deal of study.
-
-As indicating the sense of the Pittsburg Congress their plan of
-organization and resolutions are here given:
-
- The name of the organization shall be “International Workingmen’s
- Association.”
-
- 1. The organization shall consist of federal groups which recognize
- the principles laid down in the manifesto and consider themselves
- bound by them.
-
- 2. Five persons shall have the right to form a group.
-
- 3. Each group shall have complete independence (autonomy) and shall
- further have the right to conduct the propaganda in accordance with
- its own judgment, but the same must not collide with the fundamental
- principles of the organization.
-
- 4. Each group may call itself by the name of its location. When there
- is more than one group, they shall be numbered.
-
- 5. In places where there is more than one group it is recommended that
- a general committee be formed to secure united action. Such committees
- shall, however, have no executive power.
-
- 6. A Bureau of Information shall be created at Chicago and shall
- consist of a secretary of each of the groups of different languages.
- It is the duty of such bureau to keep an exact list of all the groups
- belonging to the organization and to keep up correspondence with and
- between the domestic and foreign groups.
-
- 7. Groups intending to join the organization must, after they have
- recognized its principles, send their application and list of members
- to the groups located nearest to them, whose duty it is then to
- forward such application to the Bureau of Information. The groups
- shall send a report of the situation to the Bureau of Information at
- least every three months.
-
- 8. A Congress can be called at any time by a majority of the groups.
-
- 9. All the necessary expenses of the Bureau of Information shall be
- met by voluntary contributions of the groups.
-
- _Plan for the Propaganda._—The organization of North America shall
- be divided into nine districts of agitation, as follows: 1. Canada.
- 2. District of Columbia. 3. The Eastern States (Maine, New Hampshire,
- Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New
- Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland). 4. The Middle States
- (Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Wisconsin,
- and Illinois). 5. The Western States (Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota,
- Nebraska, Dakota, Kansas, Indian Territory and New Mexico). 6. The
- Rocky Mountain States (Colorado, Montana, Idaho Territory, Utah
- and Nevada). 7. The Pacific Coast States. 8. The Southern States
- (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama,
- Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.) 9. Mexico.
-
- It is recommended to the several districts to organize general
- district committees for the purpose of more effective and united
- action. It is the duty of these general committees to provide that
- whenever practicable agitators shall be sent forth. If there is a lack
- of proper agitators in a district the general committee shall inform
- the Bureau of Information. This shall be done also when there is a
- surplus of workers, so that the bureau shall be able to bring about an
- equal distribution of the working elements.
-
- The expenses of the traveling agitators shall be paid by local groups,
- or, when these are without means, by the general organization.
-
- _Resolutions._—The following resolutions were offered by A. R.
- Parsons:
-
- “In consideration that the protection capitalists are men who, by
- excluding the cheap products of labor of competing countries, intend
- to make enormous profits, while the free-trade capitalists intend to
- make just as large profits by the sale of the cheap products of labor
- of other countries; and
-
- “In consideration that the only difference between the two is this:
- That the one wants to import the products of cheap foreign labor,
- while the others consider it of greater advantage to import the cheap
- labor itself of other countries; and
-
- “In consideration that it is a great injustice to tax by a protective
- tariff a whole people for the benefit of a few privileged capitalists
- or of branches of industry: Be it, therefore,
-
- “_Resolved_, That we, the International Workingmen’s Association,
- consider the protective tariff and free trade questions
- capitalistic questions, which have not the least interest for
- wage-workers—questions which are intended to confuse and mislead the
- workingman. The fight on both sides is only one for the possession
- of the robbed products of labor. The question whether there should
- be a protective tariff or free trade are political questions, which
- for some time past have divided governments and nations into opposing
- factions, but which, as already said, do not contribute toward the
- solution of social questions. The adage, _Polvere negli occhi_
- (throwing dust in the eyes), expresses the intentions of both parties.
-
- “In consideration that we see in trades-unions advocating progressive
- principles the abolishment of the wage system—the corner-stone of a
- better and more just system of society than the present; and
-
- “In consideration, further, that these trades-unions consist of an
- army of robbed and disinherited fellow-sufferers and brothers, called
- to overthrow the economic establishments of the present time for the
- purpose of general and free coöperation: Be it, therefore,
-
- “_Resolved_, That we, the I. W. M. A., proffer the hand of fellowship
- to them, and give them our sympathy and help in their fight against
- the ever-growing despotism of private capital; and
-
- “_Resolved_, That while we give such progressive trades-unions our
- fullest sympathy and assure them of every assistance in our power,
- we are, on the other hand, determined to fight and, if possible, to
- annihilate every organization given to reactionary principles, as
- these are the enemies of the emancipation of the workingmen, as well
- as of humanity and of progress.
-
- “In consideration that the courts of arbitration for settlement of
- differences between the workingmen and their employers, without the
- fundamental condition of free and independent action on both sides,
- are simply contrary to reason; and
-
- “In consideration that a free settlement between the rich and the poor
- is impossible since the wage-worker has but the choice to obey or to
- starve; and
-
- “In consideration that arbitration is possible and just only in case
- both parties are so situated that they can accept or refuse an offer
- entirely of their own free will: Be it, therefore,
-
- “_Resolved_, That arbitration between capital and labor is to be
- condemned. Wage-workers ought never to resort to it.”
-
-After expressions of sympathy for the striking coal-miners in Dubois,
-Pa., who were advised to arm themselves for defense against the bandits
-of order, the resolutions proceed:
-
- “In consideration that our brothers and fellow combatants in the
- Old World are engaged in a terrible struggle against our common
- foe, the crowned and uncrowned despots of the world, the church and
- priestcraft, and thousands of them are languishing in prison and in
- Siberia and are suffering in exile: Be it, therefore,
-
- “_Resolved_, That we tender these heroic martyrs our sympathies,
- encouragement and aid.
-
- “In consideration that there is no material difference existing
- between the aims of the I. W. M. A. and the Socialistic Labor Party:
- Be it, therefore,
-
- “_Resolved_, That we invite the members of the S. L. P. to unite with
- us on the basis of the principles laid down in our manifesto for the
- purpose of a common and effective propaganda.”
-
- Issued by order of the Pittsburg Congress of the International
- Workingmen’s Association. For further information apply to the
- undersigned “Bureau of Information.”
-
- Secretary of the English language, AUG. SPIES.
- Secretary of the German language, PAUL GROTTKAU.
- Secretary of the French language, WM. MEDOW.
- Secretary of the Bohemian language, J. MIKOLANDA.
-
- No. 107 Fifth Avenue, Chicago.
-
-In accordance with pre-arranged plans, therefore, when the street-car
-riots occurred on the West Division Railroad in the summer of 1885,
-the Anarchists and Socialists of Chicago took a prominent part and
-did everything in their power to create a bloody conflict between the
-police and the strikers. In 1886, when the laboring classes of Chicago
-had decided to strike on the 1st of May for eight hours as a day’s
-work, they came forward and resolved to strike a blow which would
-terrorize the community and inaugurate the rule of the Commune. How
-they went to work in that direction and how they succeeded is fully
-shown in succeeding chapters.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV.
-
- Socialism, Theoretic and Practical—Statements of the
- Leaders—Vengeance on the “Spitzels”—The Black Flag in the
- Streets—Resolutions in the _Alarm_—The Board of Trade
- Procession—Why it Failed—Experts on Anarchy—Parsons, Spies, Schwab
- and Fielden Outline their Belief—The International Platform—Why
- Communism Must Fail—A French Experiment and its Lesson—The Law of
- Averages—Extracts from the Anarchic Press—Preaching Murder—Dynamite
- or the Ballot-Box?—“The Reaction in America”—Plans for Street
- Fighting—Riot Drill and Tactics—Bakounine and the Social
- Revolution—Twenty-one Statements of an Anarchist’s Duty—Herways’
- Formula—Predicting the Haymarket—The Lehr und Wehr Verein and the
- Supreme Court—The White Terror and the Red—Reinsdorf, the Father
- of Anarchy—His Association with Hoedel and Nobiling—Attempt to
- Assassinate the German Emperor—Reinsdorf at Berlin—His Desperate
- Plan—“Old Lehmann” and the Socialist’s Dagger—The Germania
- Monument—An Attempt to Kill the Whole Court—A Culvert Full of
- Dynamite—A Wet Fuse and no Explosion—Reinsdorf Condemned to
- Death—His Last Letters—Chicago Students of his Teachings—De
- Tocqueville and Socialism.
-
-
-THE Constitution of the United States guarantees the right of free
-speech, free discussion and free assemblage. These are the cardinal
-doctrines of our free institutions. But when liberty is trenched upon
-to the extent of advocacy of revolutionary methods, subversion of law
-and order and the displacement of existing society, Socialism places
-itself beyond the pale of moral forces and arrays itself on the side
-of the freebooter, the bandit, the cut-throat and the traitor. Public
-measures and public men are open to the widest criticism consistent
-with truth, decency and justice, but differences of opinion are no
-more to be brought into harmony through blood than the settlement
-of private disputes is to be effected by means of the bludgeon, the
-knife or the bullet. The freedom of speech which is valuable either to
-the individual or to humanity is that which builds up, not destroys,
-society.
-
-Now, what does Socialism, or Anarchy, precisely teach, and at what
-does it aim? It is true, there are two schools of Socialism—one
-conservative and the other radical to a sanguinary degree; one seeking
-a change in existing society and government through enlightenment,
-and the other the attainment of the same principles through force.
-But the conservatives form so small a portion of the Socialistic body
-that they cut no figure in the general direction and management of the
-organization; and so far as relates to the visible manifestations of
-that body, Socialism in the United States may be regarded as synonymous
-with Anarchy.
-
-As I have shown, the ostensible object of the organization in Chicago,
-as elsewhere, at the outset, was peaceful, but the ulterior aim—the
-establishment of Socialism through force, when sufficiently powerful
-in numbers—has in later years clearly developed. The early Socialist
-orators only hinted at force as a possible factor in the social
-revolution they advocated, and it was reserved for the active agitators
-of the past ten years to boldly and openly proclaim for the methods of
-the Paris Commune.
-
-Before proceeding to particulars as to the utterances of Anarchist
-leaders, the sources of their inspiration and their definition of
-Socialism, it may be well to advert to some incidents in connection
-with their movements as a revolutionary party. One incident specially
-worthy of mention was a meeting held at Mueller’s Hall, corner of
-Sedgwick Street and North Avenue, on the evening of January 12, 1885.
-It was a secret gathering, but, despite Socialistic vigilance, Officer
-Michael Hoffman managed to remain and quietly note the drift of the
-speeches. Parsons first took the floor, and said:
-
-[Illustration: THE BLACK FLAG. From a Photograph.]
-
- Gentlemen, before we call this meeting to order, I want you to be sure
- that we are all right and all one. I want you to see if there are any
- reporters or policemen present. See if you can discover any spies.
- If you find any one here, you can do with him as you please, but my
- advice to you is, take him and strangle him and then throw him out of
- the window; then let the people think that the fellow fell out. And if
- you should give one of them a chance for his life, tell him, if he has
- any more notions to come to our meetings, he should first go to St.
- Michael’s Church, see the priest and prepare himself for death, say
- farewell to all his friends and family—and then let him enter. I want
- all these people to know that I am not afraid of them; I don’t like
- them, and let them stay away from me.
-
-After precautions had been taken to exclude objectionable persons, the
-proceedings began. Four speeches were delivered, two in English and two
-in German. Parsons confined his remarks to the capitalists. All present
-were poor, he said, and they only had themselves to blame. One-half
-of all the wealth in the country belonged to the poor people, but the
-capitalists had robbed them of it. The poor offered no resistance,
-and yet the capitalist was doing the same thing day after day. He was
-getting richer, and the poor poorer, because the working people lay
-down and permitted themselves to be robbed. He recounted some of Most’s
-experiences, and insisted that capitalists must submit to workingmen.
-They must be shown that their lives are worth no more than the lives of
-the working people.
-
-[Illustration: THE OFFICE OF THE ARBEITER-ZEITUNG.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-He next touched upon the merits of a new invention by which, he said,
-many hundreds of houses could be set on fire, and exhibited a small
-tin box or can with a capacity of four ounces. This can, he remarked,
-could be filled with some chemical stuff to serve as an explosive. A
-great many of these cans could be carried in a basket, and, traveling
-around as match peddlers or under some other guise, his hearers could
-secure entrance to the houses of capitalists. All they would then be
-obliged to do was to either place or drop one of “those darlings” in a
-secure place and go about their business. It would do its work, without
-any one’s presence to attend to it, in less time than an hour. If they
-would get the boxes ready, he would tell them where to get the “stuff.”
-This plan of operations would keep the fire and police departments
-quite busy. If they organized and went to work with a resolute spirit,
-they could have things all their own way throughout the city and obtain
-possession of what remained after their work of destruction. He also
-urged all his comrades to become familiar with dynamite and said that
-for the necessary instructions they could come to a building on Fifth
-Avenue (107, the offices of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ and _Alarm_), where
-he and others could be found to help them. There was no other way now
-left, he continued, except for the laborers to use the sword, the
-bullet and dynamite, and, closing sententiously, he said:
-
- I probably will be hung as soon as I get out on the street, but if
- they do hang me, boys, don’t forget what I have been telling you about
- the little can and the dear stuff, dynamite, because this is the only
- way I and you can get our rights.
-
-It goes without saying that Parsons was applauded to the echo. Another
-speaker emphasized his remarks about dynamite, but refrained from
-making a speech, because, as he said, Parsons had “covered the ground
-so well and thoroughly.” One of the German speakers gave his attention
-to King William and the Pope, scoring them in the strongest language he
-could command. He held that the “police of Chicago were only kept to
-protect the property of capitalists and to club poor workingmen.”
-
-Another event memorable in the history of the party was the flaunting
-of the black flag on the streets of Chicago for the first time. On that
-occasion—November 25, 1884, Thanksgiving Day—they marched through the
-fashionable thoroughfares of the South and North Divisions, and, with
-two women as standard-bearers for the black and the red, they made it
-a point to halt before the residences of the wealthy, uttering groans
-and using threatening language. Their route included Dearborn Street to
-Maple on the North Side. There they massed in front of the residence of
-Hon. E. B. Washburne, ex-Minister to France. They pulled the door-bell
-and insulted the family by indulging in all sorts of noises, groans
-and cat-calls. They rested satisfied with this last exhibition, and
-retraced their steps, proceeding to Market Square, where they dispersed.
-
-The preliminaries leading up to the procession just described were thus
-given in the _Alarm_ on the following Saturday:
-
-
-THE BLACK FLAG.
-
- _The Emblem of Hunger Unfolded by the Proletarians of Chicago.—The
- Red Flag Borne Aloft by Thousands of Workingmen on Thanksgiving
- Day.—The Poverty of the Poor is Created by the Robbery of the
- Rich.—Speeches, Resolutions and a Grand Demonstration of the
- Unemployed, the Tramps and Miserables of the City.—Significant
- Incidents._
-
- Shortly before Thanksgiving Day some of the working people, after
- consultation, issued the following circular to wage-workers and tramps:
-
- The Governor has ordained next Thursday for Thanksgiving. You are to
- give thanks because your masters refuse you employment; because you
- are hungry and without home or shelter, and your masters have taken
- away what you have created, and arranged to shoot you by the police or
- militia if you refuse to die in your hovels, in due observation of Law
- and Order. You must give thanks that you face the blizzards without
- an overcoat; without fit shoes and clothes, while abundant clothing
- made by you spoils in the storehouses; that you suffer hunger while
- millions of bushels of grain rots in the elevators. For this purpose a
- thanksgiving meeting will be held on Market Square at 2:30 o’clock, to
- be followed by a demonstration to express our thanks to our “Christian
- brothers on Michigan Avenue.” Every one that feels the mockery of this
- Thanksgiving order should be present. Signed, the Committee of the
- Grateful Workingpeople’s International Association.
-
-Thursday opened with sleet and rain, cold and miserable. At 2:30 over
-three thousand people assembled on Market Street, under the unpitying
-rain and sleet. A stranger said, “What you want is guns; you don’t want
-to be heard talking.” He was stopped for the regular arrangements.
-The meeting being called to order, A. R. Parsons said: “We assemble
-as representatives of the disinherited, to speak in the name of forty
-thousand unemployed workingmen of Chicago—two millions in the United
-States and fifteen millions in the civilized world.” He compared the
-Thanksgiving feast to that of Belshazzar, and said the champagne wrung
-from the blood of the poor ought to strangle the rich. He then read as
-follows: “St. James, chapter 5, says, ‘Go to now, ye rich men, weep
-and howl for your miseries which are to come upon you. Your riches
-are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver
-is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and
-shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasures together
-for the last days.
-
-[Illustration: AN ANARCHIST PROCESSION.]
-
-Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields,
-which ye have kept back by fraud, crieth: ‘Woe to them that bring about
-iniquity by law.’ The prophet Habakkuk says: ‘Woe to him that buildeth
-a town by blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity.’ The prophet Amos
-says: ‘Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor
-to fail from the land, that I may buy the poor for silver, and the
-needy for a pair of shoes.’ The prophet Isaiah says: ‘Woe unto them
-that chain house to house, and lay field to field, till there is no
-place, that they may be alone in the midst of the earth.’ Solomon says:
-‘There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not
-washed of their filthiness; a generation, O, how lifted are their eyes,
-and how their eyelids are lifted up: A generation whose teeth are as
-swords, and their jaw-teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the
-earth, and the needy from among men.’”
-
-And, concluding, he said: “We did not intend to wait for a future
-existence, but to do something for ourselves in this.”
-
-He introduced S. S. Griffin, who said this was an international
-assembly in the interests of humanity, having no quarrel with each
-other and objecting to being set at work by governmental scheme. “Don’t
-believe that any government or system should be allowed to pit man
-against man, for any cause; and to get at the root of these evils, we
-must go to the foundation of property rights and the wage system. The
-old system could not meet the demands of our present civilization. The
-present cry is against over-production, because it operates against
-humanity. Over-production, glutting the market, causes a lock-out,
-depriving the wage class of the means of purchasing. Vacant houses
-stop the building industry, and result in throwing builders out of
-employment. Ragged because of a surplus of clothing; homeless because
-of too many houses; hungry because there is too much bread; freezing
-because too much coal is produced. The system must be changed. Man can
-wear but one suit of clothes at a time and can consume only about so
-much. The genius of our age is inventing and increasing the productive
-power. A system that in effect tells the working classes that, the more
-they produce, the less they will have to enjoy, is a check on human
-progress and cannot continue. Everything must be made free. No man
-should control what he has no personal use for.”
-
-Upon Mr. Parsons’ call the resolutions were read, as follows:
-
- WHEREAS, We have outlived wage and property system; and whereas, the
- right of property requires more effort to adjust it between man and
- man than to produce and distribute it:
-
- _Resolved_, That property rights should no longer be maintained or
- respected, and that all useless workers should be deprived of useless
- employment and required to engage in productive industry; and as this
- is impossible under the payment system,
-
- _Resolved_, That no man shall pay for anything, or receive pay for
- anything, or deprive himself of what he may desire, that he finds out
- of use or vacant.
-
- _Resolved_, That whoever refuses to devote a reasonable amount of
- energy to the production or distribution of necessaries is the enemy
- of mankind and ought to be so treated; and so of the willful waster.
-
- As this system cannot be introduced as against existing ignorance and
- selfishness without force, _Resolved_, That, when introduced, the good
- of mankind and the saving of blood requires that forcible opposition
- shall be dealt with summarily; but that no one should be harmed for
- holding opposite opinions.
-
- _Resolved_, That our policy is wise, humane and practical and ought to
- be enforced at the earliest possible moment.
-
- As an expression of thankfulness, _Resolved_, That we are thankful we
- have learned the true cause of poverty and the remedies, and can only
- be more thankful when the remedy is applied.
-
-The next speaker was Samuel Fielden. He denounced the hypocrisy of
-calling upon people to thank God for prosperity, while providing no
-changes for the better, when so many people were in actual want in
-the midst of abundance. When he was a boy, his mother had taught
-him to say, “Our Father who art in Heaven,” but so far as he knew,
-God remained there and would not come here until things were better
-arranged. “Our motto is, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, embracing
-all men. Our international movement is to unite all countries and to do
-away with the robber class.”
-
-August Spies spoke. Pointing to the black flag, he said it was the
-first time the emblem of hunger and starvation had been unfurled on
-American soil. He said we had got to strike down these robbers who were
-robbing the working people.
-
-In answer to a call from the Germans, Mr. Schwab spoke in German a few
-minutes. A stranger said: “Get your guns out and go for them. That
-is all I have got to say.” Three cheers were given for the social
-revolution. The audience then formed a procession three thousand strong.
-
-[Illustration: THE BOARD OF TRADE.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-Another notable procession was on the evening of the opening of the
-new Board of Trade building. The Anarchists gathered in front of the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office and were addressed by Parsons and Fielden.
-The speeches were highly inflammatory. Parsons insisted that they
-ought to blow up the institution, and urged them to arm themselves
-“to meet their oppressors with weapons.” The Board of Trade, he said,
-was a robbers’ roost, and they were reveling on the proceeds of the
-workingmen. “How many,” he asked, “of my hearers could give twenty
-dollars for a supper to-night? We will never gain anything by arguments
-and words. While those men are enjoying a sumptuous supper, workingmen
-are starving.” He characterized the police as bloodhounds and servants
-of the robbing capitalists, and suggested that the mob loot Marshall
-Field’s dry-goods store and other places and secure such things as they
-needed. It was apparent that these sentiments appealed strongly to the
-inclinations of the assembled rabble, and when Parsons had concluded
-the mob was ready for an even more violent harangue.
-
-Fielden went as far as to urge the mob to follow him and rob those
-places, and, like Parsons, held that the Board of Trade building had
-been built out of money of which they had been robbed, and that all who
-transacted business in that place were “robbers, and thieves, and ought
-to be killed.”
-
-There were hundreds of tramps in the throng addressed, and naturally
-all allusions to capitalists as robbers, and all suggestions to
-plunder, were greeted with applause. A procession was formed, with
-Oscar W. Neebe, Parsons and Fielden at the head, and with two women
-following next carrying the red and black flags. They marched down
-to the Board of Trade, but, arriving at the street leading to the
-building, a company of police headed them off. Thus balked, they had
-to content themselves with marching through the streets back to their
-starting-point, where they separated without further exhibition of
-violence than subsequently hurling a stone through the window of a
-carriage occupied by a prominent West Side resident and his wife,
-whom they took to be a millionaire on his way to the Board of Trade
-reception. A tougher-looking lot of men than those who composed the
-procession it would be difficult to find, and, once started in the
-direction of violence at the building, there is no telling the extent
-of damage they might have inflicted. The toleration of such a parade
-by the municipal authorities was severely criticised by the community,
-for, had it not been for the action of the late Col. Welter, then
-Inspector of Police, in intercepting the procession, a serious riot
-would have occurred.
-
-Parsons, when asked subsequently why they had not blown up the Board
-of Trade building, replied that they had not looked for police
-interference and were not prepared. “The next time,” he said, “we will
-be prepared to meet them with bombs and dynamite.” Fielden reiterated
-the same sentiments and expressed the opinion that in the course of a
-year they might be ready for the police.
-
- * * * * *
-
-NOW WHAT is the Socialism or Anarchy they seek to establish? In his
-speech before Judge Gary in the Criminal Court, when asked why sentence
-of death should not be imposed upon him, Anarchist Parsons, among other
-things, thus described the condition of affairs when Socialism should
-obtain sway:
-
- Anarchy is a free society where there is no concentrated or
- centralized power, no state, no king, no emperor, no ruler, no
- president, no magistrate, no potentate of any character whatever. Law
- is the enslaving power of men. Blackstone defines the law to be a rule
- of action, prescribing what is right and prohibiting what is wrong.
- Now, very true. Anarchists hold that it is wrong for one person to
- prescribe what is the right action for another person, and then compel
- that person to obey that rule. Therefore, right action consists in
- each person attending to his business, and allowing everybody else to
- do likewise. Whoever prescribes a rule of action for another to obey
- is a tyrant, a usurper and an enemy of liberty. This is precisely
- what every statute does. Anarchy is the natural law, instead of the
- man-made statute, and gives men leaders in the place of drivers and
- bosses. All political law, statute and common, gets its right to
- operate from the statute; therefore, all political law is statute law.
- A statute law is a written scheme by which cunning takes advantage of
- the unsuspecting, and provides the inducement to do so, and protects
- the one who does it. In other words, a statute is the science of
- rascality or the law of usurpation. If a few sharks rob mankind of
- all the earth,—turn them all out of house and home, make them ragged
- slaves and beggars, and freeze and starve them to death,—still
- they are expected to obey the statute because it is sacred. This
- ridiculous nonsense, that human laws are sacred, and that if they are
- not respected and continued we cannot prosper, is the stupidest and
- most criminal nightmare of the age. Statutes are the last and greatest
- curse of men, and, when destroyed, the world will be free.... The
- statute law is the great science of rascality, by which alone the few
- trample upon and enslave the many. There are natural laws provided
- for every work of man. Natural laws are self-operating. They punish
- all who violate them, and reward all who obey them. They cannot be
- repealed, amended, dodged or bribed, and it costs neither time, money
- nor attention to apply them. It is time to stop legislation against
- them. We want to obey laws, not men, nor the tricks of men. Statutes
- are human tricks. The law—the statute law—is the coward’s weapon,
- the tool of the thief.... Free access to the means of production is
- the natural right of every man able and willing to work. It is the
- legal right of the capitalist to refuse such access to labor, and to
- take from the laborer all the wealth he creates over and above a bare
- subsistence for allowing him the privilege of working. A laborer has
- the natural right to life, and, as life is impossible without the
- means of production, the equal right to life involves an equal right
- to the means of production.... Laws—just laws—natural laws—are
- not made; they are discovered. Law-enacting is an insult to divine
- intelligence; and law-enforcing is the impeachment of God’s integrity
- and His power.
-
-August Spies on the same memorable occasion gave his views of Socialism
-in these words:
-
- Socialism is a constructive and not a destructive science. While
- capitalism expropriates the masses for the benefit of the privileged
- class; while capitalism is that school of economics which teaches
- how one can live upon the labor (_i. e._, property) of the other,
- Socialism teaches how all may possess property, and further teaches
- that every man must work honestly for his own living, and not be
- playing the respectable Board of Trade man, or any other highly too
- respectable business man or banker. Socialism, in short, seeks to
- establish a universal system of coöperation and to render accessible
- to each and every member of the human family the achievements
- and benefits of civilization, which, under capitalism, are being
- monopolized by a privileged class, and employed, not, as they should
- be, for the common good of all, but for the brutish gratification of
- an avaricious class. Under capitalism, the great inventions of the
- past, far from being a blessing for mankind, have been turned into a
- curse! Socialism teaches that machines, the means of transportation
- and communication, are the result of the combined efforts of society,
- past and present, and that they are therefore rightfully the
- indivisible property of society, just the same as the soil and the
- mines and all natural gifts should be. This declaration implies that
- those who have appropriated this wealth wrongfully, though lawfully,
- shall be expropriated by society. The expropriation of the masses
- by the monopolists has reached such a degree that the expropriation
- of the expropriateurs has become an imperative necessity, an act of
- social self-preservation. Society will reclaim its own even though you
- erect a gibbet on every street-corner. And Anarchism, this terrible
- “ism,” deduces that under a coöperative organization of society,
- under economic equality and individual independence, the “state”—the
- political state—will pass into barbaric antiquity. And we will be
- where all are free, where there are no longer masters and servants.
- Where intellect stands for brute force, there will no longer be any
- use for the policeman and militia to preserve the so-called “peace and
- order.” Anarchism, or Socialism, means the reorganization of society
- upon scientific principles and the abolition of causes which produce
- vice and crime.
-
-Michael Schwab, in his utterances before the same tribunal, held as
-follows:
-
- Socialism, as we understand it, means that land and machinery shall be
- held in common by the people. The production of goods shall be carried
- on by producing groups which shall supply the demands of the people.
- Under such a system every human being would have an opportunity to do
- useful work, and no doubt would work. Some hours’ work every day would
- suffice to produce all that, according to statistics, is necessary for
- a comfortable living. Time would be left to cultivate the mind and to
- further science and art. That is what Socialists propose. According
- to our vocabulary, Anarchy is a state of society in which the only
- government is reason. A state of society in which all human beings do
- right for the simple reason that it is right and hate wrong because it
- is wrong. In such a society no laws, no compulsion will be necessary.
-
-Samuel Fielden, standing before the same court, also dwelt upon
-Socialism, saying:
-
- And it will be a good time, a grand day for the world; it will be a
- grand day for humanity; it will never have taken a step so far onward
- toward perfection, if it can ever reach that goal, as it will when
- it accepts the principles of Socialism. They are the principles that
- injure no man. They are the principles that consider the interest of
- every one. They are the principles which will do away with wrong; and
- injustice and suffering will be reduced at least to a minimum under
- such an organization of society. As compared to the present struggle
- for existence, which is degrading society and making men merely things
- and animals, Socialism will give them opportunities of developing the
- possibilities of their nature.
-
-The platform of the International Association of Workingmen, indorsed
-by the local organization, formulates the principles of Socialism as
-follows:
-
- 1. Destruction of existing class domination, through inexorable
- revolution and international activity.
-
- 2. The building of a free society on communistic organizations or
- production.
-
- 3. Free exchange of equivalent products through the productive
- organization without jobbing and profit-making.
-
- 4. Organization of the educational system upon a non-religious and
- scientific and equal basis for both sexes.
-
- 5. Equal rights for all, without distinction of sex or race.
-
- 6. The regulation of public affairs through agreements between the
- independent communes and confederacies.
-
-The above was published in the _Alarm_ of November 1, 1884, with the
-following comment:
-
- Proletarians of all countries, unite. Fellow workmen, all we need for
- the achievement of this great end is organization and unity.
-
- There exists now no great obstacle to that unity. The work of peaceful
- education and revolutionary conspiracy will, can and ought to run in
- parallel lines.
-
- The day has come for solidarity. Join our ranks! Let the drum beat
- defiantly the roll of battle; workingmen of all lands, unite! You have
- nothing to lose but your chains; you have a world to win. Tremble,
- oppressors of the world! Not far beyond your purblind sight there dawn
- the scarlet and sable lights of the judgment day!
-
-Such, in brief, are the aims of Socialism as expounded by its most
-extreme representatives. The state of society they seek to establish
-may be highly beneficial to a class which, under any conditions,
-lacks sobriety, frugality, thrift and self-reliance; but just where
-the general mass of humanity is to be bettered or elevated, socially,
-morally or politically, is a point not satisfactorily explained. Their
-theory may look well on paper, and their glittering generalities may
-draw adherents from the ranks of the illiterate and the vicious, but a
-condition of society in which there are no masters and no authority can
-only lead to chaos. In a society “in which all human beings do right
-for the simple reason that it is right,” there can be neither stability
-nor permanence, unless human nature is recast, reconstructed and
-regenerated. Human nature must be treated as it is found in the general
-make-up of man; and therefore a society in which all special desires,
-all ambition and all self-elevation have been eliminated, precludes
-development and progress. It reduces everything to utter shiftlessness
-and stagnation. In such a society there can be no incentive to great
-achievements in art, literature, mechanics or invention. If all are
-to be placed on an equal footing, the ignorant with the educated, the
-dullard with the genius, the profligate with the provident, and the
-drunken wretch with the industrious, what encouragement for special
-effort? If you “render accessible to each and every member of the
-human family the achievements and benefits of civilization,” holding
-“property in common,” why should a man rack his brain or strain his
-muscles in producing something which he expects to prove remunerative
-to himself in some way, but which under the Socialistic state would
-go to the financial benefit of all? Take away all incentive to
-improvement, and you make life scarcely worth the living. Where the
-state, or the “independent commune,” is to be entrusted with the
-care and equal distribution of wealth and the employment of men, the
-individual will give little concern for the morrow or for anything
-beyond his immediate wants. What need he accomplish more than his
-neighbor, since everything that is produced is shared jointly?
-
-In the Socialistic society, every man might “work honestly for his own
-living,” as Spies declares, but what would be the inevitable result of
-a system in which the state or commune undertakes to see that all have
-employment?
-
-History does not leave us room for doubt. The various constitutions
-of France recognized the right of the people to employment. It
-was provided in 1792 that it was the duty of society to afford
-such employment, and in the following year it was added that the
-remuneration of the laborer should be sufficient to support him. This
-doctrine was recognized until 1819, when it fell into “innocuous
-desuetude,” and it was not revived until 1848. In that year a placard
-appeared on the dead walls of Paris, to the following effect:
-
- The Provisional Government of the French Republic guarantees existence
- to the laborer by labor. It guarantees labor to every citizen. It
- guarantees that laborers may associate to obtain the profits of their
- legitimate labor.
-
-In consequence of this proclamation the Government was appealed to,
-and national work-shops were established under the auspices of the
-Government. The establishments were open to all, but, as no one was
-specially interested in their financial success, they soon proved
-too great a drain upon the resources of the nation. Failure was the
-result. In the assignment of work at the factories, skill and fitness
-never entered into consideration. One workman was as good as another,
-and the men, so long as they had the Government at their back, with
-living guaranteed, did not bother much about the kind of article they
-produced. The result was that inferior goods were thrown upon the
-market, and purchasers were difficult to find. This speedily led to the
-closing of the work-shops, and since then the French Government has
-never maintained that society at large must operate work-shops for the
-benefit of all. Any commune that undertakes the same task again must
-similarly fail.
-
-[Illustration: BANNERS OF THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION—II. FROM PHOTOGRAPHS.
-
-1. “Down with all Laws.” 6. “Long live the Social Revolution!”]
-
-Now, suppose that, in the new economic conditions, it should be
-determined by the “independent communes” that wages should in a measure
-be fixed according to the skill, ability and energy of the workingmen,
-what sort of allotment would fall to the great body of workers?
-Edward Atkinson, an accurate statistician of world-wide reputation,
-has furnished the public with a compilation showing what each would
-receive if the aggregate production in the United States were divided
-among its inhabitants. The annual production, he calculates, of all the
-industries of our country, does not exceed $200 per head of population.
-This would give a total of $12,000,000. If this were divided equally
-among families of five persons each, on a basis of a sixty-million
-population, each family would have $1,000 per annum. But, as I have
-said, suppose some families secure more than others, on account of
-greater efficiency, and that one-third of these families secure $2,000
-each per annum. The remaining two-thirds would only secure an average
-of $500. “Suppose,” it has been said, “one-half of this third to be
-fortunate enough, or skillful enough, to increase their average to
-$3,000. The remaining half continuing at $2,000, the average share of
-the two-thirds would fall to $250, or $50 only per head, per annum.”
-
-As Prof. Barnard, dwelling upon the facts to be deduced from Atkinson’s
-showing, says: “Inasmuch as the idea of an average implies that as
-many are below it as are above it, it is easy to see that the only
-way of removing the scourge of poverty from the entire human race is
-to increase the productiveness of labor so that want can only be a
-consequence of willful idleness, or improvidence, or vice.”
-
-In the “wonderful readjustment” of wealth and the products of labor
-Socialists propose to inaugurate, there would be everywhere more
-misery, more poverty and more crime than the people are now contending
-with in the purlieus of London and Paris. That there is room for
-improvement in the condition of our social state is true, but that
-changes for the better can be obtained by Socialism and by means of
-violence is false. These social as well as governmental improvements
-can only be brought about by peaceable means. Never by force, as the
-logic of events demonstrated in the Cook County Jail. There is no
-question that crack-brained theorists will continue to spring up and
-exist. They have existed in the past. The Babeufs, the Lassalles, the
-Fouriers and the Karl Marxes may continue to preach their one-sided
-ideas, but universal education in the United States and the general
-morality of the masses may be safely counted upon as a guaranty that
-neither the gospel of violence nor isolated cases of bloodshed will
-ever succeed in establishing exploded and ruinous theories of politics.
-
-[Illustration: A GROUP OF ANARCHISTS.
-
- From a Photograph.—The central figure is that of a man in the uniform
- of the Lehr und Wehr Verein. The reclining figure in foreground is
- Moritz Neff, proprietor of Neff’s Hall.]
-
-AFTER the Socialists of Chicago had organized their military companies,
-it soon became evident that they intended to use their forces against
-organized society, and as they paraded them before the community on all
-public occasions as a menace to good order, the Illinois Legislature
-in 1879 settled their status effectually by adopting a law prohibiting
-armed forces in the State except those willing to swear to support
-the institutions of the State as well as of the nation, or to become
-members of the State militia. It was also made a punishable offense for
-any body of men to assemble with arms, drill or parade within the State
-without authority. The Socialists were not seeking State honors, and
-they took an appeal to the State Supreme Court on the ground that the
-legislative act was unconstitutional. They were beaten, and accordingly
-forced to abandon their ten companies.
-
-From carrying arms, however, they soon turned their attention to the
-study of explosives. They began experiments at once, and some years
-later boldly urged their adherents to become adepts in the manufacture
-and use of the most approved explosive—dynamite.
-
-In the _Alarm_ of October 18, 1884, the following was published:
-
- One man armed with a dynamite bomb is equal to one regiment of
- militia, when it is used at the right time and place. Anarchists are
- of the opinion that the bayonet and Gatling gun will cut but sorry
- part in the social revolution. The whole method of warfare has been
- revolutionized by latter-day discoveries of science, and the American
- people will avail themselves of its advantages in the conflict with
- upstarts and contemptible braggarts who expect to continue their
- rascality under the plea of preserving law and order.
-
-The same paper, in its issue of November 1, 1884, contained this
-pronunciamento:
-
- How can all this be done? Simply by making ourselves masters of the
- use of dynamite, then declaring we will make no further claim to
- ownership in anything, and deny every other person’s right to be the
- owner of anything, and administer instant death, by any and all means,
- to any and every person who attempts to continue to claim personal
- ownership in anything. This method, and this alone, can relieve the
- world of this infernal monster called the “right of property.”
-
- Let us try and not strike too soon, when our numbers are too small, or
- before more of us understand the use and manufacture of the weapons.
-
- To avoid unnecessary bloodshed, confusion and discouragement, we must
- be prepared, know why we strike and for just what we strike, and then
- strike in unison and with all our might.
-
- Our war is not against men, but against systems; yet we must prepare
- to kill men who will try to defeat our cause, or we will strive in
- vain.
-
- The rich are only worse than the poor because they have more power to
- wield this infernal “property right,” and because they have more power
- to reform, and take less interest in doing so. Therefore, it is easy
- to see where the bloodiest blows must be dealt.
-
- We can expect but few or no converts among the rich, and it will be
- better for our cause if they do not wait for us to strike first.
-
-Again, on February 21, 1885, from the same paper:
-
- The deep-rooted, malignant evil which compels the wealth-producers to
- become the independent hirelings of a few capitalistic czars, can not
- be reached by means of the ballot.
-
- The ballot can be wielded by free men alone; but slaves can only
- revolt and rise in insurrection against their despoilers.
-
- Let us bear in mind the fact that here in America, as elsewhere,
- the worker is held in economic bondage by the use of force, and the
- employment of force, therefore, becomes a necessity to his economic
- preservation. Poverty can’t vote!
-
-In the same issue also appeared the following:
-
- Dynamite! Of all the good stuff, this is the stuff. Stuff several
- pounds of this sublime stuff into an inch pipe (gas or water pipe),
- plug up both ends, insert a cap with a fuse attached, place this in
- the immediate neighborhood of a lot of rich loafers who live by the
- sweat of other people’s brows, and light the fuse. A most cheerful and
- gratifying result will follow. In giving dynamite to the downtrodden
- millions of the globe science has done its best work. The dear stuff
- can be carried in the pocket without danger, while it is a formidable
- weapon against any force of militia, police or detectives that may
- want to stifle the cry for justice that goes forth from the plundered
- slaves. It is something not very ornamental, but exceedingly useful.
- It can be used against persons and things. It is better to use it
- against the former than against bricks and masonry. It is a genuine
- boon for the disinherited, while it brings terror and fear to the
- robbers. A pound of this good stuff beats a bushel of ballots all
- hollow, and don’t you forget it! Our law-makers might as well try to
- sit down on the crater of a volcano or a bayonet as to endeavor to
- stop the manufacture and use of dynamite. It takes more justice and
- right than is contained in laws to quiet the spirit of unrest.
-
-In the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ of March 19, 1886, appeared the following,
-after many articles had been previously published of the same tenor as
-those in the _Alarm_:
-
- The only aim of the workingman should be the liberation of mankind
- from the shackles of the existing damnable slavery. Here, in America,
- where the workingman possesses yet the freedom of meeting, of speech,
- and of the press, most should be done for the emancipation of
- suffering mankind. But the press gang and the teachers in the schools
- do all in their power to keep the people in the dark. Thus everything
- tends to degrade mankind more and more, from day to day, and this
- effects a “beastening,” as is observable with Irishmen, and more
- apparent, even, with the Chinese.
-
- If we do not soon bestir ourselves for a bloody revolution, we can
- not leave anything to our children but poverty and slavery. Therefore
- prepare yourselves, in all quietness, for the revolution.
-
-The following extracts are from the first number of the _Anarchist_,
-Engel’s paper, dated January 1, 1886, with the motto, “All government
-we hate”:
-
- Workingmen and fellows: We recognize it our duty to contend against
- existing rule, but he who would war successfully must equip himself
- with all implements adapted to destroy his opponents and secure
- victory. In consideration thereof we have resolved to publish the
- _Anarchist_ as a line in the fight for the disinherited. It is
- necessary to disseminate Anarchistic doctrine. As we strive for
- freedom from government we advocate the principle of autonomy, in
- this sense: We strive towards the overthrow of the existing order,
- that an end may be put to the “abhorrent work of destruction on the
- part of mankind, and fratricide done away.” The equality of all,
- without distinction of race, color or nationality, is our fundamental
- principle, thus ending rule and servitude. We reject reformatory
- endeavors as useless play, adding to the derision and oppression of
- the workingmen. Against the never-to-be-satisfied ferocity of capital
- we recommend the radical means of the present age. All endeavors of
- the working classes not aiming at the overthrow of existing conditions
- of ownership and at complete self-government are to us reactionary.
- The idea of the absence of authority warrants that we will carry on a
- fight of principles only....
-
- No one can deny that man brings with him into the world the right to
- live. But this is denied by the property beast. He who has the whip
- of power will brandish it over the poor. What does the world offer to
- the poor who are compelled to carry on a mere struggle for existence?
- Patented machinery, combined with capital and other means of
- preservation, denies work to the workmen on account of the excessive
- offer of working powers. Workingmen should, therefore, enter the ranks
- of those who propose to set aside the present system of inequality
- and build up a system of equality and freedom. Let every one join the
- International Workingmen’s Association, and arm himself with the best
- weapons of modern times....
-
- The authorities in America have hitherto refused to prosecute
- Anarchists as the European powers do, not because of hatred to
- despotism, but from fear that the American people might be driven
- into Anarchism. As Anarchists increase, however, it is intended to
- do away with them by slow degrees. To this end a bill was introduced
- in Congress refusing to and revoking citizenship of such. Yet
- the Anarchist declines citizenship because he regards himself as
- cosmopolitan. We hope for more foolish things to open the eyes of
- American workingmen....
-
- _Reflections of an Anarchist at the Grave of Leiske._—After the
- workingman becomes a journeyman he feels free, casts a glance into the
- world—it is glorious, beautiful. He thinks there is happiness for him
- somewhere. He proposes to go abroad, but a terrible cry falls upon his
- ears—the outcry of a tormented people. He inquires, have the pariahs
- of to-day a right to live? and answers yes. Why otherwise born, if
- suffered to die with hunger? And hunger and poverty are the results of
- the stealings of the rich. Having thus concluded, he swears to help in
- the work of liberation, “in the great struggle of mankind for a better
- condition;” to take vengeance upon those responsible for this misery.
- In his investigations he learns the utter vileness of the police
- power, and a policeman is killed. Whereupon the workman is arrested,
- charged with the murder of Rumpf, and killed after nearly a year of
- most devilish torture. With what contempt Leiske met his executioners,
- and with what heroism he went unto his death, is known to our fellows,
- and he shall be avenged.
-
-The _Alarm_, January 13, 1885:
-
- “Force the only defense against injustice and oppression.” Because
- the Socialists advocate resistance, they are accused of brutality and
- want of wisdom. All men agree that themselves should not be trampled
- upon by others. If you can compel a man to agree to allow others to
- exercise control over him, you will find that the soldier will soon
- claim all you have acquired for yourselves. This only teaches that
- it is dangerous for the wicked to teach war; not so with justice.
- Justice can never create opposition to itself. Therefore “justice is
- always safe in accumulating force, while injustice can only accumulate
- force at its peril.” We are told force is cruel, but this is only true
- when the opposition is less cruel. If the opposition is relentless
- power, starving, freezing, etc., and the application of force will
- require less suffering, then force is humane. Therefore we say that
- dynamite is both humane and economical. It will, at the expense of
- less suffering, prevent more. It is not humane to compel ten persons
- to starve to death, when the execution of five persons would prevent
- it. A system that is starving and freezing tens of thousands of little
- children, in the midst of a world of plenty, cannot be defended
- against dynamiters on the ground of humanity. If every child that
- starved to death in the United States were retaliated for by the
- execution of a rich man in his own parlor, the brutal system of wage
- property would not last six weeks. It is a wonder that a father, after
- his vain search for bread, can see his little ones starve or freeze,
- without striking that vengeful, just and bloody blow at the cause that
- would prevent other little ones suffering a similar fate. It is not
- probable that men will always endure this cruel, relentless process of
- monopoly and competition.
-
- The privileged class use force to perpetuate their power, and the
- despoiled workers must use force to prevent it.
-
-The _Alarm_, July 25, 1885:
-
-
-STREET FIGHTING.
-
- _How to Meet the Enemy.—Some Valuable Hints for the Revolutionary
- Soldiers.—What an Officer of the United States Army has to Say._
-
- The following letter, published in the San Francisco _Truth_ some time
- ago, will be read with interest. The letter is quoted as follows, in
- substance: “I am an officer in the army of the United States, and know
- whereof I write. John Upton said to me, with great earnestness, that
- the day of armies is passing away. I believe this. This introduces
- my subject. I desire to place the details of the science of butchery
- before the people; to point out its weak points, so that in future
- uprisings the people may stand some chance of winning. They have
- for the past twenty years been overcome only because of their own
- ignorance. They have been slaughtered and subdued because of a lack
- of coolness, want of knowledge, and adherence to what is called
- ‘humanity,’ ‘honorable warfare,’ etc. I assume that my readers agree
- with me that against tyrants all means are legitimate, and that in war
- that course is best, though bloodiest, which soonest ends the contest.
- My purpose is to persuade the people to add a little common sense in
- future to their heroism, and thus insure success.
-
- [Illustration: 1. “The greatest crime these days is Poverty.”
-
- 2. “UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL!”
-
- 3. “Millions work for the benefit of the few. Let us work for
- ourselves.”
-
- 4. “Dick Oglesby who murdered 3 poor workingmen in lemont is not in
- this procession (You can see him later.)”
-
- 5. “Carter Harrison who clubbed out citizens during the carmens strike
- is not in this procession (You can see him later.)”
-
- 6. This is a bit of doggerel directed against the capitalistic press,
- and in advocacy of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ and of Johann Most’s paper,
- _Die Freiheit_.
-
- 7. “Proletarians of all lands, unite.”
-
- 8. This is a bit of Socialist “poetry” expatiating on the efficacy of
- the “boycott.”
-
- BANNERS OF THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION—III. FROM PHOTOGRAPHS.]
-
- “United States and State regiments are organized on the unit of four,
- which permits the most rapid and effective change of front that can be
- devised. The art of war consists in making soldiers fight. The line
- of retreat must be kept open to avoid capture. In future revolts the
- people shall assume the aggressive. Army officers have wasted years
- of study over the science of street fighting, unavailingly. The plan
- below shows a method adopted as best. The troops are formed on the
- street in two bodies in column of four, headed by a Gatling gun. On
- the sidewalk a line of skirmishers and sharpshooters, whose duty it is
- to fire into the houses, the whole advancing cautiously. When a cross
- street is reached, a company is left to hold it, in order to keep
- open the avenue of retreat. Military knowledge has become popularized
- since 1877, and now, in almost any contest, it would be easy to find
- some fair leaders of the people who would devise some means of meeting
- such an advance, as indicated by the following diagram. The diagram
- represents a street corner. The plan is, at the street crossing to
- have bodies of revolutionists with movable barracks placed obliquely
- on the cross street, and who from there will fire vigorously upon
- the advancing column. They have supporters also in the building,
- also at the corner, whose duty is to throw dynamite upon the troops.
- If the position is carried, the party defending escape through the
- cross streets. The rear of the column can also be attacked from the
- cross streets. If the men in the barricades are armed with the new
- international dynamite rifle (which I am told exists in the hands of
- the revolutionists), I give it as a careful technical opinion, that,
- pursuing these tactics under brave and able leaders, fifty men can
- hold at bay and finally destroy in any of your cities an attacking
- force of five thousand troops.” Signed “R. S. S.” Alcatraz Island,
- December 8.
-
-The _Alarm_, December 26, 1885:
-
- _Bakounine’s Groundwork for the Social Revolution.—A Revolutionist’s
- Duty to Himself. (Free translation from the German.)_
-
- 1. The revolutionist is self-offered; has no personal interest, but is
- absorbed by the one passion, the revolution.
-
- 2. He is at war with the existing order of society and lives to
- destroy it.
-
- 3. He despises society in its present form and leaves its
- reorganization to the future, himself knowing only the science of
- destruction. He studies mathematics, chemistry, etc., for this
- purpose. The quick and sure overthrow of the present unreasonable
- order is his object.
-
- 4. He despises public sentiment and acknowledges as moral whatever
- favors the revolution; as criminal whatever opposes it.
-
- 5. He is consecrated; he will not spare, nor does he expect mercy.
- Between him and society reigns the war of death or life.
-
- 6. Stringent with himself, he must be stringent with others. All
- sentiment must be suppressed by his passion for the revolutionary
- work. He must be ready to die and to kill.
-
- 7. He excludes romance and sentiment and also personal hatred
- and revenge; never obeying his personal inclinations, but his
- revolutionary duty.
-
-
-_Toward his Comrades._
-
- 8. His friendship is only for his comrade, and is measured by that
- comrade’s usefulness in the practical work of the revolution.
-
- 9. As to important affairs, he must consult with his comrades, but in
- execution depend upon himself. Each must be self-operating, and must
- ask help only when imperatively necessary.
-
- 10. He shall use himself and his subordinates as capital to be used
- for the work of revolution, but no part of which can he dispose of
- without the consent of the persons involved.
-
- 11. If a comrade is in danger, he shall not consider his personal
- feelings, but the interest of the cause.
-
-
-_His Duty toward Society._
-
- 12. A new candidate can be taken into the company only after proof of
- his merit, and upon unanimous consent.
-
- 13. He lives in a so-called civilized world because he believes in
- its speedy destruction. He clings to nothing as it now is, and does
- not hesitate to destroy any institution. He is no revolutionist if
- arrested by personal ties.
-
- 14. He must obtain entrance everywhere, even in the detective agency
- and the emperor’s palace.
-
- 15. The present society should be divided into categories, the first
- including those sentenced to immediate death, the others classifying
- the delinquents according to their rascality.
-
- 16. The lists are not to be influenced by personal considerations, but
- those are to be first destroyed whose death can terrify governments
- and deprive them of their most intelligent agents.
-
-[Illustration: THE RED BANNER OF THE CARPENTERS’ UNION.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
- 17. The second category embraces those who are permitted to live, but
- whose evil deeds will drive the people to open revolt.
-
- 18. The third category embraces the dissolute rich whose secrets must
- be discovered in order to control their resources.
-
- 19. The fourth category consists of ambitious officials and liberals
- whose purposes we must discover so as to prevent their withdrawing
- from our cause.
-
- 20. The fifth category consists of doctrinaire conspirators; they must
- be urged to action.
-
- 21. The sixth category is the women, who are divided into three
- classes: First, the brainless and heartless; second, the passionate
- and qualified; and, third, the wholly consecrated, who are to be
- guarded as the most valuable part of the revolutionary treasures.
-
-The _Alarm_ of January 9, 1886, then edited, in the absence of its
-editor and his assistant, by August Spies, contained this suggestive
-editorial:
-
- “_The Right to Bear Arms._”—After the conspiracy of the workingmen,
- the working classes, in 1877, the breaking up of the meeting on the
- Haymarket Square, the brutal assault upon a gathering of furniture
- workers in Vorwaerts Turner Hall, the murder of Tessman, and the
- general clubbing and shooting down of peaceably inclined wage-workers,
- the proletarians organized the Lehr und Wehr Verein, which in about
- a year and a half had grown to a membership of one thousand. This
- was regarded by the capitalists as a menace, and they procured the
- passage of the militia law, under which it became an offense for
- any body of men, other than those authorized by the Governor, to
- assemble with arms, drill or parade the streets. The members of the
- Lehr und Wehr Verein, mostly Socialists, who believed in the ballot,
- made up a test case to determine the constitutionality of this act,
- rejecting the counsel of the extremists. Judge Barnum held the law to
- be unconstitutional—an appeal was taken—and the Supreme Court upset
- this decision and held the law constitutional. Thereupon the Lehr und
- Wehr Verein applied to the Supreme Court of the United States, which
- within a few days affirmed the decision of the Supreme Court of the
- State. Do we need comment on this?
-
- That militia law has had its uses. Where there was before a military
- body publicly organized, whose strength could be easily ascertained,
- now there exists an organization whose members cannot be estimated,
- and a network of destructive agencies of modern military character
- that will defy suppression.
-
-The _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, February 17, editorial:
-
- In France, during strikes, etc., a new method is lately adopted. The
- workingmen barricade themselves in the factories with provisions,
- taking possession of the property, which the manufacturers desire to
- preserve, and will only resort to force for their ejection in the
- most extreme case. The conflict between capitalism and workingmen is
- growing constantly sharper, and the indication is that force will
- bring about decisive results in the battle for liberty.
-
-The _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ of April 30:
-
- We are advised that the police are ordered to be ready for a conflict
- upon Saturday of next week. The capitalists are thirsting for the
- blood of workingmen. The workingmen refuse longer to be tortured and
- treated like dogs, and for this opposition the capitalists cry for
- blood. Perhaps they may have it, and lose some of their own. To the
- workingmen we again say: Arm yourselves, but conceal your arms lest
- they be stolen from you.
-
-The _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, May 3:
-
- Courage, courage, is our cry. Don’t forget the words of Herways: “The
- host of the oppressors grow pale when thou, weary of thy burden, in
- the corner puttest the plow; when thou sayest, ‘It is enough.’”
-
-The _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, May 4:
-
- Blood has flown. It happened as it had to. The militia have not been
- drilling in vain. It is historical that private property had its
- origin in violence. The war of classes has come. Yesterday, in front
- of McCormick’s factory, workmen were shot down whose blood cries for
- vengeance. In the past, countless victims have been offered on the
- altars of the golden calf amid the shouts of the capitalistic robbers.
- One has only to think of East St. Louis, Chicago and other places, to
- recognize the tactics of the extortioners. The white terror will be
- answered with the red, for the workmen are not asleep. They modestly
- asked for eight hours. The answer was to drill the police force and
- militia, and browbeat those advocating the change. And yesterday blood
- flowed—the reply of these devils to this modest petition of their
- slaves. Death rather than a life of wretchedness. The capitalistic
- tiger lies ready for the jump, his eyes sparkling, eager for murder,
- and his clutches drawn tight. Self-defense cries, “To arms, to arms!”
- If you do not defend yourselves, you will be ground by the animal’s
- teeth.
-
- The powers hostile to the workingmen have made common cause, and our
- differences must be subordinated to the common purpose. The statement
- of the capitalistic press, that the workmen yesterday fired first, is
- a bold, barefaced lie.
-
- In the poor shanty miserably clad women and children are weeping for
- husband and father. In the palace they clink glasses filled with
- costly wine and drink to the happiness of the bloody bandits of law
- and order. Dry your tears, ye poor and wretched; take heart, ye
- slaves; arise in your might and overthrow the system of robbery.
-
-These are a few of the many articles emanating from the Socialistic
-propaganda, calling the rabble to murder and destruction. Other
-declarations printed in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ and pronounced upon the
-stump are in the same virulent spirit, couched in varying language as
-suggested by the events of the moment, but all breathing defiance and
-death to the so-called “capitalistic class.” There are also minute and
-specific directions for the preparation as well as the use of dynamite,
-Herr Most’s work on that subject having been largely drawn upon for
-the enlightenment of those who believed that dynamite is the weapon
-through the use of which the social revolution can be accomplished.
-Paragraphs, sections and chapters of Bakounine’s “Groundwork for the
-Social Revolution” were likewise read to the Socialists and published
-in their organs.
-
-[Illustration: ATTEMPT OF DR. NOBILING TO ASSASSINATE THE EMPEROR OF
-GERMANY.]
-
-Another source from which to draw inspiration was Reinsdorf, the
-apostle of Anarchy in Germany. The Chicago Anarchists regarded him as a
-splendid representative of their class, and praised his attempt on the
-life of the Emperor of Germany. His death on the scaffold was regarded
-as martyrdom, and his deeds were frequently extolled. His confederates
-in conspiracy, Hoedel and Nobiling, were referred to in terms of praise
-by George A. Schilling at a meeting in West Twelfth Street Turner
-Hall. Louis Lingg had been personally acquainted with Reinsdorf, and
-gloried in the man’s work and courage. The extreme section of the
-Chicago Socialists always sought to inculcate his ideas, and that the
-reader may gain some notion of Reinsdorf’s character, I reproduce the
-following translation from a German Socialistic paper, showing his
-career:
-
-[Illustration: AUGUST REINSDORF.]
-
- He was the principal leader of all the Anarchists in Germany. The
- people looked upon him as the savior of their great cause. He was
- admired not only by men, but also by women. Wherever he went he was
- given great receptions, and he had many pupils.
-
- Reinsdorf was born in Prussia. When he became of age, he joined
- the party, and, by his good and rapid work, became in a short time
- the father of the Anarchistic agitation. But the law pursued him,
- and he wandered from state to state. In the year 1876 we find him
- in Switzerland, where he had many followers. One of his pupils and
- admirers was Max Hoedel, who with Reinsdorf conceived a plot to murder
- King William of Prussia. The attack upon his life was made by Hoedel
- on the 11th day of May, 1878. He fired several shots at the aged
- warrior, but failed, as none of them took effect. They missed their
- mark. Not satisfied with this, another man, Dr. Nobiling, also a
- pupil of Reinsdorf, made another attempt three weeks later, by firing
- a shot-gun filled with buck-shot at the old King; but again without
- effect. Nobiling’s deed was the consequence of Hoedel’s attempt, and
- Reinsdorf was the agitator. Failing in this, they concluded to wait
- some time until their party should get stronger and could secure
- better material. Among others Louis Lingg joined the Anarchists in
- Zurich. Louis was then very young, but he became as radical as their
- chief leader. The Socialists were to have held a Congress there
- in May, 1880, but the gathering did not take place, as the police
- had notice, and Reinsdorf and his followers were compelled to leave
- Zurich and go to Freiburg (Baden), where they held secret meetings
- and where Reinsdorf declared that he himself would go to Berlin and
- kill the miserable mahdi by stabbing him to the heart. He went to
- Berlin to carry out this plan, but was arrested by the police. They
- could not make out a case of conspiracy against him, but he was sent
- to prison for several months on the charge of carrying a dagger.
- After his discharge Reinsdorf traveled to and from Switzerland
- to Germany, France and Belgium, speaking in all places where he
- stopped, and gaining many followers. His only desire was to put old
- Emperor William (commonly called “old Lehmann”) out of the way—to
- do something great so that all the people would look up to him. His
- only targets were royal palaces and the palaces of diplomates. He
- and others then formed a plan to murder the King, and Bismarck, and
- all the princes and others who were to participate in the dedication
- of the Germania monument at Ruedesheim on the 28th day of September,
- 1883. But Reinsdorf met with an accident while crossing a railroad
- track, and was severely injured. This was a very painful situation for
- Reinsdorf. The day for action drew near, but he was confined to his
- bed. Should this beautiful plan be given up on that account? Never!
- Could not other people accomplish what he had thought out? Certainly.
- But was it sure that they would have the necessary courage at the
- critical moment? Could he trust them? Tormented by such thoughts,
- Reinsdorf finally submitted to the inevitable and confided his mission
- to two of his comrades. He called these people to his bedside and told
- them what he wanted done. He presented his plan in detail. Rupsch
- and Kuechler—these are their names—pledged themselves to do what
- he desired. They started on the journey with the necessary material,
- reached Ruedesheim safely, and on the night of the 27th they proceeded
- to a spot not far from the monument, where the railroad runs near the
- edge of the forest. They filled a culvert with a large quantity of
- dynamite, put a fulminating cap into it and drew the fuse into the
- forest. It was raining at the time, and they covered the fuse with
- moist ground and tied the end of it to a tree, which they marked by
- cutting into it. They then returned to Ruedesheim. The next morning
- they returned to the place. The royal train came. Kuechler gave the
- signal; Rupsch held his burning cigar to the fuse. One moment of
- breathless expectation! The train passed, and the explosion—failed.
- Kuechler asked Rupsch about the failure. The latter showed that the
- end of the fuse had been lighted, but did not burn because it was
- damp. They did not give up hope, as the train had to return the same
- way after the ceremonies were over. A new fuse was attached. Again
- the royal party passed over the critical ground, where death had
- been prepared for them. Rupsch lit the fuse again, but it did not
- burn. An investigation afterwards showed that the fuse only burned
- a short length and then went out. They had followed all Reinsdorf’s
- instructions but one—instead of water-proof fuse they had supplied
- themselves with the common kind. With mutual recriminations, Kuechler
- and Rupsch took the dynamite from under the culvert and went back to
- Ruedesheim, where they got gloriously drunk. After they had sobered
- up, they returned to Elberfeld and reported to Reinsdorf, who already
- knew that his beautiful plan had miscarried. With great wrath he
- listened to them and said: “No such thing could have happened to me.”
- He thought there would be another chance. Then he would not be in the
- hospital, but could carry it out himself. His hopes were in vain.
- After his discharge from the hospital in Elberfeld, he proceeded to
- Frankfort-on-the-Main, where he was arrested. The police found out
- that he was an accomplice in the conspiracy, but, putting him through
- the sieve, they failed to get anything out of him, as he would not
- answer a single question. He said: “You may ask me as much as you
- wish, I shall not answer.” Bachman, one of his companions and an
- accomplice, escaped to Luxemburg, where he thought he would be safe
- from the law, but he also was arrested and extradited and sent to
- Elberfeld to keep Reinsdorf company, together with Rupsch and Kuechler.
-
- Reinsdorf and his accomplices were tried before the courts of Leipsic,
- and the trial lasted seven days. Bachman and two others were sentenced
- to ten years in the penitentiary. Rupsch got a life sentence, while
- Reinsdorf was sentenced to be beheaded. At his trial Reinsdorf was as
- stubborn as ever. He denied everything. When he was asked who he was
- he answered:
-
- “I am an Anarchist.”
-
- “What is Anarchy?” he was asked.
-
- “A company in which every sensible man can develop his ability. To
- permit this no one should be burdened with excessive labor; want and
- misery should be banished; every force should cease; every stupidity,
- every superstition should be banished from the world.”
-
- The presiding judge asked him if he was guilty or not, and to answer
- with “yes” or “no.”
-
- Reinsdorf answered with a steady voice: “I look upon this whole thing
- as a question of power. If we German Anarchists had a couple of army
- corps at our disposition, then I would not have to talk to this court.
- I for my part have nothing to say. Do with me as you please.”
-
- After the court had finished, Reinsdorf resumed his remarks and said:
- “The attempt at Niederwald failed because ‘the hand of Providence
- appeared,’ as the prosecution terms it. I tell you the awkward hand
- of Rupsch did it. I am sorry to say I had no one else at my disposal.
- I have nothing to repent, only that the attempt failed. At the
- factories the people are going to ruin merely for the benefit of the
- stockholders. These honest Christians swindle the working people of
- half of their living. My lawyer wanted to save my head, but for such a
- hounded proletarian as I am the quickest death is the best. If I had
- ten heads I would offer them with joy and lay them on the block for
- the good cause.”
-
- Before going to the scaffold, Reinsdorf ate a hearty meal, smoked a
- cigar, and sang a song. He walked steadily into the court-yard, where
- the scaffold was standing, guarded by a squad of soldiers, besides
- about a hundred other persons.
-
- “Are you August Reinsdorf?” asked the sheriff.
-
- “Yes, that I am.”
-
- The death warrant was then read and the royal signature shown to him.
- The executioner then bore him to the scaffold. Reinsdorf’s last words
- were: “Down with barbarism; hurrah for Anarchy!” The axe fell and the
- head was severed from his body.
-
- The atonement for the decapitation of Reinsdorf followed quickly. The
- sentence had hardly been carried into execution when, on the 13th of
- January, 1885, “the miserable Rumpff,” as they called him, was stabbed
- and killed by the hand of an Anarchist at Frankfort-on-the-Main. _Sic
- semper tyrannis._
-
-With such an example of courage before them, and the revenge
-his execution invited, it is almost needless to remark that the
-bloodthirsty Anarchists of Chicago read with eager avidity anything
-pertaining to their hero. Accordingly, in the _Vorbote_ of December 16,
-1885, the following is to be found:
-
-
-REINSDORF’S INHERITANCE.
-
- In the pamphlet about Reinsdorf there is a letter published which our
- great martyr wrote the day previous to his decapitation. We are able
- now to publish two other letters which Reinsdorf wrote at the same
- time, to his parents and to his second brother.
-
-One letter reads as follows:
-
- HALLE, February 6, 1885.
-
- _My Dear Brother_: To-day is my last day, and I could not let it pass
- without writing to you to show you that I always remembered you with
- brotherly love. When you have read this letter I shall be one of the
- fortunates who are past and one of whom they can speak nothing but
- good. Now, my deeds, specially alleged against me before the courts,
- lie open before the world, and, although I am sentenced to death, I
- have the feeling that I did my duty; and this feeling it is which
- makes my last walk easy, to receive joyfully the everlasting sleep as
- something well earned.
-
- Dear August, you have often had trouble and sorrow, although you
- are in the blossom of life. People usually heed the words of one
- deceased more than the speeches of philosophers. I want to tell you
- a few words. Bear with strength, endurance and friendly submission
- the burden which you have laden upon yourself, and try to have
- satisfaction in it, so you can raise your children that they may be
- useful to you and an adornment to you. What would you gain by it,
- if you should participate in the good-for-nothing diversions of the
- people? Think, I could have done it, but I preferred the wandering
- existence of an Anarchist.
-
- When you, therefore, in years to come, look back upon the days of
- honest, peaceable labor done, and of hard duty fulfilled, then you
- will be filled with a joyful certainty and a quiet happiness that will
- repay you for all your sufferings. We still live, unfortunately, in a
- world of egotism and incompleteness, and only a few are in position to
- swim against the stream—even at the risk of their lives. You never
- did it. Good. So do your duty as the father of your family. Good-by.
- Accept a greeting from my heart for your wife and family, from
-
- Your brother,
- AUGUST.
-
-The second letter is directed to his parents:
-
- HALLE, February 6, 1885.
-
- _My Dear Parents_: Take in silence what cannot be helped! Who would
- sacrifice their children, if not you, who have so many? Or should
- the wealthy do it, when it is the cause of the poor for which we
- fight? Or should we lay our hands in our laps and wait until others
- have sacrificed themselves for us? And is it such a great sacrifice
- I bring? Sick as I am, and with a prospect of long suffering, it
- should be looked upon as a blessing when such an existence is put to
- a quick death. And what an end is it? Whoever they are, progressive
- or reactionary, liberal or conservative, they all hate the Anarchist
- Reinsdorf. As they have condemned his doings, they cheer his death,
- the crown of a faithful, self-sacrificing man. But his steadfastness,
- in defiance of thousands of obstacles, no one can deny. And this shall
- be your consolation.
-
- How many have had to die for smaller causes? How many have lost their
- lives in dynamite conquests? Take all this in consideration and
- don’t let your hearts be made heavy through the babble of paltry and
- narrow-minded people. My last thoughts are of you and of brothers and
- sisters, and of the great cause for which I die. Deep-felt wishes
- fill my heart for the prosperity of every one of you. Greetings to
- my brothers and sisters, especially Carl, Emilie, Emma and Anna, to
- whom I could not write personally. Shake once more their hands for me.
- You and I embrace with all the love of childhood, and I greet you a
- thousand times. Good-by, all.
-
- Yours,
- AUGUST.
-
-What Herr Johann Most, the present American leader of the
-irreconcilables, thought of Reinsdorf, may be judged by the following
-extracts from Most’s biography:
-
- From the 15th to the 22nd of December, 1884, eight workingmen, who had
- been captured in the war of the poor against the rich, were sitting
- in the dock, not to have justice passed upon them, but to await
- the sentence of might which the judges, acting as mouth-pieces for
- the ruling powers, had in preparation for them. The most prominent
- figure among these victims of a barbaric order of society was August
- Reinsdorf. To this man my little book is to be a tribute of esteem.
-
- I am well aware of the difficulty of my otherwise quite modest
- undertaking, to write a biography of the father of the Anarchistic
- movement within the territory of the German language, yet I hope
- to do the brothers near and far a service, for the time being at
- least, by sketching for them a likeness of a true hero of the Social
- Revolution....
-
- Indeed Reinsdorf was not an agitator of the common sort. Speeches
- delivered occasionally or written articles were to him only means to a
- higher purpose—incentives to _action_.
-
- Since he had recognized his ideal in Anarchism; ... since the
- necessity of the “_tactics of terror_” had dawned upon him
- in contradistinction to the tactics of petitioning, voting,
- “parliamenting,” bargaining, and of the peaceable and legitimate
- hide-and-seek practice—all his thinking and planning was directed to
- but _one thing_, he knew of but _one_ endeavor, he gave his entire
- being to but one motive power of the Social Revolution—that was the
- propaganda of action.
-
- [Illustration: JOHANN MOST.]
-
- In this regard he may be put beside the most noble conspirators of
- ancient and modern times....
-
- To be a revolutionist indeed, one must possess the faculty of thinking
- with the most acute clearness. But religious “fog” is the opposite of
- clearness of intellect. Yea, where religious nonsense has once taken a
- deep root, there every mental development is actually excluded, and a
- kind of idiocy formally takes its place....
-
- Quite different does the matter stand in the case of a “proletarian.”
- If he once recognize the old Lord God with his thunderbolt as an
- invented scarecrow which a shrewd gang of rascals have placed before
- paradise,—that man should not eat of the tree of knowledge, but that
- he should rather wait in patience for the roasted birds which, after
- his death, come flying into his mouth from a heavenly kitchen,—if the
- poor devil has learned to see that his namesake, too, wherewith they
- had tried to scare him previously, is also an invention of malicious
- swindlers,—then he soon applies the rule of the critic to the “high”
- and “highest” idols of earth. He loses respect for the so-called
- “Governments” and more and more learns to see in them a horde of
- brutal tormentors. These custodians of existing treasures attract his
- eye also to the possessors of the riches of the earth, and soon the
- question dawns upon him, Who has created all these things? The answer
- comes of itself. He and his like have done that. _To them_, therefore,
- belongs the whole world. They only need to take.
-
- _Thus_ the man, having cut loose from God, becomes the revolutionist
- _par excellence_.
-
- After Reinsdorf had succeeded in finding people who he thought were
- fit to take part in revolutionary actions and even risk their lives,
- he was also fortunate enough to discover a source from which dynamite,
- that _glorious stuff_ which will literally make a road for liberty,
- could be procured.
-
- And how did he die? Shortly before the moment of death, and while in
- the hands of the hangman, he cried out: “Down with barbarism! Let
- Anarchy live!”
-
- These are admonishing words, which no one should leave unheeded who
- marches under the flag of the Revolution.
-
- Well, then! Let us act accordingly! Away with all sentimental
- hesitation when it comes to strike a blow against State, Church and
- Society and their representatives, as well as against all that exists.
-
- Let us never forget that the revolutionists of modern times can enter
- into the society of free and equal men only over ruins and ashes, over
- blood and dead bodies.
-
- Let us rise to the height of an August Reinsdorf! Let us complete the
- work which he so boldly began! Only thus can we avenge ourselves; only
- thus can we show ourselves worthy of him; only thus can we conquer.
-
- Workingmen! Look down into the freshly dug pit. There lies your best
- friend and adviser, an advance champion of your cause, a martyred
- witness to the greatness of the Anarchistic idea. Live, strive and act
- as he! Anarchists, in your name I lay the well-earned laurel-wreath
- upon his grave....
-
- The retribution for the annihilation of Reinsdorf came rapidly.
- Scarcely had the sentence been spoken, and before it had been
- executed, the dagger of a Nemesis had already taken revenge. On
- January 13, 1885, the head of the German detective forces, the
- miserable Rumpff, was stabbed to death by the hand of an Anarchist.
-
- “_Sic semper tyrannis_—So be it to all tyrants!” was heard
- everywhere. With great satisfaction every honorable man, especially
- every man of work, experienced that Rumpff had to die because he was
- the cause of Reinsdorf’s death....
-
- The combustibles are heaped up. Proletarians, throw the igniting spark
- amongst them.
-
- Up with force! Let the Social Resolution live!
-
-The revolutionists of Chicago appear more careful about exposing
-themselves to danger than their foreign co-conspirators, and, while
-counseling bloodshed, suggest ways of bringing about destruction with a
-minimum of danger. In the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ of March 16, 1885, there
-appeared the following editorial, suggesting the most effective way of
-using dynamite:
-
- In all revolutionary action three different epochs of time are to
- be distinguished: First the portion of preparation for an action,
- then the moment of the action itself, and finally that portion of
- time which follows the deed. All these portions of time are to be
- considered one after another.
-
- In the first place, a revolutionary action should succeed. Then as
- little as possible ought to be sacrificed,—that is, in other words,
- the danger of discovery ought to be weakened as much as possible, and,
- if it can be, should be reduced to naught. This calls for one of the
- most important tactical principles, which briefly might be formulated
- in the words: Saving of the combatants. All this constrains us to
- further explain the measures of organization and tactics which must be
- taken into consideration in such an action.
-
- Mention was made of the danger of discovery. That is, in fact, present
- in all three of the periods of conflict. This danger is imminent
- in the preparation of the action itself, and finally, after the
- completion thereof. The question is now, How can it be met?
-
- If we view the different phases of the development of a deed, we have,
- first, the time of preparation.
-
- It is easily comprehensible for everybody that the danger of discovery
- is the greater the more numerous the mass of people or the group is
- which contemplates a deed, and _vice versa_. On the other hand, the
- threatening danger approaches the closer the better the acting persons
- are known to the authorities of the place of action, and _vice versa_.
- Holding fast to this, the following results:
-
- In the commission of a deed, a comrade who does not live at the
- place of action—that is, a comrade of some other place—ought, if
- possibility admits, to participate in the action; or, formulated
- differently, a revolutionary deed ought to be enacted where one is not
- known.
-
- A further conclusion which may be drawn from what was mentioned is
- this:
-
- Whoever is willing to execute a deed has, in the first place, to put
- the question to himself, whether he is able, or not, to carry out
- the action by himself. If the former is the case, let him absolutely
- initiate no one into the matter and let him act alone; but if that is
- not the case, then let him look, with the greatest care, for just so
- many fellows as he must have, absolutely—not one more nor less; with
- these let him unite himself into a fighting group.
-
- The founding of special groups of action or of war is an absolute
- necessity. If it were attempted to make use of an existing group to
- effect an action, discovery of the deed would follow upon its heels,
- if it came to a revolutionary action at all, which would be very
- doubtful. It is especially true in America, where reaction has velvet
- paws, and where asinine confidence is, from a certain direction,
- directly without bounds. In the preparation, even, endless debates
- would develop; the thing would be hung upon the big bell; it would
- be at first a public secret, and then, after the thing was known to
- everybody, it would also reach the long ears of the holy Hermandad
- (the sacred precinct of the watchman over the public safety), which,
- as is known to every man, woman and child, hear the grass grow and the
- fleas cough.
-
- In the formation of a group of action, the greatest care must be
- exercised. Men must be selected who have head and heart in the right
- spot.
-
- Has the formation of a fighting group been effected, has the intention
- been developed, does each one see perfectly clear the manner of
- the execution, then action must follow with the greatest possible
- swiftness, without delay, for now they move within the scope of the
- greatest danger, simply from the very adjacent reason, because the
- select allies might yet commit treason without exposing themselves in
- so doing.
-
- In the action itself, one must be personally at the place, to select
- personally that point of the place of action, and that part of the
- action, which are the most important and are coupled with the greatest
- danger, upon which depend chiefly the success or failure of the whole
- affair.
-
- Has the deed been completed, then the group of action dissolves at
- once, without further parley, according to an understanding which must
- be had beforehand, leaves the place of action, and scatters in all
- directions.
-
- If this theory is acted upon, then the danger of discovery is
- extremely small—yea, reduced to almost nothing, and from this point
- of view the author ventures to say, thus, and not otherwise, must be
- acted, if the advance is to be proper.
-
- It would be an easy matter to furnish the proof, by the different
- revolutionary acts in which the history of the immediate past is so
- rich, that the executors sinned against the one or the other of the
- aforementioned principles, and that in this fact lies the cause of
- the discovery, and the loss to us of very important fellow-champions
- connected therewith; but we will be brief, and leave that to the
- individual reflection of the reader. But one fact is established—that
- is this: That all the rules mentioned can be observed without great
- difficulty; further, that the blood of our best comrades can be spared
- thereby; finally, as a consequence of the last-mentioned, that light
- actions can be increased materially, for the complete success of an
- action is the best impulse to a new deed, and the things must always
- succeed when the rules of wisdom are followed.
-
- A further question which might probably be raised would be this: In
- case a special or conditional group must be formed for the purpose
- of action, what is the duty, in that case, of the public groups, or
- the entire public organization, in view of the aforesaid action? The
- answer is very near at hand. In the first place, they have to serve
- as a covering—as a shield behind which one of the most effective
- weapons of revolution is bared; then these permanent groups are to
- be the source from which the necessary pecuniary means are drawn and
- fellow-combatants are recruited; finally, the accomplished deeds are
- to furnish to permanent groups the material for critical illustration.
- These discussions are to wake the spirit of rebellion,—that important
- lever of the advancing course of the development of our race,—without
- which we would be forever nailed down to the state of development of
- a gorilla or an orang-outang. This right spirit is to be inflamed,
- the revolutionary instinct is to be roused which still sleeps in the
- breast of man, although these monsters, which, by an oversight of
- nature, were covered with human skin, are earnestly endeavoring to
- cripple the truly noble and elevated form of man by the pressure of
- a thousand and again a thousand years—to morally castrate the human
- race. Finally, the means and form of conquest are to be found by
- untiring search and comparison, which enhance the strength of each
- proletarian a thousandfold, and make him the giant Briareus, alone
- able to crush the ogres of Capital.
-
-I have thus shown the manner and methods by which Socialism seeks to
-gain a foothold in America. In their declarations of principles and
-encouragements to violence, these agitators have proved themselves
-traitors to their country or the country of their adoption, and
-ingrates to society. They have sought, and are seeking, to establish
-“Anarchy in the midst of the state, war in times of peace, and
-conspiracy in open day.” They are the “Huns and Vandals of modern
-civilization.”
-
-As De Tocqueville says: “Democracy and Socialism are the antipodes
-of each other. While Democracy extends the sphere of individual
-independence, Socialism contracts it. Democracy develops a man’s
-whole manhood; Socialism makes him an agent, an instrument, a cipher.
-Democracy and Socialism harmonize on one point only—the equality which
-they introduce. But mark the difference: Democracy seeks equality in
-liberty, while Socialism seeks it in servitude and constraint.”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V.
-
- The Socialistic Programme—Fighting a Compromise—Opposition to the
- Eight-hour Movement—The Memorial to Congress—Eight Hours’ Work
- Enough—The Anarchist Position—An _Alarm_ Editorial—“Capitalists
- and Wage Slaves”—Parsons’ Ideas—The Anarchists and the Knights
- of Labor—Powderly’s Warning—Working up a Riot—The Effect of
- Labor-saving Machinery—Views of Edison and Wells—The Socialistic
- Demonstration—The Procession of April 25, 1886—How the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ Helped on the Crisis—The Secret Circular of 1886.
-
-
-WHILE the Socialists are bent on a revolution in the economic condition
-of the working class, or, as they choose to term it, the proletariat,
-they have conclusively shown that they do not desire to further that
-movement by pacific means. Imbued with the doctrines of violence and
-intent on the complete destruction of government, they do not seek
-their end by orderly, legitimate methods. This fact has been most
-thoroughly established by the extracts from their public declarations
-which I have already given.
-
-But if any doubts still exist with reference thereto, they are
-completely dissipated by an examination into the attitude assumed by
-the Socialists toward the labor problem as it exists at the present
-day. It is not my purpose to enter into a detailed review of the whole
-field. I will simply call attention to one fact, and in that fact one
-sweeps the labor horizon, viewed from the Socialistic standpoint, as
-the astronomer sweeps the heavens with his telescope, striking the most
-prominent objects within the range of observation. This one fact is the
-position of the Socialists toward the eight-hour movement.
-
-It is generally known that many economists and agitators, with neither
-affiliations nor sympathy for Socialism, have been contending for
-years that with the rapid increase in labor-saving machinery and the
-consequent displacement of labor, reduction in the hours of service
-has become an absolute necessity. The points made in support of this
-position are numerous, and as the most salient ones appear in a
-memorial on the part of a National Labor Convention to the Committee on
-Depression in Labor and Business of the Forty-sixth Congress, drafted
-November 10, 1879, I may briefly quote a few. The memorial asked a
-reduction:
-
-1. In the name of political economy. “All political economists are
-agreed,” they said, “that the standard of wages is determined by the
-cost of subsistence rather than by the number of hours employed.
-Wages are recognized as resulting from the necessary cost of living
-in any given community. The cost of subsistence for an average family
-determines the rate, and it is for this reason that single men can save
-more if they will.”
-
-2. In the interest of civilization. “The battle for a reduction of
-the hours of labor is a struggle for a wider civilization.” With less
-hours, more leisure is afforded for mental and social improvement. In
-proof the memorialists appealed to the past and to the fact that one
-day of rest in seven has raised the social condition of the people.
-Besides, they urged, the “history of the short-hour movement in
-England proved conclusively that every reduction of time in the United
-Kingdom had invariably been followed by an increase of wages,” and the
-consequent improvement of workingmen.
-
-3. The changed relations between production and consumption demand
-remedial legislation. A reduction of hours would give more men
-employment. Under existing conditions, capital and production have
-increased while the number of persons employed has fallen off.
-
-These are doctrines one would think the Socialist, pretending to have
-the interests of labor at heart, would unquestionably and heartily
-indorse. Far from it. True to his nature as a social disturber,
-disorganizer and malcontent, he sees in it a possible solution of
-many labor troubles and the approach to a rearrangement of existing
-conditions on a basis different from his own theories. When this
-question arose in Chicago in the winter of 1885-86, the _Alarm_ entered
-its most emphatic protest. In its issue of December 12, 1885, it had
-this to say, under the heading, “No Compromise”:
-
- We of the Internationale are frequently asked why we do not give our
- active support to the proposed eight-hour movement. Let us take what
- we can get, say our eight-hour friends, else by asking too much we may
- get nothing.
-
- We answer: Because we will not compromise. Either our position that
- capitalists have no right to the exclusive ownership of the means
- of life is a true one, or it is not. If we are correct, then to
- concede the point that capitalists have the right to eight hours of
- our labor, is more than a compromise; it is a virtual concession
- that the wage system is right. If capitalists have the right to own
- labor or to control the results of labor, then clearly we have no
- business dictating the terms upon which we may be employed. We cannot
- say to our employers, “Yes, we acknowledge your right to employ us;
- we are satisfied that the wage system is all right, but we, your
- slaves, propose to dictate the terms upon which we will work.” How
- inconsistent! And yet that is exactly the position of our eight-hour
- friends. They presume to dictate to capital, while they maintain the
- justness of the capitalistic system; they would regulate wages while
- defending the claims of the capitalists to the absolute control of
- industry.
-
-These sentiments were frequently reiterated by A. R. Parsons, who was
-the editor of the _Alarm_; and in August Spies he found an energetic
-ally. Among other things Spies said concerning the movement:
-
- We do not antagonize the eight-hour movement. Viewing it from the
- standpoint that it is a social struggle, we simply predict that it
- is a lost battle, and we will prove that, even though the eight-hour
- system should be established at this late day, the wage-workers would
- gain nothing. They would still remain the slaves of their masters.
-
- Suppose the hours of labor should be shortened to eight, our
- productive capacity would thereby not be diminished. The shortening of
- the hours of labor in England was immediately followed by a general
- increase of labor-saving machines, with a subsequent discharge of a
- proportionate number of employés. The reverse of what had been sought
- took place. The exploitation of those at work was intensified. They
- now performed more labor, and produced more than before.
-
-The movement, however, took a firm hold of the laboring classes. They
-saw in it a chance to secure more leisure, and, inspired by their
-anti-Socialistic leaders, did all in their power to further it. There
-were then in Chicago a great many unemployed, and under the plea that
-a reduction in the hours of toil would not only give more time for
-self-improvement, but necessitate the employment of many of the idle
-throng, the leaders advocated its speedy introduction. At this time
-the general sentiment prevailed that it was simply a movement for a
-reduction in working-time, the question of wages not being involved.
-Some few irresponsible talkers of the Socialistic stamp, it is true,
-held out that it was to be a contention for wages as well, but the most
-influential and conservative representatives of labor insisted that
-they only wanted eight hours’ work for eight-hours’ pay. Grand Master
-Workman Powderly held to the latter view and repeatedly urged the
-members of the Knights of Labor not to go beyond that demand. He even
-intimated a doubt if it were the part of wisdom and policy to undertake
-at the time a strike of the kind, in view of the complications then
-growing out of the Missouri Pacific Railway—known as the Gould
-system—“tie-up.” Traffic and industry had been seriously affected
-throughout the West by Martin Irons’ stubbornness, and it is evident
-that Powderly had his misgivings about the outcome of an eight-hour
-strike. However, the leaders continued their agitation, and it was
-decided that the resolution adopted in 1884 by a number of trades
-organizations in national session for an eight-hour strike on May 1,
-1886, should be carried out in Chicago, as in other large manufacturing
-and trade centers. Had this simple proposition not been “loaded,” the
-result of the movement might have been different, but, as the time drew
-near, it became quite apparent that, despite Powderly’s warnings, the
-question of wages was to cut a leading figure. It was developed that
-the demand for a reduction of hours was to be accompanied with a demand
-for the same wages as under the old ten-hour system. This was the rock
-upon which they subsequently foundered. Had they been content to accept
-decreased wages and relied upon increased efficiency and skill and the
-logic of events to secure increased pay in the future, they might have
-scored many victories, if not a complete success.
-
-But they were alike unmindful of Powderly’s advice and the teachings
-of history. They seemingly forgot that the employers would naturally
-resist any such sweeping concession, and that, as in other instances,
-the unemployed would at once be installed, whenever possible, in
-their places, and that in industries where there did not exist an
-over-production, the capacity of machines would be more heavily taxed
-and new machines would be introduced to do work hitherto done by hand.
-A London publication has shown how, in recent years, in the extremity
-of bitter strikes, manufactories have increased their labor-saving
-machinery to offset the absence of their workmen and how invention in
-the line of new machines has been greatly stimulated by a stubborn
-conflict between employer and employé. Hon. David A. Wells has also
-pointed out a similar result in this country. Identically the same
-thing happened in several establishments in Chicago. The unemployed and
-new machines were called into requisition whenever possible.
-
-But labor-saving machinery need not necessarily be regarded as an enemy
-of labor. That doctrine, which had its origin at the time when a riot
-in Spain followed the introduction of a machine to make woolens, and
-which continued until the invention of the sewing-machine, has in this
-day come to be regarded by all enlightened economists as a nightmare
-of the musty past. The fact is labor has been aided and benefited by
-machinery.
-
-Prof. Edison, the great inventor, is authority for the statement
-that the increase in machinery and inventions during the last fifty
-years has doubled the wages of workingmen and reduced the cost of the
-necessaries of life 50 per cent. “For the first time in the world’s
-history,” he says, “a skilled mechanic can buy a barrel of flour with a
-single day’s work.” Hon. David A. Wells, in an article in the _Popular
-Science Monthly_ for October, 1887, treating of the depression of
-prices since 1873, also demonstrates the fact that the reductions,
-which he states to be 30 per cent., during the time under his review,
-are due to inventions. Edison goes still further in his statement
-with reference to the enhancement of wages. He predicts, rather too
-glowingly perhaps, that in another generation even “the unskilled
-laborer, if sober and industrious, will have a house of his own, a
-library, a piano and a horse and carriage,” with all the comforts that
-these imply.
-
-Anarchist Spies evidently took no stock in such a condition as the
-result of new and improved mechanical appliances, for in his early
-opposition to the inauguration of the eight-hour movement he declared
-that “for a man who desires to remain a wage slave, the introduction of
-every new improvement and machine is a threatening competitor.”
-
-I have thus pointed to some facts bearing on strikes and wages because
-it has since transpired that the Anarchists or Socialists, intent on
-precipitating the “social revolution,” were the principal instigators
-of the demand for ten hours’ pay for eight hours’ work, thereby hoping
-to irritate the employers to determined resistance and the workingmen
-of non-Socialistic ideas to the point of violence. Past experience was
-cast aside under their clandestine guidance. While the movement was in
-its infancy the Socialists, as such, held aloof, but, the moment they
-saw that it was gaining strength and was likely to involve all the
-wage-workers in the city, and that eight hours on a basis of reduced
-pay might be secured, they perceived their opportunity to complicate
-matters by the introduction of a demand for the old wages with reduced
-time. This at once threw down the gauntlet. While before they had
-opposed the movement, they now became active agitators in its behalf
-and appeared more solicitous about its certain inauguration than they
-were about its successful ending. Their organs bristled with incendiary
-language. Their speakers could hardly find words strong enough to
-fire their auditors in the demand for eight hours. They even got up
-a procession under the auspices of the Central Labor Union, and, on
-Sunday, April 25, 1886, paraded the streets with red flags and red
-badges.
-
-Among some of the mottoes displayed were: “The Social Revolution,”
-“Workingmen, Arm Yourselves,” “Down with Throne, Altar and Moneybags,”
-and “Might makes Right, and You are the Strongest.”
-
-The procession massed on the Lake Front. There the leading speakers
-were loud in encouraging the strike for eight hours. Parsons maintained
-that “if the demands of workingmen were met by a universal lock-out,
-the signal would be taken as one of ‘war, and war to the knife.’” Spies
-declared that “the eight-hour day had been argued for twenty years. We
-at last can hope to realize it.” Schwab and Fielden were alike emphatic.
-
-The _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ likewise heartily indorsed the movement. In its
-issue of April 26, 1886, appeared an editorial of which the following
-is the concluding paragraph:
-
- What a modest demand, the introduction of the eight-hour day! And
- yet a corps of madmen could not demean themselves worse than the
- capitalistic extortioners. They continually threaten with their
- disciplined police and their strong militia,—and these are not empty
- threats. This is proved by the history of the last few years. It is a
- nice thing, this patience, and the laborer, alas! has too much of this
- article; but one must not indulge in a too frivolous play with it. If
- you go further, his patience will cease; then it will be no longer a
- question of the eight-hour day, but a question of emancipation from
- wage slavery.
-
-In the same paper two days later the editor said:
-
- What will the first of May bring? The workingmen bold and determined.
- The decisive day has arrived. The workingman, inspired by the justice
- of his cause, demands an alleviation of his lot, a lessening of his
- burden. The answer, as always, is: “Insolent rabble! Do you mean to
- dictate to us? That you will do to your sorrow. Hunger will soon rid
- you of your desire for any notions of liberty. Police, executioners
- and militia will give their aid.”
-
- Men of labor, so long as you acknowledge the gracious kicks of your
- oppressors with words of gratitude, so long you are faithful dogs.
- Have your skulls been penetrated by a ray of light, or does hunger
- drive you to shake off your servile nature, that you offend your
- extortioners? They are enraged, and will attempt, through hired
- murderers, to do away with you like mad dogs.
-
-When the eventful day—May 1—arrived, the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ became
-more menacing than ever, and the following appeared:
-
- Bravely forward! The conflict has begun. An army of wage-laborers
- are idle. Capitalism conceals its tiger claws behind the ramparts of
- order. Workmen, let your watchword be: No compromise! Cowards to the
- rear! Men to the front!
-
- The die is cast. The first of May has come. For twenty years the
- working people have been begging extortioners to introduce the
- eight-hour system, but have been put off with promises. Two years ago
- they resolved that the eight-hour system should be introduced in the
- United States on the first day of May, 1886. The reasonableness of
- this demand was conceded on all hands. Everybody, apparently, was in
- favor of shortening the hours; but, as the time approached, a change
- became apparent. That which was in theory modest and reasonable,
- became insolent and unreasonable. It became apparent at last that the
- eight-hour hymn had only been struck up to keep the labor dunces from
- Socialism.
-
- [Illustration:
-
- 1. Government is for Slaves Freemen Govern Themselves.
-
- 2. Stairbuilder Union Chicago
-
- 3. Every Government is a Conspiracy of the Rich Against the People.
-
- 4. “We mourn the death of a workingman more than the death of a Gen.
- Grant.”
-
- 6. “Down with Throne, Altar and Moneybags.”
-
- 7. “Workingmen, arm yourselves.”
-
- 8. “Every Government is a conspiracy against the People.”
-
- 9. Not to be a Slave is to Dare and Do! (Vic Hugo.)
-
- BANNERS OF THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION—IV. FROM PHOTOGRAPHS.]
-
- That the laborers might energetically insist upon the eight-hour
- movement, never occurred to the employer. And it is proposed again
- to put them off with promises. We are not afraid of the masses of
- laborers, but of their pretended leaders. Workmen, insist upon
- the eight-hour movement. “To all appearances it will not pass off
- smoothly.” The extortioners are determined to bring their laborers
- back to servitude by starvation. It is a question whether the
- workmen will submit, or will impart to their would-be murderers an
- appreciation of modern views. We hope the latter.
-
-In the same issue of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ also appeared the
-following, in a conspicuous place:
-
- It is said that on the person of one of the arrested comrades in New
- York a list of membership has been found, and that all the comrades
- compromised have been arrested. _Therefore, away with all rolls of
- membership, and minute-books, where such are kept. Clean your guns,
- complete your ammunition. The hired murderers of the capitalists, the
- police and militia, are ready to murder. No workingman should leave
- his house in these days with empty pockets._
-
-The consummate inconsistency of the Socialists is thus no better
-illustrated in what has already been shown than in their record in
-Chicago. They have always been eager to jump on top of the band wagon,
-to paraphrase a famous expression of Emery A. Storrs, when they thought
-that it gave them a chance to join in the lead of the procession; and,
-the moment they had a voice in directing the music, they led it beyond
-the mere sentiments of a Marseillaise. Take each formidable strike in
-the city, and invariably they have instigated the rabble to deeds of
-disorder and violence. What care they for labor reforms accomplished
-through peaceable agitation? It is only when a pretext is presented
-for widening the breach between capital and labor, and hastening the
-time for revolution, that the Socialists join in any movement looking
-to the real benefit of labor. It is true, they have figured in labor
-reforms, such as the agitation for national and State bureaus of
-labor statistics, the abolition of convict labor in competition with
-outside industries, the prevention of child labor in factories and
-work-shops, the sanitary inspection of tenement-houses and factories;
-but all these have been merely side issues to their one and controlling
-purpose—Revolution. For appearance’ sake they have boasted of their
-achievements in the lines indicated, but it is a fact of history that,
-without the efforts of non-Socialistic labor, none of the reforms
-so far accomplished would ever have been secured. The fact is that
-Socialists and Anarchists are radically opposed to the whole wage
-system and only join in the demands of law-observing and peace-loving
-labor as a means to one end—opportunity for disturbance. For this
-purpose alone they have become members of the Knights of Labor, and,
-once in, they have proved an element of disorder and contention. So
-pronounced had they become in fomenting trouble during the eight-hour
-agitation that Mr. Powderly finally found it necessary to issue a
-secret circular to the order in the spring of 1886. In that circular,
-among other things, he said:
-
-[Illustration: INTERIOR VIEW OF NEFF’S HALL.—From a Photograph.]
-
- Men who own capital are not our enemies. If that theory held good,
- the workman of to-day would be the enemy of his fellow-toiler on the
- morrow, for, after all, it is how to acquire capital and how to use
- it properly that we are endeavoring to learn. No! The man of capital
- is not necessarily the enemy of the laborer; on the contrary, they
- must be brought closer together. I am well aware that some extremists
- will say I am advocating a weak plan and will say that bloodshed and
- destruction of property alone will solve the problem. If a man speaks
- such sentiments in an assembly read for him the charge which the
- Master Workman repeats to the newly initiated who join our “army of
- peace.” If he repeats such nonsense put him out.
-
-Wise words and well spoken.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI.
-
- The Eight-hour Movement—Anarchist Activity—The Lock-out at
- McCormick’s—Distorting the Facts—A Socialist Lie—The True Facts
- about McCormick’s—Who Shall Run the Shops?—Abusing the “Scabs”—High
- Wages for Cheap Work—The Union Loses $3,000 a Day—Preparing for
- Trouble—Arming the Anarchists—Ammunition Depots—Pistols and
- Dynamite—Threatening the Police—The Conspirators Show the White
- Feather—Capt. O’Donnell’s Magnificent Police Work—The Revolution
- Blocked—A Foreign Reservation—An Attempt to Mob the Police—The
- History of the First Secret Meeting—Lingg’s First Appearance in the
- Conspiracy—The Captured Documents—Bloodshed at McCormick’s—“The
- Battle Was Lost”—Officer Casey’s Narrow Escape.
-
-
-THE events immediately preceding the inauguration of the eight-hour
-strike were remarkable in the opportunities they afforded Anarchists
-for arousing workingmen against capital and stirring up their worst
-passions. The leaders had already intensified the clamor for reduced
-working-time, and only the occasion was needed to fully arouse the true
-ruffianism behind the Socialistic rabble. This occasion was presented
-in the troubles that grew out of the “lock-out” at McCormick’s
-Harvester Works, and, as the facts in connection therewith are
-necessary to a clear and comprehensive understanding of the situation,
-I shall briefly review them. Before doing so, however, it may be well
-to premise by saying that the real state of affairs in that trouble
-was greatly exaggerated, and that, instead of dividing responsibility,
-the Socialistic orators sought to throw the sole burden upon the
-owners and managers of that establishment, charging them, in the heat
-and excitement of the times, with gross violation of pledged faith
-to the men employed, and instigating even violent resistance to the
-installation of new men, or “scabs,” as they were opprobriously termed,
-into the vacated places.
-
-This so-called “lock-out” occurred on February 16, 1886, and through it
-some twelve hundred men became idle. The Anarchists proceeded at once
-to distort every fact in connection with it. The view they presented of
-the affair may be best shown by the following extract from a history of
-the Chicago Anarchists published by the Socialistic Publishing Society:
-
- The employés of that establishment had been for some time perfecting
- their organization, and at last had presented a petition for the
- redress of certain grievances and a general advance of wages. The
- dispute arose over an additional demand that a guarantee be given
- that no man in the factory should be discharged for having acted as
- a representative of his comrades. This was absolutely refused. A
- strike in the factory in the preceding April had been adjusted on the
- basis that none of the men who served on committees, etc., and made
- themselves conspicuous in behalf of their fellow workmen, would be
- discharged for so doing. This agreement has been wantonly violated,
- and every man who had incurred the displeasure of Mr. McCormick was
- not only discharged, but black-listed, in many cases being unable to
- obtain employment in other shops.
-
-It thus appears that the Socialist leaders not only hoped to utilize
-the strike to precipitate their revolution, but, by purposely
-misstating the grievances of McCormick’s men, to engender a bitter and
-violent feeling against that establishment. Now, what were the true
-facts in the case? Along in February the employés in the works asked
-for a uniformity of wages, the re-employment, as occasion demanded,
-of all old hands, who had been out of work since the strike in April
-preceding, and the discharge of five non-union men employed in the
-foundry. Mr. Cyrus McCormick generously conceded the first two demands,
-but firmly declined to discharge the non-union men, as he regarded
-this as an interference with the company’s right of employing whom
-they pleased. Thereupon the employés held a meeting and formulated an
-_ultimatum_, in which they insisted upon the discharge as requested,
-“not because,” as they said, “they wanted to abridge the privilege of
-hiring and discharging, but because Foreman Ward threatened to pursue
-old hands with such vindictiveness that he would drive them over the
-‘Black Road,’ or else they would have to walk in their nakedness,”
-and in justice to the old employés the non-union workmen ought to be
-“thrown out.” Mr. McCormick took the position that this was an attempt
-to dictate that only union men should be employed in the works, and he
-finally declared that the company had always decided and always would
-decide who were best suited to do its work, and whom or how many men
-it would employ or discharge. If the concessions already made were not
-satisfactory, he would close the works.
-
-During the strike of the preceding spring, McCormick had done just what
-other manufacturers had done in similar cases—introduced new machinery
-to perform work hitherto done by hand. He had put in new molding
-apparatus and had found that the new machines in the hands of ordinary
-laborers, as soon as they learned to handle them, turned out daily far
-more molds and more reliable ones than the old hand process. On the
-outbreak of the trouble in February there were fifteen men employed in
-the foundry,—ten old hands and five non-union men. The services of all
-of them might thus have been dispensed with, since skilled labor was
-not necessary, and, with the addition of more machines and a few raw
-hands, just as much and just as good work, he claimed, might have been
-produced. But the owners desired to favor the employés, and, having
-granted a uniformity of wages even to the extent of advancing the pay
-of ordinary labor to $1.50 per day, a sum greater than that paid by
-similar industries elsewhere, and having promised to give preference to
-old employés when additional hands were needed, they resolved not to be
-dictated to by outside malcontents nor to discharge men who had done
-efficient work for the company.
-
-[Illustration: A STRIKE. THE WALKING DELEGATE SOWING THE SEED OF
-DISCONTENT.]
-
-The grant of such a request would, they held, be virtually placing the
-management of the concern in the hands of outsiders. When, therefore,
-the employés, instigated by the Anarchists, resolved to strike for
-their demand, McCormick took time by the forelock and ordered the works
-closed on and after nine o’clock on the morning of February 16, to
-remain closed until the strikers decided to return.
-
-[Illustration: GREIF’S HALL.]
-
-By this “lock-out” the employés were deprived of $3,000 a day in the
-shape of wages, that amount representing the daily payroll of the
-concern. Meanwhile, pending the lock-out, the company canvassed the
-possibility of an early resumption of business and quietly perfected
-arrangements for that step, which they concluded to take on March 1.
-Of course, this contemplated move enraged all the groups in the city.
-The strikers in the vicinity of the factory were especially excited.
-Ever since the establishment had closed its doors the neighborhood had
-been infested with idlers and vicious-looking men. They had all felt
-confident that the firm would be finally forced to submit, but when it
-gradually dawned upon their minds that arrangements had actually been
-made for a resumption of work without reference to the wishes of the
-“outs,” they determined to prevent it by force. They were the first to
-decide on violent measures, and they presented their purpose to the
-members of Carpenters’ Union No. 1. The result was that two secret
-meetings of the armed men of both unions were held between February 27
-and March 3 at Greif’s Hall. The first meeting called out nearly all
-the “armed men” of the Metal-workers’ Union and about one hundred and
-forty men belonging to International Carpenters’ Union No. 1, some with
-rifles, revolvers and dynamite bombs. They then and there formulated
-a plan to prevent the “scabs” from going to work. The plan was that
-the metal-workers should gather in the vicinity of the factory at
-about five o’clock on the morning the works were to be reopened, well
-equipped with bombs, rifles and revolvers. Those who did not possess
-rifles were to secure revolvers and bombs, which could be obtained,
-they were told, on Blue Island Avenue, between Twenty-second Street
-and McCormick’s. At that place, on giving the pass-word and number
-of the place, every member would be supplied. In the event of their
-running short of ammunition, they were to repair to that place, and
-they would find some one there always to wait on them. It was given out
-that the place was run by the metal-workers, who would see to it that
-all necessary bombs were on hand. Members having friends living in the
-vicinity of the factory were to stay with them over night so as to be
-up bright and early in the morning, and those living at a distance were
-to make it a point to get up early enough to be on hand at the time
-indicated. A point of _rendezvous_ was designated, and, when all had
-arrived, they were to surround the factory and permit no one to enter
-except on peril of being shot. This situation of affairs, they said,
-would necessarily bring out the police, but the moment these should
-arrive the “armed men” were to open fire. The first volley was to be
-over the heads of the “blue-coats,” and if that did not put them to
-flight, they were to be shot down without mercy. When they began to
-throw bombs the “reds” were all to be in line, so that none of their
-own number would be hurt by the explosions, and wherever the police
-formed a company a solid front was to be presented and a rattling fire
-maintained. They would also form different lines along the “Black
-Road,” and when patrol wagons came to the rescue of the officers, they
-were to hurl bombs at them.
-
-It was to be a fight to the death. Every one agreed, as I was told, “to
-die game, give no quarter, and see to it that the green grass around
-McCormick’s factory was nourished with human blood.” In accordance
-with the plan, the members of the Carpenters’ Union were to assemble
-with rifles and ammunition at Greif’s Hall at an hour not later than
-six o’clock in the morning, and to remain there until orders for
-their services were sent. The carpenters carried out their part of
-the programme, and at the appointed hour there were no less than two
-hundred of them at the hall, fully armed and apparently ready for
-any emergency. They scattered throughout the hall building so as not
-to attract attention, and impatiently awaited orders or information
-indicating the progress of affairs at the factory. But no orders were
-received. They heard nothing for some time, but when they did they
-were a happier lot of men. The clamor and excitement of the hour
-had stimulated them with a false courage, but each had nevertheless
-entertained a secret hope that there would be no call for a display of
-their valor. And there was none.
-
-It appears that, on the morning they were to have created such dire
-destruction, the brave metal-workers overslept themselves! “There was
-snow on the ground,” and probably they did not care to defile it with
-the blood of their enemies. None of them appeared at the _rendezvous_
-on time, and when they straggled around at a later hour they were
-full of excuses, the one on which they principally relied being that
-their faithful spouses had neglected to wake them in time. No one
-for a moment charged the others with cowardice, and yet that was the
-whole secret of their failure. Each had expected others to be at the
-appointed place ready for the fray, but the unanimity with which all
-had prolonged their slumbers prevented what all had expected to see—a
-brilliant victory with themselves beyond all danger.
-
-But about the time these braves should have been around according to
-programme, another party occupied the field. It was the brave and
-fearless Capt. Simon O’Donnell, of the Second Precinct, with two
-lieutenants and three companies of well disciplined officers. They took
-charge of the “Black Road” and the vicinity of McCormick’s factory
-as early as six o’clock, and the so-called “scabs” passed into the
-works, “with none to molest them or make them afraid.” When those who
-had overslept sneaked around, one after another, they were perfectly
-amazed. Where they had hoped to see the ground strewn with the dead
-bodies of policemen, they found order and serenity.
-
-In the expectation of seeing some disturbance, the vicinity became
-crowded during the forenoon with idlers and curious people drawn from
-all parts of the city. Seeing this throng and relying on the presence
-of many Anarchists, the daring metal-workers revived their spirits and
-hoped yet to precipitate a conflict by egging it on at a safe distance
-in the rear. They accordingly began to utter loud threats and urge the
-excited rabble to an attack on the “blanked bloodhounds,” the police.
-
-There were in the crowd a lot of half-drunken Polanders and Bohemians
-who, living in the neighborhood, claimed that the presence of the
-police was a menace to their personal rights and privileges. The police
-were on what these misguided people considered their own reservation,
-and, with a view to driving them away, some began throwing stones and
-clubs at the officers in the patrol wagons. Others picked out officers
-apart from their companions and made them the targets for their
-missiles. Captain O’Donnell learned, while this disconcerted attack was
-going on, that many of the crowd had revolvers and dynamite in their
-pockets. He speedily resolved on a plan for arresting and disarming
-such men and gave orders to his lieutenants to surround the crowd
-and search all suspected persons. The result was that the following
-were found to have arms, and they were placed under arrest: Stephen
-Reiski, Adolph Heuman, Charles Kosh, Henry Clasen, John Hermann, George
-Hermann, Ernest Haker, Otto Sievert, Emil Kernser, Frank Trokinski and
-Stanifon Geiner. Detectives from the Central Station assisted in the
-search, and the offenders were taken to the Police Court, where they
-were fined $10 each.
-
-It was thought that this procedure would quiet the mob, but later in
-the day the Anarchists again gathered around McCormick’s. The crowd
-was again surrounded, and the following were arrested for carrying
-concealed weapons: Louis Hartman, William Brecker, Julius Vimert, Peter
-Pech, William Holden, Louis Lingg, Carl Jagush, Samuel Barn, William
-Meyer, Rudolph Miller, John Hoben and John Otto. These were also fined.
-
-[Illustration: A “ROUND-UP.”]
-
-During this trouble at the factory a gang of Anarchists had gathered at
-the Workingmen’s Hall on West Twelfth Street, and they had just formed
-a procession to march out in a body to McCormick’s, when they were
-surrounded and searched. In this “round-up” the great “Little August”
-Krueger was arrested with a full uniform of the Lehr und Wehr Verein
-under an overcoat, and a number of his comrades were taken in charge at
-the same time. Many of them had dynamite bombs, and some one shouted
-that “all brothers who had ‘stuff’ should get away and the others
-should assist them.”
-
-But the police were not to be trifled with, and some of the most daring
-officers rushed into the thickest of the crowd, and succeeded in
-gathering in several bombs. There were a number of women in the mob,
-and some of these hid bombs under their petticoats. The officers were
-of course too gallant to molest them. But the search and arrests served
-to break up the procession and prevent further outbreaks at the factory
-that day.
-
-Such were the results of the plots of the first secret meeting. The
-second secret gathering, a few days later, was held, as the former
-had been, at Greif’s Hall. It was called by the metal-workers and
-carpenters jointly. They were more demonstrative than ever. Gustav
-Belz was accorded the distinction of presiding over the turbulent
-members of the Carpenters’ Union. All of the carpenters belonging
-to the Lehr und Wehr Verein, numbering one hundred and eighty men,
-were present with their rifles, and they were loud for war. At the
-same time the metal-workers had a gathering by themselves, and when a
-delegation from them called on the carpenters and announced that they
-were prepared to engage in battle that day, the carpenters’ assemblage
-became delirious with excitement. They shouted and jumped about in
-such a lively manner that some of the more conservative members were
-obliged to warn them to quiet down or they would attract the attention
-of the police. The hot-heads, enraged at this caution, retorted by
-accusing the conservatives of cowardice. They refused to be quieted,
-and, like Comanche Indians about to take to the war-path, they examined
-their revolvers and brandished their guns. They even inspected the
-fuse on their bombs, and insisted that they would be ready the moment
-the command was given. In anticipation of blood, they screwed up their
-courage by frequent libations; and the more they drank the happier they
-grew over the prospect of speedy acquisition of wealth when once their
-revolution was started.
-
-It was an uncomfortable place meanwhile for the conservative members,
-and these had frequent occasion during the stormy proceedings to regret
-that they had uttered a word of remonstrance. But there was one who
-did not allow his feelings to get the better of his judgment. It was
-Balthasar Rau. He took the floor and said that, however much he desired
-to fight and sweep McCormick and all other capitalists from the face of
-the earth, yet he could plainly see that the time had not yet arrived
-for commencing the revolution. It would be folly, he insisted, to go
-out on the streets with rifles in hand while all the surroundings were
-against them and while they were not generally prepared to cope with
-the police and militia. To commence a general upheaval now would be to
-destroy their prospects in the immediate future.
-
-“Before you make war,” said Rau, “you must have something to fall back
-on; but now we have nothing. We ought to have a treasury well filled.
-If we inaugurate a fight we must expect that some of us will be killed,
-others wounded, and others again arrested. Where is the money to help
-those in distress? What will your families do if you are killed? You
-must take all these things into consideration. It is very easy for us
-to go out, shoot and kill somebody, but what can we expect to gain by
-all that? We must be ready and prepared and protected.”
-
-This speech had a soothing effect upon some, but Belz wanted blood,
-and that immediately. He despised the capitalists, and the sooner
-their blood was spilled the better it would suit him. The majority of
-the meeting expressed a concurrence in Rau’s ideas, and one member
-emphasized Rau’s remarks by saying that it would be like a man going
-out on the streets, pounding another and then running away—nothing was
-gained.
-
-Belz, seeing the drift of sentiment, grew very angry, and he suggested
-that some one move an adjournment to some other day, when they might
-hope to get together a braver lot of men. Such a motion was made, and
-the gathering separated, those that were not too drunk posting off at
-once for home.
-
-[Illustration:
-
- HYNEK DJENEK. ANTON SEVESKI.
-
-SPECIMEN RIOTERS—I. From Photographs taken by the Police Department.]
-
-Belz grew quite demonstrative over the lack of results at this meeting,
-and avowed that he would have nothing more to do with such a crowd of
-cowards. A few days thereafter, however, another meeting was held;
-but, in view of the many arrests Captain O’Donnell had made among
-their members, they were unable to decide upon any business. Some of
-the hot-heads threw all the blame on Rau and some of his friends for
-having prevented decisive action when they might have hoped to come
-out victorious. But all this sort of talk was simply braggadocio, and
-had any of these loud-mouthed fellows been actually tried, they would
-have been found skulking in the rear of an attacking party. Prior and
-subsequent events proved them all trembling cowards when their own
-personal safety was at stake.
-
-Perhaps the most dangerous, because the most secret, figure in the
-cabal at this time was Louis Lingg. He seems to have been chosen
-especially to direct the revolutionary design in the southwest part of
-the city, and his counsels permeated every Socialistic circle in that
-section. In his trunk, after his arrest, the following letter was found
-in his own handwriting, evidently a copy or the original of one sent:
-
- _Dear Brother Union_: On the occasion of the last general meeting in
- Zepf’s Hall the International Carpenters’ Union passed a resolution
- asking the Furniture Makers’ Union if they were satisfied with
- the doings of their delegates, especially with Mr. Hausch and Mr.
- Mende, who had agreed to take the leadership of the revolution....
- It is natural that the governing class would take these—their
- means—as soon as the workingmen would try to take their rights. In
- consequence of these facts we feel it our duty to call the attention
- of indifferent workingmen to these facts and suggest the adoption of
- force, power against power, and urge all to arm yourselves. Therefore,
- stand with all your energy against the system of profit without regard
- to the way they prepare themselves. We request our brother union
- to acquaint us with their point of view, so we can form our plans
- accordingly.
-
- With greeting and the shaking of the hand.
-
- INTERNATIONAL CARPENTERS’ UNION NO. 1.
-
-Lingg likewise issued a personal address, a copy of which was also
-found in the trunk, urging the laborers of the Southwest Side to
-practice in the handling of arms. Among other things found written over
-his signature, is the following:
-
- Our authorized demands are replied to with clubs, powder and lead.
- In consequence of these experiences it is no more than right that
- we adopt force and arm ourselves. The opportunity to arm yourselves
- cheaply can be ascertained from all well-known comrades, as well as
- armed organization, where you can find good places to drill. Don’t let
- this opportunity pass. The medicine dynamite, in leaden bomb, is more
- powerful than the rifle. Don’t forget the opportunity.
-
-Lingg also sent another circular to his comrades in that section, of
-which the following is a copy:
-
-[Illustration:
-
- JOHN POTOTSKI. FRANK NOVAK.
-
-SPECIMEN RIOTERS.—II. From Photographs taken by the Police Department.]
-
- _Brothers_: As you have noticed for a long time past that the police
- are more than ready to break your heads with their murderous clubs
- and do not care whether they make you cripples for the balance of
- your miserable days, and do not care whether your wives and children
- have to go begging for you after you become useless; neither do
- they care for the loving young son that supports his old parents,
- whether they kill him or not: therefore, taking all these things into
- consideration,—that these policemen are ready, under the instruction
- of the capitalists, to commit murder on the working people,—I say
- we must resist these monsters, and the way we must do this is to
- get ready and be all like one man. We must fight them with as good
- weapons, even better than they possess, and, therefore, I call you
- all to arms! As we are no capitalists, we can make arrangements in
- a gun-factory outside of this State. Have this matter treated very
- confidentially. Have only a committee of three members to buy arms
- as cheaply as possible, and see if there can be anything secured on
- half credit, so that you can also give time to the buyer. In this way
- you can get all new and good arms and better than the police have.
- Then I call your attention again and impress on your minds that it
- is not alone enough that you have the arms; you must also understand
- how to use them so that you can be equally well drilled with them
- as your opponents. Then you can give them successful resistance.
- And now, to make this matter very easy and a success for all, the
- workingmen of this city, with the third company of the Lehr und Wehr
- Verein and some members of the International Carpenters’ Union, held
- a meeting yesterday, and they all agreed to give lessons in drill
- to any one that wanted to learn how to use arms. All the people so
- desiring should call every Thursday evening at 8 o’clock at Turner
- Hall “Vorwaerts,” on West Twelfth Street, and there they will receive
- instructions free of charge.
-
-[Illustration:
-
- VACLAV DJENEK. ANTON STIMAK.
-
-SPECIMEN RIOTERS—III. From Photographs taken by the Police
-Department.]
-
- I want you Southwest Side people to be as useful with arms as the
- people on the North and Northwest sides. We have everything about as
- complete as we wish it to be. On the North Side we have Neff’s or
- Thuringia Hall, No. 58 Clybourn Avenue, and you can come and visit us
- there and see the boys drill. We have a man named Hermann, and he is
- a soldier from the old home and a first-class drillmaster, and always
- pleased to see new recruits. Now, workingmen of the Southwest Side, I
- beg of you to make use of this opportunity. Do not let this go by like
- a dream. Remember, we are all one. It does not matter whether you are
- on the South, North or West Side; we must all fight for a purpose. Do
- not stay at home and let your brothers be killed when you can help
- them and make your cause a victory. Come in large masses, come often,
- come promptly. If you do this, everything will be an easy matter for
- us to undertake. Our labor will be rewarded.... The first of May is
- coming near. We will have to kill the monster. We must be ready to
- meet him. This is our only chance now. Probably we will not have this
- opportunity to meet the monster so that we can fight him with our
- weapons. You must kill the pirates. You must kill the bloodsuckers;
- and for the first time in ages the poor workingmen will be made happy.
- Our work is short; we do not want a thirty years’ war. Be determined.
- Do not let your near relation, if he is an enemy, stand in your way.
- Doing all this, then, the victory is ours.
-
- LOUIS LINGG.
-
-In the work of stirring up bad blood, Lingg seems to have neglected
-no point likely to count with the dissatisfied laborers. He knew that
-among the strikers were a great many German Knights of Labor, and, with
-an ingenuity worthy of a better cause, he took occasion particularly
-to point out an article published in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ of April
-22, 1886, giving Governor Oglesby’s views on boycotting. This paper was
-afterwards found in his trunk, somewhat soiled from frequent usage,
-and the article in question, for convenience of reference, had been
-heavily marked with a lead-pencil. Lingg no doubt figured that those
-who believed in the boycott would thereafter array themselves solidly
-on the side of those who favored force. A translation of the Governor’s
-remarks, as given in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, is as follows:
-
- The system of boycotting is the most damnable proposal which was ever
- fabricated. It repudiates the Constitution, the law and everything.
- It is the devil’s invention. Yes (speaking to John V. Farwell), when
- it has so far progressed that the militia is obliged to interfere,
- you will find that these d—d boycotters will come to them (the
- merchants and business men) and say, “You must prohibit your employés
- joining the militia, and those who persist in belonging must be
- discharged from employment, or you will be boycotted.” This is a fine
- arrangement. It is true that, meeting with opposition all over, it
- will die out, but I tell you it is the most damnable transgression
- which was ever concocted.
-
-[Illustration:
-
- IGNATZ URBAN. JOSEPH SUGAR.
-
-SPECIMEN RIOTERS—IV. From Photographs taken by the Police Department.]
-
-Parsons and Schwab also took a hand in the McCormick “lock-out,” but
-they used the platform to arouse the people to force. On the 2d of
-March a mass-meeting of Anarchists and hot-headed strikers was held
-at the West Twelfth Street Turner Hall. Parsons and Schwab were the
-chief speakers. They were particularly abusive of the owners and the
-superintendent of the works, and advised the use of violence against
-the police. So incendiary were the speeches that E. E. Sanderson, a
-member of the strikers’ standing committee, took occasion to denounce
-the proceedings.
-
-“Such speakers,” he declared, “cause every spark of sympathy to
-disappear and bring us into disrepute.” If he had had the power, he
-said, he would have stopped the gathering. He belonged to the true
-laboring class, and to properly voice its sentiments he hired another
-hall for the next day.
-
-The continued presence of the police at the works finally restored
-order in the vicinity, and it seemed as if the Anarchists had abandoned
-any further intention of violence. But they were secretly at work,
-biding their time and watching their opportunity. It came on the
-afternoon of May 3. At this time between 40,000 and 50,000 men in
-Chicago were out of employment by reason of the eight-hour strike.
-Excitement ran high throughout the city. The reaper works were now
-almost in full operation, and, led by the Anarchists, some of the
-hot-headed strikers, grown impatient over the apparent failure of
-their plan, made an assault upon the “scabs” at work in the shops.
-The instigators of this attack and the principal assailants were
-Anarchists, who exerted themselves to the utmost to bring on a deadly
-conflict between the police and the unemployed.
-
-For the day in question a meeting of the Lumber-shovers’ Union had
-been called in the vicinity to receive the report of a committee
-who had waited on their employers with reference to the eight-hour
-question. The Socialists, learning of this, determined to make use of
-the opportunity. The union was composed of over six thousand lumber
-workingmen, three thousand Bohemians and over three thousand Germans,
-and had no connection with the McCormick strike, but it occurred to the
-Central Labor Union that, inasmuch as many of them were adherents of
-Socialism, it would be no difficult matter to incite them to riotous
-demonstrations. On the day preceding, Spies had been delegated by his
-union to address the gathering. The president of the Lumber Union,
-Frank Haraster, had become cognizant of the Anarchists’ intentions,
-and had taken occasion to warn the men against either listening
-to Socialistic orators or participating in a riot. But there were
-mutterings of discontent, and the crowd was in a revengeful mood. There
-were no less than 8,000 people at the gathering—some estimated the
-number as high as 15,000. Some were intent on revolution, and others
-had been drawn to the scene through idle curiosity.
-
-It only needed a spark to create a tremendous conflagration. Anarchists
-were busy among the various groups that had collected. For several
-days they had labored early and late in the locality to stimulate
-revolutionary action. Their plans had been carefully concocted, and
-their network of conspiracy extended in every direction. They had
-opened channels of subterranean communication, and so arranged their
-mines of Socialistic powder that at the appointed time they hoped to
-produce an explosion that would reverberate throughout the globe. That
-appointed time, they figured, had arrived with the inauguration of
-the eight-hour movement, and in the lock-out at McCormick’s the first
-opportunity was presented for a general upheaval. This was their hope
-and the burden of their care.
-
-When, therefore, a coterie of trained Anarchists appeared on the
-scene of trouble,—evidently by a preconcerted arrangement,—with
-the Nation’s flag reversed and trailing in mud and muck, the wildest
-excitement was aroused, and only a leader was necessary to connect
-the electric currents of suppressed hostility to start an outburst of
-violent deeds.
-
-The occasion brought forth that leader in the person of the impulsive
-and impetuous Spies. He, with some trusted lieutenants, mounted a
-box-car in the vicinity of the meeting of the lumber-shovers and the
-McCormick works. He gathered about him an immense crowd, and, speaking
-in German, called the attention of his auditors to the “brutalities of
-capital, its selfishness and its grinding oppression” of wage-workers,
-rendering their condition worse than that of slaves. With fiery
-invective he wrought up the feelings of the mob to a pitch of reckless
-frenzy. In the climaxes of his envenomed utterances, he held the
-multitude with a charmed spell, and he evoked their highest plaudits
-when he counseled violence as a means to redress their grievances.
-
-Before the termination of this lurid speech, many hitherto apparently
-apathetic had caught the infection, and when some of the non-union
-men emerged from the gate at the McCormick foundry, on the conclusion
-of their day’s labor,—the hour being three o’clock,—many of the
-mob rushed to the establishment, bent on wreaking vengeance. They
-had hardly begun to move when some one on the box-car shouted: “Go
-up and kill the d——d scabs!” The identity of this person has never
-been disclosed, but it is no rash conclusion to suppose that it was
-a confidant of Spies, as well as of Lingg, who had secret charge of
-fomenting disturbances in that district. Lingg was present at this
-gathering, and, as he subsequently claimed that he had been clubbed by
-the police in the riot that followed, he may possibly have raised the
-cry himself.
-
-The mob reached the works in short order, hurling stones and firing
-shots into the windows of the guard-house, which they finally
-demolished. The non-union men, seeing the approaching mob, took to
-flight, some seeking shelter in the works and others scampering across
-the prairie beyond reach. There were at this time only two policemen
-on duty. One of them, J. A. West, endeavored to pacify the crowd, but
-received in response bricks and mud. The other for awhile, as well as
-he could, held the mob at bay at the gate. West finally worked his
-way through the crowd to a patrol box, and turned in an alarm for
-reinforcements. Meanwhile the mob disported itself in throwing stones
-and firing revolvers, and finally forced an entrance through the gate
-to the yards.
-
-Presently a patrol wagon loaded with officers plowed through the
-turbulent mass, and, securing the ground between the mob and the
-buildings, began driving out and dispersing the rioters. This only
-served to infuriate the Anarchists, who fired in the direction of the
-police and hurled a shower of stones. The officers remonstrated in
-vain, warning the mob to keep back, and finally made a rush upon the
-rioters with revolvers drawn, shooting right and left.
-
-[Illustration: CHARGING THE MOB.]
-
-The crowd swayed to and fro, retreated slightly, then rallied again,
-and, diverging to either side in a jumbled but compact body, seemed
-bent on holding their ground and fighting for every inch of it. But the
-dashing and aggressive movements of the police, backed by courage and
-discipline, soon demonstrated to the howling rabble the hopelessness
-of the struggle. The very air seemed charged with bullets, clubs
-and missiles. Revolvers clicked furiously, the exigencies of the
-moment necessitating their use on the part of the police, and several
-revolutionists bit the dust, maimed and wounded. What seems strange is
-that none were killed in this furious onslaught.
-
-The mob, which numbered fully 8,000, was soon put to precipitate
-flight. Some of the most vicious leaders, however, kept up a rattling
-fire of guns, revolvers, brickbats and sticks so long as their retreat
-was measurably covered by the fleeing mob surrounding them. Several
-of these leaders, with their weapons still smoking, were subsequently
-overtaken, disarmed and locked up.
-
-During all this short affray, Spies was nowhere to be seen, but, the
-moment all danger seemed past, he emerged from his seclusion, breathing
-courage and vengeance. He bounded into the field like one ready to
-sacrifice himself for his cause, but cautiously kept himself where no
-stray bullets might reach him. Another singular feature in connection
-with the part he played in the affair was his attempt to parade his own
-heroic virtues, by implication, in the denunciations and upbraidings
-he heaped upon his comrades in the account published of the riot on
-the very afternoon after its occurrence. This is what he said in the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_:
-
-[Illustration: OFFICER CASEY’S PERIL.]
-
- The writer of this hastened to the factory as soon as the first shots
- were fired, and a comrade urged the assembly to hasten to the rescue
- of their brothers, who were being murdered, but none stirred.... The
- writer ran back. He implored the people to come along,—those who had
- revolvers in their pockets,—but it was in vain. With an exasperating
- indifference they put their hands in their pockets and marched home,
- babbling as if the whole affair did not concern them in the least. The
- revolvers were still cracking, and fresh detachments of police, here
- and there bombarded with stones, were hastening to the battle-ground.
- The battle was lost!
-
-A riot on a smaller scale occurred shortly after this in another
-locality, instigated by the Anarchists who had been so severely
-repulsed in the afternoon. After the McCormick outbreak one of the
-wounded strikers was taken in a patrol wagon to the Twelfth Street
-Station, and thence to his home on Seventeenth Street. Officer Casey
-was one of the men in charge of the wagon, and remained behind at the
-house to take a report of the man’s name, his residence and the nature
-of his injuries. When the officer came out of the wounded man’s home,
-he was set upon by a mob, shouting:
-
-“Hang him! Hang the blue-coat!”
-
-A Bohemian, named Vaclav Djenek, cried out:
-
-“Help me; help me to hang the _canaille_!”
-
-Two or three came to his side and endeavored to execute the threat.
-Casey by a great effort managed to get away, and started on a run.
-Pistol shots were fired after him by the mob, but fortunately he
-escaped without injury.
-
-[Illustration: FRANZ MIKOLANDA, A POLISH CONSPIRATOR.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-A patrol wagon from the West Chicago Avenue Station had meanwhile been
-telephoned for by some peace-loving citizens, and it rapidly dashed
-up to the scene of disturbance. The officers saw the whole situation,
-dispersed the mob, and set about arresting the parties who had so
-nearly succeeded in hanging the officer. They found that it had been a
-very close call for Casey, that the rope was ready, and that, had it
-not been for his own Herculean efforts, he would have dangled from a
-lamp-post in a very few seconds.
-
-Djenek, who was afterwards recognized as the principal actor in
-this episode, was run down and placed under arrest. He was tried
-and sentenced to one year in the penitentiary. During the trial two
-officers of the West Chicago Avenue Station happened to be in the
-State’s Attorney’s office when a lot of Bohemian literature and
-Anarchist utensils were being exhibited. Among other things, they
-noticed a photograph of Franz Mikolanda, and they at once exclaimed:
-
-“This is the other man who helped Djenek to hang Casey!”
-
-Mikolanda appeared at the trial for the purpose of swearing to an
-alibi for Djenek, and was promptly recognized. He had no sooner left
-the witness-stand than he was arrested on a warrant and subsequently
-prosecuted. He was found guilty and sentenced to six months in the
-Bridewell.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII.
-
- The _Coup d’État_ a Miscarriage—Effect of the Anarchist Failure
- at McCormick’s—“Revenge”—Text of the Famous Circular—The German
- Version—An Incitement to Murder—Bringing on a Conflict—Engel’s
- Diabolical Plan—The Rôle of the Lehr und Wehr Verein—The Gathering
- of the Armed Groups—Fischer’s Sanguinary Talk—The Signal for
- Murder—“Ruhe” and its Meaning—Keeping Clear of the Mouse-Trap—The
- Haymarket Selected—Its Advantages for Revolutionary War—The Call
- for the Murder Meeting—“Workingmen, Arm Yourselves”—Preparing the
- Dynamite—The _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ Arsenal—The Assassins’ Roost at 58
- Clybourn Avenue—The Projected Attack on the Police Stations—Bombs
- for All who Wished Them—Waiting for the Word of Command—Why it was
- not Given—The Leaders’ Courage Fails.
-
-
-NEVER was that old saying, “Whom the gods wish to destroy they first
-make mad,” better illustrated than in the actions of the Anarchist
-leaders after their desperate exploits at McCormick’s Works. That riot
-was to have been the pivotal point in their social revolution. It
-turned out a humiliating fiasco. They had hoped to make a _coup d’état_
-for the scarlet banner and had counted upon such a victory as would
-terrorize Capital, appal the people and paralyze the arm of constituted
-authority. When they discovered that the police had escaped with only
-slight bruises, that some of their own comrades had been seriously
-wounded and that even the so-called “scabs” had passed through the
-onslaught with nothing worse than fright, their rage knew no bounds.
-They saw that “the battle had been lost,” and prompt, energetic action
-seemed necessary to retrieve the situation.
-
-Spies, their recognized leader, while the perspiration still dripped
-from his face, and his blood still fired by his speech to the strikers
-and his “heroic efforts” to rally the routed and fleeing Socialists,
-seized a pen, and, dipping it into the gall of his indignation, wrote
-what subsequently became famous as the “Revenge Circular.” It was
-printed in German and English, and an exact _fac-simile_ is presented
-herewith. The German version is somewhat different from the English,
-being addressed to the adherents of Anarchy and Socialism, the English
-version seeming to have been intended for Americans in general. Several
-thousand copies were scattered throughout the city.
-
-The wording of the English portion of the circular may be seen in the
-illustration. The German portion, translated, reads as follows:
-
-[Illustration: THE FAMOUS “REVENGE” CIRCULAR.
-
-Engraved from the Original by direct Photographic Process.]
-
- Revenge! Revenge! Workmen to arms!
-
- Men of labor, this afternoon the bloodhounds of your oppressors
- murdered six of your brothers at McCormick’s. Why did they murder
- them? Because they dared to be dissatisfied with the lot which your
- oppressors have assigned to them. They demanded bread, and they
- gave them lead for an answer, mindful of the fact that thus people
- are most effectually silenced. You have for many years endured
- every humiliation without protest, have drudged from early in the
- morning until late at night, have suffered all sorts of privation,
- have even sacrificed your children. You have done everything to
- fill the coffers of your masters—everything for them! And now,
- when you approach them and implore them to make your burden a
- little lighter, as a reward for your sacrifices, they send their
- bloodhounds, the police, at you, in order to cure you with bullets
- of your dissatisfaction. Slaves, we ask and conjure you, by all
- that is sacred and dear to you, avenge the atrocious murder that
- has been committed upon your brothers to-day and which will likely
- be committed upon you to-morrow. Laboring men, Hercules, you have
- arrived at the cross-way. Which way will you decide? For slavery
- and hunger or for freedom and bread? If you decide for the latter,
- then do not delay a moment; then, people, to arms! Annihilation to
- the beasts in human form who call themselves rulers! Uncompromising
- annihilation to them! This must be your motto. Think of the heroes
- whose blood has fertilized the road to progress, liberty and
- humanity, and strive to become worthy of them!
-
- YOUR BROTHERS.
-
-Not content with this, Spies also wrote and published, in the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ of May 4, the following:
-
- _BLOOD!—Lead and Powder as a Cure for Dissatisfied
- Workingmen.—About Six Laborers Mortally, and Four Times that Number
- Slightly, Wounded.—Thus are the Eight-hour Men Intimidated!—This
- is Law and Order.—Brave Girls Parading the City!—The Law and Order
- Beasts Frighten Hungry Children away with Clubs._
-
- Six months ago, when the eight-hour movement began, representatives of
- the I. A. A. called upon workmen to arm if they would enforce their
- demand. Would the occurrence of yesterday have been possible had that
- advice been followed? Yesterday, at McCormick’s factory, so far as can
- now be ascertained, four workmen were killed and twenty-five more or
- less seriously wounded. If members who defended themselves with stones
- (a few of them had little snappers in the shape of revolvers) had been
- provided with good weapons and one single dynamite bomb, not one of
- the murderers would have escaped his well-merited fate. This massacre
- was to fill the workmen of this city with fear. Will it succeed?
-
- A meeting of the lumber employés was held yesterday at the Black Road
- to appoint a committee to wait on the committee of the owners and
- present the demands agreed upon. It was an immense meeting. Several
- speeches were made in English, German and Polish. Finally Mr. Spies
- was introduced, when a Pole cried, “That is a Socialist,” and great
- disapprobation was expressed, but the speaker continued, telling them
- that they must realize their strength, and must not recede from their
- demands; that the issue lay in their hands, and needed only resolution
- on their part.
-
- At this point some one cried, “On to McCormick’s! Let us drive off the
- scabs,” and about two hundred ran toward McCormick’s. The speaker,
- not knowing what occurred, continued his speech, and was appointed
- afterwards a member of the committee to notify the bosses of the
- action.
-
- Then a Pole spoke, when a patrol wagon rushed up to McCormick’s, and
- the crowd began to break up. Shortly shots were heard near McCormick’s
- factory, and about seventy-five well-fed, large and strong murderers,
- under command of a fat police lieutenant, marched by followed by three
- more patrol wagons full of law and order beasts. Two hundred police
- were there in less than ten minutes, firing on fleeing workingmen and
- women. The writer hastened to the factory, while a comrade urged the
- assembly to rescue their brothers, unavailingly. A young Irishman
- said to the writer: “What miserable (—— ——) are those who will not
- turn a hand while their brothers are being shot down in cold blood!
- We have dragged away two. I think they are dead. If you have any
- influence with the people, for Heaven’s sake, run back and urge them
- to follow you.” The writer did so in vain. The revolvers were still
- cracking; fresh policemen arriving; and the battle was lost. It was
- about half-past three that the little crowd from the meeting reached
- McCormick’s factory. Policeman West tried to hold them back with his
- revolver, but was put to flight with a shower of stones and roughly
- handled. The crowd bombarded the factory windows with stones and
- demolished the guard-house. The scabs were in mortal terror, when the
- Hinman Street patrol wagon arrived. They were about to attack the
- crowd with their clubs, when a shower of stones was thrown, followed
- the next minute by the firing by the police upon the strikers. It was
- pretended subsequently that they fired over their heads. The strikers
- had a few revolvers and returned the fire. Meantime, more police
- arrived, and then the whole band opened fire on the people. The people
- fought with stones, and are said to have disabled four policemen. The
- gang, as always, fired upon the fleeing, while women and men carried
- away the severely wounded. How many were injured cannot be told. A
- dying boy, Joseph Doebick, was brought home on an express wagon by
- two policemen. The crowd threatened to lynch the officer, but were
- prevented by a patrol wagon. Various strikers were arrested. McCormick
- said that “August Spies made a speech to a few thousand Anarchists
- and then put himself at the head of a crowd and attacked our works.
- Our workmen fled, and meantime the police came and sent a lot of
- Anarchists away with bleeding heads.”
-
-Mark well the language,—seeking to inflame the minds of the Socialists
-by maliciously stating that four men had been killed, when in fact
-not one was fatally injured,—its bitter invective, its cunning
-phraseology, its rude eloquence and its passionate appeal. All were
-well calculated to stir up revengeful feelings at a time when public
-sentiment ran high throughout the city. The events following close
-upon the heels of the eight-hour strike were critical in the extreme,
-and none knew the exact situation better than the Anarchist leaders.
-Their course had been shaped with special reference to it.
-
-[Illustration: THE CALL FOR THE HAYMARKET MEETING.—I.
-
-Photographic Engraving, direct from the Original.]
-
-Their secret plottings were directed by the events of the hour. The
-time had come, they felt, when the Commune should be proclaimed. It
-would not do, they urged, to let the opportunity pass. The failure of
-the McCormick riot at once suggested retaliation in a manner best known
-to themselves, and the circular was fulminated with a clear knowledge
-that its import would be readily understood by all in the dark secret
-of their conspiracy.
-
-But that there might be no misdirected effort, and that all might be
-properly instructed for the emergency, it was deemed best to hold a
-secret conference. The hour seemed to have arrived when their armed
-sections, the various groups of the order trained in the use of guns
-and explosives, should be brought into requisition, and the police in
-particular and the public in general be made to feel their power. How
-best to accomplish this purpose had been uppermost in their minds from
-the moment of their disaster at the reaper works. A conflict between
-the police and the strikers had been counted upon as a certainty under
-their inspiration, and plans looking to the best means of taking
-advantage of this strike as well as the eight-hour strike had been
-discussed even before the McCormick riot.
-
-Only so short a time as the day before that event, the members of the
-second company of the Lehr und Wehr Verein and of the Northwest Side
-groups had met in joint session at Bohemian Hall, on Emma Street, and
-considered the probabilities in view of the eight-hour movement. They
-clearly foresaw a conflict, and, among other things, discussed a plan
-to meet that contingency. This plan, proposed by Engel and indorsed by
-Fischer, and subsequently confessed by one of the conspirators present
-at that meeting, was that whenever it came to a conflict between the
-police and the Northwest groups, bombs should be thrown into the
-police stations. The riflemen of the Lehr und Wehr Verein should post
-themselves in line at a certain distance, and whoever came out of the
-stations should be shot down. They would then come into the heart of
-the city, where the fight would commence in earnest. The members of the
-Northwest Side groups were counseled to mutually assist each other in
-making the attack upon the police, and “if any one had anything with
-him, he should use it.” “As the police would endeavor to subdue the
-workingmen by sending all their available force to the place of attack,
-the Anarchists could easily blow up the stations, and such officers
-as might effect an escape from the buildings could be killed by their
-riflemen. Then they would cut the telegraph wires so as to prevent
-communication with other stations, after which they would proceed to
-the nearest station and destroy that. On their way they would throw
-fire bombs at some of the buildings, and this would call out the Fire
-Department and prevent the firemen from being called upon to quell the
-riot. While proceeding thus they would secure reinforcements, and,
-in the intense excitement following, the police as well as militia
-would become confused and divided in counsel as to the points where
-they could do the most effective service. The attacks should be almost
-simultaneous in different parts of the city at a given signal. When
-they all finally reached the center of the city, they would set fire to
-the most prominent buildings and attack the jail, open the doors and
-set free the inmates to join them in future movements.”
-
-This plan, it is almost needless to remark, was unanimously adopted.
-But concerted action was necessary among all the groups, and in view
-of the “skull-cracking,” to use their own phrase, on the afternoon
-of May 3, a secret conference of all groups was determined upon
-as a supplement to Spies’ pronunciamento and as an incitement to
-future revolutionary movements. A notice understood by all in the
-armed sections—“Y, come Monday evening”—was inserted in the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_. The commander of the Lehr und Wehr Verein rented
-a beer basement at No. 54 West Lake Street, known to the followers
-of Socialism as Greif’s Hall, and along towards eight o’clock
-representatives of all the armed sections of the Internationale
-gathered there. In order that the utmost privacy might be maintained,
-guards were posted both at the front and rear entrances with
-instructions to permit no one to stand on the outside and to admit only
-trusted adherents.
-
-When the session opened there were between seventy and eighty members
-of the various sections present. Their deliberations were presided over
-by Gottfried Waller, who subsequently became an important witness for
-the State.
-
-Spies’ “Revenge circular,” written late that afternoon, was distributed
-in the meeting, and its sentiments were heartily seconded by all
-present. Engel finally submitted the plan already given, and some
-discussion followed, participated in by various members. Fischer
-considered the plan admirable, and, lest there might be evidence of
-weakness, he stated that if any man acted the part of a coward, his
-own dagger or a bullet from his rifle should pierce that man’s heart.
-Inquiries being made with reference to a supply of bombs, he suggested
-that the members manufacture them on their own account. The best thing,
-he said, was to procure a tin coffee-bottle, fill it with benzine,
-attach a cap and fuse, and they would have a most effective bomb.
-
-Engel’s plan went through with a rush. Having now agreed upon a
-definite course, it was necessary to adopt a signal to warn the
-sections of danger and summon them to action. Fischer was equal to the
-occasion. He proposed the German word “Ruhe,”—signifying “rest” or
-“peace,”—and added that whenever it should appear in the “Letter-box”
-column of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, all would know that the moment for
-decisive action had been reached, and that all were expected to repair
-promptly to their appointed meeting-places, fully armed and ready for
-duty. The suggestion was adopted.
-
-But what are plans without being fortified by enthusiasm on the part
-of the mob expected to carry them out? The Socialistic heart must be
-fired to a proper pitch of frenzy. Every soul must be made to feel that
-the cause of Socialism is his own. A mass-meeting was just the thing,
-and a mass-meeting it was decided by this august band of conspirators
-to call. The time was the only point in controversy. The chairman
-insisted on holding it the following morning on Market Square, which
-is a widening of Market Street between Madison and Randolph Streets,
-but Fischer protested, because, as he said, it was a “mouse trap,” and
-insisted that the meeting be held in the evening, when they could bring
-out a crowd of no less than 25,000 people, and that the Haymarket be
-the place. There, he said, they would have greater security in case of
-disturbance, and more and better means of escape. His counsel finally
-prevailed, and after a call had been suitably drafted, Fischer was
-intrusted with its printing.
-
-Remembering that “what is everybody’s business is nobody’s business,”
-the meeting decided to appoint a committee, consisting of one or two
-members from each group. This committee was to keep a close watch on
-all movements that might be made at Haymarket Square and in different
-parts of the city, and, in the event of a conflict, to promptly report
-it to the members of the various armed sections by the insertion in
-the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ of the word “Ruhe” if there was trouble during
-the day, or illuminating the sky with a red light at night. If either
-signal could not be conveniently used, then they were to notify the
-members individually.
-
-[Illustration: THE CALL FOR THE HAYMARKET MEETING.—II.
-
-Photographic Engraving, direct from the Original.]
-
-Before the conclusion of this secret conclave, every one present was
-directed to notify absent members of what had been done, and Rudolph
-Schnaubelt, who has since been proven the thrower of the bomb which
-scattered death and devastation on the following evening, wished to
-go even further and have Socialists in other cities notified so that
-the proposed revolution might become general. The instigators of the
-meeting just described were Spies, Parsons, Fielden and Neebe, but for
-some reason they failed to put in an appearance.
-
-In accordance with arrangements, the call for the mass-meeting was
-printed the next morning. There were two versions of this call.
-_Fac-similes_ of both are given.
-
-In the afternoon of May 4 the signal word “Ruhe” appeared in the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_, and all the armed men proceeded to place
-themselves in readiness for the conflict. They also devoted themselves
-energetically to cultivating revengeful sentiments. While making their
-preparations for the projected riot, they communicated the plan decided
-upon to every member of the order, and all were urged to come fully
-armed with such weapons as they might possess.
-
-[Illustration: NEFF’S HALL.]
-
-But their greatest reliance was placed in the use of dynamite. This
-highly explosive material was regarded as the chief arm of their cause.
-For many weeks, the leaders had experimented with it. Some six weeks
-before the disastrous Haymarket riot, Louis Lingg had brought a bomb
-to the house of William Seliger, No. 442 Sedgwick Street, where he
-boarded, and announced his intention of making other bombs like it.
-Before this he had provided himself with dynamite, the money for its
-purchase having been realized at a ball given some time previously and
-turned over to him to use in experiments. Being out of employment at
-the time, he devoted himself energetically to experiments with that
-material, and produced large gas-pipe bombs. One of these he took out
-to a grove north of the city, and, placing it in the crotch of a tree,
-exploded it, splitting the tree to pieces. The result of the test
-appears to have been satisfactory, and he next gave his attention to
-the manufacture of globular shells. In the casting of these he used
-the kitchen stove to melt his metal, and often received the assistance
-of Seliger, Thielen and Hermann. All day Tuesday, May 4, he worked
-most persistently and seemed in a great hurry to make as many bombs
-as possible. He was helped on that day by the parties named and two
-others, Hueber and Munzenberger. Before the close of the day they had
-finished over a hundred bombs. While they were at work Lehman visited
-them and carried home a satchel of dynamite, which he subsequently,
-after the Haymarket riot, buried out on the prairie, and which was
-afterwards disinterred by the police. Not alone did he and his friends
-experiment with dynamite, but it appears that Spies, Parsons, Fischer,
-Fielden and Schwab also tried their hands at it and handled the deadly
-stuff at the office of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. They had several bombs
-there and made no secret of the purpose for which they intended them.
-The office was afterwards discovered to be an arsenal of revolvers and
-dynamite.
-
-After the bombs had been completed by Lingg and his assistants,
-Lingg and Seliger put them in a trunk or satchel and carried them
-over towards Neff’s Hall, at No. 58 Clybourn Avenue. On the way they
-were met by Munzenberger, who took the trunk, and, placing it on
-his shoulder, carried it the rest of the distance. At this time—it
-being evening—there was a meeting of painters in a hall at the rear
-of Neff’s saloon, and the package was placed at the entrance for a
-moment’s exhibition. Lingg asked the proprietor if any one had called
-and inquired for him, and, on being answered in the negative, proceeded
-with Seliger and Munzenberger into the hallway connecting the saloon
-and the assembly-room. Placing the trunk on the floor, he opened it
-for inspection. Several parties examined the bombs and took some of
-them away. Seliger helped himself to two and kept them until after the
-Haymarket explosion, when he hid them under a sidewalk on Sigel Street.
-Lingg, Seliger and Munzenberger then left the premises. The direction
-the last-named took is a matter in doubt. Neff had never seen him
-before, Lehman did not know him, and Seliger had not even learned his
-name.
-
-It is clear that all this work was part of the conspiracy concocted
-at Greif’s Hall the previous evening. It is also well settled that
-Munzenberger was the chosen agent to secure the bombs and see that they
-were placed in the hands of trusted Anarchists for use at the proper
-moment. The secrecy surrounding the latter’s identity was in complete
-accord with the method of procedure outlined in the instructions given
-to Socialists:
-
- In the commission of a deed, a comrade who does not live at the
- place of action, that is, a comrade of some other place, ought, if
- possibility admits, to participate in the action, or, formulated
- difficulty, a revolutionary deed ought to be enacted where one is not
- known.
-
-Still further steps were taken to precipitate the revolution. In
-conformity with the Monday night plan, armed men were to be stationed,
-on the evening of Tuesday, in the vicinity of the police stations. We
-find that Lingg, Seliger, Lehman, Smidke, Thielen and two large unknown
-men were in the vicinity of the North Avenue Station. They skulked
-about the corners of the streets leading to that station, between
-eight and ten o’clock, fully armed with bombs and ready for desperate
-deeds. Others, who had secured bombs at Neff’s Hall, went further
-northward and hovered around the police station near the corner of
-Webster and Lincoln Avenues. Seliger and Lingg also paid that vicinity
-a visit. There were also armed men at Deering, where a meeting of
-striking workingmen was held, and which was addressed by Schwab after
-he had left the Haymarket. Anarchists also posted themselves in the
-vicinity of the Chicago Avenue Station. Men were also near the North
-Avenue Station, and some twenty-five posted themselves at the corner
-of Halsted and Randolph Streets, two blocks from the Desplaines Street
-Station. Spies and Schwab entered this group and held some secret
-consultation with the leaders. Fischer and Waller were also close to
-that station.
-
-It furthermore appears that several men called on Tuesday evening at
-Waller’s residence while he was eating his supper and desired him to
-accompany them to Wicker Park, saying that they “wanted to be at their
-post.” Two of these men were Krueger and Kraemer, belonging to the
-“armed sections.” Some men also called at Engel’s store, and one of
-them exhibited a revolver. Another, a stranger, explained to a comrade
-that he was waiting for some “pills.” He waited only five minutes,
-when a young girl about ten or twelve years of age came in, carrying a
-mysterious package. This she handed to the stranger, who stepped behind
-a screen and then hastened out.
-
-It is thus manifest that the various parties were bent on a carnival
-of riot and destruction and only awaited the proper signal from the
-committee. The men intrusted with the secrets of pillage, murder
-and general destruction belonged to what was known in the order as
-the “Revolutionary Group.” The plan was not communicated to any one
-else. The utmost secrecy had to be maintained for its successful
-accomplishment, and the conspiracy was only communicated to such as
-had proved themselves in the past, by word and deed, in full accord
-with revolutionary methods. The “revolutionary party” consisted of the
-Lehr und Wehr Verein, commanded by Breitenfeld; the Northwest Side
-group, under command of Engel, Fischer and Grumm; the North Side group,
-commanded by Neebe, Lingg and Hermann; the American group, commanded by
-Spies, Parsons and Fielden; the Karl Marx group, directed by Schilling;
-the Freiheit group and the armed sections of the International
-Carpenters’ Union and Metal-workers’ Union. These various sections,
-or groups, were under the management of a general committee which
-included among its leading spirits Spies, Schwab, Parsons, Neebe, Rau,
-Hirschberger, Deusch and Bélz. This committee met at stated periods
-at the office of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ and formulated orders for the
-guidance of the groups. Its expenses were met by monthly contributions
-from all the Socialistic societies. It was under the inspiration of
-this committee that the Monday night meeting was held. Why the signal
-for a concerted raid on the police stations, the burning of buildings
-and the slaughter of capitalists was not given on the fateful night
-of the Haymarket riot,—or, if given, as seems to be believed in many
-quarters, in Fielden’s declaration, “We are peaceable,” why it was not
-carried out completely,—is not explicable upon any other hypothesis
-than that the courage of the trusted leaders failed them at the
-critical moment.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII.
-
- The Air Full of Rumors—A Riot Feared—Police Preparations—Bonfield
- in Command—The Haymarket—Strategic Value of the Anarchists’
- Position—Crane’s Alley—The Theory of Street Warfare—Inflaming
- the Mob—Schnaubelt and his Bomb—“Throttle the Law”—The Limit of
- Patience Reached—“In the Name of the People, Disperse”—The Signal
- Given—The Crash of Dynamite First Heard on an American Street—Murder
- in the Air—A Rally and a Charge—The Anarchists Swept Away—A Battle
- Worthy of Veterans.
-
-
-WITH such active work among the conspirators as I have shown, it
-was only a question of time when some terrible catastrophe would
-ensue through the instrumentality of the powerful bombs they had
-manufactured. The public mind was in a state of fear and suspense, not
-knowing the direction whence threatened devastation and destruction
-might appear. The incendiary speeches were enough to excite
-trepidation, and the appearance of the “Revenge circular” fanned the
-excitement into general alarm and indignation. The McCormick attack
-proved conclusively that the Anarchists meant to practice what they
-preached. After their rout and defeat, they were heard to express
-regret that they had not taken forcible possession of the works before
-the arrival of the police and then received the officers with a
-volley of fire-arms, as had once been contemplated in a star-chamber
-session of one of their “revolutionary groups.” The air was full of
-rumors, and the general public was convinced that some great disaster
-would occur unless the police promptly forbade the holding of further
-revolutionary meetings. The Mayor’s attention had been called to the
-possible results if such meetings were permitted to continue, and he,
-in turn, directed the Police Department to keep close watch of the
-gathering called for the Haymarket Square and disperse it in case
-the speakers used inflammatory language. During the day many of the
-Spies circulars had been distributed in the vicinity of the McCormick
-establishment, and it was expected that many of the enraged strikers
-from that locality would attend the meeting. It was clear that, in view
-of the temper of the Socialists, only slight encouragement would be
-required to produce a disturbance, and it was of the utmost importance
-that prompt action should be taken at the first sign of trouble. It
-subsequently transpired that the leaders had intended to make the
-speeches threatening in order to invite a charge upon the crowd by the
-police, and then, during the confusion, to carry out the Monday night
-programme.
-
-[Illustration: THE HAYMARKET MEETING.
-
-“IN THE NAME OF THE PEOPLE, I COMMAND YOU TO DISPERSE.”]
-
-The city authorities fully comprehended the situation, but concluded
-not to interfere with the meeting unless the discussion should be
-attended with violent threats. In order to be prepared for any
-emergency, however, it was deemed best to concentrate a large force
-in the vicinity of the meeting—at the Desplaines Street Station. One
-hundred men from Capt. Ward’s district, the Third Precinct, under
-command of Lieuts. Bowler, Stanton, Penzen and Beard, twenty-six men
-from the Central Detail under command of Lieut. Hubbard and Sergt.
-Fitzpatrick, and fifty men from the Fourth Precinct, under Lieuts.
-Steele and Quinn, were accordingly assigned for special service that
-evening. Inspector John Bonfield was ordered to assume command of
-the whole force, and his instructions were to direct the detectives
-to mingle with the crowd, and, if anything of an incendiary nature
-was advised by the speakers, to direct the officers to disperse the
-gathering.
-
-The meeting had been called for 7:30 o’clock, and at that hour quite a
-number had assembled in the vicinity of Haymarket Square. This square
-is simply a widening of Randolph Street between Desplaines and Halsted
-Streets; and in years past was used by farmers for the sale of hay and
-produce. It was for this place that the call had been issued, but for
-certain reasons the meeting was held ninety feet north of Randolph, on
-Desplaines Street, near the intersection of an alley which has since
-passed into public fame as “Crane’s alley.” In sight almost of this
-alley was Zepf’s Hall, on the northeast corner of Lake and Desplaines
-Streets, and about two blocks further east on Lake Street were Florus’
-Hall and Greif’s Hall—all notorious resorts and headquarters for
-Anarchists. On the evening in question these places and surrounding
-streets leading to the meeting-place were crowded with strikers and
-Socialist sympathizers, some within the saloons regaling themselves
-with beer and some jostling each other on the thoroughfares, either
-going for liquids or returning to the meeting after having for the
-moment satisfied the “inner man.” Here was a condition of things that
-would permit an easy mingling in, and ready escape through, the crowd,
-in the event of inauguration of the revolutionary plan adopted the
-evening previous. The throngs would serve as a cover for apparently
-safe operations. Another advantage gained by holding the meeting at
-the point indicated was that the street was dimly lighted, and, as the
-building in front of which the speaking took place was a manufacturing
-establishment,—that of Crane Bros.,—not used or lighted at night, and
-as the alley contiguous to the speaker’s stand formed an L with another
-alley leading to Randolph Street, there were points of seeming safety
-for a conflict with the police. Besides, the point was about 350 feet
-north of the Desplaines Street Police Station, and it was evidently
-calculated that when the police should attack the crowd, that part of
-the Monday night programme about blowing up the stations could easily
-be carried into effect.
-
-These were the undoubted reasons for effecting the change. The reader
-will remember that one of the objections urged by Fischer against
-holding the meeting on Market Square was that it was a “mouse trap,”
-and one of his potential arguments for the Haymarket was that it was a
-safer place for the execution of their plot. There was thus a “method
-in their madness.” All the contingencies had evidently been very
-carefully considered.
-
-[Illustration: THE HAYMARKET RIOT. THE EXPLOSION AND THE CONFLICT.]
-
-But, as I have already stated, the hour had arrived for calling the
-meeting to order, and as there appeared no one to assume prompt
-charge, the crowd exhibited some manifestations of impatience. About
-eight o’clock there were perhaps 3,000 people in the vicinity of the
-chosen place, and some fifteen or twenty minutes later Spies put in
-an appearance. He mounted the truck wagon improvised as a speaker’s
-stand and inquired for Parsons. Receiving no response, he got down,
-and, meeting Schwab, the two entered the alley, where there was quite
-a crowd, and where they were overheard using the words “pistols” and
-“police,” and Schwab was heard to ask, “Is one enough or had we better
-go and get more?” Both then disappeared up the street, and it is a
-fair presumption—borne out by the fact that they had entered a group
-of Anarchists on the corner of Halsted and Randolph Streets, as noted
-in the preceding chapter, and other circumstances—that they went to
-secure bombs. Spies shortly returned, and, meeting Schnaubelt, held a
-short conversation with him, at the same time handing him something,
-which Schnaubelt put carefully in a side-pocket. Spies again mounted
-the wagon (the hour being about 8:40—Schnaubelt standing near him),
-and began a speech in English. It is needless, at this point, to
-reproduce the speech, as its substance appears later on, both as given
-by the reporters and as written out subsequently by Spies. But both
-reports fail to give a proper conception of its insidious effect on
-the audience. It bore mainly on the grievances of labor, the treatment
-of the strikers by McCormick, and an explanation of his (Spies’)
-connection with the disturbances of the day previous. The lesson he
-drew from the occurrence at McCormick’s was “that workingmen must arm
-themselves for defense, so that they may be able to cope with the
-Government hirelings of their masters.”
-
-[Illustration: INSPECTOR JOHN BONFIELD.]
-
-Parsons had meanwhile been sent for, and on the conclusion of Spies’
-harangue was introduced. He reviewed the labor discontent in the
-country, the troubles growing out of it, touched on monopoly,
-criticised the so-called “capitalistic press,” scored the banks,
-explained Socialism, excoriated the system of elections, and terminated
-his remarks by appealing to his hearers to defend themselves and
-asserting that, if the demands of the working classes were refused,
-it meant war. His speech, like that of Spies, was mild as compared
-with what would be expected on such an occasion. Perhaps this is
-accounted for by the fact that during their harangues Mayor Harrison
-mingled in the throng and paid close attention to the sentiments of
-the speakers. He afterwards characterized Parsons’ effort as “a good
-political speech,” and, being apparently satisfied that there would
-be no trouble, left for the Desplaines Street Police Station, giving
-his impressions of the gathering to the Captain in charge and telling
-Bonfield that there seemed to be no further use for holding the force
-in reserve.
-
-No sooner had Harrison left for the station and thence for his own
-house, than the next speaker, Fielden, grew bolder in his remarks
-and sent the words rolling hot and fast over an oily, voluble and
-vindictive tongue. He opened with a reference to the insecurity of
-the working classes under the present social system, drifted to the
-McCormick strike, in which men, he said, were “shot down by the law in
-cold blood, in the city of Chicago, in the protection of property,”
-and held that the strikers had “nothing more to do with the law except
-to lay hands on it, and throttle it until it makes its last kick.
-Throttle it! Kill it! Stab it! Can we do anything,” he asked, “except
-by the strong arm of resistance? The skirmish lines have met. The
-people have been shot. Men, women and children have not been spared
-by the capitalists and the minions of private capital. It had no
-mercy—neither ought you. You are called upon to defend yourselves,
-your lives, your future. I have some resistance in me. I know that you
-have, too.”
-
-[Illustration: CAPT. WILLIAM WARD.]
-
-At this juncture the police made their appearance. During the remarks
-of Spies and Parsons, detectives had frequently reported to the station
-that only moderate, temperate sentiments were being uttered, but after
-Fielden had got fairly worked up to his subject, this was changed. The
-crowd was being wrought up to a high point of excitement, and there
-were frequent interjections of approval and shouts of indignation.
-Fielden’s was just such a speech as they had expected to hear. Very
-little was required to incite them to the perpetration of desperate
-deeds. Like a sculptor with his plastic model, Fielden had molded
-his audience to suit the purpose of the occasion. With his rough and
-ready eloquence he stirred up their innermost passions. His biting
-allusions to capitalists caught the hearts of the uncouth mob as with
-grappling-hooks, and his appeals for the destruction of existing laws
-shook them as a whirlwind.
-
-It would be as well, he said, for workmen to die fighting as to
-starve to death. “Exterminate the capitalists, and do it to-night!”
-The officers detailed to watch the proceedings saw that the speech
-portended no good, and they communicated the facts to Inspector
-Bonfield. Even then the Inspector hesitated. To use his own language,
-in the report he sent to Superintendent Ebersold: “Wanting to be
-clearly within the law, and wishing to leave no room for doubt as to
-the propriety of our actions, I did not act on the first reports, but
-sent the officers back to make further observations. A few minutes
-after ten o’clock, the officers returned and reported that the crowd
-were getting excited and the speaker growing more incendiary in his
-language. I then felt that to hesitate any longer would be criminal,
-and gave the order to fall in and move our force forward on Waldo
-Place,”—a short street south of the Desplaines Street Station.
-
-[Illustration: LIEUT. (NOW CHIEF) G. W. HUBBARD.]
-
-The force formed into four divisions. The companies of Lieuts. Steele
-and Quinn formed the first; those of Lieuts. Stanton and Bowler, the
-second; those of Lieut. Hubbard and Sergt. Fitzpatrick, the third; and
-two companies commanded by Lieuts. Beard and Penzen constituted the
-fourth, forming the rear guard, which had orders to form right and
-left on Randolph Street, to guard the rear from any attack from the
-Haymarket. These various divisions thus covered the street from curb
-to curb. Inspector Bonfield and Capt. Ward led the forces, in front of
-the first division. On seeing them advancing in the distance, Fielden
-exclaimed:
-
-“Here come the bloodhounds. You do your duty, and I’ll do mine!”
-
-Arriving on the ground, they found the agitator right in the midst
-of his incendiary exhortations, that point where he was telling his
-Anarchist zealots that he had some resistance in him, and assuring them
-that he knew they had too. At that moment the police were ordered to
-halt within a few feet of the truck wagon, and Capt. Ward, advancing to
-within three feet of the speaker, said:
-
-“I command you, in the name of the people of the State, to immediately
-and peaceably disperse.”
-
-Turning to the crowd, he continued: “I command you and you to assist.”
-
-Fielden had meanwhile jumped off the wagon, and, as he reached the
-sidewalk, declared in a clear, loud tone of voice:
-
-“We are peaceable.”
-
-This must have been the secret signal,—it has about it suggestions
-of the word “Ruhe,”—and no sooner had it been uttered than a spark
-flashed through the air. It looked like the lighted remnant of a cigar,
-but hissed like a miniature skyrocket. It fell in the ranks of the
-second division and near the dividing-line between the companies of
-Lieuts. Stanton and Bowler, just south of where the speaking had taken
-place.
-
-A terrific explosion followed—the detonation was heard for blocks
-around. The direction in which the bomb—for such it was—had been
-thrown was by way of the east sidewalk from the alley. It had been
-hurled by a person in the shadow of that narrow yet crowded passageway
-on the same side of, and only a few feet from, the speaker’s stand.
-
-[Illustration: SERGT. (NOW CAPT.) J. E. FITZPATRICK.]
-
-The explosion created frightful havoc and terrible dismay. It was
-instantly followed by a volley of small fire-arms from the mob on
-the sidewalk and in the street in front of the police force, all
-directed against the officers. They were for the moment stunned and
-terror-stricken. In the immediate vicinity of the explosion, the
-entire column under Stanton and Bowler and many of the first and third
-divisions were hurled to the ground, some killed, and many in the
-agonies of death.
-
-As soon as the first flash of the tragic shock had passed, and even
-on the instant the mob began firing, Inspector Bonfield rallied the
-policemen who remained unscathed, and ordered a running fire of
-revolvers on the desperate Anarchists. Lieuts. Steele and Quinn charged
-the crowd on the street from curb to curb, and Lieuts. Hubbard and
-Fitzpatrick, with such men as were left them of the Special Detail,
-swept both sidewalks with a brisk and rattling fire.
-
-[Illustration: LIEUT. JAMES P. STANTON.]
-
-The rush of the officers was like that of a mighty torrent in a narrow
-channel—they carried everything before them and swept down all hapless
-enough to fall under their fire or batons. The masterly courage and
-brilliant dash of the men soon sent the Anarchists flying in every
-direction, and a more desperate scramble for life and safety was never
-witnessed. Even the most defiant conspirators lost their wits and
-hunted nooks and recesses of buildings to seclude themselves till they
-could effect an escape without imminent danger of bullets or of being
-crushed by the precipitate mob.
-
-Fielden, so brave and fearless on the appearance of the police, pulled
-a revolver while crouching beneath the protection of the truck wheels,
-fired at the officers, and then took to his heels and disappeared.
-Spies had friendly assistance in getting off the truck, and hastened
-pell-mell through the crowd in a frantic endeavor to get under cover.
-He finally reached safety, while his brother, who was with him on the
-wagon, got away with a slight wound. Parsons seems to have taken time
-by the forelock and nervously awaited developments in the bar-room
-of Zepf’s Hall.
-
-[Illustration: LIEUT. BOWLER.]
-
-Fischer had been among the crowd while Spies and Parsons spoke, but he
-was in the company of Parsons at Zepf’s when the explosion occurred.
-Schnaubelt, who had sat on the wagon with his hands in his pockets
-until Fielden began his speech, hurried through the mob, after sending
-the missile on its deadly mission, and got away without a scratch.
-Other lesser yet influential lights in the Anarchist combination found
-friendly refuge, and, as subsequently developed, lost no time in
-reaching home as soon as possible. How any of these leaders who were in
-the midst of the awful carnage managed to escape, while other of their
-comrades suffered, is not clear, unless they dodged from one secluded
-spot to another, while the storm raged at its height—and there are many
-circumstances showing that this was the case. At any rate the point
-is immaterial: the fact remains that they were all found lacking in
-courage at the critical moment, and each seemed more concerned about
-his own safety than that of his fellow revolutionists.
-
-Owing to the masterly charge of the police, the conflict was of short
-duration, but, while it lasted, it produced a scene of confusion, death
-and bloodshed not equaled in the annals of American riots in its extent
-and far-reaching results. The hissing of bullets, the groans of the
-dying, the cries of the wounded and the imprecations of the fleeing
-made a combination of horrors which those present will never forget.
-
-No sooner had the field been cleared of the mob than Inspector Bonfield
-set to work caring for the dead and wounded. They were found scattered
-in every direction. Many of the officers lay prostrate where they had
-fallen, and to the north, where the mob had disputed the ground with
-the police, lay many an Anarchist. On door-steps and in the recesses of
-buildings were found wounded and maimed. The police looked after all
-and rendered assistance alike to friend and foe. The dead, dying and
-wounded were conveyed to the Desplaines Street Station, where numerous
-physicians were called into service.
-
-In subsequently speaking of the bravery of his men on this occasion, in
-his report to the Chief of Police, Inspector Bonfield very truly said:
-
- It has been asserted that regular troops have become panic-stricken
- from less cause. I see no way to account for it except this. The
- soldier acts as part of a machine. Rarely, if ever, when on duty, is
- he allowed to act as an individual or to use his personal judgment. A
- police officer’s training teaches him to be self-reliant. Day after
- day and night after night he goes on duty alone, and, when in conflict
- with the thief and burglar, he has to depend upon his own individual
- exertions. The soldier being a part of a machine, it follows that,
- when a part of it gives out, the rest is useless until the injury is
- repaired. The policeman, being a machine in himself, rarely, if ever,
- gives up until he is laid on the ground and unable to rise again. In
- conclusion, I beg leave to report that the conduct of the men and
- officers, with few exceptions, was admirable—as a military man said
- to me the next day, “worthy the heroes of a hundred battles.”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX.
-
- The Dead and the Wounded—Moans of Anguish in the Police
- Station—Caring for Friend and Foe—Counting the Cost—A City’s
- Sympathy—The Death List—Sketches of the Men—The Doctors’
- Work—Dynamite Havoc—Veterans of the Haymarket—A Roll of Honor—The
- Anarchist Loss—Guesses at their Dead—Concealing Wounded Rioters—The
- Explosion a Failure—Disappointment of the Terrorists.
-
-
-THE scene at the Desplaines Street Station was one which would appal
-the stoutest heart. Every available place in the building was utilized,
-and one could scarcely move about the various rooms without fear of
-accidentally touching a wound or jarring a fractured limb. In many
-instances mangled Anarchists were placed side by side with injured
-officers. The floors literally ran with blood dripping and flowing from
-the lacerated bodies of the victims of the riot. The air was filled
-with moans from the dying and groans of anguish from the wounded. As
-the news had spread throughout the city of the terrible slaughter,
-wives, daughters, relatives and friends of officers as well as of
-Anarchists, who had failed to report at home or to send tidings of
-their whereabouts, hastened to the station and sought admission. Being
-refused, these set up wailing and lamentations about the doors of
-the station, and the doleful sounds made the situation all the more
-sorrowful within.
-
-Everything in the power of man was done to alleviate the suffering and
-to make the patients as comfortable as possible. Drs. Murphy, Lee and
-Henrotin, department physicians, were energetically at work, and, with
-every appliance possible, administered comparative relief and ease from
-the excruciating pains of the suffering. The more seriously wounded,
-when possible, were taken to the Cook County Hospital. Throughout the
-night following the riot, the early morning and the day succeeding, the
-utmost care was given the patients, and throughout the city for days
-and weeks the one inquiry, the one great sympathy, was with reference
-to the wounded officers and their condition. The whole heart of the
-city was centered in their recovery. Everywhere the living as well as
-the dead heroes were accorded the highest praise. The culprits who had
-sought to subvert law and order in murder and pillage were execrated on
-all hands. For days and weeks, the city never for a moment relaxed its
-interest. From the time the men had been brought into the station, it
-was long a question as to how many would succumb to their wounds. Care
-and attention without ceasing served to rescue many from an untimely
-grave; but even those who were finally restored to their families
-and friends, crippled and maimed as they were, hovered between life
-and death on a very slender thread through many a restless night and
-weary day and through long weeks and agonizing months. The devotion
-of friends and the skill of physicians nerved the men to strength and
-patience. That only eight should have died out of so great a number as
-were mangled, lacerated and shattered by the powerful bomb and pierced
-by bullets, attests the merits of the treatment.
-
-The only one who was almost instantly killed was Officer Mathias J.
-Degan. The following list will serve to show the names of the officers
-killed and wounded, the stations they belonged to, their residences,
-the nature of their wounds, their condition and other circumstances:
-
- MATHIAS J. DEGAN—Third Precinct, West Lake Street Station; residence,
- No. 626 South Canal Street. Almost instantly killed. He was born
- October 29, 1851, and joined the police force December 15, 1884. He
- was a widower, having lost his wife just before joining the force, and
- left a young son. He was a brave officer, efficient in all his duties,
- and highly esteemed.
-
- MICHAEL SHEEHAN—Third Precinct; residence, No. 163 Barber Street.
- Wounded in the back just below the ninth rib. The bullet lay in the
- abdomen, and, after its removal by the surgeon, he collapsed and died
- on the 9th of May. He was twenty-nine years of age, born in Ireland,
- and came to America in 1879. He joined the force December 15, 1884,
- and had only one relative in America, a brother, his parents still
- living in the old country. He was a very bright, prompt and efficient
- officer, and had excellent prospects before him. He was unmarried.
-
- GEORGE MULLER—Third Precinct; residence, No. 836 West Madison Street;
- was shot in the left side, the bullet passing down through the
- body and lodging on the right side above the hip bone. He suffered
- more than any of the others and was in terrible agony. He would
- not consent to an operation, and finally his right lung collapsed,
- making his breathing very difficult. He expired on the 6th of May.
- He was twenty-eight years of age. Born in Oswego, N. Y., where his
- parents lived, and to which place his remains were sent. Muller, on
- coming to Chicago, began as a teamster, and became connected with the
- Police Department December 15, 1884, being assigned for duty at the
- Desplaines Street Station. He was a finely built, muscular young man,
- and became quite a favorite with his associates because of his quiet
- habits and genial manners. At the time of his death he was engaged to
- Miss Mary McAvoy.
-
- JOHN J. BARRETT—Third Precinct; residence, No. 99 East Erie Street;
- was shot in the liver, from which a piece of shell was removed, and
- he had a bad fracture of the elbow. The heel bone of one leg was
- carried away. With so many serious wounds, he lay in the hospital
- almost unconscious until the day of his death, May 6. He was born in
- Waukegan, Ill., in 1860, and came to Chicago with his parents when
- only four years of age. Here he attended the public schools, and then
- learned the molder’s trade, which he abandoned on January 15, 1885,
- to join the police force, being assigned to duty at the Desplaines
- Street Station. He was a brave and efficient officer and always ready
- to do his part in any emergency. He had been married only a few months
- preceding his death, and left a wife, a widowed mother, three sisters
- and a younger brother.
-
- THOMAS REDDEN—Third Precinct; residence, No. 109 Walnut Street;
- received a bad fracture of the left leg three inches below the knee,
- from which a large portion of the bone was entirely carried away. He
- also had bullet wounds in the left cheek and right elbow, and some
- wounds in the back. Pieces of shell were found in the leg and elbow.
- He died May 16. He was fifty years of age, and had been connected with
- the police force for twelve years, joining it on April 1, 1874. He was
- attached to the West Lake Street Station, and was looked upon as an
- exemplary and trusted officer. He left a wife and two young children.
-
- TIMOTHY FLAVIN—Fourth Precinct; residence, No. 504 North Ashland
- Avenue; was struck with a piece of shell four inches above the ankle
- joint, tearing away a portion of the large bone and fracturing the
- small bone. He also had two wounds just below the shoulder joint in
- the right arm, caused by a shell, and there were two shell wounds
- in the back, one passing into the abdomen and the other into the
- lung. His leg was amputated above the knee, the second day after the
- explosion, and he had besides a large piece torn out of his right
- hip. He died on May 8. He was born in Listowel, Ireland, and came to
- America in 1880 with a young wife, whom he had married on the day of
- his departure. He had worked as a teamster, and joined the police
- force on December 15, 1884, being assigned to duty at the Rawson
- Street Station. He left a wife and three small children.
-
-[Illustration: THE DESPLAINES STREET STATION.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
- NELS HANSEN—Fourth Precinct; residence, No. 28 Fowler Street;
- received shell wounds in body, arms and legs, and one of his limbs had
- to be amputated. He lost considerable blood, but lingered along in
- intense agony until May 14, when he died. He was a native of Sweden,
- having came to Chicago a great number of years ago, joining the force
- December 15, 1884, and was about fifty years of age. He left a wife
- and two children.
-
- TIMOTHY SULLIVAN, of the Third Precinct, was the last to die from the
- effects of the Haymarket riot; this brave officer lingered until June
- 13, 1888. He resided at No. 123 Hickory Street, and was a widower,
- four children mourning his loss. The illness from which he died was
- the direct result of a bullet wound just above the left knee.
-
-The following is a list of the wounded officers belonging to the Third
-Precinct:
-
- August C. Keller; residence, No. 36 Greenwich Street; shell wound in
- right side and ball wound in left side; wife and five children.
-
- Thomas McHenry; residence, 376 W. Polk Street; shell wound in left
- knee and three shell wounds in left hip; single; had a sister and
- blind mother to support.
-
- John E. Doyle, 142½ W. Jackson Street; bullet wounds in back and calf
- of each leg; serious; wife and one child.
-
- John A. King, 1411 Wabash Avenue; jaw-bone fractured by shell and two
- bullet wounds in right leg below the knee; serious; single.
-
- Nicholas Shannon, Jr., No. 24 Miller Street; thirteen shell wounds on
- right side and five shell wounds on left side; serious; wife and three
- children.
-
- James Conway, No. 185 Morgan Street; bullet wound in right leg; single.
-
- Patrick Hartford, No. 228 Noble Street; shell wound in right ankle,
- two toes on left foot amputated, bullet wound in left side; wife and
- four children.
-
- Patrick Nash, Desplaines Street Station; bruises on left shoulder,
- inflicted by a stick; single.
-
- Arthur Connolly, No. 318 West Huron Street; two shell wounds in left
- leg; bone slightly fractured; wife.
-
- Louis Johnson, No. 40 West Erie Street; shell wound in left leg; wife
- and four children.
-
- M. M. Cardin, No. 18 North Peoria Street; bullet wound in calf of each
- leg; wife and two children.
-
- Adam Barber, No. 321 West Jackson Street; shell wound left leg, bullet
- wound in right breast; bullet not extracted; wife and one child.
-
- Henry F. Smith, bullet wound in right shoulder; quite serious, wife
- and two children in California.
-
- Frank Tyrell, No. 228 Lincoln Street; bullet in right hip near spine;
- wife and two children; wife sick in County Hospital at the time of the
- riot.
-
- James A. Brady, No. 146 West Van Buren Street; shell wound in left
- leg, slight injury to toes of left foot and shell wound in left thigh;
- single.
-
- John Reed, No. 237 South Halsted Street; shell wound in left leg and
- bullet wound in right knee; bullet not removed; single.
-
- Patrick McLaughlin, No. 965 Thirty-seventh Court; bruised on right
- side, leg and hip, injuries slight; wife and two children.
-
- Frank Murphy, No. 980 Walnut Street; trampled on, three ribs broken;
- wife and three children.
-
- Lawrence Murphy, No. 317½ Fulton Street; shell wounds on left side of
- neck and left knee, part of left foot amputated; wife.
-
- Michael Madden, No. 119 South Green Street; shot in left lung on May
- 5th, after which he shot and killed his Anarchist assailant; wife and
- seven children.
-
-The following belonged to the West Lake Street Station of the Third
-Precinct:
-
- Lieut. James P. Stanton, residence No. 584 Carroll Avenue; shell wound
- in right side, bullet wound in right hip, bullet wound in calf of leg;
- wife and three children.
-
- Thomas Brophy, No. 25 Nixon Street; slight injury to left leg;
- reported for duty; wife.
-
- Bernard Murphy, No. 325 East Twenty-second Street; bullet wound in
- left thigh, shell wound on right side of head and chin; not dangerous;
- wife.
-
- Charles H. Fink, No. 154 South Sangamon Street; three shell wounds in
- left leg and two wounds in right leg; not dangerous; wife.
-
- Joseph Norman, No. 612 Walnut Street; bullet passed through right foot
- and slight injury to finger on left hand; wife and two children.
-
- Peter Butterly, No. 436 West Twelfth Street; bullet wound in right arm
- and small wound on each leg near knee; wife and one child.
-
- Alexander Jamison, No. 129 Gurley Street; bullet wound in left leg;
- serious; wife and seven children.
-
- Michael Horan, bullet wound in left thigh, not removed; slight shell
- wound on left arm; single.
-
- Thomas Hennessy, No. 287 Fulton Street; shell wound on left thigh,
- slight; has mother, who is crippled, and two sisters to support.
-
- William Burns, No. 602 West Van Buren Street; slight shell wound on
- left ankle; single.
-
- James Plunkett, No. 15½ Depuyster Street; struck with club and
- trampled upon; wife.
-
- Charles W. Whitney, No. 453 South Robey Street; shell wound in left
- breast; shell not removed; single.
-
- Jacob Hansen, No. 137 North Morgan Street; right leg amputated over
- the knee, three shell wounds in left leg; wife and one child.
-
- Martin Cullen, No. 236 Washtenaw Avenue; right collar bone fractured
- and slight injury to left knee; wife and five children.
-
- Simon Klidzis, No. 158 Carroll Street; shot in calf of left leg;
- serious; wife and three children.
-
- Julius L. Simonson, No. 241 West Huron Street; shot in arm near
- shoulder; very serious; wife and two children.
-
- John K. McMahon, No. 118 North Green Street; shell wound in calf
- of left leg, shell not found; ball wound left leg near knee, very
- serious; wife and two children.
-
- Simon McMahon, No. 913 North Ashland Avenue; shot in right arm and two
- wounds in right leg; wife and five children.
-
- Edward W. Ruel, No. 136 North Peoria Street; shot in right ankle,
- bullet not removed; serious; single.
-
- Alexander Halvorson, No. 850 North Oakley Avenue; shot in both legs,
- ball not extracted; single.
-
- Carl E. Johnson, No. 339 West Erie Street; shot in left elbow; wife
- and two children.
-
- Peter McCormick, No. 473 West Erie Street; slight shot wound in left
- arm; wife.
-
- Christopher Gaynor, No. 45 Fay Street; slight bruise on left arm; wife.
-
-The following belonged to the Fourth Precinct:
-
- S. J. Werneke, No. 73 West Division Street; shot in left side of head,
- ball not found; serious; wife and two children.
-
- Patrick McNulty, No. 691 North Leavitt Street; shot in right leg and
- both hips; dangerous; wife and three children.
-
- Samuel Hilgo, No. 452 Milwaukee Avenue; shot in right leg; not
- serious; single.
-
- Herman Krueger, No. 184 Ramsey Street; shot in right knee; not
- serious; wife and two children.
-
- Joseph A. Gilso, No. 8 Emma Street; slightly injured in back and leg;
- not serious; wife and six children.
-
- Edward Barrell, No. 297 West Ohio Street; shot in right leg; quite
- serious; wife and six children.
-
- Freeman Steele, No. 30 Rice Street; slightly wounded in back; not
- serious; single.
-
- James P. Johnson, No. 740 Dixon Street; right knee sprained; not
- serious; wife and three children.
-
- Benjamin F. Snell, No. 138 Mozart Street; shot in right leg; not
- serious; single.
-
-The following belonged to the Central Detail:
-
- James H. Wilson, No. 810 Austin Avenue; seriously injured in abdomen
- by shell; wife and five children.
-
- Daniel Hogan, No. 526 Austin Avenue; shot in calf of right leg and
- hand; very serious; wife and daughter.
-
- M. O’Brien, No. 495 Fifth Avenue; shell wound in left thigh; very
- serious; wife and two children.
-
- Fred A. Andrew, No. 1018 North Halsted Street; wounded in leg, not
- serious; wife.
-
- [Illustration: THE HAYMARKET MARTYRS.
-
- 1. John J. Barrett.
- 2. Michael Sheehan.
- 3. Timothy Flavin.
- 4. Timothy Sullivan.
- 5. Thomas Redden.
- 6. Mathias J. Degan.
- 7. Nels Hansen.
- 8. George Muller.]
-
- Jacob Ebinger, No. 235 Thirty-seventh Street; shell wound in back of
- left hand; not serious; wife and three children.
-
- John J. Kelley, No. 194 Sheffield Avenue; shell wound on left hand;
- not serious; wife and three children.
-
- Patrick Lavin, No. 42 Sholto Street; finger hurt by shell; married.
-
-
- Officer Terrehll had a shell wound in the right thigh.
-
- Patrick Hartford had an opening in the ankle joint. The shell was
- removed. A portion of his left foot, with the toes, was carried away.
-
- Arthur Conelly had a compound fracture of the tibia. The shell struck
- him about two inches below the knee, tore away a piece of bone of the
- fibula, perforated the tibia and lodged about the middle of the large
- bone of the leg, a short distance below the knee. A piece of shell was
- removed.
-
- Lawrence Murphy had fifteen shell wounds, one in the neck, three or
- four in the arms, and one in his left foot; the last, weighing almost
- an ounce and a half, lodged at the base of the great toe and left his
- foot hanging by a piece of skin. The foot had to be amputated about
- two inches farther back. He had a piece two inches square taken out of
- the anterior surface of his leg. He had two perforating wounds in the
- left thigh and a number in the right.
-
- Edward Barrett had two shell wounds in the neighborhood of the knee
- joint, turning out large pieces of flesh and leaving ragged wounds on
- the surface.
-
- J. H. King was struck in the chin by a piece of shell which went
- through his upper lip; another piece carried away about an inch of his
- lower jaw-bone.
-
- J. H. Grady had severe flesh wounds, both in the thigh and legs. Some
- pieces of shell were taken out of them.
-
- John Doyle had several wounds about the legs, in the neighborhood of
- the knee joint.
-
-The list shows the character of the wounds and the condition of the
-officers just after the eventful night. Some of those who died lingered
-along for some time after, but the name of Timothy Sullivan was the
-last to add to the death-list. Some of the sixty-eight wounded men
-have since returned to active duty, but many are maimed for life and
-incapacitated for work.
-
-It is impossible to say how many of the Anarchists were killed or
-wounded. As soon as they were in a condition to be moved, those in
-the Desplaines Street Station were turned over to their relatives and
-friends. The Anarchists have never attempted to give a correct list,
-or even an approximate estimate, of the men wounded or killed on their
-side. The number, however, was largely in excess of that on the side
-of the police. After the moment’s bewilderment, the officers dashed
-on the enemy and fired round after round. Being good marksmen, they
-fired to kill, and many revolutionists must have gone home, either
-assisted by comrades or unassisted, with wounds that resulted fatally
-or maimed them for life. Some of those in the station had dangerous
-wounds, and they were for the most part men who had become separated,
-in the confusion, from their companions, or trampled upon so that they
-could not get up and limp to a safe place. It is known that many secret
-funerals were held from Anarchist localities in the dead hour of night.
-For many months previous to the Haymarket explosion the Anarchists had
-descanted loudly on the destructive potency of dynamite. One bomb, they
-maintained, was equivalent to a regiment of militia. A little dynamite,
-properly put up, could be carried in a vest pocket and used to destroy
-a large body of police. They probably reasoned that if it was known
-that many more of their number had fallen than on the side of the
-police, it would not only tend to diminish the faith of their adherents
-in the real virtues of dynamite, but would prove that the police were
-more than able to cope with the Social Revolution, even though the
-revolutionists depended on that powerful agency. The public is not,
-therefore, likely ever to know how many of their number suffered.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X.
-
- The Core of the Conspiracy—Search of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_
- Office—The Captured Manuscript—Jealousies in the Police
- Department—The Case Threatened with Failure—Stupidity at the
- Central Office—Fischer Brought In—Rotten Detective Work—The Arrest
- of Spies—His Egregious Vanity—An Anarchist “Ladies’ Man”—Wine
- Suppers with the Actresses—Nina Van Zandt’s Antecedents—Her
- Romantic Connection with the Case—Fashionable Toilets—Did Spies
- Really Love Her?—His Curious Conduct—The Proxy Marriage—The End
- of the Romance—The Other Conspirators—Mrs. Parsons’ Origin—The
- Bomb-Thrower in Custody—The Assassin Kicked Out of the Chief’s
- Office—Schnaubelt and the Detectives—Suspicious Conduct at
- Headquarters—Schnaubelt Ordered to Keep Away From the City Hall—An
- Amazing Incident—A Friendly Tip to a Murderer—My Impressions of the
- Schnaubelt Episode—Balthasar Rau and Mr. Furthmann—Phantom Shackles
- in a Pullman—Experiments with Dynamite—An Explosive Dangerous to
- Friend and Foe—Testing the Bombs—Fielden and the Chief.
-
-
-IT was not difficult to locate the moral responsibility for the bold
-and bloody attack on law and authority. The seditious utterances of
-such men as Spies, Parsons, Fielden, Schwab and other leaders at public
-gatherings for weeks and months preceding the eight-hour strike, and
-the defiant declarations of such papers as the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_
-and the _Alarm_, clearly pointed to the sources from which came the
-inspiration for the crowning crime of Anarchy. It was likewise a
-strongly settled conviction that the thrower of the bomb was not simply
-a Guiteau-like crank, but that there must have been a deliberate,
-organized conspiracy, of which he was a duly constituted agent. In the
-work, therefore, of getting at the inside facts, the points sought
-were: What was the exact nature of that conspiracy, and who constituted
-the chief conspirators? The possession of every detail in connection
-with these two points was absolutely necessary in order to fix the
-criminal responsibility, and to the solution of this problem the
-officers bent all their energies.
-
-The detectives were well aware that the office of the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ had been the headquarters for the central,
-controlling body of the Anarchist organizations in Chicago, and on the
-morning following the explosion Inspector Bonfield determined to raid
-the establishment and bring in such of the leaders as might be found
-there. Several detectives were assigned to this duty, and they soon
-returned, having under arrest August Spies, his brother Chris, Michael
-Schwab and Adolph Fischer. These were locked up at the Central Station.
-Shortly thereafter fifteen or sixteen compositors of the paper were
-arrested and brought to the same place. They were a meek-looking set,
-and were visibly moved with fear.
-
-Immediately after 12 o’clock, State’s Attorney Grinnell, Assistant
-State’s Attorney Furthmann, Lieut. Joseph Kipley, Lieut. John D.
-Shea, Detectives James Bonfield, Slayton, Baer, Palmer, Thehorn and
-several other officers repaired to the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ building
-and made a most thorough search of every room in the premises. A lot
-of manuscript was found on hooks attached to the printers’ cases,
-and this was carefully wrapped up and taken away. The files of the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ and _Alarm_ were also piled into a wagon and carted
-to the Central Station.
-
-[Illustration: ADOLPH FISCHER.
-
-From a Photograph taken by the Police.]
-
-Subsequent investigation by Mr. Furthmann of all the scraps of paper
-brought over by the police revealed Spies’ manuscript with the signal
-word “Ruhe,” the manuscript of the “Revenge Circular,” issued on the
-afternoon of May 4, the manuscript for the “Y, come Monday night”
-notice, Spies’ copy of the article headed “Blood,” published in the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ of May 4, and a number of other documents damaging
-in their character. This discovery was regarded as highly important,
-and in the trial it proved extremely serviceable to the State. It
-likewise served, as will be shown, in furnishing a point by which, when
-I came to take up the case I was enabled to finally lay bare the whole
-conspiracy from its inception to its conclusion.
-
-With the clues obtained from the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office, the
-officers were enabled to put some pointed questions to the prisoners,
-but they failed to properly utilize even the meager information they
-had managed to extract. At this time the Police Department, from the
-Chief to the detective branch, was rent with rivalries, dissensions and
-jealousies, and it did not require much frowning or many innuendoes
-from the one to destroy in the other any special interest in pursuing a
-clue to its legitimate results. At the start all the officers were on
-a keen scent, and while outwardly all seemed working like Trojans in
-order to meet public expectations, which was keyed up to its highest
-pitch, not alone in Chicago but throughout the country, still the fear
-that one might get the credit for the work done by another operated to
-destroy discipline and deaden personal enthusiasm. Outside events alone
-prevented a complete failure in the prosecution.
-
-The arrested Anarchists, however, knew nothing of these dissensions.
-All they knew was that public indignation was strong against them, and
-they realized that they were in a very embarrassing situation.
-
-[Illustration: THE FISCHER FAMILY. From a Photograph.]
-
-FISCHER seemed to feel his position at the station more keenly than
-the others. On his arrest he was found to have in his possession a
-44-caliber revolver, a file sharpened so as to make it serviceable
-as a dagger, and a detonation cap, and, as he was the foreman of the
-compositors in the office, his trepidation may have been caused by a
-suspicion that possibly the officers took him to be the leader of an
-armed gang among them. Before the raid on the office it appears that he
-had endeavored to hide these weapons, but he had been unable to unload
-himself, as the others in the office would not consent to concealment
-in their vicinity, lest discovery in the event of an investigation
-might criminate them in the conspiracy. Fischer was on his way down
-stairs to find a hiding-place for his weapons at the very moment when
-he was overtaken by the police and relieved of all further trouble.
-The dagger was a peculiar instrument, and it was the general opinion
-of those who examined it that it had been dipped in some deadly poison
-from which, through a slight scratch or through a deep plunge of the
-weapon, death would be speedy.
-
-Fischer always seemed thoroughly unscrupulous as to the means to be
-used to bring about the death of capitalists, and he never tired of
-uttering dire threats against the foes of Socialism. He was a tall,
-lithe and muscular-looking man, and, with a resolute purpose, he
-impressed his comrades as one who would not easily be balked. It is
-difficult to determine just how Fischer came to imbibe his bloodthirsty
-principles, as little is known of his antecedents. At the time of his
-arrest he was twenty-seven years old and married. He had been in the
-United States thirteen or fourteen years. He had learned the printer’s
-trade in Nashville, Tenn., working for a brother who conducted there
-a German paper. Subsequently he acquired an interest in a German
-publication at Little Rock, Ark., and in 1881 he moved to St. Louis,
-where he worked at the case and where he became known for his extreme
-ideas on Socialism. He soon found his way to Chicago, where he felt
-satisfied he would find more congenial spirits in the work upon which
-he had set his heart. Here he became associated with Engel and Fehling
-in the publication of a German paper, the _Anarchist_, but as this
-did not live long, he became a compositor on the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_.
-Wherever he was, he always talked Anarchy and showed a most implacable
-hatred of existing society.
-
-When brought to the station, Fischer weakened perceptibly, but
-afterwards braced up and yielded no information except as to his
-whereabouts for several days prior to the Haymarket meeting. He had no
-love for the police, and he did everything in his power to trip us up
-in our subsequent investigations. From the moment of his arrest to the
-day of his execution he adopted a most secretive policy.
-
-[Illustration: FISCHER’S BELT AND POISONED DAGGERS.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-SPIES also weakened at first when brought into the station, almost
-trembling with fear, but, after the first flush of excitement had
-passed, he took on an air of bravado, and exhibited a bold front in
-spite of the documentary disclosures against him. He became glib of
-tongue, but stoutly denied any knowledge of a conspiracy to precipitate
-a riot at the Haymarket. He was savagely denounced by Superintendent
-Ebersold, but he stood his ground and resolved to act the part of the
-innocent victim. His active participation in all large demonstrations,
-notably those at the McCormick factory and the Haymarket, made him a
-splendid mark for critical examination, but every effort to extract
-definite information proved futile.
-
-[Illustration: AUGUST SPIES.
-
-From a Photograph taken by the Police.]
-
-Spies was a young man of considerable ability, having enjoyed more
-than a common school education in Germany, and in all his talks he
-demonstrated that he had been a diligent reader of history and an
-enthusiastic student of Socialism and Anarchy. With all his reading,
-however, it was apparent that he had not carefully digested his
-information. He always acted as if self-conscious of great knowledge.
-He was a strong and effective speaker, but in all his harangues there
-seemed to be lacking the element of sincerity. For a long time some of
-his associates doubted if he really meant what he said, and there are
-Anarchists to-day who do not believe that he was at any time really in
-earnest in his public utterances. They think that he exerted himself
-simply for the purpose of being looked upon as a popular leader and
-hero, and that he worked for the cause only as a means of obtaining an
-easy living. He was exceedingly vain and pompous, and courted public
-notoriety.
-
-Spies had received a very good salary as editor of the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ and enjoyed nothing better than to write a fiery
-editorial or deliver an incendiary speech. It all served to rivet
-attention on himself. The more attention, the more it pleased his
-vanity. His constant desire was to place himself on dress parade, so
-to speak, and he generally sought out, when he lunched down town at
-noon, some fashionable or crowded restaurant. He would strut to a table
-which could only be reached by passing other crowded tables, and enjoy
-the _sotto voce_ remarks as he passed or as he sat at the table he had
-selected—“There is Spies, the noted Anarchist.” No common Anarchist,
-lager-beer-and-pretzel lunch-houses suited him.
-
-It was at a large restaurant, on the 3d of May, at noon, that he met
-a well-known attorney, to whom he was introduced and with whom he
-had some conversation of a joking, bantering nature. The attorney
-testified before the grand jury subsequently as to this conversation,
-and the substance of it will be found in the chapter devoted to a
-review of its proceedings. But it transpires that there was some
-further conversation that does not appear in the report of the grand
-jury investigation, but which has since been brought out through
-the recollection of another party, and, which, while it was given
-in an off-hand way, fully showed that Spies desired to make a great
-impression on the mind of his casual acquaintance as well as to
-intimate the existence of some secret understanding for bringing
-on bloodshed. On that occasion Spies, after being assured that the
-attorney was not an Anarchist, remarked:
-
-“You had better be one, for in less than twenty-four hours a Socialist,
-well armed, with a market on his shoulder, will appear out of every
-door, and whoever has not got the sign or pass-word will be shot down
-in his tracks. I am about going out now to McCormick’s factory, west of
-here, for the purpose of addressing a multitude of workingmen, and I
-will raise h——l before I get through.”
-
-Besides his fancy for popular restaurants, there was another
-peculiarity about Spies. He frequently attended the German theaters,
-ostensibly for the recreation he might find in the plays, but the
-principal motive was the cultivation of the actresses’ acquaintance.
-Introductions, which he sought eagerly, were followed by invitations to
-wine suppers. He was good company, and his lady acquaintances were not
-averse to accepting his invitations even though he was an Anarchist.
-Possibly they doubted the sincerity of his convictions—although they
-entertained no question about the reality of his cash. None of them,
-however, seem to have visited him during his incarceration, save one, a
-tall woman who now lives on Wells Street near Chicago Avenue.
-
-During his troubles Spies made the acquaintance of a woman in another
-station of life. It was during his trial that Miss Nina Van Zandt
-became interested in him and espoused his cause. She had read of his
-case, and there seemed to be a charm about his conduct as described in
-the newspapers that prompted her to seek his acquaintance. She was a
-young girl of rare beauty and considerable mental endowment, and she
-had moved in the best society, but, notwithstanding her social position
-and culture, she sought an introduction and soon fell desperately in
-love with the Anarchist. She was an only child and the petted daughter
-of parents of high social connections, and her immediate relatives were
-wealthy people in Pittsburg. Her parents threw no obstacles in the
-way of her attachment, and she espoused Spies’ cause with her whole
-impetuous nature, and cast her lot with the conspirator and his rabble
-of low-browed followers. It may have been love, but it was love which
-could only have been the product of a disordered mind.
-
-During the later stages of Spies’ trial she was a constant visitor at
-the County Jail, frequently accompanied by her mother and sometimes by
-her father, and on each occasion she would bring him some delicacy or
-token of her esteem. Rare flowers and bouquets she either brought or
-sent daily, and the affection she evinced seemed a growth of months
-instead of days. She had great confidence in the jury and implicitly
-believed that acquittal would result at their hands. Her presence
-invariably graced the court-room, whenever possible, and the defendants
-themselves could not have been more eager listeners to the proceedings.
-When her love for Spies became publicly known, she attracted great
-attention, but her demeanor would have led one to believe that she was
-entirely unconscious of the notoriety she had achieved. This was not
-the case. It rather pleased her, and, to still further intensify public
-attention and curiosity, she made it a point to display a most varied
-wardrobe during the progress of the trial. At the forenoon session
-she would appear in court with one fashionable outfit, and this she
-would change for an equally stunning attire in the afternoon. She had
-a striking figure, was stately in appearance, dignified in manner, and
-with a fine, handsome face, it was no wonder that she became an object
-of marked attention, in the Court-house as well as upon the streets.
-
-[Illustration: MISS NINA VAN ZANDT.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-But withal she never lost sight of her lover nor of the court
-proceedings. Spies was in her mind constantly, and every movement
-in the trial excited her closest attention. It was indeed a strange
-infatuation she displayed for the Anarchist, and it was the more
-strange since Spies seemed indifferent to her attentions. The public
-gradually began to learn of this state of affairs through rumors and
-newspaper reports, but the general opinion was that, if such was the
-case, Spies had accepted her attentions simply as a matter either of
-expediency or from an innate desire for notoriety on his part. The
-public was right. Spies was playing for points, as billiardists would
-say. To be sure, he received her kindly and very courteously, and
-indulged in the expressions which lovers are wont to exchange, but
-those who watched him closely and long could never discover that his
-love came from the heart. He simply saw in her devotion and in her
-standing in society a possible chance for favorably influencing the
-minds of the jury, and thus, through her, he hoped to secure a release
-from the troubles surrounding him. When this failed and death stared
-him in the face, he still figured that she could prove serviceable to
-him in influencing her wealthy relatives to aid him financially in
-further conducting his case, or help him in some manner in effecting
-a change in public sentiment. Such were undoubtedly his motives—at
-least close observers of his actions hold that theory. When, later on,
-things did not move exactly in the line he had hoped for, he willingly
-assented to a marriage, and entered into the arrangements for its
-celebration with apparent eagerness.
-
-This course, Spies no doubt supposed, would demonstrate to the
-unfeeling world that there existed a devout mutual attachment, and
-his claims for interested consideration at the hands of her relatives
-would become greatly strengthened. But it only proved his desperate
-situation. His love had been questioned by the public, and marriage
-was calculated to settle the doubt. The public did not take kindly to
-the proposed ceremony. The moment the newspapers had announced such a
-contemplated step, the utmost indignation was aroused, and protest upon
-protest poured in upon Sheriff Matson. Mr. Matson promptly declared
-that no marriage should take place between the two while Spies was
-in his custody, and thereafter Miss Van Zandt was placed under the
-strictest surveillance whenever she visited her affianced.
-
-[Illustration: CHRIS SPIES.
-
-From a Photograph taken by the Police.]
-
-But all this unexpected interference in what he regarded as his own
-business only tended to make Spies desperate, and, spurred on by his
-outside Anarchist friends, who had likewise become indignant over a
-public intermeddling in a love affair, he dropped his diplomacy and
-resolved that the wishes of his ardent lady love should not be baffled
-either by officials or by the public. Miss Nina in her unreasoning
-infatuation readily acquiesced in the suggestion of a proxy marriage,
-and Justice Engelhardt was consulted. This gentleman claimed that
-under the statutes such a marriage would be valid, and he consented to
-a performance of the ceremony. Accordingly, on the 29th of January,
-1887, a proxy marriage was performed between Miss Nina and Chris Spies,
-a brother of the doomed man. The attorneys of Chicago regarded the
-ceremony as illegal, but the Anarchists considered it as binding as if
-directly contracted.
-
-Miss Nina continued her visits to the jail after this mock proceeding,
-but lynx-eyed officials saw to it that there was no one present
-during her interviews with Spies to secretly and legally splice them
-together. She was devoted to him at all times and all the time, and
-whenever she was not well enough to visit him for some days or was
-kept away by other circumstances, she would write him tender missives
-of love and encouragement. She clung to him to the last, and in their
-final interview, two days preceding his execution, she wept most
-bitterly.
-
-[Illustration: MISS GRETCHEN SPIES.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-Her love was remarkable, but throughout it all Spies proved himself
-wholly unworthy. He was a reprobate cunningly playing upon her
-feelings, caring very little for her, and he must have known that her
-station in life at that time made her an unsuitable companion. For him,
-however, she renounced friends and all. After his death she went into
-deep mourning, hung a cabinet photograph of him in the parlor window of
-her father’s fashionable residence on Huron Street, and locked herself
-in against the outer world for a number of days. She still cherishes
-Spies’ memory and keeps in her parlor a marble bust of the executed
-Anarchist. Recently she has been extending her acquaintanceship among
-Anarchists outside of Chicago, and she has lately visited some of the
-most rabid and demonstrative Socialists at Ottawa, Illinois.
-
-Spies was born in Friedewald, in the province of Hesse, Germany,
-in 1855. He came to America in 1872, and one year later arrived in
-Chicago, where he engaged in various occupations until he relieved
-Paul Grottkau as editor of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ in 1876. His
-identification with Socialism began in Chicago in 1875. He was
-unmarried and supported his mother and a sister, Miss Gretchen Spies.
-He has two brothers in Chicago, Chris and Henry.
-
-[Illustration: MICHAEL SCHWAB.
-
-From a Photograph taken by the Police.]
-
-MICHAEL SCHWAB, when confronted by the officers, looked like an
-exclamation point, and had his long, bushy hairs been porcupine quills,
-each would have stood straight on end. He was bewildered, dumbfounded,
-and there was a distant, far-off expression in his eye. He realized
-that he was in trouble, and to the many questions put to him by the
-officers he stammered apologetic but non-committal answers. It was
-clearly to be seen that he had been like clay in the potter’s hand, a
-mere dupe of his associates. He was far less talented and less active
-than the other leaders, but still in his own way he had played quite
-a conspicuous part in the Anarchist drama. He had seen something of
-the world as a peripatetic book-binder. Through his varied experience,
-his nature had grown irritable and crusty, and Anarchy seemed the only
-thing suited to right the wrongs of mankind. He fell in with the ideas
-of the cranks in Chicago, and soon wormed himself into an assistant
-editorial position of $18 a week on the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. In
-appearance Schwab was ungainly and ferocious, but when put to the test
-he was calm and mild as a lamb. The only thing really vicious about
-him was in his incendiary writings and speeches. He aimed with his
-limited capacity to be a great leader, but the moment he got into the
-clutches of the law and found himself in peril of his life he retracted
-everything which he had so persistently and stubbornly advocated. His
-new troubles brought out the fact that he had written and spoken simply
-for the money that was in the business, and not because he sincerely
-believed in the theories he preached. He was at all times a supple tool
-in the hands of Spies and Parsons, and during the remainder of his days
-in the penitentiary he will have ample opportunities to repent of his
-past misdeeds.
-
-Schwab was born in the village of Kibringen-on-the-Main, near Mannheim,
-in Bavaria, in 1853, and emigrated to the United States in 1879,
-reaching Chicago in the year following. He afterwards traveled from
-point to point in the West, roughed it a little, and three or four
-years later drifted back to Chicago. He is a brother of the notorious
-Anarchist of New York, Justus Schwab, and has a wife and two children,
-who are now being supported by friends.
-
-ALBERT R. PARSONS was another leader wanted by the police, and the
-search for him was immediately instituted. Officers went to his
-house only to discover that he had escaped, and for some time it was
-believed that he was in hiding among his friends in the city. Every
-effort, however, to find him failed, and there were all sorts of
-speculations as to his whereabouts. It was found out afterwards that
-he had become alarmed over the aspect of affairs resulting from the
-Haymarket meeting, and, thinking “discretion the better part of valor,”
-he had gathered a few dollars together, boarded an outgoing train,
-and landed at Geneva, Ill., thoroughly disguised. He sought out the
-home of a friend named Holmes, who cherished Anarchist sentiments, and
-remained with him three or four days in concealment. With a dilapidated
-outfit, he concluded to shift his abiding-place, and accordingly he
-went to Elgin, Ill., where he was taken care of. From this point, in
-the course of a few days, he went to Waukesha, Wis., and there hunted
-around for work as a tramp carpenter. Waukesha is a great resort for
-Chicago people, but no one recognized him in his changed appearance.
-He succeeded in finding employment, and for some time worked as a
-carpenter, unknown and undetected. The labor proving too arduous for
-his undeveloped muscles and contrary to his principles as an Anarchist,
-he began to look out for easier work, and this he managed to secure as
-a painter. For seven weeks he remained at Waukesha, communicating with
-his wife under an assumed name and through a third party living out of
-Chicago.
-
-[Illustration: ALBERT R. PARSONS.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-When the trial opened, the counsel for the Anarchists were confident
-that the State had not sufficient evidence to convict, and upon
-assurances from Capt. Black that an acquittal was certain, Parsons
-decided to surrender himself to the authorities. He boarded a train,
-reached the city, and, securing a hack, drove to his home, on Milwaukee
-Avenue, where he met his wife. After remaining there for three or four
-hours, he got into a hack, in company with Mrs. Parsons, and drove down
-to the Criminal Court building. It was on the 21st of June, after Judge
-Gary had overruled a motion for separate trials, that Parsons reached
-the building. He alighted, tripped up the stairs, and entered the
-court-room. If a bomb had exploded on the outside, it would scarcely
-have created a greater surprise than the appearance of Parsons as he
-stalked in and took his seat with the prisoners.
-
-Parsons was born in Montgomery, Ala., June 20, 1848, and after he
-had reached the age of five, his brother, Gen. W. H. Parsons, of
-the Confederate army, took his education in charge at the latter’s
-home in Tyler, Texas. When young Parsons was eleven years of age, he
-learned the printer’s trade, and finally drifted into the service of
-the Confederate army. After the “unpleasantness,” he branched out as
-editor of a paper at Waco, Texas, and then connected himself with the
-Houston _Telegraph_. He identified himself about this time with the
-Republican party, and, taking an active part in politics, he became
-Secretary of the State Senate under the Federal Government.
-
-[Illustration: MRS. LUCY PARSONS.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-In 1872 he married a mulatto at Houston, and, being discarded by
-his brother and friends, he emigrated with her to Chicago in 1873.
-No sooner had he reached Chicago than he joined the Socialists. He
-worked for a time as a newspaper compositor, but his radical ideas
-and obtrusive arguments prevented him from holding any position
-permanently. He eventually became editor of the _Alarm_ and depended
-on his Anarchist friends for a livelihood. He was always active at
-their meetings, both secret and public, and paraded himself as a labor
-agitator. He managed to become a member of the Knights of Labor, but
-that body as a whole, after seeing how extremely radical were his
-theories, repudiated him.
-
-When his troubles overtook him in connection with the trial, Parsons’
-brother came to his defense and took a keen interest in his case,
-working for him until the very last. Mrs. Parsons had early identified
-herself with her husband’s views, and was one among several others to
-organize a women’s branch of the Anarchists. She can make an effective
-address, and she always took a leading part in extending the membership
-of her union. On the question of her birth, she maintains that she
-is of Mexican extraction, with no negro blood in her veins, but her
-swarthy complexion and distinctively negro features do not bear out her
-assertions. Since her husband’s execution she has appeared on the stump
-in various parts of the United States, and she is now even more violent
-than ever.
-
-[Illustration: OSCAR W. NEEBE.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-OSCAR W. NEEBE was fortunate in the failure of the prosecution to show
-his direct complicity in the Haymarket murder. There was no doubt as
-to his active participation in all the plots of the Anarchist leaders,
-and, had it not been for the loss of some important papers, he would
-now be serving a life sentence instead of a fifteen years’ term in the
-penitentiary. He took an active part in stirring up the members of the
-Brewers’ Union after the McCormick riot, and he contributed no little
-towards sending many of those members to the Haymarket meeting, ready
-for violence and desperate deeds. Immediately following the Haymarket
-slaughter, he was placed under arrest and taken to the Central Station
-at the City Hall. He was there questioned in a general way, but the
-near-sighted officials then in charge of that important department
-were unable to see any reason for his detention and permitted him to
-depart with his friend Schnaubelt, who had been gathered in about the
-same time. This led him to believe that he had friends at the Central
-Headquarters. His belief in his “influence” was somewhat shaken,
-however, when I ordered a search of his house on the 8th of May. The
-officers on that occasion found one Springfield rifle, one Colt’s
-38-caliber revolver, one sword and belt of the Lehr und Wehr Verein,
-a red flag, a transparency, a lot of circulars calling different
-meetings, including the one calling for “revenge,” and several cards
-of Anarchist groups, and with all these and other evidence of his
-connection with the great conspiracy, I went before the grand jury
-and had him indicted for conspiracy to murder. On the 27th of May,
-about 6 o’clock, Deputy Sheriff Alexander Reed called at the Chicago
-Avenue Station and asked me for assistance to arrest Neebe under the
-indictment. I detailed Officer Whalen for this duty, and the two
-called at the man’s house, No. 307 Sedgwick Street. The deputy sheriff
-informed Neebe that he was under arrest, and the officer explained the
-nature of the charge against him. They told him that they would be
-obliged to take him to the County Jail.
-
-Neebe smiled when notified of the charge, and remarked in a most
-careless manner:
-
-“Is that all? That’s nothing. I will get out on bail right away.”
-
-But he did not; he had to linger for a long time.
-
-Neebe was born in the State of New York, in 1850, of German parents,
-and since his location in Chicago he had succeeded in establishing a
-prosperous business in the sale of yeast to grocers and traders. He was
-ambitious to distinguish himself in other directions, however, and he
-chose Anarchy as a basis for building up a reputation as a leader among
-men. He achieved considerable notoriety, as he was active, energetic
-and pushing, and at the time of the Board of Trade demonstration he
-acted as chief marshal of the procession.
-
-Neebe was in the habit of taking members of the North Side group to
-Sheffield, Ind., for the purpose of practicing and experimenting with
-dynamite bombs. It was on one of these experimenting excursions that
-he lost the joints of all the fingers of his right hand by a premature
-explosion. When questioned about it, he told all his friends and even
-his own family that he had lost his fingers in assisting a friend to
-lift a sharp building-stone on the South Side. His family physician was
-asked with reference to the matter, and, after some hesitation, finally
-stated that Neebe had admitted that he had lost his fingers through the
-explosion of a bomb. In the explanation Neebe gave to his friends he
-overlooked the fact that if a sharp building-stone had taken off his
-fingers it would not have taken his thumb, because that member of the
-hand is never in a position to be crushed when one lifts a heavy stone.
-
-After his trial and conviction, Neebe’s wife and little children often
-visited him at the jail, and Mrs. Neebe sought as well as she could to
-raise his drooping spirits. But she subsequently took sick, and after
-a short illness died. A most demonstrative funeral was arranged by
-the Anarchists. The hall in which the ceremonies were conducted was
-profusely decorated with flowers and emblems of mourning. Under most
-binding pledges on the part of the Anarchists, Sheriff Matson permitted
-Neebe, under proper official escort, to take a last look at the remains
-of his wife at the residence, and the scene was a most impressive one.
-Mrs. Neebe had been a firm believer in the doctrines advocated by her
-husband, but his friends claimed that the unexpected troubles of the
-family had precipitated sickness and brought on death. At one time
-it was thought that some serious disturbance might grow out of the
-demonstration, and that, with Neebe back at his home, an attempt at his
-rescue from the hands of the county officials might be made. But the
-police were present to see that order was maintained. The only thing
-bordering on disorder was the fiery speeches of the orators at the
-hall to which the remains were first taken, and from which an immense
-procession started to the place of burial.
-
-The death of his wife was a severe blow to Neebe. Verily, the way
-of the transgressor is hard. He was subsequently removed to the
-penitentiary, and possibly by the time his sentence expires he may
-be able to see life in a different light than through Anarchist
-spectacles.
-
-[Illustration: RUDOLPH SCHNAUBELT, THE BOMB-THROWER.
-
-From a photograph.]
-
-RUDOLPH SCHNAUBELT is indeed a fortunate man, and, wherever he is
-at present, he must be felicitating himself on his escape from a
-felon’s death. On the morning of May 5, after all the help in the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ had been arrested, Schnaubelt was gathered in and
-taken to the Central Station. He was suspected of complicity in the
-conspiracy, but there seemed to be so “little against the young man,”
-that he was promptly released without the slightest pains being taken
-to inquire into his antecedents. Under the free and easy system then
-prevailing in the department, there seemed to be no idea that officers
-were employed for other purposes than simply drawing salaries. I looked
-carefully into the release of Schnaubelt, and the more I saw of it,
-the more I was convinced that the examination of this most important
-prisoner was the same kind of investigation as those one could have
-seen at some of the primaries three or four years ago, when, if a man
-happened to be of a certain political faith, he would be passed along
-with the remark, “He’s all right,” and permitted to vote. Schnaubelt
-was simply asked two or three questions and then allowed to go. The
-stupid detectives knew he was a close friend of Spies and Fielden, who
-were already locked up, and to prove that friendship now that they
-were in trouble, Schnaubelt frequently dropped in at the City Hall to
-inquire after them. He continued to hang around under the tolerance
-of the officials, and I have always believed that the only thing that
-saved him from being locked up was the fortunate circumstance that no
-one put a sign on his back reading that he was the bomb-thrower.
-
-Officers Palmer and Cosgrove had managed to get a slight clue against
-this man, and they arrested him again on the 6th of May. They stated
-their case to Lieut. John D. Shea, and by him the arrest was reported
-to his superior officer. What was the result? Shea did not care to be
-bothered with the case. The head of the department likewise did not
-care to be troubled. They accordingly saved themselves all further
-annoyance by telling Schnaubelt to go away. The prisoner, with singular
-stolidity, did not seem to care particularly, and had to be told again
-that he was at liberty to go where he pleased. It is a wonder that the
-officials did not offer him a cigar in acknowledgment of their kindly
-feelings. When Schnaubelt was released, Officer Palmer remonstrated
-with the Lieutenant, but he was told to let the man alone and not
-bring him there any more. That ended the matter with the officer.
-Several other detectives had meanwhile learned of Schnaubelt’s close
-friendship with Spies and other Anarchists, but when they learned
-of the instructions Officers Palmer and Cosgrove had received they
-likewise dropped all investigations when they reached Schnaubelt. The
-man naturally felt pleased at such friendly favor and remained in the
-city until about the 13th of May.
-
-It was on the 14th of May that I first received information about the
-part Schnaubelt had played in all the Anarchist meetings and that I
-learned something of his special intimacy with Fischer and Balthasar
-Rau.
-
-“You get him,” said my informant, “and I will tell you something
-interesting that will surprise everybody.”
-
-At this time the man was called Schnabel, and the information was that
-he was working in a store on the South Side. I at once sent Officers
-Whalen and Stift to hunt him up. While engaged in the search they met
-Officers Palmer and Cosgrove. Whalen explained their mission, and then
-Palmer asked:
-
-“Are you not afraid to arrest him?”
-
-Whalen wanted to know why there should be any fear in the case, and
-Palmer remarked:
-
-“Well, you are running a chance of getting yourselves in trouble. We
-wanted to arrest Schnaubelt in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office, and we
-were not allowed to do so. We found him, Neebe, Fischer, Mrs. Parsons,
-Mrs. Schwab and Mrs. Holmes in the editor’s room. Shea told us not
-to arrest him, that he was a ‘big stiff,’ and then and there he told
-Schnaubelt to get away from there or he would kick him out. All the
-others were arrested, but he was let go. I was detailed to remain
-around the building. Schnaubelt came around there again afterwards, and
-I arrested him and took him to the Central Station. There the man was
-told to go and get out. On the next day he came around there again.
-I had in the meantime obtained a little information about him, and I
-arrested him and took him to the Central Station. I was again asked if
-I had not been told to let him alone and was curtly informed that I was
-altogether too officious. Schnaubelt was again released. I explained
-that he was a partner of Fischer, that he had the big revolver and
-dagger; but it was no use—he was permitted to leave.”
-
-Officer Whalen replied: “We work for a different man, and I would like
-to see Schnaubelt if he is in the city.”
-
-Officer Gosgrove remarked that he knew where the man was working, and
-the two officers proffered their services to pilot Whalen and Stift to
-the place. They went to No. 224 Washington Street, third floor, but on
-reaching there they learned that “the bird had flown.” He had not even
-drawn the wages due him, having sent his sister after the money. It
-subsequently transpired that Schnaubelt was the very man who had thrown
-the bomb at the Haymarket, but he had “taken time by the forelock” and
-skipped for parts unknown. Possibly he had got tired of being kicked
-out of the office of the Chief of Police and left Chicago in disgust,
-or possibly his friends at the Central Station may have given him a
-“tip” to save himself from serious trouble.
-
-Some two weeks thereafter I received information as to where Schnaubelt
-could be found.
-
-I told Mr. Grinnell what I had learned, and he asked me to send a few
-men at once and get him. I informed Mr. Grinnell that I could not
-detail officers outside of the city limits without the consent of the
-Chief. Mr. Grinnell thought I had better do so anyway. I insisted that
-I must see the Chief first, and Mr. Grinnell remarked:
-
-“If you do, that will be the end of that matter.”
-
-I went, however, to the Chief’s office, and stated my business. I was
-there told that they would get the man. The Chief said that he would
-go out to California and thus head him off. I reported back to Mr.
-Grinnell the result of my interview, and he remarked:
-
-“Well, that is just what I expected—jealousy, and that is all.”
-
-Schnaubelt thus had a good friend at the City Hall, and he cannot thank
-the officers there too much for having saved him the painful necessity
-of going down to death on the 11th of November, 1887, with the other
-conspirators.
-
-BALTHASAR RAU was another man who did not tarry in Chicago. He had been
-a faithful lieutenant of Spies and had earned a living as solicitor
-for the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. He took a keen interest in all of Spies’
-plans, and on Saturday afternoon preceding the day of the riot visited
-the vicinity of McCormick’s factory to secure points about the strike
-for his friend’s information. He reported that ten thousand striking
-lumber-shovers had met on that day and had appointed a committee to
-wait upon the lumber bosses to induce them to inaugurate the eight-hour
-system in the various yards. Rau had seen the gathering, and, as
-the committee appointed by it were to report to another meeting the
-following Monday, he knew that it would bring together just such a
-throng, if not a larger one than the previous assemblage. He so posted
-Spies, and in turn was advised by his friend to insert in the _Fackel_
-of Sunday, May 2, the notice “Y, come Monday night,” which was the
-signal for the armed groups to meet that night at No. 54 West Lake
-Street. The bandits did meet, and matured the conspiracy which was
-carried out the following night at the Haymarket. On Monday Rau went
-with Spies to McCormick’s factory, aided in inciting the people to a
-riot, and then accompanied his friend to the strikers’ headquarters on
-Lake Street, where they informed the people that ten or twelve of their
-brother workmen had been brutally shot down by the “bloodhounds”—the
-police—that afternoon.
-
-[Illustration: BALTHASAR RAU.
-
-From a Photograph taken by the Police.]
-
-In consequence of his intimacy with Spies, Rau was at once—and the
-only one at first—suspected of being the thrower of the fatal bomb.
-He seemed to realize that he was under suspicion, for he speedily left
-the city after the explosion. Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann
-learned that he had fled to Omaha and promptly repaired to that city.
-By instructions, James Bonfield was to secure the necessary requisition
-papers for Rau’s extradition from the State of Nebraska and was to
-follow Furthmann to Omaha. The Assistant State’s Attorney found Rau
-willing to talk, and asked him to write as he had been dictated, to the
-text of the signal, “Y, come Monday night.” Rau promptly discovered
-that Furthmann knew some of the inside facts in the conspiracy, and
-tremblingly asked what he could do to save his neck from the rope. He
-was informed that nothing short of “unconditional surrender” would help
-him out of his scrape, and that he must not keep back any information.
-He then unbosomed himself and told everything he knew.
-
-While these things were taking place the leaders of the Anarchist group
-in Omaha were collecting money to take Rau away from Mr. Furthmann by
-_habeas corpus_ proceedings. Rau had meanwhile been locked up in a cell
-where he could not easily be reached by his friends, and, as he did
-not like his surroundings, he was anxious to return to Chicago even
-without extradition papers. It was on a Monday before daylight that
-he agreed to go, and Mr. Furthmann promptly took him across the river
-to Council Bluffs, in the State of Iowa, to avoid litigation, as he
-had learned that the Omaha judge was ready and willing to assist the
-Anarchists of that section in effecting Rau’s release. At this time the
-extradition papers had not arrived. On taking up the trip to Chicago
-Rau became more communicative than ever and entered into details quite
-interestingly.
-
-Some one in the parlor car which conveyed them to Chicago recognized
-Mr. Furthmann, and it was whispered around:
-
-“There’s Furthmann with the bomb-thrower!”
-
-A flutter of excitement speedily developed, and soon a demand was
-made on Furthmann that unless he handcuffed Rau the passengers would
-object to his sitting in the parlor car, and they certainly would not
-allow Rau to sleep in the same car unless shackles were placed about
-his limbs. A great deal of parleying ensued. Finally Mr. Furthmann
-consented to appease the now thoroughly frightened passengers. Only one
-condition was imposed by Mr. Furthmann, and that was that the handcuffs
-and shackles should be furnished, as he had none in his possession.
-The implements were immediately telegraphed for, and were on hand when
-Cedar Rapids was reached. But the idea of handcuffing and shackling
-a man who was willingly returning without extradition papers was
-repulsive to Mr. Furthmann.
-
-A novel thought flashed through the Assistant State’s Attorney’s mind.
-He informed Rau of everything that had transpired, and told him that
-he did not desire to shackle him in any way. But for the purpose of
-quieting the passengers he would rattle the iron bracelets around in
-good shape if Rau would give up his coat, vest, pantaloons, shirt,
-drawers, stockings and shoes and hat during the night. This was done,
-and the passengers, hearing the rattling of the chains at intervals
-during the night, rested in the sweet confidence that a violent
-outburst on the part of a wild Anarchist had been averted.
-
-The prisoner was safely landed in Chicago, and not a handcuff or
-shackle had been placed about him. He was taken to the Chicago Avenue
-Station, and there put through an examination by State’s Attorney
-Grinnell.
-
-In the statement he made to Mr. Grinnell and myself Rau gave his age as
-thirty, his occupation as that of a printer, and his residence as No.
-418 Larrabee Street.
-
-“We had,” he said, “an excursion to Sheffield, Indiana, and there were
-present August Spies, Schwab, Neebe, Engel and Schnaubelt. Those are
-the only ones I can now remember. Engel and Schnaubelt were the ones to
-set dynamite bombs for experiments.”
-
-“Why do you good people use dynamite bombs, and what do you intend to
-do with them?” asked Mr. Grinnell.
-
-Rau hesitated, but finally replied: “The time we shot off the dynamite
-bombs at Sheffield, at the time of the explosion there were only a few
-of us present. They were the parties whose names I have given and a
-man who came with Engel. We exploded only two bombs, and they were made
-of iron and were round.”
-
-“What is the meaning and for what purpose does that letter ‘Y’ appear
-in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_?” asked Mr. Furthmann.
-
-“The last time I saw it was on Sunday, May 2, 1886. The Sunday issue
-of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ is called the _Fackel_. Lorenz Hermann was
-requested to have the letter ‘Y’ inserted in the paper, and it was
-printed in the issue mentioned. He brought the notice to the office.
-We did not charge anything for notices brought in by the members of
-the armed section. And that letter ‘Y’ was intended to signify that
-there would be a meeting at No. 54 West Lake Street, May 3, for the
-armed men. I was at Zepf’s Hall at a meeting held Monday, May 3. I
-had with me a lot of ‘Revenge’ circulars, calling people to arms. I
-gave the circulars to the boys who were present at the meeting. It
-was after nine o’clock. One meeting had been called by the carpenters
-for that night. August Belz is the man who told me the meaning of the
-word. He asked me at Greif’s Hall if I knew the meaning of the word
-‘Ruhe,’ and if I knew what effect its publication would have. He then
-told me that they had agreed that the word ‘Ruhe’ should apply to a
-meeting at the Haymarket. If it appeared in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_,
-he said, then there would be trouble. The trouble would be fighting
-the police, storming buildings and throwing dynamite bombs. When I saw
-that word in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, I was working in the office of
-that paper. I remarked to August Spies that that would make trouble in
-the city, and his answer was that Fischer did it, meaning that Fischer
-was responsible for it. Spies, after I had told him what trouble it
-would make, got excited and called Schnaubelt. Spies asked him, ‘How
-is this?’ referring to the word ‘Ruhe.’ Schnaubelt replied, ‘Well,
-they want to throw dynamite bombs.’ He also said that if the police
-interfered, then there would be trouble at the Haymarket. He further
-said that the people stationed on the outskirts of the city, east,
-west, south and north, should be informed as to when the riot commenced
-and when their time had arrived for storming the city. When Fischer was
-asked about this word ‘Ruhe’ he was close-mouthed. He would not say
-anything to us. I heard Spies say in his office, ‘If that word “Ruhe”
-is in the paper, there will be trouble, and I don’t want that. That
-will break up our organization.’ Spies said: ‘I will print hand-bills
-to stop the meeting at the Haymarket May 4.’ He said he would attend
-to that himself. I said that we had better put up signs on the corners
-to notify the people that there would be no meeting at the Haymarket
-that night. Spies said that if there was a meeting, then there would
-be trouble. Schnaubelt was to go to the North Side that afternoon, May
-4, and tell the people that there would be no meeting at the Haymarket
-that night. On May 4, in the evening, some one called at the office
-and wanted Spies to speak at the meeting at Deering Station; but he
-could not be found, and consequently we sent Schwab. Afterwards I went
-over to the West Side meeting at the Haymarket. I saw Spies standing
-on a wagon, making a speech to the people present. When he saw me he
-called me and asked me to go and find Parsons. Spies said, ‘I want help
-here, and he must help me out.’ I went to look for Parsons, and I found
-him. Parsons and Fielden were together. I told them what Spies had
-said and I asked them to go and help him. They did go—I went along.
-We got there speedily. I asked Fischer for an explanation as to the
-publication in our paper of the notice calling the people to arms, but
-he would give me no satisfaction.”
-
-“Why did you not give me this statement first when I asked you for this
-information?” asked Mr. Grinnell.
-
-“Because I was afraid it would hurt myself, or it might convict me.
-That is the reason why I did not tell you at first. I saw dynamite in
-the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ building. I saw dynamite lying on a shelf in
-the back room from the office. I know George Engel and Fehling. They
-printed the _Anarchist_. It was a small paper. They only published six
-numbers.”
-
-EDMUND DEUSS was also sought for with some interest. He had been
-city editor of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ under Spies. The first week
-after the bomb had been thrown the authorities at police headquarters
-were informed that Paul Grottkau and Deuss, both ex-employés of the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_, were then living in Milwaukee. Mr. Furthmann
-thought some points might be gathered from them, and accordingly went
-to that city. He found them both. Grottkau, who has since tasted the
-bitterness of prison life for his preachments of violence in the “Cream
-City,” expressed himself as pleased that Spies had been placed under
-arrest and charged with responsibility for the murder at the Haymarket.
-
-“I knew long ago,” said Grottkau, “that August Spies would thus end his
-crazy and ambitious career.”
-
-Grottkau and Spies had not been on very friendly terms since the
-latter had succeeded in displacing the former from the editorship of
-the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. But, however strong his enmity, Grottkau would
-not give us any information regarding Spies, or dynamite practices,
-or anything else that would tend to put a rope around Spies’ neck or
-hurt any of his companions. He referred Mr. Furthmann to Deuss, who was
-then depending upon Grottkau for a livelihood and who received a dollar
-now and then for writing a firebrand article for a paper Grottkau was
-editing in Milwaukee.
-
-Deuss was found in a neighboring saloon without a cent in his
-pocket. He stood wistfully eyeing the saloon patrons, hoping to fall
-in with some one willing to buy him a glass of beer or a cigar.
-Mr. Furthmann at once opened a conversation about the Chicago
-Anarchists. Deuss promised to tell everything he knew in regard to
-the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, the dynamite brought there, the men in the
-building of that paper and the nefarious things practiced by them, on
-condition that Mr. Furthmann would first buy him a good cigar, several
-sandwiches and the necessary beer. The conditions were complied with,
-and Deuss rattled away a long story. He proved to be the first man
-to inform Mr. Furthmann as to when the dynamite that was afterwards
-found in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ had been brought there, and where
-it had been placed. A grease-spot caused by dynamite was afterwards
-found exactly where Deuss said the explosive material had been placed,
-which was right next to the desk used by Malkoff, a reporter for the
-paper and an exiled Russian Anarchist. Rau at that time, it appears,
-did not know the properties of dynamite, for on one occasion a stray
-match was thrown upon the dynamite sack in the office and he was nearly
-frightened out of his wits.
-
-“Don’t you know what you are doing?” he exclaimed.
-
-“You greenhorn,” was the answer, “Malkoff has handled this stuff for
-years and knows by this time, as you ought to know, that dynamite
-cannot be exploded by contact with fire in such a form.”
-
-This information, though unimportant on its face, assisted Mr.
-Furthmann greatly in making Deuss talk, and served also as a straw
-showing that the man had given up all the information he possessed.
-
- * * * * *
-
-[Illustration: LINGG’S CANDLESTICK.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-SO FAR Mr. Furthmann had managed to secure many valuable clues, and
-we studied at once the best method of following them up. In running
-down the pointers, one day Mr. Furthmann sought Dr. Newman, one of
-the surgeons who had rendered heroic service in attending the wounded
-on the night after the explosion. The doctor was asked with reference
-to the metal and pieces of lead which he had taken from the bodies of
-some of the men wounded at the Haymarket. He informed Mr. Furthmann
-that a young man named Hahn, a shoemaker on the West Side, had come
-to the hospital wounded by the explosion, and that upon examination
-a wound had been found in the fleshy part of his thigh, from which a
-piece of iron had been removed. This piece was nothing less than the
-nut which had been used to assist in holding together the two halves
-of the composition bomb which had been exploded at the Haymarket. This
-discovery was a most important one. It proved at the trial the best
-piece of evidence used, by the prosecution, as it demonstrated that
-the bomb exploded at the Haymarket was one of the bombs manufactured
-by Louis Lingg, since fifty bolts and nuts of the same size and
-description were subsequently found in Lingg’s possession.
-
-The metal removed from the person of the wounded officers was placed in
-the hands of Professors Haines and Delafontaine, expert chemists, for
-analysis, and they found that it contained the same quantity of lead,
-zinc, tin and other ingredients, and the same proportion of impurities
-as the bombs found in Lingg’s possession. Even a trace of the copper
-discovered in the bomb exploded at the Haymarket was shown to have come
-from the candlestick used by Lingg. A small fragment was missing from
-the candlestick, and it was clearly shown that it had found its way
-into that deadly bomb.
-
-During this period I also learned that Lingg had not been the first and
-only one to experiment with dynamite in Chicago. I learned that as far
-back as 1881 there had been some desperate men among the Socialists,
-but by keeping their secrets to themselves they had managed to keep
-the general body of the party and the public at large in ignorance
-of their clandestine operations. They had even experimented with
-dynamite, hoping to perfect it so that it could be handled with safety;
-but somehow they had failed to discover means for making its use
-practicable. They had adopted various expedients to test its strength
-when confined in a small implement, and in their labors several had
-received serious injuries. Four or five men are living to-day who were
-crippled by the rash and ineffectual experiments. One Communist was
-particularly active in studying the properties of the explosive and
-devising a plan to make it serviceable in a combat with the police.
-This man had fled from France after the downfall of the Paris Commune,
-and thought himself quite capable of getting dynamite down to such a
-fine point that when his new-found brethren in Anarchy started their
-revolution they would be more successful than his French associates had
-been. He finally succeeded in making an explosive similar to dynamite,
-but which was found very unsafe to handle. After some of the Anarchists
-had tried it and got hurt, they refrained from further meddling, and
-dropped both the Frenchman and his explosive. For along time thereafter
-dynamite was not heard of.
-
-A man living on West Lake Street, however, still entertained hopes, and
-finally supplied some of the Anarchists with a dynamite prescription by
-which they could use it with great effect. In imparting his knowledge
-he told them to keep the “stuff” hermetically sealed, for if the air
-reached it an explosion would surely follow. Some found this true, to
-their sorrow.
-
-Then a man residing on West Twelfth Street stepped to the front and
-supplied what he claimed could be successfully used. One Sunday some
-half dozen Anarchists went out to Riverside to test the new compound by
-putting some of it under a lot of stone near the Desplaines River, but,
-to their surprise and mortification, they found that it was so weak
-that it scarcely made a noise.
-
-Subsequently the Southwest Side group took up the dynamite problem and
-experimented with the “stuff.” The members of this group, known at
-the time familiarly as “the Bridgeport group,” were the craziest lot
-of Anarchists in the city, and, judging from their talk, were always
-ready to participate in a riot or a revolution. They were great readers
-of books on Socialism, Communism, Anarchy and Nihilism, and they had
-drilled themselves thoroughly in arms for the coming uprising. But
-they wanted something more potent and effective than simple guns and
-revolvers, and, as they possessed a work on “The Wonders of Chemistry,”
-they saw no reason why they could not carry out its instructions with
-reference to dynamite and find some means for putting them to practical
-use. They accordingly experimented. They had a friend in a drug-store
-on State Street, near Van Buren, and from him they obtained their
-supplies by paying a good round price. This store finally became known
-to all the Socialists in the city, but, as the owner became frightened
-at the publicity obtained, he declined to furnish any more material for
-experiments. The Anarchists, however, had met with some small success,
-and they were not discouraged. They found another friend on West
-Twelfth Street, and this party sold them dynamite cartridges such as
-are used by miners.
-
-There were in the city at the time the Bridgeport group, the Town
-of Lake group, the South Side group, the Southwest Side group, the
-Freiheit group, the Northwest Side group, the North Side group,
-the Karl Marx group, the English group, the Lake View group (near
-Clybourn Avenue), and another group which existed only a short time,
-all together having a membership list of about 1,500 men, who hailed
-with great delight the report that with some further experiments the
-dynamite cartridges could be made serviceable not only for blowing up
-buildings, but also for use in a hand-to-hand conflict in a crowd.
-
-The members of the Lehr und Wehr Verein were not then interested
-in this branch of Socialism. They drilled with arms and believed
-in meeting the enemy with guns. It was about this time—October,
-1883—that the national convention of Socialists was held at Pittsburg
-to formulate plans and principles, and there was a division of
-sentiment on the use of dynamite. The radical delegates from Chicago,
-as stated in a preceding chapter, were numerous, and insisted on
-employing the most effective weapon they could find to exterminate
-capitalists. The result of the conflict was that on their return home
-they made it a point to bring over the members of the Lehr und Wehr
-Verein, some of whom had opposed them at Pittsburg, to their ideas,
-and some time thereafter they succeeded in having the superiority of
-dynamite over guns almost generally conceded. Not only that, but some
-of the members became enthusiastic in the experiments being made. One
-member had even reached a point beyond his competitors in making round
-cast-iron bombs, and succeeded in turning out fifty pieces. A few were
-tried, with what success is not known, but one night two friends of the
-man went to him, told him that they had heard of his having bombs and
-that his arrest would be made the next day. In fact, they assured him
-that he had been spotted for some time by detectives. This frightened
-the man, and he begged his friends to assist him in carrying the bombs
-away and thus help him out of his troubles. The three then went to
-work, removed the bombs, and, to effectually destroy all evidence,
-threw them into the lake.
-
-This procedure gave the great man of the Lehr und Wehr Verein a chance
-to breathe a little easier, the air seemed to be more bracing, and he
-could look into the eye of a policeman, when he passed one, with more
-assurance and confidence. But one of those bombs got astray while being
-removed, just before the others were submerged, and it afterwards came
-into the possession of the police. It has had its picture taken and
-looks quite innocent on paper.
-
-An engraving of it is herewith presented. This sort of iron bomb was
-afterwards adopted as a model, and became quite popular with the brave
-dynamite experimenters until some one manufactured a smaller one that
-could be carried handily in a coat pocket.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-They next adopted the long iron gas-pipe bomb, six inches in length,
-which could be carried in the inside vest pocket. Every one fell in
-love with the new invention, especially Fischer, and he kept a large
-soap-box full of the bombs at his home, carefully concealed under his
-bed.
-
-But the Anarchists were bent on still greater improvements. They
-continued their experiments, and the next new invention was the round
-lead bomb, called by them the “Czar bomb.” This was the kind brought to
-August Spies’ office by “the man from Cleveland,” or rather by Louis
-Lingg. One of these bombs is shown in a full-page engraving presented
-elsewhere. They had been designated as the “Czar bomb” until bombs
-began to fill my office, and then they were referred to as “the round
-lead bombs.” The police knew them as Lingg’s bombs.
-
-Some of Fischer’s bombs were scattered among trusted Anarchists in the
-Board of Trade procession, and their effectiveness would have been
-tried on that occasion had it not been for police interference. The
-character and explosiveness of the “Lingg bomb” are described in the
-testimony of the officers and expert chemists during the trial.
-
-SAMUEL FIELDEN was found at his home during the day of May 5th, and
-placed under arrest. He accepted the situation calmly, and, without a
-remonstrance, accompanied the officers to the Central Station. Officer
-Slayton, who had him in care, introduced him to the Lieutenant in
-charge of the detective department, and, in view of the conspicuous
-part the prisoner had played at the Haymarket, one would suppose that
-he would have been subjected to a very rigorous examination as to his
-movements for several days preceding the evening of May 4. But nothing
-of the kind occurred. The Lieutenant proceeded to denounce him in
-English more vigorous than elegant, and delivered himself of an opinion
-about the man and the work of the Anarchists at the Haymarket. Fielden
-stood it all without a murmur, and probably would have said nothing
-had not the Lieutenant called him a Dutchman. That allusion was the
-“last straw.” Fielden remonstrated and emphatically declared that he
-was an Englishman. He was subsequently turned over to Superintendent
-Ebersold, and, while exhibiting his wound, caused by a shot during
-the Haymarket riot, he was informed by that officer that it ought to
-have gone through his head. The observation was a pertinent one at the
-moment, and possibly the felicity of its expression may have satisfied
-the official that with it his duty had ended in the case. At any rate,
-Fielden was not catechized to any material extent by the Chief, and
-that official, as well as the head of the detective department, was no
-wiser than before the man’s arrest.
-
-[Illustration: SAMUEL FIELDEN.
-
-From a Photograph taken by the Police.]
-
-The prisoner, who had been shown to have declared at the Haymarket,
-“Here come the bloodhounds, the police; you do your duty and I’ll
-do mine,” and to have fired a shot in the direction of the police
-after dismounting from the speakers’ wagon, was then passed into a
-cell. His house was searched, but nothing of a criminating character
-was discovered. He undoubtedly possessed a great deal of information
-respecting the revolutionary plot. Had it not been for work done
-outside of the Central Station, Fielden would have been speedily
-released, and possibly some apology might have been offered him for the
-inconvenience occasioned by his arrest and the unintentional reflection
-cast upon the English and German nationalities.
-
-Fielden was kept locked up, indicted, and finally convicted on
-discoveries made independently of the Chief’s office or the detective
-department. The education, demeanor and independence of the man were
-well calculated to deceive the most expert readers of human nature,
-and his emphatic assertions regarding the want of any knowledge of a
-conspiracy would have made him a free man to-day had his case rested
-on the efforts of the Central Station. Fielden was a sort of diamond in
-the rough. He possessed much native ability, a ruggedness of character
-which commanded admiration, and a force and volubility of speech which
-swayed the unlettered masses. Had he passed through either an academic
-or collegiate training, there is no telling what eminence he might have
-achieved in the higher walks of life. His rough, uncouth appearance
-greatly heightened the effect of his utterances, as few looked for
-eloquence from such a man. He was born in Dodmorden, Lancashire,
-England, in 1847, and spent a number of his earlier years in a cotton
-mill. While thus engaged he became a Sunday-school teacher at the age
-of eighteen, and some time later branched out as an itinerant Methodist
-exhorter. Some time after (1868) he came to America, settling in New
-York, and the next year he found his way to Chicago. He went to work
-at Summit, a hamlet a few miles southwest of town, on the farm of
-ex-Mayor John Wentworth, but he did not remain there long before he
-migrated to Arkansas and Louisiana to engage in railroad construction
-work. In 1871 he returned to Chicago and engaged in manual labor,
-principally as teamster in handling stone. In 1880 he became a member
-of the Liberal League, and under the training and guidance of George
-Schilling he soon became a rabid Socialist. From that the step was
-only a short one to unbridled Anarchy, and the pupil finally became a
-teacher to Schilling in advanced theories on the state of society they
-all sought to inaugurate. Fielden finally became a boon companion of
-Spies and Parsons, and all the rugged eloquence he could command was
-given to the cause. He was a more forcible speaker than either of the
-two just named, and whenever he preached force, as he always did after
-becoming an Anarchist, his language commanded wider attention and made
-a deeper impression. Had it not been for his own sincere penitence for
-his past misdeeds and the intervention of influential friends because
-of that penitence, he would have died on the gallows. But he recanted
-at the last moment of hope for clemency, and the Governor commuted
-his sentence to imprisonment for life. He is a married man with two
-small children, and the misery he wrought upon them has been beyond
-expression. Such is the fruit of Anarchy.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI.
-
- My Connection with the Anarchist Cases—A Scene at the Central
- Office—Mr. Hanssen’s Discovery—Politics and Detective Work—Jealousy
- against Inspector Bonfield—Dynamiters on Exhibition—Courtesies
- to the Prize-fighters—A Friendly Tip—My First Light on the
- Case—A Promise of Confidence—One Night’s Work—The Chief Agrees
- to my Taking up the Case—Laying Our Plans—“We Have Found the
- Bomb Factory!”—Is it a Trap?—A Patrol-wagon Full of Dynamite—No
- Help Hoped for from Headquarters—Conference with State’s Attorney
- Grinnell—Furthmann’s Work—Opening up the Plot—Trouble with the
- Newspaper Men—Unexpected Advantage of Hostile Criticism—Information
- from Unexpected Quarters—Queer Episodes of the Hunt—Clues Good,
- Bad and Indifferent—A Mysterious Lady with a Veil—A Conference
- in my Back Yard—The Anarchists Alarmed—A Breezy Conference with
- Ebersold—Threatening Letters—Menaces Sent to the Wives of the
- Men Working on the Case—How the Ladies Behaved—The Judge and
- Mrs. Gary—Detectives on Each Other’s Trail—The Humors of the
- Case—Amusing Incidents.
-
-
-I HAVE often been asked how it was that I came to have charge of the
-detective work which was done in bringing the Anarchists to justice,
-and I think that the time has now come for the whole story to be told.
-I think it would be a false delicacy for me, in this book, which I
-mean to make, as nearly as I can, a fair and truthful record of the
-Anarchist case, to pass over the notorious incompetency which prevailed
-at Police Headquarters at that time. It cannot be denied that, had
-the case been left in the hands of the men of the Central Office, the
-prosecution would have come to naught, and these red-handed murderers
-would have gone unwhipped of justice. This was something which every
-good citizen would have been bound to prevent, and more than others a
-police officer, for into our hands is intrusted the care of the lives
-and property of the community and the preservation of law and order. I
-knew as well as my questioners that the case belonged to the Central
-Office. There was the Chief; there were the two heads of the detective
-department; there was the detective corps, supposed to contain the
-keenest and the best officers on the force.
-
-From the first I was satisfied that the men at headquarters neither
-appreciated the gravity of the occasion, nor were they able to cope
-with the conspirators—a set of wily, secret and able men, who had
-made a special study of the art and mystery of baffling the law and
-avoiding the police. There was neither order, discipline nor brains at
-headquarters. Every officer did as he liked, and the department was
-rent and paralyzed with the feuds and jealousies between the chiefs
-and the subordinates. This, too, was at a time when the people of
-Chicago were in a condition of mind almost bordering upon panic. They
-were looking to us for protection. The red flag was flaunted in the
-streets, demagogues were shouting dynamite in a dozen parts of the
-city, riotous mobs had already met the police—and the police were
-in charge of a man who—it is a charity to say no more—had neither a
-proper conception of his duties nor the ability to perform them.
-
-For instance, on the evening of May 3 all the captains of the city were
-ordered to meet at the Chief’s office, and, together with Inspector
-Bonfield, they responded promptly. While the situation was being
-discussed, there was a rap at the door. I was nearest the entrance, and
-I opened it. Mr. Hanssen, one of the editors of the _Freie Presse_,
-was there. He handed in a paper, saying that it was of most serious
-import—so serious that, as soon as he had seen it, he had felt it his
-duty to bring it to police headquarters. It was the “Revenge” circular,
-of which so much is said elsewhere in this book, and which afterwards
-became so notorious. I handed it to Chief Ebersold, who glanced at it
-and said it was all nonsense. “Why,” said he, “we are prepared for
-them.” Bonfield looked it over, and thought it serious. I was sure that
-it meant mischief and murder, but the rest treated it as a farce. Now,
-what was to be expected from men who had no clearer idea of the gravity
-of the crisis that was upon us than the story of this incident conveys.
-
-[Illustration: DETECTIVE JAMES BONFIELD.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-On the next evening the crash of dynamite was for the first time heard
-on the streets of an American city. The Red Terror was upon us.
-
-What was done?
-
-Every citizen of Chicago demanded justice for the brave men who had
-fallen—justice on the miscreants who had done them to death. Knowing
-what I did of the manner in which the detective work was apt to be
-done, it will not be wondered that I at once made up my mind to do
-what lay in my power to hunt these murderers down. Even had I not so
-concluded, the events of that day, the 5th of May, would have fastened
-the determination in my mind. At ten o’clock in the morning I was
-ordered by telephone to report at the Central Station at once with two
-companies—trouble was momentarily expected on the Black Road. When
-I had disposed my men at the City Hall, and arranged for the patrol
-wagons we were to occupy if a call should come, there was nothing to do
-but wait in the Chief’s office till we were summoned. No one ever had
-a better opportunity of seeing how the police business of the city was
-transacted.
-
-It was a time of acute excitement, the day after the Haymarket. The
-Chief was in a state of alarm that would have been ridiculous if it
-had not been pitiable. Whenever the telephone rang, he would start
-nervously and demand, “Is that on the prairie, or the Black Road?”
-and when assured that there was no trouble, his relief was absurdly
-manifest. Among the detectives the topic was whether they would be
-called on to work in the Anarchist case and how many they would be
-expected to arrest.
-
-Another question that bothered them was: What would the old man (Mayor
-Harrison) say if they went to work arresting Anarchists, and how would
-he like it?
-
-The officers who did their duty after such a stupendous crime as the
-slaughter of the police officers would never have lost anything in the
-end, even if they should have lost their positions. The question, “How
-would Harrison like it?” as asked by one of the detectives, should,
-therefore, have cut no figure, and possibly it did not. Probably
-the officer fell back upon it as an excuse for his own laziness and
-incompetence. But one thing is certain, and that is that the department
-did nothing to speak of in the case.
-
-[Illustration: OFFICER HENRY PALMER.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-I saw some of those red-handed murderers come out of that office
-smiling and laughing instead of being made to feel that they were about
-to have a rope around their necks.
-
-In fact, the Central Office was run so that no one could tell who was
-officer, waiter or janitor. Everybody had a full sweep in and out
-of the office, and if a prisoner happened to be brought in by some
-well-meaning officer, everybody was allowed to hear the investigation.
-It was a sort of town meeting, and it was free to all.
-
-At that time Inspector Bonfield had been receiving a great deal of
-favorable mention in the newspapers, in connection with the labor
-troubles, and this aroused the jealousy of Chief Ebersold. The Chief
-accordingly concluded to attend to all the business himself, assisted
-by his pet gang of ignorant detectives, and they made a fine mess of
-it. But forces were at work, in spite of the internal difficulties,
-which rescued the case from utter failure.
-
-On the morning of May 5, at an early hour, Inspector Bonfield had
-a short interview with State’s Attorney Grinnell; but exactly what
-transpired no one but themselves knew. Before noon of that day,
-however, the result could be plainly seen. Officers James Bonfield,
-Palmer, Slayton and a few others had by that time succeeded in
-arresting August Spies, Chris Spies, Schwab, Fischer and Fielden. Of
-course, this step only served to create more jealousy in the Central
-Station.
-
-After the prisoners had been brought in, some of the newspaper
-reporters endeavored to obtain interviews with them, but they were not
-permitted to get anywhere near the Anarchists.
-
-In the meantime, and while the working officers were out hunting
-for more of the chief conspirators, the lieutenants in command of
-the detective department concluded that they would enjoy a little
-breathing-spell. Accordingly they took a stroll among the fashionable
-saloons on Clark Street. There they met their friends, and while
-sampling the various decoctions compounded by the cocktail dispensers,
-they fell in with a party of professional prize-fighters, heavy-weight
-and light-weight, and match-makers for man and beast. They found there
-was more sport in that party than in taking risks by going out into
-the suburbs through tough streets and dirty alleyways looking for
-Anarchists.
-
-[Illustration: OFFICER (NOW LIEUT.) BAER.]
-
-At any rate, after a lot of wine had been consumed and good cigars
-tested, round after round, one of the pug-faced sluggers made the
-remark to one of the lieutenants that he would like to see the
-Anarchists who had been arrested, and the officer addressed responded:
-“Of course you can see them—all you gentlemen can see them. Come right
-along with us.”
-
-They all fell into line, went over to the Central Station, were taken
-down stairs to the lock-up, and there told to go around and look for
-themselves. This was some time after nine o’clock in the evening, and
-after the party had satisfied their curiosity, they returned to the
-saloon which they had left. The vigilant reporters had noticed this
-proceeding, and, holding a short conference, they resolved to insist
-on seeing the prisoners also. They told the officials that the public
-had as much right to know about the parties arrested as a gang of
-prize-fighters, whether Sullivans or lesser lights in the prize-ring
-firmament, and the lieutenants at once recognized the force of the
-argument. Between eleven and twelve that night one reporter from each
-paper in the city was allowed to see the Anarchists, and interviews
-were secured for publication the next morning.
-
-When I understood how the whole affair was being managed during that
-day, I came to the conclusion that the case would never be worked up
-by that department, and I was more resolved than ever that if the
-opportunity came I would not rest until the criminals were brought to
-justice.
-
-Inspector Bonfield had likewise become disgusted with the nervous
-actions of the Chief and the heads of the detective department, and
-he decided to confine his operations to the West Side. He went over
-there that day,—May 5,—and as a result he cleaned out all Lake Street
-from the river to Halsted Street. He broke up all the Anarchist
-_rendezvous_, captured their guns, confiscated their flags, and
-created general dismay among the reds. Some sought safety by fleeing
-to the roofs, others escaped through back alleys, and still others got
-into the dark recesses of basements. When they learned that “Black”
-Bonfield, as they called him, was on their track, consternation took
-possession of them all. The Inspector had no easy task. He looked up
-all their halls and meeting-places, hunted for “Revenge” circulars at
-every place he visited, and in every instance he found plenty of them
-as evidence of the extensive circulation given that document among
-Anarchists. He gathered them all together, and in the trial they proved
-of great service to the State as showing that all had notice to come to
-the Haymarket meeting with arms and be prepared for a deadly conflict.
-After that day Inspector Bonfield turned all his attention to the sick
-and wounded officers and their families, and, as a consequence, the
-Central Station was left without a competent head. But the Central
-considered itself capable of handling the case, and Bonfield never
-asked any questions. Ebersold and the dual-headed monstrosities in
-charge of the detective department struggled along, and, with a great
-deal of bluster, endeavored to show to the outside world that they
-were moving along finely. But they accomplished absolutely nothing.
-Insults in various ways were heaped upon Bonfield, so that every one
-about the City Hall noticed them. Even on the 5th of May, the slights
-cast upon the Inspector were commented upon by some of the officers in
-the Central. Some of the officers friendly to the incompetents would
-declare that Bonfield did not know his business and that he was to
-blame for the killing of the officers, but there were others who took
-a different view and regretted that he was not kept continually at
-work on the case. In fact, the only ones about the building, after the
-incompetent heads took charge, who showed a willingness to work and
-who tried to do their duty, were Officers James Bonfield, Palmer and
-Slayton. All the rest looked scared, absent-minded and indifferent.
-
-On the next morning—May 6—I was again at the Central Headquarters.
-I learned then how deep and wide-spread was the spirit that pervaded
-the department. Nothing was done, and nothing was proposed to be
-done. I also learned of the treatment accorded Officer Palmer by the
-lieutenants in charge of the department.
-
-The whole trouble appeared to be that no one cared about doing
-anything, and that if any one had the temerity to bring information in,
-he would be kicked out. While such was the stupidity or the lethargy of
-the head officials, I was powerless to act. I could not take the case
-away from my superior officer on information rejected and spurned by
-those in authority about police headquarters, and I almost despaired of
-ever seeing the culprits brought to punishment.
-
-An incident occurred, however, which changed the whole course of
-events. On my way home to supper that evening, about six o’clock—May
-6—I met a man near my house. He acted as though greatly frightened,
-but he had some information he wished to impart to me. He was afraid to
-speak, as he said it was life or death to him.
-
-“If I speak,” he said, “and these people [the Anarchists] find it out,
-they will kill me sure. On the other hand, when I think of how many
-were killed, it drives me nearly crazy. I can probably help to bring
-the murderers to justice, and I cannot forgive myself unless I try to
-assist.”
-
-I told the man that as a good citizen it was his duty to tell
-everything he knew about the affair, and that I should consider
-everything he said strictly confidential. My personal pledge being
-given to him that I would not get him into trouble by exposing him to
-the reds, he began his statement. The man did not tell very much, but
-after I had gathered together all the little threads carefully, the
-whole proved of considerable service. After supper I went to a great
-many places and remained out till four o’clock the next morning. The
-following day I instructed some of my people how to get information
-respecting the throwing of the Haymarket bomb, and I told them where
-they might leave their information if they obtained any. I got back
-to the station at 9 A.M., and found in my closed letter-box a slip of
-paper containing about five lines of important news. I scanned the
-paper closely, and those who stood around told me afterwards that they
-noticed that my face brightened up considerably.
-
-I knew then that I had a very light starter in the case, but a good
-one. I could readily see also that everything had to be handled with
-the greatest care, and by preserving the utmost confidence with the
-informers. I knew, too, that nothing must be told even in the Chief’s
-office or in the detective department.
-
-I had previously discovered that there was not a man among the three
-heads of the Central that knew how to listen to information, how to
-put questions or remember conversation, or, in fact, to have anything
-in shape, or to keep secrets, and I therefore decided to keep my own
-counsel.
-
-On the morning of the 7th of May, at nine o’clock, I arrived at the
-Chief’s office and asked him if he had any good news. He replied that
-it was hard to get at the bottom of the affair. I then asked him if he
-would give me the privilege of working up the case. He looked at me a
-moment and then said, “Yes.”
-
-“Yes, Captain,” he added, after a brief pause, “I will—sure. If you
-can do anything, do it. I hope you will do it. I shall be pleased if
-you can only do it.”
-
-I then said: “With your permission I will work this case and all there
-is in the case. You will hear from me soon, but if you should not hear
-from me in three months, do not ask for me. I am going to work night
-and day until this case is cleared up. Good day.”
-
-[Illustration: HERMANN SCHUETTLER.
-
-MICHAEL HOFFMAN.
-
-MICHAEL WHALEN.
-
-CHAS. REHM.
-
-JOHN STIFT.
-
-JACOB LOEWENSTEIN.]
-
-Then I started for the North Side. Arriving at the station, Lieut.
-Larsen handed me a little note which had been left for me. It was
-small, but full of information, and was the first fruit of one night’s
-work. I immediately turned over the command of the station and all
-the details to Lieut. Larsen, and at once called in my old reliable
-officers, those whom I knew to be honest and true, strong and vigilant,
-intelligent and brave. They began earnestly and were with me through
-all the investigations up to November 11, 1887. They were Michael
-Whalen, John Stift, Michael Hoffman, Hermann Schuettler, Jacob
-Loewenstein and Charles Rehm, and they reported to me promptly at the
-office, where they received their first instructions. I told them that
-this must be like all the other cases we had worked, secret and only
-known among ourselves. All information and reports must come to me
-as soon as possible, and all details must be attended to strictly. I
-further told them that they must expect a forty-eight hours’ stretch
-of work frequently before we got to the end; that they must keep in
-mind that their lives would often be in danger, but they should only
-kill in dire necessity. Insults or abuses they must not take from any
-one. I knew that they would get into many of those h—l-holes, where
-the women were a great deal worse than the men, and I proposed that
-the officers should show that they were not to be trifled with in the
-discharge of their duties.
-
-The field chosen for work was the vicinity of Clybourn Avenue, Sedgwick
-Street and North Avenue. The officers were provided with chisels,
-jimmies and keys and one or two dark lanterns, and after these
-preliminary arrangements they mounted a patrol wagon and started for
-the scene of their operations. This detail was in charge of Officer
-Whalen, and the first objective point was Sedgwick Street, near the
-residence of Seliger. They began searching all the houses, barns and
-wood-sheds belonging to Anarchists, and created quite a consternation
-in the locality.
-
-While they were thus engaged, I was temporarily called away from my
-office, and on my return I was soon called up by a telephone message
-from the Larrabee Street Station. Answering the call, I recognized
-the voice of Officer Whalen, and some important news was at once
-communicated.
-
-“We have found the bomb factory,” said Officer Whalen. “It is in the
-rear of No. 442 Sedgwick Street. The house is full of bombs and all
-kinds of material. My men are all there, and I am almost afraid to
-touch any of the stuff. There are some very queer-looking things,
-besides round lead bombs and very long iron bombs, about the house, and
-probably some trap may have been set to blow us all up the moment the
-articles are disturbed.”
-
-I questioned him as to whether there was any one about the house, and,
-being answered in the negative, I instructed the officer to handle
-everything himself and exercise great caution. Everything that looked
-suspicious was to be packed in a box and sent to the Chicago Avenue
-Station. I further instructed the officer to hunt up the parties who
-lived there, place them under arrest and send them also to the same
-station.
-
-Whalen then returned to the house, packed up all the “stuff” and hunted
-for the occupants, who were nowhere to be found. He ascertained their
-names, however, and learned from the neighbors that the head of the
-house worked in Meyer’s Mill, a sash and door factory on the North
-Pier. This information was telephoned to me, and I instructed Lieut.
-Larsen just what I desired in the way of securing the man’s arrest. The
-Lieutenant called up the Larrabee Street Station patrol wagon, and,
-with a number of officers, he repaired to the mill. He there found his
-man, William Seliger, and brought him to the Chicago Avenue Station.
-
-Meanwhile Officer Whalen and his men were busy getting their load of
-deadly missiles, and, still unsatisfied, they got some shovels and
-picks and went to mining in the back yard of the bomb factory. They
-found a lot of lead and gas pipes buried in the ground, and after
-they had collected about all the suspicious-looking articles they
-could find, they brought it all to the station. This was the first
-of a series of searches kept up night and day for two weeks, and no
-house or place where an Anarchist or Socialist resided escaped police
-attention. The houses were examined from top to bottom, and when the
-officers had finished their labors in this direction the Chicago Avenue
-Station was filled with all kinds of arms, some old and some new,
-nearly every nation on the globe being represented in the collection.
-
-On the evening of May 7, about eight o’clock, a gentleman called at my
-house, and in a most confidential manner desired to post me about an
-arrest that ought to be made.
-
-“You had a fellow taken from Meyer’s Mill,” said he, “but you left a
-man worse than the one you arrested.” He gave the name of the party and
-then silently took his departure.
-
-[Illustration: EDMUND FURTHMANN.]
-
-On the next day Officer Whalen was detailed to bring the man to the
-station, but when the officers arrived at the mill the bird had flown.
-This man’s name was Mueller, No. 2. He has never returned to the
-factory, although his tool chest is still there, and $27 still stands
-due to him on the books of the concern to this date.
-
-With the information so far secured I became confident that I had
-an opening to the case, but, knowing that no aid could be had from
-the Central Headquarters, I refrained, I think wisely, from asking
-for assistance. In Mr. Grinnell and his staff, however, I had every
-confidence, and I went to his office. I told him what discoveries had
-been made, giving him all the details, and said to him that in working
-up the case I should frequently need his advice. He promptly said:
-“Schaack, you can command my services and those of every man in my
-office at any time.” I thanked him, and felt greatly strengthened in
-the task I had before me.
-
-Mr. Furthmann was directed to go with me and assist in the same way
-that he had assisted in working up the evidence in the Mulkowsky murder
-case.
-
-I then felt highly gratified, and stronger and more resolute than
-ever, because of my new partner in the case. When we were about to go,
-Mr. Grinnell said, “I will be up to-night and see you.” He called,
-as promised. We then told him what progress we had made during the
-day, and he expressed himself as greatly pleased. He urged us to keep
-everything as secret as possible and not to take any more people into
-our confidence than was absolutely necessary. Having given us this
-advice, he left us, but we continued our work until three o’clock the
-next morning. We met again—Furthmann and myself—the next day at nine
-o’clock, and that day we worked with great success. The boys brought us
-in good news every hour. Good citizens would leave letters at my house,
-and these would be immediately sent to me by my wife. Before eight
-o’clock that night we had gained an entrance to the conspiracy plot.
-Mr. Grinnell was sent for, and he called on us at once. He was informed
-of all the facts and said:
-
-“You boys have done well. You have found the missing link, and you have
-it right.”
-
-Mr. Grinnell became enthusiastic over the work accomplished and
-recognized the fact that the right parties were under arrest, and that
-what had been morally certain before as to a conspiracy had now been
-made a legal certainty susceptible of the strongest proof. In reaching
-this point, a great deal of work had been done, and in its performance
-talent, tact and ingenuity of a very high order seemed essential. Mr.
-Grinnell inspired us with confidence, however, and was kind enough to
-say, just before going home that night:
-
-“Schaack, I want to say that you are one of the greatest detectives in
-America.”
-
-When the case had been worked up to the discovery of the leading facts
-at this time, the reporters for the various papers in Chicago began to
-gather at the Chicago Avenue Station, and they plied me with all sorts
-of questions. They desired all the information I possessed, but their
-laudable ambition was not gratified. Nothing respecting the merits
-of the case was furnished them. This provoked quite a number of the
-newspaper craft, and they sought to even up things by scoring me and
-my assistants in the columns of their papers. They continued their
-attacks, evidently expecting that I would weaken and tell all I knew,
-but in this they were mistaken, as their shafts fell harmless at my
-feet.
-
-The more the papers blamed us, the better we liked it. It made our work
-much easier, because we received a great deal of good information from
-persons who would not have told us anything without positive assurance
-of secrecy.
-
-This was in fact a potent factor in our success, and the
-newspaper-reading public really lost nothing by it. The latest news
-respecting the Anarchist conspiracy was always presented by the
-dailies, and, while there may have been wanting many of the essential
-and interesting facts, the public demand was measurably satisfied.
-At any rate, the interests of justice could not be permitted to be
-overshadowed by those of the newspapers, and I held unflinchingly to
-the course mapped out until the day of the trial. The result proved the
-wisdom of the plan, and the encomiums bestowed on me by the press on
-the evidence I finally accumulated more than offset the former bitter
-attacks.
-
-[Illustration: THE EAST CHICAGO AVENUE STATION.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-Had it not been for the caution and secrecy which we made our rule all
-through the investigation, the plot would not have been successfully
-unraveled. Recognizing this trait in my management of the case, men
-close to the Anarchists gave points they otherwise would not have dared
-to give, and there was scarcely an hour during the investigation that
-I did not find some trails leading up to the arch-conspirators. I even
-received private letters on my way home to meals. Persons would meet me
-on the street, hand me letters and pass right on. Some of these letters
-were purposely misleading, while others contained good points; but by
-putting one thing with another, and working up everything, something
-tangible was generally produced. In many of the notes a few words would
-signify a great deal, and the clues would be run down to the last
-point. Of course, sometimes the detectives made long and weary walks
-with no results. But whenever the boys met with disappointments in not
-getting just what they expected, and even when they were kept up all
-night, they never grumbled or expressed dissatisfaction.
-
-On the morning of May 8, at eight o’clock, we all met for general
-consultation behind locked doors in an inner room, and, while thus
-occupied with the case, I was notified that a lady desired to see me on
-important business. I immediately responded, and as I entered the main
-office I was confronted by a woman very heavily veiled. She briefly
-stated her mission and said that she desired an interview in private. I
-took her into another office, and, after the door had been locked, she
-said:
-
-“You must excuse me. I will not uncover my face. Don’t ask me anything
-about myself, and I will tell you something.”
-
-She was a German lady, well educated, and she spoke in an earnest,
-truthful manner. Being assured that no questions would be asked to
-establish her identity, she then told me where to send and what would
-be found at the indicated place. Before making her exit she remarked:
-
-“You will have to attend to this matter this very day and before four
-o’clock.”
-
-Her information proved highly interesting and valuable, and I thanked
-her for it. In less than half an hour one of the detectives was set
-to work on her “pointers,” and before two o’clock he returned to the
-station with “a good fat bird” and a lot of new evidence. Who the lady
-was is a mystery. She left the station as mysteriously as she had
-entered.
-
-In the evening of the same day we met again and put together the
-results of each one’s investigations. The work accomplished was
-surprising to all. Mr. Grinnell called, and, seeing what had been done,
-was more than pleased. At this time we had some of the Anarchists
-already behind the bars. That night we worked until two o’clock the
-next morning, and it was half an hour later when I directed my steps
-homeward. As I neared my house, I saw the indistinct outlines of a
-man standing close to a large bill-board about ten feet north of my
-residence. The figure proved to be a tall man, and, as I came to a
-halt, the stranger spoke up in German:
-
-“Is this Mr. Schaack?”
-
-“I am,” I replied, “and what are you doing standing there?”
-
-The stranger asked me to wait for a moment, and I complied, hardly
-knowing what to make out of the man’s intentions toward me at such
-an unseemly hour in the morning; but at the same time I kept my
-eye steadily upon him for any hostile demonstrations. The strange
-individual hurriedly placed a cloth of some sort over his face, and
-I began to think some Anarchist had been commissioned to murder me.
-Still, the coolness and self-possession of the man and the seeming
-absence of the usual bluster incident to the commission of a foul crime
-reassured me. Noticing all this, by way of making the man understand
-that I was prepared for him if he had any murderous intentions, I said:
-“If you make any attack upon me I will kill you dead!”
-
-“_Mein Gott, nein._ I only want to tell you something,” was the reply.
-
-I told him that that was all right and asked him into the back yard,
-when he said he would talk to me. I made the stranger go ahead of me,
-and when we reached the yard the man gave me a long story.
-
-“I dare not,” said he, “write to you. I dare not come near you during
-the daytime. I don’t want you to know me, but I think you are the right
-man to talk to. I would not talk to anyone else.”
-
-[Illustration: A BACK-YARD INTERVIEW.]
-
-During the whole conversation the man kept his improvised mask on,
-and made it clear that his motive in so doing was to prevent the
-possibility of his being made to appear in court to verify the
-statements he desired to communicate. He gave information mainly
-bearing on the conspiracy meeting which had been held on the evening of
-May 3, at No. 54 West Lake Street, and the interview lasted until about
-three o’clock.
-
-When we parted I was no wiser as to his identity than I had been
-before, and to this day I don’t know with whom I talked there in my
-back yard that early morning.
-
-In the forenoon of the 9th of May my trusted assistants again met in
-the office to compare notes. At this meeting I told Mr. Furthmann what
-a ghost I had seen that night, and in our deliberations that ghost
-aided us a great deal.
-
-As a result the detectives started out with new instructions, and they
-were ordered to be back at the office at one o’clock in the afternoon.
-All reported promptly except a few who had struck a good trail and who
-kept out until six o’clock. The reports of those present showed good
-results. They started out again at two o’clock with new instructions
-and were ordered to report as soon as they had completed their work.
-Between three and five o’clock that afternoon things became exceedingly
-lively. The Anarchists began to move about like hornets disturbed in
-their nest, and some jumped around as if charged with electricity.
-Towards six o’clock the detectives reported back to the office, and
-an exchange of notes showed that it had been a day more fruitful of
-results than the day preceding. I found that a strong chain had been
-wrought connecting all the leading Anarchists in Chicago with the
-Haymarket murder, and I knew that no mistakes had been made in the
-arrest of those who had already been locked up.
-
-During the same evening Mr. Grinnell and Mr. George Ingham gave me
-a call, and anxiously inquired about the progress made in the case.
-Mr. Grinnell assured Mr. Furthmann and myself that Mr. Ingham was all
-right, being with them, and with this statement all the facts were laid
-before them.
-
-When the whole situation had been explained, Mr. Ingham said:
-
-“Mr. Grinnell, now you have a case.”
-
-“George,” replied Mr. Grinnell, “up to the time when Capt. Schaack
-began his work I had no case whatsoever. I would have been laughed out
-of court, but now I say we have a good, strong case, and it will be in
-excellent shape. The boys are making it stronger every day. They have
-got things down fine, and they are going to bring out everything there
-is in it.”
-
-We worked that night until one o’clock, and met again the next
-morning at eight, vigorous and keen for further developments. At
-this time we had our hands full, with an abundance of material on
-which to work. During the night several letters were dropped in my
-letter-box, and they all contained good news. Some of the letters were
-somewhat obscure, their import having to be guessed at from suggestive
-circumstances, but they nevertheless helped. With fresh instructions
-the detectives started out for the day and reported back at one o’clock
-as per orders. Everything was discovered to have worked well. About two
-o’clock a man was noticed standing across the street from the station.
-His actions were somewhat strange, and one of the officers remarked
-that the fellow appeared to be watching the building very closely. I
-told the officer to keep watch of him, and in the event of his walking
-away to follow him. The man did not move, and as he remained there for
-nearly half an hour I ordered the officer to go across the street and
-ascertain what the stranger was watching. The man declined to speak at
-first, but, after the officer had threatened to lock him up, he stated
-that he desired to see me, but did not want to go into the building.
-He then requested the officer to tell me that he would meet me at the
-corner of La Salle and Chicago Avenues, and I was so notified.
-
-I started at once to see the man, but as soon as he saw me he started
-off. When he got to the corner he turned north on La Salle Avenue, and
-I followed. When I got within twenty feet of him he looked around, and
-then dropped a letter, pointing his fingers to it as he passed on,
-without stopping. I picked up the letter and went back to the station.
-This letter contained very important matter and kept us busy for two
-days. This man was a stranger to me. I had never seen him before to my
-knowledge, and I have never seen him since.
-
-After this day the office had all it could do and all the information
-it needed. After six days and nights of hard and exacting labor, the
-real troubles of all engaged in the case began. The newspapers now
-appreciated the work accomplished, and they were not slow to bestow
-great praise upon all connected with the case. This did not please Mr.
-Ebersold, the Chief, and on the 11th of May he sent for me to report at
-once.
-
-[Illustration: A FRIENDLY COMMUNICATION.]
-
-The moment I entered the office at the Central Station I saw that there
-was “fire in the eye” of the Superintendent, and the atmosphere was
-somewhat above the boiling-point.
-
-“Are you Chief of Police or am I?” broke in Mr. Ebersold, in a gruff,
-blustering manner, the moment I had set my foot inside of the private
-office.
-
-“You are,” said I, “or at least you are supposed to be. I certainly
-don’t desire to be.”
-
-This shot did not contribute anything to the comfort of the Chief, and
-he grew hotter than ever, and desired me to understand that he was
-the Chief, and no one else. Mr. Ebersold then proceeded to unburden
-his mind. He said that his friends had told him that they had thought
-he was Chief, but since they had not seen his name published in
-connection with the case, they had reached a different conclusion. He
-further stated that ministers even, and professors, too, and other
-people, had come to him and said that “Capt. Schaack was getting too
-much notoriety.” He declared that he wanted me to stop the newspapers
-writing anything more about me and to let the credit be given to the
-head of the department.
-
-“I want this thing stopped!” declared the Chief, as he struck the desk
-vigorously with his fist and glowered savagely at me.
-
-I told him that I had not asked any newspaper to write me up and I
-would not tell any of them to stop, simply because it was not my
-business.
-
-I had progressed too far to think of allowing all the work already
-done to be set at naught by the incompetents then at the head of
-what was facetiously called the defective department. I therefore
-took occasion to say, just before leaving the Chief’s presence, that,
-now that I had opened up the case, I proposed to finish it, even if
-I did not remain on the force one day after my work had been fully
-accomplished. A day or two after this interview I met Mr. Grinnell and
-related the circumstances. The State’s Attorney said:
-
-“Captain, you are doing well; you keep on and work just as you have
-been doing.”
-
-During the afternoon of May 10, the detectives of the Chicago Avenue
-Station discovered a lot of bombs, guns and revolvers, which they
-brought to the station. They also arrested a few Anarchists, who
-pretended to be as harmless and spotless as little lambs, but who,
-before they went to sleep that night in our hotel, discovered that they
-had a great many black spots on them. The force continued at work till
-three o’clock the next morning. The following day they met again at
-eight o’clock in the morning, and several arrests were made that day.
-
-At about this time the mail was burdened with a great many letters,
-some very encouraging in the cheering and complimentary sentiments they
-conveyed, and others very threatening in their character. The latter
-class were full of most dire menaces, suggesting all sorts of torture
-in the event that I did not stop prosecuting the Anarchists, and the
-whole formed a very interesting collection. It was evident that many
-of them had been written by cranks, and that some bore marks of having
-been inspired by religious enthusiasts. One wrote that enough men had
-already been killed without hunting for innocent men as a sacrifice for
-the Haymarket murder, and another wrote urging that the whole lot of
-the Anarchist brood be hung as fast as they could be arrested. Several
-drew on their imaginations and volunteered “pointers” which bore on
-their face evidences of falsehood. Others would say that their prayers
-were constantly with the police in their efforts, and expressed a hope
-that out of it all might come the extirpation of Anarchy from American
-soil. These communications poured in upon me in such numbers that I had
-no time to read them through, and even the most savage and bloodthirsty
-hardly gave me a moment’s thought. As a matter of fact I was never for
-a moment alarmed about my own personal safety. All of the letters I
-received I filed away, and some day, when I do not know what else to
-do to amuse myself, I purpose to run them over again and enjoy another
-hearty laugh. Meanwhile Anarchist after Anarchist was overhauled, and
-after one clue had been worked out another was undertaken with the
-utmost secrecy. The detectives continued persistently at work, and for
-two months they carefully kept their own counsel, never permitting
-themselves to be drawn into conversation by outsiders respecting the
-case.
-
-Their experience was highly exciting at all times, and the various
-haunts of the Anarchists were kept in a lively commotion. The social
-miscreants never knew when the investigations would end, and they were
-in constant dread. Finding that threats upon the lives of State’s
-Attorney Grinnell, Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann, myself, and
-the officers engaged in the case, had failed to have the desired
-effect, they turned their attention to writing letters to our wives.
-These letters were written in a most vindictive and fiendish spirit.
-They threatened not only bodily harm to these ladies, but promised to
-inflict death by horrible tortures upon their husbands and children,
-if the prosecution was not dropped; and they vowed vengeance also upon
-property by the use of explosives that would leave to each house only
-a vestige of its former location. Some of these letters were general
-in their character, and others particularized the kind of death in
-store for all engaged in the case. One said that on some unexpected day
-we would be blown to atoms by a bomb; another pictured how a husband
-would be brought home in a mangled, unrecognizable mass. Still another
-would suggest that, if a husband proved missing, his remains might
-be looked for fifty feet under the water, firmly tied to a rock or a
-piece of iron. Another, again, stated that on the first opportunity
-the husband would be gagged, bound hand and foot, and placed across
-some railroad track to horribly contemplate death under the wheels of
-a fast approaching train. Still another would say: “When your husband
-is brought home be sure and pull the poisoned dagger out of his body.”
-One writer penned a tender epistle and closed by urging the mother
-to be sure to “kiss your children good-by when you leave them out
-on the street.” One letter was written with red ink and stated that
-“this blood is out of the veins of a determined man that would die for
-Anarchy.” One man expressed sorrow for the woman and then concluded:
-“But we cannot help this. If you have any property you had better have
-a will made by your liege lord to yourself, because he is going to die
-so quick that he will not know that he ever was alive.” Another said:
-“Take a good description of your husband’s clothes. He will be missing
-before long, and probably after some years you will hear that in some
-wild forest a lot of clothes have been found tied to some tree, and
-these clothes will be stuffed with bones.”
-
-Epistolary threats of this kind were sent almost daily to the wives
-of the officers and officials, and, if published, the collection
-would form a volume in itself. The threats I have given are only a
-tithe of the whole, but I have given enough to illustrate the general
-trend of the letters. We paid no attention to them, but the women,
-of more delicate and sensitive disposition, took them more to heart.
-The constant receipt of such letters naturally made a deep impression
-on their minds, and some of the ladies had dark forebodings. But the
-officers always took a cheerful view, and urged that it was only
-cowards who resorted to threats. They still continued their work,
-undaunted by these denunciations and menaces, and frequently remained
-out all night in their work in some of the most desperate districts of
-the city, sometimes keeping up forty-eight hours at a stretch.
-
-Mrs. Schaack, a generally strong and courageous woman and deeply
-interested in all my work, did not bear up as well as some of the
-others under the pressure. She had been sick for over eight months,
-and, when these letters began to reach her, she had just reached a
-convalescent state. Having thus passed through a long siege of illness,
-her system was in a highly nervous condition, and it was, therefore,
-quite natural that sometimes she should become greatly solicitous for
-my personal safety whenever a very savage and gory letter accidentally
-reached her eye. When the trial finally began, I begged her to take the
-three children and visit for two months a place six hundred miles away
-from Chicago, where she could not only enjoy a comparative serenity of
-mind, but build up her shattered constitution, under more favorable
-circumstances and climatic conditions. She acted on my advice. While
-away, she was in constant receipt of such letters as were calculated to
-make her reassured as to my comfort, and she rapidly gained in health
-and strength.
-
-Mrs. Grinnell bore up remarkably well under the severe strain. She had
-come in for a goodly share of these murder-threatening letters, but,
-being blessed with good health and strong nerves, she never displayed
-signs of weakness.
-
-She was a brave lady. Whenever I saw her with Mr. Grinnell, she would
-always say: “Captain, I want you and Mr. Grinnell and all the boys to
-keep on with your noble work.” She at all times appeared very pleasant
-and not the least disturbed.
-
-Mrs. Furthmann was not overlooked by the letter-writers, but her
-husband arranged matters so that their epistles did not fall into her
-hands. He would gather them in, and, with what the mail brought him
-every day for his own individual benefit, he had plenty of hair-raising
-literature. But he paid no attention to the threats and never for a
-moment relaxed his efforts on account of them. These letters became so
-numerous and frequent that after a time the officers would jestingly
-allude to them as their “love letters.”
-
-But the Anarchists did not stop with writing letters. One night they
-held a small meeting in the rear room of a saloon on North Avenue, and
-there was a great deal of talk and bluster about what they ought to
-do to “bring the officials to their senses.” One suggested that they
-should blow up the house of Officer Michael Hoffman, but that officer
-appears to have had a friend there. That friend opposed the plan and
-said:
-
-“Cowards, if you want to do anything, why don’t you meet the man
-himself and attack him? Why do you seek to hurt his wife and innocent
-children?”
-
-This appealed to their sense of humanity, and they at once decided to
-abandon the scheme. Finally one cut-throat arose, and, in a braggadocio
-style, broke out, in a loud, coarse and beer-laden voice:
-
-“Well, we will drop that plan, but you all know where he lives and we
-all have bombs yet. Any one that does not care for a screeching woman
-or squealing young ones, let him go and see the shingles fly off the
-roof.”
-
-On a subsequent night about two o’clock in the morning a carriage
-drove up to the officer’s house, and one of the occupants shouted
-out, “Mike!” The officer drew to the window, and his wife opened it.
-At first, mistaking her for the officer, they halloaed, “We only want
-to see you for a moment.” When the woman asked what was wanted they
-said, “We don’t want to see you. Where is Mike?” Being informed that he
-was not at home, one of the burly fellows said, just as the carriage
-started away, “A d——d good thing for him that he is not at home.”
-
-This band of intimidators and cowards did not overlook me. On two
-occasions they sought to burn my house, but each time they were foiled
-in their attempt. They sneaked, true to their nature, into the back
-yard, and started a fire by means of a kerosene-saturated torch or by
-the use of an explosive. The fires, however, failed to do any damage.
-
-When the trial of the arch-conspirators began, these same unpunished
-red-handed cranks began to give their attention to Judge Gary and his
-wife. They fairly overwhelmed them with letters of a most threatening
-character, and whenever there was any ruling of the court which
-they regarded as inimical to their friends’ interests, they were
-particularly vituperative. But throughout the whole trial neither the
-Judge nor his wife was at all intimidated. They paid no attention to
-them, and nearly every day Mrs. Gary sat by the side of her husband
-on the bench, giving the strictest attention to the proceedings. She
-was there in the forenoon and in the afternoon. When the two went
-out to lunch together, a detective would always follow them, without
-their request or knowledge, and the same course would be pursued when
-they went home at night or came down in the morning. I had this done
-as a precautionary measure, as there was no telling at that time but
-what some demented Anarchist might seek vengeance upon the Judge for
-some fancied wrong to the defendants. Sometimes, after lunch, Mrs.
-Gary would return in the company of some lady friends, but she would
-invariably, after an exchange of pleasantries with them, rejoin her
-husband on the bench, where she would remain until the adjournment
-of court. Once in a while the Judge would find a moment’s interval
-to talk to her, and the devoted appearance of the venerable couple
-formed a most pleasing and picturesque background to the crowded and
-excited court scene throughout the trial. She was there during all the
-arguments, and listened most intently to the reading of the verdict
-which finally sent the defendants to the gallows. From the beginning of
-the trial to its end she never displayed a sign of weakness or fear.
-
-While the investigations were in progress, and even during the trial,
-a lot of cranks and desperate men flocked into the city from outside
-points, and there was no telling what villainous deeds they might
-perpetrate and then escape undetected. For this reason I thought it
-prudent to place a watchman at the house of every one actively engaged
-in the case, and both night and day the lives as well as property
-of all were closely watched to prevent the execution of any of the
-numerous threats made against the officials by the red-handed fiends.
-The attempt on my own house was made before these guards were placed,
-but after that there was no trouble. The Anarchists, seeing the
-precautions that had been taken, gave the houses no further attention,
-and thereafter vented their spleen in denunciatory letters.
-
-From the very start of the investigations, I engaged the services
-of private men to work under my instructions, and they invariably
-submitted their reports to me at my house. They never called at the
-house without first notifying me, and this notification would be by
-means of a sign at a place near my residence. I would always look at
-the spot before entering the house, and if I found the sign, I would
-also find my man in the vicinity.
-
-I would then go up-stairs, fix the rooms so that no one could see who
-might enter, and leave a sign at the window. In a few minutes my friend
-would appear at the door. Not one of my officers ever knew any of these
-men so employed, but they knew the officers.
-
-Many funny incidents naturally grew out of this situation. It was very
-amusing to listen to the officers. One would tell me: “I saw such and
-such a fellow, a rank Anarchist, on the street to-day in company with
-a stranger,” or: “I saw a couple of them in such and such a saloon
-together, and one of them had a stranger with him, who looked like a
-wild Anarchist.” Then the officers would describe the fellow, and one
-of them would say:
-
-“I know he is an Anarchist. He and the stranger walked around the jail
-building, and the next time I meet that stranger I will bring him
-in. It will do no harm to give him a few days’ entertainment in the
-station. I want to introduce him to you. I bet you will keep him, and
-you can, no doubt, learn something from him. I think he is a stranger
-in the city, and he is here for no good purpose.”
-
-The officer was bound to bring him in, and this placed me in a rather
-awkward position. All I could do, however, was to say, “Don’t be too
-hasty; wait till you find him connected with others.”
-
-This worked well for a while, but after a time some of these men who
-were in my secret service were brought in. One morning I arrived at
-the station and found that they had been locked up in a cell. As
-they had received at the start rigid instructions not to reveal their
-identity under any circumstances, they did not send for me the moment
-they were arrested, and so they had to remain until the next day, when
-I promptly released them.
-
-[Illustration: THE NOTORIOUS FLORUS’ HALL.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-At one time, one of these privates reported to me that he had seen
-a fellow around with some of the worst Anarchists in the city, that
-every one regarded him as sound in the Anarchist faith, and that he
-and the others were in Chicago to liberate the Anarchists from the
-jail. The private further stated that the stranger had never been seen
-except in the company of old-time revolutionists. That was enough
-for the detective to warrant arrest. I told him to make the fellow’s
-acquaintance and draw him out, but be in no haste. A few days later,
-the detective reported that he had spoken to the stranger and that he
-would become well acquainted with him shortly.
-
-At this time every Anarchist resort was watched very closely. I told
-the private to ascertain where the stranger lived, but he must not push
-himself too rapidly forward; he must make an engagement to meet the man
-in the evening and stay with him as late as possible. Just as soon as
-they parted, he was to double back on the stranger and follow him. A
-few nights later the private reported again and said that they had been
-together one evening for three hours, when they parted on the corner
-of Madison and Canal Streets. He told the stranger that he would go
-back to the South Side, and then, by following him after parting, he
-found that the stranger started north. The man turned on Lake Street
-west and entered No. 71 West Lake Street, one of the worst Anarchist
-resorts in the city. This place was kept by a man named Florus, a rank
-“red.” The private waited for his friend to come out, remaining in
-the vicinity until Florus closed his saloon; but no one came. The next
-day the private reported the facts to me, and said that the stranger
-evidently had a room at Florus’ house. I told the private to try and
-get the stranger on the North Side so that I could have a look at him.
-He started out to hunt up his friend.
-
-On the evening of that same day, detective No. 2 reported. He said that
-he had a fellow spotted whom he described as one of a gang that had
-come from St. Paul. He remarked that the fellow was very sharp, but not
-sharp enough for him. He also stated that the stranger appeared to like
-him, but that he did not trust him very much.
-
-No. 2 further said: “I have been around with him every evening. He is
-very good company, and I am sure that he is an Anarchist. But I can’t
-get at his motives.”
-
-I then told him to get the man up here on the North Side where I would
-be able to see him.
-
-“All right, but you want to get a good look at him; the fellow changes
-his clothes often. He is a foxy fellow.”
-
-I said that I would always be at the station from one to three o’clock,
-so as to take a look at the man when they passed.
-
-[Illustration: THE “SHADOWED” DETECTIVES.]
-
-On the next day I was on the look-out, but no one came. The second day
-I again watched, and, to my great surprise, at two o’clock I saw two
-fellows, both in my employ, coming east on Chicago Avenue from Wells
-Street, and on the same side where the station is located. They were
-engaged in conversation, and neither looked aside as they passed. I got
-up on the steps of the front entrance and remained there as they came
-by. They had no sooner got past, when the fellow on the inside lifted
-his hand to the right hip, and after a few steps further the other
-fellow put his left hand behind his back and worked his fingers—thus
-each man giving the tip on the other. They proceeded towards the
-Water-works.
-
-When all this was over, I almost fell in a fit laughing at the joke.
-It was extremely ludicrous, but I had to keep it all to myself. The
-privates kept at work, but I did not tell either the occupation of the
-other. I had promised every man in my employ that I would not give him
-away, and I kept my word. One of these detectives had been assigned
-for duty north of Kinzie Street on the West Side, and the other had
-been set to work particularly along Lake Street. By invitation of some
-Anarchists on Milwaukee Avenue, the detective in the district north
-had left his field and gone with them to the halls of the “reds” on
-Lake Street, and in this way the two detectives had made each other’s
-acquaintance and got mixed up.
-
-I was now in a predicament to straighten matters out and prevent the
-men from wasting time on each other. I finally told each separately
-that the other was working for Billy Pinkerton, and that he should pay
-no more attention to him. This worked satisfactorily. Now and then I
-received a report stating that my detective had seen that Pinkerton man
-at such or such a place. This will be the first time, however, that
-either one knows the other’s exact identity, and they can now laugh
-over their mixed-up condition and see what a fix I was in at that time.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XII.
-
- Tracking the Conspirators—Female Anarchists—A Bevy of Beauties
- Beauties—Petticoated Ugliness—The Breathless Messenger—A
- Detective’s Danger—Turning the Tables—“That Man is a Detective!”—A
- Close Call—Gaining Revolutionists’ Confidence—Vouched for by the
- Conspirators—Speech-making Extraordinary—The Hiding-place in the
- Anarchists’ Hall—Betrayed by a Woman—The Assassination of Detective
- Brown at Cedar Lake—Saloon-keepers and the Revolution—“Anarchists
- for Revenue Only”—Another Murder Plot—The Peep-hole Found—Hunting
- for Detectives—Some Amusing Ruses of the Revolutionists—A
- Collector of “Red” Literature and his Dangerous Bonfire—Ebersold’s
- Vacation—Threatening the Jury—Measures Taken for their
- Protection—Grinnell’s Danger—A “Bad Man” in Court—The Find at the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ Office—Schnaubelt’s Impudent Letter—Captured
- Correspondence—The Anarchist’s Complete Letter-writer.
-
-
-IN the light of all the facts that have developed, I do not believe
-that it is too large a statement, nor too egotistical, to say that,
-but for the work done at the Chicago Avenue Station, the Anarchist
-leaders would soon have been given their liberty, and Anarchy would
-have been as rampant as ever in Chicago—worse indeed than before; for
-the conspirators would then have despised as well as hated the law.
-What the work was, the reader will better understand after he has gone
-through this and the succeeding chapters.
-
-I did not depend wholly upon police effort, but at once employed a
-number of outside men, choosing especially those who were familiar
-with the Anarchists and their haunts. The funds for this purpose
-were supplied to me by public-spirited citizens who wished the law
-vindicated and order preserved in Chicago. I received reports from
-the men thus employed from the beginning of the case up to November
-20, 1887. There are 253 of the reports in all, and a most interesting
-history of Chicago Anarchy do they make even in themselves.
-
-They always conveyed important information and gave valuable clues.
-They confined their efforts wholly to Anarchists, and their principal
-duty was to ascertain if the reds intended to organize again for
-another riot or an incendiary attempt upon the city. They were also to
-learn if steps were contemplated to effect the rescue of the Anarchists
-who were locked up in the County Jail, and whether they were getting
-up any further murder plots. At each Anarchist meeting I had at least
-one man present to note the proceedings and learn what plots they
-were maturing. Generally before midnight I would know all that had
-transpired at meetings of any importance. From many meetings I learned
-that the Anarchists were discussing plans to revenge themselves on
-the police, but in each case, as soon as they were about to take some
-definite action, some one would move an adjournment or suggest the
-appointment of a committee to work out the plan in some better shape.
-When the next meeting was held the fellows who had done the loudest
-shouting would be absent, and then those who happened to be on hand
-would vent their wrath upon the absentees by calling them cowards.
-In many of the smaller meetings held on Milwaukee Avenue or in that
-vicinity, a lot of crazy women were usually present, and whenever
-a proposition arose to kill some one or to blow up the city with
-dynamite, these “squaws” proved the most bloodthirsty.
-
-[Illustration: THE “RED” SISTERHOOD.]
-
-In fact, if any man laid out a plan to perpetrate mischief, they would
-show themselves much more eager to carry it out than the men, and it
-always seemed a pleasure to the Anarchists to have them present. They
-were always invited to the “war dances.” Judge Gary, Mr. Grinnell, Mr.
-Bonfield and myself were usually remembered at these gatherings, and
-they fairly went wild whenever bloodthirsty sentiments were uttered
-against us. The reporters and the so-called capitalistic press also
-shared in the general denunciations. At one meeting, held on North
-Halsted Street, there were thirteen of these creatures in petticoats
-present, the most hideous-looking females that could possibly be found.
-If a reward of money had been offered for an uglier set, no one could
-have profited upon the collection. Some of them were pock-marked,
-others freckle-faced and red-haired, and others again held their
-snuff-boxes in their hands while the congress was in session. One
-female appeared at one of these meetings with her husband’s boots on,
-and there was another one about six feet tall. She was a beauty! She
-was raw-boned, had a turn-up nose, and looked as though she might have
-carried the red flag in Paris during the reign of the Commune.
-
-This meeting continued all right for about two hours. Then a rap came
-on the locked door. The guard reported that one of their cause desired
-admittance, giving his name at the same time,—and the new arrival
-was permitted to enter. He was a large man with a black beard and
-large eyes, and very shabbily dressed. He looked as though he had been
-driving a coal cart for a year without washing or combing. He also
-had the appearance of being on the verge of hydrophobia. As soon as
-he reached the interior of the hall he blurted out hastily, in a loud
-voice:
-
-“Ladies and brothers of our cause! Please stop all proceedings—I am
-out of breath—I will sit down for a few minutes.”
-
-All present looked at the man with a great deal of curiosity and
-patiently waited for him to recover his breath. The interval was about
-five minutes. Then the stranger jumped up and said:
-
-“I am from Jefferson. I ran all the way [a distance of five miles]. I
-was informed that you were holding a meeting here this evening, and
-that there is a spy in your midst.”
-
-At this bit of information every one became highly excited, and the
-stranger immediately proceeded to inquire if there was anyone they
-suspected. They all looked at each other, and, becoming satisfied that
-they were all friends of Anarchy, waited for the man to give them more
-precise information. The stranger then continued:
-
-“The man is described to me, and that is all I know.”
-
-He looked around for a moment and finally said, pointing to the man
-addressed:
-
-“If I am not damnably mistaken, you are the man!” At the same time he
-ordered the guard to lock the door and pull out the key.
-
-“Now,” he resumed, addressing the man to whom he had pointed, who was
-none other than a detective in my service, “you will have to give a
-good account of yourself.”
-
-This placed my man in a rather embarrassing position, but he was equal
-to the emergency.
-
-“I am an Anarchist,” he spoke up promptly, in a loud, clear and firm
-tone of voice, “and I have been one for years, and you are simply
-one of those Pinkerton bummers. What business have you here in our
-meetings, I would like to know. The other day I passed Pinkerton’s
-office. I was sitting in a car, and I saw you coming down stairs. I
-suppose you met some fool that gave you a little information so as to
-get in here. All you want to know evidently is how many are present
-here, and, if possible, learn what we are doing. You get out of here
-in five seconds, or I will shoot you down like a rat.”
-
-The officer then pulled out of his pocket a large revolver, and,
-brandishing it in the air, asked:
-
-“Shall I kill that bloodhound?”
-
-[Illustration: TURNING THE TABLES.]
-
-The women cried out in a chorus: “Yes, yes; kill him!” The men,
-however, did not like the proposition. One of them said: “Don’t kill
-him here; take him out somewhere else and shoot him.” This seemed to
-meet with general approval.
-
-The turn of affairs completely surprised the stranger, and he became
-so frightened that he could not speak. No one in the meeting knew him,
-and he was powerless to speak in his own defense. The officer held his
-revolver directed at the man’s face and kept toying with it in the
-vicinity of his nose. Finally the fellow stammered out:
-
-“I am all right, and you will find me out so.”
-
-At last the women again broke in, with a demand that the intruder be
-immediately ejected, and the men responded promptly by kicking him out
-of the door. He had no sooner reached the outside than he started on a
-keen run, in momentary dread of his life, and he kept up his rapid gait
-until he thought he was at a safe distance.
-
-The officer was then the hero of the moment, but he recognized the fact
-that he himself was not absolutely safe after this episode. It occurred
-to him that possibly the stranger might hunt up some one on Milwaukee
-Avenue who could identify him and assure the meeting that he was a true
-and reliable Anarchist, and thus turn the tables against the officer.
-The moment, therefore, he had regained his seat, he decided to resort
-to strategy, and said:
-
-“We will have to adjourn at once. This fellow will run to the
-station-house and bring the patrol wagon with a lot of officers, and we
-will all be arrested.”
-
-In less than three minutes the meeting adjourned, and then the officer
-advised them all to go home immediately and not to remain a second if
-they did not desire to be arrested. The Anarchists did as he suggested,
-and scattered for home in a hurry.
-
-This detective did not attend any more of the meetings, but was content
-in congratulating himself on having come out of that assembly without a
-bruise or a scratch.
-
-About January, 1887, one of my privates informed me that there was a
-place on Clybourn Avenue where the Anarchists were accustomed to hold
-private meetings. He said that he could not get in as yet, and I told
-him to pick up some one whom he could work handily. He must first
-form the man’s acquaintance, and then hang around the saloons in the
-neighborhood and read the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. I gave him one of John
-Most’s books and made him wear a red necktie. I advised him also to get
-about half drunk, sing the Marseillaise and curse the police. By so
-doing, I told him, it would not be long before he would find a partner.
-Several times subsequently the detective visited the Anarchist resorts,
-accompanied by a little boy who belonged to one of his friends, and in
-less than two weeks he had wormed himself into the confidence of the
-gang who frequented Clybourn Avenue. If any one asked him his name he
-would say:
-
-“I don’t give my name to people I don’t know. I am against law and
-order, and that is sufficient. I don’t believe in having good men hung
-to satisfy the rich. They will not hang if I can help any.”
-
-For the first couple of weeks, the newly formed friends of this
-detective would not take him to any of their meetings. I advised him
-not to make inquiries. As soon as they thought him all right, they
-would speak themselves. Within three weeks some one took him to a
-meeting and vouched for him as being true to their cause. At the first
-meeting he attended he saw that he was as intelligent as any one of
-them, and so he delivered a short speech. That captured them, and they
-pronounced him a good man. They asked him to call again at their next
-meeting, and he promised that he would be on hand. He then reported to
-me. I told him to find a weak spot around the building, where I could
-put some one to protect him in case of discovery and danger. A few
-days after he reported again that there was a vacant basement under
-the house, and that it was very low. There was only a common door with
-an ordinary lock. I then promised him that I would put a strong man in
-there at every meeting, and in case he should be attacked by the gang,
-he should shout, “Police.” Then, the moment the door was broken in, he
-was to cry out, “Brother!” so that the man coming to his assistance
-would know him at once. I also told him that at the next meeting he
-should ascertain the size of the room and notice whatever furniture
-might be there and where it was standing. This he did. He made a small
-diagram.
-
-[Illustration: UNDERGROUND AUDITORS.]
-
-I then detailed a man to take a position in the basement at several
-meetings, but, running short of men shortly afterwards, I was obliged
-to take this man away. But this did not cripple us. On another occasion
-the private reported again, handed me a plat of the room and gave me
-some desired information. I sent for Officer Schuettler. He responded
-promptly, and I told him what I wanted done. He said that he was ready
-to carry out my instructions. I told him to go and buy a one-inch
-auger, and next procure a funnel with the large end the circumference
-of a saucer, and a pipe about four inches long. After an hour’s absence
-he returned with the desired articles. I handed him several keys with
-which to open the door, showed him the plat, and told him where to bore
-a hole. I also told him to secure a cork and plug up the hole after he
-was through. I then instructed him to get into the place about half an
-hour before the meeting opened and have his apparatus in working order.
-I gave Officer Schuettler the dates on which meetings were to be held,
-and then he started out with good hope in his new undertaking. A few
-days subsequently the officer reported back, and his face was wreathed
-in smiles.
-
-“You must have had success,” I said.
-
-“Yes, everything worked like a charm.”
-
-He handed me a good report and remarked that it contained the most
-important part of the business done by the meeting. He suggested that
-he ought to have some one with him so that he could secure all the
-details. For the next meeting I sent another officer with him, and this
-man had a dark lantern. Schuettler would listen, and as he whispered
-the words and sentiments of the speakers, the other officer, with the
-aid of the light from his lantern, would commit them to paper. The next
-morning I received a full report of all the transactions.
-
-This sort of work was kept up for several months, and during all this
-time I was kept pretty well informed of the secret movements of the old
-North Side groups. At the beginning of all their meetings the speakers
-would declare their wish to see Judge Gary, Mr. Grinnell, all the
-officers working on the case and myself hung. They generally closed
-with a promise to kill all capitalists and blow up all the newspaper
-buildings.
-
-One private detective, whom I had at work for me for a long time,
-proved very valuable. He belonged to a union and showed very fine
-judgment. He would watch only the most radical leaders and ascertain
-their intentions. He was a rabid Anarchist himself, but he did not
-believe in killing people or precipitating riots so long as it would
-not help their cause. He often used to say to me:
-
-“Captain, I will be true to you. I will help you all I can to prevent
-some of these fools from committing any more murders.”
-
-He said that some of his people had not sense enough to know what
-they were doing, and that, whenever he met a man of family who talked
-about killing somebody, he would remonstrate with him. For this good
-and sensible advice some of the reds called him a coward and a spy. At
-one time, on Lake Street, a big, burly brute called him a coward and a
-creeping thing. My man stepped up to the fellow and said:
-
-“I will make you eat your own words, or you will have to kill me.”
-
-“What do you want me to do?” asked the big ruffian.
-
-“Fight a duel,” retorted the detective. “I will give you twenty
-minutes’ time in which to secure a revolver and get ready. I will pay
-your car-fare, and we will go out to Garfield Park. No one shall go
-with us, and if you don’t accept my challenge, I will kill you anyhow.”
-
-“Are you in earnest?” asked the other.
-
-“Never more so in my life,” was the reply.
-
-The boasting coward then begged for more time, which was not granted,
-and, seeing the challenger determined, he winced.
-
-“I believe you are a good man. I am sorry that I have insulted you, and
-I beg your pardon. Let up on this. If you don’t feel like doing so, for
-God’s sake do it for my wife and family.”
-
-The young fellow then struck the braggart in the face and walked away.
-The whimpering coward never raised his hand nor uttered another word.
-
-This man whom I had employed did not like Spies. He termed Spies a
-rattle-head, and disapproved of his arguments in the _Fackel_ that
-the 1st of May was the time for the Anarchists to rise. In this view
-all the more sensible conspirators agreed. They knew that they could
-not accomplish anything, and therefore they kept away. My man was one
-of this latter class. He said everything was working nicely in their
-favor, but Spies killed everything. He told me that one night he was in
-company with Spies, and that Spies said:
-
-“I do not care how little I can accomplish. I want revenge on the
-police. They killed my brother—a d——d policeman killed him at a
-picnic. He shot him dead, and I will never stop until I have more than
-double revenge.”
-
-This statement of Spies’ about the killing was true. The brother killed
-was a young tough, and had been shot by Officer Tamillo.
-
-My man said that from the moment of this interview he had no more
-use for Spies. This detective ceased work for a few months, but he
-thereafter resumed his secret service, as he found that, in view of the
-strikes and laying-off, he could hardly make a living otherwise. I put
-him to work again, and he did well, continuing for two months. One day
-he came to me and wanted $30. I gave it to him, and he started away. He
-would report to me daily through the mail, and whenever he had anything
-of special importance to communicate he always knew just where to find
-me. I missed his reports for five days, and I failed to learn anything
-of him during that time. On the 2nd of August I was severely injured by
-being thrown out of my buggy, and I was obliged to keep to the house
-for two weeks. On the 5th of August I received a communication from the
-Coroner of Lake County, Indiana, asking me if I had a man named Charles
-Brown working for me as a detective. The letter was as follows:
-
- HAMMOND, LAKE COUNTY, Indiana, August 3, 1887.
-
- _Captain Schaack_—Sir: I enclose a copy of a statement of a witness
- who identified the bodies of two parties drowned in Cedar Lake; also
- the badge pin found on the man. A Mr. Heise stated to me before he saw
- the body that the man was a detective and wore his police badge on his
- breast. The body had been found by a hard case by the name of Green
- and some pals of his, on the southeast corner of Cedar Lake. When
- the body was landed, all the garments on it were undershirt, drawers
- and pants. All the rest had disappeared. His coat was found later,
- but nothing in the pockets. The rest was not found. Mr. Heise said
- that he had some money, a watch and chain and a revolver when he left
- Chicago. Other parties say that the man Green changed a $20 note for
- him some time before he was drowned. There are some very mysterious
- circumstances with regard to his condition as found and reported by
- Green and Scotty, when they found the body, with regard to vest,
- watch, money and revolver. I think a little detective work might show
- up the matter.
-
- Respectfully yours,
- G. VAN DE WALKER,
- Coroner, Lake Co., Indiana.
-
-Three days after, I learned that this was the same man I had employed,
-and I placed Officer Schuettler on the case to unravel, if possible,
-the mystery surrounding his death. The officer in a few days reported
-that it was exceedingly difficult to obtain a clue, as no one seemed
-disposed to give any information as to foul play; but enough was
-learned in a general way to warrant the conclusion that underhanded
-methods had been used to accomplish the man’s death.
-
-I recalled certain incidents in connection with the man’s work as a
-detective, and, placing them by the side of the seemingly accidental
-drowning, I became convinced that a deliberate crime had been committed.
-
-[Illustration: BETRAYED BY BEAUTY.]
-
-One day this private asked me if I would allow him to tell a young lady
-what he was working at. I told him that he must do nothing of the kind;
-that if he did so I would have no further use for him. He then begged
-me to permit him to use my name as his friend, and I told him I had no
-objection to that. But I found out later that he had said more to the
-young lady than I had consented to, and I believe his indiscretion in
-that respect is what cost him his life.
-
-From the moment that the girl ascertained his secret occupation he was
-a doomed man. She let other Anarchists into the secret, and they at
-once set about devising means for ending his life.
-
-The information I received later was that it had been decided upon that
-the young woman should inveigle him to Cedar Lake, and then, when he
-was in her power, to do away with him. The two left the city together,
-and were followed by the others in the conspiracy to the place where
-his body was found. Before taking the trip on the water, she was seen
-talking with some mysterious-looking individuals, and they then and
-there decided upon the details of the plan. She was to get him to row
-out into deep water, and, when they had got fairly started, her friends
-were to follow in another rowboat at a convenient distance. When
-they reached the middle of the lake she was to keep a close watch on
-the other boat, and as they neared her boat she was to suddenly throw
-herself on one side and tip the boat over so that both occupants would
-be thrown into the water. Her friends were then to be close at hand,
-pick her up and save her from drowning. The programme was carried out
-so far as related to the capsizing of the boat, but the men did not get
-near enough in time to save her. She went down with her companion and
-was drowned with him.
-
-There is no doubt as to the truth of this plot. It was in entire
-keeping with Anarchistic methods; and parties who were at the lake
-at the time state that they saw the young lady get up in the boat,
-and that while thus standing she swung it over, precipitating herself
-and her lover into the water. I had men engaged on the case for some
-time, but the investigation always ended in the same way—an undoubted
-conclusion that the detective’s life was taken by reason of a plot,
-but no evidence to establish the guilt of the conspirators. From the
-information I received, I am satisfied that the whole matter was
-carefully planned and carried out by the woman.
-
-From May 7, 1886, to November 20, 1887, I had a great deal of work,
-there were so many things to look after, but after matters had become
-systematized and the force had been brought down to good working order,
-the burdens of the office became much easier than most people would
-suppose.
-
-In the first place, I had one hundred and sixty rank Anarchists to
-look after; but as soon as these became known to my men, it was an
-easy matter for the officers to report where they had seen them and
-with whom they associated. Then I had ten small halls to watch where
-the Anarchists met night and day. There were also seventeen saloons
-where these people were accustomed to congregate. Three of these latter
-had small halls connected with them. Twelve of the other saloons had
-rear rooms where the reds would sit at times and hold small meetings.
-After we had all their haunts located, and knowing the kind of men who
-frequented them, the work of keeping track of them was not so hard.
-Some of these Anarchists would enter boldly into these places, while
-others would almost crawl on their stomachs to get into the resorts
-without being seen. Others again would disguise themselves so that
-their identity could not become known to detectives.
-
-The officers made no attempt to close these places, and possibly the
-reader may ask why such notorious and dangerous resorts were permitted
-to continue unmolested.
-
-My reason for not closing them was that the Anarchists were bound to
-meet in some place. We knew their resorts thoroughly, and I had plenty
-of my men among them, who worked ostensibly for the cause of Anarchy,
-but who continually furnished me pointers. Again, we knew just where
-they would meet and could always have our men present. If I had shut
-them out from these places, they would have been driven into private
-houses, broken up into smaller factions, and our work would have been
-made much broader and harder in keeping track of them and their doings.
-So long as I had the machine, so to speak, in my own hands, and knew
-all that had been done and said, we let them alone. And the results
-justified our course.
-
-Among the saloon-keepers there was one who seemed to have a special
-liking for me. This man, who had a place on Lake Street, on taking his
-first drink in the morning would invariably drink to my health, saying:
-“I hope that that d——d Luxemburger, Schaack, will be killed before
-I go to bed to-night;” and when he was about to close his doggery for
-the day, he would take two drinks and say: “I hope I will find Schaack
-hanging to a lamp-post in the morning when I get up.”
-
-When the saloon-keepers were particularly loaded with beer, they
-shouted louder than any one else for Anarchy, and the louder and more
-vehemently they shouted the more “solid” did they become with their
-Anarchist customers. At every meeting held at these places, collections
-were taken up, and the saloon-keepers could always be counted upon to
-contribute liberally.
-
-The worst of these ignorant fools never did realize why the
-saloon-keepers shouted so lustily for Anarchy until they came home to
-find their wives and little ones crying for bread. Then, perhaps, it
-faintly dawned upon their minds that the saloon-keepers were after
-their nickels. These liquor-sellers were Anarchists for revenue only,
-and they sought in every way to keep on the right side of the rank
-and file of the party. They always looked to it, the first thing in
-the morning, that plenty of Anarchist literature and a dozen or so
-copies of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ were duly on the tables of their
-places, and in some saloons beer-bloated bums, who could manage to read
-fairly, were engaged to read aloud such articles as were particularly
-calculated to stir up the passions of the benighted patrons. Robber and
-hypocrite are terms too weak to apply to these saloon-keepers. Some of
-them had “walking delegates” by their side, and if an Anarchist seemed
-to them to be “going wrong” by seeking work, the delegate and assistant
-robber would tell him to go back to his headquarters and wait, assuring
-him that they would have all things right in a few days.
-
-And this is the way these poor fools and their families were kept in
-continual misery. Many of the dupes have had their eyes opened and have
-quit frequenting these places and the underground caves. What is the
-result? Their families are better looked after, and the difference in
-their comfort is very apparent. They used to call the Chicago Avenue
-Station “Schaack’s Bastile,” but let me say that those saloon-keepers
-with their low and contemptible resorts were the real bastile-keepers.
-Hundreds and hundreds of men, heads and fathers of families, have been
-kept in squalid want by spending their very last cent in these holes,
-and their dependents have been left without food, proper clothing or
-fuel. I believe in unions for proper objects, but even these should not
-be continued for the benefit of such saloon-keepers.
-
-All these men were great heroes so long as they could hope to enrich
-themselves, but when the chief conspirators were locked up in jail, and
-liberal contributions were demanded for the defense, their enthusiasm
-in the holy cause of Anarchy was considerably cooled.
-
-While Chicago is regarded as the head center of Anarchy in America,
-people of other cities and States should not imagine that the vicious
-reds are all in this city. There are plenty of them scattered
-throughout the country, and this fact was made quite manifest at the
-time the Anarchists were being arrested. Friends of the imprisoned
-men came to Chicago from all over the United States, and financial
-assistance poured in on all sides. Those who came here were open in
-their declarations of sympathy and never attempted to conceal their
-actions.
-
-When these same men were at their homes they did not dare to openly
-say a word in favor of Anarchy, because they were few in numbers; but
-should there be enough to make a formidable showing, they will throw
-off their mask and assume a defiant, menacing attitude.
-
-These arrivals, just as soon as they became known, were kept under
-espionage, and every movement they made was looked after, lest they
-might commit some desperate deed. Of course there were a great many
-whom the police did not discover, and it is a wonder that, during
-the excitement incident to the arrest of so many Anarchists and the
-searches made of Anarchistic houses, some diabolical act was not
-perpetrated. Possibly they discovered that the omnipresent police were
-so thoroughly on the inside of their conspiracy that detection was
-inevitable. It is certain that they knew that I had become thoroughly
-posted as to the inside workings of Anarchy, and the sound fear which I
-was able to inspire by a bold and aggressive policy no doubt acted as a
-restraint upon any violent outburst of passion and revenge.
-
-It was constant vigilance alone that averted trouble, and no Anarchist
-of a specially vicious disposition was permitted to feel that his
-movements were overlooked or unwatched. For this purpose I had
-Anarchists among Anarchists to inform on Anarchists, and all the
-meetings were thus kept under strict surveillance. Even private houses
-were watched. On one occasion I desired to secure certain information.
-One of the private detectives was accordingly detailed to watch the
-rear of a certain building from an alley. He was there for two days
-without being observed by any one, but on the third day he was noticed
-by a police officer. The officer asked him what he was doing in that
-locality, and the private responded:
-
-“I am waiting for a friend of mine who is working in this barn, and I
-expect him around soon.”
-
-[Illustration: THALIA HALL.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-The officer placed no reliance on the statement, and so he hustled him
-out of the alley. The detective walked on a short distance, and, as
-soon as the officer was out of sight, retraced his steps and returned
-to the place, this time finding a different point for his observations.
-He had scarcely thought himself secure from further interruptions, when
-the back gate of the next yard opened, and in walked the same officer.
-Both were alike surprised. But this time there were no questions asked
-and no explanations demanded. The officer promptly seized the detective
-by the collar and marched him to the Chicago Avenue Station. The
-detective kept his identity to himself, and of course found himself
-speedily assigned to a cell over night. On the next morning, as I
-sauntered through the lock-up, I discovered my friend in durance vile,
-and, promptly looking up the record, found that he had been booked for
-disorderly conduct.
-
-I then returned and told him that, when brought into court, he should
-not say anything to the judge, but play the part of a fool and
-simpleton. His case came up; he was fined $5 and sent back to the
-lock-up. I went to him later, handed him the money, and in half an hour
-he paid his fine and left. The detective went back to his post, but the
-officer was not put on that beat again. My man worked for about two
-weeks and finished his job.
-
-Of course, the detectives in the case had varied experiences. On
-another occasion it was desirable to know what was being done at some
-secret meetings held at Thalia Hall, No. 703 Milwaukee Avenue. This
-was after the trial of the Anarchists had begun. I assigned a few
-detectives in that direction, and shortly afterwards the proceedings
-might as well have been open so far as the police were concerned.
-
-My boys had a great deal of fun. They managed to discover a way by
-which they secured an entrance under the stage, and at the first
-meeting they attended they amused themselves by cutting a hole through
-that portion of the stage facing the audience. When they had done
-this, they could see all present and hear everything that was said.
-Many a night they held to that port-hole and enjoyed the circus on the
-outside. They heard many a speech of a threatening character against
-Judge Gary, Mr. Grinnell, Mr. Bonfield and myself, and sometimes they
-had to listen to some rampant speaker who would depict the pleasure
-all Anarchists would enjoy at seeing the funerals of these officials
-passing through the streets. Of course, those who were the most bitter
-had the least courage, and so long as the auditors only listened to
-speeches, my boys were perfectly satisfied that no immediate danger was
-to be apprehended.
-
-I finally learned that some of the Anarchists had become suspicious,
-and therefore ordered Officer Schuettler and the others to remain away,
-as they would otherwise be discovered. And they would have been. One
-day the Anarchists made a careful search of the building, and they
-found the hole through which the boys had peeped. They then decided on
-a plan. It was that during the next meeting, which they felt certain
-some of my boys would attend, a great commotion should be made in the
-hall. This would surely bring one of the detectives with his eye very
-near the hole. Then one of the Anarchists should stealthily creep up on
-the side, suddenly plunge a sharp iron through the hole, and kill the
-man within.
-
-One officer, who proved of great assistance to me, was Charles Nordrum.
-He became engaged in the case shortly after the Haymarket riot, and
-after a time became a regular attaché of the detective department.
-He was born in Norway on the 9th of November, 1858, and had lived in
-Chicago since 1868. He joined the police force in November, 1884, and,
-possessing a great deal of tact and shrewdness, his services were soon
-enlisted in the work of hunting up the red conspirators. He worked at
-times with Officer Schuettler, but reported to Ebersold. Both were
-known to my officers, but they did not know of my private workers.
-Nordrum was especially detailed to look after some meetings at Thalia
-Hall, at the Emma Street Hall, in the rear room of Zepf’s saloon, in
-the rear room of Greif’s saloon, at No. 600 Blue Island Avenue, and
-at the Northwestern Hall, and he did not overlook meetings held in
-the cellars of some of the more prominent Anarchists on the Northwest
-Side and of others who were in sympathy with the Anarchists. He wormed
-himself into the good graces of quite a number of the reds, and was
-always kindly received by them. After a time the police stopped the
-holding of meetings in some of the halls, and then the Anarchist
-sympathizers harbored the reds in their cellars, furnishing candles for
-illumination and nail-kegs for seats. On the 5th of July, 1887, Nordrum
-was exposed at No. 599 Milwaukee Avenue, and he was at once surrounded
-by an infuriated mob. The Anarchists with whom he had associated
-attempted to kill him, but the officer, after a desperate fight,
-succeeded in reaching the door before any serious violence had been
-done him. This, of course, destroyed his further usefulness among them,
-but out of his knowledge of the men and their affairs two arrests were
-effected. He and Officer Schuettler brought in Emil Wende and Frederick
-Kost, members of the Terra Cotta Union. These men had been selected to
-buy each member of their group a 42-caliber revolver and one box of
-cartridges, and the weapons so secured were to have been used on the
-police on the day of the execution. The weapons had been purchased, and
-as soon as the principals had been placed under arrest, a descent was
-made upon the supply. All the revolvers were captured and brought to
-the Central Station.
-
-[Illustration: UNDERGROUND CONSPIRATORS.]
-
-Noticing how successfully they had been circumvented in all their
-movements, the Anarchists naturally came to the conclusion that
-detectives were working in their ranks either in the interest of myself
-or of Billy Pinkerton, and they resolved to discover, if possible, the
-men so engaged. One day a very intelligent fellow called at my office
-and wanted to know if I desired any more men to work for me among the
-Anarchists. He stated that he was well acquainted with all the reds,
-and, if I would pay him well, he would render good service.
-
-I called him into my private office, and I closely questioned him. I
-learned that he knew a great many of them, and I told him that I wanted
-one good man. He then considered himself engaged, and said to me:
-
-“Now you had better tell me all the men that are working for you and
-show them all to me so we can work together.”
-
-I told him that if he could find out any one of my men I would pay him
-$20 a week, and then he might consider himself engaged. He went away,
-but he never came back to claim the $20.
-
-[Illustration: OFFICER NORDRUM.]
-
-This ruse having failed, the Anarchists devised another. One day early
-in August, 1886, they sent one of my countrymen, a Luxemburger, to me.
-This fellow began to play his cards very nicely, and sought to carve a
-very pretty little path into my confidence, but he had not proceeded
-very far before my suspicions were aroused, and he got nothing to
-satisfy either himself or those who sent him. While our conversation
-was going on one of the officers came in, and, noticing the fellow,
-called me into another room. The officer then stated that he had seen
-the man hanging around West Lake Street, had seen him drunk frequently,
-and had once found him in tears, saying that he had come from Paris,
-had seen the downfall of the Commune there, and that now that Anarchy
-was suppressed in Chicago all hope for liberty was gone, and he would
-be ready to die at his own hands after he should have first killed
-somebody. I returned to the office.
-
-“See here, old fellow,” said I, “I have spies amongst the Anarchists,
-but I do not want spies among my own command.”
-
-The man was then asked if he could do any work, and when he said that
-he had not done any work in a long time, I remarked that I had a job
-for him. He became interested and wanted to know what kind of a job it
-was.
-
-“It is under Superintendent Felton at the House of Correction, and he
-will assign you to work that will keep the dogs from biting you for six
-months. You are a vagrant, and I will bring you into court to-morrow
-morning and have you fined $100. That will be six months.”
-
-The man begged piteously to be spared that punishment, and I plied
-him with questions. He stated that, inasmuch as he was of the same
-nationality as myself, the Anarchists thought he could readily get
-into my secrets, and they had forced him to come. I told him that my
-officers knew him and had him spotted, and that unless he left the city
-by the next day I would have him arrested and sent to the work-house.
-He left the station, and I have never seen him since. Since then I
-have received a letter from Michigan, saying that if the writer had me
-there I would never see Chicago again, as he would find work for me for
-awhile, and I am confident that it came from my old friend.
-
-During the progress of the investigations some curious characters were
-encountered. Some sought me, as I have already noted, but in most
-instances I had to hunt them. One eccentric genius was especially
-noticeable. He had started out with the intention of reading himself
-into the Anarchist faith, and for this purpose be became a constant
-reader of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ and its Sunday edition, the _Fackel_.
-For some time he wavered in his opinion, but the more he read the
-more he became convinced that there was something in Anarchy. At last
-he became so deeply imbued that he almost regarded it a sacrilege to
-destroy the copies he had purchased for his enlightenment. He carefully
-stowed the papers away in the closet in his room, and when he returned
-from work he would open the door and examine his collection much as a
-miser inspects his hoard.
-
-May 4 finally came, and with it the event he had looked forward to so
-longingly. But the outcome did not suit him. He noticed that the police
-were getting uncomfortably close to his locality, but he did not feel
-any special concern until one evening a patrol wagon pulled up in front
-of No. 105 Wells Street, near his own domicile. He saw the officers
-approaching in the direction of the entrance, and, jumping from his
-chair near the window, shouted to his landlady:
-
-“For heaven’s sake!—the police are coming to search the house—what
-will I do? If they come into my room and find my papers, I will be
-arrested and locked up as an Anarchist. Let me burn my papers in your
-stove.”
-
-The landlady would not permit it, as she feared arrest as an
-accomplice. The young man almost fell on his knees in pleading with her
-for permission. Finding his appeals useless, he hastened to his room,
-lit a fire in a sheet-iron stove there, and began to burn his whole
-collection. His haste was so great that he crammed too many papers
-in at once, and the stove became overheated. The wall paper began to
-burn, and the Anarchist had to give his attention to moving the bed
-and furniture away from the walls. He did not dare to give an alarm
-of fire, and yet he saw that the whole room would be in flames in a
-few moments. He seized a pitcher of water, emptied its contents on
-the wall, opened the door and called for the landlady to come to his
-assistance. She responded, and when she saw the situation, she cried
-out, “Fire, fire!” He endeavored to make her desist from her cries and
-urged her to bring him water. Water was brought and soused all over the
-stove and the walls.
-
-By this time the house was full of smoke, and they opened the window.
-An officer in the wagon noticed the smoke, and shouted to some of his
-companions that there was a fire next door up-stairs. The young man
-overheard this and hastened to tell the officer that it was only smoke
-and that no assistance was required.
-
-The landlady now ran away to escape possible arrest, and the young man
-was left alone. He again assured the officer below that the smoke had
-all cleared away, and he slammed down the window.
-
-[Illustration: THE SCARED AMATEUR ANARCHIST.]
-
-After thus escaping police investigation, the youthful Anarchist felt
-happy, and he had reasons to be, as he would certainly have been
-arrested, in view of his actions, had the officers ever entered his
-room. Others had been arrested under less suspicious circumstances,
-and it took some of them a long time to satisfactorily explain their
-position. The young man has since become connected with a newspaper. He
-may deny this in his paper, but I will never “give him away.”
-
-While pursuing the investigations, and never losing hope of finding
-Parsons, I was one day informed by Officer Henry Fechter that a man who
-knew the foxy Anarchist had seen the fugitive at Geneva, Wis., and his
-arrest might be easily effected. The officer was a detail at the time
-at the Northwestern Railroad depot, and his informant was a reliable
-gentleman. I instructed the officer to report his information to Chief
-Ebersold, as I was helpless in the matter, having no authority to send
-an officer outside of the city limits. That was the last I ever heard
-of it. The information was evidently pigeonholed, and Parsons continued
-to bask in rural sunshine and enjoy himself until the day he came
-into court of his own free will. This was not the only instance of
-supine neglect in the Chief’s office and the detective department. I
-have already spoken of the case of Schnaubelt, the bomb-thrower, but
-there is still another striking illustration. It was shortly after
-the selection of a jury to try the Anarchists. The Bonfield brothers
-and myself were obliged to be in court nearly all the time, and the
-Anarchists on the outside, observing this, began to concoct plots for
-taking revenge on the city. In this emergency the Chief decided to go
-to California, and, in order that he might have cheerful company, he
-invited Lieut. Joseph Kipley, of the so-called detective department,
-and Capt. William Buckley, of the First Precinct.
-
-When Mr. Grinnell heard of this contemplated trip, at a time when,
-for the sake of public appearance at least, the Chief ought to have
-remained at home, he firmly remonstrated and reminded the official of
-his duty. But Ebersold shook his head.
-
-“I have got my tickets,” said he; “what will I do with them?”
-
-“Throw them into the lake,” replied Mr. Grinnell.
-
-But the Chief was obstinate, and he and his party left for the Pacific
-Coast. The force was then left in command of Inspector John Bonfield,
-who thus had double duty imposed upon him.
-
-The moment the work of impaneling the jury had begun, the outside
-Anarchists began to exert themselves to put some of their own men into
-the jury-box. When they found that the State was too vigilant, however,
-they next set about to secure such witnesses as could be counted upon
-to swear their friends out of jail. Take the evidence of the strongest
-witnesses put on the stand by the defense, and the critical, unbiased
-examiner will readily discover that many of them were simply perjurers.
-
-But the labors of the reds were in vain, and when they began to realize
-that the jury did not seem impressed with the character of their
-evidence, the outside barbarians grew desperate and resolved on a new
-line of tactics.
-
-One day I received a note from one of my men warning me to protect the
-jury. The Anarchists, he said, were working out a scheme to injure some
-of the jurors, and if they could succeed in that, they were confident
-the case would have to be begun anew. If the case ever came up again,
-no man would care to risk his life in a trial of the conspirators, and
-their brothers would go free. If, however, the State should secure a
-full set of jurors, they would give them a dose of dynamite, and that
-would certainly end the case. Then they could keep on with Anarchy and
-make the capitalists cower before them. This plan, I was informed, had
-met the entire approval of the gang.
-
-I conferred with Mr. Grinnell, and as a result we doubled the watch to
-protect the jury. We made it a point also to know when the jurors went
-out for a walk or a drive, and, without their knowledge, trustworthy
-men were always with them or near them until their return. The hotel
-in which they were quartered was only about two hundred feet from
-the Criminal Court building, but whenever they came to the court in
-the morning, or went to their meals during recess, or left the court
-building after each day’s adjournment, twelve detectives along the
-line kept vigilant watch of all suspicious characters. Besides the
-detectives there were fifteen officers in uniform, and during the last
-three days of the trial we even redoubled our vigilance. There were
-twenty-five officers on the street, twenty-five more in the court-room,
-and twenty-five men about the building. All these men were in uniform,
-so that the “cranks” could see them, and it proved to be a very good
-precaution. During the night, detectives and regular patrolmen were
-watching inside and outside at the jurors’ hotel.
-
-[Illustration: WATCHING A SUSPECT.]
-
-On the last day of the arguments, when Mr. Grinnell was closing for
-the State, something very suspicious was noticed in the court-room. A
-man with a very mysterious air had been seen around the building for
-eight days preceding, and it was recalled that he came at varying hours
-of the day. On each occasion he held a few moments’ private talk with
-some of those Anarchists who had displayed interest in the proceedings,
-after which he always disappeared. The parties he generally talked
-with were Belz, who assisted in conducting the defense, Mrs. Parsons
-and Mrs. Holmes. He was about five feet ten inches tall, about forty
-years of age, weighed about 180 pounds, had a round face, short,
-stubby, sandy beard and mustache, a nose built on the feminine plan,
-large, gray, piercing eyes, and withal he was not a very prepossessing
-man.
-
-During the last hour, when Mr. Grinnell was making his plea to the
-jury, this man entered the court-room and took a seat in the front,
-right in the midst of the Anarchists’ families. This brought him within
-seven or eight feet behind the State’s Attorney. He crossed his arms
-over his stomach, and leaned pretty well forward, keeping his hands
-concealed under his coat. I was surprised at the fellow’s impudence,
-because the court-room at the time was so still that a whisper could
-have been distinctly heard all over the room. I sat at a table, with
-Mr. Walker to the left and Mr. Ingham to the right, and I called the
-attention of these two gentlemen to the mysterious man and his queer
-attitude. They watched his nervous actions, and became alarmed lest he
-might be there for some vicious object. The man had indeed a desperate
-look, but it was thought best not to interrupt the proceedings just
-then. Under the strict orders of Judge Gary, everybody was obliged to
-be seated in the court-room, and when the seats were full no more were
-admitted. This was another good precaution at such a trial. The police
-officials had thus a clear view of the whole room.
-
-At times, whenever there happened to be some severe allusions to the
-defendants by Mr. Grinnell, the stranger would twist himself around
-uneasily, all the time, however, maintaining his peculiar attitude. Mr.
-Ingham remarked that he was afraid the stranger might suddenly jump on
-Mr. Grinnell and stab him in the back. Mr. Walker expressed a similar
-opinion. I said that he should get no chance to do that, as I would
-kill him before he could take one step toward Mr. Grinnell, and at the
-same time I got my trusty 38-caliber Colt’s revolver in position where
-I could produce it the instant it was needed. We all agreed that this
-would be the right course to take. At one time the man looked sharply
-at me, and I gave him a savage look right into his eyes. From that time
-I kept him busy looking at me.
-
-As soon as Mr. Grinnell had concluded the man jumped up, drew near
-to Belz and spoke to him. Then he turned to a woman and handed her a
-paper. Meanwhile I had already called a detective to watch him, and
-as soon as the stranger reached the corridor he was searched. Nothing
-dangerous was found about his person, but it was impossible to learn
-where he lived or what was his name. He would give no account of
-himself, and he was taken down stairs and kept there until all the
-detectives had taken a good look at him. He was then told to go and
-never show himself around the building again.
-
-On the next morning a revolver was found in the building, and the
-opinion among those posted on the affair was that it must have belonged
-to the mysterious visitor. He had evidently come with a desperate
-determination to shoot some one, even at the sacrifice of his own life,
-but, seeing how slim were his chances for getting near his victim after
-the close watch kept upon him, he abandoned his intention and dropped
-his revolver to destroy any evidence against himself.
-
-Possibly he may have been simply engaged in playing a “bluff” on his
-Anarchist friends, his intention being to make them believe that he had
-nerve enough to go right into a court-room and shoot down an official,
-and afterwards to excuse his failure by referring to his friends for
-proof that he was so closely watched that he had no opportunity to get
-near his victim.
-
-Mr. Grinnell was shortly afterwards informed of the incident, and
-he remarked that possibly a “crank” might have been found by the
-Anarchists to make an assault that they themselves had not the courage
-to undertake.
-
-As I have already indicated, a great many documents and letters, public
-and private, fell into the hands of the police during the searches
-made, and from the collection I give a few for the purpose of showing
-what kind of a dynamite office was being run by Parsons and Spies.
-
-The following was found by Detective James Bonfield on Parsons’ desk in
-the _Alarm_ office, May 5, 1886:
-
- Dealers in Marble and Granite Cemetery Work.—No. 193 Woodland Avenue,
- CLEVELAND, OHIO, April 29, 1886.
-
- _Comrade Parsons_:—Providing we send you the following dispatch:
- “Another bouncing boy, weight 11 pounds, all are well—signal Fred
- Smith,”—can you send us No. 1 for the amount we sent you by telegram.
- Please give us your lowest estimate. Also state by what express
- company you will send it to us.
-
-Parsons had nothing to do with either handling or selling dynamite, if
-his own statements are to be accepted. Still he and Spies and their
-crowd seem to have had a great many inquiries for the “good stuff”
-Parsons used to refer to in his speeches, and which he urged his
-followers to carry in their vest pockets during the day and keep under
-their pillows at night. Another evidence of their guilt was found on
-the same day by Detective Bonfield in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office, on
-Spies’ desk:
-
- THE ÆTNA POWDER COMPANY, Works: Miller, Ind., Lake County.
- _Manufacturers and Dealers._ Office: No. 98 Lake Street, Chicago.
-
- High Explosives and Blasting Supplies.
- ORDER NO. ——. _Sold to Cash._ CHICAGO, October 24, 1885.
-
- 10 lbs. No. 1, 1¼, $3.50; 100 T T caps, $1.00; 100 feet double T fuse,
- 75 cts.—$5.25.
-
- Paid—Ætna Powder Company, I. F.
-
-In justice to the company it should be explained that they had no
-knowledge of the purposes for which the material was to be used.
-
-I have already referred to the great courtesy shown Schnaubelt at the
-Central Station—how, when he was brought by Officer Palmer for the
-third time before Lieut. Shea and the Chief, he was promptly ordered
-released, and how he finally and hastily concluded to leave the city
-in order to save the detective department any further trouble on his
-account. It subsequently transpired that the direction he took was
-for the great and boundless West; but in all his wanderings he always
-seems to have kindly remembered his friends in Chicago for permitting
-him to take so extended a journey. He even wrote back to some of them,
-and one letter, which, was put in the possession of Officer Palmer, is
-especially worthy of publicity. It reads as follows:
-
- PORTLAND, OREGON.
-
- _To the Chief of Police, Chicago_—My Dear Old Jackass: Thanks to your
- pig-headed lieutenant, I am here sound and safe. Before this reaches
- you I have left here, and the only thing I regret is that we did not
- kill more of your blue-coated hounds.
-
- SCHNAUBELT.
-
-The following, received by Parsons and Spies, are self-explanatory:
-
- EUFAULA, April 13, 1886
-
- _Dear Comrade Parsons_:—I have received your papers and am very much
- obliged for them. Glad that you like my article. I am writing now for
- _To-Day_, of London, and for the _Alarm_, and am going to write for
- _La Tribune du Peuple de Paris_. Situated as I am now, I can be of no
- good but by writing, and I intend to avail myself of it. You may be
- astonished if I tell you that I never use the word “Anarchy.” I stick
- to the old word “Socialism.” It can be understood and does not require
- any knowledge of Greek to make out its meaning. If I was to seek in
- the Greek language for a word to express where I stand, I would call
- myself an Anticrat, opposed to any kind of crazy notions, democracy
- as well as aristocracy. I am for individual responsibility and social
- action. I am for liberty, but within society, not above it, and, first
- of all, I am for equality of conditions. I want organization first,
- revolution second, social economy reorganization third, and abolition
- of governmental action last of all. If you could confiscate the
- government to-morrow, I would have no objection to use it for a while.
-
- Anarchism has a very dangerous drift toward individualism, as you may
- perceive by reading _Liberty_, of Boston, and individualism is bound
- to generate some kind of a crazy notion and end in despotism. Beware
- of individualistic Anarchism and stick to the socialistic.
-
- We are in a state of warfare with all the crazes and must use all the
- weapons of warfare within our reach. Our present weapons—strikes and
- boycotting—are dangerous, and expulsive if we were to use the ballot.
- The workers are the many; the masters the few. Before upsetting the
- government, let us try to use it. Mayors, councilmen, aldermen,
- governors, and so forth, have a good deal to say about how the police
- and militia shall be used, and judges have a good deal to say when
- workingmen are prosecuted for claiming their rights. Could not the
- workers organize to conquer these offices? What do you think of that?
- What do you think of that?
-
- Salute and Fraternity.
-
- FREDERIC TAFFERD.
-
- * * * * *
-
- WHAT CHEER, KEOKUK COUNTY, IOWA, April 18, 1886.
-
- _A. R. Parsons, Esq._—Dear Sir: We organized a group of the Lehr und
- Wehr Verein in this town on the above date. The organizer was your
- comrade John McGinn, of Rock Spring, Wyoming. Inclosed you will find
- the amount for the cards—names as follows:
-
- John H. Nicholson, miner; age, 41
- Arthur Cowrey, ” ” 42
- William Morgan, ” ” 34
- Isaac Little, ” ” 39
- Benjamin E. Williams, ” ” 37
- William Jackson, ” ” 39
- John McGinn, ” ” 29
- William H. Osborne, ” ” 36
- John R. Thomas, ” ” 33
-
- I suppose you will need to know who is chief and secretary of the
- group. John McGinn is chief and John H. Nicholson is the secretary.
- I remain yours, in the care of John H. Nicholson, What Cheer, Keokuk
- County, Iowa, Box 697.
-
- * * * * *
-
- ST. LOUIS, March 27, 1886.
-
- _Mrs. and Mr. Parsons_:—We were quite sorry to learn of your
- sickness, which prevented you to be with us at the Commune Festival,
- while we were just as glad to see that Mrs. Parsons did accept our
- invitation. My hope and wish that you are well again for the present.
- The Commune Festival was well attended by a large crowd, and it was a
- great disappointment for the J. W. P. A. being forced to announce the
- absence of the English speaker. I am quite aware that it would have
- been a great lift for our principles if Mrs. Parsons could have been
- present. However, St. Louis is not Chicago, and the movement is not as
- well progressing as in Chicago. No wonder. I have been teached lately
- a lesson myself, and therefore withdraw as a member of the group. We
- herewith send you a little collection of picture cards, which Mary
- had saved up for your children. We intended to send them along with
- Mrs. Parsons. Mary has already two large scrap-books full of such
- collections. Hail for the revolution.
-
- Yours respectfully,
- J. M. MENTYER.
-
- P. S.—If you have any old _Alarms_ to spare, I would make good use
- of them at present during this railroad strike. I shall soon send
- some money again. I also send you the _Chronicle_ so you can see what
- declaration the Knights of Labor have issued in answer to Monster
- Robber Gould.
-
- * * * * *
-
- Personal. PORT JARVIS, N. Y., October 31, 1885.
-
- _My Dear Comrade_:—Well, I will stay here, as I wrote you. I started
- out on a “tramp” to look for a job. I stayed nearly a week at New
- Haven and spoke there, though why Liberty should head his letter from
- there “Unfortunate for Herr Most,” is more than I can see. I came
- here and looked up an old friend, John G. Mills. He proposed starting
- a small job book-bindery. He puts in capital and I the skill. That
- seems fair; while I will be sure of a mere living for the winter,
- there is no guarantee that capital will gain by it. So the timidity
- of capital must be overcome. Well, the bargain is this: When I pay
- back the advance capital (and until I do so I am not to draw in amount
- over $5.00 a week), paid it all, then I am to own half and we will
- start equal partners, and he furnishes more capital if necessary on
- half paid back. I have agreed, as I believe it is the best I can do,
- and it opens a good prospect. It is probable that I will not be very
- active in “the cause” here, as every moment will be occupied, but I
- am willing to go anywhere within reasonable distance this winter and
- give a lecture to any group for mere expenses—car-fare and board—and
- believe I could stir up the boys. New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New
- York, all three join together here, and any of the three States would
- be convenient. I should give a lecture rather than a speech, but it
- would be _extempore_. Can’t you drop a line to Philadelphia, or some
- point near? Buffalo is nearly as near.
-
- When I feel like giving you an article I shall mail it, but, of
- course, you will use it or lay it over as you feel about it. I think I
- can put a point strongly, but do not want to crowd out anything else.
-
- If you can use me on your paper, draw on me for all the copy you like.
- I like the Alarm and think it has improved since last spring. Any
- points I can get from French papers, I will give you the benefit of. I
- never got that card. Is it contrary to custom?
-
- Yours truly,
- LUM.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIII.
-
- The Difficulties of Detection—Moving on the Enemy—A Hebrew
- Anarchist—Oppenheimer’s Story—Dancing over Dynamite—Twenty-Five
- Dollars’ Worth of Practical Socialism—A Woman’s Work—How Mrs.
- Seliger Saved the North Side—A Well-merited Tribute—Seliger
- Saved by his Wife—The Shadow of the Hangman’s Rope—A Hunt for a
- Witness—Shadowing a Hack—The Commune Celebration—Fixing Lingg’s
- Guilt—Preparing the Infernal Machines—A Boy Conspirator—Lingg’s
- Youthful Friend—Anarchy in the Blood—How John Thielen was Taken into
- Camp—His Curious Confession—Other Arrests.
-
-
-THE preceding pages will have given to the reader facts enough to
-show the difficulty of the task assumed, as well as the manner in
-which we went about the work. One of the greatest of the obstacles
-to be overcome arose from the character and habits of thought of the
-Anarchists themselves. They heartily hated all law, and despised its
-constituted representatives. The conspiracy was well disciplined in
-itself, and it had been specially organized with a view to guarding
-its secrets from the outside world and protecting its members from the
-consequences of their crimes. Thus I soon found that it would require
-peculiar address, patience, secretiveness and diligent work to lay bare
-the great plot to the world.
-
-I can find no better place than this to testify to the help given me
-throughout the case by Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann, whose work
-was a most important feature of the result finally brought before the
-Criminal Court.
-
-The protection of society is an interest so momentous that it would
-be a false modesty in me to refuse, for fear that I should be charged
-with egotism, to analyze the processes by which the conviction of the
-confederates in the Haymarket murder conspiracy was bought about, and
-accordingly I will now say, once for all, that I believe that careful,
-systematic detective inquiry, conducted with some brains and a good
-deal of grit, can unravel any plot which the enemies of law and order
-and our American institutions are apt to hatch. It will require tact.
-It will require intelligence. It may require the hardest and most
-persistent work that men may do—but about the result there can be
-no doubt. Our government and our methods are strong enough for the
-protection of the people and the maintenance of law and order, no
-matter how dangerous may seem the forces arrayed against it.
-
-The various steps taken may be gathered best from the memoranda made
-upon the arrest of each Anarchist who had been conspicuous in his
-order and who was supposed to know the secret workings of the “armed
-sections;” and, in reading the particulars, the general conclusion will
-become irresistible that the men who posed as the bloodthirsty bandits
-of Chicago became arrant, cringing cowards when they found themselves
-within the clutches of the law. In the galaxy of trembling “cranks”
-there were a few exceptions, notably George Engel and Louis Lingg, but
-the demeanor of the common herd under arrest proved that their vaunted
-bravery had been simply so much talk “full of sound and fury.”
-
-[Illustration: JULIUS OPPENHEIMER’S “DOUBLE.”
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-One of the first arrests which I made was that of Julius Oppenheimer,
-_alias_ Julius Frey. This man was a peculiar genius and was possessed
-by an unbounded admiration for Anarchists and all their methods. He had
-come to America five years before and had been brought up an Anarchist.
-He was a Hebrew of a very pronounced type, twenty-five years of age, a
-butcher by occupation, but an Anarchist in and out of season. Whenever
-he succeeded in securing employment he was sure speedily to lose it
-by his persistent teaching of Anarchy, and in some places people
-even went so far as to drive him out of town. If fortunate enough to
-get work in an adjoining town, he would tell his fellow workmen of
-his prior experience and curse what he termed his persecution for
-conscience’s sake. Whenever his Anarchist beliefs had been expounded,
-he was promptly dismissed, and in one town he was politely informed
-that unless he got out in short order he was liable to find himself
-hanging to a tree. This sort of thing embittered him still more against
-society, and finally he abandoned all attempts to find work. He
-resolved himself into a tramp, and, in traveling from place to place,
-he sought to convert every other tramp he met to his revolutionary
-ideas.
-
-He soon learned that Chicago was regarded all over the country as the
-home of Socialism, its stronghold and citadel, and he made haste to
-reach it so that he too could become an agitator, with nothing to do
-and plenty to eat and drink. He had been in the city only a few days
-when he learned of the Socialistic haunt at No. 58 Clybourn Avenue, and
-there he soon made the acquaintance of Lingg and other, lesser lights,
-whose principal aim seemed to be to loaf around the saloons, guzzle
-beer and talk dynamite. This pleased Oppenheimer. He had traveled many
-weary days, but at last he had found what he had so long sought. He was
-received cautiously at first, but finally with open arms. One night
-he attended a meeting at the number given above and heard Engel speak
-about killing all the police in Chicago. Oppenheimer was delighted,
-and on the adjournment of the meeting he grew very enthusiastic,
-threatening to visit dire punishment on both the police and the
-rich. He stepped out on the sidewalk, and, just then encountering a
-policeman, he ejaculated:
-
-“You old loafer, you won’t live much longer!”
-
-The words had hardly been uttered when Oppenheimer found himself
-prostrate in the gutter. The policeman passed on, and not one of
-Oppenheimer’s comrades dared to come to the Anarchist’s assistance or
-proffer sympathy. This was a treatment he had not expected, but he
-smothered his wrath and continued to attend all the meetings of the
-“revolutionary groups.” He grew stronger every day in the good graces
-of his comrades, and at one of their meetings he was asked, along with
-others, to secure some of the “good stuff” and bombs. He responded and
-secured a substantial outfit. When the 4th of May came he happened for
-some reason to be some eighteen miles out of the city, but the moment
-he heard of the explosion he hastened back at once and hunted up his
-old friends to help them destroy the town.
-
-On the evening of May 7 he was encountered by Officer Loewenstein at
-58 Clybourn Avenue, in Neff’s Hall, and taken to the Larrabee Street
-Station. He was put into a cell and kept locked up for about a week.
-Gradually it began to dawn upon his mind that he was in trouble, that
-possibly the police had secured evidence against him, and so at last he
-sent for me.
-
-“I see,” he said, “that it is foolish to fight against law and order,
-but you must excuse me for my actions. I read so much of that Most
-trash and other books that I was really crazy. I lost my reason and did
-not know what I was doing. Now I will tell all I know, but I will not
-testify against any of these people.”
-
-He was given no special assurances, but he unbosomed himself fully and
-became extremely useful in giving needed information. One day he said
-that if I would take him out in a carriage he would show where he had a
-lot of dynamite bombs planted, and added:
-
-“Before going after the stuff, I will show you some of the worst
-Anarchists in the city, but in doing so I will tell you candidly my
-life is in danger. If these men see me they will shoot me on the spot.”
-
-He was assured that he would be fixed in such a disguise that no one
-would recognize him, and, consenting to go under such conditions,
-Oppenheimer was rigged out like a veritable darkey. Officers Schuettler
-and Loewenstein were detailed to accompany him, and together they
-visited Sullivan, Connor, Hoyne, Mohawk and Hurlbut Streets, where many
-Anarchists then lived, and where Oppenheimer pointed out the houses of
-many notable conspirators.
-
-Unfortunately, in one of the localities visited, colored people were
-very scarce, and it did not take the boys long to discover the sham,
-when they at once began shouting, “Here is a lost, crazy nigger,” and
-they followed him, throwing bricks and stones. At other times the
-officers were obliged to hustle away with their “Hebrew negro,” as they
-called him, as soon as possible. They got back to the station about
-eleven o’clock that evening, and, entering my office, Oppenheimer was
-permitted to view his ebony countenance in a mirror. He was startled by
-his make-up and declared that it was most artistically done.
-
-“Mein Gott, if I was asleep,” he exclaimed, “and wake up, and looked in
-the glass, I’d think I was a real nigger.”
-
-On the next day he was taken by the officers, in a carriage, to Lake
-View, about three miles from the city limits, to locate the bombs. It
-was a rainy day, and it was no easy matter for Oppenheimer to determine
-the right spot, although he kept a sharp look-out. He had planted them
-during the night, and that added to the difficulty. Finally he directed
-the driver to a grove used as picnic grounds, and they soon reached
-the spot. It now rained hard, and lightning and thunder filled the air
-with light and noise. Oppenheimer hesitated about alighting from the
-carriage.
-
-“It is dangerous,” he said, “to go near the place. The bombs I have
-planted here are all loaded with dynamite, and charged with poisoned
-iron, and this heavy thunder may explode them and kill us all.”
-
-Officer Schuettler said that he himself was familiar with the
-properties of dynamite, and assured him that there would not be the
-slightest danger. Oppenheimer then became somewhat braver. He jumped
-out and beckoned to his companions to follow. They proceeded to the
-dancing-platform, in the middle of the grove, and Oppenheimer, having
-removed some short boards, making an opening large enough for the
-admission of a man’s body, asked Loewenstein to take hold of his legs,
-and, when he shouted, to pull him out, adding that when he had been
-there before he had had a hard time getting out. Oppenheimer then went
-in. On giving the signal, he was pulled out, with one bomb in each
-hand. He was thus lowered and pulled out until he had produced thirteen
-bombs. They were of the heavy gas-pipe make, loaded with dynamite and
-rusty nails, with cap attachments, and ready for use in four seconds.
-To show that he had exercised great care to preserve the “stuff”
-properly, he asked to be lowered again, and this time he brought to the
-surface an oil-cloth table-cover, which, he explained, he had used for
-wrapping up the bombs so that “they would not spoil on him.” He also
-fished out of the place two large navy revolvers fully loaded. Having
-finished, Oppenheimer gave a sigh of relief and remarked:
-
-“Now I feel relieved. As long as I had these things I always felt that
-I must do some damage with them. I had them once in the city (May 5),
-and my mind was made up to throw some in the North Side Post-office. I
-also had determined to go to the _Freie Presse_ office and blow up that
-d——d Michaelis, the editor of the paper. And then I was going to kill
-myself.”
-
-At about this time Oppenheimer possessed two large 44-caliber navy
-revolvers and seemed withal a desperate fellow. When the parties
-returned to the station he asked me to keep him there until all trouble
-was over, and for three months he became quite a character about the
-establishment. The defense in the Anarchist trial made several attempts
-to secure his release, but Oppenheimer declined to go. He was taken out
-frequently for regular exercise by one of the officers, but he always
-went in disguise.
-
-He proved such a valuable aid to the State that State’s Attorney
-Grinnell ordered his release, but as he was nervous lest some one
-should shoot him on regaining his full liberty, he begged me to
-send him to New York City. He was accordingly furnished with money
-and clothing and sent away. While he was at the station he gained
-twenty-seven pounds and declared he had never been so well taken care
-of in all his life. He bade all the officers who were working up
-the Anarchist cases good-by and was given safe escort to the depot
-by Officer Stift. Some time after his arrival in New York he was
-discovered by an Anarchist, who telegraphed to Capt. Black that he was
-there if wanted, but the Captain did not seem to specially care for him.
-
-The information he furnished the State was substantially as follows:
-
- “I came to Chicago May 5, 1886, in the morning. I went to Seliger’s
- house, 442 Sedgwick Street. I know Seliger and his wife and Louis
- Lingg. I am an Anarchist. I think the workingmen are not treated right
- in this country. I have always attended Socialistic meetings here.
- I have attended several meetings where the speakers would call us
- to arms and to all kinds of weapons, so that when the time came we
- could secure our rights. It was urged that we should be prepared to
- fight any one who would obstruct us or oppose our ideas. A meeting
- was held at Neff’s Hall on or about last February. A man who lives on
- the West Side, on Milwaukee Avenue, and who keeps a toy store—I do
- not know his name—was there. He was accompanied by a young lady. Now
- that you show me this picture [Engel’s] I will say he is the man, and
- he made a speech at that meeting. He told us to prepare ourselves,
- and if we were too poor and could not afford to buy arms, he could
- tell us about a weapon that was cheaper and better in its effect than
- arms. He then spoke of dynamite, but in his speech he always called
- it ‘stuff.’ He explained how to make dynamite bombs. He said: ‘Take
- a gas-pipe, cut it in the length of six inches, put a wooden plug in
- one end, fill it with dynamite, then plug the other end, and drill
- a small hole through one of the plugs. In this hole put a cap and
- fuse.’ Then the bomb was complete. He also told us of a place on the
- West Side, near a bridge, where we could go and steal all the pipe we
- wanted. We could then buy the ‘stuff’ and make the bombs ourselves.
- I bought seven or eight bombs some time ago from a man named Nusser
- or Nuffer, at 54 West Lake Street. The man used to work for Greif.
- I paid him twenty-five cents apiece for them. They were dynamite
- bombs, and I purchased them at night. I had a little book that told
- all about making and using dynamite bombs. I know something about the
- armed group. They are not known by their names. They are known by
- numbers, so that the police cannot find them out in case they have
- done anything wrong. There never would be any more than three in a
- job—that is, if there were any persons to be killed. Number one
- would find the second man, and this second man would find the third.
- No questions would be asked. The first man and the third man are
- not supposed to know each other. The first and third would know the
- middle man, but in case of trouble, and should there be a ‘squeal,’
- only two parties could be given away, leaving one to get away and
- save himself. I have tried some of the dynamite bombs I had, and
- they worked splendidly. I also have a big navy revolver. Everything
- attempted hereafter will be done according to the instructions given
- in a book printed by Herr Most, of New York. Those long gas-pipe
- shells I see before me are like one that was shown me at Neff’s
- Hall last winter. A man named Rau had it there and showed it to the
- boys. I am five years in America, and have always been a Socialist.
- On Wednesday morning, May 5, when I heard that there had been a bad
- blunder committed by our boys at the Haymarket, and read an article
- in the _Freie Presse_ condemning us, I got very mad. I took my five
- dynamite bombs and started out to get revenge. My first intention was
- to blow up the North Side Post-office. The next place I decided to go
- to was the _Freie Presse_ office to blow them up. If I found I was in
- danger of being captured, I made up my mind to kill myself right there
- and then. Lingg wanted me to cut a hole in the wall in his room to
- put away a lot of dynamite bombs and dynamite, but Mrs. Seliger would
- not let me do so. A man named Bodendick, a good Anarchist, was well
- known by August Spies, and considered a rank conspirator. This is the
- man that went to Justice White’s house and demanded $25, threatening
- that if he did not get it he would blow up his house. White had him
- arrested and locked up in jail, and for this reason Spies did not
- want the man known as an Anarchist, but simply as a crazy man. The
- Socialists or Anarchists do not care much for Spies or Schwab, but
- we have kept them and looked upon them as a necessary evil. I know
- a man named Pollinger, a saloon-keeper. He was an agent here at one
- time to sell arms, but he did not run things right. He was crooked.
- The understanding we had was that, in case of a riot or revolution,
- every man should use his own judgment and do as he pleased, that is
- to say, commit murder, shoot people, burn buildings or do that for
- which he was best fitted, so long as it was in the interest of the
- Anarchistic society. The main idea inculcated in the little paper
- called the _Freiheit_, which I have read, is that no rights could be
- secured until capitalists were killed and houses were laid in ashes.
- If we would not take a chance on our lives, we would be slaves always.
- I know positively of fifty men, radical Anarchists, who stand ready to
- commit murder and to destroy the city by fire whenever they are called
- on. I know Lingg well. He is a Socialist and an Anarchist and a very
- radical revolutionist. I heard him speak at 58 Clybourn Avenue, and
- formed my opinion of him. He told me that Seliger was a coward.”
-
- [Illustration: WILLIAM SELIGER.
-
- From a Photograph.]
-
- [Illustration: MRS. WILLIAM SELIGER.
-
- From a Photograph.]
-
- ”“He called me a coward the morning I helped Mrs. Seliger to get the
- guns out of the house. That morning I was in Lingg’s room when Mrs.
- Seliger brought in a lot of lead and said to Lingg: ‘Here is your
- lead.’ Lingg then got mad at her and said: ‘You are crazy.’ He became
- very much excited, wrapped up his gun, got ready to move, and wanted
- me to conceal his dynamite bombs in the hall. Mrs. Seliger would not
- let him do so. Then Lingg was going to carry his bombs out of the
- house. He finally got into quite a quarrel with her and started out
- to get a wagon to carry away all his things. I told him to hurry up
- and get all his dynamite stuff away, also the printed literature he
- had, as there was danger that the police would be around to search
- the house. He looked at me and called me ‘a d——d fool and coward.’
- Then Lingg asked me to go to the West Side with him, as there was to
- be a meeting at 71 West Lake Street. Lingg saw my dynamite bombs. I
- had told him of them. I saw two round lead bombs in his room. I had
- them in my hands. Lingg told me to be careful and not let them drop,
- as they were loaded and might go off. They were dangerous, he said.
- I also saw four gas-pipe bombs in his room. Some of them were not
- finished. I remember now that Seliger, the Hermanns and Hubner were at
- the meeting in Neff’s Hall last winter when Engel urged all men who
- had revolutionary ideas to pay attention and he would explain how to
- make dynamite bombs. I am glad I am arrested. I now can realize how
- near I was to ruin through those d——d fellows making revolutionary
- speeches and exciting the people to commit murder. The books given out
- by Herr Most are doing more harm among those men than any one can
- imagine. I have given you facts, and they are true, every one of them.
- I will swear to them.”
-
-The next arrest was that of William Seliger. When the police had
-learned that Seliger’s residence had been used as a bomb factory, we
-wanted him. He was a man about forty-five years of age, a carpenter by
-occupation, a good mechanic, very quiet and sober, but one of the most
-rabid of Anarchists. He had filled various positions in the “groups,”
-and always manifested a deep interest in their meetings. He was popular
-with his comrades and trusted with all their secrets. He lived at No.
-442 Sedgwick Street, in a rear building up-stairs. This was a two-story
-frame dwelling, and a great resort for Socialists and Anarchists.
-Officer Whalen had searched the house, finding it a regular dynamite
-magazine, and, locating his man, telephoned to me that Seliger was
-working at Meyer’s mill on the North Pier. Officer Stift and Lieut.
-Larsen were at once detailed, in charge of a patrol wagon, to effect
-the arrest, and soon the man was produced at the station—May 7. When I
-confronted him he stubbornly refused, according to the instructions in
-Most’s book, to answer questions, but when he discovered the evidence I
-had against him, he broke down and said:
-
-“Captain, I will tell you all, but for Heaven’s sake do not arrest my
-poor wife. I am to blame for all you found in my house, because I kept
-that man Lingg in my house against her will—the poor woman! Hang me,
-but do not trouble her, for she is innocent, and God is her witness.”
-
-Seliger then unbosomed himself, telling of all his connection with
-the Anarchists since his location in Chicago, and giving valuable
-information on all the “groups,” their leaders, their places of
-meeting, their purposes, their mode of operations, the character of the
-speeches made at meetings, and the manufacture of bombs at his house,
-giving the names of all calling or taking part in their manufacture.
-He gave the most important points the State had to work on, and
-every detail he furnished was fully corroborated by other parties
-subsequently arrested. He was in the confidence of Lingg, and was also
-a _particeps criminis_ in the manufacture of the bombs, and gave,
-therefore, no hearsay statements. What was found in his house and the
-character of his information are fully shown in his testimony, given in
-a later chapter, as well as that of the officers during the memorable
-trial.
-
-After telling what he knew, Seliger was released, on the 28th of May,
-with instructions to report every day at the Chicago Avenue Station.
-
-Mrs. Seliger was also arrested. She was a small woman about 38 years
-of age. She was found at No. 32 Sigel Street on the morning of May 10.
-She readily consented to accompany Officer Schuettler to the station.
-Mrs. Seliger showed plainly that she had not been in sympathy with her
-husband in his revolutionary ideas, and proved a prompt and willing
-witness, demonstrating before she got through that she had done
-incalculable service to the people of the city.
-
-It was in her house that Lingg made his bombs, and when I questioned
-her she gave me a great deal of information concerning the man and
-his methods. All the statements she made and her testimony in court
-did not vary in the slightest details, even under the most rigid
-cross-examination. She was found to be a very industrious woman, a
-neat housekeeper, and she was highly esteemed by all her neighbors.
-She related how she had lived in misery ever since her husband began
-to take an active part in the Anarchist meetings, and she stated that
-after Lingg came to live in the house she had not seen a pleasant hour.
-She had often remonstrated with her husband and pleaded with him not to
-attend the meetings, or read any of the Anarchist papers, but to remain
-at home with her.
-
-Seliger was so completely carried away by the doctrines of Johann Most,
-Spies and the others that he refused to listen to his wife. The moment
-he got into trouble, however, he became very penitent and readily
-accepted her advice in everything.
-
-Mrs. Seliger’s experience on the 4th day of May, when she witnessed
-the preparation of the bombs, she described as terrible. There she was
-forced to remain all day, she said, seeing eight men working on the
-murderous weapons, some making one kind of bombs, some another, others
-fitting them and loading them with dynamite, and others again putting
-on the caps and fuse. Throughout the whole operation she was obliged
-to listen to their bloodthirsty conversation, how they would blow up
-the police stations, patrol wagons and fire-engine houses, kill all the
-militia, hurl bombs into private residences, and murder every one who
-opposed them.
-
-Mrs. Seliger viewed affairs differently and told the conspirators that
-there were more chains than mad dogs. Another thing they overlooked,
-she said, was their own families, and should they carry all their
-threats into execution their families would be made to suffer to the
-end of their days in misery and want. Remonstrances, however, were
-useless.
-
-They worked until dark, and then they separated to meet in the evening
-at No. 58 Clybourn Avenue. Her husband and Lingg ate supper, and
-then the two put a lot of the bombs into a satchel and started for
-the designated place. Lingg carried the satchel down stairs and was
-followed by Seliger.
-
-This was a trying moment, but Mrs. Seliger proved equal to the
-emergency. Just as Seliger reached the third step, she grasped his arm,
-threw her arms about his neck, and, like a loving, devoted wife, asked
-him for God’s sake not to become a murderer.
-
-“If you ever loved me and ever listened to me when I spoke,” she
-whispered fervently into his ear, “I want you to listen to me now. I
-don’t ask you to stay at home, but I want you to go with that villain
-and see that he does not hurt any one. Restrain him from carrying out
-his murderous ideas. If you do this, I will creep on my knees after you
-and will be your slave all my life.”
-
-[Illustration: A NOBLE WOMAN’S INFLUENCE. A KISS THAT PREVENTED
-BLOODSHED.]
-
-These tender words touched a sympathetic chord in the heart of Seliger,
-and he promised to do as she had requested, while she sealed the
-promise with a loving kiss. As subsequent events and his testimony
-in court proved, he faithfully carried out that promise, and by that
-injunction of his wife and that fervid kiss of a true woman, hundreds
-of lives and millions of property were saved.
-
-From the time they left the house until their return, Seliger never
-left for a moment the side of Lingg. During the evening Lingg was
-continually prompted by his own treacherous heart to throw bombs, now
-at a passing patrol wagon, then at some residence or into a police
-station, and invariably Seliger had some handy reason to proffer why
-such an attempt would be inopportune at the moment. Lingg finally
-became suspicious and upbraided Seliger for being a coward. The night
-passed, and the only harm Lingg did was indirectly in the explosion
-of one of his bombs at the Haymarket, to the prospective happening of
-which he frequently alluded during the evening.
-
-It is my deliberate opinion that, had it not been for this intervention
-of Mrs. Seliger, hundreds of people would have been killed, and
-probably one-half of the North Side destroyed, that eventful night.
-
-After giving considerable information to the police Mrs. Seliger was
-released, but kept under strict surveillance.
-
-Seliger faithfully carried out his instructions to report at the
-station daily for two weeks, and then he suddenly disappeared. Officer
-Schuettler was detailed to visit his home to ascertain the cause, and
-was there informed that Seliger had mysteriously left.
-
-“Why,” inquired Mrs. Seliger, “don’t you know where he is; did you not
-arrest him again?”
-
-On being answered in the negative, she stated that it had been her
-intention to call on me that afternoon with a view to finding out
-something about her husband.
-
-It looked like a case of concealment, and Mrs. Seliger was therefore
-taken to the Larrabee Street Station. She immediately desired to see
-me, and, when I called, she informed me that three days before her
-husband had said: “I am going away. Don’t ask me any questions. You
-will hear from me later,” and then bade her good-by.
-
-She was under the impression that since leaving her he had been at the
-Chicago Avenue Station. I thought it a ruse and subjected her to a
-severe examination. I asked her who had been to see them and whether
-they had not received money from certain lawyers or others. But Mrs.
-Seliger could tell no different story from that she had already given,
-and she finally volunteered the guess that possibly her husband had
-been frightened away.
-
-“If you will only allow me to go,” she earnestly pleaded, “I will
-neither eat, drink nor sleep until I find him.”
-
-I was now satisfied that she was in earnest, and, having confidence
-in her, I ordered her release. But from that moment she was watched
-night and day, more closely than ever. It was found that she visited
-many houses in various parts of the city, and when these places were
-immediately afterwards called upon by the detectives it was ascertained
-that she had invariably inquired for her husband and urged those who
-knew him to tell him to come home if they should happen to meet him;
-that she was weary of life, and if he remained away much longer she
-would not be responsible for any act of hers on her own life.
-
-After several days’ ineffective search, Mrs. Seliger received a letter
-from her husband asking her to call and see him. She hastened at once,
-with a throbbing heart and a light tread, to my office. I asked her
-if she would work under my instructions, and she promptly consented
-to do everything in her power to help the police. I had come to the
-conclusion that it would be no easy matter to find the slippery
-Seliger, but that, if he was not discovered that day, we might at least
-get on his track.
-
-Mrs. Seliger was accordingly told to wait in the office a few minutes.
-Two men were sent for, men whom the woman would not know. I instructed
-them to slip through a side door and get a good view of her while
-unobserved. A carriage was then ordered, and the driver directed to
-take the woman to whatever place she might desire, and remain with her
-even all day and all night, if required. Mrs. Seliger stepped into the
-carriage, and the horses were soon in a sharp trot. But the conveyance
-was not alone. No sooner had it started than the two men I have spoken
-of jumped into a buggy and followed the carriage south, keeping it in
-good view all the time.
-
-The first stop made was at a place on West Thirteenth Street. There
-Mrs. Seliger had to identify herself first, and thence she was directed
-to a place some four blocks away. Arriving there, she was sent on to
-Sixteenth Street, and again sent to Twelfth Street, near the limits.
-She was here subjected to a great many questions, and after she had
-fully proven her identity she was taken to the next house and led into
-a dark bed-room, where she found her husband. She remained there about
-three hours, and then, under direction of her husband’s friends, was
-told to drive to several other places in order to throw any detectives
-that might be watching off the scent. She did so, but the two men had
-kept a close watch and were not to be baffled.
-
-When the carriage had started for home, one of the officers returned
-to the place where she had tarried so long. He represented to the
-occupants that he was working for Salomon & Zeisler, attorneys for the
-imprisoned conspirators, to whom Seliger had written a letter, and that
-in accordance with the request they had decided to protect him and his
-friends.
-
-“Seliger,” said the officer, “is here, and I want to talk with him.”
-
-The occupants admitted that he had been there and had had a talk with
-his wife, but that he was at the time on his way home with her.
-
-Mr. and Mrs. Seliger called at the station the next afternoon (June 8).
-Both entered smiling, but it was quite apparent that Seliger was very
-nervous.
-
-“Captain,” said Mrs. Seliger, “we are both here.”
-
-“Yes, madam,” I replied; “I am glad you are both here—on your own
-account.”
-
-“Captain,” again spoke Mrs. Seliger, “I want my husband to testify in
-court against that villain Lingg. He ruined my home. He is the cause of
-the slaughter of all these people. He is the cause of the sufferings
-of the women and children whose husbands and fathers attended the
-Anarchist meetings. Now, Captain, you see I have been faithful to my
-promises. I have done as I agreed. You have my husband; he is in your
-power. You can do with him as you please, but for God’s sake spare his
-life.”
-
-Mrs. Seliger had scarcely finished her appeal when she swooned away.
-She had for days been wrought up with intense excitement and haunted
-with terrible forebodings. The climax was reached when she had executed
-her commission, and, trying as had been the situation for nights and
-days, she had courageously borne up in order that she might atone the
-wrongs her husband had committed despite her most earnest entreaties,
-and to help in some way to extricate him, who had so cruelly wronged
-her, from the meshes into which he had madly and ignorantly rushed.
-Her keen judgment and innate sense of right had swept aside every
-consideration of the apparent security his concealment might have given
-him, and her whole soul was centered in his delivery to the authorities
-that he might not eventually be found and sent to an ignominious death
-on the gallows. That was her hope, and, much as she longed for his
-safety, she had bent her whole energies to seeing him brought out of
-concealment and placed where there might at least be a chance for
-his life. The struggle had been intense, and it culminated when she
-so pathetically asked that her husband’s life might be spared. Her
-emotions then were at their highest tension, and as she recognized the
-fact that he was now at the complete mercy of the law, from which he
-had sought to escape, she could bear up no longer.
-
-A physician was immediately sent for, and after applying restoratives
-it was found she was quite a sick woman. A carriage was summoned, and
-she was sent home.
-
-Seliger was detained at the station until after the trial of the
-conspirators. Mrs. Seliger was a frequent caller after that trying
-day, and remained with him much of the time, cheering him and seeking
-in every way to lighten his burden, like a true, devoted and loving
-wife. In a subsequent conversation the circumstances in connection with
-her visit to her husband at his place of concealment were learned.
-It appears that at first he emphatically declined to accompany her,
-and then gave his reasons. One day, while on his way to report at the
-station, he was met, he said, by a stranger, and threatened that if he
-ever went near the station again, or sent word verbally or by note or
-letter to me, both he and his wife would be murdered in cold blood.
-The threat made a marked impression on his mind. He returned home,
-but made no mention of it to Mrs. Seliger. He knew, he said, that the
-threat was meant, and, thinking to save his wife, he concluded to act
-on the warning and place himself in concealment without her knowledge.
-He left, as already stated, and decided to keep under cover to await
-results.
-
-He called first at the house of a widow named Bertha Neubarth, No. 1109
-Nelson Street, Lake View. This was a small cottage, with a basement
-used as a tailor-shop, and, thinking it a secure place, he remained
-there a few days. Then he went to the house of a friend, named Gustav
-Belz, who lived near McCormick’s factory, and remained there several
-days. His next move was to a house on West Twelfth Street, near the
-city limits, and there he remained until discovered by his wife.
-The letter he had sent to her was mailed by a trusted friend named
-Malinwitz, and the purpose he had in sending it was to ascertain if
-matters had changed any and if I was angry over his sudden departure.
-On meeting his wife, the first question he asked was as to whether the
-police had been watching their house, and, on being answered in the
-affirmative, and informed that she had even been locked up again, he
-asked for particulars and the cause for her release.
-
-“Capt. Schaack,” she said, “let me out in order to bring you back.”
-
-“I often felt sorry,” answered the husband, “for going away, but I will
-never go back.”
-
-His wife insisted that he must go back, and said:
-
-“I told the Captain that I would come and see you. The Captain said
-that he would give you six hours to return, and that if you did not
-report to his office within that time, he would surely find you and
-prosecute you for murder. Your chances for hanging, he said, were very
-good, and you need look for no mercy at his hands. He also said that
-he had your picture ready, to send out for your arrest on sight, and
-that it would be useless for you to hide or run away. I saw the picture
-myself, and the Captain intends to publish a large reward for your
-arrest.”
-
-“I believe all you say,” said Seliger, struggling with his feelings,
-“but what would you prefer, seeing me shot or killed by assassins, or
-hung by law?”
-
-“All these cowards making threats,” replied the wife, “will be
-arrested. The station-houses on the North Side are now full of the
-murderers. I know the Captain will take care of us, and, if you are
-arrested, you will have no one to help you or do anything for you;
-then you are sure to hang. You had better come with me to Captain
-Schaack.”
-
-He consented, and she sent word that they would be at the station
-the next day. Seliger gave himself up, and Mrs. Seliger redeemed her
-promise. The sacrifice, in view of the uncertainties of the time,
-seemed great, but had it not been for the honesty and persistency of
-that true woman, Seliger to-day would lie in an unhonored grave. Both
-proved strong witnesses at the trial, and shortly after his release
-they left the city. Reports from them show that he has been cured of
-Johann Most’s crazy notions. He now denounces Anarchy both in America
-and Germany, in which latter country he and his wife were born. He has
-applied himself to legitimate pursuits as a law-abiding citizen, and is
-prospering.
-
-Seliger, during his interview with me, recounted his connection with
-the Anarchists as follows:
-
- “About three years ago I noticed an article in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_
- that the North Side group would give lessons to all who desired, in
- the English language. I went to Neff’s Hall and I was there told
- that the school was only for members, and that, if I wanted to join,
- I could do so. I did, and a year afterwards I was elected financial
- secretary. In looking over the books, I found that the group had 206
- members, the most of them being in arrears, but no one ceased to be
- a member on account of it. I found also that there was a great deal
- of wrangling and trouble among the members. One faction claimed to
- be revolutionary, as they were at war with capital. This contention
- drew the lines pretty sharply, and the Socialistic movement commenced
- to take a sharp character. Stellmacher, I believe, was executed in
- Vienna. It was on Monday, if I am not mistaken, in the month of
- August, 1884. My group decided to commemorate the event and glorify
- the man. They had posters printed, and about twenty men went to
- work to post them, especially in the vicinity of the churches. From
- that day they began talking force and dynamite. At every meeting,
- Stellmacher’s name was mentioned and his deeds glorified. Some held
- that Stellmacher was simply a burglar and murderer, having burglarized
- the premises of Banker Eifert at Vienna and killed one of his
- children. Rau and Lange were always quarreling over this question.
- Lange maintained that it was a shame that any Socialist, Communist
- or Anarchist should burglarize and murder under a pretext of getting
- money for the cause. Every member, he said, could get enough money
- in an honest way to swell the fund for agitation and the destruction
- of capital. Lange said that he was not opposed to the killing of
- capitalists in the right way, but he did not want to see children
- killed. Rau would uphold a contrary view. He held that it was all the
- same, capitalist or child, and said that the children of the rich
- would grow up only to learn how to enrich themselves at the expense
- of the working people. Schnaubelt favored murder and thought that it
- would be best for the Anarchists to form into groups of four or five
- with a view to killing any one who would work against the laboring
- people’s agitation. One or two suddenly removed would not arouse
- suspicion.
-
- “A cigar-maker named Hoffman became a member of the North Side
- group, and he was never satisfied with the rules, as he regarded
- them too lenient. He wanted the whole International Working People’s
- Association made an armed body, but Schwab and Hermann opposed it,
- as they said that the Lehr und Wehr Verein filled that part of the
- bill. Hoffman subsequently withdrew from the group and the military
- organization. He as well as Polling and Hermann wanted the Anarchists
- to give a commemorative entertainment on the anniversary of the Paris
- Commune, in March, 1885, and of the clubbing of the working people
- of Philadelphia by the police. His idea was that rifles should be
- discharged, and then a woman personating the goddess of liberty
- should throw a chain away from her body. In this way the three men
- believed that the agitation for securing arms could be greatly helped.
- The committee for the celebration of the Commune opposed this plan,
- especially Neebe and Rau. Neebe held that the celebration of the
- Commune as generally planned by the committee was for the express
- purpose of making money to help agitation, and the other features were
- not necessary. Hoffman endeavored to carry through his plan, but he
- was knocked out. After some further wrangling he left the group and
- permanently kept away. At another meeting Rau said that he desired to
- bring dynamite into the meetings and show how it was manufactured, but
- no definite action was taken.
-
- “At the beginning of last year [1885], a man named Deters declared
- that he was an Anarchist and was very loud in his declarations, but
- he was afterwards expelled for stealing tickets from the Central
- Labor Union. Poch always claimed to be a Communist, and he became
- unpopular on account of a dereliction. Haker was also a Communist, but
- he was expelled on account of being in arrears $3 as a member of the
- Southwest group. Then Lingg became a member, and from that time served
- as president of that group. He was always in hot words with a man
- named Hartwig. During the beginning of April we got quite a number of
- new members, and they all became strong agitators in the cause. I knew
- as members of the armed sections Schlomeker, a carpenter; Stahlbaum,
- a carpenter, lieutenant of the first company; Petschke, secretary of
- the same company; Kitgus; the Riemer brothers, one a carpenter and
- the other a painter; Ted, a carpenter; Rau, Bak, Hirschberger, the
- Hermann brothers, all members of the Lehr und Wehr Verein; the Hageman
- brothers; the Lehman brothers; Messenbrink, a carpenter; Stak, a
- tinsmith; Lauke, Feltes and Kraemer, all carpenters, and Siebach and
- Niendorf, carpenters, living in Lake View. With these two exceptions
- and those of Lenhard and Krueger, who belonged to the Northwest group,
- all I have mentioned lived on the North Side. There were also Classner
- and Sisterer, who belonged to the Southwest group. I know a great many
- others who belonged to the armed forces, but I don’t recall their
- names. They all carried revolvers. All I knew about bombs at that time
- was what I heard Lingg say, that the Northwest group and the Southwest
- groups and the Bohemians were well supplied with them. Among the
- Bohemian Socialists I only know Mikolanda and Hrusha and three more
- whose names I can’t remember.
-
- “At a meeting last winter [1885] of the North Side group, Neebe stated
- that it was time that every comrade should supply himself with arms
- and should lay bombs under his pillow at night and sleep over them.
- Every one should practice so as to know how to handle them when
- necessary. Every workingman, he said, who is down on capitalists,
- should kill every one of them, and they should not neglect the
- police and the militia, because they were hired and supported by the
- capitalists. He said that he himself would kill one of these loafers
- and would not turn an eye on him. One in the audience, a barber,
- whose name I don’t know, said that there were some among the militia
- and the police who would join them in case of an uprising and cited
- as an instance that during the riots of 1877 he had spoken to some of
- them and they had told him that they would not shoot at the strikers.
- Neebe declared that it was all the same. ‘A man employed by the
- capitalists,’ he said, ‘is my enemy, even though he is my brother.’ In
- case of an uprising, he said, every revolutionist should use force on
- every corner and on the sidewalks, and should throw dynamite wherever
- these loafers stood or walked.
-
- “The casting of one bomb Lingg had was made of sheet-iron, and
- the man who manufactured it was shown to me at the office of the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. Then Lingg had another casting made out of iron,
- which he had made at some iron foundry. I saw him have dynamite twice
- in a cigar-box. Before this he said to me that he had seen Spies at
- the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office, and that Spies had told him that he
- would give him dynamite. This was about two months before the 4th of
- May. Friday preceding that day Lingg received a box, 1 × 2½ feet in
- dimensions, from the West Side, at the hands of a man whom I took
- to be a Bohemian. Lingg always liked the Bohemians. With a view to
- learning this man’s address I walked over to the West Side, and I
- found that he had moved to No. 661 Blue Island Avenue. One evening
- two others came to see Haker, and Haker told them, as I entered,
- that I was Seliger. One of them I knew, his name being Kaiser, a
- carpenter, and the other was a strongly built man of medium height
- and bow-legged. They were a little embarrassed and said that they did
- not know what to say under the circumstances. I asked them if they
- had bombs, and Haker spoke up and said that he would not say anything
- about it, even to his brother, as he expected a search would be made
- of his house. But he said they would find nothing, and the other
- two confirmed his story. It was stated that every one should buy a
- book, which could be had at cost price, giving directions about the
- manufacture of dynamite, which could also be purchased very cheap.
- The North Side group bought one of these books. I was so informed by
- Thielen, who had seen it.
-
- “A short time after this I was elected a member of the central
- committee, with four other delegates from the North Side group, who
- were Neebe, Rau, Hermann and Hubner, and as long as I was a member
- Neebe and Rau were continued as delegates to that committee. Spies was
- at the head of it. I attended seven of its meetings, and at one of
- our sessions, during the West Side street-car drivers’ strike, Spies
- said that we should take part in that strike. In case the strikers
- should resort to force against the company and the policemen who
- protected it, Spies said that he had a few bombs on hand, and he would
- distribute some of them to people whom he knew. At the same meeting
- it was proposed that a meeting should be held on the lake front the
- following Sunday, but there was some opposition to it. Spies, however,
- declared that the meeting should be held and that every one should
- be present, well armed. Then, in case the police should interfere
- to disperse the gathering, they should send them home with bloody
- heads. The meeting was held, but there was no interference. Spies
- also proposed that meetings of the committee should be held every
- evening at the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office during the strike, to hear
- grievances, and that, whenever necessary, special meetings should be
- held of the various groups. The leaders in the committee were Spies,
- Rau, Neebe, Hermann, a man named Walter, of the American group, and
- a small man from the Northwest group with an illuminated nose, who
- was a very intimate friend of Spies. This man was the founder of the
- Freiheit group.
-
- “Just preceding this car strike, Haker, who belonged to Carpenters’
- Union No. 1, was a strong advocate of the use of dynamite. At one
- meeting he told some of the members to wait till after adjournment, as
- he explained that he desired to show them something very interesting.
- They remained, and he produced a ball of clay, having two parts joined
- together and a cavity in the center. He told them that he manufactured
- them, and if any one desired any they could get them from him at a
- dollar each. I then left.
-
- “Subsequently I called upon Secretary Lotz and asked for the book of
- membership of the North Side group. I found that Charles Bock was
- its financial secretary; Hubner, librarian; and Rau, delegate to
- the central committee, which position he held almost continuously.
- Abraham Hermann was also a delegate and agent for the sale of arms
- to the whole organization. The principal speakers at our meetings
- were Schwab, Feltes or Veltes, Neebe, Grottkau and (while living
- in the city) Kraemer. During 1885 an Austrian, whose name I don’t
- remember, spoke very often, but he is now at the Jefferson Insane
- Asylum. Fischer is one of the founders of the North Side group and
- always spoke most strongly in favor of Anarchy. Rau, an employé of
- the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, Lingg, Schnaubelt and Emil Hoffman, the
- cigar-maker, also spoke frequently. Hoffman claimed that he was a
- great friend of Most and one of the founders of _Freiheit_ of London.
- He had lived in London several years and was an active member until
- he left our organization, as I have already stated. Hermann would
- sometimes take the places of speakers who might happen to be absent
- from some of the meetings. Hirschberger, of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_,
- and Menz, a carpenter, born in America, generally participated in some
- of the discussions.
-
- “A man named Kiesling was a member, and after my liberation from the
- station I was informed by Haker, Kaiser and another man that he had
- helped a member to escape arrest. Commes, or Commens, had shot and
- wounded two Jews, and Kiesling was delegated to take him in an express
- wagon to Lake View, where he turned him over to some members of the
- Southwest Side group, who then assisted him in effecting his escape.”
-
-Seliger then gave a number of names of members who belonged to the
-groups he was most familiar with, as follows:
-
- “_North Side Group._—Asher, a mason; Turban, carpenter; Huber,
- carpenter; Heuman, railroad laborer; Stak, cornice-maker; Reuter;
- Habitzreiter, of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_; Kasbe, shoemaker; Menge,
- carrier of _Arbeiter-Zeitung_; Hoelscher, carrier of same paper;
- Jebolinski, carpenter; Behrens, shoemaker. Members no longer with
- group: Wichman, a saloon-keeper, expelled from Berlin, Germany; Ammer,
- book-binder; the Thiesen brothers, one a shoemaker and the other a
- carpenter, and Polling.
-
- “_Northwest Side Group._—Blume, carpenter; Elias, carpenter; Fischer,
- Engel, Lehnhard, Breitenfeld. Blume and Elias left because they were
- quarreling all the time with Fischer, and they founded the Karl Marx
- group.
-
- “_Southwest Side Group._—Scholz; Fehling, cigar-maker; Kaiser,
- carpenter; Haker, carpenter; Schoening.”
-
-The next arrest was that of JOHN THIELEN. Thielen was a man about 37
-year of age, born near the city of Coblentz, Germany, a carpenter by
-occupation, and a rabid “red,” living in Chicago at No. 509 North
-Halsted Street. He had been an Anarchist in the old country, and there
-had divided his time between talking up the social revolution and
-running a small grocery store, until business had got so dull that he
-was obliged to sell out. He then fell back upon his trade for a living.
-Much as it went against his grain to labor, he had no alternative
-except to starve. It occurred to him that the stronger a Socialist
-he became the less hard work he would have to do, and he accordingly
-availed himself of every opportunity to talk on his pet hobby. At last
-the officials of Emperor William got after him, and, packing up a few
-things, he emigrated to America, reaching Chicago about five years
-before his arrest. He had been here only a short time when he learned
-that there were a number of men in the city who talked to workingmen
-about the shortest way to get rich without work, how to have a good
-time playing cards, drinking beer, attending picnics and balls, wearing
-good clothes, and smoking good cigars. This struck Thielen’s fancy,
-and he concluded that at last he had found the place he had longed
-for during many years. He decided to identify himself with these men,
-and accordingly made haste to attend all their meetings. It was not
-long before he proved himself as good an Anarchist as the rest of the
-leaders. His wife also had become imbued with his doctrines, and had
-grown indeed more positive than her husband.
-
-[Illustration: JOHN THIELEN.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-They had a son, 15 years of age, a tall, slim fellow. Nothing would
-satisfy the mother except his induction into the order. After the
-stripling had become a member, she was still unsatisfied; he must join
-the Sharpshooters. This the boy did, and thus he fell in with the most
-rabid of the Anarchists—into the very crowd that gathered in secret
-session at 63 Emma Street on Sunday, May 2, at ten o’clock in the
-morning, to hear Engel unfold his murderous plan.
-
-The youth was a close listener and an ardent admirer of the leaders.
-He also attended the Haymarket meeting, and went there for a purpose.
-It appears that the order had established, in furtherance of this
-conspiracy, a line of runners, composed of all the young men who were
-swift and light of foot, the object being to furnish means of rapid
-communication between a “commander” and his men. For instance, in
-the execution of Engel’s plan, a number of Anarchists had gone to
-Wicker Park, some to Humboldt Park, and others to Garfield Park, on
-the evening of May 4. Their instructions were to stand ready to obey
-orders, and, on receipt of a signal, to advance into the city and shoot
-down all who opposed them. The “commander” attended the Haymarket
-meeting, accompanied by young Thielen, and it was his intention, the
-moment the proper signal was given, to despatch the boy on his mission.
-The boy was then to start on a keen run to a certain place, where he
-was to meet another runner; the second was to take the message to a
-third, and so on until the men posted at the parks were reached.
-
-Fortunately, however, young Thielen missed his “commander” when the
-bomb fell and the shooting commenced at the Haymarket. The boy then
-lost his courage, like his superior, and applied his speed to getting
-home as fast as possible.
-
-Young Thielen had been selected because of his supposed coolness. He
-had been a great favorite of Lingg’s, and had been in that worthy’s
-room on that very afternoon up to 7:30 in the evening. He had even
-helped to load dynamite bombs there. When the work had been completed,
-Lingg had distributed a lot of the dynamite left over to his friends
-present. Three boxes had been given to Thielen and the boy, and the
-“stuff” was subsequently found buried under their house, together with
-fire-arms and ammunition.
-
-When trouble finally surrounded the Thielen household, the wife
-and mother showed true grit. On being shown the evidence of their
-complicity in a conspiracy, she neither flinched nor quivered.
-
-“Our whole family are Anarchists,” she defiantly remarked, “and what of
-it? Try your best, you can’t scare me!”
-
-The son was ordered by the officers to come with them to the station,
-and as they left the house Mrs. Thielen said to him:
-
-“I want you to brace up and be firm, as you have been taught by your
-comrades. This is for a good cause. Bear it all like a man.”
-
-The boy was taken to the Larrabee Street Station and put under
-cross-fire. He was decidedly firm at first, but after he had become
-involved in a number of false statements and shown that the police knew
-a good deal about him, he looked at every officer in the station and
-asked:
-
-“If I tell all I know and tell the truth, what will you do with me?”
-
-He was informed that such a course would be the best for him and that
-it might afford him a chance to get out of his troubles. This satisfied
-the youth, and he gave a long and strong statement, which others
-subsequently corroborated. He then explained that he had been misled
-into reading all sorts of nonsense on Anarchy. He had eagerly studied
-all books on the question, and, being encouraged by his parents, had
-taken a deep interest in all the meetings. He worked whenever he could
-find employment, but at all times his mind was centered in the success
-of the cause.
-
-He was detained at the station only a few days, and then released on a
-promise to hold himself subject to the orders of the State and testify
-when called on. But the State did not need his evidence, and soon
-thereafter I secured him employment in a factory. He is still at work
-and is now proving himself an exemplary youth.
-
-The father proved a rather elusive individual after the police began
-searching for him. But at the time of Mrs. Seliger’s arrest he ventured
-too near the Chicago Avenue Station. It was on the morning of May 12
-that a man was noticed in the company of two women. The man remained on
-the outside at a good distance, but the women entered the court-room of
-the station and sat there for some time, watching the prisoners brought
-before the magistrate. The women asked no questions of any one in the
-room, and it was soon discovered that they had no business there.
-Officer Loewenstein approached them and asked if they had come to see
-Mrs. Seliger. One replied that they did not know her.
-
-“But,” interposed the other, with some hesitancy, “is she here?”
-
-“I can’t tell,” remarked the officer. “I was going to make some
-inquiries, but as you do not know her, it will save me the trouble.”
-
-“Say, young man,” said one of the women, who was getting interested as
-well as curious, “what is your business here?”
-
-“Well, madam, I am known here as a ‘straw-bailer.’ I go bail for all
-people who pay me well, and I am all O. K. with the police. If you want
-anything done for Mrs. Seliger, you must be very careful here. Don’t
-let the police know your object. As you are Germans, I will not charge
-you anything for my trouble, if I can do anything for you.”
-
-“Well, we will talk to you later,” they said. “Can we remain here for
-awhile?”
-
-“Oh, yes; I will take care of you so that no one will disturb you,”
-replied the officer, in a patronizing tone of voice. “By the way, when
-I came to the station this morning, I saw you standing at the corner
-talking to a gentleman with black whiskers, and he is now standing
-across the street. If he is a friend of yours, I will call him in here.”
-
-“Oh, yes,” responded the women, “he is our friend and a friend of Mr.
-and Mrs. Seliger. He is a good man.”
-
-“What is his name? I will call him in at once.”
-
-“His name is John Thielen. He lives at No. 509 North Halsted Street and
-is all right.”
-
-Officer Stift meantime had kept his eye on the individual across the
-street, with instructions not to arrest him so long as he hovered
-about the station, but, in the event of his going away any distance,
-to take him in charge. The man at no time went far from his post; he
-was too anxious to hear from the women. The moment Officer Loewenstein
-had secured the information about his identity, he posted across the
-street, and, hailing the man, said:
-
-“John, I think you have been ‘ransacking’ around here long enough. Come
-with me; the boys want to see you.”
-
-“Who are the boys?” inquired Thielen.
-
-“Capt. Schaack,” answered the officer.
-
-“I don’t want to see him or have anything to do with him.” Thielen was
-surprised as well as indignant.
-
-“Well,” said the officer, “he would like to make your acquaintance.”
-
-“You tell him that he don’t know me and I don’t know him; so what the
-d——d does he want? Good-day, I am going home.”
-
-“You must come in first and give an account of yourself.”
-
-“I am a good man; I am not afraid.”
-
-He went to the station rather reluctantly, still with an air of
-innocence and bravery. The moment he stepped inside the office, I said
-to him:
-
-“John, you are an Anarchist. You are one of the rioters. You were at
-the Haymarket meeting. You knew about the bombs. You are under arrest.”
-
-“I am no Anarchist,” responded John, rather warmly. “I am a carpenter.”
-
-“Yes,” said I, “you are both, and you live at 509 North Halsted Street.
-I have no time now to talk to you. Whenever you want to see me send
-word by the turnkey.”
-
-On the second day, John sent word that he wanted to see me. He was
-taken up into the office, and there he asked what benefit it would
-be to him if he told all he knew. He was informed that we would
-expect him to tell only the truth and not lie about any one or shield
-any one who was guilty of wrong-doing. If he did all this honestly
-and conscientiously the State would, no doubt, reward him for his
-information. Thielen assented to the proposition, but he told very
-little at this interview. He was brought up again the next day, and
-from the questions put he soon discovered that some one had been
-telling the truth about him.
-
-“Now I will tell you all I know,” he said, “and let it fall where it
-belongs. What I say I will swear to. I see every one is trying to get
-out. First I will tell you what I did myself, and then what the others
-did.”
-
-He accordingly made a long statement, but as substantially the same
-facts were brought out in the trial by other witnesses, he was never
-called on to testify. Since then Thielen has abandoned Anarchy and is a
-better man.
-
-The statement Thielen made runs as follows, and it will be noticed by
-reference to the trial proceedings that, had he been a witness, he
-would have fully corroborated the testimony given by Seliger and his
-wife. On being shown, at the station, some round lead bombs, he said:
-
- “I saw Louis Lingg have twenty-two pieces like these in his room. They
- were not all finished. I saw them when they were being cast. They
- were in halves and placed in Louis Lingg’s trunk. If that trouble
- had not occurred at McCormick’s factory that Monday, they would not
- have been finished yet, but after that trouble with the officers he
- completed them. That is, he loaded them with dynamite, ready to be
- used. I never knew of any one or heard of anybody who could make
- these bombs except Lingg. I had two of these gas-pipe bombs, loaded
- with dynamite. I got them from Lingg, and I threw them away as soon
- as I got them. There were only a few left of these long ones. There
- were seventeen pieces loaded at Seliger’s house. Bonfield had better
- look out for himself, as these bombs are for the most part made for
- him, and he will get one yet. He was shooting the people during the
- West Side car strike and at McCormick’s. I promised to give you the
- round bombs that I had, but, as I said, I threw them away and out of
- danger. I will tell you, before all these men, that these two iron
- shells now lying before me at this table I got from Lingg at his
- house, No. 442 Sedgwick Street, on May 4, 1886. He gave them to me,
- and I took them along home. They were loaded, and there was a fuse
- in each of them. This was Tuesday night, May 4, 8 o’clock. The very
- same night he also gave me those two cigar-boxes here now before me,
- filled with dynamite. He wanted me to take them and throw them in the
- alley. He said they were empty, but I saw that they were filled. They
- were too heavy to be empty. I took them home myself, together with my
- boy. We buried them under our house. The last time I saw any bombs
- was at Florus’ place, where a search was made by the police. I would
- have given up those bombs to you to-night if you had not found them.
- In these boxes is finished dynamite ready to be used. I know Seliger
- had charge of selling arms. We paid $7.00 for a revolver and $10.00
- for a gun. I saw Lingg and Seliger at Seliger’s house, Tuesday, May
- 4, at about 8 P.M., and 9:30 P.M. I saw them together at Larrabee
- Street. There were twenty-two lead bombs that I saw in Lingg’s room.
- They were made on a Sunday afternoon. Lingg, Seliger and myself made
- them. They had been cast about two weeks before Tuesday, May 4. I saw
- in a satchel in Lingg’s room about fifteen pieces of these long iron
- shells, on Tuesday, May 4. There were also some round lead bombs, and
- they were all loaded. The time I was in Lingg’s room, May 4, I saw
- one man take along with him, when he left, three round lead bombs
- loaded with dynamite, and Lingg gave those bombs to the man himself.
- I know the man, and I, John Thielen, will get them from that man and
- give them to you this evening. After what happened at the Haymarket
- on that Tuesday evening, May 4, you could not hear of any one having
- bombs in their possession. I should judge that two men more received
- from Lingg six round bombs loaded with dynamite. In Greif’s Hall,
- 54 West Lake Street, on the evening of May 3, at the meeting there,
- Lingg said to the people present that he would furnish the dynamite
- bombs if any one would throw them. I told him to throw the bombs
- himself. Then I said to Lingg that it would cost a man his life to
- throw them. Lingg replied that no man could see any one throw one of
- them. He said if necessary he would throw some. He also stated that
- if any one would come to him he would show him how to make bombs with
- dynamite. I saw Lingg and Seliger together at Thüringer Hall—Neff’s
- place—58 Clybourn Avenue, on the evening of May 4. Lingg had a
- satchel. The satchel was placed near a little passageway leading to
- the ‘gents’ closet.’ It was a gray canvas-covered satchel about two
- feet long, one foot wide and one and a half feet high. Seliger, Lingg
- and myself went away together to Clybourn Avenue. We then went up on
- Larrabee Street, at 9:30 P.M. I left Lingg and Seliger at the corner
- of Clybourn Avenue and Larrabee Street. The satchel was brought by
- Lingg to Neff’s Hall that night, and any one there could help himself
- to bombs. Lingg said to some people: ‘There are bombs in that satchel,
- and now help yourselves.’ These words were spoken in the saloon of
- Neff’s place to a crowd of armed men.”
-
-The above confession was given on the 14th of May. On the next day
-Thielen was brought face to face with Lingg—with what results the next
-chapter will show. On the 16th of May Thielen supplemented his first
-statement with additional particulars. He said:
-
- “On Tuesday, May 4, 1886, about 9:30 P.M., myself and old man Lehman
- were together on the corner of North Avenue and Larrabee Street, near
- the police station, and afterwards we went back to Neff’s Hall. Three
- men came into the saloon and said that there had been a terrible
- explosion on the West Side at the Haymarket meeting and that a great
- many were killed and wounded; that Fielden had made a speech, and a
- radical one. The police came, and a shot was fired. Some one in the
- crowd said: ‘Now, do not spare powder or lead.’ A friend of mine got
- shot through the cheek. The man works for Mr. Christal, corner of Lake
- and State Streets, in a basement—a carpenter-shop. That man stated
- that he was there at the meeting, standing near the speaker, and about
- fifteen feet away from where the bomb was thrown. The understanding
- with us when we left Neff’s Hall on that Tuesday night, May 4, was
- to make a racket that would call out the police. It was a failure
- because the West Side police did not come out any sooner to interfere
- with the meeting or the mob. The grudge we had was the score of the
- police shooting our men at McCormick’s factory. We wanted revenge.
- The order came from the International armed men or the group. I was
- at Greif’s Hall, 54 West Lake Street, May 3. I there saw a circular
- calling for revenge. I was at the meeting Monday night at Zepf’s Hall,
- and there an order was given for the armed men to go to 54 West Lake
- Street, in the basement. The pass-word to get into that meeting was ‘Y
- komme.’ I went there to the meeting. I found George Engel there, and
- he made a speech. The whole plan was then unfolded by Engel. He said
- that there would be a meeting held on Tuesday night, May 4, at the
- Haymarket, and that the North Siders should stay on the North Side,
- and there they should wait until it had started—meaning the riot
- on the West Side. Engel said that some of those who had arms should
- come to the meeting, and those who had no arms should stay away from
- the meeting at the Haymarket. At the meeting in the basement a man
- by the name of Waller was chairman. George Engel did the speaking.
- There were about fifty men present belonging to the armed sections.
- Engel explained that the plan would have to be worked in this way:
- As soon as they had commenced on the West Side, then they should
- commence on the South Side and the North Side. Engel stated that
- the signal would be a fire which would be set, and seen at Wicker
- Park, and by the noise of the shooting. That would be the signal for
- commencing, and they should all attack the police stations; should
- throw dynamite bombs into the stations, to either kill or keep the
- officers in the stations, and should shoot the horses on the patrol
- wagons to prevent the police from helping one another. Engel is the
- man who proposed this plan. Engel is the only man that gave us any
- orders. And under the orders Engel gave us that night, May 3, in that
- basement, 54 West Lake Street, we started out May 4 on the North Side
- to do harm—that is, to shoot and kill anything that opposed us. The
- word ‘Ruhe’ in the ‘Briefkasten’ was adopted at our meeting May 3. It
- was to be used as a signal word. If it should appear the next day in
- the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, then every man was to be ready with his arms
- or guns; that then the riot would commence, and they should watch for
- the signal. ‘Right and fest’ were passwords for the armed men should
- there be any fighting at McCormick’s. With the signal they should all
- come out with their bombs and arms, no matter whether it happened in
- the day or in the night. They should attack the armed officers of the
- law and the State militia. All of us armed men thought at one time
- that the police would not fight us, because they were all married
- men, and if they should fight us they would not do it so very hard.
- The plan was to call out a meeting first and have no speakers there.
- The police would then come and drive us away. They then should fire
- on the police. There were a lot of armed people at the meeting, I
- know. But the police did not interfere, so they got speakers at the
- meeting. Finally the police came out, and the mob did what they had
- agreed to do. Afterwards fault was found, and they said the North
- Siders were cowards. When Spies and others were arrested, the armed
- men all said that, should anything happen to those men, there would be
- a riot. In reference to the report about the shooting of six of our
- men at McCormick’s factory, I will say that what I saw and read in
- that circular calling for revenge made me mad at the officers. At that
- meeting Engel called on us to take revenge on the police officers,
- because they had killed six of our men. There were about seventy-five
- of us, so far as I know, on the North Side, to do the work on Tuesday
- night, May 4, and Lingg was mad because there were no more men coming
- after bombs. At Neff’s Hall Tuesday night, May 4, we all looked to
- Lingg as a leader of the North Siders. I know of no one else who could
- make bombs. Some one found fault with Lingg at Neff’s Hall on Tuesday
- night because he came so late with his bombs. Then Lingg asked why
- they had not come after the bombs. They all knew, he said, where he
- lived. Lingg was very angry. Schablinsky lives near me, and he got
- bombs from him. There were about nineteen men in the vicinity of the
- Chicago Avenue Station on the night of May 4, to attack the station
- when the police should come out on the wagons to answer a call from
- the West Side Haymarket. The men, seeing all this, lost their courage
- because the police, they said, passed them so quick, and then they
- said to one another, ‘Why should we attack and lose our own lives
- for the sake of others?’ When the wagon was gone, they saw lots of
- officers coming on foot to the station. Then the men went away. The
- North Siders, the armed men, were to meet in Neff’s Hall May 4, in the
- afternoon. I was at Thalia Hall, Northwest Side, where the Lehr und
- Wehr Verein met, on Wednesday, May 5, in the forenoon. I saw Fischer,
- and he said Spies and others had been arrested. I always knew that
- Fischer was one of the leaders in this affair—the riot. Fischer said
- the riot was a failure. It was botched, and nothing could be done any
- more. On Tuesday afternoon there was a tall young fellow at Lingg’s
- room about six o’clock. He had a smooth face and was about six feet
- tall. The tall man and Lingg were working at the bombs and dynamite.
- The tall man, I think, worked at Brunswick & Balke’s factory.”
-
-The foregoing was read to Thielen and its correctness acknowledged
-before Mr. Furthmann, the officers and myself, and his signature
-is affixed to the margin of each sheet of the paper on which it is
-written. Thielen’s stepson, William Schubert, confirmed the statement
-of his father with reference to the dynamite bombs and the cigar-boxes
-filled with dynamite, and added:
-
-“I went under the house and dug a hole in the ground, and father and
-myself put those things in the hole and then covered them up.”
-
-ABOUT the time of Thielen’s arrest Officers Hoffman and Schuettler ran
-across FRANZ LORENZ on North Avenue near Sedgwick Street, in the very
-stronghold of Anarchy, and as the man seemed to be suffering from an
-over-dose of Anarchy and liquor, they took him to the station. This
-was on the 10th of May. He was a German, 48 years of age, and lived
-with a man named Jaeger, at No. 31 Burling Street. He did not seem
-to be known much in Socialist circles, and no one seemed specially
-interested in him. He was locked up at the Larrabee Street Station, and
-for four days he was as stupid as an owl. He would eat and drink very
-little, but managed to sleep every day. On the sixth day he was taken
-to the Chicago Avenue Station and remained there two days longer before
-he recovered his normal condition. When brought into the office, he
-told me that he had been drinking very hard, and, being asked for the
-reason, he said that he had attended many Anarchist meetings, had heard
-all the speeches and had learned that soon they would all have plenty
-of money. Whenever such assurances were given, it always, he said,
-made him feel so good that he would go and get one more drink. Between
-speeches and drinks, he said, he had come near dying. He assured me
-that if he was released he would go right to work and give Anarchy and
-all meetings a wide berth. On being questioned as to his acquaintances,
-he said he knew “all the boys”—the leading Anarchists—and had admired
-them warmly.
-
-“I heard Lingg speak,” said he, “and he is a good one. I tell you he is
-a radical.”
-
-“I suppose,” said I, “you took two drinks on his speech?”
-
-“Yes, I took more than that,” replied Lorenz. “The last time I heard
-Lingg speak in Zepf’s Hall, I went and got drunk. On May 4, I heard all
-the boys speak on the wagon at the Haymarket, but I did not stay there
-until it was over. I went into a saloon a block away from there and got
-drunk in no time, and when I woke up the next morning I was in bed in
-one of the cheap lodging-houses.”
-
-Not knowing anything definite, he was released by the State’s Attorney,
-and he has not since been heard from. He has probably retired to some
-other city to renew his drunks at Anarchist headquarters on the free
-beer usually provided.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIV.
-
- Completing the Case—Looking for Lingg—The Bomb-maker’s Birth—Was
- he of Royal Blood?—A Romantic Family History—Lingg and his
- Mother—Captured Correspondence—A Desperate and Dangerous
- Character—Lingg Disappears—A Faint Trail Found—Looking for Express
- Wagon 1999—The Number that Cost the Fugitive his Life—A Desperado
- at Bay—Schuettler’s Death Grapple—Lingg in the Shackles—His
- Statement at the Station—The Transfer to the Jail—Lingg’s Love
- for Children—The Identity of his Sweetheart—An Interview with
- Hubner—His Confession—The Meeting at Neff’s Place
-
-
-WITH the information already obtained we had managed to secure a
-pretty clear insight into the diabolical plots of the “revolutionary
-groups.” It was apparent that Chicago had been regarded by Anarchists
-everywhere as the head center of Socialism in America, and that it had
-been decided that here should be the first test of strength in the
-establishment of the new social order. Any reasoning, sentient being
-ought to have seen the utter folly of such an undertaking in the very
-midst of millions of liberty-loving, law-abiding citizens, but these
-Anarchists, hypnotized as they were by the plausible sophisms and the
-inflammatory writings of unscrupulous men bent on notoriety, could view
-it in no other light than as a grand stride towards their goal. As boys
-are led astray by yellow-covered literature, these poor fools were
-crazed by Anarchistic vaporings. Day or night, sleeping or waking, the
-beauties of the new social order to be inaugurated by the revolution
-were continually before their minds.
-
-It was clear that such people were capable of desperate deeds, and that
-it was not only necessary to bring to justice the instigators of the
-massacre, but to show their deluded followers the inevitable result of
-carrying out ideas repugnant to our free institutions and inconsistent
-with common sense and right.
-
-With so many facts before us, we redoubled our efforts to capture every
-dangerous Anarchist leader in the city, and the next one to fall into
-the toils was no less a personage than the bomb-maker, Louis Lingg.
-
-This notorious Anarchist came to Chicago when about twenty-one years
-of age. He had learned the carpenter’s trade in Germany, and when not
-engaged in spreading Anarchy’s doctrines, he pursued that calling to
-liquidate his board bills and personal expenses. He was a tall, lithe,
-well-built, handsome fellow, and, while not of a nervous disposition,
-his nature was so active and aggressive that he never appeared at
-rest. Sleeping or waking, Anarchy and the most effective methods of
-establishing it were uppermost in his thoughts. By reason of his very
-restlessness it was not difficult to trace him in Socialistic circles
-when on his tours of agitation, and it was noticeable, too, that he
-never remained at any one point for any regular length of time. His
-make-up was a queer combination of nerve, energy and push. His mind
-seemed always weighted with some great burden. Perhaps there was a
-reason for this not alone in his radical beliefs, but in his blood and
-birth.
-
-[Illustration: LOUIS LINGG, THE BOMB-MAKER.
-
-From a Photograph taken by the Police.]
-
-Louis Lingg was born in Schwetzingen, Germany, on the 9th day of
-September, 1864, and, while his childhood was spent pleasantly enough,
-a cloud gradually gathered which overshadowed his life and embittered
-him against society. His mother, at the age of eighteen or twenty, had
-worked as a servant, and, possessing a very handsome face, a shapely
-figure and attractive manners, had caught the eye of a Hessian soldier
-in the dragoons. This man was young, dashing and handsome, and mutual
-admiration soon ripened into undue intimacy. One day the soldier left
-town on short notice—whether because of military orders or through
-his own inclination is not known. It is certain, however, that she
-never heard of him from that day, and that a son was born to her out of
-wedlock. That son was Louis Lingg. The name of that dragoon has never
-been made public, but it is believed with reason that Lingg was born of
-royal blood.
-
-Several years after her escapade the mother wedded a lumber-worker
-named Link. Louis was then four years old. When young Lingg had
-arrived at the age of twelve, his foster-father, while engaged in his
-occupation of floating logs down the river Main, contracted heart
-disease, through over-exposure, and died. The widow was left in poor
-circumstances, and she was obliged to do washing and ironing in order
-to support herself and family, a daughter named Elise having been born
-since her marriage.
-
-Louis, in the course of years, grew strong, robust and muscular. He
-had received a fair education, and, desiring to relieve his mother’s
-burdens as much as possible, he learned the carpenter’s trade under the
-tutelage of a man named Louis Wuermell in Mannheim. He remained there
-until May 13, 1879, and then, quitting his apprenticeship, proceeded
-to Kehl, on the Rhine. There he found employment with a man named
-Schmidt until the fall of 1882. He next went to Freiburg, in the Grand
-Duchy of Baden, where he worked for several contractors. At this place
-he began to change his employment frequently, and his mother, learning
-of it, wrote several letters, in which she advised him against such a
-course and admonished him to become a good man, to save his money and
-keep out of bad company, so that he might become useful to himself and
-to society and make her proud of him. But the son did not heed this
-motherly advice. He fell in with free-thinkers who were set against
-religion in particular and against society in general, and soon began
-reading and absorbing Socialistic literature. It was not long before he
-became an avowed Socialist, attending Socialistic meetings and eagerly
-listening to all the speeches.
-
-[Illustration: LINGG’S TRUNK.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-Finally young Lingg grew weary of Baden and wandered to the republic of
-Switzerland. Here he spent the fall of 1883 at Luzerne, working at his
-trade with a man named Rickley, but his roving nature soon brought him
-to Zurich.
-
-It was there that he met the famous Anarchist Reinsdorf, and for this
-man he speedily formed a warm attachment. While in Zurich Lingg also
-affiliated with a German Socialistic society called “Eintracht,” and
-threw his whole soul into the cause. After a time he turned up at
-Aarau, but here he was unable to find employment and had to write
-home for assistance. The mother loved her son dearly, despite his
-wanderings, and he did not appeal to her in vain. She wrote him
-enclosing a small sum of money to help him bridge over his idleness,
-and at the same time informed him that she had again married (August
-6, 1884), her second husband’s name being Christian Gaddum. This man
-had been a neighbor of the family at Mannheim for years. In writing to
-her son, Mrs. Link indicated that the marriage was not prompted by love
-or admiration, but came about on account of her feeble health and her
-desire to secure support for herself and her daughter. Louis’ mother
-had frequently expressed a wish that he visit home, but, as the boy had
-now reached the age for military service under the German Government,
-he concluded to remain away, and in casting about for a permanent
-location he decided to emigrate to America. He presented the matter to
-his mother. At first she opposed it, but finally gave her consent.
-With what money he secured from his mother and from his friends, he
-proceeded to Havre, France, in June, 1885, and boarded a steamer for
-the United States.
-
-After the wayward boy had left home, he and his mother corresponded
-regularly. She always expressed deep solicitude for his welfare, and
-when he was in financial distress she would write him: “Dear Louis, I
-will share with you as long as I have a bite in the house.” All her
-letters breathed encouragement; she sent money frequently, although at
-times in need herself, and concluded invariably by giving good counsel
-and urging Louis to write her soon and often. When Lingg had arrived in
-the United States the fond mother wrote him that she would soon be able
-to send him money enough to come home on a visit.
-
-That Lingg had great love and affection for his mother is evidenced by
-the fact that he had carefully preserved all her letters from the time
-of his leaving home until he died a suicide’s death. From these letters
-it appears also that Lingg had several lady admirers at home.
-
-[Illustration: COILS OF FUSE.
-
-Found in the secret bottom of Lingg’s Trunk.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-There were many expressions, such as “kindest regards” or “heartiest
-respects,” conveyed to him by his mother on behalf of this or that
-lady friend. Another fact made apparent by the letters was that there
-was some great burden on his mind. It would seem that he had plied
-his mother with many questions respecting his birth. That seemed a
-dark spot in his life. He wanted a solution as well as satisfaction.
-This worried the mother, but she always managed to give him some
-consolation, saying she “would guard against everything” and have “all
-things set right.” In one of her letters occurs the following:
-
- As regards your birth, it grieves me that you mention it. While
- you did not know it before, I will now say that you were born in
- Schwetzingen on the 9th day of September, 1864, at your grandfather’s
- house, and baptized. Where your father is I don’t know. My father
- did not want me to marry him because he did not desire me to follow
- him into Hessia, and as he had no real estate he could not marry me
- in Schwetzingen according to our laws. He left and went, I do not
- know where. If you want a certificate of birth you can get it at
- Schwetzingen any time. If you make a proper presentation everything
- will be all right, but don’t hold on six months.
-
-The original of the above, which is in German and which was found in
-Lingg’s trunk, had no signature. Another letter regarding his paternity
-reads as follows, showing that Lingg’s mind had been sorely distressed
-over the matter:
-
- MANNHEIM, June 29, 1884.
-
- _Dear Louis_:—You must have waited a long time for an answer. John
- said to Elise that I had not yet replied to your last letter. The
- officials of the court you cannot push. For my part I would have been
- better pleased if they had hurried up, because it would have saved
- you a great deal of time. But now I am glad that it has finally been
- accomplished. After a great deal of toil, I put myself out to go to
- Schwetzingen and see about the certificate of your birth. I know you
- will be glad and satisfied to learn that you carry the name of Lingg.
- This is better than to have children with two different names. He had
- you entered as a legitimate child before we got married. I think this
- was the best course, so that you will not worry and reproach me. Such
- a certificate of birth is no disgrace, and you can show it. I felt
- offended that you took no notice of the “confirmation.” Elise had
- everything nice. Her only wish was to receive some small token from
- Louis, which would have pleased her more than anything else. When she
- came from church, the first thing she asked for was as to a letter
- or card from you, but we had to be contented with the thought that
- perhaps you did not think of us. Now it is all past.... I was very
- much troubled that it has taken so long [to procure certificate], but
- I could not help it. I have kept my promise, and you cannot reproach
- me. Everything is all right, and we are all well and working. I
- hope to hear the same from you. It would not be so bad if you wrote
- oftener. I have had to do a great many things for you the last
- eighteen years, but with a mother you can do as you please—neglect
- her and never answer her letters.
-
-The certificate sent him reads as follows:
-
-
-CERTIFICATE OF BIRTH.
-
- No. 9,681.
-
- Ludwig Link, legitimate son of Philipp Friedrich Link and of Regina
- Von Hoefler, was born at Schwetzingen, on the ninth (9th) day of
- September, 1864. This is certified according to the records of the
- Evangelical Congregation of Schwetzingen.
-
- SCHWETZINGEN, May 24, 1884.
-
- [SEAL.]
-
- County Court: CLURICHT.
-
-To the letter of Mrs. Link, given above, no signature appears, but that
-is not strange. What seems more singular is that, whenever her letters
-were signed, they closed with simply “Your Mother.” Another thing
-appears from the above, and that is that at home Louis’ name was Link.
-Other documents, some of them legal, also found in his trunk, show that
-his name was formerly written Link. His name must have been changed
-shortly before leaving Europe or just after reaching the United States.
-
-It would seem that, with such a certificate, Lingg would have
-been measurably happy, but the fact of his illegitimacy, despite
-court records, rankled in his blood. The thought of it haunted
-him continually, and no doubt it helped to make him in religion a
-free-thinker, in theory a free-lover, and in practice an implacable
-enemy of existing society. His mother’s letters showed that she wished
-him to be a good man, and it was no fault of her early training that
-he subsequently became an Anarchist. She still lives at the old place,
-and when Lieut. Baus, of the Chicago police force, was on a visit to
-Mannheim, some time ago, he called on her and found her very pleasant
-and affable in her manner, with a strong, robust constitution, and
-still a good-looking woman.
-
-No sooner had Lingg reached Chicago than he looked up the haunts of
-Socialists and Anarchists. He made their acquaintance, learned the
-strength of the order in the city as well as in the United States, and
-was highly gratified. At that time the organization was not only strong
-in numbers, but it fairly “smelt to heaven” in its rankness of doctrine.
-
-Lingg was not required to look around very hard for the haunts of
-Anarchy, for a blind man could plainly see, feel and smell the disease
-in the air. Lingg arrived here only eight or nine months before the
-eventful 4th of May, but in that short time he succeeded in making
-himself the most popular man in Anarchist circles. No one had created
-such a _furore_ since 1872, when Socialism had its inception in the
-city.
-
-[Illustration: COMPOSITION BOMB.
-
-Found in Lingg’s room, ready for use.]
-
-The first organization to which Lingg attached himself was the
-International Carpenters’ Union No. 1. Every member of this society
-was a rabid Anarchist. All of them had supplied themselves with arms,
-and a majority of them drilled in military tactics. Lingg had not been
-connected with the organization long before he became a recognized
-leader and made speeches that enthused them all. While young in years,
-they recognized in him a worthy leader, and the fact that he had sat at
-the very feet of Reinsdorf as a pupil elevated him in their estimation.
-This distinction, added to his personal magnetism, made him the subject
-for praise and comment, which pleased his vanity and spurred his
-ambition.
-
-Men longer in the service and more familiar with the local and
-general phases of Anarchy at times reluctantly yielded to him where
-points of policy were at stake. No committee was regarded as complete
-without him, and this brought him in contact with August Spies and
-Albert Parsons. He was often at the office of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_,
-which was the headquarters of the governing body, with reports and
-suggestions, and by his admirable tact soon won their esteem and good
-graces. He there also made the acquaintance of Fielden, Fischer,
-Schnaubelt, Rau, Neebe, Schwab, and of some of the more noted women in
-the Anarchist movement. He was frequently complimented for his work
-and became quite a favorite with the ladies.
-
-When Lingg first became actively identified with the party of
-assassination and annihilation here, he was cautious and secretive.
-He knew that secrecy in the old country was not only essential to
-success, but absolutely requisite for self-preservation. He supposed
-that the same sort of tactics prevailed here, but when he saw how bold,
-aggressive and open were the utterances of the Anarchists in Chicago
-and elsewhere, he came to believe that the government and the municipal
-administration existed simply through their sufferance. At first,
-whenever Lingg was doubtful on any point, he would seek knowledge and
-inspiration from Spies, and it was through Spies that he gained his
-information of the movement in the United States. They became firm
-friends, and Lingg implicitly believed everything Spies told him, and
-looked, as he informed the police officers, upon every line published
-in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ as absolutely true and correct. While not
-able to read English, he regarded all papers printed in that language,
-as well as in the German, not of the Socialistic faith, as published
-for the benefit of capitalists and millionaires. They were all, in his
-estimation, stupendous frauds, and existed simply because they printed
-such lies as pleased the rich and those in power. Being a man of
-sincere convictions and earnest zeal, Lingg won the confidence of his
-confrères and always knew just what was going to be done and how it was
-to be accomplished. He was a faithful ally and was invariably counted
-upon to take a leading part in all the movements of the reds. How he
-was regarded by his fellows in this respect is shown in the fact that
-to him was intrusted the task of organizing the people of the Southwest
-Side and directing their plans against the McCormick factory.
-
-[Illustration: CAST-IRON AND LARGE GAS-PIPE BOMBS.
-
-From Photographs.
-
-The long bomb in center weighs five lbs., and was thrown at a patrol
-wagon on Blue Island Avenue, but failed to explode. The round bombs
-were lined on the inside with a coating of cement saturated with a
-deadly poison.]
-
-His communications, which I have given in a prior chapter, to the
-Bohemians and others in that locality, show that he was bent on riot
-and destruction, and in that mad and frenzied movement he had the
-hearty coöperation of the colleagues who had with him concocted it at
-the office of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. They alone knew of it, and worked
-out the details at a meeting held near the factory on the 3d of May.
-Lingg, being braver and more daring than the other leaders, was the
-chosen instrument to inspire the men to an attack upon the works, and
-he subsequently claimed that he had been clubbed by the police during
-the affray.
-
-During the turbulent and momentous days preceding May 4, Lingg’s
-comrades saddled upon him a great responsibility, but he never
-flinched. On the contrary, he proved the mettle of his make-up, not
-only volunteering to carry out certain ends he himself outlined, but
-cheerfully assuming every task imposed upon him and always willing to
-take all responsibility for the consequences. He was found on the North
-Side actively engaged in calling Anarchists to arms, on the Southwest
-Side endeavoring to form a compact body of fighters in view of the near
-approach of May 1; he was busy at Seliger’s house constructing bombs,
-and at meetings giving instructions how to make infernal machines. His
-work was never finished, and never neglected. At one time he taught his
-followers how to handle the bombs so that they would not explode in
-their hands, and showed the time and distance for throwing the missiles
-with deadly effect; at another he drilled those who were to do the
-throwing, instructing them how to surround themselves with friends so
-that detection by an enemy would be impossible.
-
-[Illustration: GAS-PIPE BOMBS.
-
-Found in Lingg’s Room. From a Photograph.]
-
-All these things kept him busy, but his whole soul was in the work. He
-was not alone a bomb-maker; he also constituted himself an agent to
-sell arms. He sold a great many large revolvers and rifles. This is
-shown by a note found in his trunk, addressed to Abraham Hermann. It
-reads as follows:
-
- _Friend_:—I sold three revolvers during the last two days, and I will
- sell three more to-day (Wednesday). I sell them from $6.00 to $7.80
- apiece.
-
- Respectfully and best regards,
- L. LINGG.
-
-At this time Hermann was the general agent in this city for buying and
-selling arms to the Anarchists. Engel had been an agent at one time,
-but the men claimed that he had fleeced them, and he was dropped.
-
-Lingg thus proved himself a very useful man to the order. He could make
-an effective speech; he was a good organizer; he could make bombs with
-dynamite whose power had been enhanced manifold through his skill;
-he would carry hand-bills, and he would do anything to help along the
-cause. In truth, he was the shiftiest as well as the most dangerous
-Anarchist in all Chicago.
-
-[Illustration: GAS-PIPE BOMBS, WITHOUT FUSE.
-
-Found in Lingg’s Room.]
-
-Having been a pupil of Reinsdorf, Lingg was an opponent of all
-peaceable agitation. He believed in organizing armed forces and
-conquering everything by main force. He had no love at all for those
-who talked peaceable agitation; he called them fools and cranks. Of
-this class were the old-time Socialists, and he looked upon them with
-haughty disdain. He found better material to work on for helping him in
-the revolution he proposed, and, although he molded many an Anarchist
-out of the softer clay of humanity, still he was not satisfied, but
-complained continually that they did not move fast enough, did not take
-hold with celerity and failed to develop such heroic qualities as he
-wished to see. The restless spirit within him, his implacable hatred
-of society, tinged with the bitterness of his doubtful birth, and his
-strong impulses manifested themselves in all his acts and utterances.
-An illustration of these traits is the impatience he exhibited over the
-failure of trusted men to come early to the house of Seliger to secure
-bombs on the evening of May 4, and his departure with the bombs to
-Neff’s Hall to have them speedily distributed. Another example is found
-in the bitter reproaches he heaped on those who had failed to carry out
-their part after the inauguration of the Haymarket riot. His hopes, his
-ambitions, had been set on the successful consummation of that plot. It
-was to have overthrown all government and all law, which he declared
-were good enough for old women to prevent them from quarreling, but
-needless for men of intelligence and independence.
-
-For four weeks prior to the 4th of May he was out of work, but he
-was by no means idle. He worked early and late attending meetings
-and making bombs, so that, the moment the signal for the general
-revolution was given, every member of the armed sections might be
-supplied with the destructive agent. He wanted the whole city blown
-up, every capitalist wiped off the face of the earth; and he and his
-trusted comrades, Sunday after Sunday, in anticipation of the uprising,
-practiced in the suburbs with rifles and 44-caliber revolvers.
-Lingg became the most expert of them all and was looked upon by his
-associates as a crack shot.
-
-Lingg’s money and time were freely given to the purchase of arms and
-to the manufacture of dynamite bombs. His room at Seliger’s became
-a veritable arsenal, and, the more deadly “stuff” he brought into
-the house, the more pleased he became, and the more bitter grew the
-enmity of Mrs. Seliger toward him. How careful and elaborate were
-his preparations for the coming day is not only shown by the deadly
-implements found in his room, but is evidenced in the statements of
-his trusted lieutenants. These statements—made to me by men anxious
-to save themselves, prostrate suppliants for mercy, whose every
-material revelation was corroborative of the others, although given
-independently and under different circumstances and without knowledge
-of what others had said—unmistakably pointed to a most gigantic
-conspiracy. Read any of these statements, and no doubt can exist that,
-had it not been for the hand of Providence on the night of May 4,
-thousands of people would have been killed and vast districts of the
-city laid waste. Lingg expected it as certainly as he believed in his
-own existence at the time, and his intimate comrades bent all their
-energy in the direction of carrying out the villainous plot.
-
-[Illustration: UNFINISHED GAS-PIPE BOMBS.
-
-Found in Lingg’s Dinner-Box. From a Photograph.]
-
-But “the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley,” and the
-Haymarket riot proved a most bitter disappointment. Lingg was fairly
-beside himself with chagrin and mortification. The one consuming desire
-of his life had utterly and signally failed of realization. He clearly
-foresaw dire trouble in consequence of the attempt, and his mind was
-bewildered with perplexities as to his future movements. On the night
-of May 4, about 11:30 o’clock, when the full truth of the failure of
-the riot had flashed upon him, he stood in front of No. 58 Clybourn
-Avenue, not knowing exactly whither to turn for refuge from possible
-arrest, and, while in this dilemma, he broached the subject to Seliger,
-finally asking to be permitted to remain at the house over night until
-next morning, when he promised he would move away. He was without a
-cent in his pocket, having squandered all his money in the manufacture
-of bombs, confident of plenty when he and his fellows had secured
-control of the city. Seliger, knowing his condition, finally consented.
-
-The next morning came, but Lingg manifested no disposition to carry out
-his promise.
-
-“I would move from here now,” said he, very adroitly, “but if I do so
-it would create suspicion.”
-
-Seliger saw the force of the argument, and, being implicated also in
-the manufacture of bombs, shrewdly concluded to let him remain until
-matters quieted down. Lingg accordingly remained until the 7th of May.
-On this date officers began to appear in the vicinity, looking into
-the haunts and resorts of Anarchists. This startled Lingg, and, lest
-they might pounce down upon his room, he decided to speedily vacate the
-premises. He did move, but with such haste that he left his implements
-of destruction and nearly all his personal effects behind him. When the
-house was finally searched the “bird had flown.”
-
-I sent out eight good detectives, and kept them working night and day
-looking for the bomb-maker, but no one could furnish a clue. It was
-learned that Lingg had a sweetheart, and her movements were closely
-watched. The houses of his known friends were also watched, and all his
-acquaintances shadowed. Anarchists who had hopes of saving their own
-necks if he could be found were pressed into the service, and decoy
-letters were sent out. Money was even held out as an inducement to
-divulge his hiding-place, but all to no purpose.
-
-These expedients were kept up until the 13th of May, when I sent for
-Mrs. Seliger to ascertain where Lingg had last been employed and secure
-the addresses of all his friends. Nearly all the places she mentioned
-had been visited, but she spoke of one place that seemed to me to hold
-out some promise of a successful result. Mrs. Seliger stated that there
-was a place near the river, where there was a bridge that she had heard
-spoken of, and that Lingg had said to her husband that he would call
-on a friend of his near that place, on Canal Street. This place I at
-once recognized as being only a few blocks from the shop where Lingg
-had worked. Mrs. Seliger further stated that her husband had told her
-that this shop was only a few blocks from a Catholic church. All this
-I regarded as a good clue, and Officers Loewenstein and Schuettler
-were promptly detailed to follow it up—first going, however, to a
-planing-mill on Twelfth and South Clark Streets to ascertain if Lingg
-had ever worked there.
-
-The officers carried out these instructions, and a few hours later they
-returned to the office, their faces wreathed in smiles. They informed
-me that they had secured a clue, that only a few days before Lingg had
-sent there for his tool chest, and that they had learned of a man who
-had noticed the number of the express wagon that had carted it away.
-But this man, they said, they would be unable to see until the next day.
-
-Bright and early the next morning the officers started out with new
-instructions and visited the house of the person who had so singularly
-taken note of the express number. They found him, and he gave them all
-the information he possessed. About eleven o’clock the officers found
-the residence of the expressman, whose name was Charles Keperson and
-whose wagon was numbered 1,999. He lived at No. 1095 Robey Street. The
-officers rapped on the door, and a little girl about ten years of age
-answered. On being asked after her father she informed them that he was
-not at home. They inquired if her father had not brought in a trunk.
-She replied that her father had brought no trunk into their house, but
-he had hauled a tool chest from down town, which he had taken to a
-house on an adjoining street. She pointed out a little cottage at No.
-80 Ambrose Street, and on being asked if she had seen her father take
-it there she answered:
-
-“Oh, yes, it was a gray-colored box, and I heard my father say it
-belonged to Louis Lingg.”
-
-[Illustration: LINGG’S REVOLVER.
-
-Cocked as found when wrested from Lingg’s hands after the struggle with
-Officer Schuettler.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-The officers went over to the cottage and learned that a family named
-Klein lived there. Schuettler knocked on the door, and Mrs. Klein
-responded. He asked if Louis was at home. She replied that he was not
-and that he had gone out with some gentlemen about nine o’clock. She
-inquired what he desired to see Louis for, and Schuettler told her
-that he owed Louis $3 and had come to pay him. He further informed
-her that they were good friends, both carpenters, and belonged to the
-same union. She inquired after his name, and Schuettler responded
-that it was “Franz Lorenz.” Lorenz was a well known Anarchist, and
-it was thought the name would prove effective in winning the woman’s
-confidence. She said that her father lived only a short distance from
-the house, and she would step over and ask him if he knew where Louis
-had gone. This conversation had taken place in a rear room of the
-house. The woman excused herself, and ostensibly started for the house
-of her father. She passed into the front room and slammed the outer
-door. Loewenstein stepped out of the back room to see if she had really
-gone, but he saw no Mrs. Klein. At the same time he noticed Lingg’s
-chest standing on the rear porch, covered with a piece of carpet.
-Loewenstein returned, and he had hardly joined Schuettler when Mrs.
-Klein stepped in. She said she had seen her father, but that he did not
-know where Louis had gone. The officers were suspicious, of course,
-but they said nothing, simply withdrawing with the assurance that they
-would call again and see Lingg some other time.
-
-After leaving, the officers walked for two blocks and talked over
-the mysterious actions of Mrs. Klein. They concluded to go back and
-search the house. They secured entrance from the rear, and, while
-Loewenstein guarded the front door, Schuettler entered the rear room.
-There he found a man smoothly shaven. Lingg had been described as
-having chin whiskers. Schuettler stepped up to the man, however, and
-asked his name. In an instant Lingg—for it was none other—whipped out
-a 44-caliber revolver, which he had had concealed in front inside his
-trousers, and, with the glare of a tiger held at bay, he turned on the
-officer. Schuettler saw the movement, and, quick as a flash, sprang
-on Lingg and seized the weapon. They clinched, and while the one was
-struggling to save himself and secure his prisoner, the other was
-bent upon killing the officer and effecting his own escape. Both were
-strong, muscular and active, and the cottage shook from foundation to
-rafters as the bodies of the contestants swayed in the equal contest.
-Lingg quivered with rage and aroused himself to his utmost to vanquish
-the foe. He realized that the result meant life or death. At one moment
-his revolver was pressed close to the officer’s breast, and with a
-superhuman effort the Anarchist tried to send a bullet on its fatal
-mission. But Schuettler had a firm grasp of the cylinder and wrenched
-the weapon aside. In another second, while the mastery was still
-undecided, Lingg, by a quick movement of his hand, brought the revolver
-square into the officer’s face. At that moment, however, Schuettler
-managed to get Lingg’s thumb between his teeth. The Anarchist made a
-sudden dash to release his thumb and succeeded in breaking loose.
-
-All this took place in less time than it takes to tell it. The moment
-Lingg was foot-loose, Schuettler found time to shout for his companion,
-who had stood on the outside in front of the house, all unconscious
-of the short but desperate struggle within. Loewenstein did not stop
-a moment to determine what was wanted, but sprang into the room. He
-entered just at the moment when Schuettler had bounded after Lingg
-on his release and found him holding Lingg tightly by the throat
-with one hand and the revolver with the other. Loewenstein saw the
-situation at a glance, and, raising his loaded cane, brought it down
-on the Anarchist’s head. This stunned Lingg, and he was overpowered.
-The revolver was wrenched from his hand and placed on a table, and
-the officers adjusted the handcuffs. These had no sooner been placed
-in position than Lingg made a sudden dash for his revolver. But the
-detectives were too quick for him.
-
-Lingg’s teeth gnashed with rage, and his eyes fairly bulged from their
-sockets with savage scorn. The arch-Anarchist looked the picture of
-desperation. He had been vanquished, however, and he saw that further
-resistance was useless.
-
-Mrs. Klein had meanwhile been an excited spectator, but before she
-could collect her thoughts and decide what course to take under the
-circumstances, Lingg was in the power of the law. Seeing this, she
-hurried out. It was not long before the whole neighborhood heard of
-what had happened, and, as the officers started to take their prisoner
-to the Hinman Street Station, a true-hearted Irish-American came up,
-accosted them and said:
-
-“My dear boys, your lives are in danger here. Nearly every one who
-lives about here is an Anarchist. Wait for a minute, and I will give
-you protection.”
-
-[Illustration: A DESPERATE STRUGGLE. LOUIS LINGG’S ARREST.]
-
-He disappeared, but meanwhile the street had become crowded with an
-excited populace. He soon returned with a double-barreled shot-gun,
-ready for action in case of emergency. No sooner had he placed himself
-at the disposal of the officers than a loyal Bohemian-American came
-running across the street, and said:
-
-“Officers, I will also protect you against this mob.”
-
-He had in his hand a large navy revolver, and he showed that he was
-ready to assist the officers, even at the cost of his own life.
-
-Schuettler and Loewenstein, under this volunteer escort, marched Lingg
-to the Hinman Street Station, reaching there about twelve o’clock.
-Sergeant Enwright was in charge of the station that day, and, lest
-any attempt at rescue might be made, he called in all his officers
-and gave them instructions as to what should be done to protect the
-station. He also ordered out the patrol wagon, and detailed five
-officers to accompany Schuettler and Loewenstein to the Klein residence
-to investigate the premises. They made a thorough search, but could
-discover nothing except a lot of cartridges. They also investigated
-the houses at Nos. 64, 66, 68 and 70 on the same street, all occupied
-by Anarchists, but they found nothing. The presence of the police,
-however, speedily cleared the street, and all the low-browed,
-shaggy-haired followers of the red flag hunted their holes. Schuettler
-and Loewenstein then sent for the Chicago Avenue patrol wagon and
-transferred Lingg to new quarters at that station. On the way Lingg
-continually ground his teeth, and, looking savagely at Schuettler and
-turning slightly towards Loewenstein, hissed out:
-
-“If I had only got half a chance at that fellow, he would be a dead man
-now.”
-
-The officers of the Hinman Street Station did not relax their vigilance
-over Ambrose Street, and one day some molds made of clay were found in
-the alley in the rear of the Klein residence, proving that Lingg had
-not abandoned hope, but was getting ready to prepare a new supply of
-bombs for a future attack.
-
-When Lingg had been ushered into the office of the East Chicago Avenue
-Station, the shackles were removed from his wrists, and he was given a
-chair. He became quiet in his new surroundings, and grudgingly answered
-a few simple questions. His thumb giving him considerable pain, some
-liniment was procured from a neighboring drug store, and the wound
-dressed. He was then assigned to an apartment below, and left to his
-own thoughts.
-
-In the afternoon he was brought up to the office.
-
-“What is your name?” I asked him.
-
-“Lingg,” curtly replied the prisoner.
-
-“Ah, yes; but how do you spell it?”
-
-“L-i-n-gg,” came the spelling.
-
-“Yes; but give us your full name.”
-
-“It is Louis or Ludwig Lingg. I am twenty-one years and eight months
-old.”
-
-He was asked a great many questions. Some he refused to answer, and
-others he answered promptly and with pleasure, especially when they
-touched on killing capitalists and capitalistic editors, as he called
-them. He had no use, he said, for these people, and thought that
-if they could be taken away suddenly the world would be satisfied
-and happy. He remarked that he did not blame the police very much,
-because they were workingmen themselves, but there was one officer, he
-said, that he perfectly despised. It was John Bonfield. If he could
-have blown him to atoms, he thought, he might become reconciled to
-a great many things as they then existed. He finally gave to me and
-to Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann, in the presence of Officers
-Stift, Rehm, Loewenstein, Schuettler and Hoffman, a brief account of
-himself and his movements, but he said that he would rather die than
-give information against any one. He did not deny what others had
-stated about him, but further he would not go. He was informed by Mr.
-Furthmann how strict the law was against conspiracies, but the only
-answer he vouchsafed was that the laws would not remain in force much
-longer; that the working people would make laws to suit themselves,
-and they would not allow any higher power to dictate to them. For
-his own part, he could work and was willing to work, he said, but he
-wanted his share of the profits. He thought the police had made fools
-of themselves in the movement the Anarchists had inaugurated. If they
-had only known enough, he said, to have held back, the capitalists
-would have been forced to submit; but now the police had spoiled their
-own chances for gain for years to come. They would be sorry for it, he
-added. If the Anarchists had won in Chicago, he further stated, all the
-other large cities would have fallen into line, and wretchedness and
-poverty would have been banished forever.
-
-[Illustration: IRON BOLT FOUND IN LINGG’S TRUNK. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.
-
-Designed, according to Lingg’s own statement, to connect the halves of
-a composition bomb weighing twelve pounds. “The Haymarket bomb,” said
-he, “killed six. The one which I was going to make with that bolt would
-kill six dozen.” Four such bolts were found.]
-
-After Lingg had been taken away from the Ambrose Street house, Gustav
-and Kate Klein became anxious about their friend. They traced him to
-the Chicago Avenue Station and called there later in the day, after
-his arrest. When they reached the office I questioned them, although
-they were not under arrest, and they answered without hesitancy. They
-stated that Lingg had come to their house on the 7th of May, and had
-remained indoors nearly all the time up to his arrest that day—May 14.
-He had only been out twice to secure books from some neighbors, and he
-had felt measurably safe in the locality. This section, it was found,
-as already stated, was a hotbed of Anarchy, and as the neighbors knew
-the man, they were anxious to protect him. It had even been whispered
-in the locality that he was the one who had thrown the bomb at the
-Haymarket, but, knowing that he was a man not to be trifled with, and
-out of sympathy for the cause, none would betray him. He could not have
-selected a better place for concealment. Mr. Klein had known him for
-some time and had noticed a great change in him since the Haymarket
-bloodshed.
-
-“He was always cheerful,” he said, “up to that time, but since then he
-acted very strangely. He would not converse with any one, but always
-sought to be alone. Whenever any one came near the house he was uneasy.”
-
-“I noticed that too,” interposed Mrs. Klein. “He always used to fool
-and play with me before the Haymarket event, and was good company, but
-since then he was a changed man altogether.”
-
-Mrs. Klein described the scene of Lingg’s arrest, and told how at
-first she had regarded it simply as fun between two friends, and how
-frightened she had become when she discovered that it was a serious
-affair. She also described the terrible look which came over Lingg’s
-face when he found himself powerless to fire the revolver.
-
-I subsequently thought it best to bring Lingg face to face with one
-of his former comrades, who had furnished information about him, and
-this was accordingly done. The moment he was brought into the presence
-of the informer his face assumed a terrible scowl, but he remained
-obstinately silent.
-
-One day Lingg was again brought into the office, and I questioned him
-as to the real strength of the Anarchists in the city and country.
-
-He smiled and said:
-
-“Don’t you know that yet? This I cannot answer, but I will tell you
-that you only know the noisy fellows. The real Anarchists in this city
-or country you do not know yet, because they are not ready to take
-hold, but you will be taken by surprise unless you die soon. I only
-hope that I will live long enough to see this hidden power show its
-strength.”
-
-During the time Lingg remained at the station his hand was regularly
-attended to, he was treated very kindly, had plenty to eat, and
-was made as comfortable as possible. All these attentions somewhat
-mollified his bitterness against us.
-
-Some time after the other interviews, I visited him and asked him if he
-entertained any hostility towards the police. He replied that during
-the McCormick factory riot he had been clubbed by an officer, but he
-did not care so much for that. He could forget it all, but he did not
-like Bonfield. If it had not been for Bonfield, he said, the street-car
-men, in their strike in the summer of 1885, would have had things all
-their own way, and that would have changed everything all over the city
-in a business way.
-
-“If I could only kill Bonfield,” he vehemently declared, “I would be
-ready to die within five minutes afterwards.”
-
-Lingg was a singular Anarchist. In every act and word he showed no care
-for himself, but he always expressed sympathy for men who had families
-and who were in trouble. He showed that he was a man with a will, and
-that if he set his mind to the accomplishment of an end he would bend
-all his energies to attain it.
-
-There was another peculiarity about Lingg which distinguished him from
-the rest of his associates. Although he drank beer, he never drank to
-excess, and he frowned upon the use of bad or indecent language. He was
-an admirer of the fair sex, and they reciprocated his admiration, his
-manly form, handsome face and pleasing manners captivating all.
-
-On the 27th of May, Lingg and Engel were taken in a patrol wagon to
-the Harrison Street Station, where the “art gallery” of the Police
-Department was kept, to have their photographs taken. On the way,
-Loewenstein remarked to Lingg:
-
-“Louis, you want to look your prettiest, so that you will make a good
-picture.”
-
-“What difference does it make whether a dead man’s picture looks good
-or bad,” was the reply, uttered in a most serious manner and in a
-strong tone of voice.
-
-From the gallery the Anarchists were driven to the County Jail, and
-that was the last time they ever saw the streets of Chicago or breathed
-the air outside of prison walls.
-
-From the day Lingg entered the jail he became surly and ugly to all the
-officers, but he implicitly obeyed all prison rules. He held himself
-aloof from everybody except his fellow Anarchists, and would have
-nothing to say to any one except his friends or his sweetheart.
-
-Lingg was very fond of children, and when those of Neebe, Schwab or
-others called at the jail he would play with them and seemed to extract
-much amusement from their little pranks and antics.
-
-Mrs. Klein often visited him and always brought a baby, in which Lingg
-seemed to take a special interest. Lingg and Mrs. Klein conversed
-freely together, and he seemed to enjoy her visits greatly. Whenever
-she called she brought him fruit of the season and choice edibles with
-which to vary his prison fare.
-
-Lingg and his associates proved quite a drawing card, and Anarchists
-from all parts of the country called at the jail. But while his fellows
-appeared pleased to hold receptions, so to speak, Lingg did not desire
-the company of strangers. He gave his time only to the few ladies who
-called on him and to his nearest friends. He disliked being gaped at by
-curiosity-seekers, and when he had no good friend to keep him company
-he traveled the corridors of the jail beyond the reach of public
-gaze. He also whiled time away by cutting pretty little carvings
-out of cigar-boxes with his jack-knife, and in this he displayed
-considerable ingenuity. Tiring of this diversion, he would pick up a
-book or a paper; but, however monotonous prison life at times became,
-he never thrust himself before the visitors’ cage to pose before the
-idle throng. Many callers came to sympathize with Lingg as well as to
-admire his handsome physique, and, as he would not allow his hair to
-be cut after his incarceration, his flowing, curly locks added to his
-picturesque appearance.
-
-[Illustration: LINGG’S SWEETHEART.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-But there was one visitor he always welcomed. It was his sweetheart,
-whose acquaintance he had made before his arrest, and who became a
-regular caller. She invariably wore a pleasant smile, breathed soft,
-loving words into his ears through the wire screen that separated the
-visitors’ cage from the jail corridor, and contributed much toward
-keeping him cheerful. This girl had lived at one time with a family
-on West Lake Street, in the heart of an Anarchist camp, but, for some
-reason, while her lover was at the Chicago Avenue Station she never
-paid him a visit. The second day after he had been locked up at the
-County Jail she promptly made her appearance, however, and became a
-regular visitor. She simply passed with the jail officials at first
-as “Lingg’s girl,” but one day some one called her Ida Miller, and
-thereafter she was recognized under that name. She was generally
-accompanied by young Miss Engel, the daughter of Anarchist Engel, and
-during the last four months of her lover’s incarceration she could be
-seen every afternoon entering the jail. She was always readily admitted
-until the day the bombs were found in Lingg’s cell. After that neither
-she nor Mr. and Mrs. Klein were admitted. While it has never been
-satisfactorily proven who it was that introduced the bombs into the
-jail, it is likely that they were smuggled into Lingg’s hands by his
-sweetheart. She enjoyed Lingg’s fullest confidence, and regarded his
-every wish.
-
-It is not known whether Miller is the real name of the girl, but it
-is supposed to be Elise Friedel. She is a German, and was twenty-two
-years of age at the time, her birthplace being Mannheim, which was
-also Lingg’s native town. She was robust in appearance, with fair
-complexion, and dark hair. She had quite a penchant for beer, and
-could sit in a crowd of her Anarchist friends and drink “schnitts”
-with the proficiency of a veteran. She always entertained hope of
-executive clemency, but when Lingg died at his own hands she somewhat
-surprisingly failed to evince great sorrow. Perhaps the consciousness
-of having aided him in escaping the gallows had prepared her for the
-worst.
-
-Lingg’s terrible death did not perceptibly change her demeanor. She was
-seen at several dances shortly afterwards, and seemed to enjoy herself
-as much as anybody. She even danced with detectives, unconscious of
-their calling, and, in jesting with them, her laugh was as hearty and
-ringing as though she were bent on capturing a new beau.
-
-During all the long, weary days Lingg remained in jail his demeanor
-was the same as during the trial—cool, collected and unconcerned.
-No special trouble apparently burdened his mind. His constant
-companions—whenever they were permitted to be together—were Engel
-and Fischer. They appeared to believe that their fellow prisoners and
-co-conspirators would turn on them to save their own lives.
-
-The statement Lingg made, on the 14th of May, omitting the part
-pertaining to his occupation, age and residence, was as follows:
-
- “Whenever I did any work at home [Seliger’s house] I did it as
- carefully as possible, so that no one could see me. I did make
- dynamite bombs out of gas-pipe, and I generally found the gas-pipe on
- the street. Finding them two or three feet long, I would cut them into
- pieces. After cutting them about six inches long I would fill them
- with dynamite and attach a fuse to each. I then would call them bombs.”
-
- “Who showed or taught you how to make those bombs?”
-
- “No one. I learned it from books.”
-
- “What books?”
-
- “I read it in a book published by Herr Most of New York. It explains
- how to make dynamite and other articles used in war. I once had four
- bombs in my dinner-box—two were loaded and two empty. I bought two
- pounds of the stuff on Lake Street, near Dearborn. I also bought one
- coil of fuse and one box of caps at the same place, and that is all I
- bought. I paid 65 cents for the box of caps, 60 cents for two pounds
- of dynamite, and 50 cents for the coil of fuse.”
-
- “Did you work all the material into the bombs?”
-
- “No, there is some of it left in my trunk. I do not deny making bombs.
- I made them for the purpose of being used in a war or a revolution
- during these workingmen’s troubles. The bombs found in my room I
- intended to use myself. I have been at August Spies’ office several
- times, and I have known him for some time. I always received the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, and I like to read it. I made some of those round
- lead bombs. I made the molds myself and cast the bombs. The iron
- bolts I used to connect and hold them together I bought in a hardware
- store. I bought five small ones and two big ones. I could only use
- the molds to cast bombs with a few times; then they would be useless.
- At the time I bought the dynamite I was alone. On Tuesday night, May
- 4, Seliger and I were on Larrabee Street, between Clybourn Avenue and
- the city limits, and we remained there until about ten o’clock. We
- then went home and had several glasses of beer. We did not meet any
- one we knew. We were on Larrabee Street all the time. When we came
- home Mrs. Seliger was abed. I was at the meeting held in the hall at
- No. 71 West Lake Street, Monday night, May 3. I saw there the circular
- which called the workingmen to arms and to seek revenge on the police
- because they had killed six of our brothers at McCormick’s factory on
- that day. I also attended a meeting the same night, at No. 54 West
- Lake Street, which was held by the armed sections. I was out to Lake
- View and tried one of my dynamite bombs to find out what strength it
- had. I put the bomb in a tree between two limbs. I lit the fuse; the
- bomb exploded and split the tree, damaging it considerably. I had
- my hair cut, and mustache and whiskers shaven off, about May 8th or
- 9th. I want to say right here to you men that I did make dynamite
- bombs and intended to use them.
-
-[Illustration: CAN OF ENGLISH DYNAMITE AND LADLE.
-
-Used by Lingg in Casting Bombs. From a Photograph.]
-
- I am down on capital and capitalists. I knew that if we sought our
- rights—I mean the workingmen—they would turn out the police and
- militia against us with their Gatling guns and cannon. We knew that we
- could not defend ourselves with our revolvers, and therefore turned
- to the adoption of dynamite. For one, I was not going to get hurt. I
- made bombs of lead and bombs of metal, and I made them with the two
- materials mixed. I tried both the lead and gas-pipe bombs, and I found
- that they could do good service. If you cut the fuse ten inches long
- and light it you can run away forty steps before the explosion takes
- place. The armed men of the so-called International Group of the North
- Side always met at Greif’s Hall, No. 54 West Lake Street. We used to
- go to the Shooting Park in Lake View and shoot at targets on Sundays.
- I have been there about ten times. I admit that the two Lehmans came
- to see me at my room at No. 442 Sedgwick Street, and I will confess
- that on Tuesday, May 4, six men came to my room to see me.”
-
-At this interview there were present, besides myself, Furthmann, Stift,
-Rehm, Loewenstein, Schuettler and Hoffman. On the 17th of May, Lingg
-again remarked to Officer Schuettler that he regretted that he had not
-had a chance to kill him.
-
-On the 24th of May Lingg and Hubner were brought together, and
-Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann asked the latter if he knew the
-bomb-maker.
-
-“Oh, yes, I was at his room on Tuesday afternoon, May 4, helping him to
-make dynamite bombs, and what I stated in my affidavit is true.”
-
-Lingg scowled furiously, and emphatically denied the statement. All he
-could be made to say in explanation of the affair, however, was that he
-“had been a Socialist all his life and ever since he could think.”
-
-ERNST HUBNER was arrested by Officers Schuettler and Whalen on the
-morning of May 18, at six o’clock, while he was on his way to his
-work. He is a German by birth and a carpenter by trade, and worked for
-a man by the name of Schombel, on the corner of Clybourn Avenue and
-Larrabee Street. He was about forty years of age, married, wore very
-shabby clothes, and lived, at the time of his arrest, at No. 11 Mohawk
-Street, in three small and dirty rooms. His house was searched, and the
-officers found one breech-loading rifle, one large 44-caliber Remington
-revolver and half a pailful of ammunition for both guns. While they
-were searching the house, Mrs. Hubner, a sickly, delicate woman, said
-to Officer Schuettler:
-
-“My dear man, if my husband had gone more to his shop and to work
-instead of running to meetings, you would not find my house in this
-shape. I am all broken up. I am sick, and now he is arrested. I suppose
-this is the last of our family.”
-
-The search still going on, Mrs. Hubner crossed the room to a closet,
-saying to Schuettler:
-
-“Here, officers, take this devil’s print out of my house. This is what
-my husband prayed with night and day, and what got him into trouble. If
-you don’t want to take it, I will throw it into the stove. I don’t want
-any more families made miserable by it.”
-
-The officer opened the bundle, and the first thing he saw was a picture
-of the burly face of John Most. This led to the exchange of a few
-pleasantries between the officers.
-
-“I have got him,” shouted Schuettler.
-
-When Officer Whalen got a glimpse of the portrait, which was printed on
-the cover of a pamphlet, and not knowing what the title on the cover
-had reference to, as it was printed in German, or whom the picture
-represented, he facetiously remarked:
-
-“I see the face of a Scotch terrier.”
-
-“You fool,” replied Schuettler, with a twinkle in his eye, “that is
-Johann Most.”
-
-“Well,” retorted Whalen, “if that is the great Anarchist, he ought to
-have two more legs. He’d make a fine ratter.”
-
-In the bundle were found a number of Communistic, Socialistic and
-Anarchistic documents, and a complete collection of hand-bills of all
-the meetings that had been held for years past. Hubner had been an
-active worker at all times. He would post bills, carry hand-bills and
-do any kind of work for the “good of the cause.” No meetings were ever
-held too far from his home. He was well known in all the “groups” and
-to all the leaders. He attended all the picnics and parades. Nothing
-delighted him more than to carry the big banner belonging to the
-International Carpenters’ Union No. 1. How he strutted and flaunted
-that banner as he passed churches, police stations and the residences
-of the wealthy. Next to Most’s book, that banner was his principal
-source of inspiration. He would even neglect his meals for the sake of
-bearing aloft that crimson standard. Whether this was the cause of his
-emaciated look at the time of his arrest is problematical, but certain
-it is his appearance, when brought before me, indicated want and
-starvation, and his voice was weak and husky.
-
-“From what I can hear about you,” I said, “it appears that you are one
-of the ‘boys.’”
-
-“Oh, well,” drawled Hubner, “you may hear a great deal.”
-
-“Yes,” I replied, “I hear so much it keeps me busy thinking.”
-
-“Have you been thinking any of me?” queried Hubner.
-
-“I have, and I think you are the worst I have heard of yet.”
-
-“Ah, but you have got others far more dangerous than I am.”
-
-“If you want to give credit to any one else, name the parties.”
-
-Hubner finally stated that only on the evening previous, at a meeting
-of the Carpenters’ Union, a member had said that their attorneys,
-Messrs. Salomon & Zeisler, held that there was no law to convict any
-one, and that they would secure the release of the “boys” as fast as
-the police locked them up. They advised all to “keep their mouths
-shut,” and that, in the event of an arrest, the police could not hold
-them longer than two days.
-
-“Do you want to try that and see how it works?” I asked.
-
-“That’s what I want,” responded Hubner, bent on an experiment.
-
-“Well, I guarantee you,” said I smilingly, “that you will remain here
-with us as long as we like your company. When we get tired of you we
-will send you to the big jail. Officer, take this man and tell the
-lockup-keeper that he will probably stay with us a week.”
-
-Hubner was escorted down stairs, given a good cell and allowed to
-metaphorically wrap “that banner” around him as he lay down to dream of
-Anarchy. Things got monotonous, however. The very next day he sent word
-that he desired to see me. He was brought up and made a long statement.
-He assured me that every word was true, that he would face any of those
-mentioned and defy them to contradict his assertions. He told the
-day and date of almost every transaction. He said he would swear to
-everything he had stated.
-
-“I don’t believe in a God,” he added, “but when I swear, I understand
-that if I should tell a lie or an untruth I can be punished for it. I
-am disgusted with the way things are now. There are no more brave men.”
-
-After a few days he was released by order of the State’s Attorney.
-Before leaving, he promised that he would testify in court in
-accordance with his statement, and afterwards, for a time, he was on
-hand whenever sent for.
-
-The parties arrested were required to report regularly. At the
-commencement of the trial, they were all kept in a large room in the
-station, where ten officers guarded them night and day. They were taken
-out for exercise every evening, but were not allowed to talk to any
-one. Their wives had the privilege of seeing them, but an officer was
-always present to hear what was said.
-
-Hubner after a time showed signs of weakening. He had been seen by the
-attorneys for the defense and changed his mind. He also began talking
-to others, urging them not to testify. He finally said he would not
-take the stand, and, as he was not wanted to testify, he was again
-released. After the trial he went back to his comrades, attended some
-of their meetings and talked for the cause. When the time approached
-for the execution, he suddenly left the city, and subsequently sent
-for his family. He has returned to Chicago, however, and is working on
-Division and Clark Streets, in a little carpenter-shop.
-
-The following is his statement, to the correctness of which he would
-have testified had he not been a poltroon and a simpleton. It fully
-bears out the truth of the witnesses who appeared for the State during
-the trial as to the conspiracy and the parties thereto:
-
- “I know Gottfried Waller. I belong to the armed men. I know George
- Engel. At one time he published a paper called the _Anarchist_. I
- know Louis Lingg. I was at Greif’s Hall, 54 West Lake Street, Monday
- afternoon about five o’clock. I left there at nine o’clock and got
- home at eleven the same night. I read and saw a circular that called
- for revenge and to arm ourselves. I saw August Spies in the hall,
- and he told us that the police had been shooting our workingmen at
- McCormick’s, and we should be ready with our arms. Then Rau came into
- the meeting, very much excited and said that a number of our people
- had been shot at McCormick’s by the police. He called us to arms. Then
- Rau and Spies left the hall together. Both were much excited. The
- speech and talking of Spies in the hall happened in this way. Spies
- would catch a man alone and talk about the shooting, or when he saw
- a crowd of four or five standing together he would talk to them to
- excite them and urge them on. The effect of his talking to us brought
- our temper to such heat that I and others were ready to take revenge
- on the police officers and the law. And we would have done almost
- anything to get revenge. If Spies and Rau had there and then started
- out and we had had our arms with us, we would have followed them to do
- harm at once.”
-
-Such was the confession the brave Hubner first made to the police. On
-the 18th of May he made a second statement, as follows, adding a few
-further details as to the conspiracy:
-
- “On Tuesday, May 4, about 4 P.M., I went to the house of William
- Seliger, at 442 Sedgwick Street, and there I found William Seliger and
- Louis Lingg. I had been in Seliger’s house the day before, and I took
- along with me when I left three bombs—that is, three empty shells.
- Lingg also gave me the dynamite with which to fill them. Not knowing
- how, I was afraid to fill them, and I brought them back to Lingg to
- fill them for me. When I got there, Seliger and Lingg were working,
- filling bombs or shells with dynamite. I went to work and helped them
- and got the bombs ready for use. They had some of them filled when I
- got there, but in all they filled and finished twenty round lead or
- metal bombs and about fifteen or eighteen long ones—that is, I mean
- to say, made of gas-pipe, about six inches or more long. I saw there
- a lot more of dynamite and fuse. As I went away from there—Seliger’s
- house—that evening, I took along with me four long bombs, but before
- I left we had all the bombs finished, ready for use. I saw about
- six men at 5 P.M. in Seliger’s house, and when any one came Lingg
- always went to the door and waited upon them. That evening, May 4, at
- eight o’clock, I went to Neff’s Hall, 58 Clybourn Avenue, and when I
- had been there only a few minutes I saw Lingg, Seliger and a little
- stout man, who carried a heavy satchel with a gray cloth cover. They
- came in together in Neff’s Hall and placed the satchel in a little
- hallway leading to a ‘gents’ closet.’ I was sent to Neff’s Hall to
- see and report if there were many of our armed men in the hall who
- were waiting for bombs. As I had not been there long enough to find
- out and report back, Lingg and Seliger got tired of waiting at 442
- Sedgwick Street and brought the satchel filled with bombs to Neff’s
- Hall themselves. When Lingg saw me he came up to me and found fault
- with me for not reporting back sooner. He said there might have been
- lots of people there who failed to get bombs or shells. After that
- I went to supper, since Lingg was in the hall to look after things
- himself. The men I saw there were Hageman and Hermann. On Monday
- night, May 3, I was at Greif’s Hall, 54 West Lake Street, up to ten
- o’clock, and afterwards I also went into the saloon. There were about
- forty men sitting and standing around the bar-room. Someone called out
- that the so-called armed sections should go down into the basement,
- as there would be a meeting for them. Then forty of us went down, and
- we decided to hold a meeting there. This was about nine o’clock in
- the evening. Gottfried Waller was chosen president. George Engel was
- one of the speakers and originator of the plan then and there given
- to us to shoot and kill people and destroy property. He told us what
- to do and began in this way. He asked us if we knew about his plan.
- The majority said ‘no.’ Then he began to tell us that his plan was to
- call a meeting for the next evening at the Haymarket, and there draw
- out as many police as possible, so that the outside parts of the city
- would not be strongly protected by the police. The signal for action
- would be given, and they should set fire to buildings in several
- places and in all parts of the city. One building at Wicker Park
- was mentioned, and as soon as they saw it on fire, then they should
- attack the police stations, throw dynamite bombs into the stations,
- kill the police officers and destroy the stations. In case a patrol
- wagon came, they should throw a bomb among the policemen, and if that
- did not stop them, then they should kill the horses attached to the
- wagons with their revolvers or guns. After that they should destroy
- all the property they could. The circular that called for revenge and
- to arms I saw at the Monday night meeting in the basement, 54 West
- Lake Street, where Engel spoke and gave us the plan of revolution. The
- lying of Engel about the killing of six of our brothers at McCormick’s
- factory started me so that I was ready to do anything desperate. The
- speech of Engel in the basement that evening worked on me so that I
- went to Seliger’s house on Tuesday afternoon, May 4, and helped to
- finish the bombs, as I stated before. George Engel told those that
- had no arms to stay at home away from the Haymarket meeting, and that
- men who had arms but no courage should also stay at home. In that
- meeting there were present Adolph Fischer, Gottfried Waller, George
- Engel, Breitenfeld, Schnaubelt, John Thielen, Abraham Hermann, Herman
- Hageman, the two Lehmans and Hubner. Waller told us to go ahead and
- do our work, that he would be with us. The meeting lasted from nine
- o’clock to eleven.
-
- [Illustration: MUNTZENBERG PEDDLING BOMBS AND BOOKS.]
-
- Fischer and others agreed to have the circular printed calling the
- meeting at the Haymarket for Tuesday night, May 4. After all the plans
- had been explained to us Fischer said ‘That is the one’—meaning
- the murderous plan—‘that we adopted in our group meeting.’ Every
- division group were to make their own arrangements. The North Side
- armed men should meet Tuesday evening, May 4, at the foot of Webster
- Avenue and Lincoln Park, at the Schiller monument. I went there. I
- could not find enough of our people there, as the night was dark and
- those present were scattered. I got tired of waiting for others. The
- four bombs I had with me that night I took to the North Avenue Pier
- and threw them into the lake. Then I went home and went to bed. This
- was about ten o’clock. I did not hear anything of the shooting or the
- explosion of the bomb or the killing of the policemen at the Haymarket
- until the next morning when I got up. I went home so early on that
- evening because I had a headache from the smell of the dynamite
- used in filling the bombs. We filled thirty-five in all. The word
- ‘Ruhe’ was intended as the signal word. If it should appear in the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ May 4, in the ‘Briefkasten,’ then that would be a
- notification to be ready for the revolution. We were to watch also for
- the fire and shooting signals as well as the appearance of that word
- in the paper. We were then all to get ready. I only know of Lingg as
- a manufacturer of bombs. The plan was presented to the men to go and
- blow up the Chicago Avenue Station. Also many others were to blow up
- the Larrabee Street Station and the Webster Avenue Station. The work
- I did on the bombs was drilling holes in them. This statement I make
- of my own free will and accord in the presence of the officers named,
- and it is true and correct. And I furthermore will say that I will
- not take any bribe to change my statement or make denials; neither
- will I leave the city or the State as long as this case is pending in
- court, unless I have the consent of Capt. Schaack; that I always will
- be ready to give testimony for the people, whenever I am called on
- in this case, and that I will never make a second statement, that is
- to say, to a notary public or a justice of the peace, in writing or
- verbally; that I will only make a statement under oath for the grand
- jury of the Criminal Court, or Capt. M. J. Schaack.”
-
-Here follow the signature, etc., and the notarial acknowledgment.
-
-On the 24th of May, Hubner, among other things, stated that he knew
-Herman Muntzenberg.
-
- “I met him,” he said, “as I was carrying around hand-bills for the
- meeting called May 4 at the Haymarket. Muntzenberg went with me to
- Seliger’s house that afternoon. We saw Lingg and Seliger making the
- dynamite bombs, and we helped them to make them. Muntzenberg and I
- spent about three hours in Seliger’s house that afternoon. Muntzenberg
- was there when it was stated that the dynamite bombs should be carried
- down to Neff’s Hall, 58 Clybourn Avenue, that night. Muntzenberg and
- I, by order of Lingg, went down to Neff’s Hall to see how things
- looked there and report back to him. That is why Muntzenberg went
- to meet Lingg and Seliger to help them to carry the bombs to Neff’s
- place.”
-
-Since the trial I have learned that Hubner knew a great deal more than
-he divulged in his confession, and that he was one of the parties
-chosen to aid in blowing up the Webster Avenue Station.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XV.
-
- Engel in the Toils—His Character and Rough Eloquence—Facing his
- Accusers—Waller’s Confession—The Work of the Lehr und Wehr Verein—A
- Dangerous Organization—The Romance of Conspiracy—Organization of the
- Armed Sections—Plans and Purposes—Rifles Bought in St. Louis—The
- Picnics at Sheffield—A Dynamite Drill—The Attack on McCormick’s—A
- Frightened Anarchist—Lehman in the Calaboose—Information from many
- Quarters—The Cost of Revolvers—Lorenz Hermann’s Story—Some Expert
- Lying.
-
-
-ENOUGH was at this time known to make George Engel a mark for speedy
-police attention. It had been established beyond a doubt that he was
-one of the central figures in the conspiracy, and it was not long
-before a warrant was secured charging him with murder. I detailed
-Officers Stift and Whalen to serve the document, and they found him at
-his home, No. 286 Milwaukee Avenue. He was a man about fifty years old,
-stoutly built, round-shouldered, weighing about 170 pounds, and about
-five feet eight inches in height. He was married and had a daughter
-about sixteen years of age. He was by trade a painter, but he and his
-wife conducted a toy-store at the place where they lived. In addition
-to toys, they sold cigars and tobacco. The building he lived in was a
-two-story frame, and his support came principally from his business.
-He always claimed to be a very good friend of policemen, many of whom
-he said he knew, and they all, he claimed, liked him. He was very
-radical in his ideas, however, and at all times took an active interest
-in Anarchist meetings. In fact, he was one of the most rabid of them
-all. He was a successful organizer and a hard, persistent worker for
-the cause. He was one of the most positive, determined speakers in
-the German language in Chicago. He could hold a house all night, and
-his auditors were always charmed with his ingenious argument, his
-powerful invective and his captivating sophistry. He was well read on
-all topics bearing upon Anarchy, had a wonderful memory, and he could
-always promptly give a plausible “reason for the faith that was in
-him.” His speeches were always plain, and, although he talked rapidly,
-he spoke with a directness and force that took complete possession of
-the illiterate and unthinking rabble. He could work up his auditors to
-the point of desperation, and with a word he could have sent them out
-to pillage and murder. It was his brain alone that evolved the gigantic
-plan of murdering hundreds of people and laying waste thousands of
-dollars’ worth of property in Chicago, and the fact that he found
-so many willing to execute his purpose fully proved his power and
-influence over his Anarchist followers. Like all rabid Anarchists,
-he had no use for clergymen or the church, Sisters of Charity or
-anything else that had a tinge of religion in it. He called them all
-hypocrites and frauds. He was a great admirer of Louise Michel, the
-French Anarchist, because of her fearlessness and courage, and he
-never failed to bestow words of praise on Most, whose work he fairly
-worshiped. The organs of the Anarchists in Chicago he did not think
-radical enough, and so he ventured to publish a paper of his own called
-the _Anarchist_, which, however, did not survive long. He was known as
-an honest man in all his dealings with his fellow-men, earnest in his
-convictions, but withal a most dangerous leader and most unrelenting
-in his hatred of existing society, and thoroughly unscrupulous in the
-methods to be used to bring about a change.
-
-[Illustration: GEORGE ENGEL.
-
-From a Photograph taken by the Police.]
-
-Engel was always cool and collected, rarely exhibiting signs of
-excitement. This fact was brought out most strikingly when the officers
-found him at his home, on the 18th of May, at five o’clock, and
-informed him that they had a warrant for his arrest on the charge of
-murder. He was painting in his house at the time, and, turning to the
-officers with a smile on his face, he nonchalantly remarked:
-
-“Well, this is very strange.”
-
-The officers then told him that I desired to see him immediately, and
-he responded that if that was the case he supposed he must go with them.
-
-When he arrived at the station he was informed again of the nature of
-the charge against him, and the floor, so to speak, was accorded him
-for any explanations he might desire to make.
-
-“I am the most innocent man in the world,” he began, in a slow,
-deliberate voice. “I could not hurt a child or see any one hurt.”
-
-Engel was then subjected to some close questioning, and all he could be
-made to say was this:
-
-“On Monday, May 3, I was working for a friend of mine named Koch. I was
-doing some painting for him that evening between the hours of eight and
-nine o’clock. I then went to a meeting at Greif’s Hall, 54 West Lake
-Street. The meeting was held in the basement. I don’t know Mr. Waller.
-I do not belong to the Northwest Side group. I don’t belong to any
-armed men. I don’t know of any plan or conspiracy. I did not give any
-plan at that meeting. I was there at the meeting only a little while. I
-did not speak there, nor had I anything to say to any one. I did not,
-and was not authorized by any one to give a plan.”
-
-He thus flatly contradicted every charge and seemed determined to put
-a bold front upon the situation. Confronted by the facts, he never
-winced, but kept up a bold exterior. He was then locked up at the
-station. Subsequently his wife called and met him in my office.
-
-“Papa, see what trouble you have got yourself into,” she sadly remarked.
-
-“Mamma,” he responded, “I cannot help it. What is in me must come out.”
-
-“Why,” I interposed, “don’t you stop that nonsense?”
-
-[Illustration: MISS MARY ENGEL.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-“I know,” replied Engel, “I have promised my wife so many times that I
-would stop it. But I cannot do it. I cannot help it that I am possessed
-of some eloquence and enthusiasm. It is a curse to some people to be
-possessed of this knowledge. I cannot help it that I am gifted in that
-way. I am not the first man that has been locked up for this cause, but
-I will bear it like a man. Louise Michel is a great woman. She has been
-locked up and suffered for principle. I am willing to do the same.”
-
-When Engel was asked where he had been on Tuesday evening, May 4, he
-responded: “At home all night, lying on a lounge.”
-
-Two days after Engel’s arrest I secured a statement—in addition to
-that of Hubner—from Gottfried Waller, implicating the nervy Anarchist
-in the conspiracy in connection with “the plan.”
-
-I therefore thought it best to have Engel face his accuser, Waller,
-and, on the evening of May 24, at 9:30 o’clock, the two men were
-brought together in my office. Mr. Furthmann, who was present, with the
-officers, asked Engel, the moment he was brought in, if he knew the
-party before him. Engel, without the slightest hesitancy or tremor,
-answered in the negative. He was next asked if he had not attended the
-meeting at No. 54 West Lake Street, and Engel stated that he had come
-in late during the proceedings.
-
-Waller then reiterated his charge, that Engel was not only a speaker
-on that occasion, but the man who had submitted a plan for murder and
-destruction.
-
-“In fact,” said Waller, “you were the only man who urged a revolution
-and spoke about your plan.”
-
-When questioned as to what he had to say to this, Engel retorted
-that “it was not true,” as he had not been authorized by any one to
-propose a plan. Inasmuch as the accusation of Waller failed to make
-any perceptible impression on Engel’s mind, I decided to see how the
-presence of another accuser would affect his deportment and answers.
-Accordingly Ernst Hubner was asked if he would face Engel, and, an
-answer being given firmly in the affirmative, Engel was again brought
-back into the office. There were present at this, as well as at the
-former interview, Furthmann, Whalen, Stift, Schuettler, Hoffman,
-Loewenstein and Rehm. The moment Engel was brought up by an officer,
-Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann asked Hubner if he was acquainted
-with Engel. Hubner replied, “Yes, I know him.”
-
-Addressing Engel, I said:
-
-“This is Ernst Hubner. He says that he knows you, and he also has made
-a statement against you.”
-
-Engel replied that he did not know the man, whereupon Hubner reiterated
-his acquaintanceship, and added:
-
-“Your name is Engel, and you keep a toy-store on Milwaukee Avenue. You
-made speeches at 58 Clybourn Avenue. I saw and heard you several times.
-I saw you in a meeting May 3, 9 P.M., at 54 West Lake Street.”
-
-“Engel,” I interrupted, “listen, and I will read you what Hubner said
-about you.”
-
-Engel assented, and the statement of Hubner, as already given, was read.
-
-“It is false,” replied Engel; “but if that good man says I did say so,
-then you can believe him. I do not care.”
-
-“Where did you see Engel last?” inquired Furthmann of Hubner.
-
-“I saw him at the meeting held at Greif’s Hall, 54 West Lake Street,
-where I heard him speak about the revenge circular and his plan, which
-he said had been adopted by the Northwest Side group. He spoke of the
-plan as I have heretofore explained in my affidavit to the officers.”
-
-“You still say that that affidavit is true in every respect?”
-
-“I do,” emphatically replied Hubner.
-
-“It is not so, and it is not true,” stoutly replied Engel.
-
-“Well,” said I, “there are other people, and we will have more, who
-will prove that you did make a revolutionary speech and submitted
-a plan calling on your people to get ready with their arms and do
-violence. If other witnesses are produced, will you still have the same
-answer to give?”
-
-“It would not be true; it is not so,” reiterated Engel.
-
-“But,” I added, “suppose I produce twenty more men who will accuse you
-the same as Waller and Hubner have accused you, what then would you
-have to say?”
-
-“My answer,” responded Engel, “would be that I have never spoken as
-charged against me. It is not true.”
-
-Engel had evidently made up his mind to deny everything, and, knowing
-his character for stubbornness, I made no further efforts to secure
-a statement from him. A man who could originate such a cold-blooded
-scheme as he had proposed—and part of it was actually carried out in
-bloodshed—was evidently not the kind to yield, and I allowed him to
-ruminate over his predicament in a cell below until the 27th of May,
-when he was sent to the County Jail. As will subsequently appear,
-he never showed signs of weakness during his incarceration from the
-time he was taken from his house that night until he dropped from
-the gallows, dying the hardest of them all. A half dozen such men at
-a critical time could upset a whole city, and it was fortunate for
-Chicago that there were not more like him during the troublous days of
-1886.
-
-[Illustration: GOTTFRIED WALLER.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-Some two days before Engel was brought in, GOTTFRIED WALLER was
-arrested by Officer Whalen. It appeared that he had been selling
-revolvers to workingmen, and after being taken to the station, on
-the 14th of May, he was released on bail. His importance then as a
-conspicuous figure in the Monday night meeting, when the murderous
-“plan” was adopted, was not clearly apparent, but he was kept under
-surveillance and his antecedents carefully inquired into. Thielen, in
-his confession on the very day Waller was arrested, referred to him as
-having presided at that meeting, and, in describing a man who called at
-Lingg’s room on Tuesday afternoon, May 4, said he “believed he worked
-at Brunswick & Balke’s factory.” Hubner, in his affidavit on the 18th
-of May, stated that Waller had presided on the occasion referred to,
-and had even urged them to go ahead and do their work, and he would
-be with them—meaning their work of destruction. On these and other
-facts a warrant was secured for his arrest for murder, and on the 20th
-of May he was again taken into custody by Officers Whalen and Stift.
-He was a Swiss by birth, a cabinet-maker by occupation, and worked
-at the Brunswick, Balke & Collender billiard factory. His age at the
-time of his arrest was thirty-six years, and he was a married man
-with one child. At the time of his first arrest he was living at No.
-590 Milwaukee Avenue, and at his second arrest he was found at No. 105
-North Wells Street. He had been only three years in America, and had
-scarcely settled in Chicago before he began attending the Anarchist
-meetings. He always frequented the gatherings where Swiss people
-assembled, and on a search being made of their meeting-place, 105 North
-Wells Street, on the 7th of May, the police found twelve guns. It had
-been the headquarters for the most dangerous element in the order,
-and on Waller’s visiting the place after the trial of the Anarchists
-a serious attempt was made on his life. He was called a spy, and was
-pursued until he found safety under the shadow of the Chicago Avenue
-Station. Several parties were afterwards arrested for this assault.
-They subsequently threw a piece of iron through the window of the house
-where Waller was stopping, but this was the last futile exhibition of
-their rage.
-
-In view of his testimony, which appears further on in the review of
-the trial, Waller was given an unconditional release, and he has since
-conducted himself as a peaceable citizen.
-
-After his confession bearing directly on the principal parties in the
-conspiracy, Waller wrote out his experience with the Lehr und Wehr
-Verein in particular and his connection with Anarchy in general. His
-story is as follows:
-
- “On the 25th of January, 1884, I arrived in Chicago from Easton,
- Pa. I lived sixteen months on Grove Avenue, Humboldt. I was never a
- Socialist or Anarchist. I understood very little of the former and
- nothing at all of the latter. After residing for a while at the place
- mentioned, I moved to Milwaukee Avenue, near No. 636, Thalia Hall, on
- that street. Here I noticed people uniformed and armed about twice
- a week. They would enter this hall, and, by making inquiries, I was
- informed that these people belonged to the second company of the Lehr
- und Wehr Verein and that they were a sort of ‘Schuetzen Verein,’
- which practiced twice a week in the North Chicago Schuetzen Park
- (Sharpshooters’ Park). Their principles were kept secret. As I was
- an expert sharpshooter and had a passion for military exercises, I
- accepted an invitation from their commander to participate in their
- practices. We met on the following Sunday at Thalia Hall, at five
- o’clock in the morning, and continued for some time. We dispersed
- by each going in different directions toward the park, so as not to
- arouse any suspicion. On account of cold weather only fourteen of us
- came together. It was no fun to walk knee-deep in the snow; still we
- were feeling good since we were going to practice shooting. After
- several rounds of drinks, which were called for in payment of the
- stand we used on such occasions, we erected two targets and commenced
- practicing. I soon noticed that the company consisted of good
- marksmen, and that day I was pronounced the best marksman among them.
- After that I wanted to become a member of the Verein, as I had been
- asked several times by some of them to join.
-
- [Illustration: UNDERGROUND RIFLE PRACTICE. A MEETING OF THE LEHR UND
- WEHR VEREIN.]
-
- I called at Thalia Hall one Monday evening and was taken to the
- cellar, which I entered through a secret door by means of a ladder.
- Here I saw thirty to thirty-five men practicing shooting at a target.
- The cellar was not well lighted except at the north end, where the
- targets stood. The people and all the surroundings looked quite
- adventurous to me. One of the members then approached me and asked
- if I was a Socialist. I answered, ‘Yes,’ in an off-hand way. The
- first sergeant of the company, August Krueger, told me beforehand to
- do this. I paid my initiation fee, got a red card numbered 19, by
- which number I was afterwards known, and I was then a member. All the
- members were very cautious before me on account of my not being well
- known to them. We practiced every Monday and Wednesday, drilling and
- shooting. I paid a great deal of attention to these exercises. I never
- missed a meeting, and consequently I soon gained the confidence of all
- the members.
-
- [Illustration: NUMBERED PLATES.
-
- From Lehr und Wehr Verein Rifles.
-
- From a Photograph.]
-
- “At the first general meeting, which was held every last Tuesday
- of each month, at No. 54 West Lake Street, I was enlightened, and
- how I was enlightened will appear as I proceed with my statement. I
- now desire first to speak of the Lehr und Wehr Verein. This society
- consists of four companies from various parts of the city, and forms
- a revolutionary military organization. The first company belongs to
- the North Side; second company, the Northwest Side; third company, the
- Southwest Side; and the fourth company was formed by the commander
- at Pullman. The first company was the strongest and consisted of
- about one hundred and twenty members. The second consisted of
- thirty-five members; the third about eighty; and the fourth, forty
- members. Consequently the battalion consisted of two hundred and
- seventy-five members. You could rely upon one hundred and eighty men;
- the others were more or less indifferent and passive. All the members
- were armed with Springfield rifles, 48-caliber, and with Remington
- revolvers, 44-caliber. Every member was well supplied with ammunition
- at his house, which was always purchased by the quartermaster of
- the company. The uniform consisted of a blouse, with white buttons,
- and with shoulder-straps for the officers, black leather belts with
- brass buckles inscribed L. W. V., dark pantaloons and black slouch
- hats. Every company had a captain, lieutenant and first sergeant.
- Besides these the company had the following officers: A corresponding
- secretary, financial secretary, treasurer, quartermaster, and a
- Lehr und Wehr auditor. The commander received a monthly salary of
- $15.00, and the financial secretary $4.00. The commander was Gustav
- Breitenfeld. Captain of the first company, Abraham Hermann; second
- company, Bernhard Schrader; third company, H. Betzel, and fourth
- company, Paul Pull. Under command of these people, the companies were
- drilled and instructed. The corresponding secretary attended to all
- the correspondence, domestic and foreign, which was not a very easy
- job, because we corresponded with the Internationale of the whole
- country. The financial secretary collected the dues, and turned them
- all over to myself as treasurer. The quartermaster, A. Hermann, had
- to supply arms and ammunition. The Lehr und Wehr auditor had to
- investigate all complaints and to impose all fines and collect the
- same. The meeting-place of the first company was at Mueller’s Hall,
- on North Avenue and Sedgwick Street, in basement; of the second
- company, at Thalia Hall, on Milwaukee Avenue; of the third company,
- at Vorwaerts Turn Hall, on West Twelfth Street, and of the fourth
- company, at Rosenheim, in Pullman. Another curiously mixed company
- also belonged to the Verein. It was commanded by Captain Betzel, of
- the third company, and it had nothing to do with us in a business way.
-
- “The whole battalion assembled once every month on pleasant days on
- the prairie behind the ice-houses of Schofield & Co., on the West
- Side, and practiced skirmish drills. The commands were given in
- English, and no one knew the members by name—only by numbers.
-
- “This brings me to the first general meeting of the Verein at No.
- 54 West Lake Street that I attended. Before the opening of the
- meeting, every one who entered the hall was examined so that none
- but members might get in. The meetings would be called to order by
- the secretary, and then a chairman and a doorkeeper would be chosen.
- August Krause, of the second company, was generally called upon to
- officiate as chairman. First of all the correspondence would be read,
- and at one meeting a letter was read from Most, of New York, which
- pertained to arms. In the first meeting Commander Breitenfeld was
- ordered to proceed to Pullman every Sunday to work for the cause,
- and for his services he received a remuneration of $3 for each trip.
- The new company in that town finally reported a large increase of
- fine material with strong Anarchistic doctrines. The quartermaster,
- who then was Lehnert, was ordered to purchase forty rifles and four
- boxes of ammunition, each containing 4,000 rounds. The treasurer
- delivered to him $250, and afterwards we duly received the rifles
- from a firm in St. Louis. After all business had been transacted
- one of the eager members delivered a speech touching the best means
- of bringing on the social revolution. He proved very violent in his
- sentiments, and all present agreed with him that this revolution
- could only be accomplished with fire, powder, lead and dynamite. For
- a public attack on the streets of Chicago the speaker considered us
- too weak. As to the ‘property beasts,’ as he called the small owners
- of buildings, he regarded them as our biggest enemies, as they would
- attack us from their windows and defeat us, and consequently our only
- hope for a victory lay in the torch and dynamite. When Chicago would
- be surrounded by fire and destroyed, these ‘beasts,’ he said, would
- be obliged to take refuge on the prairies, and there it would be very
- easy for us to master them by our unmerciful proceedings. If this was
- done, other cities, like New York, St. Louis, Pittsburg, etc., would
- follow our example. Then all eyes would be centered on the Anarchists
- of Chicago, and therefore we would proclaim the Commune.
-
- “All these utterances were accepted with great applause, and every one
- wanted to commence immediately. I thought differently. I remembered
- the revolution of 1848 in Germany and that of 1871 in Paris and its
- consequences.
-
- “Krause, after this speech, took the floor and spoke in favor of the
- revolution. He stated that they ought to invite the Anarchists of
- other cities to join them here, and then we could commence the work
- of destruction. Then other members gave their views, and the meeting
- adjourned with an injunction that every one should be silent with
- reference to our proceedings.
-
- “This brings me to the revolutionary party. This organization consists
- of the following sections and groups: The Lehr und Wehr Verein,
- commander Breitenfeld; Northwest Side group, commanders Engel, Fischer
- and Grumm; North Side group, commanders Neebe, Lingg and Hermann;
- American group, commanders Spies, Parsons and Fielden; Karl Marx
- Group, commander Schilling; the Freiheit group; the armed sections
- of the International Carpenters’ Union and the Metal-workers’ Union.
- The whole party is under the leadership of a general committee.
- This committee is composed of Spies, Schwab, Parsons, Neebe, Rau,
- Hirschberger, Deusch and Belz. The committee held their meetings in
- one of the rooms of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ and received weekly reports
- from the delegates of the various groups. A part of the monthly dues
- was delivered to the general committee, and all expenses for traveling
- at the instance of the agitation committee (Parsons and Schwab) and
- for arms were paid by the quartermaster.
-
- “On one occasion I attended a general meeting of the revolutionary
- party at No. 54 West Lake Street, at which the whole party of armed
- sections were represented. After all precautions had been taken as to
- safety, August Spies took the chair and Neebe acted as secretary. We
- had to produce our cards of membership on entering, and every group
- was called by name, and each representative had to rise in his seat
- for close inspection. The first business was a complaint from the
- Northwest group and the Lehr und Wehr Verein that the funds had been
- mismanaged and thrown away. Both organizations declared that they
- would withdraw their delegates and, after that, act independently.
- Spies became as furious as a snake when trodden upon, and he got up
- and told them that they might leave immediately. This started a war
- of words. Some retorted that the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ was not radical
- enough, and it must be made different from that moment. The members
- of the general committee were called impostors and loafers. The Lehr
- und Wehr Verein had paid some $75 for the purchase of arms, but they
- had neither seen the arms nor the money. Engel and the Northwest Side
- group were brought into the wrangle, and he was called a traitor. They
- said that Engel would bring the whole party to ruin, likewise the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, but they (Engel and the paper) did not care so
- long as it enriched themselves. Finally the Northwest group withdrew,
- and some of the members of the Lehr und Wehr Verein shortly afterwards
- followed suit. From this time on there were constant disputes.
-
- “Engel and Grunewald collected money for a new paper and started the
- _Anarchist_, a paper like Most’s _Freiheit_ in New York. Shortly after
- these societies had left the hall, the fight was taken up again by
- some of the females who were present,—Mrs. Parsons, Mrs. Bolling,
- Mrs. Schwab and Mrs. Holmes,—and it was continued until Spies was
- declared out of order. Hirschberger then reported the result of the
- sale of revolutionary literature, such as the works of Louise Michel,
- Most’s ‘Revolutionary Warfare,’ etc., and he stated that it had
- exceeded his expectations. After this they discussed picnics, and a
- number desired them to be held outside of the city. Sheffield was
- suggested, because by going there they would bring in more money, and
- when there they could speak more freely their Anarchist sentiments.
- It was finally decided to hold a meeting of the workingmen on Market
- Square on Thanksgiving day, and Parsons was ordered to make the
- necessary arrangements. Spies called attention to the importance of
- every one attending that meeting, and urged that they should not come
- without a bomb or a revolver. The bombs, he said, they could purchase
- at the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office, four for $1. The time was near,
- he said, when the long-looked-for revolution would take place, and
- so they should avail themselves of every opportunity. He wanted all
- Anarchists to work against the eight-hour movement, because if it
- should prove successful our movement would receive a set-back for
- several years. Our cause would not be hastened by it. He complained
- about our small gain in numbers and attributed it to the poor
- agitation of some of the members. After this I left the hall.
-
- “On the day before Thanksgiving we drilled in Thalia Hall. At the
- end of the exercise we were all requested to attend the meeting the
- following day, and Lehnert distributed some bombs in the shape of
- gas-pipe. He stated that he could only get four, but that on the next
- day at one o’clock every member could have one by calling at the hall.
- The next day most of the members put in an appearance. Members of the
- Northwest Side group also called. Adolph Fischer was there with a
- basketful of bombs like the one I saw the day before, which was the
- first time I had ever seen a bomb, and he told us distinctly to use
- them in case the Market Square meeting was dispersed. He cut a piece
- of fuse about the length of one on a bomb, put it on the table and
- lighted it with a cigar. He showed the way it worked and posted us as
- to the time it would have to burn before a bomb to which it might be
- attached should be thrown. He also showed us the way we should throw a
- bomb, and after this exhibition we all proceeded to the meeting.
-
- “On arriving at Market Square, I noticed a stage made out of barrels,
- with a red flag attached to it, and this was our meeting-place.
- Parsons mounted the platform and addressed the assemblage, which
- consisted of about a thousand people. It was a fortunate thing that
- the crowd was no larger, else the bloody bath of May 4 would have
- taken place that day, in view of all the preparations and the hostile
- feeling among us. The Northwest Side group was fully armed, and the
- preparations were alike complete among all the the other sections.
- Schwab, Fielden and Neebe were present, but none of them spoke. After
- they had waved the red flag the meeting adjourned. Bad, cold weather
- contributed to the small attendance.
-
- “After reading in the newspapers that on a certain Monday some of
- McCormick’s strikers would resume work, the armed groups were called
- to a meeting at Goercke’s Hall, on Twentieth Street and Blue Island
- Avenue. Reinhold Krueger and Tannenberg represented the second
- company of the Lehr und Wehr Verein, and I joined them on the way to
- the place of meeting. Arriving there, I found most of the different
- sections represented, and the meeting opened. Gustav Belz, of the
- Metal-workers’ Union, and employed at McCormick’s, was chairman,
- and after some discussion we concluded to stop the reopening of
- the factory by force. On account of the short time for a proper
- notification to our members, we decided to have our well-known signal,
- ‘Y, come Monday’ (which would mean that all was ripe for action,
- and our men should came to our regular meeting place, 54 West Lake
- Street), in the ‘Briefkasten’ of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, and it was
- accordingly done. We also at the meeting conferred with respect to
- having some of our men mix up with the ‘scabs’ by going to work with
- them in the factory, and then, when the moment for action arrived,
- they should set the factory on fire in several places. Those who were
- to do this were not to act, however, until they learned the result of
- the meeting that was to be held under the call of our signal, ‘Y.’
- During the same day, after the meeting, Belz and Tannenberg carried
- several bombs out to the Black Road. What happened the following
- Monday at the factory everybody knows. Strikers and others assembled
- by thousands. The great bell at the factory rang, and the ‘scabs’ went
- to work. During the day disturbances followed and many arrests were
- made of people who were found to have concealed weapons, and who were
- afterwards fined $10 in the Police Court.
-
- “But a change took place the following Tuesday. In accordance with the
- signal published in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, about 180 of our people
- gathered at No. 54 West Lake Street. Most of them carried their arms
- and some carried bombs. I saw Suess, and some others unknown to me,
- have bombs of the round pattern. These men even had their rifles with
- them, and everyone knew what was up. The several sections formed in
- platoons. Belz was elected chairman, and they consulted as to what
- should be done. First they regretted that the strikers had not reached
- McCormick’s that Monday morning, before the arrival of the police, in
- time to secure possession of the place, and then Betzel of the third
- company spoke and insisted that they should go around there during
- the night, secure good positions and then attack the patrol wagons as
- they passed on the following morning. He said he would give strict
- instructions to his company to obey his command, and then, when the
- police came to take their positions, they should be met with a good
- reception from well-aimed rifles. About fifty members wanted this plan
- carried out, but I noticed that most of them carried their hearts
- in their pants, and had very little courage. Excuses after excuses
- were made. Suess gave his bomb to a comrade and told him that when
- he thought of his wife and home he had doubts about going into an
- uncertain adventure. Balthasar Rau also protested against the plan.
- Some one suggested that they should stay there, in the hall, all
- night. Belz declared that he was of the same opinion about remaining;
- but, he said, he had a better plan to reach Mr. McCormick. It was
- very easy, he said, to attack this money baron in his own house. He
- described the house and rooms, and the location of the windows, and
- said that they should throw one of these ‘play balls’ in through the
- window of the room where McCormick would be sitting, and send him
- flying to heaven. This course should be taken by some one of those
- present, of his own accord, so that no second or third party would
- know the perpetrator. There seemed to be no response to this, and,
- noticing the want of enthusiasm, he grasped his rifle and made a
- motion to break it in two, calling them all at the same time cowards.
- He then left the hall. I was surprised at this, because among those
- assembled there were some of the worst Anarchists in the city, notably
- Lingg, Engel, Fischer and Grunewald. McCormick, however, is alive
- to-day. Rau notified those present that if any one wanted any bombs
- they should follow him to the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office, and he would
- supply them. The meeting then adjourned.
-
- “After the experience I had thus had with the party, I was sorry
- that I ever joined. I found that what good humor I had formerly
- possessed had been completely wiped out by my associations with the
- revolutionary party. I wanted now to join some good society, and I
- thought of some good excuse for leaving the party. My opportunity
- came. My comrades wanted me to buy a supply of ammunition, as the
- 1st of May was near at hand, but I found that there was not money
- enough in the treasury. The financial secretary had been very slow in
- delivering to me all the money he had collected, and I discovered that
- his love for the shining dollars was so great that he would let some
- of them fall through his fingers. I found out his dishonesty, and I
- brought it to light. On this account we became enemies, and sometimes
- he would rather have seen me dead than McCormick. One evening I
- stood in front of the bar at Thalia Hall with him just before
- target practice. I was talking about something not in his favor. We
- finally came to hot words and then to blows. I let him have a few
- right-handers, and he drew his revolver and fired one shot, the ball
- passing close to my right ear and striking the wall. The proprietor
- of the saloon took the revolver away from him, and he attacked me
- again with a rawhide [a billy], which he always carried. He struck me
- over the head, and I grabbed a chair and gave it to him savagely. He
- skipped out. Shortly after this I sent the money-box with Schrader
- to the Verein along with my written resignation. In that I explained
- that I did not want to associate with murderers and manslayers. It
- was accepted, and I was again a free man, rejecting every inducement
- except one to join their ranks again. This exception grew out of my
- own foolishness and happened when I attended the ill-fated meeting of
- May 2d.
-
-[Illustration: “LIBERTY HALL,”
-
-No. 63 Emma Street, where the Conspiracy “Plan” was first proposed by
-Engel. From a Photograph.]
-
- “This meeting on May 2d was held on Emma Street. During the day,
- which was a pleasant one, I went out early for a walk. While I was
- absent some one called at my house and told my wife that I was wanted
- at No. 63 Emma Street that evening at ten o’clock. I returned home
- about 10:30 o’clock the same morning, and as I did not know the hall,
- nor knew the person who had notified my wife, I proceeded to the
- number given. This visit was a most unfortunate one for me. Entering
- the hall, I noticed the Northwest Side group and the second company
- of the Lehr und Wehr Verein. I was just on the point of leaving,
- when Schrader called me back, and, not liking to act like a coward,
- I remained. A person named Kistner acted as chairman. They wanted
- to admit a member who had been proposed by two members as true and
- faithful, but Engel objected, and the man had to leave the hall. They
- then proceeded to business, having first ascertained that the twenty
- or twenty-five persons present were in perfect security. Engel took
- the floor and sailed into the capitalists and the police. He said
- that they should, when an opportunity presented itself, imitate the
- Anarchist leaders when, at the Bohemian Turner Hall masquerade ball,
- they had thrown pepper in the eyes of policemen who were present to
- make an attack on the turners, and he explained how that assault on
- their part had come very near costing him his life. But he had done
- it for the good of the cause. He then spoke of the labor troubles and
- said that now was the time to produce the revolution. It was unwise to
- let it pass. Then he proceeded to outline a plan for it, saying that,
- if any one had a better one to suggest, to say so.”
-
-Waller gives the details of the plan just as he gave it in court, and
-continues:
-
- “I could not advise any one to speak against the motion for the
- adoption of the plan, as he would have been dealt with accordingly.
- Breitenfeld stated subsequently at Thalia Hall that he would do
- everything in his power to carry out this plan and that he would not
- work for the next few days, and that on the day given he would be at
- No. 54 West Lake Street to make all the arrangements.
-
- “What happened on Monday at McCormick’s is known. Spies hurried to
- write the ‘Revenge’ circular, stating that six men had been killed,
- and put it into circulation. That day I was at No. 105 Wells Street,
- where the workingmen employed in Brunswick & Balke’s factory held
- their meetings. I got home about six o’clock and had my supper, but I
- did not know then as to the conflict with the police at McCormick’s.
- I did not feel like going to the meeting called for that evening at
- No. 54 West Lake Street. I had hardly been home thirty minutes when
- Clermont, of the second company, entered my room and asked:
-
- “‘Did you hear the news?’
-
- “‘What?’ I asked.
-
- “‘From McCormick’s,’ he replied.
-
- “‘What then?’ I asked.
-
- “‘Ten men were killed by the police, and more than twenty wounded,’ he
- said. ‘Now we must commence.’
-
- “I did not believe it at first, but when he showed me the ‘Revenge’
- circular my blood shot up into my head and I went with him to the
- meeting. As we passed Engel’s house we met him and Fischer, and they
- joined us. On the way to the meeting, Engel said that if any one
- wanted to see him they should take the rear door and enter, as he
- thought the detectives were watching his house. Having arrived at the
- hall, Breitenfeld called the revolutionary men down to the cellar, and
- to my surprise I was elected chairman.”
-
-Waller then details the business that was there transacted, the story
-being identical with that he gave on the witness-stand, and alludes to
-his visit to Engel’s house on his way to the Haymarket meeting on the
-evening of May 4. He had been previously asked by A. Krueger, Kraemer,
-and two others, who called at his own house while he was eating his
-supper, to go with them to Wicker Park, as they wanted to be at their
-post in response to the signal “Ruhe,” but he declined to go with them.
-Waller continues:
-
- “I went to Engel’s. He was not at home, and we waited in a room behind
- the store. There were two others there, one a member of the Northwest
- Side group, and the other I did not know. The first one went away to
- get some pepper, as he said, and returned again in a few minutes....
- He said he was only waiting for the pills, meaning the bombs. I waited
- about five minutes, and during the time a young girl about ten or
- twelve years old put in an appearance, carrying a heavy parcel, which
- she handed to the man who had gone out for the pepper and who was
- waiting for ‘pills.’ I took the man to be her father. He disappeared
- behind a screen, and I walked out.”
-
-Waller next gives the circumstances in connection with the Haymarket
-meeting precisely as he gave them in court, and reverts back to the
-meeting of Monday night at No. 54 Lake Street, referring to a speech
-made on that occasion by Clermont. That man, Waller says, spoke
-substantially as follows: “I expect to see about 20,000 or 25,000
-people at the Haymarket. The speeches should be very threatening and
-fierce so that the police will be compelled to disperse the meeting.
-Then, when the police become engaged, we can carry out our purpose.”
-Before this meeting came to order, Greif, the proprietor of the place,
-was around lighting the lamps, and while doing so he remarked, says
-Waller: “This is just the place for you conspirators.”
-
-Among those expecting to do deeds of violence on the night of the
-Haymarket, at Wicker Park, was “Big” Krueger, and Waller mentions the
-fact that he met him the next day at noon.
-
-“Krueger showed me a revolver,” says Waller, “and I told him that he
-had better leave it at home. He replied that he would not do it, as he
-intended to kill every one who came across his path, and he left. A few
-hours after he shot at a policeman and lost his life.”
-
-Officer Madden was the officer thus assailed, and he immediately turned
-around and shot the Anarchist down in his tracks.
-
-In concluding his statement Waller refers to his arrest and says:
-
- “On the way to the station I made up my mind not to say a word.
- Arriving there, Capt. Schaack got to talking to me and put several
- questions to me in the presence of several detectives. I noticed that
- telling lies would not do me any good, and the friendly and courteous
- treatment of the Captain made such an impression on my mind that I
- told, by and by, everything with a throbbing heart. I promised to
- repeat my statements before court, and I did so.”
-
-OTTO LEHMAN was well known to the police by reputation through frequent
-mention of his name by fellow Anarchists, but he managed for some time
-to keep himself out of the way of a personal acquaintanceship with the
-force. He never did cherish admiration for policemen, and his dislike
-grew even more intense after he had learned that he was wanted. The
-sight of a blue-coat would drive him fairly wild, and the only way he
-could assuage his wrath was to take to his heels and run until his
-surcharged feelings had oozed out at the ends of his toes. He was
-a brave, defiant man in the presence of his comrades, and with his
-military bearing he seemed the very personification of courage. He
-had a great penchant for lager beer, and, while emptying glass after
-glass, he talked Anarchy to the great delight of his hearers. He was an
-enthusiastic attendant at all meetings of the fraternity, and always
-wanted the speakers to make their harangues strong and incendiary. If
-one of them failed to threaten capitalists with dynamite and guns, he
-lost interest in the proceedings. In that case he would tilt his chair
-back and take a nap. The moment some one rasped the air with stinging
-words against capitalists and the police, Lehman would be on his feet
-and applaud vociferously. He would then adjourn to a saloon, fill
-himself up with lager and go home to dream of happy days when everybody
-was to be rich without labor. Some nights he would jump up in bed half
-asleep,—this is the story of his fellow roomers,—and shout:
-
-[Illustration: OTTO LEHMAN.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-“Down with them; shoot them! Don’t give them any quarter! The world now
-is ours.”
-
-His bed-companion, aroused by the demonstration, would take him by the
-collar and pull him down, after which he would sleep quite contentedly.
-This sort of exhibition was repeated after every meeting at which
-some new infernal machine had been spoken of, or some new torture for
-capitalists suggested. Such speeches made him strong in the faith,
-and so enthusiastic was he always that he managed to become quite a
-favorite with his fellows. In return for their admiration, he would
-spend his last cent in buying beer. His boarding-house was at No. 189
-Hudson Avenue.
-
-Although this is only a two-story building, there were living in it
-at the time no less than eight families. That there were no more is
-no fault of the house. And such families! Every one of them, from
-the youngest who could talk, to the oldest who could bear arms, was
-a turbulent Anarchist. Lehman was always happy in such surroundings.
-Had he only had his wife and children there, his joy would have
-been as nearly complete as possible until all capitalists had been
-exterminated. Unfortunately his family were in Germany. He had left
-them there three years before. At that time he would have been pleased
-to bring them along with him had it not been for his haste to get out
-of Emperor William’s dominions to escape the law of the land.
-
-In his new surroundings in America Lehman only waited for the day when
-millionaires would either “bite the dust” or capitulate by handing
-over their wealth to the Anarchists. He never for a moment doubted
-that that day was almost at hand. Even after the Haymarket riot he had
-hope, but it vanished completely the moment he was within the grasp
-of the law. Of course, he did everything to save himself for another
-revolution by keeping away from the “hated police.” Had it not been for
-his standing in Germany he would have returned there and waited until
-the excitement in Chicago had died out, and his comrades had fixed up
-another plan. He would have even gone to Canada, but he had never heard
-of it as a refuge for Anarchists. For a time he succeeded remarkably
-well in dodging us, as we had only a meager description of his
-appearance; but on the 20th of May he was seen by Officers Schuettler
-and Hoffman on the North Side. They did not know him at the time.
-Lehman, however, apèears to have been suspicious of their movements,
-as there had recently been many inquiries for him in the locality. The
-moment Hoffman caught a glimpse of the slippery Anarchist, he remarked
-to his comrade:
-
-“I’ll bet that is one of the cut-throats. We’ll take him in on general
-principles, and we can soon find out where he belongs.”
-
-The officers gradually approached him, but Lehman, suspecting their
-intentions, at once started on the run. He had run only half a block
-when he was captured, put in irons and taken to the station. On his
-arrival, I asked him his name.
-
-“I’ll tell you my name, and that is all,” replied Lehman, in a surly
-mood and with an air of bravado. “I am not ashamed of my name, no
-matter if I am poor. I am as good a man as Grant. Now, don’t trouble me
-any more. I am closed, and you cannot open me with a crow-bar. Look at
-me and tell the newspapers you have seen me. I am ready to be locked
-up.”
-
-“Otto,” said I, “you have a brother named August, and he has a son by
-the name of Paul. That boy is a very good runner, and at the Haymarket,
-May 4, he was going to run and carry the news to outside men. The boy
-did run, but not with news for the waiting men. He kept running until
-he got out of town, and I know where he is. You will have him with you
-in a few days. So good-by, Otto; I will see you about the first of
-June. Officers, lock him up.”
-
-Otto was accordingly escorted down stairs. He had no sooner been placed
-in a cell than the officers learned the location of his boarding-house
-at the number given. They at once repaired to the place and gave
-it a thorough overhauling. They learned that immediately after the
-Haymarket, and especially since officers had been frequently noticed in
-the locality, many of the occupants had disappeared in a great hurry,
-some even forgetting the clean linen that hung in their back yards, and
-others neglecting to square their board bills.
-
-The officers searched the premises and found several loaded dynamite
-bombs, some showing conclusively that they had come from Lingg’s
-factory. It was subsequently learned that Lingg had furnished them to
-Lehman—one on the evening of May 4, at 58 Clybourn Avenue, and another
-shortly after, on the same street, near Larrabee. The bombs were all
-ready for use, and contained Lingg’s extra strong explosive, almost
-doubly as powerful as the ordinary commercial dynamite.
-
-Two days after his arrest, about eleven o’clock, Lehman was not in a
-very happy frame of mind. His dreams had not been pleasant, and the
-possibility of hanging haunted him continually. He told the janitor
-that he wanted to see the Captain. I sent back word that I could not
-see him until the next day. Again in the afternoon he sent the janitor
-to say that he must see me at once, and that he would not speak so
-defiantly as he had done before. Otto was thereupon brought up. As he
-came in, he took off his hat and apologized for his rude behavior.
-After inviting the Anarchist to take a seat, I remarked:
-
-“You know what you are arrested for?”
-
-“Oh, yes,” he replied.
-
-“Have you made up your mind, then, as to what you wish to say?”
-
-He answered in the affirmative.
-
-“Will you tell me all you know of the Anarchists ever since you became
-one of them?”
-
-Assent being given, I continued: “Now, you must understand I know a
-great deal of this work myself.”
-
-Otto said he so understood.
-
-“Well, I don’t want you to lie to me, and I don’t want you to lie about
-anybody else to benefit yourself. All you tell me must be true, and if
-I find that you conceal anything, I will consider you a liar and have
-nothing more to do with you.”
-
-“Oh, yes,” meekly and penitently replied Lehman, “I do agree with you
-on that point, and you will find me right. I will swear to all I say,
-and if I lie you can hang me in this station. But, Captain, I want
-something for telling the truth.”
-
-“Well,” I replied, “I will have the State’s Attorney or his
-representative here, and if he tells you to speak and promises to
-reward you, you can depend upon his word.”
-
-In the presence of Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann, Otto at once
-unburdened his mind and related his knowledge of Anarchy in Chicago.
-He also testified to a fact, made apparent in my interviews with other
-prisoners, that he, like others, had been carried away by “the d——d
-Anarchist literature,” as he expressed it, and that he now fully
-realized the utter folly of his past course. He had been told, he said,
-just as others had been told, by those who had lived in America for a
-long time, that this was a free country, and there was no law to stop
-them. “You can see for yourself,” they used to say to him, “they are
-all afraid of us. Nobody interferes with us. We have everything all our
-own way.”
-
-“That sort of talk,” said Lehman, “made me as bad as the rest of them.”
-
-He had fully believed, as his friends had informed him, that it was
-legal to talk dynamite, and that they could form plans for murder with
-impunity and without molestation. Mr. Furthmann read and explained the
-law to him, when he said:
-
-“I am glad now that I have been arrested.”
-
-And he demonstrated the sincerity of his statement by furnishing strong
-evidence against all the Anarchist leaders that he knew. He was kept
-in confinement until after the trial and then released by order of the
-State’s Attorney. He was forty years of age, a carpenter by occupation,
-and ever since his release he has attended to work and means to live
-until a good age to make amends for his past life.
-
-The statement he gave me was as follows:
-
- “I belong to the armed section of the International Carpenters’ group.
- Whenever we had a meeting, the armed section remained five minutes
- later. To my group belonged myself, my brother, William Hageman, who
- lives on Rees Street, over Lehman’s grocery store, also Hageman’s
- brother, who was boarding at the same place, Ernst Niendorf, on
- Groger Street, Waller, William Seliger, John Thielen and Louis Lingg,
- all of the North Side group; also Abraham Hermann, Lorenz Hermann,
- Ernst Hubner, Charley Bock and his brother, William Lange, Michael
- Schwab, Balthasar Rau, Rudolph Schnaubelt, Fischer and Huber. I
- attended a meeting, May 3, at 71 West Lake Street, at nine o’clock. I
- heard Louis Lingg speak there, also Schwab. I saw the circular there
- which called for revenge and to arms. Waller, or Zoller, opened the
- meeting as chairman. Lingg said at the meeting that they must arm
- themselves and attend the meeting at the Haymarket to get revenge
- for those workingmen who were killed at McCormick’s factory that day
- by the police. I also heard Schwab urge them to arm themselves and
- seek revenge on the police. I heard one man call out that all armed
- men present should go to Greif’s Hall, 54 West Lake Street, that a
- meeting would be held there in the basement. I went there, as also
- did my brother Gustav, the two Hagemans, Louis Lingg, Schnaubelt,
- Breitenfeld, John Thielen and Hubner. The meeting occurred at 54 West
- Lake Street. I was there during the whole session. My brother was on
- the outside watching. I heard the speaker say that there would be a
- meeting at the Haymarket and that they expected a big crowd there,
- which would give them a chance to use their arms. He also said that
- the police would no doubt come there to disperse them. If they refused
- to go, the police would shoot, and they would have a good chance to
- shoot at them. The speakers at that meeting would be Spies, Fielden
- and Parsons. The North Side armed group would meet at Neff’s Hall,
- 58 Clybourn Avenue, on Tuesday night, and they were to be ready with
- their arms and wait for orders. The Northwest Side group would also
- be ready and wait for orders. As soon as there was trouble at the
- Haymarket, they would be at Wicker Park ready for action. I heard the
- word ‘Ruhe’ spoken of at that meeting in the basement. If that word
- appeared in the paper—the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_—the next day, it would
- mean a revolution, and the attack on the police would be made that
- night. ‘Y, komme,’ was a sign published in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_,
- meaning that there would be a meeting of the armed men. When I saw
- that revenge circular at No. 71 West Lake Street, it excited me very
- much and brought me to the meeting at 54 West Lake Street. I saw
- Adolph Fischer at that meeting. He made an address to us calling us
- to arms and urged that we should take revenge on the capitalists and
- the officers who had killed our brother workingmen on that day at
- McCormick’s. This man Fischer, whose picture has just been shown me
- by the Captain, is the person who said he would see that circulars
- were printed for the Haymarket meeting next day. The word ‘Ruhe’ was
- our signal word, adopted by the meeting that night at 54 West Lake
- Street, to attack the police. I heard some one say at the meeting that
- we should also attack the police station-houses and the police who
- might be within. They should make dynamite bombs and have them ready
- to throw into the stations. Lingg said: ‘I will have the dynamite and
- bombs ready to be used when called for.’ I did not hear of any one
- else saying or offering to furnish dynamite bombs. I was about fifteen
- feet away from Lingg when he made the remark. Then I left the meeting
- and the hall. The unanimous understanding among us all was that all
- who desired bombs must go to Lingg and get them. And we did not look
- to any one else for them. It was further stated at the meeting that,
- in case we should see a patrol wagon on the night of the attack, we
- should destroy the wagon, the horses and the officers, so that they
- could not render assistance to the officers at the Haymarket. On
- Tuesday evening, May 4, at nine o’clock, I went to Neff’s Hall, 58
- Clybourn Avenue, and there I met both Hermanns, Rau, the Hagemans,
- Bock, Seliger and Lingg. Lingg gave me some of those long dynamite
- bombs and said: ‘Here, you take this and use it.’ He then started
- away. I heard that night—Tuesday—at eleven o’clock, at Ernst Grau’s
- saloon, that there had been some shooting that night, that a bomb had
- been thrown and that many were killed and wounded at the Haymarket. A
- tall man came into Neff’s Hall that night, May 4, at eleven o’clock,
- and told us about the shooting, the explosion of the bomb and the
- killing of the people. His clothes were all covered with mud, and he
- appeared greatly excited. He said: ‘You are having a good time here
- drinking beer. See how I look. I was over to the Haymarket and lost my
- revolvers.’ His name is August. He is the man—about thirty years of
- age, five feet ten inches tall, smooth face or a slight mustache, and
- is a bricklayer by occupation. [This was August Groge.] The dynamite
- bomb I had was made with a gas-pipe. My statement I will swear to at
- any time I am called upon.”
-
-The bomb he speaks of was among those found by Officer Hoffman at No.
-189 Hudson Avenue.
-
- * * * * *
-
-GUSTAV LEHMAN was arrested on the same day—May 20—with his brother
-Otto, only a little earlier in the morning. He was working as a
-carpenter, on a new building at the southwest corner of Sedgwick and
-Starr Streets, when Officers Schuettler and Hoffman accosted him, and
-his home at the time was at No. 41 Fremont Street, in the basement
-of a small building. He had a poor, sickly wife and six children.
-His wife,—who subsequently died in the County Hospital, in July,
-1888,—when she was notified of his arrest, said:
-
-“Well, I am very sorry for my dear husband, but now my words are coming
-true. He would take the last cent out of the house and run to meetings
-every night. Instead of leaving the money at home to buy clothing
-with for the children and medicine for myself, he would spend the
-last cent in saloons. At times when I heard him and others talk about
-capitalists, about an equal division of everything, I thought it all
-very foolish, and I would tell my husband so. The only answer he would
-give me was:
-
-“‘Oh, you old women don’t know anything. You come to our meetings, and
-there you will be enlightened and learn how we are going to have things
-before long.’
-
-[Illustration: GUSTAV LEHMAN.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-“I often told him, ‘You will have things so that you all will be locked
-up and beg for mercy and be glad to go to work and let other people
-alone.’ One day he didn’t work; he wanted to go to a meeting on the
-West Side. I reasoned with him and asked him to stay at home. I was
-afraid they would all be arrested for their foolish undertakings.
-Gustav got mad at me and said:
-
-“‘Now is our time or never. Before one month is over we will have
-things our own way. We have already got the capitalists, the militia
-and the police trembling in their boots. We are prepared, and, as soon
-as we strike the first blow, they will run away. Those that don’t run
-we will kill. We don’t expect to give them quarter.’”
-
-The poor woman had clearly foreseen the outcome, and with rare judgment
-and fine instinct, in spite of her lowly station in life, she had
-sought early and late to instill into her husband’s mind some practical
-ideas of life. Within the limited lines of her observation she had
-grasped the problem of social existence, its struggles, its sufferings
-and its rewards, and she intuitively knew that such changes as her
-husband and others of his ilk desired could never be brought about by
-revolution in a free country. She loved her husband tenderly, and would
-have made any sacrifice for him. But he, rather than forego attendance
-at a single meeting, preferred that wife and children should suffer
-want. He kept his family in constant suspense and ranted like a madman.
-
-Lehman was a man about forty-five years of age, weighed two hundred
-pounds, and, although he had only the use of one eye, he was a good
-mechanic.
-
-When he was brought to the station he was asked his name.
-
-“I don’t give any name,” he answered, somewhat indignantly.
-
-“Why not?” asked I, in a pacific tone of voice.
-
-“Because,” was the gruff answer, “I don’t want anything to do with you.”
-
-“Oh, you don’t. I am pleased to make your acquaintance. We don’t find
-such a great man as you are every day. Officer, take this man to a safe
-place down stairs and leave him there until we want him again.”
-
-“Well, you don’t scare me any,” thundered the burly Lehman.
-
-“Well, now, we don’t want to scare you,” retorted I pleasantly, “but I
-thought you needed rest. You won’t feel so tired when you see us again.
-You will find more of your friends down stairs. If you talk to any one,
-you will be taken away from here and sent to the Desplaines Street
-Station.”
-
-At the last remark Lehman winced perceptibly. The name of the
-Desplaines Street Station grated harshly on his ear, and he evidently
-felt that I had some surprise in store for him. He could have lightly
-passed by any other thrusts, but this nettled him. It was made for a
-purpose. I knew that all Anarchists had an intense hatred for that
-station, and greater than their hatred of the place was their anger
-against Bonfield, who had charge of it. They would rather suffer
-torments anywhere else than be cast into a cell in that place.
-
-But Lehman shortly recovered his equanimity, and, assuming a stolid
-indifference to his surroundings, remarked:
-
-“If you think you can make me ‘squeal,’ you are badly mistaken.”
-
-“Oh, no; we don’t want you to ‘squeal,’” said I. “We are rather afraid
-you will beg to be allowed to come here and sit on your knees to
-tell us all you know about making bombs and dynamite—all about your
-meetings—how often you have presided at meetings and how much dynamite
-you got from Lingg; and to tell us all about your brother, and where
-your son is hiding now, and where you placed the bombs that you carried
-around in your pocket on May 4; how bad a headache you had after
-filling the bombs with dynamite at Seliger’s house. You see, August, we
-simply want to call your attention to all these little things—that’s
-all.”
-
-This charge proved a little too strong for the doughty Lehman. He
-had kept up his courage well, but the rapidity of the assault, the
-dark secrets hinted at and the insinuations made had taxed his powers
-of resistance almost beyond endurance. His facial muscles twitched,
-and for a moment he wrestled with himself. He asked for a glass of
-water, and, quaffing its contents to the last drop, he rallied and
-straightened himself as if determined to hold out in spite of his
-nerves. Recovering his breath and struggling with his emotions, he said:
-
-“If you have the power to hang me, do so. I have belonged to the cause
-so long that I will die before I reveal anything.”
-
-That was sufficient. Lehman was taken down stairs and locked up. The
-very next morning he sent the janitor to my office with a request
-to see me. I told the janitor that I was very busy and could not be
-interrupted unless Lehman had something very important to communicate.
-To this Lehman replied that he had discovered that there were other men
-locked up down stairs, and he was satisfied that if they had a chance
-they would “squeal.” Would I accord him an interview? He was brought
-up, and, in the presence of Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann and
-the officers, proceeded to unfold a very remarkable tale. He began
-very cautiously, evidently following the instructions laid down in
-John Most’s book for Anarchists in trouble, but, as the questions were
-plied upon him, he soon discovered that he was in a very “tight box.”
-He finally asked if there was any prospect of his being hung. He was
-informed that he must tell all he knew, and all must be true; that we
-did not want him to try to lie himself out of his trouble or tell a
-falsehood against an innocent man. Probably he would be called on to
-testify in court, and, of course, if he was a witness for the State, he
-would not be hanged.
-
-“I do trust you men,” he said, and revealed all the secrets that he
-knew, without reserve as to his own deeds and the experiences he
-had had with the other Anarchists. His statement gave the officers
-important points.
-
-After the trial, Lehman declared he had no more use for Anarchy. He
-became a good husband and a kind father. In 1889 he married again, and,
-strange to say, Officer Nordrum acted as “best man” at the ceremony.
-The nature of Gustav’s testimony appears in the evidence he gave at the
-trial.
-
-ABRAHAM HERMANN was a man of different temperament; but, after his
-arrest, he showed a somewhat similar disposition as to secretiveness
-and stubbornness. He was arrested on the evening of May 10 at eight
-o’clock. He lived at No. 25 Clybourn Avenue. He was about thirty-four
-years of age, medium build, and weighed about 185 pounds. He was of
-dark complexion, wore a full black beard, had sharp, piercing eyes,
-and from thinking much on Anarchy, had come to present a sickly
-appearance. He did not look at all vicious, however, and was very quiet
-in his manner. He was a good machinist and fully conversant with the
-German language. In conversation he was slow and deliberate, evidently
-thinking twice before speaking.
-
-At the time Abraham was taken in charge, his brother Lorenz was also
-arrested. Abraham’s house had been searched a week before, and two
-rifles had been found and taken to the station. When the officers met
-the brothers, they were told to come to the station to identify their
-property, and when they set foot inside my office they were notified
-that they were under arrest. They manifested no surprise. Abraham was
-asked if he had anything to say. He wanted to know what about, and when
-informed that we wanted information about Anarchy, he slowly replied
-that he “did not know any Anarchists.”
-
-“You can probably tell us something about how to drill Anarchists and
-how much profit you made on the rifles, or the 44-caliber Remington
-revolvers; or perhaps tell us how many men you had in your command on
-the night of the 4th of May around this station, and tell us about the
-trouble you had with Lingg in Neff’s Hall at eleven o’clock, May 4th,
-after the explosion of the bomb at the Haymarket.”
-
-[Illustration: ZEPF’S HALL. From a Photograph.]
-
-I could have put a few more queries, but I stopped to watch the
-effect. Abraham’s eyes bulged out for a moment in surprise, but not
-a word did he have to say. He was at once locked up, and for nearly
-three days betrayed no signs of weakening. On the third day he showed
-a little anxiety and expressed a desire to see me. He was brought
-up, but, getting into a comfortable room, where the light of day
-made all surroundings cheerful, he became rather buoyant and seemed
-loth to depress the spirits of others by unfolding harrowing tales
-of Anarchistic plots. I tried to engage him in conversation, but the
-answers came in monosyllables and with a sort of guttural emphasis.
-The situation was becoming very tiresome. I thought Abraham had
-suddenly been seized with the lockjaw, but determined to fathom the
-man’s mind. I urged him not to be guided by Most’s book,—we understood
-that,—but to speak out if he had any information to give. If he had
-nothing to impart, to say so. He promptly saw that the situation was
-growing critical, and that, if he still refrained from speaking,
-possibly his last chance for saving himself might be gone. He relaxed
-the muscles of his face, opened his lips and prepared to talk. It was a
-great effort, but he evidently realized that something must be done.
-
-“Well,” he finally drawled out, “I don’t know what to tell you. It
-seems to me you people know about everything and have things down as
-correctly as I can give them to you. And you know all about me, too.
-I say this for myself: I don’t know anything about the laws of the
-country. I have been told by people that ought to know better, that for
-what we were doing there was no law. I now see my mistake.”
-
-Hermann then gave information on himself and others, and stated that he
-had never liked Lingg. Lingg, he remarked, was the most rabid Anarchist
-he had ever seen, and he almost believed that the man had a dynamite
-bomb in his head. He himself had never had anything to say in favor of
-the use of dynamite. He was a military man, and believed in the use of
-rifles. He had held that all the Anarchists should be well drilled and
-that no man should carry arms unless he knew how to use them. He was
-opposed to throwing stones or fighting in the streets. He believed in
-swords and good riflemen, and he was one of that class. His idea was
-never to undertake anything until fully prepared, and when they were
-prepared to let their work show the result.
-
-During the interview he was very cautious in his statements, but he did
-not spare the leaders. At the same time he would not implicate any one
-of no special consequence in the order. His statement, however, was
-as sweeping as it was surprising. He was implicitly believed by the
-officers, as candor and earnestness were manifest in his disclosures.
-
-Hermann was indicted by the grand jury, but after he had been in
-custody for awhile he was released by order of the State’s Attorney. At
-the beginning of the trial he was brought in again and confined until
-its termination. He was then given his liberty. He has since become an
-industrious man, and has only had two or three relapses by attending
-some of the open, public meetings. He now declares, however, that he is
-through with Anarchy.
-
-What he had to say to Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann, myself and
-the officers was this:
-
- “I have belonged to the North Side armed group since 1883. The members
- of the group are as follows: Schwab, Rau, Huber, Neebe, the two
- Lehmans, Thielen, Lingg, Hubner, Seliger, Lange, Schnaubelt, Lorenz
- Hermann, Abraham Hermann, the two Hagemans, Heyman, Niendorf and
- Charley Bock. We were about forty men strong on the North Side. I
- do not know anything about the word ‘Ruhe.’ On Monday, May 3, at 9
- P.M., I attended a meeting of the metal-workers at Seamen’s Hall, on
- Randolph, near Jefferson Street. I saw August Spies. He was passing
- and handing out some of the circulars that called for revenge upon the
- law and the police. Spies was at the meeting when I got there, and he
- had a handful of those circulars. I saw Spies busying himself around
- the meeting talking to the people. The secretary of this meeting was
- a man named Hahneman. Lange was president. I belong to the North Side
- branch of the same union. But this was a general meeting. I only knew
- a few of the members present. The president of the meeting works for
- a firm on Wabash Avenue—a brass-finisher named Andrew or Andre. When
- I left this meeting at ten o’clock I went to 54 West Lake Street. As
- I came into the saloon some one said that there was a meeting down
- stairs. I went down. Waller was president of that meeting. I also saw
- Fischer there. I know Schnaubelt. He was there. When the question came
- up about printing the circulars for the Haymarket meeting, Fischer
- said that he would see to it. Some one suggested that letters should
- be sent to the armed people or members in surrounding cities near
- Chicago, asking them to attend to the police and militia there, so
- that they could not come to the assistance of the officers or police
- of this city. On my opposition the proposition was dropped. I saw
- Hubner and Lingg at that meeting. As I came in some one said, ‘Lingg
- is going to attend to that.’ I understood it to mean furnishing the
- dynamite bombs. I saw the meeting was intended for mischief, and I
- left the place. At a meeting May 4, at 8:30 P.M., in the hall in the
- rear of Neff’s saloon, 58 Clybourn Avenue, I heard that the plan of
- operation decided upon was the same as given to the armed men at 54
- West Lake Street. So far as I remember the plan, it was something like
- this: Some of the armed men were to go to the police stations, and,
- if the police were called out, to throw dynamite bombs among them,
- set the houses on fire and keep the police on the North Side. As far
- as I know, the Northwest Side group had a similar plan. Lingg was not
- there at this time. All members present were anxious to see him come,
- waiting for bombs. I was in the hall about an hour. I went back again
- the same evening—May 4—about eleven o’clock. The first I heard of
- any trouble was about 10:30. A man whose name is Anton Hirschberger
- came into the saloon and told us that there had been a riot at the
- Haymarket. At the same time a tall man came in and said he had been at
- the riot, that a lot of bullets flew around them, a bomb had exploded,
- and that either some one had stolen his revolver or he had lost it.
- Then Neff said he was going to close up his place, the hour being
- eleven o’clock. On Wednesday, May 5, I met Lingg and Seliger at that
- place. I was surprised at meeting Lingg there, because I thought then
- that he ought to have been locked up. Lingg spoke to me and said, ‘You
- are nice cowards.’ I replied that he had better keep his mouth shut,
- as he was the cause of the whole affair. Hubner and I were there to
- attend a meeting of our people to be held on the quiet in Lincoln
- Park. We were to meet at the park because we expected it would not be
- safe to hold it anywhere else. What led me to think that Lingg ought
- to have been locked up was because he was always advocating the use
- of dynamite and bombs. That a bomb had been thrown was a fact, and I
- thought Lingg ought to have been arrested for it.”
-
- On May 31, Hermann made another statement, as follows:
-
- “I know August Spies. He is the editor of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_
- of this city. I knew him to write several articles on revolution.
- I was elected as an agent at a general meeting to procure and sell
- arms. This was in October last—1885. Balthasar Rau was chairman of
- that meeting. We had several men as a committee. They were called
- the Bureau of Information. It was composed of Parsons, from the
- English section; Charles Bock, German, also assistant secretary to
- Rau; Hirschberger, French, and Mikolanda, Bohemian. Every Anarchist
- looked to that bureau for information. I used to get my guns from New
- York, from a man named Seeger. He lives on Third Avenue.
-
-[Illustration: TIMMERHOF HALL,
-
-No. 703 Milwaukee Avenue. From a Photograph.]
-
- He was the middleman between me and the factory where the arms were
- made. I got twenty-five revolvers last February. They were shipped
- direct to me at No. 25 Clybourn Avenue. I sold them all at cost price
- to members. That was $6.50. The last two revolvers I sold May 3,
- 1886—one to a man named Asher, and the other to August, a bricklayer.
- Before that I sold one revolver to Schnaubelt, one to Lingg and one
- to Seliger. It was Schnaubelt who proposed at the meeting held at
- 54 West Lake Street, May 3, to notify outside cities, but I told
- him it was all nonsense. About two weeks before this meeting I met
- Breitenfeld in a saloon, and said that I had often heard this letter
- ‘Y,’ and I was bound to find out its meaning when it appeared in the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. Breitenfeld said that it meant a meeting of the
- armed men, and told me to wait and he would get me into the meeting.
- I waited for a long time—about an hour. Then he came out, and I was
- admitted with him. I was in the meeting with him for an hour, and then
- it adjourned. I have known Lingg for six months. At the meeting at 54
- West Lake Street on the evening of May 3, it was supposed then that
- the police would interfere at the Haymarket, and then there would be a
- chance for a riot. Four members of the North Side group were detailed
- at that meeting as spies. If the riot should be a failure and we
- should get beaten by the police, our gathering-places after that would
- be at Center Park, Humboldt Park, St. Michael’s Church, Lincoln Park
- and Wicker Park. The signal of attack after the riot had commenced
- was to be an illumination of the heavens by red fires. Some one asked
- for dynamite, and he was answered that Lingg would furnish the stuff.
- The different spies detailed at that meeting were to hold a meeting
- the next day, each division for itself, and afterwards in a body at
- Zepf’s Hall, to perfect all arrangements for the riot. I accused Lingg
- of making dynamite bombs, and told him that if any trouble grew out
- of it, it would be on his account. He called me a coward. I knew that
- Lingg was in trouble in Philadelphia shortly before he left there.”
-
-LORENZ HERMANN was twenty-six years of age, of slim build, with a very
-sallow face, and apparently a consumptive. His occupation was that
-of a brass-molder, and he was a good workman. On his arrival at the
-station he expressed great surprise at the impudence of the officers in
-compelling him to come against his will. He was asked his name, and he
-gave it. When requested to spell it, he said he did not know how; all
-he knew was that it was Lorenz Hermann. Being questioned with reference
-to Anarchy, he replied that he did not know anything about it, and when
-accused of having taken part in the revolutionary plot, he said he had
-not taken as great a part in it as his brother had. He soon discovered
-that the police had a great deal of information about his brother, and
-then he changed his tactics by trying to smooth things over for Abraham.
-
-“My brother,” he said, “is married and has a family. I am single. I
-want to see my brother out of this trouble; no matter about me.”
-
-“Well, then,” I interposed, “why not tell us something?”
-
-“Me?” asked Lorenz. “I don’t know anything to tell.”
-
-He had evidently changed his mind on the spur of the moment, and he
-grew exceedingly reticent.
-
-“Well,” said I, “I will tell you something then. I will call your
-attention to May 4, between the hours of 8:30 and 10:30 P.M. You were
-around this station with about nineteen other men, and among them was
-your brother. You were to throw bombs into the patrol wagon in case the
-police were called out to go to the West Side to assist the police at
-the Haymarket, but you remained a little too long in a saloon on Clark
-Street. When you came out and reached the corner of Superior Street and
-La Salle Avenue, you saw three patrol wagons loaded with police going
-south on LaSalle Avenue, but you were not near enough to throw a bomb.
-This made you very angry. Then some of you went to Moody’s church and
-remained there for some time. When you finally saw so many policemen
-coming to the station you all got scared and went to the hall at 58
-Clybourn Avenue. Oh, by the way, which route did you take on leaving
-the station? Did you go to the Haymarket or to Neff’s Hall?”
-
-“I was at the Haymarket,” replied Lorenz.
-
-“Is it not true—all that I told you about the station?”
-
-“Yes, that is true,” responded Lorenz. “Some one told me about it.”
-
-“Who told you?”
-
-“I don’t know.”
-
-“You lie,” said I. “You must tell us who; that is the man we are after.”
-
-Seeing that he was gradually being cornered by his evasive replies, he
-put on a bold front to the whole matter and answered:
-
-“Well, I was there myself. I did not stay very long, and from there I
-went to the Haymarket. I think Hageman and I went together.”
-
-Further questioning only brought out sullen responses, with very
-meager information, but, after being allowed to think the matter over,
-he finally concluded to make a clean breast of it. He was kept busy
-with explanations for some time, and he gave me some very pointed
-information. He was indicted by the grand jury and afterwards released
-by order of the State’s Attorney. Lorenz has never been heard of since,
-but it is supposed he is now leading a quiet life and proving himself a
-better man.
-
-His statement, among other things corroborative of what others had
-divulged, contains the following:
-
- “At a meeting held at 58 Clybourn Avenue, I heard Engel say that if
- they wanted to make bombs they could find plenty of gas-pipe on the
- West Side, in the city yards, near the Chicago Avenue bridge, and
- then if they wanted to learn how to make them they could come to him.
- All that was necessary was to cut the pipes up into lengths of six or
- eight inches, fill them with dynamite and put a wooden plug at each
- end. He had with him at the time his daughter, who was about fifteen
- or sixteen years of age. I saw Hirschberger, Hageman and Charles Bock
- at eleven o’clock on the evening of Tuesday, May 4, in Neff’s place,
- at 58 Clybourn Avenue. Hirschberger told those present about the riot
- on the West Side. I was at the Haymarket meeting in the company of
- Hageman, the carpenter. Two men stood close together near me, and they
- looked suspicious. I was there at the time the police came up. I got
- frightened and ran away. I ran without stopping till I reached Neff’s
- place, on the North Side. I found my brother there, and I told him
- about the throwing of the bomb, its explosion and what happened. I
- did not want to get mixed up in the affair, and that is the reason I
- declined to speak at first. I belonged to the armed men of the North
- Side. The revolvers and guns my brother sold he got from a factory in
- New York. He sold about twelve guns to the Socialists. He sold a box
- full of revolvers, about twenty in a box, for $6.90 a piece. For seven
- months my brother acted as agent, under appointment, to procure and
- sell guns and revolvers.”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVI.
-
- Pushing the Anarchists—A Scene on a Street-car—How Herman
- Muntzenberg Gave Himself Away—The Secret Signal—“D——n the
- Informers”—A Satchelful of Bombs—More about Engel’s Murderous
- Plan—Drilling the Lehr und Wehr Verein—Breitenfeld’s Cowardice—An
- Anarchist Judas—The Hagemans—Dynamite in Gas-pipe—An Admirer of
- Lingg—A Scheme to Remove the Author—The Hospitalities of the Police
- Station—Mr. Jebolinski’s Indignation—A Bogus Milkman—An Unwilling
- Visitor—Mistaken for a Detective—An Eccentric Prisoner—Division of
- Labor at the Dynamite Factory—Clermont’s Dilemma—The Arrangements
- for the Haymarket.
-
-
-THE Anarchists, both in and out of prison, had begun to discover about
-this time that there was a law in the land, and that its majesty would
-be vindicated. They were confronted with stubborn, serious facts,
-and they realized that they were in a world of perplexities. They
-had been circumvented at every step in their efforts at concealment,
-and their plot had been revealed in its most essential parts. Their
-leaders had been gathered in, and their comrades were being arrested
-every day. Cunning and shrewd as they supposed themselves to be, they
-had discovered that society was equal to the task of probing their
-secrets. At first they had assumed an air of bravado and indifference,
-but, seeing how easily their bluff could be called and how closely we
-had the record of each, they realized that evasion or silence was not
-calculated either to keep their necks out of the halter or to save them
-from the penitentiary. Those arrested nearly all turned craven cowards,
-and this situation of affairs did not contribute to the comfort of
-those still outside, who were in momentary dread of apprehension.
-Arrest followed arrest, and Mr. Furthmann and I were kept exceedingly
-busy in directing the taking of confessions and assimilating the
-material for future use. Still the good work went on.
-
-The first victim, after the Hermann brothers, to fall under police
-control was Herman Muntzenberg. He was arrested on the evening of May
-20, at eight o’clock, and the circumstances attending his arrest were
-somewhat peculiar. On the evening in question, Officers Schuettler and
-Hoffman were transferring the Hermann brothers from the Larrabee Street
-Station to the Chicago Avenue Station. They boarded an open street-car
-with their prisoners, whom they placed on a rear seat facing front,
-stationing themselves immediately behind on the platform. In the middle
-of the car, facing to the rear, sat a stranger. Presently the officers
-noticed that the man was making signs to the Hermanns. In response,
-Lorenz Hermann placed his right hand over his mouth. This was followed
-by another sign from the stranger. Officer Schuettler recognized the
-fact that the man was a friend of the Hermanns, and he requested the
-prisoners not to divulge the officers’ identity. The stranger seemed
-to be in doubt about something, left his seat, and, placing himself
-at the side of Abraham Hermann, started a conversation. He appeared to
-be an old acquaintance. This was sufficient for the officers. When the
-car reached the corner of Wells Street and Chicago Avenue, the stranger
-was about to leave. He was quietly told by the officers not to trouble
-himself just then to get off the car, but to keep his seat a little
-while longer. Naturally the man was surprised at this request of men
-whom he did not know, and indignantly declined to ride any farther. The
-officers promptly told him to consider himself under arrest and not to
-move if he valued his life. They had in the meantime recognized the man
-as the little fellow who had carried the satchel filled with dynamite
-bombs to Neff’s Hall, along with Lingg. It was Herman Muntzenberg.
-
-[Illustration: HERMANN MUNTZENBERG.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-The three prisoners were taken to the station, and Muntzenberg was
-locked up by himself over night. The next day he was brought into my
-office. The density of his ignorance respecting Anarchy or Anarchists
-was astonishing. Like the rest, he absolutely knew nothing. Some days
-afterwards, however, he took a different view of things. A confession
-was looked for, and he was given an opportunity.
-
-“I see everybody is in trouble,” Muntzenberg began dolefully. “I am in
-for it myself. I cannot help anybody; nobody can help me.”
-
-He hesitated, as if trying to decide what he should do, but finally,
-nerving himself, he continued:
-
-“I will bear my own trouble. I will hurt no one else.”
-
-“Ah,” said I, “there is Hermann, for instance; there are other people
-also who have given you away. They have all professed to be your
-friends in times past, and now they are trying to save their own necks
-and hang you. So you want to remain silent under their charges? Have
-you nothing to tell on the others?”
-
-“That would do me no good,” answered Muntzenberg.
-
-“Then,” said I, “what have you to say about yourself?”
-
-“You don’t know the least thing about me,” defiantly remarked the
-little man.
-
-“Probably you had such a bad headache from the smell of dynamite that
-you can’t remember anything.”
-
-“Who told you I had a headache?” broke in Muntzenberg, now intensely
-interested.
-
-“Were you not afraid,” I continued, not heeding the interruption, “that
-you would fall into the basement when you sat on the iron railing
-at the corner of North Avenue and Larrabee Street, near the police
-station, or did you feel confident that the bombs you had in your
-pocket would hold you in your place? Another thing—you are not in the
-habit of smoking cigars. Did they make you sick?”
-
-Muntzenberg had remained somewhat passive up to this last shot, but
-he suddenly showed there was a good deal of vitality in him. His eyes
-flashed with excitement, and he was all attention.
-
-“By the way,” I went on, “how much weight can you carry?”
-
-“What do you mean?” interposed the anxious listener.
-
-“I mean how much did that gray satchel weigh that you carried to 58
-Clybourn Avenue May 4, about eight o’clock?”
-
-“D——n the informers,” ejaculated the now irate little Anarchist.
-“Give me an hour to think matters over and call me again.”
-
-He was sent back to his cell, and on the expiration of two hours he was
-brought back. He entered the office very meekly, and at once said:
-
-“Captain, I see it is no use for me to be stubborn. Will you treat me
-like the others, if I tell all I have seen and what I have done myself?”
-
-“I promise you the same right and privilege.”
-
-Muntzenberg made his statement and was released by order of the State’s
-Attorney. He was a German, twenty-eight years old, five feet seven
-inches tall, stoutly built, with large head and eyes, and followed
-the trade of a blacksmith. At the time of his arrest he lived at No.
-95 North Wells Street. On his release he promised to testify whenever
-wanted, but about the middle of the trial he took a leave of absence
-and has never been seen since. Once it was reported that he was dead,
-but the report could not be verified. Muntzenberg was a warm admirer
-of Lingg, Spies and Engel, and a persistent worker for their cause.
-He often lost several days’ work in a week to saunter out into the
-country, selling Most’s books and telling people to arm themselves.
-He earned good wages when he worked, and spent it all for Anarchy.
-Like others, he acknowledged that he had been led astray by incendiary
-literature. His statement was as follows:
-
- “On May 4, about eight o’clock, I was sent to meet two men who carried
- a satchel filled with dynamite shells or bombs. I met them about a
- block from Thüringer Hall, 58 Clybourn Avenue. I told them that I had
- been asked to meet them and help carry the satchel. They said, ‘All
- right.’ I took it from them, put it on my shoulder and carried it to
- the hall. The satchel weighed about thirty pounds. In the afternoon
- of that day, about four o’clock, I came to the North Side and went
- to Hubner’s house, No. 11 Mohawk Street. He was not at home. I went
- out to look for him. I have known him for some time. I found him. The
- second time I wanted to see him I went to his house and found him at
- home in his room making transparencies for that night’s meeting at the
- Haymarket. He took lunch then, and after that we went to Seliger’s
- house, No. 442 Sedgwick Street. Reaching there, Hubner told Lingg
- and Seliger that I was his friend and all right. In the room of Lingg
- I saw two guns and two revolvers. Seliger was filling the bombs with
- dynamite. Lingg was cutting the fuse. One of them asked me if I had
- any sores on my hand. I said no. ‘Then,’ they said, ‘you can help
- us.’ My task was to fill in with dynamite the long gas-pipe shells. I
- filled six or eight shells or bombs. My head commenced to ache from
- the smell of the dynamite, so that I could not work any longer. Hubner
- also worked, putting caps on the fuse. I saw three or four men in the
- house at the time. I saw about ten round lead bombs on the bed, all
- empty. After they were finished they were put under the bed. I noticed
- about sixteen of the long gas-pipe shells or bombs about the room. At
- dark Hubner and I went to Neff’s Hall. Before leaving I saw one of
- the two, Lingg or Seliger, bring in a satchel and empty it of dirty
- clothes. As we were approaching the hall, Hubner asked me to see if
- they were coming. I went to see, and met them in the alley near the
- street. Both were carrying the satchel, each having hold of the ends
- of the handles on the satchel. I asked if I should help them. They
- answered yes. As they were tall men, I could not carry it with either
- one, and so I put it on my shoulder and carried it myself. I took it
- into the rear hall back of the saloon. After a little while one of
- them asked me where I had placed the satchel. I told him. He said that
- was not the right place and asked me to bring it back. So I went after
- it and put it into the narrow hallway. The satchel was two feet long,
- eighteen inches high and sixteen inches wide. It was covered with gray
- canvas. It weighed about thirty pounds. When I left Seliger’s house at
- dark, I took along with me three long bombs. I did so because one of
- the men there told me to do so. I knew they were bombs in the satchel
- when I carried them. Some one passed us on the street as we were going
- to the hall. Lingg said: ‘Those are heavy tools,’ meaning the contents
- of the satchel, to throw the party we met off his guard. I threw
- the three bombs I had into the lake on my way to Pullman, because I
- learned they were dangerous and I did not want them any longer. I
- saw at Neff’s Hall that night, May 4, a crowd of men together for a
- while, and then they began to part. They went away in groups of five
- or six. They all went on Clybourn Avenue to Larrabee Street. As we got
- to Larrabee Street, they all separated and spread on Larrabee Street.
- I went up to North Avenue and Larrabee Street to the police station
- with a strange man. I remained there for some time. I saw Seliger and
- Lingg near the station, going north on Larrabee Street. When I was at
- Seliger’s house one of the five men present said to me to throw bombs
- into the police station to kill the police, and if any patrol wagons
- escaped and came out to throw bombs into the wagons among the officers
- and shoot the horses. This was for the purpose of preventing them from
- giving assistance to each other. I smoked a cigar that night so that
- I would have a fire ready to light the bombs with and throw them if
- necessary. I only smoke cigars on Sundays, and, as I am not accustomed
- to smoke much, the cigar made me sick. I sat for some time on an
- iron railing on Larrabee Street, opposite the police station, on the
- southeast corner. I sat there about fifteen minutes. The wagon failed
- to come out, and, as I felt sick and could not do much anyway, I went
- home. Lingg and Seliger walked ahead of me. I saw them last when
- they crossed North Avenue, going north on Larrabee Street. The next
- evening I went to No. 58 Clybourn Avenue. I met Hubner, and he said
- that on the night of the shooting he was at Lincoln Park. I recognize
- this picture now shown me as being that of Seliger. I saw him making
- dynamite bombs at 442 Sedgwick Street on the afternoon of May 4 in
- company with Lingg. The man I have seen locked up in this station I
- saw working and making dynamite bombs in company with Seliger, and his
- name is Louis Lingg. When I was at Seliger’s house, Hubner told me to
- go to Lincoln Park, and there I would get my instructions.”
-
-THE NEXT Anarchist brought into the station was AUGUST GRAGGE. He was
-a German, twenty-eight years of age, straight and stoutly built, a
-bricklayer by trade, and lived at No. 880 North Halsted Street. He was
-arrested on the 24th of May. I gave him an evening’s audience shortly
-after. It was apparent from his demeanor that he was a young man easily
-led astray by men of force and decision of character; therefore it was
-no wonder that he had become an extreme Anarchist, especially since he
-had been thrown a great deal into the company of some of the rankest
-leaders in the order and had attended meetings where gore and plunder
-formed the chief topics of discussion. When the authorities took him in
-hand, he soon modified his opinions. He stated that, like a great many
-others, he had been misled to believe that Anarchist doctrines were
-right and that no law existed to interfere with them; but after the
-law had been read to him, he acknowledged that he had pursued a wrong
-course. He had been a man of sober habits, and on being questioned he
-told a very straightforward story. After giving such information as he
-possessed he was released by the State’s Attorney, and he promised to
-mend his ways.
-
-The statement he made to me was as follows:
-
- “A man by the name of Lange and another, August Asher, coaxed me into
- the armed group. Charles Bock was our secretary four or five weeks
- ago. I heard Rau and Lingg speak in Neff’s Hall. Lingg spoke about
- dynamite and called on us to arm ourselves. They also wanted us to
- buy revolvers. I bought one—a big one—for $4. I paid $2 down. Asher
- and I went to the meeting at the Haymarket on the evening of May 4. I
- saw the circular that called that meeting. We had our big revolvers
- with us when we went there. When the shooting commenced we ran. I fell
- down, and about forty men ran over me and kept me down. I then lost
- my revolver. We had a meeting on Monday night, May 3, at Neff’s Hall.
- Abraham Hermann had three or four revolvers for sale. Asher always
- kept the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, and at times I would read it. The first
- man I heard speak at the Haymarket was August Spies, then Parsons,
- and Fielden, next I saw Schnaubelt standing on the wagon with Spies.
- On account of its looking like rain it was decided to go to Zepf’s
- Hall. Parsons, however, told the people to remain, as he only had a
- few more words. The police finally came. Some of the people started
- to go away, but some one in a loud voice urged them to remain. Then
- firing commenced. I heard the explosion of the bomb. As I stated, I
- fell down. As soon as I could get up I started to run for the North
- Side. I went to Neff’s Hall. I found there several that I knew. I told
- them I had lost my revolver and then explained what had happened at
- the Haymarket. I carried my revolver in my hip pocket, and it dropped
- out as I fell. The revolver was loaded. I know Lingg. I have heard him
- speak at least four or five times. He would always call on the people
- to arm themselves. He also said that they were too slow in getting
- arms and that the time would come for their use and they ought to be
- ready.”
-
-GUSTAV BREITENFELD was next arrested. He was a German, aged thirty,
-a brush-maker by trade, and lived in the lower flat of a two-story
-house at No. 18 Samuel Street. On May 4 he was commander of the second
-company of the Lehr und Wehr Verein, and he had previously taken an
-active part at all Anarchist meetings. He was regarded as a star
-Anarchist on the Northwest Side, and frequently visited the house of
-George Engel.
-
-Gustav was an Anarchist jumping-jack. All that the leaders had to do
-was to pull the strings, and he responded. He served on all committees,
-and whenever in doubt as to any course of procedure he went to Engel
-for advice. He lacked judgment and brains, and he sought to make up the
-deficiency by consulting the leaders. But withal he was a dangerous
-man. He was quick-tempered, but a coward when he thought he was not
-likely to get the best of the situation.
-
-On the night of May 4 he had his company ready near the city limits
-to murder people and set fire to buildings, only awaiting orders to
-set about the work of general destruction. They expected to see the
-police flee from the Haymarket, but as the reds did the running on
-that occasion, the combination failed. Their “signal” committees were
-scattered and their comrades became demoralized at the unexpected
-charge of the police.
-
-Breitenfeld and his company heard the shooting at their place of
-_rendezvous_, and, failing to receive the signal to begin the attack,
-he went to Engel’s house to ascertain what was wrong. Learning of the
-drubbing his comrades had received at the Haymarket, he was not anxious
-to take similar “medicine,” and he skulked away like a whipped cur. A
-house had been chosen near the limits for the incendiary torches of his
-company, and it would have been in flames on their first advance if
-they had received the signal. But the company were dismissed, and all
-hurried home to escape danger. For two weeks they were in mortal dread
-of the police.
-
-If, however, these misguided men had been started that night, with all
-things in their favor, there is no telling what fearful havoc they
-would have created. The company was composed of men desperate enough,
-under proper encouragement, to have murdered people asleep or awake.
-They would have held high carnival if the Haymarket meeting had come
-out according to expectations, and the able-bodied and the helpless
-would have suffered alike at their hands. Their plan was to shoot or
-stab everybody who opposed their onward march into the city, and,
-crazed with success, they would have hesitated at nothing.
-
-Breitenfeld knew all the villainous arrangements, and he was therefore
-a man the police sought after. He was found on the 25th of May, at
-about seven o’clock, by Officers Stift and Schuettler, and brought to
-the Chicago Avenue Station. When I had the honor of meeting him, he
-at once assumed military airs, but he soon found himself reduced to
-the ranks. As he was one of the few who understood English, the law on
-conspiracies was read to him. Then he was informed that he had been
-indicted, and was told what could be proved against him. He became
-terribly excited, could hardly speak, but finally managed to say:
-
-“Gentlemen, you have got the wrong man. You want to get my brother. I
-am not that Breitenfeld. I am a good, peaceable man.”
-
-He was informed that lies were at a discount in the station just then,
-and that if he desired to speak and tell the truth an opportunity would
-be given him. If not, we would tolerate no nonsense. He refrained from
-speaking, and was sent below.
-
-The next day he sent word that he wanted to see me. He was brought up,
-and on being seated before Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann and all
-the officers, he said:
-
-“Gentlemen, I beg your pardon. I told you a lie. I am the man you want.
-I have a wife and family, and I love them. I beg of you now, if you let
-me speak, I will tell the truth and everything I know.”
-
-“Tell all you know,” said I, “and remember that I will know when you
-tell a falsehood.”
-
-“I know you have everything by this time. If I tell you all and become
-a witness against these other fellows, will you let me go?”
-
-“If you tell all and the truth, I will see the State’s Attorney for you
-and ask him to take you as a witness.”
-
-Breitenfeld thereupon made a statement, and a few days later he was
-released. When subsequently called on to testify, he refused to do so.
-He had told others that the State could not convict anybody, and he
-would not help the prosecution. He was, therefore, let alone. He is
-still under indictment. With the lesson he had received it was thought
-he would reform. In this we were mistaken. He has since attended a
-number of meetings, and at the funeral of Mrs. Neebe turned out with
-his company. He is the same unrepentant Anarchist that he was before
-his trouble, but he is being carefully watched wherever he goes.
-
-This is what he swore to at the station in the presence of Mr.
-Furthmann, myself and the officers:
-
- “My name is Gustav Breitenfeld. I am thirty years old. I am married
- and I reside at No. 18 Samuel Street. I am a brush-maker. I am
- captain of the second company of the Lehr und Wehr Verein. We have
- twenty men in our company. I know Fischer and Schrade. Schrade is
- drill-sergeant of my company. On Sunday, May 2, I was at Pullman.
- I heard of the riot plan on Monday afternoon, May 3. I know George
- Engel, Deitz and Fischer. They are the principal leaders in the
- Northwest Side group and of the armed men. Heier is the name of
- the man who keeps Thalia Hall on Milwaukee Avenue. I know Kraemer;
- he lives in the rear of Engel’s house. I think I saw Kraemer at the
- meeting held on the evening of May 3, at 54 West Lake Street. I know
- Schmidt, the carrier of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. At that meeting I saw
- Krueger, Schrade, Gruenwald, Clermont, Kraemer, Deitz, Engel, Fischer,
- Schnaubelt and Waller. Waller was the chairman of the meeting. The
- first thing I heard they were denouncing the police force for killing
- the workingmen at McCormick’s factory. I saw the revenge circular,
- which called the people to arms. I heard Engel say that when the word
- ‘Ruhe’ should appear in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, every one should go
- to his meeting-place selected by them and be ready for action. I
- heard some one say that as soon as they saw the heavens illuminated
- with red fires, then was the time to commence the revolution. Engel
- and Fischer volunteered to carry the news from the Haymarket to the
- armed men stationed at Wicker Park. Engel volunteered to act as a
- spy. I know Engel to have sold arms. At the meeting of May 3, I heard
- some one asking for dynamite bombs. I heard Engel respond that the
- dynamite bombs were ready and in good hands. Fischer agreed to have
- the circulars, calling the Haymarket meeting, printed. It was said
- that there would be from 20,000 to 30,000 people at that meeting,
- and that the police would interfere. Then would be a good time to
- attack them and get revenge on them for the killing of six of their
- comrades. The word ‘Ruhe’ would signify that they should get ready
- and be on the look-out. Engel said that they should look for it in
- the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ on May 4, and they were all to go to their
- respective places, as agreed upon, with their arms or guns. The
- Haymarket meeting was decided upon as a trap to catch the police.
- Engel, Kraemer and Krueger went to the meeting to see if there was
- a big crowd there, and when they got back home Engel said there
- were only 250 men present. I went to see Engel on the morning of
- May 4 at his house. He told me he had been at the meeting and there
- were present the number I have given. I attended the meeting of the
- Northwest Side group that decided to call the meeting for the evening
- of May 3, at 54 West Lake Street. I heard, at the last-named place,
- several say that the dynamite bombs were in good hands. I met Waller
- at Thalia Hall on May 4, about eleven o’clock in the evening, and he
- remarked that they had had a very hot time of it at the Haymarket. I
- saw Fischer on Wednesday, May 5, at Thalia Hall, and he then told me
- that Spies had been arrested about four o’clock that morning. Spies is
- the only one I know of the Spies family. I have known him five years.”
-
-WILLIAM HAGEMAN was the next to inspect our plain and unpretentious
-office. He came in on his dignity and carried an air about him that
-plainly exhibited his complete contempt for the police. He was a
-German, about thirty years old, round-shouldered, a stair-builder by
-occupation, was married and had one child. He lived at the time of his
-arrest on the lower floor of a house at No. 49 Reese Street, and he
-could always be found whenever Anarchist plots were to be executed.
-His brother was, like himself, a rampant Anarchist, but with cunning
-enough to escape arrest. William was found by Officers Schuettler and
-Hoffman, about seven o’clock on the morning of May 26. He did not long
-remain in ignorance of the cause of his arrest, and then he wanted me
-to understand:
-
-“My brother is no Anarchist. If any one does any squealing on him,
-don’t pay any attention to it, because it all means me. I am the
-fellow. The people often get us mixed.”
-
-“You are the worst Anarchist of the two,” I remarked.
-
-Hageman wanted to know how I had come to that conclusion.
-
-“We know all about you,” said I.
-
-“If you know it, be sure and don’t forget it,” was the reply. “I am
-sure you won’t learn anything from me.”
-
-“All right. But just as sure as you are sitting there, I will find out
-all your performances, and every one you associated with during the
-last two years, before you leave this station. And you will tell it to
-me yourself.”
-
-“Never; I will die first. I will kill myself first. I will stand any
-torture you may inflict on me, but I will never tell on my comrades or
-any one that worked for our cause.”
-
-“You probably don’t remember the job you pledged yourself to undertake
-on the night of May 4. It was not a very small one either, but, of
-course, your nerves not being very strong that evening, you came here
-to a neighboring saloon several times to brace up, and your friends,
-lying in the rear of this station, felt very much the same way as you
-did. So you spelled one another and strengthened your nerves. Say,
-William, who said that the bombs were not good? You remember the third
-window in the station on the east side of the building and the little
-quarrel about the bombs—whether a round lead bomb should be thrown or
-a long gas-pipe bomb. Do you remember the two policemen that crossed
-the alley and stood still for a moment in the middle of that alley when
-you fellows thought you were discovered—how you all got into the dark
-side of the alley and ran? Now, remember, when you get ready to talk,
-I will tell my side of the story, and should you get stuck, you see I
-can help you out a great deal. You might recall what little you know
-of the Haymarket, how you were surprised that only one bomb was thrown
-and how the fellows detailed for that duty did not attend to their
-business. Here, officers, show this gentleman the suite of rooms which
-he is to occupy for the next four weeks. If you desire anything extra
-that is not on our bill of fare, just touch the button, and you will
-be waited on promptly. Any inattention on the part of the waiters must
-be reported to this office. If you should conclude to make a long stay
-with us, you had better provide yourself with a good supply of tobacco.
-You understand that when a man is at sea he finds that there are a good
-many things he needs that would come in handy.”
-
-He did not like his apartments—singular to relate. There was no fire
-escape, the linen on the bed was not changed every day, and the noise
-of his neighbors kept him awake of nights. He had struck the wrong
-hotel, but his apartments had been engaged for him and paid for by the
-taxpayers, and he could not gracefully withdraw.
-
-Hageman first got tired, then angry, and finally desperate. He realized
-that he was in trouble and made up his mind to take me into his
-confidence. He reached this conclusion on the afternoon of May 27,
-and sent the janitor to the office with a message that he desired to
-see me. He was informed in return that he could not see me unless he
-meant to talk business. Hageman responded that he was ready to talk on
-any subject upon which he might be questioned, and he was accordingly
-brought into the office, into the presence of Mr. Furthmann, myself and
-the detectives.
-
-“Well,” said I, “I understand that you want to see me.”
-
-“Yes, I do,” was the response, “but not in the presence of all these
-fellows.”
-
-“Why not?”
-
-“Because my business is with you alone.”
-
-“Well, you see, William, I am only one, and as what you tell here,
-which must be the truth, will have to be given by you in the Criminal
-Court, and as I may probably get killed before that time, there would
-be no one to testify to your statement if given to me alone.”
-
-“Oh, that is the way you want to catch me!”
-
-“There is no catch about it. If you don’t want to make a statement in
-the presence of all these men, I don’t want to hear anything from you.”
-
-“Will you answer me one question?” asked Hageman, getting a little
-apprehensive that he might lose his only chance. “It is, has any one
-out of the many people locked up here squealed?”
-
-“Well,” I answered, “most of them have already done so, and the others
-are fairly breaking their necks to follow suit.”
-
-“This is a very unpleasant thing to do.”
-
-“Yes, that is true.”
-
-“Can I get out by telling you all I know, and can you keep me from
-testifying in court? You know this will kill a man forever.”
-
-“Yes, but a great many policemen were killed, and they simply obeyed
-orders. If you think you are better than a policeman, you had better go
-down stairs again and await your trial in the Criminal Court.”
-
-“Now, see here, Captain, I would never tell on anybody, but I have got
-a wife and little baby at home. It almost sets me crazy thinking of
-them, and for their sake I will tell all.”
-
-Hageman did as he promised, but in the interview that ensued it became
-apparent that he was a double-faced man, and that, when it came to
-his family, he did not care a fig whether he landed the other fellows
-on the gallows or in the penitentiary. He had been a brave, boasting
-Anarchist. He had been accustomed to talk with his associates over
-foaming “schooners” of beer, and the more beer there was the greater
-his talk about killing people and overthrowing capital. He was a great
-reader of Anarchistic papers and literature, and the more fiery and
-unbridled the sentiment, the better he was pleased. He took a hand in
-every movement, attended all the meetings and picnics of the reds,
-and made himself quite a useful member of the order. He continually
-boasted of the bombs that he had hid away for use, and promised to let
-capitalists hear from him. The bombs he had were found to be of the
-round lead and gas-pipe patterns, and some of them he had received
-from Fischer a long time before May 4. He had been posted as to
-the manufacture of bombs by Lingg, and was a warm friend of Engel,
-whose talk about bombs suited him exactly. Hageman could not listen
-patiently to any discussion from which dynamite was left out, and in
-any peaceful gathering he was sure to become a disturber. If there
-was no dispute, he would start one himself, and, if necessary, back
-up his argument with blows. Whenever a dance or benefit was held to
-replenish the treasury for the purchase of dynamite, he was promptly
-on hand and exerted himself to the utmost to swell the receipts. Being
-such an active member, it was natural that he knew a great deal about
-his order, and he helped the State very materially with the points he
-furnished.
-
-He was kept in custody until after the trial, and with the experience
-he had in prison one would think that he would cut loose altogether
-from Anarchy. Not so, however. While nearly all the others repented of
-their error, Hageman had no sooner regained his liberty than he became
-as radical as ever. He even threatened several times to kill State’s
-Attorney Grinnell, Judge Gary, myself and others. After the trial, I
-had a detective at every meeting of the Anarchists, and the reports
-brought me were that Hageman and Bernhard Schrade were the most violent
-and determined men in the union.
-
-Hageman would boastingly say, “I never squealed to that man Schaack.
-If they had all done as I did, they would know very little about the
-Anarchists.”
-
-One night, at 54 West Lake Street, this arrant knave was approached by
-one of his supposed warm friends, who happened, however, to be in my
-confidence, and who said to him:
-
-“You don’t like Schaack, and I don’t like him. He is now here at the
-Desplaines Street Station. We can go into the alley and shoot him in
-his office. I have a revolver here with me now, and I will go into
-Florus’ and get one more. Then we will go and ‘do him.’ We will both
-go and fire together and run. But mind, let there be no arrest in our
-case; let us die before capture.”
-
-“Do you mean this?” asked Hageman.
-
-“Here is my hand. Here is my revolver, and if you play coward on me I
-will kill you standing up. Now, come on.”
-
-Did Hageman respond? Not at all. He crawled on his belly with excuses.
-
-“That man Schaack,” he said, “knows me so well that it is not safe to
-go around there.”
-
-“Well,” replied his companion, “we can go through a vacant lot.”
-
-“It is too dangerous, my boy,” said Hageman. “I could do all this well
-enough if I never would be found out.”
-
-“Well,” said the companion, “you are a crazy coward, and don’t you
-‘shoot your mouth’ hereafter where I am.”
-
-Hageman subsided for the time, but he is again as rampant as ever.
-
-Here is Hageman’s statement, which he made “for the sake of his own
-family,” but which helped to drive the nails into the coffins of other
-families:
-
- “I was at the meeting held at Neff’s Hall, No. 121 West Lake Street.
- I saw Lingg there and heard him address the people, calling them to
- arms. I also saw Thielen, the two Lehmans and Peter Huber. Niendorf
- was chairman of the meeting, which had been called to consider the
- eight-hour movement. Some one at that meeting called out that there
- was a meeting at No. 54 West Lake Street and said, ‘Let us go there.’
- Then a number of us went, including Huber, Thielen and myself. I
- stood at the right hand side as one entered the basement after I got
- there. The meeting lasted from half to three quarters of an hour. I
- saw there Fischer, Engel and Waller. Waller was chairman. I heard
- Engel speak. He told us to watch for the red fires, and when we saw
- them in the heavens, then was the time to commence the revolution. The
- fires were to be the signals for the outside posts that the riot at
- the Haymarket had commenced. It was also to be regarded as a signal
- that the police had made an attack on the meeting at the Haymarket,
- and then we should commence the work of destruction. Every one should
- pick out houses beforehand, so that they could be set on fire when
- the signal was given. Engel also said at this meeting that the stuff,
- meaning dynamite, was cheap, and that any member could buy some. He
- referred to the police and said that if they saw a patrol wagon on
- the street filled with officers they should destroy the wagon and
- the police by throwing bombs into the wagon. He (Engel) urged every
- man to do as much harm as possible, meaning destruction of property
- and killing people. I heard this plan repeated afterwards by a
- black-whiskered man named Waller. Waller said that this plan for the
- revolution had been adopted by the West Side armed group. Hermann and
- I were at the Haymarket meeting, but when the shooting began we ran
- away.”
-
-ALBERT JEBOLINSKI was another welcome guest on the 26th of May. He had
-been frequently invited to partake of the hospitalities of the station,
-but he appeared to be contented with putting up with dingy quarters in
-out-of-the-way places rather than run the risk of meeting a policeman.
-But on the day in question he received such a pressing invitation from
-Schuettler and Hoffman that he finally yielded. He was a German Pole,
-thirty-five years of age, of slim build, and, with a dark mustache
-and large goatee, he looked like a Frenchman. He lived at the time in
-a two-story brick building, first flat, at No. 11 Penn Street. The
-officers knew that he was a very suspicious man and that he would run
-blocks to get out of the way of a policeman, so great was his hatred
-of the force. They therefore approached his house cautiously, lest he
-might mistake them for blue-coats. They called rather early,—four
-o’clock in the morning,—and Schuettler, giving a regular milkman’s rap
-on the door, brought Mrs. Jebolinski to the front.
-
-“Who is there,” she shouted before venturing to open the door, “and
-what is wanted?”
-
-“I am here—the milkman,” responded Schuettler. “I want to see you,
-madam.”
-
-With this assurance Mrs. Jebolinski opened the door, but the moment she
-discovered that it was not the milkman, she slammed the door to—not
-quick enough, however, to close it, for the officer, seeing his chance,
-had thrust his foot between the door and the frame. Hoffman came at
-once to the rescue and informed the woman that I had sent him after her
-husband.
-
-“We don’t know anything about Capt. Schaack,” she responded, and again
-tried to close the door.
-
-“Well, madam, I am sure the Captain knows something about you folks.”
-
-And with this bit of information the officers pushed the door open.
-This was too much for Mrs. Jebolinski. She shouted to her husband:
-
-“O Albert, the _spitzel_, the police!”
-
-“Don’t open the door for anybody,” came in stentorian tones from Albert
-in an adjoining room. “Keep them out!”
-
-The officers had meantime effected an entrance, and, following up the
-voice, found Albert in bed.
-
-“Good morning, Albert,” said Schuettler, in pleasant, cheerful tones.
-
-“Who told you to come here?” gruffly demanded Albert.
-
-“Capt. Schaack desires to see you on pressing business.”
-
-“Oh, yes; he must be in love with me, since he sent you so early to see
-me. Has no one killed that d——d bloodhound yet?”
-
-“No, Albert, you will have a chance to see him soon, and then you can
-kill him.”
-
-“You go and tell Schaack that you have seen me, and that will be
-sufficient. I will die first before I go. You cannot take me out of
-here. I want my breakfast, and I will take a sleep before my wife calls
-me.”
-
-So saying, Albert jumped back into bed. Officer Schuettler
-remonstrated, and was finally obliged to pull him out. Albert then
-refused to dress. Talking to him had no more effect than talking to a
-stone wall.
-
-Hoffman then opened the door, and Schuettler grabbed Albert under his
-arm and walked out with him despite his kicks and resistance. They
-got him out into the bracing atmosphere of the morning, and, although
-Albert was not dressed for company, they started off with him.
-
-Mrs. Jebolinski rushed out after them, and, wildly gesticulating,
-shouted:
-
-“Bring him back, bring him back, and I will dress him.”
-
-The officers retraced their steps, but not back into the house. They
-took Albert to the wood-shed, and there he was dressed.
-
-At the station he was invited down stairs and told that there were so
-many who wanted to see me that he would probably have a rest for a
-week. He was locked up, and during the first day he would neither eat
-nor drink. He was not coaxed, however, and the next morning he called
-the janitor, saying:
-
-[Illustration: A HASTY TOILET.]
-
-“I am sick; will you give me a cup of coffee?”
-
-The janitor replied that he would have to wait till nine o’clock, when
-the prisoners came down from court.
-
-“Well,” said Albert, indignantly, “if I don’t get my coffee now, you
-can keep your breakfast.”
-
-When nine o’clock came around the janitor made the round, inviting the
-sleepers to wake and get their breakfast.
-
-“You can go to the d——l; you can’t make me eat,” said Jebolinski, and
-he settled himself for a nap.
-
-But when the dinner hour came Albert made up for lost time and missed
-meals. At four o’clock he sent the janitor to the office to tell me
-that he wanted to see me. He was brought up.
-
-“Well, Albert,” said I, “how much do you weigh now?”
-
-“You had better let me go home. I will never tell you anything. It is
-no use keeping me here.”
-
-“I don’t want you to tell me anything. I have secured more evidence
-in the last few days than I want, and now they are all arrested. I
-am going to prosecute you in court for conspiracy and murder; so you
-need not trouble yourself with being stubborn. I don’t want to see
-you again, not till I see you in court. Officer, take him back to the
-lock-up.”
-
-“So you can do without me?”
-
-“Yes, I am sure I can.”
-
-Albert was escorted down stairs, but inside of two hours he asked for
-Officer Schuettler.
-
-“I can see now,” he said to Schuettler, “that that man Schaack wants to
-hang me.”
-
-“I am sure he is done with you,” replied the officer.
-
-“I beg of you to tell the Captain I want to see him, and say to him
-that I will tell him about the bombs and everything else.”
-
-Officer Schuettler reported the Anarchist’s wishes, and Jebolinski was
-once more brought up. He then confessed that he had four loaded bombs
-planted, which he would show if taken out.
-
-He was accordingly taken in charge by Officers Schuettler and Hoffman,
-whom he led to a place north of Division Street near a planing-mill and
-linseed-oil factory. At that place there was a side-track, and, at a
-point where the locomotives were stopped to be dumped of their cinders,
-he unearthed his bombs. These bombs were covered with about four inches
-of cinders, midway between the rails, and when they were taken out they
-were found fully loaded, with fuse and caps. That there had been no
-explosion is almost a miracle. Had a locomotive been stationed over the
-spot for an hour, as frequently happened, the cinders would have been
-set on fire again. In an instant locomotive and all would have been
-blown to atoms, and no one would have known the precise cause. It was
-lucky for some engineer and fireman, and, in fact, for the locality,
-that no engine stood over the spot after those bombs had been planted.
-
-On returning to the station, Jebolinski furnished the State with much
-valuable information. He was indicted and held as a witness. But he was
-never called, and after the trial he was given his liberty. He has been
-watched since and found to be attending strictly to his own business.
-In his statement he sets forth his attendance at the meeting at 121
-West Lake Street, where were present Lingg, Rau and others, and his
-presence at the Haymarket meeting, from which he ran the moment the
-firing commenced. He also described the bombs,—three round lead and
-one long iron one,—which he had obtained from Hageman, the one-eyed
-carpenter.
-
-PETER HUBER was another distinguished caller, by special invitation. He
-was escorted to the office by Officers Whalen and Stift and took things
-very coolly. He was a lank, lean, consumptive-looking fellow, only
-twenty-nine years of age, and earned his living as a cabinet-maker.
-He was a German, married, and had two children, living in a two-story
-frame house at No. 96 Hudson Avenue. His manner was very quiet, and no
-one would have taken him for an Anarchist. But Peter, nevertheless,
-was heart and soul in the movement, and had regularly attended all the
-meetings. He had never made a speech—he was too diffident for that; he
-had never advised any one on Anarchy, but he had come to be trusted,
-and he knew all the leaders and all about dynamite bombs. He was so
-undemonstrative and non-communicative that at first I took him to be
-a paid detective in the ranks of the Socialists. When he was asked a
-question, he would take his own time to answer, and, once interrupted
-in his talk, he would stop and say no more.
-
-[Illustration: A DANGEROUS STORING-PLACE.]
-
-On the second day after his arrest—May 25—Huber offered to answer
-questions, and he did this without any inducement. He thereupon
-furnished the State with several good points, and freely told
-everything. He was indicted, but released by order of the State’s
-Attorney. He was ready to testify at the trial, but was not wanted. He
-has since kept away from Anarchist meetings, and is now a useful man to
-his family.
-
-Huber’s statement ran as follows:
-
- “I belonged to the North Side armed group. I know Seliger, Hubner,
- Lehman the carpenter, the two Hagemans and Lingg. Some time in
- February last, George Engel made a great speech in Neff’s Hall, No.
- 58 Clybourn Avenue. I keep the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. The Sunday edition
- of that paper is called _Die Fackel_. I saw the letter ‘Y,’ and the
- meaning of it is that, whenever we should see it in the paper, then
- there would be a meeting held that evening, of the armed men, at No.
- 54 West Lake Street. May 3d there was one such meeting called for
- that evening. On that evening I went to the saloon at No. 71 West
- Lake Street and drank a glass of beer. From there I went to No. 54
- West Lake Street. While in the saloon at No. 54 West Lake Street, I
- heard some one say that a meeting would be held down stairs in the
- basement. So we went down stairs. When I entered I saw about thirty
- or forty present. I sat down on a bench, and we sat there for some
- time before the meeting opened. I heard some one say that it would
- be an indignation meeting on account of our workingmen having been
- killed at McCormick’s factory by the police on that day. I saw at
- that meeting the circular calling for revenge and the people to arms,
- because of the killing of our brothers. I saw the same circular that
- same evening at the hall No. 71 West Lake Street. Waller was chairman
- of the meeting at No. 54 West Lake Street. I met there Hubner, Abraham
- Hermann, Fischer and Breitenfeld, the captain of the second company of
- the Lehr und Wehr Verein. I heard Engel make a speech, and during the
- whole time Breitenfeld was walking up and down the hall. I also saw
- Schnaubelt and Thielen there. I was at Neff’s Hall, No. 58 Clybourn
- Avenue, early Tuesday evening, May 4th, and saw there Lingg, Seliger
- and Hubner. I heard Engel, at No. 54 West Lake Street, explain his
- plan and the work that should be done under it. A meeting, he said,
- would be held at the Haymarket, and when the police interfered the
- crowd should attack them, and the armed men should be ready for
- action. Some one suggested that they should hold their meeting at the
- Market Square on the South Side, between Randolph and Madison Streets.
- Some one else remarked: ‘No, that is not a good place; it is a mouse
- trap.’ If they held the meeting there and the police interfered, and
- the crowd resisted them, the police would drive them all into the
- river. Some said, ‘That’s so,’ and then the meeting was fixed for the
- Haymarket, as Engel had suggested. We expected from 20,000 to 30,000
- people present. We all had the idea that the police would interfere.
- Engel gave his plan about as follows: He said, ‘First call the meeting
- for the Haymarket,’ and then urged that the armed men be ready. He
- advised us to throw dynamite bombs into the stations, kill the police,
- throw dynamite bombs into the patrol wagons and shoot down the horses
- at the wagons. He repeated his plan for those who came in later to
- the meeting. The revenge circular was distributed both up stairs and
- down stairs at No. 54 West Lake Street. In the evening of May 3d, I
- saw Spies and Rau together in Zepf’s saloon. As to the word ‘Ruhe,’ I
- heard Engel say that when we saw that word appear in the paper, then
- we might know everything was right and ready. And we should watch
- for that signal. I heard Engel say that a man who could do no harm
- or create no disturbance should stay at home, as he was not wanted.
- When he had finished giving his plan, it was adopted. Schnaubelt said
- that outside cities, where they had comrades, should be notified at
- once as soon as the revolution was a success here. I saw Fischer at
- this meeting. He went to the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ to see if he could
- print the circular that night, calling the Haymarket meeting for the
- next evening. He came back and reported that the office was closed.
- He said he would attend to it in the morning. I saw Lingg, Seliger,
- Muntzenberg and Hubner in Neff’s saloon, No. 58 Clybourn Avenue, about
- eight o’clock on the evening of May 4th.”
-
-BERNHARD SCHRADE, a German, was a peculiar combination of
-eccentricities. He was arrested by Officers Whalen and Loewenstein
-on the evening of May 26, at nine o’clock, on Milwaukee Avenue, near
-Division Street. He was twenty-eight years of age, six feet tall, of
-straight and muscular build, nervous and quick-tempered, a carpenter
-by occupation, and he lived at No. 581 Milwaukee Avenue. When he was
-seated in the station it did not take us long to ascertain all he knew
-about Anarchy. In speaking of the Haymarket, he said that the right men
-had not been in their places, or things would have turned out quite
-differently. They had plenty of arms and bombs, he explained, but the
-leaders did not know their business. Early in the evening there was a
-large crowd, he said, but the great majority of them left in disgust
-because there was not a larger gathering and the speeches were not
-radical enough to suit their ideas. They expected something fiery and
-impetuous. (This was about the time Mayor Harrison was at the meeting,
-and the speeches were accordingly very mild.) Those that left the
-meeting and did not go home, Schrade said, hung around the saloons in
-the neighborhood. If six hundred police, he further said, had attacked
-the crowd an hour earlier, few of them would have been left with their
-lives. He knew the arrangements, and, had the plan been carried out,
-the loss of life would have been appalling.
-
-Schrade was subsequently released by order of Assistant State’s
-Attorney Furthmann, and promised that he would testify in court. He was
-several times sent after to give further information, and he always
-responded.
-
-[Illustration: AN OBSTREPEROUS PRISONER.]
-
-About one month after Schrade’s release, he and two others visited a
-saloon on North Avenue one night, and, after drinking a great deal of
-beer, they became exceedingly noisy and boisterous. The saloon-keeper
-attempted to quiet them, but was finally obliged to call an officer.
-Now, none of the bibulous individuals had any liking for a policeman.
-The moment they saw him enter they ordered him out and threatened that
-if he did not get out they would throw him out through the window. The
-officer was not at all alarmed, and, seeing that he was bent on keeping
-them quiet, the three disturbers pounced down upon him. The officer
-promptly brought his club into play, and soon his opponents measured
-their length upon the floor. The saw-dust was sprinkled with blood,
-but, before the reds could make a second assault, a citizen had brought
-the patrol wagon to the rescue. They were taken in charge and thrown
-into the wagon in their drunken stupor, and carted to the Larrabee
-Street Station.
-
-On the way Schrade revived somewhat, and, not quite satisfied with the
-results of his former encounter, attempted to throw one of the officers
-over the side of the wagon. He was clinched by the throat, however,
-and kept quiet for the rest of the journey. The next morning the trio
-were fined in the Police Court and released on payment of the fines.
-Schrade became penitent and remained sober thereafter for some time. As
-he was out of work, I paid his board bill for two weeks, and kept him
-under surveillance to appear at the trial as a witness. When the trial
-began he was in good humor and told the State’s Attorney that he would
-give the same testimony that he had given at the station May 26. He was
-accordingly produced as a witness. On the stand he failed to unfold all
-the information he had previously given, but State’s Attorney Grinnell
-knew all the points in his former testimony, and before he got through
-with Schrade he made him a good witness for the State.
-
-After the trial the police lost sight of Schrade for a long time,
-and wondered whether he had been quietly murdered by his former
-comrades or had left the city for his own good. But one day an officer
-reported to me that Schrade was still in the city. It was supposed,
-of course, that he would never again be found in the haunts of
-Socialists. It was discovered, however, that he was a member in good
-standing of Carpenters’ Union No. 241, formerly No. 1. This is the
-most rabid Anarchist organization in the city, and, were it not for
-some comparatively conservative members, would have long since sought
-revenge for the conviction and execution of the doomed conspirators.
-
-Schrade and Hageman, since their restoration to full membership, were
-found to be as incendiary as ever in their utterances, and seemed to
-vie with each other in their efforts to show that they were better
-Anarchists even than before the time they informed on their companions
-and helped to bring them to the gallows. In fact, they became so
-demonstrative that some of the members threatened them with expulsion.
-For this they sought revenge by working upon weak-minded persons to
-influence them against the leaders in the organization. As long as the
-conservatives remain at the head of the carpenters’ union there is no
-special danger, but should such fanatics as Schrade and Hageman ever
-secure control, look out for blood.
-
-AUGUST AHLERS was known to have been a close friend of Lingg, and
-accordingly I eagerly sought his acquaintance. But Ahlers after the
-Haymarket conceived an aversion to fresh air and kept himself in
-gloomy, unfrequented quarters. The officers knew that he had often
-visited Lingg’s room, sometimes remaining three or four hours, and,
-as Lingg never tolerated any one who could not be made useful, it was
-believed that Ahlers could furnish valuable information if found.
-Mrs. Seliger had stated that a great many visited Lingg, but most of
-them sought to conceal their faces or disguise themselves in some
-way, generally sneaking into the house as if they were going to steal
-something or kill somebody. This man Ahlers had been one of this kind.
-Lingg had every man who assisted him do certain special lines of work.
-Some would bring him lead, others gas-pipe, and others again charcoal,
-etc. Ahlers had helped in some way, and, with a pretty good description
-of him, the detectives were continually on the watch. Finally
-Officers Whalen and Loewenstein found him on the 26th of May, at No.
-148 Chicago Avenue, and took him to the station. He had a sneaking
-demeanor, and when brought before me I asked him to give an account
-of himself between May 3d and May 6th. This he was unable to do, but
-after having been locked up for a while he gave some information about
-outside groups. As to Lingg he pretended to know very little, and as
-the officers could not identify him with any particular person, he
-was released on a promise of better behavior. He acknowledged having
-been a great admirer of the Anarchist leaders and a strong supporter
-of Anarchy, but now, he said, he would no longer affiliate with them.
-So far as the officers have observed, he has kept his promise and is
-attending strictly to his trade, that of a carpenter.
-
-We had these kind of fellows by the hundred in this city on May 4,
-1886, but fortunately God made most of them with big stomachs and no
-heart or courage.
-
-VICTOR CLERMONT, a German, was almost dumbfounded when he was informed
-that I wanted to see him. Clermont is a French-sounding name, and,
-when Officers Whalen and Loewenstein took him in charge on suspicion,
-they mistook him for a Frenchman, especially as he looked very much
-like one, having a dark mustache and goatee. Clermont was taken to
-the station, and there gave his age as twenty-seven, occupation a
-cabinet-maker and pool-billiard maker, and his residence No. 116
-Cornelia Street. When questioned with reference to Anarchy he expressed
-surprise that he should be taken for an Anarchist, but when he was
-informed as to his having mysteriously sneaked into dark basements
-which were lighted up with candles and whose doors were barricaded, he
-looked aghast.
-
-“There is something wrong,” he said. “Somebody wants to involve me in
-the Haymarket trouble. I am sure I don’t know the least thing about
-Anarchists.”
-
-“Well,” said I, “we will see if you can remember anything. Either you
-or your wife has some relatives living near the city. After the 4th of
-May you sent a lot of guns, rifles, ammunition and some bombs to them
-for safe-keeping. You took them away at night, and you have been so
-careful as to try and disguise yourself. Yet I cannot prosecute you on
-that. You have also been an active member on the Northwest Side in all
-Anarchist movements. You know all the things you have been engaged in,
-and so do we. I have your record right here.”
-
-“Oh, yes,” said Victor, “I hear that you fellows have things down
-very fine, because you have everything your own way. Well, if I do
-acknowledge all I have done, what are you going to do with me?”
-
-“I will do with you the same as I have done with others. I will hear
-your statement and see if you can tell the truth. If you lie to me or
-about any one else, I will stop you, and that is all. You are indicted,
-and I will send you to jail. If you tell the truth I will send for the
-State’s Attorney and ask him to let you go, but you must appear as a
-witness whenever we want you.”
-
-“I suppose,” remarked Clermont, “that my case is like this—if I don’t,
-some one else will squeal.”
-
-He then gave an account of himself and his Anarchist comrades. He was
-subsequently released and visited me very often for several weeks. He
-was out of employment and hard-up, and I gave him money with which
-to support himself. One evening he called and said to the officers
-that he had something important to tell me. I was very busy at the
-time and asked him if he wanted some money. Victor replied that he
-did not desire money. I offered him $5, however, and told him to come
-back the next day. He would not take the money at first, but when I
-told him that I could not wait any longer, he took it and left. On
-reaching Milwaukee and Chicago Avenues, he met some of his old cronies
-and told them that he was going away that night. Early next morning I
-was informed that he had gone. Victor remained away for a year, but,
-thinking things had blown over, he returned and set about to disabuse
-the Anarchists of the impression that he had ever “squealed.” While he
-has taken no active part in meetings since the trial, he appears to
-feel that he stands well with the Anarchists, and always tells them
-that when he was arrested “he never gave anything away.”
-
-His statement was as follows. It was given at nine o’clock on the
-evening of May 26:
-
- “I belong to the Northwest Side Lehr und Wehr Verein, the second
- company, of which Breitenfeld is captain. Some time ago, at a meeting
- held at 54 West Lake Street, it was stated that the police would break
- up their meetings if they knew when and where they held them, and
- that therefore it was necessary to adopt some secret way of calling
- their meetings. We adopted, ‘Y, komme,’ and when we saw that letter
- appear in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ on any day we might know a meeting
- would be held at No. 54 West Lake Street. I was at Thalia Hall, May
- 3, early in the evening. We were to have held a meeting to elect new
- officers of the company, but no meeting was held. Some one came into
- the saloon and said that there were four of our workingmen killed at
- McCormick’s factory that afternoon. Then some one said that a call for
- a meeting that evening at No. 54 West Lake Street had been published
- in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, and a lot of us went there to learn further
- particulars about the shooting of our men. I there saw those circulars
- calling for revenge and the people to arms. That circular made me
- very excited. I was one of the first to get to that meeting at 54
- West Lake Street. At the commencement of the meeting we put a man at
- each door to prevent any one listening or seeing what was going on in
- the inside, and to admit only members. That meeting was only called
- for the armed men. Waller was chairman. I heard Engel make a speech,
- and he presented the plan adopted by the Northwest Side group.” (Here
- follows a detailed account of the “plan,” agreeing in every particular
- with that given by other witnesses as to blowing up police stations,
- setting fire to buildings, killing people, the use of the word “Ruhe,”
- etc.) “We expected that there would be present at the Haymarket
- meeting from 30,000 to 40,000 people and that then there would be a
- good chance for us to commence our revolution and attack the police
- and the government. There were also to be spies at the meeting to
- communicate with the groups in the outlying sections (Wicker Park and
- Lincoln Park). But the spies did not do their work, and then after
- Engel’s speech several got to talking about guns, fires and bombs. On
- the motion of Fischer it was decided to have 10,000 circulars calling
- the Haymarket meeting printed, and he said he would attend to it.
- First Market Square was proposed, but some one objected by saying it
- was a mouse trap in case of trouble, and the Haymarket was agreed
- upon. Before finishing telling about his plan Engel said it had been
- adopted by the Northwest Side group and referred to Fischer to answer
- if that was not so. Fischer replied, ‘Yes, that is the plan.’”
-
-I asked Clermont if that was the first time he had ever heard of the
-“plan,” and he replied:
-
- “Yes, it was the first time I had heard of the revolutionary plan.
- I never heard of it before, and only heard of it through Engel that
- night. This was the only plan I heard of to be followed for the
- revolution. I was at the Haymarket and expected to find a big crowd.
- To my surprise I only found about five hundred present.”
-
-Clermont is now again in Chicago, and as rabid a red as ever. He is a
-leader on the Northwest Side, and detectives have reported to me that
-he has declared himself in favor of “bullets instead of ballots.” He is
-also a prominent organizer in the Anarchist “Sunday-school” scheme.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVII.
-
- Fluttering the Anarchist Dove-cote—Confessions by
- Piecemeal—Statements from the Small Fry—One of Schnaubelt’s
- Friends—“Some One Wants to Hang Me”—Neebe’s Bloodthirsty
- Threats—Burrowing in the Dark—The Starved-out Cut-throat—Torturing
- a Woman—Hopes of _Habeas Corpus_—“Little” Krueger’s
- Work—Planning a Rescue—The Signal “???” and its Meaning—A
- Red-haired Man’s Story—Firing the Socialist Heart—Meetings
- with Locked Doors—An Ambush for the Police—The Red Flag
- Episode—Beer and Philosophy—Baum’s Wife and Baby—A Wife-beating
- Revolutionist—Brother Eppinger’s Duties
-
-
-THE work of ferreting out and arresting the conspirators might have
-stopped with the number already gathered in, so far as the necessity
-for procuring evidence to be used in court was concerned, but it was
-continued to the end that every conspicuous or minor character in the
-murderous plot might be made to feel the power of the law, which each
-had so persistently defied. I had the names and descriptions of all
-identified with Engel’s plan, their haunts, their traits of character,
-and their influence in the order, and detectives, under instructions,
-were continually on the search. Anarchist localities were overhauled,
-unfrequented places visited, and convenient hiding-places inspected.
-Every one wanted was finally brought from under cover. Not a guilty one
-escaped, except Schnaubelt. Anarchistic sympathizers did everything in
-their power to conceal their friends, but the police proved equal to
-the emergency.
-
-RUDOLPH DANNENBERG, a German, was one who held himself aloof from the
-rest of humanity. He lived at No. 218 Fulton Street, and on the 27th of
-May Officers Loewenstein and Whalen found him surrounded by his family.
-During the few moments’ conversation I had with him, it became apparent
-that he was like all his associates—a firm enemy of the existing
-order of society. He stated that, although he was only a tailor, he
-could fire a revolver as unerringly as any one and throw a bomb as far
-as anybody. He declared that he thought himself adapted to something
-higher, something better than being a tailor, and he had joined the
-Anarchists in order to bring himself before the public and achieve
-distinction. He had carefully read the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, had noticed
-the names of various people, and he did not see why he could not become
-great like them and see his name and deeds frequently paraded in the
-papers. He felt that he had the requisite ability, and communicated his
-ambition and his desires to his wife.
-
-Mrs. Dannenberg was a plain, unassuming woman, and did not dare to
-remonstrate with a man who had finally discovered his _forte_. He
-strutted about the house with the conscious pride that greatness was
-within his grasp, and his changed demeanor really impressed the woman
-to the extent that she believed he was already a great man. Dannenberg
-lost no time in joining the Lehr und Wehr Verein, and eagerly made
-the acquaintance of all the leading men in the order. He secured
-recognition, and his heart swelled with joy when he attended the secret
-meetings held by the order.
-
-All these little confessions were adroitly extracted by piecemeal.
-Noticing that here was a man who felt himself above the “goose” and
-the needle, I concluded to send him below to discover, if he could,
-the difference between being a tailor and an Anarchist in search of
-greatness. I treated him with perfect indifference, and he seemed to
-feel the indignity greatly. He was put in a cell, and for two days no
-one went near him except the janitor.
-
-Dannenberg finally got uneasy and sent word that he desired to see
-me. He was informed in return that he would be sent to the County
-Jail the next day. He then wanted to know if he would not be given an
-opportunity to speak, and insisted on having a hearing. He was brought
-into the office and told that he would be given just five minutes to
-tell what he had to say.
-
-“Gentlemen,” he said, in great haste, “you think because I am a tailor
-I am of no account, and consequently you seem disposed to punish me. My
-oath is just as good as the other fellows’.”
-
-“What do you mean?” I inquired. “We have not asked you for your oath,
-and we do not want it.”
-
-“Oh, I see now,” said Rudolph, beginning to get angry, “you only want
-the small fry. Well, look here, Captain, I don’t give a continental. I
-will tell on the other big fellows, now, for the fun of the thing. They
-must be punished as well as the little fellows. It is evident that the
-other big fellows want to talk themselves out.”
-
-“I think you have got the thing down very fine,” were my consoling
-words.
-
-“Yes, I know the people want to hang somebody,” said Rudolph, “and if
-they can only hang a tailor they will be satisfied.”
-
-Time was called on the speaker, the five minutes having been exhausted,
-and Rudolph was about to be escorted down stairs.
-
-“Stop! stop! officer, I have not commenced yet to talk, and I want to
-be heard.”
-
-“Well,” said I, “you want to commence very soon.”
-
-Dannenberg again planted himself firmly in his chair, and then
-proceeded to relieve himself of the burden on his mind. He gave quite
-an interesting statement, and was subsequently released by order of the
-State’s Attorney. He was indicted for murder before his release, and
-he left after promising to report when wanted. Some time after he was
-re-arrested and put in a room with fifteen others.
-
-[Illustration: THE CONSPIRACY MEETING AT 54 WEST LAKE STREET. WALLER
-READING ENGEL’S “PLAN.”]
-
-Every one of these fifteen was morose, sullen and dejected. There was
-not a cheerful word among them. They felt uncertain about their own
-fate and took a gloomy view of life. The presence of Dannenberg was
-like a cheerful fire in a blizzard. He had forgotten all about the
-misfortune of being a tailor and a crushed Anarchist, and he kept the
-company full of life with his wit and drollery.
-
-On his final release, Dannenberg went back to his trade, quit Anarchy,
-and now takes the greatest sort of pride in telling his friends that he
-is simply a “knight of the needle.”
-
-After stating his age to be thirty-two years, Dannenberg swore:
-
- “I went to the meeting in the basement at No. 54 West Lake Street.
- I heard Engel speak. I heard Fischer say that he would attend to
- the printing of the circulars for the Haymarket meeting. I used to
- belong to the Lehr und Wehr Verein, but I quit two months ago. I was
- at Thalia Hall, on Milwaukee Avenue, Sunday, May 2d. I used to go
- there very often. I know George Engel. At the meeting at No. 54 West
- Lake Street, he was called on for a speech, and he responded. I heard
- him speak of his plan—a plan for riots, fires, the destruction of
- buildings and property, and the killing of people and the police. I
- heard him speak of the meeting to be held at the Haymarket, and that,
- if they started there, then would be the time for us to commence
- the rebellion all over the city. A man named Schrade, sitting by my
- side, remarked to me that Engel had made a very destructive speech.
- This talk made me laugh. Engel continued by saying that when we saw
- the heavens red, then was our time to commence. The Northwest Side
- group, he said, would meet at Wicker Park, and the North Side group at
- Lincoln Park. The moment we saw the fires, as a signal, then we should
- throw bombs, shoot down the policemen and everybody who stood in our
- way, and begin the general destruction of property and life. I never
- heard of this plan before this time. Engel was the only one who spoke
- of the plan. At this meeting I knew Breitenfeld and Waller, who was
- chairman. I heard some one at that meeting ask for dynamite bombs and
- how to get them, and some said: ‘You ought to know it by this time.’
- Engel also spoke of the word ‘Ruhe.’ It was to be a signal word, and
- when it should appear in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, then was the time to
- be ready for a riot.”
-
-CARL MAX EMIL ENGLISH registered at the station on the 1st of June. He
-might have been gathered in long before, but he was kept under watch
-in the hopes of bagging a more important Anarchist. It was known that
-English was a particular friend of Schnaubelt’s, and the officers kept
-their eye on him continually, thinking the bomb-thrower might be found
-through his unconscious intervention. But they waited and watched
-in vain, and finally Officers Palmer and Cosgrove arrested English
-on suspicion. He was turned over to me, and then it was ascertained
-that he knew more of the Anarchists in Pullman, where he worked, than
-he did of those in Chicago. When called an Anarchist he objected,
-and insisted that he was simply a Socialist—a distinction without a
-difference in his case. He stated, however, that all the Anarchists in
-America “looked upon Chicago as the main center of Anarchy,” and in
-Pullman they got all their inspiration from Chicago. He acknowledged
-an acquaintance with Muntzenberg, who, he said, had sold John Most’s
-books and other Anarchistic literature at Pullman. Muntzenberg had
-been in Pullman after the 4th of May, and had carried dynamite bombs
-with him. The Socialists, said English, had become frightened at this
-exhibition and had refrained from having any further dealings with
-Muntzenberg.
-
-English was allowed to go, with an injunction that he had better stay
-in Pullman, where he belonged. He has since remained at home and is now
-giving more of his time to the study of sound literature on economic
-subjects. He came to America from Germany, in October, 1885, and was
-led astray by Most’s writings. Had he lived in Chicago he would have
-been a very handy man for Lingg. In the old country he had worked in
-the manufacture of torpedoes, etc., for the Government, and he was well
-posted on explosives. He was twenty-four years of age, and just such a
-man as Lingg could have utilized.
-
-AUGUST KRAEMER, a German, thought he was sharper than the police. He
-had escaped their attentions, and he was felicitating himself that he
-knew how to elude them successfully. One day, however—June 1st—he was
-cheerfully greeted by Officers Whalen and Stift, and when they notified
-him of the pleasure his company would give us at the station, he became
-motionless with surprise. Recovering himself, he declared that it was
-an awful outrage to arrest a man for nothing and assured the officers
-again and again that he had never heard of Socialists or Anarchists,
-did not know a single one of that class and would not be able to
-recognize one if pointed out to him. In fact, he had not even heard
-that a bomb had been thrown at the Haymarket. He played this role of
-ignorance when brought before me, but I soon brought him to his senses.
-
-“You have played the old lady long enough,” I said. “We are men here
-who do not believe a word you say, and don’t want any of your tea-party
-stories. Is not George Engel your friend? Did you not drink beer in
-Engel’s rear room, May 4th, about eleven o’clock? Were you not there
-when a lot of men waited for orders to blow up and burn down houses?
-Were you not at the Haymarket with Engel, and did you not walk around
-with him on the outskirts of the crowd?”
-
-“Who told you this?” came promptly from Kraemer.
-
-“One of those little gods you prayed to at Thalia Hall on Sundays. Why,
-you hypocrite, you and twenty more get together, talk and give your
-opinions about dynamite and how to construct poisoned daggers, and work
-out a plan to fight the police and militia, drink beer and liquor, and
-call that a prayer-meeting. What have you to say to all this? If you
-can not answer I will give it to you plainer.”
-
-“Mein Gott, some one wants to hang me,” exclaimed August. “I know Herr
-Engel; he is a good man.”
-
-“Yes, in your estimation.”
-
-“If you only knew how awfully sorry he felt for the officers that were
-killed.”
-
-“Oh, yes. Well, do you now think that we know something about you?”
-
-“I admit that you know all about me, but Herr Engel said that night
-that it was wrong to have such a miscarriage. He did not believe in
-killing a few people. All revolutions, Engel believed, ought to come
-about by themselves, and then the police and soldiers would be with
-them. If the people would fight, then the authorities, police and all,
-would throw their guns away and run. Then the victory would be won
-without spilling any blood, but such a foolish thing as the Haymarket
-affair Engel would have nothing to do with.”
-
-“Yes; all this Engel said after 10:30 o’clock that night, May 4th.”
-
-“Yes, he said it in his back room.”
-
-“That is all I want of you. Officers, lock up this dynamitard.”
-
-“Captain, will you not let me make a statement?”
-
-“Of what?”
-
-“I know something. For God’s sake don’t lock me up.”
-
-“Well, then, speak, double-quick time, and let there be no lying.”
-
-Kraemer calmed himself and proceeded to unfold his story. He was
-subsequently released on promising to testify in court and that
-he would become a better man. He was indicted by the grand jury
-for conspiracy to murder. He was not asked to testify, and it was
-supposed that after all his troubles he would attend strictly to his
-own business, that of a carpenter. Not so. He was to be found in the
-company of the worst Anarchists between May 4th and the time of the
-execution, but, when he finally discovered that there was a law in the
-State to hang conspirators and murderers, he grew frightened. He now
-remains at home instead of skulking into dark cellars and devising
-means of revenge. He lived, at the time of his arrest, at No. 286
-Milwaukee Avenue, in the rear, his friend Engel occupying the front
-part of the building. He was thirty-three years of age, married, well
-built, five feet eight inches in height, and an active man.
-
-His statement was as follows:
-
- “I attended the meeting at No. 54 West Lake Street the night of May
- 3d. I was there about fifteen minutes when the meeting was called to
- order. Some one suggested that every man of a group should see that
- every one present was one of their members. I was asked what group
- I belonged to. I could not tell. I do not belong to any group. Then
- I was told to go out because I could not give the pass-word. I told
- them that I belonged to the Socialists, but they told me I could not
- remain. I then went away. I have often been at Thalia Hall at the
- ‘Bible class.’ I met there frequently Engel and Fischer. That was in
- the month of April, 1886. At one meeting, when Engel and Fischer were
- present, some one called on the people to be ready with arms; that the
- time would soon come when they must be organized and ready to defend
- themselves. While I was at 54 West Lake Street that evening, May 3,
- some one complained that there were so few present and said that
- there had always been a good attendance until that night, and that it
- was very strange. As I could not give the sign I was put out. I heard
- Engel say that no revolution could be a success with only a small
- group; there must be general, united action.”
-
-MARTIN BECHTEL was also requested to report at the station for an
-interview. He willingly responded, and conversed quite freely. He was a
-beer-brewer by profession, and on May 4 was foreman in the brewery of
-Bartholomae & Leicht. He was also president of the Brewers’ Union and
-presided at a meeting on the afternoon of May 3. His statement of that
-meeting was as follows:
-
- “I had a meeting called of the brewers for that afternoon, and there
- I saw a lot of those ‘Revenge’ circulars. I saw all the men reading
- them, and, while some did not appear to care much, others got greatly
- excited over the way the police had been clubbing the people at
- McCormick’s factory. There was considerable excitement for awhile, and
- this was kept up until I called the meeting to order. I found that I
- had to be very strict before I could do anything. We transacted our
- business with great difficulty. I was interrupted now and then by some
- one coming in and talking excitedly about the police killing people
- at the factory. I restored order once more, when Oscar Neebe came in
- with a new supply of circulars and handed them around to the boys.
- Then the fire was in the straw again. After Neebe had distributed his
- circulars, he was called on for a speech, and whenever he was asked
- by any one if it was true that the police had been killing people in
- the manner described by the circular, he would answer: ‘Oh, yes; I
- know it is true. I saw it all. We must get ready and take revenge. Get
- ready; you all know what to do. You have all been to our meetings; you
- have all had instructions. Come out like men and show the capitalists
- what you are made of. Show these bloodhounds, these hirelings of the
- capitalists—I mean the blue-coated police—that we are not afraid of
- them. We must meet them and teach them a lesson. They have no regard
- for you or your families. You must feel the same to them.’ Such was
- the character of his speech and replies, and that is all I can report
- of the meeting.”
-
-Mr. Bechtel was thanked for his information, and left the office.
-
-It came out that during that day, after leaving that meeting, Neebe
-went into a saloon on Clark Street, near Division, and said that “by
-to-morrow or before to-morrow midnight the city of Chicago would swim
-in blood, or perhaps lie in ashes.” There would be a revolution,
-everything was ready, and he said that he would do his share of the
-work. At one time he was so wrought up with excitement that he fairly
-shouted at the top of his voice and made loud threats. In the trial,
-it was a fortunate thing for Neebe that certain documents were not at
-hand, or he would have undoubtedly been hung instead of being let off
-with the fifteen years’ sentence in the penitentiary which he is now
-working out. The documents desired were in some manner lost, and, when
-some of the material witnesses were looked for to appear at the trial,
-they could not be found.
-
-Neebe knew perfectly well the character of the men he addressed at
-the brewers’ meeting. They were all fire-eaters on the question of
-Anarchy, and the name of the Brewers’ Union was simply adopted as a
-cloak. The brewing companies could greatly contribute to the promotion
-of law, order and decency by replacing every one of them with men who
-appreciate good government and the privileges of citizenship.
-
-In one brewery on the North Side, these “reds” managed to get the
-teamsters and beer-peddlers inoculated with their heresy, and the
-result was that the police were often called upon to quell disturbances
-growing either out of arguments with customers or saloon patrons. The
-injury thus done to the trade of the company must have been large. Is
-it a fear of these men or is there a lack of better material that keeps
-them in their places? It is certain that such men are doing the brewing
-companies no good. They are a bad lot and need watching. They are
-watched.
-
-MORITZ NEFF was the owner of what has been called the “Shanty of
-the Communists,” at No. 58 Clybourn Avenue, known also as “Neff’s
-Hall.” He was intimate with the leaders of Anarchy and knew a great
-deal about their movements. On the 1st of June, Schuettler and Stift
-were sent to tell him that I desired to see him. He came, not under
-arrest, but voluntarily, as soon as he had secured some one to run his
-saloon during his absence. He was a German, about thirty-six years
-of age, unmarried, and had kept the Anarchist headquarters for over
-seven years. He attended closely to business, rented his hall in the
-rear of the saloon to various unions and clubs, and made plenty of
-money. His place was a sort of “go-as-you-please” headquarters for the
-Anarchists, and if all their plottings there had been carried into
-execution the city of Chicago would not now stand as a monument of
-thrift, energy, enterprise and wealth. The hall was rented to any one
-who desired it. No questions were asked, and no publicity was ever
-given to the proceedings through Neff. He could keep secrets, and the
-Anarchists knew it. He also knew them thoroughly. He was a good judge
-of character, and, as most of his patrons were low-browed, ignorant
-and impulsive fellows, he would in the presence of some of the more
-sensible ones call them “fools and cattle.” Neff gave up his money
-freely to these people for the advancement of their cause, but he was
-never known to howl against law and order or make threats against
-capitalists, like other Anarchist saloon-keepers. He always kept on
-friendly terms with the police, and promised Lieutenant Baus to keep
-him posted whenever anything of importance transpired. This promise,
-however, seems to have been shrewdly made with a view to “pulling the
-wool over the eyes” of the Lieutenant. Neff would say, “Don’t trouble
-yourself. Whenever there is anything going on, I will put you on;” but
-he never found anything worth while reporting. The officers managed
-to gather a good deal of information respecting the character of the
-meetings held, but, as no important or dangerous results were ever
-expected to grow out of them, the Anarchists were permitted to remain
-unmolested.
-
-On the night of May 4, after the Anarchists had been put to rout, those
-of the North Side group hastened from their various posts to meet at
-Neff’s place. They were still inclined to go on with the revolution,
-and Neff reproached them for not continuing it the moment it was
-started.
-
-“What the d——l,” said he, “did you carry bombs for all night and not
-do anything? Why didn’t you go to the Chicago Avenue Station and blow
-the d——d building to h——l with every one in it?”
-
-This staggered the hot-heads, and not one made a reply.
-
-“Why,” continued Neff, “you are all cowards; not one of you dare go
-with me now.”
-
-No one advanced to accept the challenge. Presently, the hour getting
-near eleven o’clock, Neff said:
-
-“Get out! I am going to close up, and to-morrow we will have different
-music, and we will see who dances.”
-
-Knowing the great resort his place had been for Anarchists, Neff was in
-momentary dread of becoming involved in the Haymarket affair. He was
-very uneasy, and, as described by an acquaintance of his, “his clothes
-and shirt collar did not fit him very well for a number of days.” When
-he entered my office, Neff straightened up and appeared as if his mind
-was made up for the worst and as if he had resolved that the police
-should be no wiser through any information he possessed. It was not
-long, however, before he discovered that we meant business, and that
-playing the fool in the matter would not be tolerated. In the room were
-Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann, six detectives and myself, and
-he was kept busy framing answers that would not compromise himself.
-Finally Neff looked us all over very carefully and said:
-
-“I know I am called here to answer questions and tell on the
-Anarchists. I will now tell all I know.”
-
-He then gave a straightforward story and appeared as a witness at the
-trial, giving all its substantial points. After that trial he sold out
-his place and left the city. He remained away for a time, but recently
-came to Chicago on a visit. His conduct has been such as to justify the
-hope that he will hereafter hold himself aloof from Anarchists.
-
-JOHN WEIMAN, a Suabian, was a peculiar genius. He was only twenty-three
-years of age, and yet he imagined that he could successfully hoodwink
-the police. He had been pointed out as an associate of some of the
-leaders, and it was decided to bring him to see what he had to say for
-himself. He lived at No. 30 Barker Street, and when notified, about the
-6th of June, that I wished to become acquainted with him, he assumed a
-highly injured air. The moment he set foot inside the office, he threw
-up both hands and, in a loud voice, insisted that a great mistake had
-been made in arresting him.
-
-[Illustration: THE “CZAR BOMB.”—FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.
-
-This is one of the round bombs made by Lingg, and similar to the
-infernal machine thrown at the Haymarket. It is about three inches in
-diameter, and consists of two hollow hemispheres of lead, filled with
-dynamite, and secured by means of an iron bolt and nut. It is fitted
-with fuse and fulminating cap.]
-
-“I am no Socialist, no Anarchist, no Nihilist, no Communist,” he
-declared. “I don’t know Spies, Parsons, Schwab, Fischer, Lingg, Engel,
-Neebe or Fielden. I never attended any meetings at No. 54, No. 71 or
-No. 120 West Lake Street, and I have never been in the Communisten-Bude
-[the Shanty of the Communists] at No. 58 Clybourn Avenue; never was at
-Mueller’s Hall basement, or at Thalia Hall, or at No. 63 Emma Street.”
-
-“That is right, John,” said I. “Keep on and tell me a few more places
-where you have never been, and I shall be much obliged to you. Then I
-will know all the places and all the leaders of the whole Anarchist
-outfit.”
-
-“Yes,” said John, “I have heard of you, and I don’t want to be troubled
-too much. I know that you are acquainted with all those places and know
-all the people who went there, and I heard of a lot of people getting
-arrested every day who knew all the leaders and frequented those
-meeting-places. I thought I would tell you all at first, because I am
-sick and I can’t stand much talking-to.”
-
-“How came you to know so much?” I inquired; “that is to say, how do you
-know the names of the members?”
-
-“Well, I have a friend, and he told me all these things, but he ran
-away from the city. I don’t know where he is now.”
-
-“What is his name and where did he live?”
-
-“He is a carpenter. I used to call him Carl. He lived on Randolph
-Street, near Union.”
-
-Further inquiries failed to elicit anything of importance, and he was
-turned loose to wander at his own sweet pleasure.
-
-EMIL MENDE, a German, was a man thoroughly capable of desperate deeds.
-He lived at No. 51 Meagher Street, and so villainous a disposition
-did he possess that his own sister and his brother-in-law were
-obliged to report him at the station. Even the people in his own
-neighborhood feared him, and those that knew him best shunned him. He
-was a dangerous man. For two months preceding May 4, he boasted how
-the Anarchists would blow up the city and kill every one who was not
-an Anarchist. He talked about it so often and in such an earnest way
-that his neighbors grew apprehensive lest he might set fire to the
-neighborhood. The children would run across the street to avoid meeting
-him. He was always full of liquor, and his chief study was how to get
-a living without work. He thought he had found it in Anarchy, and he
-stood ready to commit any crime to accomplish his purpose. He became
-a drunken loafer through attending Anarchistic meetings, and when his
-sister remonstrated with him he turned against her and threatened
-to kill her. His conduct finally became so unbearable that his
-brother-in-law, Emil Sauer, gave information against him to the police.
-Mende, he said, belonged to the Lehr und Wehr Verein of the Southwest
-Side group and would assemble with his comrades in lonely, retired
-places, where the police could not see them drill. They would sneak
-into the buildings selected for their meeting-places, and after their
-drills they would quietly sneak out again, like so many thieves who had
-committed a successful burglary. Sauer said he had come to know many of
-the members, but he did not know their names or where they lived. They
-all had numbers, were well armed with rifles and revolvers, and they
-drilled frequently.
-
-“I remember the night of May 4,” said Sauer, “Mende left the house
-about eight o’clock. He looked wild and desperate. He carried with him
-a huge revolver and a lot of cartridges. About eleven o’clock the same
-evening, after the bomb had exploded, he came sneaking home, and had
-in his possession two rifles and three dynamite bombs. He brought them
-all into the house at first, and, becoming alarmed, he took them all
-to No. 647 South Canal Street. There he was seen either going under
-the house or under the sidewalk. When he came out he had nothing with
-him. Mende, when he first began to attend the meetings, had very little
-to say about Anarchy. He kept on, and during the six months preceding
-the Haymarket riot he was perfectly crazy on the subject. After he had
-become a member of the armed group, he would speak of nothing else but
-killing people and destroying the city. On the evening of May 4, before
-leaving home, he said:
-
-“‘This is our night. This night we will show our strength. I would like
-to see any one oppose us. Nothing can stand before us. Before daylight
-to-morrow blood will flow deep in the streets, and the air will be hot.
-Then we will have a new government.’
-
-“After he had been gone about twenty minutes, some one came in and
-asked for him. The man looked like a starved-out cut-throat. He was
-told that Mende had gone. The fellow remarked, ‘Then it is all right. I
-know where to find him.’ He pulled his hat over his eyes, turned up his
-coat collar and disappeared. This man was watched. He went west from
-our house, and about a block away he met five other men. They all went
-west together.
-
-“On the afternoon of May 4, Mende said to me:
-
-“‘I want you to go with us. Everything is very well planned. There
-is no fear that we will not get all the help we want after we have
-started. We are going to move like an army. If we should get whipped at
-first, or if we should have to run, then we all have places to go to.
-The Southwest Side group is going to a church on Eighteenth Street, and
-we will fortify ourselves there until we get help. We will have a lot
-of dynamite bombs to keep everybody away. We have rifles and revolvers,
-and no one will dare come near us. We can hold the fort there for a few
-days, and no one will trouble us. Only throw out a bomb once a day,
-and that will be sufficient to prevent the enemy from coming near. The
-North Side group is going to follow our plan. They are going to take
-charge of St. Michael’s Church. We have things down fine. You had
-better come along. There is no danger. We expect a lot of people here
-from Michigan and all the mining towns. They will all come here as soon
-as we begin the attack.’
-
-“Mende asked me at one time to go with him,—this was during the
-McCormick strike,—and told me they were going to take with them tin
-cans, which would be filled with kerosene. These cans would have strong
-corks in them, and through each a hole had been drilled, for the
-insertion of a cap and fuse. They would simply light the fuse, throw
-the can into a lumber yard, and walk off. No one would discover who did
-it, and then they would see a big fire. ‘In this way we’ll bring these
-d——d capitalists to time.’ I told Mende that I would have nothing to
-do with him or his plans.
-
-“Two days after the bomb had been thrown, he said to me:
-
-“‘I know the man who threw the bomb, and, you bet, he is a good friend
-of mine. He will never be arrested.’
-
-“About eight days after the explosion, he told me that he knew the man
-who made bombs, and that the man was going to leave the city. This
-man, he also said, had changed his clothes, and he (Mende) had got the
-clothes from a man named Sisterer, who lived on Sixteenth Street. I
-then asked him the name of the man who made the bombs, and he said it
-was Louis Lingg.”
-
-Mrs. Sauer next related her grievances against her brother.
-
-“This brute,” she began, “not being satisfied with having all the
-neighbors afraid of him, had to torment the life out of me, telling me
-that he belonged to those fellows who would kill, give no quarter and
-take none. In a fight the result would be victory or death. He would
-tell me that as soon as they had established their government the
-children of the capitalists would be hunted up and killed, and every
-trace of a capitalist wiped off the face of the earth. My brother reads
-all kinds of Anarchist books and papers. I saw him have a big revolver
-and a lot of cartridges, and he said:
-
-“‘We are going to kill all the police now in a few days. They all must
-be killed. They stand in our way. We cannot get our rights so long as
-we let those bloodhounds live. So we have decided to kill them all. We
-are ready now, and you will not see any more of those fellows hanging
-around the corners.’
-
-“He also said that the Fire Department was a well-organized body, and
-they, too, must be destroyed.
-
-“‘Before the battle commences,’ he said, ‘we are going to fix the
-bridges with dynamite, so that, in case the Fire Department should come
-to the relief of the police or go to work to extinguish the fires that
-we start, we will blow the bridges, firemen, horses and all to h—l.’
-
-“He further stated that the city would be set on fire in all parts,
-so that the police and firemen would be obliged to stay in their own
-neighborhoods, and it would be impossible for any large bodies of them
-to get together in one place. Then, when everything was in confusion,
-they had places selected where they would meet in a body and come into
-the center of the city, where they would rob and plunder every jewelry
-store and bank, and places where they could get the most valuable
-things they wanted.
-
-“‘We have,’ he said, ‘all these places picked out already. We have on
-hand all the dynamite we want, and when we make a start we will have
-our tools and materials with us.’
-
-“A few days after the 4th of May, my brother also said that it was too
-bad that their committee had become split up during the charge of the
-police at the Haymarket. They failed to get together again, and the
-men on the outside were expecting every second to receive orders from
-that committee to commence setting fires and killing people. He stated
-that on that night he was at the Hinman Street Station, and that it was
-surrounded by seventy-five men, fifty of them having rifles and the
-balance large revolvers and dynamite bombs. They waited in an alley
-for orders. Everything, he said, was complete; every man had his place
-and knew what work he had to perform. They only needed the signal from
-the committee. The plan was that, as soon as they had received their
-orders, some of them should get near the windows of the station and
-throw in bombs among the policemen. Then others were to be ready with
-their revolvers and shoot down any officer who had not been killed by
-the explosion and who attempted to save himself by jumping out through
-the window. The fifty men with rifles were to have placed themselves in
-front of the station, and as soon as the officers made an attempt to
-march out, they should kill them in the hallway before they could get
-outside. ‘But,’ said he, ‘the officers at this station will be killed
-yet, because they have interfered with us and injured the success of
-the strikers.’
-
-“He spoke also about their going to barricade themselves in churches
-if they got whipped, until they had secured help. He said that they
-had a lot of bombs buried near the city, and they were there still for
-future use. ‘They will not spoil,’ he said. My brother further told me
-one night that he had to run home or he would have been arrested. I saw
-him come home, and he looked very much excited. He went into the back
-yard—just like the coward—and remained there for some time. Later he
-told me that a lot of them went together to blow up a freight-house
-with dynamite bombs. This freight-house is on the corner of Meagher
-and Jefferson Streets. He said that he had the place picked out, and
-everything was ready. Then one of their number, who stood guard, gave
-the signal to run, and they all ran away. They had a meeting-place
-appointed in case they should be disturbed, and there they met
-afterwards. They decided to renew the attack, but finally, at the
-suggestion of a man named Sisterer, that they postpone it till another
-night, they all went home. On his way home my brother thought that some
-detective was following him. He became frightened and started on the
-run, and ran until he arrived home safely.”
-
-[Illustration: 1. Incendiary Bomb, with powder flask detached.
-
-2. Gas-Pipe Bombs, without cap or fuse, but loaded with dynamite. Found
-in Lingg’s room.
-
-3. Bombs used in evidence, after analysis by chemists.
-
-4. Gas-Pipe Bombs, with fuse and caps, secreted by Julius Oppenheimer
-under a dancing-platform.
-
-ANARCHIST AMMUNITION—1. FROM PHOTOGRAPHS.]
-
-When a sister would tell such a story, fully corroborated by others,
-of a brother, it can easily be seen that he must have been a desperate
-man. It must be borne in mind that about the time Mrs. Sauer notified
-me of her brother’s acts the city was wrought up to a high pitch of
-excitement over the foul murder at the Haymarket, and there was a
-general sentiment that all the conspirators identified with that plot
-ought to hang. It required, therefore, no little courage on the part of
-a sister to give up her own brother to take his chances on the charges
-made.
-
-Mende must have reached a very low, or rather a very high standing
-among the bloodthirsty bandits, and the revelations concerning him
-showed that he was not only capable of tormenting a poor woman by his
-savage threats, but willing and anxious to distinguish himself in any
-wild carnival of riot, bloodshed and incendiarism. He was a man the
-police wanted, and he was accordingly arrested by Officers Whalen and
-Loewenstein on the 7th of June. At the station he gave his age as
-twenty-nine years, and his occupation as that of a carpenter. He was
-tall, well-built, wore a heavy beard and weighed about 160 pounds. His
-appearance did not belie the statements made about him, and subsequent
-inquiries showed that he was all his sister had represented him to
-be. What he had told his sister about the arrangements around the
-Hinman Street Station was found to be strictly true, and the details
-about the riot at the Haymarket and the signal to the armed men in the
-outlying sections of the city were borne out by the statements of other
-Anarchists.
-
-While on his way to the station, Mende seemed perfectly indifferent
-to his fate. It came out, however, that much of his stoical air had
-been inspired by statements previously communicated to him by his
-Anarchist associates. The attorneys of the Anarchists, Messrs. Salomon
-& Zeisler, had advised the order that in case of arrest the distressed
-brother should seek to notify some friend they might meet while being
-taken through the streets to the station, and then, the information
-being brought to them, they would at once secure a release on a writ
-of _habeas corpus_. Mende acted on this advice. He knew probably, like
-the rest, that, once locked up, his chances for communicating with his
-friends for a day or two would be exceedingly doubtful, and so, while
-he was being marched through the streets, he encountered a friend and
-told him his name; and that friend immediately rushed to the office
-of the attorneys and gave the name of the prisoner and the station to
-which he was being taken.
-
-Mende had scarcely been locked up when the counsel came to the
-Chicago Avenue Station and demanded to see the prisoner. They were
-refused. On the next day they applied for a writ of _habeas corpus_
-and wanted the prisoner brought into court. The object of this was
-to put me on the stand in the case, and, by various questions, to
-obtain such information as the State might possess with reference to
-the Anarchists. I was not to be caught in such a trap, and State’s
-Attorney Grinnell decided to release the prisoner, have him indicted
-and subsequently re-arrested.
-
-During the short time Mende was at the station he was plied with
-questions, but he answered them all with denials. He said that he
-had never spoken to his sister about Anarchy and had never belonged
-to any organization. Under cross-fire, however, he admitted that he
-had attended the meetings and owned a big revolver. The revolver, he
-said, he had sold to one Peter Mann about the 1st of June. After his
-experience at the station he was, as might have been expected, at war
-with his relatives, but he kept away from meetings.
-
-POLIKARP SISTERER, a German Pole, was an associate of Mende, but,
-unlike that rapscallion, he was not violent or demonstrative. Having
-a family may have done much toward tempering his disposition, but
-still he was an Anarchist in the full sense of the word. He was a
-quiet, deep-plotting fellow, and perhaps on that account might be
-regarded as really a more dangerous man. He was a sober man, not given
-to beer-drinking and wine-guzzling like Mende; and, like Cassius of
-old, had a “lean and hungry look,” bringing him within that class
-concerning whom the injunction “Beware” might well be heeded in any
-special crisis. He was arrested on the 8th of June by Officers Whalen
-and Loewenstein and taken to the station. On the way thither he, like
-Mende, communicated his troubles to friends on the street, and was
-subsequently released under the same conditions. At the station he gave
-his age as thirty-one years, his occupation as that of a carpenter,
-and his residence as No. 85 West Sixteenth Street. He belonged, like
-Mende, to the Carpenters’ Union, which met at Zepf’s Hall, and took an
-active part in all Anarchistic movements. He was at first exceedingly
-non-communicative to the police, and insisted, whenever he did speak,
-that he had no secrets to divulge. He was shown to the “cooler” down
-stairs, and the next day he was in a talkative mood. He willingly took
-all the officers into his confidence and talked unreservedly. He said:
-
- “I belong to the Carpenters’ Union, and Louis Lingg belongs to the
- same organization. I have known Lingg for about eight months. We
- were good friends, and, after the meetings of the union were over,
- Lingg and I often went home together. I got acquainted with him at
- those meetings. Lingg was a good worker for the carpenters, and they
- all like him for the interest he displayed in their behalf. I saw
- him at our union meeting on Monday evening about eight o’clock in
- Zepf’s Hall. He made a speech there and called all of us to arms and
- to be ready. He said that the police were ready to club us and would
- only protect the capitalists and work only in the interests of the
- capitalists. ‘You can see for yourselves,’ Lingg said ‘how the police
- acted at the McCormick factory; they clubbed our people, they killed
- six of our brothers, and now we will fight them and take revenge.’
- He worked us all up, and every one was highly excited. He said that
- everything was ready and if we would only stick together we would win
- a certain victory. I saw at this meeting Hageman, Poch, Mende, Lehman,
- Louis Rentz and Kaiser. Rau and Niendorf were there and distributed
- the revenge circulars. That day—Monday—was a very exciting one among
- the Anarchists, and it would not have taken much to have started very
- serious trouble. Crowds of excited people were on Lake Street, from
- Union Street to the river, on that afternoon, and all were in bad
- temper. I attended the meeting on the afternoon of May 3d, at about
- three o’clock, at No. 71 West Lake Street, at Florus’ Hall. I never
- was at any meeting held at No. 54 West Lake Street, at Greif’s Hall,
- but I heard from others as to what had been done there. I saw Lingg
- again on the 5th of May, at Florus’ Hall. I spoke to him, but he
- had very little to say. He looked downhearted. While I was there he
- disappeared, and I never saw him again.”
-
-“Did you not give him money and clothes to get out of the city?” I
-asked.
-
-“Well, no one can prove that. If you think I did, you had better find
-your witness.”
-
-“Do you mean to say that you did not help Lingg?”
-
-Sisterer hung his head and would vouchsafe no answer.
-
-He was released, as I have already stated, but since this episode
-in his career, he has taken the lesson to heart and appears to be
-determined to keep away from uncanny places on moonless nights.
-
-AUGUST KRUEGER, _alias_ “Little Krueger,” was a different sort of a man
-from the rest of his chosen brotherhood. He was quite an intelligent
-fellow, well educated, with genteel manners, well chosen language and
-rather natty dress. He was a draftsman by occupation, and he was highly
-skilled. He was, with all his bloodthirsty professions, a very clever
-fellow, and became quite popular with his low-browed associates. He
-belonged to the Northwest Side company of the Lehr und Wehr Verein and
-took great interest in the drills. His ideas, however, were somewhat
-different from those of the other Anarchists. He did not believe in
-riots, but thought a revolution should be brought about by a general
-uprising of the people. In the old country, he had been a Socialist,
-but had been obliged to leave some seven years before the time of
-the Haymarket riot. Arriving here, he identified himself with the
-Anarchists, and, taking a deep interest in all movements directed
-against capitalists, he soon became highly esteemed by Spies and
-others. He was at the Haymarket meeting, having come in the company
-of Schnaubelt, the bomb-thrower, and claimed that he also left the
-meeting in his company. While not in perfect accord with his associates
-on isolated riots, and while he did not sanction such methods to hurt
-people, Krueger still entered into their plans and worked hard for
-their cause, and when Spies and others had been condemned to die
-he originated a plot to release them from the jail, which, however,
-failing to secure members enough to carry it out, he finally abandoned.
-
-[Illustration: A GROUP OF THE LEHR UND WEHR VEREIN.
-
-From a Photograph.
-
-The figure on the extreme right is that of “Little Krueger.”]
-
-After the Haymarket riot, Krueger was continually watched by the
-detectives, and on the 13th of June he was arrested. He was found at
-the Terra Cotta Works, on Clybourn and Wrightwood Avenues, and brought
-to the Chicago Avenue Station. Here he showed that he had considerable
-grit. He was the kind of man who would risk his life for a good chance
-in a general revolution, and, although he characterized some of the
-Anarchists as fools, he stubbornly refused to testify against them.
-He was kept for two hours under a steady fusillade of questions by
-Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann, but he held out doggedly under
-the heavy fire. He could not be made to inform. He was subsequently
-released by order of the State’s Attorney. He was, when last heard
-of, still working for Messrs. Parkhurst & Co., the proprietors of the
-works, and appears to be well liked by them. In spite of his warning,
-he still adheres to his old ideas.
-
-His answers to the questions asked him were as follows:
-
- “I am twenty-one years of age. I came from Germany seven years ago. I
- reside at No. 72 Kenion Street, near Paulina. I was a member of the
- Lehr und Wehr Verein a year and a half. I know Breitenfeld. He is the
- commander of the second company of the Lehr und Wehr Verein. I am
- orderly sergeant and secretary of that company. Schrade was captain. I
- heard of the letter ‘Y’ about the first of April. We had a different
- signal. It was ‘???.’ This signal invited the armed organizations. I
- cannot say who originated the signal. The signal was then changed to
- ‘Y.’ We always met up-stairs under this signal ‘Y,’ except the last
- two meetings. I saw that letter last on Sunday preceding the riot. I
- went to that meeting at No. 54 West Lake Street (May 3) alone. I got
- to the meeting about 8:30 o’clock. I went into the saloon and then
- went down stairs. There were then only a few people present. Seeing
- that the meeting had not started, I went up stairs again. Breitenfeld
- had charge of the door. I was not asked to show my card, but I had it
- with me. It was a red card—No. 8. That is my number. We all go by
- numbers. I went down stairs again for a second time about a quarter to
- nine o’clock.”
-
-A picture being shown him of Schnaubelt, he said:
-
- “I might have seen him. On Tuesday night, May 4, I was at Engel’s
- house from nine o’clock to eleven o’clock. At the meeting I know
- that Fischer volunteered to have circulars printed for the Haymarket
- meeting. I am in favor of a complete revolution—that is, when a
- majority of the people are in favor of it. I am an Anarchist, and will
- remain one as long as I live. My father was one, and he was warden of
- a penitentiary in the old country. I had to leave there because I was
- an Anarchist. I am opposed to all single attacks, like that at the
- Haymarket. I am in favor, also, of peaceable agitation. I could say
- more about others, but they are in trouble enough now. I don’t want to
- be put down as a ‘squealer.’ I hope you will not insist on my becoming
- one, as I will not.”
-
-EMIL NIENDORF, a German, was arrested on the 14th of June, by Officers
-Schuettler and Stift, and brought to the station. He had scarcely
-entered the place when he demanded to see me at once. On being brought
-into the office, he was asked what he wanted to say.
-
-“Well,” opened up Niendorf, “I don’t want to be locked up here six
-weeks. Neither do I want you folks to believe that I am a stubborn man.
-I want to talk. I want to tell you who I am, what I have done, and I
-don’t want to be looked upon as a murderer. I am an eight-hour man.
-I want to get eight hours in a peaceable way. I do not want to kill
-people. I have no use for those rattle-heads.”
-
-Niendorf was informed that all the officers connected with the station
-were too busy to attend to his case then, and that he would have to
-remain until the next day, when he would have an opportunity to tell
-all his troubles. He was locked up, but during the night, it appears,
-some prisoner or some one from the outside “put a flea in his ear,”
-telling him not to open his mouth, to be a brave man, and he would come
-out all right. The next morning at ten o’clock he was brought into
-my office, but he was not at all communicative. He sat down and said
-nothing.
-
-“Well, Niendorf, how do you feel?” asked Mr. Furthmann. “How did you
-sleep?”
-
-Not an answer.
-
-“Are you sick?” interestedly inquired Furthmann.
-
-No answer.
-
-“Did any one insult you or hurt you?” continued Furthmann.
-
-Still no response.
-
-“Who has changed your mind since you were here?” I inquired.
-
-Not a syllable of reply.
-
-“See here,” said I, “you cannot make us feel bad. I will give you just
-two minutes by the watch to get over your lockjaw.”
-
-This aroused Niendorf, and, looking around at all the officers present,
-he said:
-
-“Gentlemen, I have been warned not to speak. I did not see the party,
-but some one called out my name and asked if I had been to the office
-yet. I answered no. The voice then said: ‘When you go there, don’t
-open your mouth, be motionless, and they will soon fire you out. Don’t
-forget.’”
-
-“That is just what I expected,” I remarked. “Now you can do as you
-please—talk or not talk. That party is not a friend of yours, and he
-wants to see you go to jail. Officer, take him down stairs.”
-
-“Are you not going to let me speak?” nervously inquired the prisoner.
-
-“How long will it take you to find your speech?” exclaimed Furthmann.
-
-“Have I got to swear to what I tell you?”
-
-“Yes; you will have to do that whenever we send for you, and you must
-not leave the city without permission,” said I.
-
-Niendorf then gave a statement of his knowledge of Anarchy. He appeared
-very ignorant, but, when spoken to, he showed that he was quite
-intelligent. He was twenty-six years of age, lived at No. 29 Croker
-Street, and, with fiery red hair, was a rather homely-looking man.
-
-He was released, and after his departure the officers determined to
-ascertain whether it was an “Anarchist ghost” or a man in flesh and
-bones that had hovered about the station warning Niendorf not to
-squeal. A close watch was accordingly put in the cell department to
-fathom the mystery. About ten o’clock that night a young fellow called
-at the station for a night’s lodging. He was told to sit down and wait.
-He did so, and his wish was reported to me. Officer Loewenstein was
-sent back to look him over, and that officer presently returned and
-reported that the man did not look like a tramp. He looked more like
-an Israelite who had means, and the fellow was at once called into the
-office. There the officers unbuttoned his coat and discovered a clean
-young fellow, with a nice suit of clothes and a gold watch and chain.
-
-“What is your name?” I asked sternly. “And don’t forget to give it
-right.”
-
-“Oh, please,—I—I did not mean anything bad.”
-
-“Are you not baptized; have you no name? Officer, lock him up until I
-find a name for him.”
-
-“Let me go, and I will never come here again.”
-
-“Who sent you here?” I demanded.
-
-“I cannot tell—do let me go. I will never, I promise you, come back
-again.”
-
-“I don’t think you will. When you leave here you will go through the
-‘sewer.’”
-
-With exclamations of great grief and remorse, he looked appealingly
-to all the officers in the room, and, recognizing Officer Loewenstein
-as one of his race, he fell on his knees and begged the officer not to
-have him put through the “sewer.”
-
-“Were you not here last night?” asked the Captain.
-
-“No, sir; it was another fellow.”
-
-The turnkey of the station was sent for and confirmed the stranger’s
-denial. The now thoroughly frightened young man was then asked as to
-who the lodger of the night before was, but all he knew was that he
-himself had been hired by an unknown man that evening for one dollar
-to come and seek lodgings at the station to warn Anarchists. When the
-stranger had measurably recovered from his trepidation, he gave his
-name as Moses Wulf, and, his information being of no value, he was
-released with a severe lecture.
-
-Niendorf’s statement ran as follows:
-
- “I was at a meeting held May 3 at 8 P.M., at No. 122 West Lake Street.
- I was chairman. I heard some one state that the police had killed a
- dozen workingmen at McCormick’s factory. That created a great deal
- of excitement for some time at the meeting. Then some one shouted:
- ‘Better be quiet and let us attend to our own affairs.’ We were only
- looking after the eight-hour movement. I saw the revenge circular
- at that meeting, which called the people to arms. Louis Lingg was
- present to report some meeting and some business transactions as a
- committeeman. William Seliger was there as recording secretary of the
- meeting. Rau was there, and some one said to me that he had brought
- the circular. A man named Soenek made a speech and advised us to use
- force. It was decided, on motion, that we should act in sympathy with
- the people at McCormick’s factory. I have been a member of the North
- Side group for about a year. I was at a meeting at Zepf’s Hall May
- 3, which lasted till eleven o’clock P.M. About nine o’clock a man at
- the back door called out that all the men who belonged to the armed
- sections should go to 54 West Lake Street in the basement, where a
- meeting was to be held, and I saw a lot of members get up and leave
- the hall. I know Lingg belonged to the armed section. At one time he
- offered me some of his dynamite bombs. I told him I did not want any
- of them. He told me on another occasion that I had better take some
- and try some of his stuff. I told him that I was afraid to handle
- his stuff and I did not want it. Our meeting May 3 at Zepf’s Hall
- was known as that of the Central Labor Union. A little fellow named
- Lutz was financial secretary at that meeting. Rau was there only ten
- minutes. At a meeting held some time ago in Lake View, I was chairman.
- Lingg was one of the speakers, and also a man named Poch. Seliger
- called the meeting to order. I know Gruenwald; he is thirty-five years
- old, a carpenter by trade, five feet eight or nine inches tall, and
- has red whiskers. I heard Lingg say at several meetings that if any
- members wanted any of his ‘chocolate,’ meaning dynamite or dynamite
- bombs, he would supply them.”
-
-JOHANNES GRUENEBERG, a German, had the distinction conferred on him
-of being one of the last of the more conspicuous Anarchists to be
-arrested. He had been known to the police for some time, in a general
-way, and inquiries about him brought out the fact that he was a
-prominent figure in Anarchistic circles. He knew where all the leaders
-lived, frequently visited them, and tramped around so often that he
-became quite a well-known character. Even the dogs that infested the
-localities through which he passed wagged their tails in cheerful
-recognition, and Grueneberg always had a kind word for both the brutes
-and his Anarchist friends. He was forty-five years of age, a married
-man with a family, and lived at No. 750 West Superior Street. He was
-a carpenter by trade. On the 17th of June he was working on a new
-building at No. 340 Dearborn Avenue, and, while right in the midst of
-an exhortation to the other workingmen on the beauties of Anarchy, he
-was interrupted by Officers Hoffman and Schuettler, who notified him
-that he was under arrest.
-
-“That is just what I have been waiting for,” he exclaimed, not in the
-least disconcerted. “Is it that d——d Schaack that wants to see me? I
-will tell that fellow who I am. I will surprise him.”
-
-“Johannes,” said Schuettler, “you can save yourself all of that
-trouble. Schaack knows all about you. I saw your name in the book.”
-
-“Come on quick,” said Johannes, “I will show you a gamy man. Whenever
-I leave home I always bid my wife good-by, because I have expected to
-be arrested at any time, and did not know when I would see her again,
-for I will not squeal. I knew of these squealers, and I told my wife I
-would kill myself first before I would squeal.”
-
-Officers and prisoner started for the station. Johannes opened up on a
-half run, and the officers could hardly keep up with him, so anxious
-did he appear. He entered the office with hair disordered and on end,
-and his eyes bulged out with excitement as he hurriedly surveyed some
-six officers who were in the office at the time.
-
-“Which one of you fellows,” he wildly asked, “is Schaack? Show him to
-me quick.”
-
-“Grueneberg,” said I, for I recognized him at once from the
-descriptions I had had of the man, “what is the matter?”
-
-“Are you Schaack?”
-
-“Yes, I am Schaack.”
-
-“You sent for me to squeal, did you?”
-
-He instantly pulled out a big jack-knife, and, handing it out towards
-me, he continued:
-
-“Take this and cut my head off.”
-
-He twice repeated the request, and, still holding out his extended
-hand, said:
-
-“I will never squeal; you can kill me first.”
-
-“I heard that you were crazy,” said I, “but I never thought you were
-quite so bad as this. You must suffer terribly. The weather is too
-warm for you. I think you had better go down stairs and have a glass
-of ice water.”
-
-“No,” vehemently responded Johannes, “we had better settle this matter
-right now. I want to go out a free man, or else you will have to carry
-me out of here a dead man. I would thank you, however, for a glass of
-water, but don’t put me down stairs. I have heard too much of that
-place already.”
-
-“Oh,” said I, “it is not a bad place. Just go down and see for
-yourself. You will like the place; it is nice and cool.”
-
-“Please, Captain, let me sit in the next room,” said Johannes, cooling
-down considerably, and modulating his voice to a gentler key; “I will
-behave myself.”
-
-His austerity of manner had completely vanished, and his ferocious mien
-and language had gradually disappeared. He saw in me a different man
-from what he had expected, and the courteous treatment accorded him had
-melted his heart and vanquished his anger. I granted his request and
-told an officer to sit with him in an adjoining room.
-
-The moment the officer and prisoner were in the room, Johannes remarked:
-
-“Schaack is not a bad fellow. Is he not going to stop arresting people?”
-
-“Oh, no,” said the officer, “he has a long list yet.”
-
-“Are you with him all the time?”
-
-“I am.”
-
-“Do you hear and see all?”
-
-“I do.”
-
-“Do the fellows all squeal?”
-
-“Yes, every one of them. If they don’t squeal right away, they squeal
-the first chance they get.”
-
-“I am too much of a man, and it would be very small in me to do so.”
-
-“There have been as brave men as you in this office, and every one has
-squealed.”
-
-“Well, when a man has a family, that cuts a big figure,” said Johannes,
-hesitatingly.
-
-“If you are going to talk to Captain Schaack,” said the officer,
-reading the man’s mind, “you must understand that he does not want
-any fooling. You either tell him all or nothing, because some one has
-already told on you.”
-
-This settled the matter with Grueneberg. He wanted to see me, and he
-was brought back into the office.
-
-“I was a little excited,” began Johannes, apologetically.
-
-“All right,” I assuringly replied; “sit down and tell on yourself
-first. I am going to give you a trial.”
-
-Grueneberg then went on to say:
-
- “Well, I am an Anarchist. I always worked hard for the working people.
- I am proud of it. I did good as long as I could, but now it is all
- up. I am a member of the Northwest Side group and always attended our
- meetings. I never missed one.
-
- “On Monday night, May 3, I attended a meeting at Zepf’s Hall. I
- remained there until about 9:15 o’clock. From there I went to Greif’s
- Hall. This was a secret meeting of the armed men. While the meeting
- continued all the doors were kept locked, and guards stood on the
- outside of each door, and also on the inside, and extra guards on the
- sidewalk. If any one stopped on the sidewalk, he would be told to move
- on. I heard Engel speak of his plan; that it was a good one. If only
- every one would do his work, then the matter would be a very easy
- one of accomplishment. He stated that the plan had been made up last
- Sunday at 63 Emma Street, and had already been adopted by the Lehr und
- Wehr Verein and the groups. All who had heard of the plan, he said,
- were very much in favor of it, and all understood by this time how to
- act. ‘We are,’ he continued, ‘going to do this right, because all the
- boys look to us as the leaders, and we are going to call a meeting for
- to-morrow night at the Haymarket. Since all the people are excited, we
- will have a large crowd, and we will have things so shaped that the
- police will interfere. Then will be the chance to give it to them! I
- could notice by the acts of all present at this meeting that there was
- a great deal of bad blood among them against the police on account of
- the killing of so many people at McCormick’s.”
-
-“Do you now believe that a single person was killed at McCormick’s?”
-
-“Of course I do. You killed six men.”
-
-“Not one was killed,” said I, “and you ought to know that by this time.”
-
-“All I know,” said Johannes, “is what August Spies said. I was a
-carrier of the _Anarchist_, Engel’s paper. My route was on Madison
-Street, and on the Southwest Side,” he continued, dropping the 54 West
-Lake Street meeting.
-
-“And what did you think of that paper?” I inquired.
-
-“That was the best paper we ever had.”
-
-“It was too bad,” added I, “that the sweet little paper died so young.
-Where was it printed?”
-
-“I don’t know, because the papers were sent to my house by the
-Southwest Side group.”
-
-“Who else carried that paper?”
-
-“Messerschmidt, Schneider, Schoenfeld, Geimer and Kirbach. We each
-carried about fifty papers at a time.”
-
-“Do you know anything more about the secret meeting at No. 54 West Lake
-Street, May 3d?”
-
-“Well, I don’t know all. I went out twice.”
-
-“And how did you get in every time?”
-
-“I had a card, and I had to show that every time. That is all, and,
-besides, the boys all knew me.”
-
-“What do you know about Louis Lingg?”
-
-“He is a good man. I like him. He speaks to the point.”
-
-“On dynamite,” I suggested.
-
-“Yes, and on other things.”
-
-“He only likes Anarchists,” I interrupted.
-
-“Yes, that is so.”
-
-“What do you know about the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_?”
-
-“Well, it is a very good paper, but it is too mild.”
-
-“Do you mean to tell me that a paper which advises people to murder and
-kill is too mild?” I asked.
-
-“They don’t put force enough into it. They don’t keep up things as they
-ought to. I know all who visit there. I am a friend of all the Spieses.”
-
-After being “roasted” for three hours, Johannes was permitted to go
-back to his work, and he left under the impression that, after all,
-he had not said anything criminally implicating any of his comrades.
-He was not asked to report when wanted, as he was too noisy a fellow
-to have around the station, and the officers were as well pleased to
-see him go as they had been pleased to arrest him. He inaugurated
-no reform on his release. On the contrary, he was again as rabid as
-ever and ran around night and day trying to gather a mob to go to the
-jail and liberate the Anarchists. He made no secret of his work. He
-loved the red flag, he said, and he would die for it if necessary. One
-night he came to me in company with two other fellows and demanded the
-return of a large red flag which at one time belonged to International
-Carpenters’ Union No. 1. This flag had been taken by the police with
-many others some time before. Grueneberg said that he had marched
-behind it many times and he was proud of it. He wanted to see the “dear
-old flag” once more and secure possession of it. I had the flag at
-the station, but, knowing that Anarchists had an “undying love” for
-Inspector Bonfield, I remarked:
-
-“If you want the flag, all you have to do is to see the Inspector, and
-I am quite sure he will give it to you.”
-
-An expression of intense disgust came over the faces of the three
-Anarchists, and Grueneberg excitedly exclaimed:
-
-“Bonfield! Bonfield! Ah, the d——d black Bonfield! I see _him_? Oh,
-no! he is not gentleman enough for me to see.”
-
-“Bonfield is a very clever fellow,” said I; “he likes such men as you.”
-
-“Oh, yes; he would like my head in a bag. Good night, Mr. Schaack; I
-don’t want the flag.”
-
-Grueneberg belonged at this time to Carpenters’ Union No. 241, and, on
-account of his peculiar and ridiculous actions, the members gradually
-grew suspicious of him and finally believed that he was a paid spy
-in the employ of some detective agency. They harbored their mistrust
-for a time, and then accused him of being a traitor. He demanded that
-charges be preferred against him, and it was done. Grueneberg failing
-to answer these charges, he was expelled from the union. A few weeks
-thereafter he reformed, and one day, meeting me, he said:
-
-“I am done with these people. They are all cranks. No person can do
-enough for them. I worked with them night and day. They put me on all
-the committees. I had to do all the running, and for all my trouble and
-as a reward they call me a spy. I am working steady now and they can
-all go to the d——l. I am only sorry for my poor children—the way
-they suffered while I was giving my time to Anarchy. I have now worked
-four weeks and made full time. This I have not done before for the last
-two years.”
-
-About two months after the above incident, Grueneberg and his family
-passed the Desplaines Street Station. Meeting me, Grueneberg spoke up,
-saying:
-
-“Well, Captain, what do you think of my family now?”
-
-“I must give you a great deal of credit,” said I pleasantly. “You are
-all looking remarkably well. A man that has gone as far as you in
-Anarchy deserves credit for such a great change, and if all the rest
-were kicked out of their unions, I think it would be a blessing to
-their poor wives and children.”
-
-After bidding me good-by, Grueneberg and his family walked away proud
-and happy in their new condition, and I went to my office and drew this
-moral from the example of reform I had just seen: Here was a man who
-had belonged to the Anarchists for three or four years, and had been
-at one time one of the “rankest” kind. For two years his family had
-suffered want, and now, after having left the desperate band for two
-months only, his wife and children were once more made happy. Anarchy
-keeps men in poverty and families in trouble, distress and suffering.
-
-Grueneberg up to the present time has kept away from his former
-associates, and his change appears permanent and sincere.
-
-OTTO BAUM was one of the desperate Anarchists who made the air blue
-with imprecations against capital. He would have been gathered in with
-the others had it not been for his special care to keep out of the
-reach of the police. He lived at No. 137 Cleveland Avenue, was married
-and had three children, and, when he worked, which he rarely did, it
-was at the carpenter’s trade. He was a strong, robust man, nearly six
-feet high, and with black hair, full, black beard, and piercing black
-eyes, he presented a rather vicious appearance. When he first came to
-Chicago, some four years preceding the Haymarket meeting, he joined the
-Socialists, and he soon became a full-fledged Anarchist. He belonged
-to the notorious International Carpenters’ Union No. 1. This union had
-then a thousand members, and Baum’s number was 100. About two years
-ago the union changed its number to 241, and a worse set of Anarchists
-could not be found in the United States than the members of this
-organization just before the 4th of May, 1886. They were provided with
-all kinds of arms—revolvers, daggers, rifles, dynamite and fire-cans.
-Lingg was one of the leading spirits in this revolutionary gang. After
-the Haymarket explosion, when the police took up a hot pursuit of the
-conspirators, Baum changed his residence with his family and carefully
-kept off the streets during the daytime. On the conclusion of the trial
-of the leading conspirators, he became emboldened over the immunity he
-had enjoyed from arrest, and crawled out of his hole, like a coon does
-in the spring-time.
-
-So great was Baum’s interest in Anarchy that he wholly neglected his
-family. He never troubled himself about wife or children, but hung
-around saloons guzzling beer and breathing vengeance against the police
-and society. He went lower and lower from day to day, and frequently
-reeled home in a drunken stupor, only to abuse his family. About a year
-and a half ago, when his last child was born, his neglect had left not
-a mouthful in the house, and, had it not been for the kindly assistance
-of friends and neighbors, the family would have been in a most
-deplorable condition. When the child was a week old, the wife, poor and
-sickly as she was, had to leave the house and seek work to supply the
-family with the necessaries of life. With food thus obtained, almost at
-the sacrifice of the poor woman’s life, the burly brute of a husband
-was always first at the table, and eagerly devoured what she had
-provided. Did he seek to obtain employment? Not at all. He preferred
-loafing and talking about Anarchy. The poor wife’s uncomplaining toil
-he rewarded with abuse and cruelty, calling her the vilest of names,
-and even kicking her about as if she were made of rubber. She was a
-delicate, sickly woman, but she bore his fiendish treatment, hoping
-that a change would come over him after the law had made an example
-of other Anarchists. But the change did not come, and finally she
-determined to seek the protection of the courts. Accordingly she went
-to the Chicago Avenue Police Court on the 6th of February, 1888, with
-her infant in her arms, and swore out a warrant against her husband.
-
-The lazy giant was at once arrested, and on the next morning the poor
-woman appeared to testify against him. Being unable to speak English,
-an interpreter was called, and during the recital of her grievances and
-the many indignities imposed upon her by her liege lord, the court-room
-was as quiet almost as a death-chamber. All eagerly listened to her
-troubles, and, her statements being given in such a simple, convincing
-manner, many eyes were moist with tears. Justice Kersten, who presides
-over this court, has no regard for wife-beaters, and he promptly fined
-Baum $50.
-
-“That,” said he, in an emphatic manner, “will keep you locked up for
-one hundred and three days.”
-
-The brute was then locked up where so many of his former associates had
-been incarcerated two years previously, and in the afternoon he was
-sent to the House of Correction by Bailiff Scanlan.
-
-During this episode it came out that Baum had been quite active in
-Anarchist circles, and at the time the Anarchists were confined in the
-County Jail he was engaged in an attempt to gather a mob to effect
-their liberation. One night he went about saying that he was determined
-to kill somebody before the next morning. The more he talked, the more
-frenzied he became, and with his frenzy grew his thirst for liquor,
-the need of which he felt to get up his courage to the required pitch.
-A few hours afterwards he was found in the yard fronting his house,
-asleep and “dead drunk.” The only courage he ever displayed was in
-lording it over his wife and beating her almost to death. He was a type
-of a very large class of Anarchists. He would call the better class of
-people tyrants, because they did not fill his pockets with plenty of
-money so that he could get drunk as often as he desired, but in his own
-household he was the meanest of tyrants.
-
-[Illustration: THE WIFE-BEATER’S TRIAL.]
-
-Had Mrs. Baum been a little shrewder, she would not have had to endure
-his brutalities as long as she did. There are many other wives of
-Anarchists who are ill-treated by their husbands, but some of these
-managed to bring their lords to their senses by a neat ruse. While
-the investigations into the deeds of the Anarchists were going on the
-bandits would almost crawl into a sewer to get out of the way of
-the police, and, noticing the timely fright that overcame the “reds”
-whenever an officer or detective appeared in their midst, many shrewd
-wives quieted wrathful husbands by threatening to go out and see me.
-This ruse, I learn, was often resorted to to avert a beating from a
-drunken Anarchist.
-
-GUSTAV POCH was a conspicuous figure in Anarchist plots, and never
-tired of working for the cause. But Anarchists are an anxious, jealous
-and thankless lot of people, and because Gustav was achieving a little
-more prominence than some of his immediate associates, they found fault
-with him and sought to degrade him. They might have secretly given
-him away to the police, and thus got him out of the way of their own
-advancement, but a fear for their own safety prevented such a course,
-and so they began calling him hard names. But I shall let Gustav state
-his own grievance. Here is a letter he wrote to his union:
-
- CHICAGO, September 10, 1884.
-
- At a meeting held on the 3rd of September, instant, of Branch No. 2,
- of Union No. 21, Carpenters and Joiners, the Secretary read a letter
- in which I, the undersigned, was insulted in a shameful manner. In
- this letter they called me a swindler simply for the purpose of
- breaking up the Union, and at the end of the letter they stated that
- I would be expelled from the Union on account of it. The letter was
- signed by Fr. Ebert and Dom. All these insults and injuries to my
- reputation I can’t let pass. My honor, my reputation and my future
- prosperity are damaged and at stake. I would, therefore, move that an
- investigation be made into the matter and that the instigators of the
- complaint be punished. What was their motive? For the last few weeks
- complaints have been made against me by the Secretary to the effect
- that I, as Acting Secretary, had made false entries on the books. As
- he could not exonerate himself in the eyes of my brothers, he drew
- up the letter, which was published at the meeting of September 3rd,
- and which was signed by Fritz Ebert and Dom, to put me in a bad light
- before the Union. The evidence: Fritz Ebert told me in the presence
- of John Zwirlein that the main object out of which this accusation
- originated was the following: I was selected by President Blair on the
- 3rd of May to the Main Committee in place of Brother Eppinger, who
- could not serve on account of having too much other work while the
- strike lasted. After that I held this position nineteen days. I got
- paid for twelve days, and they withheld seven days from me and said
- I was discharged from the Main Committee. Is there anything to show
- that I was expelled? Of course I put in my claim for $21 in writing,
- and no one ever told me what became of this claim. I was the only
- German-speaking representative on the Strike Committee, and I had
- to do more labor than any one else. Any one who participated in the
- strike during the last seven days can confirm this assertion. Now, how
- can Mr. Printer put up such a letter and show me up as a swindler?
-
- In consequence of the insults inflicted on me, I beg for an
- investigation and for his punishment according to the rules and
- regulations of the Brotherhood.
-
- GUSTAV POCH.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVIII.
-
- The Plot against the Police—Anarchist Banners and Emblems—Stealing
- a Captured Flag—A Mystery at a Station-house—Finding the
- Fire-cans—Their Construction and Use—Imitating the Parisian
- Petroleuses—Glass Bombs—Putting the Women Forward—Cans and Bombs
- Still Hidden Among the Bohemians—Testing the Infernal Machines—The
- Effects of Anarchy—The Moral to be Drawn—Looking for Labor
- Sympathy—A Crazy Scheme—Gatling Gun _vs._ Dynamite—The Threatened
- Attack on the Station-houses—Watching the Third Window—Selecting a
- Weapon—Planning Murder—The Test of Would-be Assassins—The Meeting
- at Lincoln Park—Peril of the Hinman Street Station-house—A Fortunate
- Escape.
-
-
-IN the numerous arrests and raids made, the police became thoroughly
-acquainted with the most notorious Anarchists in the city, the ins
-and outs of their resorts, and even the interior arrangement of their
-dwelling-places. Not only were suspects arrested, but search was made
-for contraband articles. A varied collection of arms, bombs, etc., and
-a large assortment of red bunting thus found their way to the Chicago
-Avenue Station. In all the public demonstrations made by the Anarchists
-in the city they had carried many flags, banners and transparencies as
-emblems of defiance, and whenever such were found they were carefully
-taken in charge. When the investigations were concluded, the inner
-room of my private office was well filled with a most curious display
-of these time-worn and weather-beaten ensigns, and the collection is
-very interesting as a reminder of a critical period in the history of
-Chicago. There are flags of a very primitive and cheap description,
-and flags more or less elaborate and expensive. They varied in size
-and differed in the degree of their crimson colors. Those belonging to
-groups were large and plain, showing frequent handling by dirt-begrimed
-hands, and were mounted on plain pine staffs. Those carried by the Lehr
-und Wehr Verein were of finer texture and larger in size, its principal
-standard, of silk, being a present from the female revolutionists
-and gorgeous in the amplitude of its folds. This silken standard was
-the pride and joy of the whole fraternity, and at one time it served
-to relieve the motley collection with its bright vermilion, but in
-some unaccountable manner it disappeared one day from a West Side
-police station. The reds had evidently set their hearts on recapturing
-it, and by some sort of legerdemain they succeeded. Who it was that
-accomplished the deed has never been disclosed, and in whose custody it
-is now is a profound secret, carefully kept by the Anarchists.
-
-The men who were always relied upon to carry these flags in the
-processions of the reds were Ernst Hubner, Appelman, Paul Otto,
-Stohlbaum, W. Hageman, Seliger, Lutz, Gustav Lehman, Paul Lehman, and
-Mrs. Parsons, Mrs. Holmes and some other women, and possibly some
-of these may know something of the mysterious disappearance of the
-Anarchists’ chief standard.
-
-[Illustration: AN INCENDIARY CAN.—FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.
-
-This is a tin can filled with petroleum, and provided with a small
-powder flask, secured in the center by means of a screw-top, which also
-serves to hold the fuse in position. Numbers of these cans were found.
-They were intended for setting fire to buildings and other property.]
-
-During the searches by the department for other suspicious and
-inflammatory articles, several fire-cans were found in the northwest
-part of the city, on the 3d of June, by Officer Whalen. In exterior
-appearance these looked very harmless, but an examination of their
-contents showed them capable of doing a great deal of mischief. They
-each had a capacity of a quart, and were made of medium heavy tin, with
-a round hole in the center of the top, about an inch in diameter. This
-opening was provided with a threaded neck of tin about an inch high,
-with a cover to fit. Underneath the cover was a sort of clasp, into
-which fitted the neck of a small vial, and through the cover a small
-hole was bored, for the admission of a fuse into the vial. When ready
-for use the can would be filled with an explosive or with coal-oil,
-and the flask would contain powder. All that then remained would be to
-light the fuse, throw the can either into a lumber-yard or under the
-stairway of some residence or business block, and no one would know the
-perpetrator of a possibly disastrous fire. The cans found by Officer
-Whalen were loaded and had evidently been intended for use on the night
-of May 4. Fortunately the owner must have become frightened and hid
-them to escape arrest.
-
-The suggestion for the manufacture of these cans came from across
-the water. A short time preceding May 4, at a meeting held in Thalia
-Hall, a few Frenchmen and several Germans, who had passed through the
-reign of the Commune in Paris in 1871, gave a general idea of the
-important part such cans had played in that city and added that women
-at that time did as good work with them as the men. Such fire-cans,
-together with glass balls filled with nitro-glycerine, were carried in
-baskets, and if the reds wanted to destroy a building they would throw
-a can through the window, or if they desired to annihilate a guard of
-soldiers they would hurl into their midst one of the glass balls, which
-would explode by concussion and tear the men to pieces.
-
-These missiles had created great havoc in Paris, and the members of the
-Thalia Hall gathering were urged to adopt them for use in Chicago. At
-that time there were enough desperate Anarchists in the city to have
-used all that could have been manufactured, but some of the men at the
-meeting insisted that the women should be asked to assist in disposing
-of them to the destruction of the town. One big, loud-mouthed fellow,
-evidently a coward, shouted:
-
-“My wife will do that. She is an Anarchist as good as any one of us.”
-
-No doubt she was an Anarchist, as the city had a great many of these
-poor, deluded creatures at the time, who were willing to do almost
-anything their husbands might ask, but many of whom have since had
-occasion to feel the poverty into which they were finally forced
-by men who neglected work, family and all for the sake of talking
-revolution.
-
-Many of these men were just cowardly enough to thrust their wives
-forward where danger lurked, and while they themselves enjoyed the
-safety of a groggery, they would have been pleased, “for principle’s
-sake,” to see their poor helpmeets go around and set fire to houses and
-other property, so that the dauntless husbands could brag of the brave
-achievements of “the family.”
-
-The meeting in question must have set the Anarchists to thinking; and
-it is a matter of record that Parsons had fallen into the same idea
-when he addressed a secret meeting on the North Side, to which I shall
-subsequently refer. It is certain that many of these fire-cans were
-manufactured.
-
-Besides the petroleum-cans discovered by Officer Whalen, a lot of the
-same kind were taken out of the city by way of West Lake Street on May
-7, when the Anarchists were hurrying their ammunition out of town to
-prevent detection. According to the statements of some reformed reds,
-there are a great many of these cans and bombs still concealed in the
-Bohemian settlement in the southwest part of the city.
-
-On the 8th of June, 1886, I decided to have the cans tested, and for
-this purpose detailed Officers Rehm and Coughlin. The latter had at
-one time been a miner, and was therefore experienced in the use of
-explosives. The two officers took one of the cans to the lake shore.
-The can was placed on a plot of grass and the fuse lighted. In eight
-seconds an explosion followed. The grass burned within a circumference
-of five feet. The flame extended four feet in height and continued for
-about three minutes. The officers gave it as their opinion that any one
-of the cans was sufficient to set a building on fire.
-
-What a blessing it was for our citizens that this devilish invention
-did not spread its destructive work before May 4, 1886.
-
-As stated at the outset, the police were brought, in all these raids,
-into close acquaintanceship with the malcontents, and often came in
-close contact with their families. Some of the sights they saw were
-shocking in the extreme, and they had many opportunities to sound the
-depths of misery and want entailed upon families by husbands gone daft
-on Anarchy. The tales of woe and domestic infelicity poured into their
-ears would fill many pages, but the general tenor of all can be judged
-by what has been revealed in the statements given in the preceding
-chapters.
-
-Anarchy may look extremely inviting when depicted by a plausible
-speaker, but its practical side is strikingly brought out in the home
-life of its devotees. Any one visiting the homes of Anarchists, and
-carefully contrasting the surroundings with those of true laboring men
-not affected by the taint of revolution, would give Anarchy a wide
-berth. But unfortunately men get their brains turned over sophistical
-arguments against capital and madly rush to ruin without thinking of
-consequences until it is too late. Read the reports made to me at the
-time, and they all tell the same story of want and degradation.
-
-[Illustration: HENRY SPIES. From a Photograph.]
-
-There always has been and always will be a fascination about any scheme
-that promises ease without labor. So long as men can be found with
-impressionable minds that can be swayed by demagogues into a belief
-that Anarchy has in it the elements of comfort, splendor and luxury
-with very little toil, so long, no doubt, will dupes be found ready
-to sacrifice energy, thrift and independence for the life-degrading
-scarlet banner. But such ease can never be attained through blood in
-the United States. That fact has been established in Chicago, and the
-precedent ought to serve as a terrible warning to all malcontents. If
-the abject want of those who constitute the bulk of the revolutionists,
-whose very squalor has been the result of their zeal for Anarchy, is
-not sufficient to deter men from becoming Anarchists, the fate of the
-eight conspirators who were brought to trial in Chicago ought at least
-to prevent men from plotting murder, incendiarism and pillage.
-
-With the tremendous odds against them, it is surprising that men could
-be found willing to take up arms for the destruction of life and
-property, and the action of the reds in Chicago can be explained only
-on the theory that they felt they had only to strike one severe blow to
-bring thousands of secret sympathizers into line, and cause capitalists
-to humble themselves in the dust before the Social Revolution. This
-theory is borne out by the statements of the many repentant Anarchists
-who came under the displeasure of the police. In their excited
-gatherings they had each propped up the hopes and spirits of the
-others, and all reason was sunk in the one frenzied, consuming desire
-to wreak vengeance upon those who had accumulated more wealth than
-themselves. They were bent on wresting away the wealth of others, and
-no mercy was to be shown to those who stood between them and that end.
-
-The police, as protectors of wealth in property and property in wealth,
-were the immediate objects of their enmity and wrath, and throughout
-the Anarchistic conspiracy, as has been shown by the disclosures made,
-we were to receive their first and special attention before the grand
-onslaught upon capitalists. Crazed by their speakers and dazed with
-the glittering prospect held out to them, the human fiends proposed to
-exterminate us with dynamite and then vanquish the rich and abolish all
-forms of property.
-
-Could anything be more absurd? And yet that is what they sought to
-accomplish on the eventful night of May 4th.
-
-It would seem that the scheme to blow up the police stations could only
-originate in a lunatic asylum, but the confessions of those arrested
-show that men with apparently sound minds—minds at least sane enough
-to keep them out of such institutions—actually contemplated it and had
-made all the necessary arrangements to execute the plot. Strange must
-have been their conceptions of public sentiment when they believed that
-the execution of their bloody plan would result in the establishment
-of wider and freer social conditions, and strange, indeed, must have
-been their hallucinations when they thought that the devastation they
-proposed would be seconded and aided by the laboring men whom they
-counted upon as secret sympathizers ready to reveal their true feelings
-the moment the revolution was generally inaugurated.
-
-The danger of the scheme to themselves did not strike them until the
-last moment, when their courage was to be put to a practical test, but,
-fortunately for themselves, they went no further than the Haymarket
-riot.
-
-That they seriously contemplated more than they perpetrated is beyond
-dispute. They saw the intense excitement consequent on the eight-hour
-strike and the troubles at McCormick’s factory, and knew that the
-police stations would be filled with officers in readiness for
-emergencies. They had called the Haymarket meeting for the express
-purpose of provoking hostilities, and they regarded it as an opportune
-time to strike a terrible blow against the police all over the city.
-Their calculations in that respect were eminently correct.
-
-The moment the reds began to incite a vicious mob to deeds of
-bloodshed, hostilities were provoked, and they got a dose of their own
-medicine. Had it not been for their precipitate flight they would have
-fared far worse. All the police stations were full of men, all the
-reserves having been called out for duty on the first sign of violent
-demonstrations, and these stood ready to make short work of all who
-might stand up against them in a conflict. It was fortunate for the
-conspirators that they considered “discretion the better part of valor”
-at the Haymarket, and doubly fortunate that they received no signal to
-commence their bloody operations at the stations.
-
-The loss of life no doubt would have been appalling on both sides, but
-the outcome, as far as the triumph of law and order is concerned, would
-have been the same. The bomb would have done deadly work at the start,
-but the Gatling gun would have come to the rescue had the police been
-seriously crippled.
-
-Missiles of dynamite hurled into the stations on that eventful night
-of May 4 would indeed have created terrible havoc. In fact, the reds
-could not have chosen a time more favorable for their bloody plans. The
-East Chicago Avenue Station that night contained a very large force. I
-had in reserve and waiting orders one hundred and twenty-five officers.
-They were all over the building, up and down stairs, in the court-room,
-in the reception-room and in every other available place. Many were in
-the office, which is used as a roll-call room, and in which all details
-of officers are made. This office is in the center of the building and
-overlooks an alley on the east. The officers were organized into five
-companies, and all duly numbered. Any company could be called at any
-time, and in less than five minutes it would be in marching order.
-
-This precaution was taken in expectation of a call to the Haymarket,
-and the Anarchists, in the damnable conspiracies of that evening, had
-anticipated such preparations. They were accordingly on the ground.
-Fifteen members of the North Side group, as appears plainly from the
-confessions of some of the Anarchists, loitered around the station,
-waiting for orders or signal, or to abide their own pleasure as soon as
-they could see for themselves that the riot had begun on the West Side.
-When that time arrived, they were to watch the windows of the roll-call
-room from the alley and throw their infernal machines into the midst of
-the officers the moment the room was full.
-
-The cut-throats skulked around the station like so many Indians
-around the cabin of a helpless settler, constantly dodging around in
-the darkness, fearful that they might be discovered. True to their
-instincts, however, these Chicago reds could not do without their beer
-while awake, and they made frequent trips to neighboring beer-saloons.
-About 9:30 o’clock Lieut. Baus and Lieut. Lloyd, each with a company of
-officers, returned from the Central Station, where I had sent them as a
-reserve during the Haymarket meeting, and when the Anarchists saw them
-in the roll-call room of my station, they sneaked around on the dark
-side of the alley and selected the third and fourth windows as those
-through which their deadly bombs should crash on their destructive
-mission. These windows are in the center of the large room. They had
-with them a number of bombs, both of the round lead and the long
-gas-pipe variety. While they stood underneath those windows, they got
-into a whispered quarrel about the kind of bomb that should be used.
-
-Bock had a round lead bomb, and he said:
-
-“I don’t think this will go off. Let one of you throw a larger bomb.”
-
-Then Abraham Hermann became angry and said:
-
-“You d——d fool, what the d——l are you here for, if your d——d
-bombs are no good? You are too much of a coward to throw them.”
-
-Just at this point two officers left the station to visit a
-cigar-store, and stopped for a moment at the entrance of the alley to
-finish their conversation.
-
-The Anarchists saw them, and, thinking that they had been discovered,
-they hurriedly made their exit in an opposite direction, running to the
-rear of the building on its dark side and then emerging on Superior
-Street. Some of them went over to the West Side, to the Haymarket
-meeting, and others sought different saloons on Clark Street.
-
-[Illustration: THE LARRABEE STREET STATION.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-After frequent libations, some met again on Superior Street in the
-vicinity of a wagon-manufacturing establishment, and, under the cover
-of numerous wagons standing on the street between Clark Street and
-La Salle Avenue, they decided that the men who then had bombs should
-proceed to the call-room windows, and the others, with revolvers,
-should take position in the alley diagonally across from the entrance
-of the station. Then, at the proper signal, the bombs were to be hurled
-into the room, and the men across the way were to fire a volley into
-such officers as might come out.
-
-While this plan was being formed, I received an order from Inspector
-Bonfield to send all my men to the West Side double-quick, ready for
-action, with a hurried explanation of the riot and the killing of
-officers, and in less than four minutes I had seventy-five men on
-the way to the Haymarket. The Anarchists were still standing among
-the wagons, and, to their great surprise and dismay, they saw three
-patrol wagons passing with a tremendous speed. Their hearts at once
-fell into their boots, and they knew that the trouble had commenced.
-They repaired to Moody’s church and remained there a few moments
-deliberating what should be done. One of them tried to brace up the
-flagging spirits of his comrades by saying that “now the time had
-arrived when something must be done, but they must never tell of their
-being there.” Not one, however, seemed willing to execute the plot
-they had agreed upon. On the contrary, they turned up La Salle Avenue
-and ran to Neff’s Hall as fast as their legs could carry them. What
-occurred at that hall that night I have already shown in a preceding
-chapter.
-
-The plan to throw bombs into the roll-call room was afterwards unfolded
-to me by one of those in the plot, and, had it not been for the two
-officers accidentally stopping at the entrance of the alley, many of
-the boys of the Fifth Precinct would have been murdered even before the
-commencement of the riot at the Haymarket. The ruffians who hung around
-that station were Abraham Hermann, Lorenz Hermann, the two Hageman
-brothers, Habizreiter, Heineman, Charles Bock, Heumann, and others from
-the North Side group and Lake View.
-
-Another station in great danger that night was that on Larrabee Street,
-in charge of Lieut. John Baus, with forty-eight officers. It is located
-on the northwest corner of Larrabee Street and North Avenue, and is
-a two-story brick building with a basement. This basement contains
-a cell-room located in the center of the building, with windows on
-the North Avenue side, and that side was chosen for the scene of
-operations. The men especially relied upon to blow up this building
-were Lingg, Seliger, Muntzenberg, Huber, Thielen and Hirschberger, and
-they, together with other members of the North Side group, lingered in
-the vicinity, loaded with bombs, and waiting only to see “the heavens
-illuminated” or to receive a message from one of the runners. But
-before they knew what had transpired at the Haymarket a patrol wagon
-dashed out of the station and whizzed by with a load of officers. This
-dazed them, and they hurried to Neff’s Hall to learn particulars and
-receive new instructions. When they got there Neff told them that they
-were all a set of cowards and advised them to go home. They took his
-advice and were glad to crawl back into their holes.
-
-Webster Avenue Station, in charge of Lieut. Elias E. Lloyd, with
-forty-four officers, also received attention. The building is a
-two-story frame located on the north side of the street, near Lincoln
-Avenue, and its principal apartment, the roll-call room, is on the
-first floor facing the street. The men especially assigned to the
-destruction of this station were Ernst Hubner, Gustav Lehman, Otto
-Lehman, Jebolinski and Lange, backed by several other frowsy and
-low-skulled sneaks, and these hovered around the station, hiding in
-dark recesses whenever some one casually passed along the sidewalk, or
-dodging into an alley whenever an officer was discovered approaching
-them. They all waited for “the signal which never came,” and, getting
-tired of stimulating each other with a courage they did not possess,
-they finally concluded to adjourn to Neff’s Hall. Whenever, on the
-way to that place, one upbraided the other for not throwing a bomb,
-each would point to the fact that the area in front of the building
-was always occupied by officers sitting in easy chairs and sniffing
-the evening breeze, and there was no chance to get near the cell-room;
-but they all promised one another that they would go back and blow
-the building into smithereens and the officers into shreds of flesh,
-regardless of personal consequences, if they should hear “good news” at
-Neff’s. But they did not go back. Lieut. Lloyd was not called on for
-assistance at the Haymarket until about eleven o’clock, and by that
-time the cowards had got their information at Neff’s and were glad for
-an excuse to make a “bee line” for home, if the hovels they lived in
-can be dignified by that designation.
-
-[Illustration: THE SCHILLER MONUMENT.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-There is no doubt that these wretches would have blown up the station
-if the police had dispersed the Haymarket meeting earlier in the
-evening, but by waiting so long they lost what little courage they
-had. There was no patrol wagon attached to this station at that time,
-but, as one of them told me afterwards, the Anarchists stood ready to
-hurl a bomb into a street-car had the officers come out earlier to
-take the cars in order to hasten to the assistance of the force at
-the Haymarket. They intended to make their work complete, and they
-were all well provided with bombs, even though they were rather short
-on courage. This was a part of the gang which had an appointment at
-Lincoln Park, only five blocks from the station, and some of them
-sought there early in the evening for a large number of recruits who
-failed to materialize when danger was in sight.
-
-The spot chosen for the meeting-place in Lincoln Park was at
-“Schiller’s Denkmal” (monument). Here it was that a few gathered, but,
-not finding as many present as they expected, they separated to the
-several localities assigned them for the execution of their plot.
-
-It will be recalled that, at the Monday night meeting preceding the
-Haymarket riot, those living on the North Side were ordered to report
-at Lincoln Park for definite instructions, and those on the West Side
-at Wicker Park, and the order seems to have been obeyed by a few of the
-more courageous Anarchists.
-
-The vicinity of the Schiller monument was the place also where those
-who had been arrested and had made confessions met, along with other
-Anarchists, on the night preceding the taking of testimony in the trial
-of the prisoners, and on this occasion, Mr. Furthmann tells me, they
-agreed, with one exception, to inform the prosecution that they would
-not take the witness-stand to testify to the matters they had revealed
-to the State. If they were put on as witnesses, they agreed, they could
-swear that all they had told me and Mr. Furthmann with reference to the
-conspiracy was pure and unadulterated falsehood. Mr. Waller refused to
-be a party to such an agreement, and by his stubborn stand he caused
-several of the other witnesses for the State to change their minds and
-stick to the truth. Others, however, held out, and, when asked by the
-State to appear, refused. Waller proved a very strong witness, and, as
-Mr. Furthmann says, not one of the witnesses for the defense dared to
-contradict his testimony.
-
-[Illustration: THE HINMAN STREET STATION.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-But to return to the contemplated attacks on the police stations.
-The Hinman Street house was the fourth one in the list marked for
-destruction. This station was in charge of Lieut. Richard Sheppard,
-and contained on the night in question thirty-four officers. It is
-a two-story brick building with basement, and is situated at the
-northwest corner of Hinman and Paulina Streets. The basement is used
-as a lock-up for the detention of prisoners, and all the offices are
-located on the first floor, facing Paulina Street. The patrol-wagon
-barn is situated in the rear of the station, contiguous to an alley,
-through which the street is reached. Around this locality between
-eighty and a hundred Anarchists gathered for work and to await the
-signal. Mende and Sisterer were at the head of this murderous gang.
-Some were to exploit with rifles from the alley north of the station
-and on the east side of the street; others, with dynamite bombs, were
-to look after the officers in the rooms where they might happen to be
-most numerous, and those with revolvers were to station themselves in
-the alley directly behind the station to shoot down any of the officers
-who might come out in the patrol wagon, and also to kill the horses.
-Others, again, with revolvers, were to post themselves in front of the
-station to kill those who might escape the deadly bombs and seek safety
-by rushing into the street. The riflemen were to come as a reserve
-force to shoot down any who might have escaped both the revolvers
-and bombs. They were a desperate set and appeared determined on the
-execution of the plot. The men who composed the gang were Germans,
-Bohemians and Poles, all members of the West Side group, and some
-outsiders who worked in freight-houses and lumber-yards, and not one of
-them had any love for a policeman. This district had been for several
-years the scene of numerous strikes, and, as the officers had always
-suppressed the rioters, the latter were viciously disposed towards
-the guardians of the peace. Some of these reds were very anxious to
-see the work of annihilation commence, and they loitered around in
-small squads so as not to arouse suspicion until they could learn
-whether the revolution had been inaugurated at the Haymarket meeting.
-There was no call on this station for assistance at the time of the
-explosion, as Inspector Bonfield thought it possible that trouble might
-arise at McCormick’s, and the officers in that locality might thus be
-required in that direction; and as the diabolical conspirators saw no
-officers or patrol wagon move out, they became anxious to know how
-the Haymarket affair had terminated, and one by one they sneaked away
-from their hiding-places. When they finally learned particulars about
-the shooting, they ran home, and, like the cowards they were, kept
-under cover for several days. Later in the evening one company was
-ordered from this station to guard Desplaines Street, after the wounded
-officers had all been brought from the Haymarket. When the wagon
-had reached Halsted and Harrison Streets, however, Capt. O’Donnell
-halted it and ordered the officers back to the station, as it had been
-ascertained that all the Anarchists had sought their homes for the
-night.
-
-It was very fortunate that the officers were not called out earlier in
-the evening. If Inspector Bonfield had ordered them to report a few
-moments after the riot, very few of the men would have escaped alive.
-I have since learned that the brigands who were sneaking around that
-station that night numbered nearly one hundred, and as one-half of them
-were under the influence of liquor, it is very likely that they would
-have committed desperate deeds had the occasion offered.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIX.
-
- The Legal Battle—The Beginning of Proceedings in Court—Work in the
- Grand Jury Room—The Circulation of Anarchistic Literature—A Witness
- who was not Positive—Side Lights on the Testimony—The Indictments
- Returned—Selecting a Jury—Sketches of the Jurymen—Ready for the
- Struggle.
-
-
-THE case was now in condition to be turned over to the courts. The
-detective work was done, and, as I flatter myself, and as the result
-proved, well done. A deliberate and fiendish conspiracy to bring about
-riot, destruction and death had been proven. The Haymarket gathering
-was projected to invite a police attack, and this attack was to be the
-pretext for dynamite, murder and the social revolution. Of course much
-of the information given in the preceding pages was not used either
-in the grand jury room or at the trial. It was not necessary. State’s
-Attorney Grinnell, with his usual wisdom and tact, selected only the
-best, strongest and most reliable witnesses, and left out the minor
-ones. The statements of all those who “squealed” were conclusive,
-criminative and corroborative, but their presentation in court would
-have simply lumbered up the case.
-
-As a result of the energetic work of Coroner Hertz the principal
-conspirators had been bound over, without bail, at the inquest.
-
-The grand jury was impaneled on the 17th of May, 1886, and was composed
-of the following named persons: John N. Hills (foreman), George Watts,
-Peter Clinton, George Adams, Charles Schultz, Thomas Broderick, William
-Bartels, Fred. Wilkinson, P. J. Maloney, John Held, A. J. Grover,
-Frank N. Seavert, E. A. Jessel, Theodore Schultze, Alfred Thorp, N. J.
-Webber, Adolph Wilke, Fred Gall, Edward S. Dreyer, John M. Clark, John
-C. Neemes, N. J. Quan and T. W. Hall.
-
-Judge John G. Rogers delivered a long, able and forcible charge to
-the members of this grand jury. He first called attention to the
-necessity of their not being influenced in their acts by fear, favor or
-affection, and then dwelt upon what constitutes freedom of speech. He
-said:
-
- “We hear a good deal these days about what is called the freedom of
- speech. Now, there is a good deal of misconception of the Constitution
- of the United States and of the Constitution of the State of Illinois,
- and I may say of all States in the Union, upon this question of
- freedom of speech. I have copied the provisions upon which persons
- rely who continually say that in this free country men have a right
- to assemble—men have a right to speak and say what they please.
- There is no such right. There is no such constitutional right.
- The constitutional rights as expressed in the Constitution are:
- ‘That Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech
- or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble
- and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.’ The
- same principle is carried along into the State Constitutions; and
- in the Constitution of the State of Illinois, and in its Bill of
- Rights, there is a provision that ‘every person may freely speak,
- write and publish on all subjects, being responsible for the use
- of that liberty.’ And in another provision the people have a right
- ‘to assemble in peaceable manner, to consult for the common good,
- to make known their opinions to their representatives, and to apply
- for a redress of grievances.’
-
-[Illustration: NEEBE’S SWORD AND BELT.]
-
- You will perceive in a moment that the construction of the United
- States constitutional right has been interpreted, if I may so express
- myself, in the Constitution of the State of Illinois, and that
- interpretation is the one that the courts have always recognized,
- and that, while a man may speak freely and write and publish upon
- all subjects, he is responsible for the abuse of the liberty of
- speech. I refer to these constitutional rights because some men are
- so inconsistent as to say there shall be no law for any such rights,
- yet claim the protection of these rights in the broadest sense, and,
- with an interpretation satisfactory to their own minds, that a man
- may get up, and, in a public speech to a public crowd, advise murder
- and arson, the destruction of property and the injury of people.
- That is a wild license which the Constitution of this country has
- never recognized any more than it has been recognized in the worst
- despotisms of old and of monarchical Europe. I hope and you hope it
- will never be recognized.”
-
-The eminent jurist then illustrated the point of responsibility. If,
-said he, he should get up and there advise members of the jury that
-the foreman ought to be hanged for some assumed offense, he would be
-advising the commission of a crime; and if his advice was followed
-he himself who incited the hanging would be just as guilty of murder
-as the ones who did it. He next referred to the Haymarket riot and
-counseled the jury to look not only to the man who actually committed
-the crime, but to those who stood behind him, who actually advised it.
-He held that the men who so advised were equally guilty and should be
-held responsible for it. “What,” he said “is an incendiary speech but
-inciting men to commit wild acts?” He spoke of the red flag in Chicago
-and said: “What is a red flag in a procession, or a black flag, but a
-menace, a threat? It is understood to be emblematic of blood, and that
-no quarter will be given. Flags of that sort ought not to be permitted
-to be borne in processions in this city.” He referred to the labor
-troubles of the Knights of Labor, which, he acknowledged, happily
-had no connection with the Haymarket or with Anarchy, and then, for
-the guidance of the jury in reaching conclusions on the Anarchistic
-conspiracy, he quoted the statutes on what constituted conspiracy and
-the penalty for riots. In closing Judge Rogers counseled the jury to
-consider all evidence submitted with fairness and impartiality.
-
-The next day the grand jury entered upon its work. A great many
-witnesses appeared before it, but many of them were not required at the
-trial, as their testimony would neither add to nor detract from the
-strength of the case. Facts were brought out under the latitude allowed
-in a grand jury room that could not, under court procedure, be brought
-into a cause on trial because of their not bearing directly on the
-charges, or not tending to supply some material connecting link in the
-chain of evidence. Some of this testimony, while not serving to throw
-any special light upon the conspiracy, may yet illustrate some phases
-of Anarchy growing out of the propagation of Anarchistic ideas and
-features incidental to the _cause celebre_; and for that purpose I have
-carefully scanned over the official grand jury reports and selected
-such omitted points as will serve to give a better general idea of the
-whole subject.
-
-The sale and circulation of Anarchistic literature in Chicago was
-one of the matters into which inquiry was made. Anton Laufermann,
-a Division Street bookseller, testified that Most had written “The
-Solution of the Socialistic Question,” “The Movement in Old Rome, or
-Cæsarism,” “The Bastile at Platzensee,” and other works, including “The
-Science of War.” It appeared that these Anarchistic books were not, as
-a rule, handled by booksellers.
-
-Edward Deuss, city editor of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, told the grand
-jury that the dynamite book—Most’s “Science of War”—was usually sold
-by men at picnics and similar gatherings, and that a book-store would
-be the last place to look for it. The men who peddled this literature
-were volunteers who made no money out of the sales.
-
-This evidence was corroborated by other persons. The plan seemed to
-be to scatter Most’s works quietly among the people, thus avoiding
-any of the difficulties or dangers which might follow from open
-and undisguised sale. The main source of supply was manifestly the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office. The books were easy to get: nearly all
-the arrested Anarchists had copies of the dynamite book in their
-possession. One of the most persistent _colporteurs_ was Muntzenberg.
-The hundreds of copies of incendiary books and pamphlets were passed
-around from one man to another, and it is out of the question to
-attempt to estimate the amount of injury they have done. The evidence
-upon this point—so much, at least, as came from the office of the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_—was unsatisfactory. This, however, was to have been
-expected when the character and peculiar beliefs of the witnesses is
-considered. For instance, Gerhardt Lizius, an editorial writer on this
-paper, after being questioned, without satisfactory results, about the
-interior arrangements of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ and various articles
-about the premises, was asked to define Anarchy and Socialism.
-
-“A Socialist,” he said, “wants the State to regulate everything, while
-we don’t want any authority whatever. We want the people to associate
-themselves for production and consummation (of the highest good),
-according to their own desires.”
-
-“How does it happen that capital is in your way?” asked Mr. Grinnell.
-
-“Because the capitalist has taken something from us that is not his,
-that we have created.”
-
-“What is the manner the Anarchists have adopted in reaching that which
-they have not got now?”
-
-“We want to get it any way we can—peaceably if we can, and forcibly if
-we must.”
-
-“Even to the extent of a capitalist’s life?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Do you believe in the use of dynamite?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“You say that you should not divide your property with your neighbor.
-Why should the capitalist?”
-
-“We don’t want him to divide anything. We want him to make it public
-property. He has got as much right to it as we have. Everybody,
-according to our view, should have the right of life, liberty and the
-pursuit of happiness. That means that I should have the right to the
-means of life, and that means, of course, that we should have the right
-to everything that nature gives us, so that every man, if he wants, can
-work, and everybody make a living. If he don’t want to work, then of
-course he should not make a living.”
-
-“The _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ was an Anarchistic paper?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Did the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ divide its things?”
-
-“There was nothing to divide there. We didn’t make any money.”
-
-“Supposing that you and I should want the same thing—how would you
-settle that question?”
-
-“Well, I guess there can be more than one of these things made.”
-
-“I might want a cow that you would want, or a horse; you might want the
-same thing—how would you settle that matter?”
-
-“I work for it and get it.”
-
-“I thought you did not believe in that?” continued Mr. Grinnell.
-
-“You did not hear me say anything of the kind. I said that we should
-have the right to work so that we could make a living. We didn’t want
-anything without work.”
-
-“Now, you figure that a man who has got a hundred thousand dollars by
-reason of having worked hard, stands in your way; isn’t that your idea?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Suppose I have got ten cows and you don’t get any; you have been lazy
-and haven’t earned your ten cows. Now, how do you get half of my cows?”
-
-“You are looking at this thing from the standpoint of the present
-system of society. It is impossible for any of you gentleman, if you
-are not Socialists and don’t understand what Socialism is, to get at
-the idea at all as to how things are run. You have to look at it from
-the standpoint of Socialism.”
-
-“Your idea is to have society without any law?”
-
-“The Government is only for the oppression of people. We would have to
-organize for some purposes.”
-
-“Supposing this Government should get something in its mails that you
-would happen to want, should you have a right to take it?”
-
-“No, sir.”
-
-“Suppose you did take it, what would be done with you?”
-
-“No man is supposed to take anything that does not belong to him.”
-
-“You would have law to punish people, wouldn’t you?”
-
-“No, sir.”
-
-Being asked if he had seen about the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office any
-implements of warfare, Lizius answered in the negative—not even
-pistols or anything of that kind.
-
-“Do you believe that the man who threw the bomb over there [meaning the
-Haymarket] did right?”
-
-“Yes, sir.”
-
-“And that it was a righteous act in shooting down the policemen?”
-
-“Yes, sir.”
-
-The reason he advanced for his belief was that it was an act of
-self-defense; that the police, according to his knowledge, had
-attacked the crowd with clubs before the bomb was thrown. This sort of
-misinformation seems to have been spread among the ignorant Anarchists,
-and Lizius, when he said he believed it, knew better and simply adopted
-it as an excuse for their acts.
-
-“Do you believe in the existence of a God?” asked one of the jurymen.
-
-“No, sir.”
-
-“Have you any regard for law at all?”
-
-“No, sir.”
-
-“Have you any regard for the obligation of an oath taken before the
-grand jury?”
-
-“No, sir.”
-
-“You have been sworn here ‘by the ever-living God.’ You have no regard
-for that oath, have you?”
-
-“No, sir.”
-
-“Have you told the truth?”
-
-“Yes, sir.”
-
-“How did you come to tell the truth?”
-
-“I am not in the habit of lying. There is no cause for it.”
-
-[Illustration: 1. Round Iron Bombs, cast whole, and designed for use
-with percussion caps, to explode on falling. The bomb in center was
-cast several years ago, and was saved from a number thrown into the
-lake by a scared Anarchist.
-
-2. Sheet-iron Molds, used by Lingg in the construction of Infernal
-Machines.
-
-3, 4. Sectional views of the “Czar Bomb.”
-
-ANARCHIST AMMUNITION—II. FROM PHOTOGRAPHS.]
-
-“If you had a good cause, would you lie? Would you lie to save a life?”
-
-“If it hung upon such a slender thread as that, I would.”
-
-“Would you, if you thought it would help the cause of Anarchy?”
-
-“I don’t see how it could.”
-
-Among the many witnesses examined in the grand jury room was Ernst
-Legner. It will be remembered that the defense, at the trial, claimed
-that this man had been spirited away by the prosecution. This was done,
-of course, with a view to damaging the case of the State before the
-jury. Now, the facts are these: Legner’s name was placed on the back
-of the indictment somehow—I do not know why. Certainly neither the
-State nor the defense could have used him, and he would have been even
-less valuable for the prisoners than for the prosecution. Legner was a
-man who was sure of nothing. His testimony before the grand jury was
-continually and invariably qualified by the statement that he “could
-not be positive;” that he “was not sure.” For instance, here is some of
-his testimony:
-
-Did he meet Chris Spies at that meeting? He could not say. “I saw
-him that night, but I couldn’t say whether I saw him there. I don’t
-recollect. I couldn’t say positive. I couldn’t say anything positive
-about that.”
-
-This answer prompted Mr. Grinnell to ask: “Since when have you grown so
-unpositive?”
-
-“Well, in that way, I guess ever since,” was his lucid reply.
-
-“You remember me, don’t you, down at the Central Station, talking with
-you?”
-
-“No, sir.”
-
-“Don’t you remember coming in, seeing me and your brother come in?”
-
-“Well, that was in the City Hall.”
-
-“Well, that is what we call Central Station. You saw me there, did you?”
-
-“Yes, sir.”
-
-“You remember your brother told you he had advised you to keep away
-from those people, and advised you to tell the truth about this
-transaction?”
-
-“Yes, sir.”
-
-“And you then and there told me that you saw Chris Spies right near
-that wagon that night?”
-
-“Well, I might have seen him, but I won’t say anything positive on
-that.”
-
-“Have you seen him since then?”
-
-“Yes, sir, I did.”
-
-“When?”
-
-“I saw him yesterday.”
-
-“And he talked—you spoke to him about this case then, didn’t you?”
-
-“I only spoke to him—I told him that he looked pale, and that was all
-the speaking, and he went off. I was going west, and he was going east.”
-
-“Now, why should there be any confusion in your mind to-day where you
-saw him that night?”
-
-“Well, I saw him that night, but I could not say positive whether I saw
-him there or not, at the meeting.”
-
-“You said a moment ago that you looked around, and you thought you saw
-him right there?”
-
-“Well, yes. That is where I said; I could not say positive; I saw him,
-but I could not say positive.”
-
-This sort of fire was kept up for some time, but the witness always
-dodged behind “I could not say positive.” He was asked how long it was
-after August Spies got through speaking when he (Spies) left, but the
-only answer was: “Well, that is something I don’t know certain.”
-
-Now, why should the State want such a witness, or what interest could
-it have in spiriting him away? He certainly developed a remarkable want
-of memory, and with his testimony before the grand jury the defendants,
-if they had put him on the stand, could not have utilized him on their
-side. If he knew anything, as would seem to be the case, judging from
-his brother’s advice to tell everything and some statements he had
-previously made to the State’s Attorney, it all must have been in
-favor of the State. It is a justifiable conclusion that Chris Spies,
-on meeting him the day preceding his appearance before the grand jury,
-must have influenced him to testify the way he did. The truth about the
-whole matter is that the defendants would not have touched Legner had
-he been procurable, and if he went out of the city it must have been
-at their instigation. The above samples of his testimony show that his
-appearance on the stand would have made him dead timber to either side.
-
-A good deal was also said about the absence of Mr. Brazleton, an
-_Inter-Ocean_ reporter, from the witness-stand. He was not produced
-by the State because many of his statements were not of a positive
-character.
-
-As there were so many other witnesses who had paid special attention to
-the incendiary character of the speeches, and remembered distinctly the
-various details in connection with the Haymarket meeting, there was no
-occasion to use Brazleton as a witness. All the others who were put on
-the stand gave fuller particulars and corroborated each other in all
-essential points. Had the general information of the others been of
-the same nature as that of Brazleton, it might have been well to have
-used him as a witness, but, with so much direct testimony as the State
-possessed, his evidence was not necessary. The defense simply sought to
-make a point on his absence—that is all.
-
-A great deal has been said with reference to Schnaubelt. There is
-no doubt that he threw the fatal bomb. The defense at the trial of
-Spies and the others sought, however, to discredit such a belief. They
-asserted that there was not an iota of evidence to sustain such an
-opinion, and for their part they did not believe it. _Per contra_, it
-may be said that if he was innocent he took the wrong course to show
-it. Schnaubelt was arrested by Officers Palmer and Boyd, of the Central
-Station. Before the grand jury Palmer testified as follows:
-
-[Illustration: HON. JOSEPH E. GARY.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-“I was told that he was working at 224 Washington Street, rooms 5
-and 6. I went up there and found him and brought him to the Central
-Station. That was on the 6th of this month.”
-
-“Did he have whiskers, or not?”
-
-“His face was shaved clean, except a mustache.”
-
-“You had been looking for a man with whiskers?”
-
-“Yes. I was told by his employer that he shaved his whiskers off the
-morning after the riot.”
-
-“Did he say anything to you about having shaved himself?”
-
-“I asked him why he shaved, and he said he always did it in the summer
-time.”
-
-“Do you know what the size of his whiskers was?”
-
-“About six or eight inches long.”
-
-“Did you have any talk with him when you brought him to the Central
-Station?”
-
-“Yes. I asked him if he was at the scene of the riot on the Tuesday
-night previous, and he said he was. I asked him where he was. He said
-he was up on the wagon. I asked him where he was when the bomb was
-thrown. He said he was on the wagon half a minute before the bomb was
-thrown, but he had got off, and when it exploded he supposed he was
-about fifty feet from the wagon.”
-
-“He was let go that morning?”
-
-“Yes.” “Tell us about his place of work and what you found out
-yesterday?”
-
-“Captain Schaack sent a couple of men to me yesterday to find out if
-we could get this man again. I took them over to where I had found him
-previously. His employer told me that after he got away from me on the
-6th of this month [May] he came back and finished the day’s work, and
-he had not shown up from that time to this. His tools were there, and
-he did not call for his money. His sister had called for the money
-several days after he quit, but he did not give it to her.”
-
-“He had a good job, didn’t he?”
-
-“He was a machinist, working at a turning-lathe.”
-
-Schnaubelt was described as having sandy whiskers, about six feet tall,
-weighing about 190 pounds, large and bony, not very fleshy, and about
-twenty-four years of age.
-
-Lieut. John Shea, then in charge of the Central Station, testified to
-the same facts and that the police had been unable to find the man in
-the city.
-
-At the time there were no strong circumstances connecting Schnaubelt
-with the massacre, but suspicious evidence ought to have held him in
-custody for a day or two until all his antecedents could have been
-inquired into. His release was a sad mistake, and the fact that he
-hastened out of the city shows the fear he had of being directly
-connected with the throwing of the bomb. The evidence of various
-parties points to him as the guilty party, and it was fortunate for him
-that he escaped.
-
-C. M. Hardy, a leading attorney of Chicago, testified to a conversation
-which he had had with Spies the day before the Haymarket tragedy.
-
-During this conversation, which occurred accidentally in a restaurant,
-“Spies,” to use the words of the witness, “turned and said to me
-laughingly, ‘Are you with us?’ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘If you mean that I am
-in favor of the laborer getting well paid for his labor, I am with you,
-but no further than that.’ ‘Well,’ he said, still laughing, ‘you had
-better be, for we are going to raise h——l,’ and then went on.”
-
-On the 28th of May the grand jury concluded its labors and returned
-into court fifteen indictments for murder, conspiracy and riot,
-against Spies, Parsons, Fischer, Engel, Lingg, Fielden, Schwab, Neebe,
-Schnaubelt and some lesser lights in the Anarchistic circle.
-
-The trial began on the 19th of June. No case ever brought before the
-Chicago courts excited so much interest or brought out a greater
-crowd. Not one tithe of the throng of people who were eager to see the
-notorious defendants were able to find place in the court-room.
-
-Judge Joseph E. Gary presided, and with his suave, dignified bearing
-and his prompt manner of handling legal details and technicalities, he
-impressed all with the conviction that, while the Anarchists would have
-a full and fair trial, no trifling with the law would be permitted.
-The case was one which not alone interested Chicago, but touched the
-stability and welfare of every city of any considerable size in the
-United States. The eyes of the whole country were riveted on Chicago,
-and the outside world was eagerly watching the results of a case, the
-first in America, to determine whether dynamite was to be considered a
-legal weapon in the settlement of socio-political problems in a free
-republic.
-
-[Illustration:
-
- HARRY T. SANDFORD.
- FRANK S. OSBORNE.
- JAMES H. BRAYTON.
- GEO. W. ADAMS.
- SCOTT G. RANDALL.
- ANDREW HAMILTON.
-
-PORTRAITS OF THE JURY.—I.]
-
-Time was when our system of government was looked upon abroad as an
-experiment of doubtful nature, but when it had passed the experimental
-period it was pointed to by foreign friends as furnishing no pretext
-for Socialistic or Anarchistic outbursts of violence, and as supplying
-no favorable conditions for the growth even of Anarchistic doctrines.
-In a speech before the French Legislative Assembly, De Tocqueville once
-said, pointing to America: “There shall you see a people among whom all
-conditions of men are more on an equality even than among us; where the
-social state, the manners, the laws, everything is democratic; where
-all emanates from the people and returns to the people, and where, at
-the same time, every individual enjoys a greater amount of liberty, a
-more entire independence, than in any other part of the world, at any
-period of time; a country, I repeat it, essentially democratic—the
-only democracy in the wide world at this day, and the only republic
-truly democratic which we know of in history. And in this republic you
-will look in vain for Socialism.”
-
-[Illustration:
-
- CHAS. B. TODD.
- JOHN B. GREINER.
- JAMES H. COLE.
- ALANSON H. REED.
- THEO. E. DENKER.
- CHAS. H. LUDWIG.
-
-PORTRAITS OF THE JURY.—II.]
-
-Still, Anarchy found lodgment in America through men exiled under the
-rigorous baiting of their own country—men whose early education had
-been set against all government and whose prejudices operated against
-the study of our institutions. In the violent culmination of their
-doctrines at the Haymarket the point was reached where it became
-necessary to demonstrate that it is a rank growth and has no excuse in
-a republic in which the utmost liberty is allowed consistent with the
-rights of life and property.
-
-When, therefore, this trial opened, both the Judge and the State’s
-Attorney felt that a great responsibility had been laid upon their
-shoulders, and that the whole civilized world would sit in judgment
-upon the manner in which they performed their duty. They entered into
-the case with no revengeful feelings, but held firmly to their course,
-mindful of the rights of the defendants, but determined to maintain
-law and justice. The case was called on the day indicated, in the main
-court-room of the Criminal Court building, and the moment the State’s
-Attorney had announced his readiness to commence proceedings, the
-defendants’ counsel entered a motion for a separate trial of each of
-the prisoners. This was argued and overruled.
-
-On the morning of June 21, at ten o’clock, everything was in readiness
-for the trial proper, and the work of selecting the jury was entered
-upon. Within the bar of the court sat the eminent counsel of both
-sides. On the left, in front of the bench, there was State’s Attorney
-Grinnell, surrounded by his assistants, Francis W. Walker and Edmund
-Furthmann, and Special State’s Counsel George C. Ingham, and on the
-right of the bench sat the defendants’ attorneys, Capt. W. P. Black,
-W. A. Foster, Sigismund Zeisler and Moses Salomon, flanked by the
-prisoners and their relatives. The remaining space within the bar was
-occupied by attorneys of the city as spectators, and the rest of the
-court-room was filled with a motley throng, including here and there
-representatives of the fair sex drawn by personal interest or moved by
-morbid curiosity. The prisoners were dressed in their best, each with a
-button-hole bouquet.
-
-During the preliminary proceedings, as we have noted elsewhere,
-Parsons had joined his associates, and his bronzed appearance, from
-out-door exposure, was in marked contrast with that of his pale-looking
-companions.
-
-The task of selecting a jury proceeded, but it was not an easy thing to
-find men unbiased and unprejudiced. Four weeks were consumed in this
-work, but finally twelve “good men and true” were chosen, as follows:
-F. S. Osborne, Major James H. Cole, S. G. Randall, A. H. Reed, J. H.
-Brayton, A. Hamilton, G. W. Adams, J. B. Greiner, C. B. Todd, C. H.
-Ludwig, T. E. Denker and H. T. Sandford.
-
-So notable was the trial, and so tremendous the interests involved,
-that the reader will naturally want to know something of the
-_personnel_ of the jury whose verdict vindicated and guaranteed law and
-order in America:
-
- FRANK S. OSBORNE, a resident at No. 134 Dearborn Avenue, the foreman
- of the jury, was born in Columbus, Ohio, and at the time of the trial
- was thirty-nine years of age. He filled the position of chief salesman
- in the retail department of Marshall Field & Co., and was a man of
- liberal ideas and good education. He possessed keen judgment, and
- proved a critical examiner of all the evidence submitted. He readily
- grasped all the strong and weak points in the defense, and showed
- himself a thorough master of the evidence.
-
- MAJ. JAMES H. COLE, a resident at No. 987 Lawndale Avenue, was born
- in Utica, New York, and was fifty-three years of age. During the
- war he was a Captain, and subsequently rose to the rank of Major in
- the Forty-first Ohio Infantry. After the close of the Rebellion,
- he engaged in the railroad business as contractor and constructor,
- residing at different times in Vermont, Ohio, Tennessee, Illinois
- and Iowa. He came to Chicago in 1879, and was book-keeper for the
- Continental Insurance Company until shortly before serving on the jury.
-
- CHARLES B. TODD, a resident at No. 1013 West Polk Street, was born in
- Elmira, New York, and was forty-seven years of age. He had served in
- the Sixth New York Heavy Artillery, and since his arrival in Chicago,
- four years preceding, had been a salesman in the Putnam Clothing House.
-
- ALANSON H. REED, a resident at No. 3442 Groveland Park, was born in
- Boston, Mass., and was forty-nine years of age. He was a member of the
- firm of Reed & Sons, at No. 136 State Street, and during the trial
- proved a close listener to all the evidence.
-
- JAMES H. BRAYTON, a resident of Englewood, and Principal of the
- Webster School, on Wentworth Avenue, in Chicago, was born in Lyons,
- New York, and was forty years of age.
-
- THEODORE E. DENKER, a resident of Woodlawn Park, in the town of Hyde
- Park, was born in Wisconsin and was twenty-seven years of age. He was
- shipping clerk for H. H. King & Co.
-
- GEORGE W. ADAMS, a resident of Evanston, was born in Indiana, and was
- twenty-seven years of age. He traveled in Michigan as commercial agent
- of Geo. W. Pitkin & Co., dealers in liquid paints, on Clinton Street,
- Chicago.
-
- CHARLES H. LUDWIG, a resident at 4101 State Street, was born in
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was twenty-seven years of age. He was a
- book-keeper in the mantel manufactory of C. L. Page & Co.
-
- JOHN B. GREINER, residing at No. 70 North California Avenue, was
- born in Columbus, Ohio, and was twenty-five years of age. He was a
- stenographer in the freight department of the Chicago and Northwestern
- Railway. Mr. Greiner’s mother was, after the trial, the recipient of
- so many threatening letters from the reds that she almost lost her
- mind.
-
- ANDREW HAMILTON, a resident at 1521 Forty-first Street, was a hardware
- merchant at No. 3913 Cottage Grove Avenue. He had resided in Chicago
- twenty years.
-
- HARRY T. SANDFORD, a resident of Oak Park, was born in New York City,
- and was twenty-five years of age. He was a son of Attorney Sandford,
- compiler of the Supreme Court Reports of New York, and since his
- arrival in Chicago had been voucher clerk in the auditor’s office of
- the Chicago and Northwestern Railway.
-
- SCOTT G. RANDALL, a resident at No. 42 La Salle Street, was born in
- Erie County, Pennsylvania and was twenty-three years of age. He had
- lived in Chicago for three years, and was a salesman in the employ of
- J. C. Vaughn, seedsman, at No. 45 La Salle Street.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XX.
-
- Judge Grinnell’s Opening—Statement of the Case—The Light of the
- 4th of May—The Dynamite Argument—Spies’ Fatal Prophecy—The
- Eight-hour Strike—The Growth of the Conspiracy—Spies’ Cowardice at
- McCormick’s—The “Revenge” Circular—Work of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_
- and the _Alarm_—The Secret Signal—A Frightful Plan—“Ruhe”—Lingg,
- the Bomb-maker—The Haymarket Conspiracy—The Meeting—“We are
- Peaceable”—After the Murder—The Complete Case Presented.
-
-
-IT was on Thursday, the 15th of July, that the preliminary work
-was finally ended and the court was ready for a formal statement
-of the case. This statement was made by State’s Attorney Grinnell,
-and his arraignment of the defendants was such a clear, convincing
-and masterful argument—giving, as it did, the whole history of the
-Anarchist conspiracy, and foreshadowing eloquently and in detail all
-the proof which was to be got before the jury—that I will print here
-a verbatim copy of his speech, believing that the reader will find
-nowhere else so business-like a statement of what these prisoners did
-and how they did it.
-
-During the delivery of Mr. Grinnell’s remarks the crowded court-room,
-prisoners and sympathizing Anarchists, wounded policemen, judge, jurors
-and representatives of the press hung upon his words with a keen
-interest which has seldom been duplicated in the annals of American
-jurisprudence.
-
-Mr. Grinnell said:
-
- “GENTLEMEN:—For the first time in the history of our country are
- people on trial for their lives for endeavoring to make Anarchy the
- rule, and in that attempt for ruthlessly and awfully destroying life.
- I hope that while the youngest of us lives this in his memory will be
- the last and only time in our country when such a trial shall take
- place. It will or will not take place as this case is determined.
-
- “The State now and at no time hereafter will say aught to arouse your
- prejudices or your indignation, having confidence in the case that
- we present; and I hope I shall not at any time during this trial say
- anything to you which will in any way or manner excite your passions.
- I want your reason. I want your careful analysis. I want your careful
- attention. We—my associates and myself—ask the conviction of no man
- from malice, from prejudice, from anything except the facts and the
- law. I am here, gentlemen, to maintain the law, not to break it; and,
- however you may believe that any of these men have broken the law
- through their notions of Anarchy, try them on the facts. We believe,
- gentlemen, that we have a case that shall command your respect, and
- demonstrate to you the truthfulness of all the declarations in it,
- and, further, that by careful attention and close analysis you can
- determine who are guilty and the nature of the crime.
-
- “On the 4th of May, 1886, a few short weeks ago, there occurred,
- at what is called Haymarket Square, the most fearful massacre ever
- witnessed or heard of in this country. The crime culminated there—you
- are to find the perpetrators. The charge against the defendants is
- that they are responsible for that act. The testimony that shall be
- presented to you will be the testimony which will show their innocence
- or their guilty complicity in that crime.
-
-[Illustration: HON. JULIUS S. GRINNELL.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
- “We have been in this city inclined to believe, as we have all through
- the country, that, however extravagantly men may talk about our laws
- and our country, however severely they may criticise our Constitution
- and our institutions; that as we are all in favor of full liberty, of
- free speech, the great good sense of our people would never permit
- acts based upon sentiments which meant the overthrow of law. We
- have believed it for years; we were taught it at our schools in our
- infancy, we were taught it in our maturer years in school, and all
- our walks in life thereafter have taught us that our institutions,
- founded on our Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and our
- universal freedom, were above and beyond all Anarchy. The 4th of May
- demonstrated that we were wrong, that we had too much confidence,
- that a certain class of individuals, some of them recently come here,
- as the testimony will show, believe that here in this country our
- Constitution is a lie. Insults are offered to the Declaration of
- Independence, the name of Washington is reviled and traduced, and we
- are taught by these men, as the testimony will show, that freedom
- in this country means lawlessness and absolute licence to do as we
- please, no matter whether it hurts others or not. In the light of the
- 4th of May we now know that the preachings of Anarchy, the suggestions
- of these defendants hourly and daily for years, have been sapping
- our institutions, and that where they have cried murder, bloodshed,
- Anarchy and dynamite, they have meant what they said, and proposed to
- do what they threatened.
-
- “We will prove, gentlemen, in this case, that Spies no longer ago than
- last February said that they were armed in this city for bloodshed
- and riot. We will prove that he said then that they were ready in
- the city of Chicago for Anarchy, and when told, by a gentleman to
- whom he made the declaration, that they ‘would be hung like snakes,’
- said—and there was the insult to the Father of our Country—then he
- said George Washington was no better than a rebel, as if there was any
- possible comparison between those declarations, between that sentiment
- of Washington’s and his noble deeds, and the Anarchy of this man. He
- has said in public meetings—and the details of them I will not now
- worry you with—he has said in public meetings for the last year and
- a half, to go back no further—he and Neebe and Schwab and Parsons
- and Fielden have said in public meetings here in the city of Chicago
- that the only way to adjust the wrongs of any man was by bloodshed, by
- dynamite, by the pistol, by the Winchester rifle. They have advised,
- as will appear in proof here, that dynamite was cheap, and ‘you had
- better forego some luxuries, buy dynamite, kill capitalists, down with
- the police, murder them, dispose of the militia, and then demand your
- rights.’ That is Anarchy.
-
- “On the 11th day of October, 1885, in a prominent public hall upon the
- West Side, August Spies, the defendant in this case, and his confrères
- there, introduced a resolution at a public meeting, in which he said
- that he did not believe that the eight-hour movement would do the
- laboring man any good. We will prove in this case that he has always
- been opposed to the eight-hour law. That is not what he wants. He
- wants Anarchy. These defendants that I mentioned passed a resolution,
- which we shall offer in evidence here, and it shall be read to you
- later—to the effect that the laboring men must arm, must prepare
- themselves with rifles and dynamite. When? By the 1st of May, 1886,
- because then would come the contest.
-
- “I will prove to you that Parsons—be it said to the shame of our
- country, because I understand that he was born on our soil—that
- Parsons, in an infamous paper published by him, called the _Alarm_,
- has defined the use of dynamite, told how it should be used, how
- capitalists could be destroyed by it, how policemen could be
- absolutely wiped from the face of the earth by one bomb; and further
- has published a plan in his paper of street-warfare by dynamite
- against militia and the authorities.
-
- “Gentlemen, leaders of any great cause are either heroes or cowards.
- The testimony in this case will show that August Spies, Parsons,
- Schwab and Neebe are the biggest cowards that I have ever seen in the
- course of my life. They have advised the use of dynamite and have
- advised the destruction of property for months and years in the city
- of Chicago, and now pitifully smile at our institutions, as they have
- through their lives—and, like cowards contemplating crime, they
- sought to establish an _alibi_ for the 4th of May, of which I will
- speak directly.
-
- “I will prove to you further that in January last August Spies told
- a newspaper reporter of integrity, honesty and fidelity that they
- were going to precipitate the matter on or about the 1st of May; that
- he told this man how they could dispose of the police, and in that
- connection he told that reporter that they would arrange it so that
- their meeting should be at or near the intersection of two streets.
- Having this as Randolph Street and Desplaines (pointing on map), not
- calling it any particular name, and that he would have a meeting in
- which there should be assembled large bodies of laboring men, of which
- he falsely claims to be the exponent; that they would be located just
- above the intersection of the streets; that he and his dynamiters
- would be there; that they would be provided with dynamite bombs at
- the place of meeting; that they would hold a meeting there; that the
- police or the militia would walk up towards them; that when they got
- up there their dynamite-throwers would be situated on different sides
- of the street near the walks; that when they proceeded up here they
- would throw the dynamite into their ranks, clean them out and take
- possession of the town. ‘But,’ said the reporter to him, ‘Mr. Spies,
- that sounds to me like braggadocio and vaporing nonsense.’ That is,
- gentlemen, what it has sounded to us for years. Let it sound no longer
- like that to us. Spies said to him, red in the face and excited: ‘I
- tell you I am telling the truth, and mark my words, that it will
- happen on or about the 1st of May, 1886.’ And the reason he was so
- ready to say so was because he believes our Constitution is a lie, our
- institutions are not worthy of respect, and he desires to pose as a
- leader, although in fact a coward.
-
- “That is not all, gentlemen. Mr. Spies at that interview at that time
- handed that gentlemanly reporter—and I will commend him to you now,
- whatever may be your notion of newspaper men. Look at that man when he
- goes upon the stand and judge him by his words and by his appearance.
- He, Spies, did more than what I have said. At that time he handed
- to the newspaper reporter a dynamite bomb, empty—almost the exact
- duplicate of the bomb Lingg made which killed the officers; handed it
- to this witness and said to him: ‘These are the bombs that our men
- are making in the city of Chicago, and they are distributed from the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office, because the men who make them have not the
- facilities for distributing them, and we distribute them here.’
-
- “Those are facts that will be proven here.
-
- “I want to suggest to you now, gentlemen, this is a vastly more
- important case than perhaps any of you have a conception of. Perhaps
- I have been with it so long, have investigated it so much, come in
- contact with such fearful and terrible things so often, that my
- notions may be somewhat exaggerated; but I think not. I think they
- are worse even than my conception has pictured. The firing upon Fort
- Sumter was a terrible thing to our country, but it was open warfare.
- I think it was nothing compared with this insidious, infamous plot to
- ruin our laws and our country secretly and in this cowardly way; the
- strength of our institutions may depend upon this case, because there
- is only one step beyond republicanism—that is Anarchy. See that we
- never take that step, and let us stand to-day as we have stood for
- years, firmly planted on the laws of our country.
-
- “After teaching Anarchy, bombs, the manufacture of them and everything
- of that character for months, and I may say for years, here in
- town, having put the ball in motion, having done everything toward
- the end they declared should be accomplished—towards the end they
- sought—then began the numerous conspiracies. The beginning of the
- whole matter was among the nest of snakes in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_
- office, and the foundation of the conspiracy, published, notorious and
- open, was at West Twelfth Street Turner Hall, on the 11th of October
- last. At that time, on the introduction of that resolution by Spies,
- it was opposed by one man in the audience, who is a labor agitator,
- but not an Anarchist—opposed by one man in that audience, and he was
- denounced; he was told to take a back seat, and in support of the
- resolution it was there said by Spies—and a man, as I understand, by
- the name of Belz was chairman—that the time for argument has passed;
- the only argument by which to meet these things was dynamite and the
- rifle—by force.
-
- “As is well known, requiring no proof, for a long time before, it
- was arranged by a universal arrangement or consent among all the
- laboring classes in town that there should be a universal strike for
- eight hours, to take place on or about the 1st day of May. On the
- 1st day of May began those strikes. On the 2nd—on the 3d—the 2nd
- was Sunday—on the 3d day of May, on Monday, you will remember from
- your reading, as it will appear in proof here, there was difficulty
- at McCormick’s factory down on what they called the Black Road. The
- fact about that meeting was this: A large number of lumber-shovers,
- or men who work in the lumber-yards, had a meeting appointed to wait
- on the lumber-dealers, There were a great many of them Bohemians,
- some Germans, and some of other nationalities—mostly embraced in
- those two nationalities that I first spoke of, but all nationalities
- represented there. The chief officers and the chief men in the
- movement were Bohemians. Some of them will be presented to you by us.
- The committee that was to wait upon the lumber-dealers was to report
- there in an open place called the Black Road, or in that locality,
- to the meeting, what the lumber-dealers proposed. In other words, a
- peaceful proposition was made by that committee to the lumbermen to
- accede to eight hours, and a meeting was held there; the committee
- were to come back from the lumber-dealers and report to that meeting.
- Spies and a man by the name of Fehling—who ought also to have been
- in this indictment, and I will say just a word later about that—one
- other man whose identity we have not fully established—went down
- there uninvited by any of that committee, or by the chairman of
- it—went down there and made an inflammatory speech for the purpose
- of precipitating that riot. That is the truth. It was precipitated. I
- am rather inclined to think that some other of these men were there.
- I am not going to state anything to you here, at any time, in this
- case, that I do not believe I can prove. I know Spies was there, and
- spoke from the top of a car. He wrote up the speech later on, which
- I will speak of directly. The president of that organization down
- there, the laborers, opposed his speaking and informed the people that
- this man was not one of them, but that he was a Socialist, and they
- did not want to hear him. He insisted upon speaking, and the friend
- that was with him has fled the city and does not dare return. That
- will be in proof. Spies did the unmanly thing that he always does.
- He exasperated other people to rush on McCormick’s regardless of the
- president of that committee, who desired quiet and peace and desired
- it honestly, although he was in favor of eight hours. But Spies is not
- anxious for eight hours. We will prove that in this case. He does not
- want eight hours. If the laboring men—if the bosses and employers in
- the city of Chicago on the 1st day of May had universally acceded to
- the eight-hour project, Spies was a dead duck; they would have had no
- further use for him, and he didn’t want it. Therefore he went down
- there and exasperated the people, and he made a speech. The police
- didn’t come on the ground until after McCormick’s was attacked, and
- until after stones and bombs were used, or pistols and lead against
- McCormick’s factory. What does Spies do, this redoubtable knight?
- He runs away and gets home just as soon as he can. He takes a car
- and comes north. I will say nothing more about that meeting for the
- present. Let us follow Spies. Now, mind you, he saw trouble. He
- had exasperated this crowd to attack McCormick’s; they did attack
- McCormick’s, and stones were thrown by the mob at McCormick’s
- men—some of them—they are called scabs; they didn’t happen to belong
- to any union. Of course my opinion about that may be different from
- some of yours; I will not criticise. I believe one man is just as good
- as another, whether he belongs to a union or not. If he is an honest
- man and desires to work, I think he ought to be permitted to work. But
- those fellows didn’t belong to the union. They swam across the river,
- got away the best they could, saved their lives. But what does Spies
- do? He rushes away as soon as he can, when he sees the starting of the
- difficulty; when he has got everybody inflamed into frenzy and madness
- he quietly gets out to save his august person; he quietly gets out and
- goes away. That is not all. He lands that afternoon at the corner of
- Desplaines and Lake, where there was a crowd of other men, laborers
- meeting there, and pronounces a lie by telling them that ‘twelve or
- fourteen of your brothers have been killed at McCormick’s, and by the
- bloodhounds, the police.’ Spies knew as well as anything that he ever
- knew in his life that he was uttering a falsehood. He knew, if he knew
- anything, that, so far as his observation was concerned, not a man
- had been killed—not a single man had been killed—and he inflamed
- the people there by his suggestion, heated as he was and showing
- excitement, coming in there at Desplaines and Lake at that meeting,
- inflaming those people so that they were then ready to go with the
- torch and the sword and level everything before them.
-
- “That is not all. He left there about four o’clock in the afternoon,
- perhaps between four and five, and went to this nest of treason and
- Anarchy, No. 107 Fifth Avenue, and there about five o’clock arrived,
- heated, excited, and told his men not to stop work, that he wanted
- to use them. What did he do? He then and there wrote what is called
- the ‘Revenge’ circular. It is written in English and in German. The
- English part is tame, more tame than the German—and he knew what
- he was doing then; there was a plan in that. We have the circular
- as printed, which will be presented to you. We have in addition to
- that the type from which it was printed; we have in addition to that
- the manuscript from which the type was set. The manuscript is in
- Spies’ handwriting! That ‘Revenge’ circular, gentlemen, perpetrated
- another lie. It said that ‘six of your brothers have been killed at
- McCormick’s.’ He decreased it a little. That ‘Revenge’ circular was
- hurriedly passed out to all the German settlements of the town and
- everywhere, by every possible means. Neebe distributed them; others
- distributed them. They were ‘revenge;’ revenge for what? Revenge for
- the declared murder of the brothers of the laboring men at McCormick’s
- Monday afternoon—when he had no knowledge that a single man was
- killed. I have since learned and shall prove that one man did die days
- or weeks afterwards from wounds he did receive there, and only one.
-
- “I want to suggest another thing to you here. It will appear
- in proof—because we have had the German part of that circular
- translated—that the German part of that circular is the most infamous
- thing that ever was in print. The translation of the German part of
- that circular is not like the English part. A man picking up the
- circular who was an English scholar—as I remember, the English
- part of the circular comes first, and following that is the German
- part—and any man, even some of these German newspaper men, would pick
- that up, and the first thing they would read would be the English
- part, not the German. They would read the English hastily through
- and they would say, ‘That’s some of Spies’ vaporing nonsense again;
- nothing very serious about it, but bad—bad taste—bad judgment in
- inflamed times.’ But the revenge circular as printed in German is
- altogether a different thing. It is not only treason and Anarchy, but
- a bid to bloodshed, and a bid to war. Anybody reading the English
- part of that circular would drop it—even the Germans. And the German
- newspapers until afterwards did not perceive the dissimilarity between
- the two, the English and the German. Now, where is this matter read?
- It is fortunate for the English-speaking people that defendants
- embrace only two of that class; one of them was born in this country,
- the other in England. That circular was read among the Germans. That
- circular was spread throughout the western part and the northern
- part of the city of Chicago and in other places, at the instance of
- Spies, who had it circulated himself. ‘Revenge on the bloodhounds, the
- police.’ For his life, in regard to those who were killed, he could
- not have known whether anybody was killed or not, because he took care
- of his royal person so speedily after the difficulty at McCormick’s
- that he had no chance to know whether anybody was killed, and he took
- good care to see that he was not hurt. So much for the ‘Revenge’
- circular.
-
- “Now, gentlemen, we are getting down to the 4th of May. There is more
- in it than this. Monday was the 3d day of May; Tuesday was the 4th,
- the day the bomb was thrown. Everything was ripe with the Anarchists
- for ruining the town. Bombs were to be thrown in all parts of the city
- of Chicago. Everything was to be done that could be done to ruin law
- and order. I wish to say right here, gentlemen, that the proof in this
- case will develop a strange state of facts in regard to the complicity
- of others in this matter, and in that particular perhaps there ought
- to be some apology for myself. The conspiracy was so large, the
- number of criminals interested in that conspiracy so appalling, that
- I distrusted my own judgment, and, whereas in my soul I believed that
- at least thirty men and perhaps more should have been indicted for
- murder, the developments in the case were of that kind, when the grand
- jury was in session, that the facts could not all clearly be known.
- And further, there was that feeling and inspiration in the matter, if
- you please, that the leaders, the men who have incited these things,
- the men who have caused this anarchy and bloodshed here, and who seek
- for more—that they should be picked out and, if possible, punished
- and blotted out.
-
- “The _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, the paper itself—we shall attempt to show
- you in proof here its circulation, or its sworn issue for a year. We
- will have them translated for you. We will also attempt to show to you
- from the _Alarm_, the English organ of the Anarchists—that is what
- it is called, just think of it—the English organ of the Anarchists,
- published by the redoubtable and courageous Parsons. We will show you
- in proof its writings and its sentiments, its invitations to Anarchy,
- to bloodshed, to the throwing of bombs, and his advice to people how
- to make bombs.
-
- “If I prove only this that I have stated to you, it seems to me that
- from every principle of law and evidence, from every principle of
- justice, the men whose names I have mentioned should be punished.
-
- “But one step more. This was Monday night, remember, that Spies wrote
- the ‘Revenge’ circular. That was not all he wrote. He himself wrote
- the account of his speech, wrote the account of the McCormick riot,
- wrote his notions about it, and that is in his handwriting. We have
- the manuscript. And in that he said this, gentlemen—that ‘so far as
- the McCormick matter was concerned it was a failure, and if there only
- had been one bomb the result might have been different.’ The one bomb
- at least was supplied by his inflammatory utterances the next night.
-
- “On Monday evening, after Spies had inflamed these people up there—on
- Monday in the daytime, rather, appeared in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, a
- newspaper published at 107 Fifth Avenue—it is a four-page paper, it
- has been constantly and carefully read in the progress of this trial
- by the gentlemen seated over there in a row—in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_
- appeared on Monday, in a column devoted to editorial notices, a
- secret word for the meeting of the armed men. That was in German—the
- letter ‘Y,’ called ypsilon in German—“Ypsilon, come Monday night.”
- Ypsilon was the secret word agreed on by the armed men to meet in
- secret session, when they saw printed in this treasonable sheet that
- secret word. As I am informed and believe from the proof, Balthasar
- Rau wrote that secret word. The armed men of the Anarchists, to be
- brief, are those of the Anarchists who are willing to throw bombs and
- fire pistols behind people’s backs. It is divided into groups. Why,
- all their literature from Pittsburg to San Francisco, including the
- pen of Neebe, Spies, Schwab and Parsons—all of them have advised
- how to make up groups, based upon the Anarchistic notions. On that
- page appears this secret word. Balthasar Rau is the confidential
- friend of Spies, works in their office; he is not an editorial
- writer, he is not a writer at all, unless he occasionally essays to
- say something in print. I do not know, but I believe that that is
- his writing, the letter ‘Y’ in German—‘Come Monday night.’ That
- is all there was of it. What does it mean? Pursuant to that secret
- word, on Monday night—that is the same night that Spies got back
- from McCormick’s—on that night the armed men did assemble pursuant
- to ‘Ypsilon, come Monday night,’ and they knew where to go to. They
- went to Greif’s Hall. Greif’s Hall is on Lake Street, just east
- of Clinton.” Mr. Grinnell indicated the points on a map. “This is
- Zepf’s Hall (indicating); the name will be mentioned to you. Here is
- Desplaines Street Station, so that you can keep in your mind from
- this map the idea. Here is Desplaines Street Station; north up here
- to Lake, Zepf’s Hall; east, Greif’s Hall. They met. Greif’s Hall is
- a four-story building, as I remember; a family lives in it, there
- is a saloon, and down in the basement is a place for truck and one
- thing and another, and also a rough-and-ready place for meetings.
- The armed men were there; Fischer was there; Lingg was there; Engel
- was there. The armed men met there with others—other armed men than
- those that I have mentioned. They pass into Greif’s Hall; they say to
- Mr. Greif: ‘Have you a hall we can take?’ He said: ‘No, my halls are
- all occupied;’ one kind of labor association was meeting in one hall,
- and another in another; but he said, ‘If you want the basement’—and
- I have a plan and map of the basement—‘if you want the basement, go
- down stairs and hold your meeting.’ So these men, the numbers of them
- variously estimated from thirty to sixty, meet in that place. Among
- them were Fischer, Lingg, Engel and Schnaubelt. Schnaubelt is in this
- indictment, and not here. He has run away. These men met in this hall
- underneath the saloon, a dingy and dark basement—the only proper
- place for conspirators—by the light of a dingy lamp—and they held an
- organized meeting. The plan of warfare was devised—not for the next
- night. I will explain that. But for some night. Engel, a man who is
- gray, has been in this country some years and talks some English—he
- understands me, and laughs and smiles at every word I utter—Engel
- was at that meeting that night, and told the plan. I am going to be
- brief about the recitation of that plan. That was the most fearfully
- declared plan that I ever heard in my life. It meant destruction to
- this town absolutely if this programme had been carried out. Engel
- said: ‘When you see printed in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, under the
- Letter-box, the word ‘Ruhe,’ that night prepare for war.’ ‘Ruhe’ means
- ‘rest,’ ‘peace.’ The manuscript for that is in our possession and is
- in the handwriting of Spies. That word on Tuesday morning appeared in
- the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ and in a double lead, with an emphasis under
- it, before it and behind it. It meant ‘war.’ They understood it; and
- Engel refers to Fischer in the meeting and he says: ‘Is not this the
- order of the Northwest group?’ That is another group for conspiracy
- and treason. Fischer said ‘Yes.’ As I am informed, Fischer undertook
- to carry the word back to the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office and have it
- inserted. Fischer was the foreman of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office at
- that time. He carried the word back, I assume. Spies wrote it out,
- double-leaded it, made it emphatic, and they were ready for war.
-
- “But that was not all. Somebody had to make the bombs. Lingg was
- there, and he said that he would make the bombs. He was the bomb-maker
- of the Anarchists, and we have found and traced to him at least
- twenty-two of these infernal machines, one of which passed from his
- hands to the man who threw it at the Haymarket Square. I will prove
- to your absolute satisfaction that Lingg made the bomb that killed
- the officers, and will show to you that it was his bomb, and his
- manufacture alone. Lingg lived at No. 442 Sedgwick Street, occupied
- a room in Seliger’s house. Seliger is in this indictment for murder
- also. He is not on trial. I am not yet prepared to say whether the
- State will use him as a witness or not. I will have a suggestion to
- make on that subject directly.
-
- “Lingg was to make the bombs. Engel devised the plan and deliberately
- told him over and over so that there would be no mistake. Now, what
- was the plan? That these conspirators should proceed to Lingg’s house
- that next night, or before night, and obtain from Lingg the bombs. He
- had already sixteen halves, or eight whole bombs. But he wanted more,
- and they were to be filled with dynamite on Tuesday afternoon.
-
- “And what next? Then these people were informed where they could
- obtain them, and he was to go, as he did, in the evening, or between
- seven and eight o’clock, to Neff’s Hall, at No. 58 Clybourn Avenue.
- They went to work. There Seliger helped fill the bombs that afternoon.
- Lingg was there. Lingg left in the afternoon. He didn’t stay there
- through it all, but came back again. I do not think that Lingg was at
- the Haymarket that night; he may have been; I don’t think he was. His
- part on the programme—part of it had been performed—was to furnish
- the bombs and do the work elsewhere.
-
- “Now, gentlemen, just look at this plan, and this is the plan that
- Engel told them should be performed. They were to get these bombs;
- certain of them were to be at the Haymarket Square, where this meeting
- was; and in this meeting, mind you, in this conspiracy meeting the
- programme was that there should be at least twenty-five thousand
- laboring men present; that they would not hold the meeting down on the
- square, but that they would get up in the street, because they were
- out in a great open place there, the police could come down on them
- and clean them all out; but they must get back where the alleys were,
- instead of holding the meeting down here where it was advertised.
- You see there are two blocks here. Instead of holding the meeting on
- this broad spot here (indicating on the map), they were to hold it up
- here; and that very thing was discussed down there that night in the
- conspiracy meeting, as to the feasibility of holding it here where
- the police could corner them. Then these individuals with the bombs
- were to distribute themselves in different parts of the city. They
- were to destroy the station-houses; they were to throw bombs at every
- patrol wagon that they saw going toward the Haymarket Square with
- police officers. They expected there would be a row down there at the
- Haymarket Square, of course. There was going to be one bomb thrown
- there at least, and perhaps more, and that would call the police down;
- but the police must be taken care of and must not be permitted to go,
- and they were to be destroyed, absolutely wiped off from the earth
- by bombs in other parts of the city. And Lingg went around with bombs
- in his pocket that night and desired to throw them at a patrol wagon
- and was only restrained by his friends. And they were to build a fire
- up toward Wicker Park—some building was to be set on fire for the
- purpose of attracting the police in that direction and scattering them
- about. Others were to take other parts of the city and burn them so
- that they would be destroyed.
-
- “Now, this sounds as if it was a large story. But that is what Spies
- had been talking for years; that is what Parsons had been talking for
- years; that is what he came back here so courageously, on the arm of
- the learned counsel on the other side, to hear again in court.
-
- “That meeting that night was fruitful of great results. A bomb was
- thrown at the Haymarket, and seven killed and many others injured. It
- is not necessary for me to go into any more of the details of that
- conspiracy. It was carried out to the letter.
-
- “Now, there is one other little step in this case, gentlemen, that
- I wish to bring to your attention. When that ‘Revenge’ circular was
- circulated, Fischer, immediately thereafter, and at the conspiracy
- meeting—Fischer is the foreman printer of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_,
- and the immediate friend of Spies and all these people—Fischer
- was to advertise, to see that the proper number of people came to
- that meeting, and he got up an advertisement, and it was printed.
- He ordered twenty thousand. That advertisement will be presented to
- you in the proof. That advertisement called for ‘Revenge’ and ‘A
- big meeting of the workingmen at the Haymarket Square on Tuesday
- night.’ Now, you see, the ‘Ruhe’ had appeared. The conspiracy was
- all complete; everything was arranged; there was only one step more
- to make—to get the laboring men there—because, thank God, all the
- laboring men were not in this conspiracy. A very few were in it.
- It is to their credit, gentlemen; and in my investigation in this
- case I have more respect for the laboring man than I had before.
- The laboring man as a class is an honest man, and when he saw the
- ‘Revenge’ circular and the call ‘to arms’ he stayed away. Fischer had
- the advertisement printed, and the last sentence is this: ‘Workingmen,
- come armed.’ But that was a little too much for Spies; that was too
- close home. After about five thousand of these circulars were printed,
- Spies orders that sentence stricken out; but the whole twenty thousand
- were distributed, and with Spies’ knowledge. Spies was preparing the
- alibi.
-
- “On the evening of Tuesday, at 107 Fifth Avenue, there was a meeting
- of these conspirators, of these Anarchists, of what is called the
- American group, that Parsons and Fielden and, I suppose, Spies belong
- to, and some others. That was held at 107 Fifth Avenue. That is at
- the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office. They were there on Tuesday night.
- Parsons was on Halsted Street, to be sure, but yet seemed anxious to
- get away and go down to this other meeting on the South Side. He went
- down there. The meeting was advertised for a large number of laboring
- men. The laboring men did not materialize to any large extent.
- Between Halsted and Desplaines there were hundreds of people walking
- backwards and forwards, wondering why the meeting did not take place.
- It was advertised for half past seven; they expected to precipitate
- the matter at half past seven, because, pursuant to ‘Ruhe’ and the
- other declarations, and pursuant to Engel and Lingg and Fischer’s
- arrangement at the conspiracy meeting, they were to begin their work
- in the other parts of the city about eight o’clock, as they expected
- the police would precipitate the difficulty—they would precipitate
- the difficulty by the police coming about eight, or between half past
- seven and eight. Good speakers were advertised, yet no names given.
- Spies went over there that night himself, wandered around, seemed
- careless, walked over here with his friend Schnaubelt, up to the other
- street—with Schwab, too. Schwab went away finally and went up to
- Deering. They marched backwards and forwards there, and finally Spies
- comes back to the corner here and opens the meeting, and says, when he
- opens it: ‘We will not obstruct that road on Randolph Street, but will
- go up here.’ So he got where he had always said they would get, just
- above the intersection of the streets. They got up there on the wagon,
- and Spies opened the meeting.
-
- “Now, gentlemen, we have got down to the meeting. I have endeavored
- to give you, in a kind of historical way, how this thing leads up to,
- without saying specifically, the proof. I have told you that we would
- prove declarations of these men, time out of number, about dynamite
- and bombs, and the destruction of property and the destruction of the
- police. That we will attempt to do. There is no need of my specifying
- or saying what each individual witness will say.
-
- “Neebe has upheld bloodshed and riot time and again, although from all
- the inquiries put to you it would seem as if he was known as one of
- these peaceable, peaceful, quiet labor organizers.
-
- “The laboring men did not come to any large extent. There probably
- were not two thousand men there at any time, even early in the
- evening. There were not enough there to get up a riot. They could
- not get up a riot with such a small number as that, and they were
- compelled to have somebody speak to keep what they had; they were
- dissolving—going away. Now, Spies was there. He is the man, I think,
- that knew of ‘Ruhe;’ I think that he himself will state—I think
- others will state—that they knew of all the circumstances about the
- ‘Ruhe,’ and about what they were going to do. I think the proof will
- show that he knew of the whole conspiracy. He did not stop it. They
- will undertake to show that he tried to. Now, I want you to watch that
- carefully. We will have something to say on that subject as the basis
- of all this. There never was a great criminal in the world, especially
- if he was a coward, but what, if he undertook to commit a great crime
- and wanted to conceal himself, he prepared an alibi. Parsons, Fielden,
- Schwab, Neebe and Spies prepared that alibi. They were going to let
- these three other men suffer, let the man that threw the bomb suffer;
- but they, who had been teaching dynamite for years, asking people to
- throw bombs for years—they, after the bomb had been thrown, were
- going to say that they were not liable at all.
-
- “Now, at that meeting, Spies got back up here and opened the meeting.
- There was some significance in the very way he opened it. We will
- have it all here. Fortunately, one of the newspaper reporters—Mr.
- English, of the _Tribune_—stood there with his overcoat on, with his
- hands in his pocket, not daring to take his paper out, and took a
- minute of everything that was said—wrote in shorthand, with his hand
- in his pocket, what they said, as long as he could. Spies opened the
- meeting up here near the alley. A wagon was standing there upon which
- they stood and from which they spoke. Spies found that the meeting
- was going to dissolve; there wasn’t going to be any interference by
- the police to any extent unless they could keep that crowd there. So
- he sends Balthasar Rau over to the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office, where
- the American group were. Now, how did he know that they were over
- there? They went over to the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office to get Parsons,
- Fielden and the rest of them to come over and address the meeting, and
- they came over, and we will have what they said—where speeches were
- inflammatory, denunciatory, crying for bloodshed—everything of that
- character.
-
- “Gentlemen, I have called several of these men cowards. The testimony
- will show that they are. I am rather inclined to think that Fielden,
- although he is an Anarchist, is the only man in the whole crowd that
- stood his ground that night.
-
- “The history of the throwing of that bomb shows that the police did
- not interfere any too soon. Gentlemen, it is our humble opinion, from
- looking this case all over, that Inspector Bonfield, although it is
- sad to think that life is destroyed—I think Inspector Bonfield did
- the wisest thing that he possibly could have done, to have called the
- police there that night as he did. If he had not, the next night it
- would have had to be done, or the next, and whereas seven poor men are
- dead, there would have been instead hundreds, perhaps thousands. I say
- again, to the credit of Bonfield and the police, I wish it understood
- that at that meeting it was the wisest thing that ever happened to
- this town, although cruel as it may seem in the light of the fact
- that seven died. Hundreds and perhaps thousands were saved. Anarchy
- had been taught and cried for months; it had almost come with its
- demoralization, and the strength and courage of the police saved the
- town.
-
- “About ten o’clock, from the reports coming to Bonfield, as will
- appear in proof, the inflammatory utterances of these American
- citizens, of these people, had decided Bonfield that the meeting must
- be broken up. He was wise. He passed down there with his force of
- police, and, gentlemen, not a policeman except the commanding officer
- in front had a weapon in his hand. They marched down there shoulder to
- shoulder, covering the whole street, and came to the wagon. Fielden
- was shouting to the police, talking about the bloodhounds as they
- advanced, because he was facing them as he spoke. He probably saw them
- as they turned the corner. They formed here (indicating on the map),
- in this court back here, and marched into the street at Desplaines,
- occupying almost the entire width of the street, facing down—what we
- may call up Desplaines Street, north towards where this meeting was.
- The meeting was held about the vicinity of that alley. This property
- here, all through there, is Crane’s factory—R. T. Crane & Co. Here
- is an alley that runs in through here. Eagle Street is here, and of
- course here is Lake, and here is Randolph. Fielden was speaking; the
- police came up to the wagon; Captain Ward stepped up to the crowd
- and told them that he commanded them, in the name of the people of
- the State of Illinois, to depart, to leave, to disperse. He made the
- ordinary statutory declaration. Fielden stepped from the wagon and
- said: ‘We are peaceable,’ so that it could be heard a long distance
- around him. At that moment a man, who a moment before had been on
- the wagon, stepped to the corner of that alley, lighted the bomb and
- threw it into the police. Fielden stepped from the wagon and began
- firing. He is the only one, I told you, of the crowd, that has got
- any of the elements of the hero in him; he was willing to stand his
- ground. The others fled. Parsons never did a manly thing in his life,
- and neither did the others. They are not for law; they are against the
- law. Although Fielden is against the law, he did have the English
- stubbornness to stand up there and shoot, and he fired from over the
- wagon until finally he disappeared.
-
- “I have given you in detail a good deal of the proof. I have told
- you the reason that I did it was, not only for your own edification,
- but so that these gentlemen could know what we expect to prove. We
- have nothing to conceal, we have nothing to hide. We expect as fair a
- statement from them as to their case.
-
- “I have only a word or two more to you, gentlemen. Remember,
- gentlemen, that this meeting was called for half-past seven. The
- police did not appear until half-past ten. There are nearly three
- long hours—about half-past ten, between ten and half-past ten.
- The bomb-throwers had become discouraged. Those individuals that
- were situated in different parts of the town had not received the
- communication, because the conspiracy embraced the fact that spies
- were to be located there to scatter the word, and then was to continue
- this destruction. The police came so late, and so many went away, that
- it was absolutely coming very near to being a fiasco. They had been
- arranging for it for months. The conspiracy had been clearly declared
- and established. The only thing they needed was the crowd. The crowd
- failed to come. The police failed to interfere, and finally, at the
- last moment, having interfered, most of those that were there had
- gone. And there was another thing. These men that were interested
- in the throwing of the bomb were paralyzed, notwithstanding their
- firing and the shooting, by the attitude of the police who stood up
- there; and in all my examination of these men, asking each and every
- one of them as far as I could what they did there that night, I have
- failed to find a man that ran. They stood up there and fired at these
- wretches who were pouring into them, from both sides of the street,
- a volley of shots from pistols. One bomb was fired and thrown, and
- just the moment that happened, not a policeman with his club—scarcely
- one—not a policeman with a pistol in his hand, but every one standing
- there waiting for orders. The bomb was thrown, and the firing began
- from both sides of the policemen and from the crowd, and them alone.
- The police never fired a shot until after many of their men had
- already bit the dust.
-
- “I will attempt to show to you, gentlemen, who threw the bomb, from
- this locality (indicating on map). I have said to you that the bomb
- that was thrown was made by Lingg. I will prove that.
-
- “I have one other suggestion to make to you. There never was a
- conspiracy in the world, either small or great—not a conspiracy ever
- established in the world, but what there was needed some conspirator
- to give the first information of its existence and its purposes. I
- want you to be cautious, gentlemen, about an unjust criticism of any
- member of that conspiracy who first gave us the ideas about it and its
- ends. Seliger gave us the information, the first information, which
- led to the knowledge of this terrible conspiracy, led to the knowledge
- of the facts relating to it. I said to you, we may not use Seliger;
- but I say to you this, gentlemen, that not a single conspirator placed
- upon the witness-stand by the State shall be so placed there without
- we can do something to corroborate his statements; and even if we do
- not, I have yet to learn of a man that dare say that that conspiracy
- did not exist. And so far as that is concerned as a question of
- law, when a conspirator or a co-conspirator gives his testimony in
- court, you have a right to reject it if you desire. But, gentlemen,
- before you reject it the court will simply instruct you in regard to
- a conspirator’s testimony that his testimony is to be considered
- like any other witness, and that you have a right to consider his
- credibility in view of the fact that he is a co-conspirator.
-
- “This indictment is for murder, a serious charge. Under our statute
- the jury fixes the penalty. If murder, the penalty is not less than
- fourteen years; it may be for life; it may be the death penalty. For
- manslaughter, the lower degree under murder, under our statute, which
- is somewhat different from statutes in other States, the penalty is
- any number of years’ imprisonment and may be for life. The indictment
- in this case is for murder. There are a great many counts here, but
- the chief thing is the count against these men for murder. Now, it
- is not necessary in a case of this kind, nor in any case of murder,
- or any other kind, that the individual who commits the exact and
- particular offense—for instance, the man who threw the bomb—should
- be in court at all. He need not even be indicted. The question for
- you to determine is, having ascertained that a murder was committed,
- not only who did it, but who is responsible for it, who abetted it,
- assisted it, or encouraged it? There is no question of law in the case.
-
- “We will show to you, I think to your entire satisfaction, that,
- although perhaps none of these men personally threw that bomb, they
- each and all abetted, encouraged and advised the throwing of it, and
- therefore are as guilty as the individual who in fact threw it. They
- are accessories.
-
- “I have talked to you, gentlemen, longer than I expected to, and
- chiefly so that you would know something about this case, know
- something about the facts. I have given you not, perhaps, all the
- details, but I have given you, as a whole, the facts. I want you to
- patiently listen to the evidence in this case from both sides, and
- be careful in your analysis. You have, most of you, been here some
- time, and you have been admirably patient. Only continue that way, and
- be patient in the matter, and make up your minds when the testimony
- is all presented, and not before. It may take some days to get at
- the proof and to place it all before you, so that you can clearly
- understand it. A great deal of the proof has to come from the mouths
- of witnesses whose language will have to be interpreted to you. That
- will take more time. But the whole case will finally be presented to
- you substantially, I think, as I have stated it. I will now leave the
- matter with you.”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXI.
-
- The Great Trial Opens—Bonfield’s History of the Massacre—How the
- Bomb Exploded—Dynamite in the Air—A Thrilling Story—Gottfried
- Waller’s Testimony—An Anarchist’s “Squeal”—The Murder Conspiracy
- Made Manifest by Many Witnesses.
-
-
-ON Friday, July 16, the day following the delivery of the State’s
-Attorney’s argument, the first witness was called. The defendants
-appeared flushed with excitement, and the throng in the court-room
-was eager in expectancy of the State’s evidence. Some of the officers
-disabled at the Haymarket were among the interested spectators. All
-were in a flutter of suppressed excitement.
-
-“Felix D. Buschick,” called the State’s Attorney.
-
-The sound re-echoed through the room and floated out through the open
-windows. Buschick advanced with trepidation and took the witness-stand.
-Every neck was craned to catch a glimpse of him as he arose. He was a
-draughtsman, and his testimony had reference simply to maps and plans
-showing the location of the Haymarket Square, the surrounding streets
-and alleys, the spot where the bomb was thrown, and the location of the
-Desplaines Street Station.
-
-Inspector JOHN BONFIELD followed next. He stated that he was Inspector
-of Police, had been on the force ten years, and had been in command of
-the men ordered to rendezvous at Desplaines Station on the night of May
-4. His testimony then proceeded as follows:
-
- “I got there about six o’clock. There were present Capt. Ward, Lieuts.
- Bowler, Penzen, Stanton, Hubbard, Beard, Steele and Quinn, each in
- charge of a company. During that day our attention was called to a
- circular calling a meeting at the Haymarket that evening. I saw the
- Mayor that afternoon, then went to Desplaines Street Station and took
- command of the forces there, all told about one hundred and eighty
- men. We stayed in the station until between ten and half-past ten. The
- men then formed on Waldo Place. We marched down north on Desplaines
- Street. Capt. Ward and myself were at the head, Lieut. Steele with
- his company on the right, and Lieut. Quinn on the left; the next two
- companies that formed in division front, double line, were Lieut.
- Bowler on the right, Stanton on the left; next company in single line
- was Lieut. Hubbard. Lieuts. Beard and Penzen’s orders were to stop at
- Randolph Street and face to the right and left. We marched until we
- came about to the mouth of Crane Brothers’ alley. There was a truck
- wagon standing a little north of that alley and against the east
- sidewalk of Desplaines Street, from which they were speaking. There
- were orders issued in regard to the arms of the men and officers.”
-
-Being asked what those orders were, defendants’ counsel objected, but
-the objection was overruled. Bonfield continued:
-
- “The orders were, that no man should draw a weapon or fire or strike
- anybody until he received positive orders from his commanding officer.
- Each officer was dressed in full uniform, with his coat buttoned up
- to the throat and his club and belt on, and the club in the holder on
- the side. Capt. Ward and myself had our weapons in our hand; pistols
- in pockets. As we approached the truck, there was a person speaking
- from the truck. Capt. Ward turned slightly to the right and gave the
- statutory order to disperse: ‘I command you, in the name of the people
- of the State of Illinois, to immediately and peaceably disperse.’ As
- he repeated that, he said, ‘I command you and you to assist.’ Almost
- instantly, Mr. Fielden, who was speaking, turned so as to face the
- Captain and myself, stepped off from the end of the truck toward
- the sidewalk and said in a loud tone of voice, ‘We are peaceable.’
- Almost instantly after that I heard from behind me a hissing sound,
- followed, in a second or two, by a terrific explosion. In coming up
- the street, part of the crowd ran on Desplaines toward Lake, but a
- great portion fell back to the sidewalks on the right and left, partly
- lapping back onto our flanks. Almost instantly after the explosion,
- firing from the front and both sides poured in on us. There were from
- seventy-five to a hundred pistol shots fired before a shot was fired
- by any officer. There was an interval of a few seconds between that
- and the return fire by the police. On hearing the explosion I turned
- around quickly, saw almost all the men of the second two lines shrink
- to the ground, and gave the order to close up. The men immediately
- re-formed. Lieuts. Steele and Quinn with their companies charged down
- the street; the others formed and took both sides. In a few moments
- the crowd was scattered in every direction. I gave the order to cease
- firing and went to pick up our wounded. Mathias J. Degan was almost
- instantly killed. The wounded, about sixty in number, were carried to
- the Desplaines Street Station. Seven died from the effects of wounds.”
-
-After identifying circulars calling the Haymarket meeting and demanding
-revenge, he continued:
-
- “As we approached there were about five or six on the truck. Did not
- see the direction of the bomb; it came from my rear. I was about
- ten feet from the wagon. The rear rank of the first company and the
- second company suffered the most. During the evening or during the
- continuance of the meeting I received reports as to what was going on,
- from officers detailed for that purpose.”
-
-On cross-examination, his testimony was as follows:
-
- “I was the highest officer on the ground that night. The whole force
- was under my special charge and direction. As we marched down, the
- divisions of police occupied the full width of the street from curb
- to curb. Around the corner of Desplaines and Randolph there were a
- few persons scattered, apparently paying no attention to the meeting;
- the crowd attending the speaking was apparently north of that alley.
- The speakers’ wagon was not more than five or six feet north of that
- alley. Fielden, when speaking, was facing to the north and west,
- was facing us when my attention was especially called to him; there
- were about one thousand people there; don’t remember whether it was
- moonlight; there were no street lamps lit; there was a clear sky. As
- we marched along, the crowd shifted its position; the speaking went
- right on. My experience is, if the police were marching in parade,
- the crowd would get to the sidewalk to look on; if to disperse a crowd
- or mob, the natural thing would be for them to run away. I saw Fielden
- that night for the first time. As Capt. Ward turned to the wagon to
- give the order to disperse, I saw the men were still advancing, and
- I turned to the left, gave the command to halt, and then came up
- alongside of Capt. Ward. Capt. Ward stood within a few feet of the
- south end of that truck, which stood lengthwise of the sidewalk, the
- tongue end north. The front rank of the first division was near up to
- the north line of the alley, probably not more than ten or fifteen
- feet from the wagon. Before Capt. Ward had finished his command I was
- beside him. Capt. Ward spoke as loud as he could speak. Between my
- calling the halt and the explosion of the bomb, I don’t think it was
- a minute. As the Captain finished, Fielden stepped from the truck and
- faced us, and, stepping on the street, he turned to the sidewalk or
- curb, which is perhaps ten inches above the street, and said: ‘We are
- peaceable.’ Within two or three seconds the explosion followed. I did
- not hear anything said by Fielden from the truck. When he stepped on
- the street I could have reached out and touched him. He did not say:
- ‘This is a peaceable meeting.’ When I heard the hissing sound Fielden
- was in the act of getting to the sidewalk.”
-
-GOTTFRIED WALLER, a former associate of the defendants, testified
-through an interpreter. He stated his occupation, residence, etc., and
-proceeded as follows:
-
- “On the evening of the 3d of May I was at Greif’s Hall, 54 West
- Lake Street; got there at eight o’clock; went there pursuant to an
- advertisement in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_: ‘Y—Come Monday night.’
- Before that notice there is the word ‘Briefkasten,’ which means
- letter-box. This notice was a sign for a meeting of the armed section
- at Greif’s Hall. I had been there once before, pursuant to a similar
- notice. There was no other reason for my going there. I had seen no
- printed document before. I spent no time in the saloon at Greif’s
- place. I attended a meeting there in the basement which extends
- throughout the length of the building. The ceiling of basement is
- about seven or eight feet above the floor. I called the meeting to
- order at half-past eight. There were about seventy or eighty men. I
- was chairman. I don’t know of any precautions taken about who should
- come into the meeting. Of the defendants there were present Engel and
- Fischer—none of the other defendants.”
-
-On a question as to what was said at that meeting after it had been
-called to order, objections were raised on behalf of six of the
-defendants other than Engel and Fischer, and overruled. Waller then
-resumed:
-
- “First there was some talk about the six men who had been killed at
- McCormick’s. There were circulars there headed ‘Revenge,’ speaking
- about that; then Mr. Engel stated a resolution of a prior meeting
- as to what should be done, to the effect that if, on account of the
- eight-hour strike, there should be an encounter with the police, we
- should aid the men against them. He stated that the Northwest Side
- group had resolved that in such case we should gather at certain
- meeting-places, and the word ‘Ruhe’ published in the Letter-box of
- the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ should be the signal for us to meet. The
- Northwest Side group should then assemble in Wicker Park, armed.
- A committee should observe the movement in the city, and if a
- conflict should occur the committee should report, and we should
- first storm the police stations by throwing a bomb and should shoot
- down everything that came out, and whatever came in our way we should
- strike down. The police station on North Avenue was referred to first.
- Nothing was said about the second station—just as it happened. I
- then proposed a meeting of workingmen for Tuesday morning on Market
- Square. Then Fischer said that was a mouse trap; the meeting should
- be on the Haymarket and in the evening, because there would be more
- workingmen. Then it was resolved the meeting should be held at 8
- P.M. at the Haymarket; it was stated that the purpose of the meeting
- was to cheer up the workingmen so they should be prepared, in case a
- conflict would happen. Fischer was commissioned to call the meeting
- through hand-bills; he went away to order them, but came back after
- half an hour and said the printing establishment was closed. It was
- said that we ourselves should not participate in the meeting on the
- Haymarket; only a committee should be present at the Haymarket and
- report in case something happened, as stated before. Nothing was said
- as to what should be done in case the police interfered with the
- Haymarket meeting. We discussed about why the police stations should
- be attacked. Several persons said, ‘We have seen how the capitalists
- and the police oppressed the workingmen, and we should commence to
- take the rights in our own hands; by attacking the stations we would
- prevent the police from coming to aid.’ The plan stated by Engel was
- adopted by us with the understanding that every group ought to act
- independently, according to the general plan. The persons present were
- from all the groups, from the West, South and North sides.”
-
-A question being raised as to what was said about attacking the police
-in case they should attempt to disperse the Haymarket meeting, he
-replied:
-
- “There was nothing said about the Haymarket. There was no one who
- expected that the police would get as far as the Haymarket; only, if
- strikers were attacked, we should strike down the police, however we
- best could, with bombs or whatever would be at our disposition. The
- committee which was to be sent to the Haymarket was to be composed of
- one or two from each group. They should observe the movement, not only
- on the Haymarket Square, but in the different parts of the city. If
- a conflict happened in the daytime they should cause the publication
- of the word ‘Ruhe.’ If at night, they should report to the members
- personally at their homes. On the 4th of May we did not understand
- ourselves why the word ‘Ruhe’ was published. It should be inserted in
- the paper only if a downright revolution had occurred. Fischer first
- mentioned the word ‘Ruhe.’ I only knew one of the members of the
- committee, Kraemer. Engel moved that the plan be adopted. The motion
- was seconded, and I put it to a vote.
-
- “During the discussion was anything said about where dynamite or
- bombs or arms could be obtained, that you remember of?” “Not on that
- evening,” answered the witness. “I left the meeting about half-past
- ten. I went home. I was present at the Haymarket meeting on Tuesday
- evening for some time. I did not go there on account of the meeting,
- but because I had to go to Zepf’s Hall, to a meeting of the Furniture
- Workers’ Union. I saw the word ‘Ruhe’ in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_
- about 6 P.M., on Tuesday, at Thalia Hall, a saloon on Milwaukee
- Avenue, where the second company of the Lehr und Wehr Verein and the
- Northwest Side group used to meet. I went to the Haymarket and stayed
- there about a quarter of an hour, while Mr. Spies spoke. Mr. Spies
- spoke English; I didn’t understand it, and I went to the meeting of
- the furniture workers. On my way to the Haymarket I had stopped at
- Engel’s. There were some people of the Northwest Side group there.
- Engel was not at home. Breitenfeld was not there. I was at Zepf’s Hall
- when the bomb exploded. There was some disturbance, and the door was
- closed. After the door was opened again we went home. I went alone. On
- my way home I stopped at Engel’s and told him what had happened at the
- Haymarket. They had assembled in the back part of their dwelling-place
- around a jovial glass of beer, and I told them that a bomb was thrown
- at the Haymarket, and that about a hundred people had been killed
- there, and they had better go home. Engel said yes, they should go
- home, and nothing else.”
-
-“Mr. Waller,” asked the State, “did you ever have any bombs?”
-
-This was objected to by the defense, but after a full argument the
-objection was overruled. Waller resumed:
-
- “Formerly, about half a year ago, I had one. It was made out of an
- eight-inch gas or water pipe. I did not investigate what it was filled
- with. Got it from Fischer, the defendant, on Thanksgiving day of last
- year, at Thalia Hall.”
-
-“What did he say to you, if anything, when he gave it to you?”
-
-Another objection was raised, but it was overruled. Waller continued:
-
- “I should use it. There were present members of the Northwest Side
- group and several men of the Lehr und Wehr Verein when he gave me that
- bomb.”
-
-Asked as to a public meeting on Thanksgiving day, Waller answered in
-the affirmative, stating that the meeting was held at Market Square.
-After explaining that the members of the Lehr und Wehr Verein were
-known not by names, but by numbers, he said:
-
- “Everybody had to know his own number; my number was 19. The numbers
- of the different men were not exactly secret, but we did not pay
- particular attention to it. Of those who were present at the meeting
- at 54 West Lake Street, on Monday night, I knew Fischer, Engel,
- Breitenfeld, Reinhold Krueger and another Krueger, Gruenwald, Schrade,
- Weber, Huber, Lehman, Hermann.”
-
-“What became of the bomb which you had?”
-
- “I gave it to a member of the Lehr und Wehr Verein; he had it
- exploded in a hollow tree. I had a revolver with me when I went to
- the Haymarket; had no bomb. Schnaubelt was present at the Lake Street
- meeting. (Witness identified photograph of Schnaubelt.) Schnaubelt at
- that meeting said we should inform our members in other places of the
- revolution so that it should commence in other places also. On Sunday,
- before that meeting at Lake Street, I was present at a meeting at
- Bohemian Hall, at No. 63 Emma Street. August Krueger invited me; he is
- also called the little Krueger, while Reinhold is known as the large
- Krueger. I got to the meeting at Emma Street at 10 A.M. There were
- present Engel and Fischer, the defendants, besides Gruenwald, the two
- Kruegers, Schrade, myself.”
-
-“What was said at the meeting?”
-
- “The same that I stated—Engel’s plan. Engel proposed the plan.
- Somebody opposed this plan, as there were too few of us, and it would
- be better if we would place ourselves among the people and fight right
- in the midst of them. There was some opposition to this suggestion to
- be in the midst of the crowd, as we could not know who would be our
- neighbors; there might be a detective right near us, or some one else.
- Engel’s plan was finally accepted.”
-
-An effort was made to have Waller’s testimony all stricken out, but the
-motion was overruled. He was subjected to a rigid cross-examination,
-but he did not waver in any of his statements. He proceeded as follows:
-
- “Before I ceased to be a member of the Lehr und Wehr Verein, I
- belonged to it for four or five months. I learned that the objects of
- the Lehr und Wehr Verein are the physical and intellectual advancement
- of its members. None of the defendants were members of that society
- about the 4th of May. I had seen a call by the letter ‘Y’ in the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ once before, one or one and a half months before.
- On the 3d of May a member of the Lehr und Wehr Verein, by the name of
- Clermont, called for me. I spoke with Engel before I went to Greif’s
- Hall, but had no conversation with him about the purpose of the
- meeting. We did not know for what purpose it was called. When more
- people arrived, I requested Engel to lay his plan again before the
- meeting. Engel stated both at the meeting on Sunday and at the Monday
- night meeting that the plan proposed by him was to be followed only if
- the police should attack us. Any time when we should be attacked by
- the police, we should defend ourselves.
-
- “Nothing was said with reference to any action to be taken by us at
- the Haymarket. We were not to do anything at the Haymarket Square.
- The plan was, we should not be present there at all. We did not think
- that the police would come to the Haymarket. For this reason no
- preparations were made for meeting any police attack there. When I saw
- the word ‘Ruhe’ in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ on Tuesday, May 4, about 6
- P.M., I knew the meaning, but I didn’t know why it was in the paper.
- On the Haymarket, on my way to the meeting of the Furniture Workers’
- Union, I met Fischer. We were walking about some time. I don’t think
- he said anything to me about why I was not at Wicker Park. We once
- walked over to Desplaines Street Station. The police were mounting
- five or six patrol wagons, and I made the remark: ‘I suppose they are
- getting ready to drive out to McCormick’s, so that they might be out
- there early in the morning.’ Fischer assented to my remark. That was
- all that was said about the police between us. At that time there were
- about three hundred and fifty or four hundred people assembled at
- the Haymarket. The principal purpose of the Haymarket meeting was to
- protest against the action of the police at the riot at McCormick’s
- factory. While I was with Fischer at the Haymarket, nothing was said
- between us about preparations to meet an attack by the police. When
- I came to Engel’s, at about half-past ten, there were in his house
- Breitenfeld, the little Krueger, Kraemer, and a few others. Kraemer, I
- think, lived in the rear of the house.
-
- [Illustration: THE GREAT TRIAL. SCENE IN THE CRIMINAL COURT.]
-
- “I know that I am indicted for conspiracy. I was arrested about two
- weeks after the 4th of May by two detectives, Stift and Whalen, and
- taken to East Chicago Avenue Station. I saw there Capt. Schaack, and,
- in the evening, Mr. Furthmann. I was released about half-past eight
- of the same day. No warrant was shown to me. I was never arrested
- since my indictment. I was ordered to come to the station four or five
- times. At every occasion I had conversations with Furthmann about the
- statements made here in court. I live now at 130 Sedgwick Street,
- since one month. Capt. Schaack gave me $6.50 for the rent. Whenever I
- used my time sitting in the station, I was paid for it. Once we had to
- sit all day, and we were paid two dollars for that day. I was out on
- a strike, and Capt. Schaack gave my wife three times three dollars.
- He gave me, twice before, five dollars each time. I have been at work
- for the last two weeks for Peterson. When I went there to commence
- work I was told that I was on the black list, and could not work, and
- Capt. Schaack helped me to get the job. By the black list I mean that
- the bosses put all those upon a list who were in any way connected
- with the strike to obtain eight hours’ work, and they were not to be
- employed any further.
-
- “I know Spies by sight. I never had any conversation with him. I spoke
- to Mr. Neebe once a few words, at a meeting of the basket-makers. I
- have no acquaintance whatever with Schwab, Parsons, Fielden or Lingg.
- I saw Lingg once make a speech.”
-
-BERNHARD SCHRADE, another confidant of the Anarchists, stated that he
-had resided in this country nearly five years and had been a member of
-the Lehr und Wehr Verein. He was present at the meeting in the basement
-of Greif’s Hall, on the evening of May 3, and found the meeting in
-order when he got there. His testimony was as follows:
-
- “Waller was presiding. There were about thirty or thirty-five
- people—Waller, Engel, Fischer, Thielen, the Lehmans, Donafeldt. Lingg
- was not there. When I entered, the chairman explained what had been
- spoken about until then. He stated the objects of the meeting; that so
- many men at the McCormick factory had been shot by the police; that a
- mass-meeting was to be held at Haymarket Square, and that we should be
- prepared, in case the police went beyond their bounds—attacked us.
- Afterwards we talked among ourselves, and the meeting adjourned. I
- heard nothing about assembling in other parts of the city. That same
- evening I had been to the carpenters’ meeting, and it was said there
- that the members of the L. u. W. V. should go around to the meeting on
- Lake Street. I stayed there from eight until half-past nine. Circulars
- headed ‘Revenge’ were distributed there by one Balthasar Rau. That
- carpenters’ meeting was held at Zepf’s Hall. At the meeting at 54 West
- Lake Street I stayed from half-past nine until about a quarter after
- ten. On the preceding Sunday I was at a meeting at the Bohemian Hall,
- on Emma Street. We got there about half-past nine in the forenoon. The
- big Krueger called for me. There were, besides me, Waller, Krueger,
- Fischer, Engel and Grueneberg. I don’t know the others.
-
- “Those present belonged to the second company of the L. u. W. V.,
- and the Northwestern group. We talked there about the condition of
- the workingmen after the 1st of May, and the remark was made that it
- might not go off so easy after the 1st of May, and if it should not,
- that they would help themselves and each other. It was said that if we
- were to get into a conflict with the police, we should mutually assist
- one another, and the members of the Northwestern group should meet
- at Wicker Park, in case it should get so far that the police would
- make an attack, and should defend themselves as much as possible,
- as well as any one could. Nothing was said about dynamite; the word
- ‘HERMANN. Nothing was said about telegraph wires. The
- revolutionary movement was talked about; it was mentioned that the
- firemen could easily disperse large masses of the people standing
- upon the street, and in such a case it would be the best thing to cut
- through their hose, annihilate them. I was at the Haymarket on the
- night when the bomb was thrown. Went there with a man named Thielen.
- Got there about half-past eight. I walked up and down on Randolph
- Street, and at the corner of Desplaines I heard all the speakers. When
- the bomb was thrown I was at a saloon at 173 West Randolph Street. I
- had left the meeting because a rain and a shower came up. I know all
- the defendants. I saw Engel and Fischer, about an hour previous to
- the meeting, upon the corner of Desplaines and Randolph. After the
- bomb was thrown I went to my home, 581 Milwaukee Avenue. I met the
- little Krueger in the saloon. He was there; also the big Krueger. The
- L. u. W. V. used to meet at Thalia Hall, Milwaukee Avenue. We had our
- exercise, marched in the hall—drilled. We had Springfield rifles,
- which we kept at home.
-
- “We had our military drills for pleasure. Most of the members had
- been soldiers in the old country, and we were drilling here for
- fun—pleasure. We drilled once a week, at times. The members knew each
- other, but on the list each one had his number. My number was 32.
- There were four companies of the L. u. W. V. in this city. I don’t
- know the number of members.
-
- “I saw ‘Revenge’ circulars at the meeting at 54 West Lake Street. I
- know Schnaubelt by sight. Don’t remember whether he was at 54 West
- Lake. (Witness was shown the signal “Y,” in _Arbeiter-Zeitung_.) I saw
- this in the paper when I read it at Thalia Hall. It is a sign for the
- armed section to meet at 54 West Lake Street. The armed section means
- certain members of certain societies—trades-unions who had bought
- weapons with which they practiced continually.” (Witness is shown
- paper containing the word “Ruhe.”) “I never saw that before. Did not
- hear anything said about ‘Ruhe’ in the meeting at 54 West Lake Street.”
-
-Schrade was shown a book of Most’s and stated that he had seen it sold
-at meetings of workingmen. On cross-examination he testified:
-
- “I know Spies, Parsons, Fielden, Neebe and Schwab only by sight;
- never had any business or conversation with any of them. Lingg and I
- belonged to the same Carpenters’ Union, but we were not on terms of
- friendship. None of the defendants are members of the L. u. W. V.,
- to my knowledge. I paid attention to all that was done while I was
- at the 54 West Lake Street meeting. I was at the Sunday meeting from
- half-past nine until half-past eleven. The discussion was, that if the
- police made an attack upon workingmen we would help the workingmen to
- resist it, and if the firemen helped, we would cut the hose. Nothing
- was said about dynamite or bombs at any of the meetings. Nothing was
- said about a meeting at any particular night to throw bombs. It was
- not agreed to throw bombs at the Haymarket meeting. While at the
- Haymarket I had no bomb; I don’t know dynamite. I knew of no one who
- was going to take a bomb to that meeting. When I left the Haymarket
- meeting everything was quiet; I did not anticipate any trouble. I had
- seen the signal ‘Y’ before. It was understood that the meetings were
- to be called by that kind of notice. I left the Haymarket meeting
- only on account of the approach of the storm. There were about two
- hundred people there when I left.”
-
-EDWARD J. STEELE, Lieutenant of Police at the West Chicago Avenue
-Station on May 4th, gave some details as to marching to the Haymarket,
-and stated that he had been in command of a company of twenty-eight
-men. He further testified:
-
- “Two or three seconds after that—Captain Ward’s command to the
- meeting to disperse—the shell was thrown in the rear. It exploded
- on the left of my company. There was then also a smaller report
- in the rear of me, like a large pistol shot, and at that time the
- crowd in front of us and on the sidewalks fired into us immediately;
- by immediately I mean two or three seconds after. The crowd fired
- before the police did. Mine and Quinn’s were the front companies. My
- men had their arms in their pockets and their clubs in their belts;
- their hands by their side. I was six or eight feet from the speakers’
- wagon when the command to halt was given. Prior to that I could hear
- speaking going on in front of us. I heard somebody say, ‘Here come the
- bloodhounds. You do your duty and we will do ours.’ I could not say
- who made the remark. The sound came from in front of us as we were
- marching. Ward spoke in a loud tone of voice to the speakers on the
- wagon when he commanded them to disperse. There were three or four
- men on the wagon. I saw Mr. Fielden there. I did not hear him make
- any response to Ward’s declaration. After the pistol shots from the
- crowd we returned the fire. Fielden stepped off the wagon, turned to
- the sidewalk, and I lost sight of him. When we got some few feet north
- of Randolph Street, the crowd in front of us separated to the right
- and left. I heard nothing said by the crowd. The bomb lit in the rear
- of the left of my company, and the right of Lieut. Quinn’s, between
- that and the next company behind us. When I heard the explosion I was
- facing north. The word ‘fire’ was not given by anybody, but we began
- firing when they fired on us. The explosion of the bomb affected about
- twenty-one of our men in the two companies, and the firing commenced
- at once.”
-
-On cross-examination, Lieut. Steele stated:
-
- “My experience is that where the police make a descent upon a riotous
- gathering, a mob, the latter scatter to all sides, so as to get out of
- the way. But when we pass through a peaceful, quiet body of men, they
- separate to the sides instead of rushing down the alleys and out the
- other way. I do not mean to say that the remark about the bloodhounds
- coming was made by the speaker from the wagon. Mr. Fielden was on the
- sidewalk when the bomb exploded. Capt. Ward was just a step or two in
- front of me when he gave the order to disperse. Any loud exclamation
- made by Mr. Fielden, either in the wagon, or getting out of the wagon,
- or immediately after he got out, I would have heard. I did not hear
- him make any.”
-
-MARTIN QUINN, Lieutenant of Police, had a company of twenty-five men on
-the left of Lieut. Steele, and when they marched to the Haymarket they
-had their clubs in their belts and their pistols in their pockets. He
-heard the remark: “Here they come now, the bloodhounds. Do your duty,
-men, and I’ll do mine.” The man who was speaking at the time they came
-up was Fielden. Quinn’s testimony then runs as follows:
-
- “Just as he was going down, he said: ‘We are peaceable.’ Some
- person had hold of his left leg. He reached back, and just as he
- was going down he fired right where the Inspector was, Capt. Ward
- and Lieut. Steele. After that I dropped my club, took my pistol and
- commenced firing in front. The crowd formed a line across the street
- in our front, and immediately when that bomb was fired, and almost
- instantaneously with it that shot from the wagon, they commenced
- firing into our front and from the side, and then from the alley. I
- fired myself. Fourteen men of my company were injured. I lost sight
- of Fielden as he got on the sidewalk. I could not distinguish which
- was first, the explosion of the bomb or the shot fired by Fielden.
- There was another very loud report immediately after this first
- explosion. I did not know what it was. The bomb exploded about the
- same instant that the remark, ‘We are peaceable,’ was made. And at
- the same time he fired that shot. Ward at that time had not quite
- finished his expression. The pistol was aimed in a downward direction,
- towards where Ward, Steele and Bonfield stood. After I was looking
- to the front, and had discharged my weapon, I looked back and saw
- the explosion of the bomb—it was just the same as you would take a
- bunch of firecrackers and throw it around, just shooting up in all
- directions, in the rear. Some of the men were lying down, some of
- them lying dead, some crippled around. All along on Desplaines Street
- the lamps were dark. Where the speaker was there was a torch on the
- wagon, and also the lamp was lit there. I had emptied my pistol. Then
- I turned around to look at the result of the explosion. Then I went
- over in under the wagon, and where the speaker was, and I found a
- pistol there that was loaded. I picked it up and emptied it myself
- afterwards. It was a thirty-eight Smith & Wesson. I saw Fielden fire
- only that one shot. It was not aimed at the man who had hold of his
- leg. There were Ward, Bonfield and Steele there right in a bunch,
- close by together, and it should have hit some one of them.”
-
-The cross-examination did not change the testimony; he only added to
-its force, and with reference to Fielden only modified it so far as to
-say:
-
- “I would not swear that it was or was not Fielden who fired the
- pistol, but it was a speaker, that I know, that fired at the instant
- he finished saying, ‘We are peaceable.’ While standing in the wagon,
- in the presence of the police force and all the audience, he fired a
- revolver right where Lieut. Steele was and Capt. Ward, and the right
- of Lieut. Steele’s company; fired right into them. The torch was still
- on the wagon at that time, and the street lamp near by was lighted.”
-
-JAMES P. STANTON, Lieutenant of Police, had charge of eighteen men and
-saw the shell coming through the air. He shouted to his men: “Look out,
-there is a shell,” and just then it exploded. It fell just four feet
-from where he stood, and his men were scattered upon the street. All
-but one or two of his command were wounded. He himself was injured, his
-body being hit in eleven different places with pieces of the shell,
-and he was confined to a bed at the hospital for two weeks and a half,
-after which he was taken home.
-
- “After that I commenced to limp around. I had to suffer from a nervous
- shock. The holes in my clothing are larger than the holes in my limbs.
- My company was on the west side of the street, Bowler on the east.
- When I first saw the shell it was in the air, very near over my head.
- It came from the east, I think, a little north of the alley. It was
- about three inches in diameter. The fuse was about two inches long
- when I saw it. When we advanced I heard speaking from the north. I saw
- some parties standing on the wagon. Don’t know anything about what
- transpired after the officers came to a halt. No shot was fired to my
- knowledge before the explosion of the bomb. Immediately after that
- shots were fired. I turned myself and drew my revolver and immediately
- commenced to fire. I cannot swear from whom the firing began first. My
- men were supposed to be armed; they had their clubs in their belts.”
-
- The cross-examination brought out no new points.
-
-H. F. KRUEGER, a police officer, heard the cry, “Here they are now,
-the bloodhounds!” from the wagon at the Haymarket, and thought it was
-Fielden who uttered it. “I saw Fielden,” said he, “pistol in hand, take
-cover behind the wagon and fire at the police. I returned his fire
-and was myself immediately shot in the knee-cap. I saw Fielden in the
-crowd and shot at him again. He staggered, but did not fall, and I lost
-him. There were no pistol-shots fired before the bomb exploded.” This
-testimony was in every detail corroborated by John Wessler, another
-police officer, the next witness, and by Peter Foley, an officer.
-
-LUTHER MOULTON, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, an officer of the Knights of
-Labor, testified to a conversation which he had had with August Spies
-when the latter went to Grand Rapids to deliver a lecture, on February
-22, 1885. Spies told the witness that the only manner in which the
-laborers could get a fair division of the product of their labor was
-by force and arms. He said they had three thousand men organized in
-Chicago, with superior weapons of warfare. There might be bloodshed,
-Spies said to him, for that happened frequently in revolutions. If they
-failed, it would be a punishable crime. If they succeeded, it would be
-a revolution. George Washington would have been punished had he failed.
-“I am quite certain,” Moulton said, “that the term ‘explosives’ was
-used in connection with arms.” On cross-examination Moulton stated that
-the Grand Rapids police had furnished him the means to come to Chicago.
-All of Moulton’s material statements were repeated on the stand by Geo.
-W. Shook, who had been present at the conversation referred to.
-
-JAMES BOWLER, Lieutenant of Police, in command of twenty-seven men,
-testified that he did not recognize any one firing.
-
- “After the explosion I said to my men: ‘Fire and kill all you can.’
- I drew my own revolver; I had it in my breast coat side pocket. In
- marching, I heard the words: ‘Here come the bloodhounds,’ said by
- somebody close to the wagon. I fired nine shots myself. I reloaded.
- While marching, the men had their arms in their pockets. I noticed
- the lamp at Crane’s alley was out.”
-
-On cross-examination he stated that he heard the remark about
-bloodhounds, but did not know who uttered it. He continued:
-
- “There was a kind of light on the wagon, a kind of a torch. I saw
- firing close by the wagon after the explosion, but not from in the
- wagon. I saw no one either in the wagon or getting out of the wagon do
- any firing. I saw Mr. Fielden coming off of the wagon very plainly.”
-
-Several officers testified to the scene about the wagon, and Thomas
-Greif, the occupant of the premises 54 West Lake Street, described
-the basement where the “Ypsilon” meeting was held. Following him was
-proffered more direct evidence that Fielden had fired the shot, and
-then JAMES BONFIELD took the stand, and described the search that was
-made in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office. Said he:
-
- “In Mr. Spies’ office I found a small piece of fuse, a fulminating
- cap, and a large double-action revolver; about five inches of fuse. I
- found the revolver under a wash-stand in the office; that dirk file
- was along with them (indicating), with a paper doubled over them
- loosely. The fuse is an ordinary fuse; the fulminate is in the end of
- the cap. The fuse is inserted that way (indicating), and the cap is
- pinched, and that is inserted in dynamite and the hole closed. I never
- saw the cap used for anything except dynamite and nitro-glycerine. I
- have used it in mines for that purpose. The power of the cap itself
- don’t amount to anything. I found that ‘Revenge’ circular, as it is
- called, in Spies’ office, where I arrested him. This box (indicating)
- contains a great many empty shells, evidently for the Winchester
- improved rifle; there are also some empty and some loaded sporting
- cartridges. The pistol is a 44-caliber, I think. On the 5th, after
- the arrest of Spies, that night I took down some reporters. I had
- a conversation with Spies that night, and I think with Fielden.
- The reporter carried on the major part of the conversation. Mr.
- Spies stated there had been a meeting of the Central Labor Union
- that evening previous to the Haymarket meeting. He mentioned a man
- by the name of Brown, and a man by the name of Ducey that attended
- that meeting, and when they adjourned there they went down to the
- Haymarket. He spoke of the gathering of the crowd, how it threatened
- to rain, how they went on the side street, and about Fielden speaking
- at the time the police came. He said he was on the wagon at that time,
- and a young Turner was there who had told him the police were coming,
- told him to come down, took him by the hand and helped him down. He
- afterwards gave his name as Legner; he claimed the police had opened
- fire on them. He said when he got off the wagon he went in the east
- alley and came out on Randolph Street. He approved of the method, but
- thought it was a little premature; that the time had hardly arrived
- to start the revolution or warfare. After that I took the reporters
- around to Fielden.
-
- “Fielden said he was there when the police came up; he got wounded
- in this alley. Then he got a car, and, I think, went around to the
- corner of Twelfth and Halsted, or Van Buren and Halsted, and then he
- got another car and went down to the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office to see
- if any of his friends had got back there; that from there he went over
- to the Haymarket again to see if any more of his comrades were hurt.
- I know Fischer. I was at his house. He was arrested at the same time,
- or a few minutes after Spies and Schwab were arrested. His house is
- 170 or 176 North Wood Street. I went there with Mr. Furthmann and,
- I think, Officer Doane. It was about nine or ten o’clock. I made a
- search of the house. In a closet, under the porch at the front door, I
- found a piece of gas-pipe about three and a half feet long. There was
- no gas connection in the house. The gas-pipe was an inch or an inch
- and a quarter in diameter. I laid it down again. I searched around
- and went back again, and couldn’t find it in a day after. I remember
- a conversation with Fischer afterwards, in the office. He was asked
- to explain how he came by a fulminating cap which was found in his
- pocket at the time of the arrest. He said he got it from a Socialist
- who used to visit Spies’ office about four months previous. He claimed
- he didn’t know what it was, and had carried it in his pocket for four
- months. After some conversation he acknowledged that he knew what it
- was, and had read an account of it and the use of it in Herr Most’s
- ‘Science of War.’ That conversation was at a detective’s office. The
- fulminating cap looked to be perfectly new, and the fulminate was
- fresh and bright in the inside. There was no fuse attached to it. He
- told of being at the Haymarket meeting until a few minutes before the
- explosion of the bomb, and he went from there to Zepf’s Hall, and
- was there at the time of the explosion. He acknowledged that he had
- gotten up the circular headed ‘Attention, Workingmen,’ and that it
- was printed at Wehrer & Klein’s. I think their own office was closed,
- and he went over to Wehrer & Klein’s and got it printed over there; I
- think 2,500 copies—25,000 or 2,500.”
-
-On cross-examination witness testified as follows:
-
- “I am in the detective branch of the police force. I arrested Spies
- and Schwab in the neighborhood of nine o’clock. I found Spies in
- the front office. He was to the left of the door as I entered. My
- recollection is, he was talking to somebody. Schwab was over to the
- right, and was sitting down. That was on the second floor. I think
- I went up two flights of stairs. There were three or four men in
- the office besides those two. There was no resistance by either of
- the gentlemen. Had no warrant for their arrest. I don’t know of any
- complaint having been made against them before any magistrate. While
- I was talking to Spies and Schwab Spies’ brother came in. I placed
- him under arrest too. I took them with me. I took them to police
- headquarters. We went on foot. It was in the back part of the room
- that I found that revolver. The main part of the room in which I
- arrested them was perhaps twelve feet deep, and then there was a wing
- that ran back further. The box I mentioned was on the floor, and
- against the south wall. One could see it readily on entering the room.
- I found that box on my third visit. I don’t remember having seen it
- on my first visit. That third visit was some time in the afternoon,
- perhaps two or three o’clock. On my second visit I went over to the
- printer, to pick out the type similar to the one in the ‘Revenge’
- circular. I went to the composing room. The printer’s name is John
- Conway. That was near twelve o’clock. On my fourth visit I took away
- a lot of red flags and such stuff as that. When I made the arrest of
- Spies and Schwab that morning Mrs. Schwab was present. I should think,
- by the looks of things, they were transacting business, or ready for
- it. When I was in the composing-room there were several men there.
- I found the red flags principally in what they termed the library
- in that building. It was, I think, in the rear part, on the second
- floor. Twenty or twenty-one compositors of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ were
- arrested during that day. I was not present at the time. I found that
- copy of the ‘Revenge’ circular on one of the desks in the front room.
- I was there when the form and the type of the circular were found. We
- had no search warrant at the time any of them were taken. I do not
- know to whom that revolver belongs. I took Spies and Schwab into the
- front room of the Central Station. Lieutenant Shea sent out for the
- key. In the meantime we searched Spies and took the personal effects
- away from him. I took Mr. Spies’ keys out of his pocket—everything
- I found, little slips of paper and the like. I literally went
- through him. I had no warrant for anything of that kind. I took
- those reporters to see Spies down to the cell-house in the basement
- of the Central Station. The cell-house is very near the center of
- the building, and fronts on the inside court between the county and
- city building. I went down with the reporters about eight or nine
- o’clock. Spies, Schwab and Fielden were in separate cells. Spies said
- the action taken at the Haymarket was premature. It was done by a
- hot-head that could not wait long enough. I cannot use the words. That
- is the sentiment, and perhaps the words. Fielden said the police came
- up there to disperse them, and they had no business to. He claimed
- that they had a right to talk and say what they pleased, under the
- Constitution, and they should not be interfered with. I don’t think
- it was ever questioned whether the meeting was a peaceable and quiet
- meeting. I don’t think that he ever claimed that it was either quiet
- or disorderly. The fulminating cap which I found in that box did not
- look fresh and bright. It looked as though it might have lain there
- a good while. When Chief Ebersold came into the office at Central
- Station he was quite excited, and talked to Spies and Schwab in German
- and made motions, and I got between them, and I told him this was not
- the time or place to act that way. I took the liberty to quiet him
- down a little. He used a word which I understood to compare a man to a
- dog or something lower.”
-
-The incendiary speeches that were made by some of the defendants at
-the riot at McCormick’s were testified to by different newspaper men,
-and the scenes at the riot described by officers and others, the
-whole showing very distinctly the direct connection of Spies with the
-outrage, and the manner in which he incited the mob to violence.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXII.
-
- “We are Peaceable”—Capt. Ward’s Memories of the Massacre—A Nest of
- Anarchists—Scenes in the Court—Seliger’s Revelations—Lingg, the
- Bomb-maker—How he cast his Shells—A Dynamite Romance—Inside History
- of the Conspiracy—The Shadow of the Gallows—Mrs. Seliger and the
- Anarchists—Tightening the Coils—An Explosive Arsenal—The Schnaubelt
- Blunder—Harry Wilkinson and Spies—A Threat in Toothpicks—The Bomb
- Factory—The Board of Trade Demonstration.
-
-
-DURING the progress of the trial the court-room was thronged daily.
-The prisoners sat radiantly throughout the whole proceedings as if
-supremely certain of acquittal, and they manifested great pride in the
-boutonnieres which were handed in every morning by admiring friends.
-As the testimony of the State’s witnesses proceeded, the defense
-raised innumerable objections to the admission of parts particularly
-criminative, and at times hours were consumed in arguments on the
-points involved. The objections were almost invariably overruled,
-and exceptions taken. Having finished the evidence then at hand with
-reference to the McCormick riot, the State resumed the Haymarket
-massacre.
-
-WILLIAM WARD, Captain of Police at the Desplaines Street Station, a
-member of the force since 1870, a resident of Chicago for thirty-six
-years and a veteran of the Rebellion, was subjected to a long and
-interesting examination. He first stated the facts with reference to
-marching to the Haymarket and his order to the meeting to disperse,
-corroborating the testimony of Inspector Bonfield in every particular,
-and then concluded as follows:
-
- “As the speaker was getting from the wagon he said, ‘We are
- peaceable.’ That was this gentleman (indicating Fielden). I heard
- some utterances of the speaker before I addressed him, but could not
- understand them—quite a noise there. Our men had their clubs in their
- belts, pistols in their pockets. A few seconds after Fielden said,
- ‘We are peaceable,’ I heard the explosion in my rear. I turned to
- look and see, and pistol-firing began from the front and both sides
- of the street by the crowd. I did not recognize anybody firing. Then
- the police began firing, and we charged into the alley, Crane’s alley,
- and north on Desplaines Street. Seven policemen died from the effects
- of wounds; one was brought dead into the station—Mathias J. Degan.
- There were in all killed and wounded sixty-six or sixty-seven—about
- twenty-one or twenty-two out of Desplaines Street Station; forty-two
- in all out of my precinct. It was only several seconds from the time
- that Fielden said, ‘We are peaceable,’ and the time the police charged
- down the alley and up Desplaines Street.”
-
-The cross-examination resulted as follows:
-
- “I had a detail there that night from the Central Police Station under
- command of Lieut. Hubbard. At the time I gave the command to disperse
- I was right close to the rear part of the wagon, close to the outside
- wheel, southwest of the wheel. I could almost touch it; could have
- touched it with my club. Some of the men carried their pistols in the
- breast pocket of the coat, some the hip pocket. At the time I gave the
- command, Inspector Bonfield stood at my left; Lieut. Steele was in the
- rear of me, might have been a little to the right. There were four to
- six persons on the wagon. Fielden was standing on the south end of
- the truck, facing southwest, facing me, when I commenced to speak,
- until I was through. Then he got off the truck, on the southeast end
- of it, on the corner toward the sidewalk. All I could understand of
- what Mr. Fielden said was: ‘We are peaceable.’ I did not see Fielden
- after that. There was no pistol-firing of any kind by anybody before
- the explosion of the bomb. I was several feet in advance of the front
- rank of the police in marching down, sometimes eight or ten feet in
- advance; sometimes not so far. The only utterance from any source
- that I can recall that was heard by me, before the bomb exploded, was
- that of Fielden, ‘We are peaceable,’ that he spoke to me, or looking
- right at me when he spoke. It was a little louder than ordinary,
- than if he was addressing me. I think the accent was on the last
- word, ‘We are _peaceable_.’ I don’t remember whether I related this
- utterance of Fielden on the occasion of the Coroner’s inquest when I
- testified there. I think Steele’s line was about on a line with the
- center of the alley. Quinn’s line had swung a little further forward.
- A block and a half south of there, there were eight or ten electric
- lights on the front of the Lyceum Theater, and they lit up the street
- considerably. I don’t remember whether there was a torch-light or any
- other light on the truck.”
-
-MICHAEL HAHN, a tailor working on Halsted Street, stated that he was at
-the Haymarket and received an injury in his back, one in his thigh, and
-one in the leg:
-
- “I went to the hospital that same night. Dr. Newman removed something
- from my person that night; that is what he said; he showed it to
- me. It was some kind of a nut. (Witness is handed an ordinary
- iron-threaded nut.) I guess that was about the size. I left the
- hospital two weeks after. I think that is the same nut.”
-
-REUBEN SLAYTON, a policeman on the force fourteen years, testified that
-he arrested Fischer:
-
- “I searched him and found that gun (producing and exhibiting
- a revolver). It is a 44-caliber; was loaded when I found it;
- self-acting, I found this file ground sharp on three edges (producing
- it), and that belt and sheath (producing same). The belt and sheath
- were buckled on him; the file in the sheath, revolver stuck into the
- slit in the belt, and he had ten cartridges in his pocket. He also had
- this fulminating cap in his pocket. It was brighter when I found it.
- He said he carried that revolver because he carried money, and going
- home nights to protect himself. I took him to the Central Station.
- He said he had worked at the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ as a compositor for
- two years. When I arrested him he was coming down the stairs. I was
- going up into the building. I felt this revolver and took him back
- up, and searched him and took these things from him. The belt was
- under his coat. You could not see the pistol and this stuff. I also
- arrested Fielden at his house the same day, May 5th, in the morning,
- at No. 110 West Polk Street. When I locked him up at the Central
- Station, he took the bandage off his knee and put it on. I asked him
- where he got it dressed. He told me when he got shot he came down the
- alley and took a car and went to, I think he said, Twelfth and Canal
- Streets—had his knee dressed there that night.”
-
-On cross-examination, Officer Slayton stated that he met with no
-resistance from Fischer or Fielden and that he found no munitions of
-war at the latter’s house. He had no warrant, he said, for their arrest.
-
-THEODORE FRICKE, business superintendent of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_,
-once its book-keeper, testified to Spies’ handwriting on the manuscript
-containing the word “Ruhe,” and identified several other documents as
-in Spies’ handwriting. He continued:
-
-[Illustration: SPIES’ MANUSCRIPT OF THE FAMOUS “RUHE” SIGNAL.
-
-Engraved direct from the Original.]
-
- “The _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ is the property of a corporation. Fischer was
- a stockholder, so was I, so is Spies and Schwab. I was employed by
- this corporation. Parsons is not a stockholder. Neebe belongs to this
- corporation. I have known Neebe about two years; I saw him at picnics
- and in our office. There was a library in the building belonging
- to the International Working People’s Association—a Socialistic
- association composed of groups, known by names. I belonged to the
- group ‘Karl Marx,’ which met at No. 63 Emma Street. Before that I
- belonged to the Northwest Side group, which met at Thalia Hall, No.
- 633 Milwaukee Avenue. Hirschberger was the librarian. I know Fischer;
- he belonged to the Northwest Side group. Engel belonged to the same.
- Spies formerly belonged to the Northwest Side group, later to the
- American group. Parsons belonged to the American group. Schwab, I
- guess, to the North Side group, I don’t know for sure. I don’t know
- about Lingg. I guess Neebe belonged to the North Side group. These
- groups, except the Northwest Side group, had a central committee,
- which met at No. 107 Fifth Avenue. The Northwest Side group was not
- represented. They had strong Anarchistic principles. Fielden, I guess,
- belonged to the American group. This book here (Johann Most’s book)
- I saw at the library in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ building. I have seen
- that book sold at picnics by Hirschberger, at Socialistic picnics and
- mass-meetings. At some of those meetings Spies, Parsons and Fielden
- were present; sometimes Neebe, sometimes Schwab, maybe Fischer.”
-
-Counsel for defendants objected to this line of inquiry, because,
-as they said, it is not shown that any of the defendants knew or
-participated in the selling, or that they had anything to do with, or
-that they saw the selling. This led to some words between court and
-counsel:
-
- _The Court_—“If men are teaching the public how to commit murder, it
- is admissible to prove it if it can be proved by items.”
-
- _Mr. Black_—“Well, does your Honor know what this teaches?”
-
- _The Court_—“I do not know what the contents of the book are. I asked
- what the book was and I was told that it was Herr Most’s ‘Science of
- Revolutionary Warfare,’ and taught the preparing of deadly weapons and
- missiles, and that was accepted by the other side.”
-
- _Mr. Black_—“Does that justify your Honor in the construction that it
- teaches how to commit murder, or of stating that in the presence of
- the jury?”
-
-[Illustration: “Y—COME MONDAY EVENING.”
-
-Reduced _Fac-simile_, engraved direct from the Original Manuscript.]
-
- _The Court_—“.... I inquired what sort of book it was, and it was
- stated by the other side what sort of book it was, and you said
- nothing about it, so that in ruling upon the question whether it may
- be shown where it was to be found, where it had been seen, I must take
- the character of the book into consideration in determining whether it
- is admissible; whether it is of that character or not we will see when
- it is translated, I suppose. I suppose the book is not in the English
- language.”
-
- “Where were the picnics at which you have seen this book sold?” asked
- the State’s Attorney.
-
- “I saw this book sold at a picnic at Ogden’s Grove, on Willow Street,
- on the North Side, in July of last year. There were present Spies,
- Neebe, Parsons and Fielden. Also at a picnic at Sheffield, Indiana,
- last September, where were present Spies, Neebe, Parsons and, I guess,
- Fischer.”
-
-Fricke then identified copies of the _Alarm_, Parsons’ paper, the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_, the _Fackel_, the Sunday edition of that paper, and
-the _Vorbote_, its weekly edition, of various dates from May 1st to May
-5th.
-
-On cross-examination, he testified that he had never seen any of the
-defendants sell Most’s books anywhere, not even at the Sheffield,
-Indiana, picnic, where there were 2,000 people, and that all
-communications to the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ went through the hands of the
-editor, Spies.
-
-EDMUND FURTHMANN testified as follows:
-
- “I am assistant in the State’s Attorney’s office. I was in the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office between eleven and twelve o’clock on the
- 5th of May. All the matter shown to Mr. Fricke was obtained by me in
- the typesetting-room of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, and has been in my
- possession since then. The typesetting-room was full of desks and
- cases of type, and there were several tables covered with stone,
- and at every case there was a hook containing a lot of manuscript,
- which I took away. I found the doors locked. I found some twenty or
- twenty-five of the ‘Revenge’ circulars there.”
-
-On cross-examination he said:
-
- “A locksmith opened the door. We had no search warrant. We also
- carried away two mail-bags from there. We placed all this manuscript
- into them. Mr. Grinnell, the State’s Attorney, Officer Haas, Lieut.
- Kipley and myself were in the party.”
-
-EUGENE SEEGER translated a paragraph in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ of March
-15 and testified that it read as follows:
-
- “‘Revolutionary Warfare has arrived, and is to be had through the
- librarian, 107 Fifth Avenue, at the price of 10 cents.’
-
-[Illustration: REDUCED FAC-SIMILE OF HEADING OF THE FACKEL.]
-
- “This appears among what I would call, as a newspaper man, editorial
- notices in the local column. These translations here (holding
- typewriter copy, purporting to be the translation of certain
- articles), are correct translations. There is an editorial here in the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ of May 4 headed ‘Editorial.’ ‘Blood has flowed’ is
- the first phrase of it. There is another article on the fourth page of
- May 3, headed ‘A Hot Conflict.’ In the local column of May 4 a report
- headed, ‘Lead and Powder is a Cure for Dissatisfied Workingmen.’ All
- these articles were also translated by Professor Olson, of the Chicago
- University. We compared notes and found the translations correct.”
-
-Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann then read the translation of
-Most’s volume.
-
-WILLIAM SELIGER testified:
-
- “I am a carpenter. Have lived in Chicago three years and a half.
- Before that I lived at Charlottenburg, Germany. I was born at Eilau,
- near Reichenbach, in Silesia. On May 4th last I lived at 442 Sedgwick
- Street, in the rear of the lot. I occupied the second floor. Louis
- Lingg, the defendant, boarded with me. On Monday, May 3, I worked
- for Mr. Meyer. Quit work at half-past 4 P.M. In the evening of that
- day I was at Zepf’s Hall, at a meeting of the Carpenters’ Union. I
- was recording secretary of the union. I stayed there until half-past
- eleven. I was not at the meeting at 54 West Lake Street that night.
- I heard somebody call upon us, that all that knew should come to 54
- West Lake Street. This here (holding paper), ‘Y—Komme Montag Abend,’
- means that all the armed men should come to the meeting at 54 West
- Lake Street. The armed men were divers ones—all the Socialistic
- organizations. There were several organizations in existence which
- were drilled in the use of arms. After I left Zepf’s Hall I took a
- glass of beer in the saloon and then went to 71 West Lake Street
- and took another glass of beer. Then I went home with several other
- parties. I saw a copy of the ‘Revenge’ circular at Zepf’s Hall.
- Balthasar Rau brought it to the meeting about nine o’clock.
-
- “On Tuesday I did not work at my trade. I got up at half-past seven,
- and after I got up Lingg came. I had previously told him that I wanted
- those things removed from my dwelling. He told me to work diligently
- at these bombs, and they would be taken away that day. I took some
- coffee, and after a time I worked at some shells, at some loaded
- shells. I drilled holes through which the bolt went. A shell like this
- (indicating shell introduced in evidence). I worked on the shells half
- an hour. Lingg went to the West Side to a meeting. Got back probably
- after one o’clock. He said: ‘I didn’t do much. I ought to have worked
- more diligently.’ I said I hadn’t any pleasure at the work.”
-
- “What did Lingg reply?”
-
- “Lingg said, ‘Well, we will have to work very diligently this
- afternoon.’ During the afternoon I did different work at the shells.
- In the morning I had a conversation about the bolts. He told me he
- had not enough of them. He gave me one and told me to go to Clybourn
- Avenue and get some that he had already spoken to the man about.
- I got about fifty. I worked at the bombs during the whole of the
- afternoon at different times. Hubner, Muntzenberg, Heuman, were
- helping. I worked in the front room, also in Lingg’s room and the
- rear room. Lingg first worked at gas or water pipes, such as these
- (indicating). There were probably thirty or forty or fifty bombs made
- that afternoon. The round bombs had been cast once before by Lingg,
- in the rear room, on my stove, probably six weeks previous to the 4th
- of May. The first bomb I ever saw was in Lingg’s room. That was still
- before that. At that time he told me he was going to make bombs. I saw
- dynamite for the first time in Lingg’s room, about five or six weeks
- previous to the 4th of May. Lingg said every workingman should get
- some dynamite; that there should be considerable agitation; that every
- workingman would learn to handle these things. During that Tuesday
- afternoon Lingg said those bombs were going to be good fodder for the
- capitalists and the police, when they came to protect the capitalists.
- Nothing was said about when they wanted the bombs completed or ready.
- I only told him that I wanted those things out of my room. There was
- only a remark that they were to be used that evening, but nothing
- positive as to time. I left the house at half-past eight that evening.
- Hubner was at the house probably from four to six o’clock. I did not
- see what he did. He worked in the front room with Lingg. I was in
- Lingg’s room. Muntzenberg was there as long as Hubner. Thielen was
- there half an hour—quite that. I did not see what he was doing.
-
- [Illustration: PLAN OF THE SELIGER RESIDENCE, USED IN EVIDENCE.]
-
- “The Lehmans were at the house for a little while. I did not see
- what they were doing. They were in the front room. Heuman also
- worked at the bombs. I left the house in the evening with Lingg. We
- had a little trunk with bombs in. The trunk was probably two feet
- long, one foot high and one foot wide. It was covered with coarse
- linen. There were round and pipe bombs in it. They were loaded with
- dynamite and caps fixed to them. I don’t know how many there were.
- The trunk might have weighed from thirty to fifty pounds. We pulled
- a stick, which Lingg had broken, through the handle. That is the way
- we carried the trunk, which was taken to Neff’s Hall, 58 Clybourn
- Avenue. On the way to Neff’s Hall, Muntzenberg met us. He took the
- package into the building through the saloon on the side into the
- hallway that led to the rear. After the bombs were put down into that
- passageway, there were different ones there, three or four, who took
- bombs out for themselves. I took two pipe bombs myself; carried them
- in my pocket. We went away from Neff’s Hall and left the package in
- that passage. The back of Neff’s Hall is known under the name of the
- Communisten-Bude. Different Socialistic and Anarchistic organizations
- met there. The North Side group met there. I heard that the Saxon Bund
- met there. I don’t know any others that met there. When I left Neff’s
- Hall, Thielen and Gustav Lehman were with me. Later two large men of
- the L. u. W. V. came to us. I believe they all had bombs. We went on
- Clybourn Avenue north towards Lincoln Avenue, to the Larrabee Street
- Station, where we halted. Lingg and myself halted there. I don’t know
- what had become of the others. Some went ahead of us. Lingg and I had
- a conversation, that there should be made a disturbance everywhere
- on the North Side to keep the police from going over to the West
- Side. In front of the Larrabee Street Station Lingg said it might be
- a beautiful thing if we would walk over and throw one or two bombs
- into the station. There were two policemen sitting in front of the
- station, and Lingg said if the others came out these two couldn’t do
- much. We would shoot these two down. Then we went further north to
- Lincoln Avenue and Larrabee Street, where we took a glass of beer.
- Webster Avenue Station is near there. After we left the saloon we went
- a few blocks north, then turned about and came back to North Avenue
- and Larrabee Street. While we stood there a patrol wagon passed. We
- were standing south of North Avenue and Larrabee Street. Lingg said
- that he was going to throw a bomb—that was the best opportunity to
- throw the bomb—and I said it would not have any purpose. Then he
- became quite wild, excited; said I should give him a light. I was
- smoking a cigar, and I jumped into a front opening before a store and
- lighted a match, as if I intended to light a cigar, so I could not
- give him a light. When I had lighted my cigar the patrol wagon was
- just passing. Lingg said he was going to go after the wagon to see
- what had happened, saying that something had certainly happened on
- the West Side—some trouble. The patrol wagon was completely manned,
- going south on Larrabee Street. We were four or five houses distant
- from the station. Then I went into a boarding-house between Mohawk and
- Larrabee Streets and lighted a cigar; then we went towards home. First
- Lingg wanted to wait until the patrol wagon would come back, but I
- importuned him to go home with me. We got home probably shortly before
- eleven; I cannot tell exactly. On the way home Lingg asked me whether
- I had seen a notice that a meeting of the armed men should be held on
- the West Side. I said I had seen nothing. Lingg wanted to go out. I
- took the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_; tore it into two parts. He took one, and
- I one. Thereupon he said, ‘Here it is,’ and called my attention to the
- word ‘Ruhe.’ This here is the same that I saw in my house. I did not
- know the meaning of the word ‘Ruhe’ until the time I saw it. Lingg
- said there was to have been a meeting on the West Side that night, and
- he was going to go at once to it. ‘Ruhe’ meant that everything was to
- go topsy-turvy; that there was to be trouble. He said that a meeting
- had been held at which it was determined that the word ‘Ruhe’ should
- go into the paper, when all armed men should appear at 54 West Lake
- Street; that there should be trouble. After that talk we went away.
- Lingg wanted to go to the West Side, and I talked with him to go with
- me to 58 Clybourn Avenue. Lingg and I went there. There were several
- persons present at Neff’s Hall. I did not speak with Lingg at Neff’s
- Hall. A certain Hermann said to him, in an energetic tone of voice,
- ‘You are the fault of it all.’ I did not hear what Lingg said to that.
- They spoke in a subdued tone. Somebody said a bomb had fallen, which
- had killed many and wounded many. I did not hear what Lingg said
- to that. On the way home Lingg said that he was even now scolded,
- chided for the work he had done. He got home shortly after twelve.
- We laid the bombs off on our way on Sigel Street, between Sedgwick
- and Hurlbut, under an elevated sidewalk. I laid two pipe bombs there.
- I saw Lingg put some bombs there. I don’t know what kind. The next
- morning I got up about six o’clock. I don’t know when Lingg got up. On
- Wednesday evening, when Lingg got home, we spoke about the Haymarket
- meeting. He said if the workingmen only had had the advantage of it
- they would have gained the victory. Then we went together to a meeting
- on Fifth Avenue, at Seamen’s Hall.
-
- ‘On Friday, I believe, before that Tuesday, the 4th of May, Lingg
- brought some dynamite to the house in a wooden box about three feet
- in length, about sixteen to eighteen inches in height, and about the
- same width. Inside this box there was another box. The dynamite with
- which we filled the bombs on Tuesday was in that large wooden box.
- We handled the dynamite with our hands and with a flat piece of wood
- which Lingg had made for more convenience. This here (indicating) is
- the pan to cast those shells in. (Same offered in evidence.) Lingg
- used to cast shells in them. Lingg once told me he had made eighty to
- one hundred bombs in all. The bolts which I got on that Tuesday were
- something like this (referring to bolt about two and one-half inches
- long).
-
- “I am a member of the North Side group of the International
- Workingmen’s Association. During the last year I was financial
- secretary. My number was, at last, 72. Two years ago the members
- began to be given numbers. I heard Engel make a speech to the North
- Side group last winter at Neff’s Hall. He said that every one could
- manufacture those bombs for themselves; that these pipes could be
- found everywhere without cost; that they were to be closed up with
- wooden plugs fore and aft, and that in one of the plugs was to be
- drilled a hole for the fuse and cap. He said they were the best means
- against the police and capitalists. I never heard him make any other
- speech.
-
- “I saw two bombs at the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ last year at the time of
- the car-drivers’ strike. Rau showed them to some one. I don’t know
- precisely who were present. Spies was there. It was in the evening.
- There was one round bomb and one long one—not very long. I was at
- the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ as a delegate from the North Side group to the
- meeting of the general committee of all the groups of Chicago.
-
- “I know Schwab and Neebe. They were members of the North Side group of
- the Internationale. I know Fischer. He is a member of some group, but
- I don’t know positively. Lingg belonged to the North Side group. Engel
- belonged to a group, I cannot tell to which one. The North Side group
- met every Monday evening. There were speeches made, or a review of
- what had happened during the week. On Sundays some members exercised
- with rifles. I don’t know how many members had rifles. Every one took
- his own rifle home with him. I had a rifle. I kept it at my dwelling.
- This book here (Herr Most’s book) I saw at public meetings of the
- North Side group. Hubner had charge of them latterly. The North Side
- group bought them and sold them. Hubner was the librarian. This here
- (indicating photograph) is Rudolph Schnaubelt.”
-
-On cross-examination he gave the following testimony:
-
- “I was arrested after the 4th of May. I was kept at the Chicago
- Avenue Station. The first time fully a week. Then I was on the West
- Side three weeks and one day; then I went back to the station of
- my own accord and stayed there voluntarily. Was locked up there
- ever since. When first arrested I made a statement, but not of all
- that I have testified to-day. I made a full statement of all that
- I testified to here, at the Chicago Avenue Station. Capt. Schaack,
- Mr. Furthmann and some detectives were present. That was after I had
- been in prison seven days. The day after and the second day after. I
- have made statements in writing, signed by me, three times. In the
- first statement I had not said much. I have done no work, earned no
- money, during the time I have been in jail. I received money from
- Capt. Schaack; once a dollar and a half, at another time five dollars.
- While I was at liberty I read in the paper that I was indicted for the
- murder of Degan. I did not know before this case was begun that I was
- not to be tried. I did not know whether I was going to be tried for
- the murder of Degan along with Mr. Spies and the other defendants.
- When the trial was commenced I did not inquire of any of the officers
- why I was not brought out for trial. I did not know I was to be used
- as a witness instead of being a defendant at this trial. Capt. Schaack
- did not tell me anything about my trial. If I would come in and tell
- the story which was in the written statement that I have signed—he
- only told me that it would be the best if I would tell the truth, and
- asked me whether I would tell the truth before the court, and I said
- yes.”
-
-Seliger was then given a breathing-spell, and Mr. Buschick was
-recalled. Buschick testified with regard to a map of the rear building
-of No. 442 Sedgwick Street, and was excused.
-
-Seliger, continuing on cross-examination, said:
-
- “Lingg, I think, is twenty-one or twenty-two years old. He is not a
- man of family. He has boarded with me since Christmas last. My house
- where I lived on May 4th is about three-quarters of a mile distant
- from the Haymarket. When Lingg and I, on Tuesday night at eleven
- o’clock, after we had seen the word ‘Ruhe’ in the paper, spoke about
- going over to the West Side, we meant Zepf’s Hall, or Greif’s Hall,
- or Florus’ Hall. One of those halls was certainly meant, for there
- is no other place. It was not understood or agreed between me and
- any other men who had the bombs that night at Clybourn Avenue, that
- any one of us was to go to the Haymarket meeting. I know that Capt.
- Schaack paid my wife money at different times since my arrest. I don’t
- know how much. I think $20 or $25. Lingg had made the same remark
- about bombs being the best food for capitalists and police before
- that Tuesday afternoon. When he brought the first bomb into the house
- he said they were to be applied on occasions of strikes, and where
- there were meetings of workingmen and were disturbed by the police. On
- that Tuesday afternoon we agreed to go to Clybourn Avenue that night,
- before the bombs were done. It was said that the bombs were to be
- taken to Clybourn Avenue that evening. I don’t believe it was agreed
- that the bombs were to be taken anywhere else than Clybourn Avenue.
- When they were taken to Clybourn Avenue, I don’t know whether they
- were to remain there, or were to be taken to further places. There was
- no agreement as to where the bombs should be taken after they got to
- Clybourn Avenue. I did not hear anything about an agreement that any
- of the bombs manufactured on the afternoon of May 4th were to be taken
- by anybody to the Haymarket; we were not making bombs to take to the
- Haymarket and destroy the police. They were to be taken to Clybourn
- Avenue for use on that evening. I can not say that one single bomb was
- made for use at the Haymarket meeting. They were made everywhere to
- be used against capitalists and the police. I cannot say who had the
- bomb at the Haymarket on the night of May 4th. I don’t know anybody
- who was expected to be at the Haymarket. I became acquainted with
- Lingg in August of last year. I saw Engel once last year in the office
- of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, and again at the meeting of the North Side
- group. I did not see whether the bombs which I saw last summer at the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ building were loaded. The room where I saw them
- was the library-room that belonged to the International Workingmen’s
- Association. The bombs were below the counter. I never saw any bombs
- in the office of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, neither in the editorial room
- nor the printing-room, nor in the office of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_.
- The office is the front room. This library-room is in the rear. I saw
- those bombs in the rear room. I don’t know precisely whether that
- library-room is a part of the office, or whether it is rented as a
- library-room. I believe that it belonged to the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_.
- Those drills on Sunday, of which I spoke, were in the daytime. We
- kept our guns at home, in broad daylight, and in the presence of our
- neighbors, or any one who might be on the streets, walked to the hall
- on Sunday and drilled. We had a shooting society. We went to the
- Sharpshooters’ Park or to the prairie to exercise. We used to meet and
- march publicly on the streets with our guns exposed. We didn’t try to
- keep it away from the police force that we had arms and drilled and
- marched. I knew that I was indicted for conspiracy and for murder. I
- did not employ the services of any lawyer. The only lawyers that I
- talked with were Mr. Grinnell and Mr. Furthmann.”
-
-On re-direct examination witness stated:
-
- “During the time I was at liberty I went to the West Side to the house
- of Mr. Gloom, on Twenty-second Street. I stayed with him two weeks and
- one day. He is not a Socialist. I went there from fear of revenge by
- the Socialists.”
-
-MRS. BERTHA SELIGER testified as follows:
-
- “I have lived in this country two years. Am the wife of William
- Seliger. We lived at 442 Sedgwick Street from the 12th of October
- to the 19th of May. I have known Louis Lingg since two weeks before
- Christmas. He came to us to board with us. He boarded with us until
- May. He took his meals with us and slept in the house. We occupied
- the middle floor of that house. His room was next to the front room,
- and there was a door opening into a clothes closet. Shortly before
- May 1st I saw some bombs as Lingg was about to hide them—about half
- a dozen lying on the bed. They were round bombs and long ones. After
- Lingg had left the house I did not see any more of them; they were all
- gone. On the Tuesday on which the bomb was thrown at the Haymarket
- there were several men at our house. About six or eight. Perhaps more.
- Those I knew were Hubner, Heuman, Thielen, Lingg and my husband. I
- think they were there until past seven o’clock. They were going and
- coming during most of the afternoon. They were in the front room and
- in Lingg’s room, working at bombs. I saw Heuman working and filling at
- them. What the others were doing I don’t know. I was in the kitchen,
- and when supper was ready I went into the bed-room. I was so mad I
- could have thrown them all out. I frequently saw Lingg make bombs. I
- always saw him cast. I did not pay any particular attention. I simply
- saw him melt lead on the cooking-stove in my house—twice with Heuman,
- once with my husband and Thielen, and frequently he worked by himself.
- He said to us: ‘Don’t act so foolishly. You might do something too.’
- On Monday, the day before the bomb was thrown, Lingg was away. In the
- morning some young fellows had come and had their names entered on the
- list of the union, and then he was writing pretty much all day.
-
- “On Wednesday, the day after the bomb was thrown, Lingg was at home in
- the forenoon. That was the day on which he wanted to hide those bombs
- in the clothes closet, and Lehman was with him. I heard some knocking,
- and I went in, and I said to him: ‘Mr. Lingg, what are you doing
- there? I will not suffer that,’—and he was tearing everything loose
- below, and he sent that man Lehman after wall-paper, and he wanted
- to cover up everything afterwards—nail up everything afterwards. He
- had the wall-paper already there, and he said to me: ‘I suppose you
- are crazy. You ought to have said before you wouldn’t suffer that,
- that I would have looked for a place where I am allowed to do that.’
- He was tearing up things all around about in the closet, and he had
- loosened the baseboards and taken out the mortar. He said if he needed
- something he couldn’t first go to the West Side to get it. On the
- Friday following, on the 7th of May, he left my house. Lingg had a
- trunk which he kept in his bed-room. This instrument (referring to
- ladle identified by William Seliger) Lingg was always casting with.”
-
-On cross-examination Mrs. Seliger stated:
-
- “I have been locked up on account of this bomb business—on account of
- Lingg—by Capt. Schaack. The first time I was there from Saturday to
- Tuesday. Of course it was Lingg’s fault that I got locked up. I talked
- with Capt. Schaack about this matter several times. I was locked up
- twice. Capt. Schaack paid my rent. I made no memoranda of the money I
- received from Capt. Schaack. He gave me money at different times, from
- the time I made my statement down to the present time. He paid my rent
- and gave me so much money with which to live. When I said to Lingg
- that I wouldn’t allow that wall-paper to be put into the closet, and
- ‘what would the landlord say when he comes,’ Lingg said, ‘Well, then,
- I will say to him that I will not dirty my clothes.’ Those boards were
- about a foot high from the floor. The closet did not reach up as far
- as the ceiling. He intended to put those things in the wall. There was
- nothing in at that time. I stopped him at that juncture. I don’t like
- Mr. Lingg very well, because he always had wrong things in his head. I
- blame him for me and my husband having been locked up. My husband and
- myself talked this thing over together. I said to my husband, ‘I will
- tell the truth, and you tell it also.’ Capt. Schaack told us we had
- better tell it. I am forty years old.
-
- “I was locked up in the Larrabee Street Station, and my husband was
- in the Chicago Avenue Station. I never occupied the same cell with my
- husband while under arrest. I only heard after I came out again that
- my husband was arrested in another station. While I was arrested I
- didn’t see my husband. No one came to see me. I told that story, and
- then they turned me out. When arrested the second time they kept me
- from Monday until Friday. I made the same statement as at first and
- signed it, and then they turned me out again. The second time I was
- arrested they brought a statement, which they said my husband had
- made, and asked me to sign it, and I put my name below that of my
- husband’s, and then they turned me out. My husband was a Socialist
- before he got acquainted with Lingg.”
-
-MARSHALL H. WILLIAMSON, reporter for the _Daily News_, witnessed
-the procession of the Socialists in 1885 at the time of the opening
-of the Board of Trade building, and was also present at No. 107
-Fifth Avenue, from which place they started, and where they finally
-separated. He heard Parsons and Fielden speak from the windows of the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office. Said the witness:
-
- “Parsons spoke of the police interfering with them in marching on
- the Board of Trade that night. He called the police bloodhounds and
- called on the mob to follow him in an assault on Marshall Field’s dry
- goods house and various clothing-houses, and take from there what he
- called the necessities of life. They spoke from the second floor.
- There were about 1,000 people in front of the building. Fielden in
- his speech also called upon the mob to follow them, and he agreed to
- lead them to rob these places or go into them and take from them what
- they needed in the way of clothing and dry goods. They both said that
- the new Board of Trade was built out of money of which they had been
- robbed; that all the men who transacted business there were robbers
- and thieves, and that they ought to be killed. Nothing was said in the
- speeches as to the means or mode of killing. Later I went up-stairs.
- I saw Fielden and Parsons and some others whose names I didn’t know.
- I didn’t know Spies at that time, but remember of seeing him there. I
- asked Parsons why they didn’t march upon the Board of Trade and blow
- it up. He said because the police had interfered, and they had not
- expected that and were not prepared for them. I told him I had seen
- revolvers exhibited by some in the procession. He told me when they
- met the police they would be prepared with bombs and dynamite. Mr.
- Fielden was standing at his elbow at the time. He said the next time
- the police attempted to interfere with them, they would be prepared
- for them. That would be in the course of a year or so. Spies was in
- the room. It was the front room of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office.
- Spies was not standing immediately with the party. I was shown what
- they told me was a dynamite cartridge. The package was about six or
- seven inches long, and an inch and a half or two inches in diameter.
- It was wrapped in a piece of paper. The paper was broken. After I had
- conversed with Mr. Parsons a while, he took out of the broken place a
- small portion of the contents. It was of a slightly reddish color, and
- he again said it was dynamite, and that was what they would use when
- they went against the police; he also said he had enough of that where
- he could put his hands on it to blow up the business center of the
- city. I was shown a coil of fuse about fifteen or twenty feet; also a
- fulminating cap by which they said dynamite bombs were exploded. The
- cap was exploded in the room while I was there. It made quite a noise
- and filled the room with smoke. It was copper and about an inch long
- and perhaps one-eighth of an inch in diameter—about the size of a No.
- 22 cartridge cap. Mr. Parsons called for these articles. They were in
- a drawer in a desk, and Mr. Spies handed them to him to be shown to
- me. Parsons told me they were preparing for a fight for their rights;
- that they believed they were being robbed every day by capitalists
- and the thieving Board of Trade men. He said it must stop. He told me
- that they had bombs, dynamite and plenty of rifles and revolvers, and
- he said their manner of warfare would be to throw their bombs from
- the tops of houses and stores, and in that way they could annihilate
- any force of militia or police brought against them without any harm
- to themselves. After this conversation I went down-stairs, where I
- met Detectives Trehorn and Sullivan. I was acquainted with them. I
- took them up-stairs and renewed the conversation with Mr. Parsons,
- and left him talking with the police officers. The conversation I had
- had with Mr. Parsons was in effect repeated with the police officers
- in my presence. The officers were in citizens’ clothes. The red flags
- in that procession were carried by some women. I was at 54 West Lake
- Street, in some of the halls there, on several occasions, within a
- year before the opening of the Board of Trade. That is where I got
- acquainted with Parsons and Fielden. I heard them speak there. That
- was during the winter months of 1884 and 1885. Mr. Fielden, on one
- occasion, wanted them to follow him to those clothing stores and
- grocery stores and some other places and get what they needed to
- support their families. He told them to purchase dynamite. He said
- that five cents’ worth of dynamite carried around in the vest pocket
- would do more good than all the revolvers and pistols in the world.
- Mr. Parsons also told them they were being robbed, and offered to lead
- them to the grocery stores and other places to get what they wanted.
- That is all I remember of those speeches. I heard them some eight or
- ten times. There were never over between ten and twenty-five people
- present.”
-
-On cross-examination witness stated:
-
- “The first of these meetings I attended was about two years ago. I
- wrote reports of those meetings, which I think were published in
- the _Daily News_ in each instance the day following, in the morning
- edition. The circulation of the _Daily News_, about a year and a half
- and two years ago, was, I think, 121,000 per day, as claimed by the
- paper.
-
- “When I went to the meetings at 54 West Lake Street I had no trouble
- to get in. The meetings were held in the front rooms on the top floor.
- There were no guards at the door. I simply went in and sat down and
- took my notes publicly. Fielden and Parsons learned very soon that
- I was a reporter on the _Daily News_. Those speeches of Parsons and
- Fielden which I related were made at the first meeting I attended.
- When Fielden suggested the five cents’ worth of dynamite carried in
- the vest pocket, he gave no instructions whatever on the subject of
- how to carry or use it. The proposal to go out to Marshall Field’s
- and some clothing store was a proposal for immediate action. He did
- not start, however. After he got through with his talk and proposal,
- he sat down until the meeting was over. The meeting quietly dispersed
- and went home. I did not see that army of less than twenty-five men
- start for Field’s that night, or upon any subsequent occasion. I heard
- that same proposal at every single meeting I attended at 54 West
- Lake Street and 700 and something West Indiana Street, and various
- other places. I do not think there was ever over twenty-five present
- at their meetings in halls. I have seen larger numbers of people at
- open-air meetings. Sometimes the attendance did not exceed about ten
- men. The same proposition was made when there were only ten persons
- present.
-
- “In that procession on the night of the opening of the Board of Trade
- I marched at the head. After Mr. Parsons had finished his speech from
- the window of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office that night, in which
- he proposed to lead the multitude against those stores, he quietly
- went back into the room, and I entered into a conversation with
- him. Mr. Fielden, after he had got through proposing, joined in the
- conversation with Mr. Parsons and myself. He didn’t go down to the
- street and lead anybody anywhere, either. The proposals that night,
- both by Fielden and Parsons, were proposals for immediate action,
- but they simply proposed to, and then gracefully retired from the
- window. There were about twenty people in the room. Among them, I
- think, was Mr. Spies. There were two reporters besides myself there.
- I think both Fielden and Parsons knew me as a reporter at the time. I
- presume they knew I was connected with the _Daily News_. Parsons never
- manifested any reluctance in detailing to me what he did; but in one
- conversation he refused to reveal the remainder of their plans. I saw
- some three or four revolvers in that procession. I don’t know who had
- them. There were not to exceed five hundred people in the procession.
- I saw two revolvers in the right-hand side coat pocket, and two more
- in the hip pocket, carried by four persons. I have informed various
- police officers of what I have seen and heard regarding these people.
- I had frequent conversations with police officers of Chicago. I think
- there were about four women in that procession carrying banners. There
- were about half a dozen women in the room while they spoke from the
- windows. I think some women spoke from the same windows to the same
- mob. I think the meetings which I attended were regularly advertised
- in the _Daily News_.”
-
-On re-direct examination, Williamson was asked by the State’s Attorney:
-“You were about to say something about some interview that you had with
-Parsons in regard to the plans, also in regard to leaders and privates
-in their army. Will you please state what that was?”
-
- “Parsons told me there were some 3,000 armed Socialists in the city of
- Chicago, well armed with rifles and revolvers, and would have dynamite
- and bombs when they got ready to use them; that they were meeting and
- drilling at various halls in the city. He refused to give me a list of
- those halls. He refused to tell me where they bought rifles. He said
- the society was divided into groups, and that they knew each other
- by twos and threes. He showed me an article in the _Alarm_, I think,
- about street warfare. In that connection I think he told me it was
- their intention to occupy the Market Place and the Washington Street
- tunnel, and in that position they could successfully encounter any
- force that could be brought against them.”
-
-On re-cross-examination witness related:
-
- “There was nobody present when I had that conversation with Mr.
- Parsons. I think it was after New Year’s day of 1885, in the winter. I
- did not ask him how they managed to drill if they only knew each other
- by twos and threes. He said that in that organization of 3,000 no man
- knew more than two or three others.”
-
-JOHN SHEA, Lieutenant of Police, and at the head of the detective
-force, testified about the search of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office and
-proceeded:
-
- “I know a man that is called Rudolph Schnaubelt. He was in the station
- a couple of days after the arrest of those other gentlemen. This here
- (indicating photograph) I recognize as Schnaubelt’s picture. When I
- saw him he had a mustache. I had a conversation with Mr. Spies at
- police headquarters, in my office, after he was arrested. We had a
- conversation about that manuscript referred to by me. I asked Spies
- if he was at the meeting at the Haymarket. He said he was; that he
- opened the meeting; that Schwab was there, but that he understood
- he went to Deering. He said Parsons was there, and Fielden; that
- both spoke there—Fielden at the time the police came. He said he
- spoke at a meeting on May 3, near McCormick’s factory, and some of
- the parties there in the rear had commenced to halloa, and said,
- ‘Let’s go to McCormick’s,’ and they had started, and most of the
- crowd had started with them. Spies said he had heard later what had
- happened at McCormick’s; that he had got on a street car and come down
- town. I asked him if he knew anything about that circular that was
- circulated on the street. I don’t remember that I had present with me
- the circular which I referred to during that conversation. He said
- he did not know anything about the circular, but heard that it had
- been circulated. I asked him if he wrote this manuscript (indicating
- manuscript previously produced). Mr. Grinnell was sitting in the
- office at the time. Spies said, ‘I refuse to answer.’ Then Mr. Spies
- said he was the editor there. I said, ‘Now, would not anything of that
- kind be likely to go through your hands before it would go to print?’
- He said, ‘I refuse to answer.’
-
- “I had a conversation with Fischer the next day. He said that on
- the night of May 4 he and several others, Schwab, Fielden, were at
- a meeting in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office; that Rau brought word
- to the meeting that there was a large crowd at the Haymarket, that
- Spies was there and very few speakers; and they immediately started
- to the Haymarket. He said he didn’t hear Spies, but heard Fielden and
- Parsons. That pistol and dagger he had had to protect himself. He
- had not had it with him that night. It was in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_
- office. On Wednesday morning he had put it on because he didn’t intend
- to stay. He was going away. That fulminating cap he had got from a man
- in front of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office some three months before
- that. He had never paid any attention to it. He had made the sharpened
- dagger himself for his own protection.
-
- “In the conversation with Spies, my recollection is that he said he
- got on the wagon, and said something to Parsons or Fielden about its
- going to rain, and left the wagon. I don’t recollect where he said
- he went to. Fischer said he was at Zepf’s Hall at the time of the
- explosion.”
-
-FRED. L. BUCK was called to testify with reference to some experiments
-he had made with dynamite which he had received from the detectives’
-office. He had gone to the lake front with Officer McKeough and another
-officer and a newspaper reporter and there made several tests, all of
-which demonstrated the immense force of the dynamite.
-
-Lieut. GEORGE W. HUBBARD, now Superintendent of the force, had charge
-of the company that composed the third division at the Haymarket. Being
-a large company, it was divided into two, he himself commanding one
-wing and Sergt. (now Capt.) Fitzpatrick, who was drill master, being in
-command of the other.
-
- “I was about four feet behind Stanton’s and Bowler’s companies. My
- company was about six feet behind me. I could hear the sound of the
- voices at the wagon, but couldn’t hear exactly what was said. I saw
- the bomb when it was about six feet from the ground—a little tail
- of fire quivering as it fell not more than six feet in front of me.
- The bomb immediately exploded, and as far as I could see the entire
- division in front of me disappeared, except the two ends; but a great
- many of them got up again in a kind of disorder, and then I flanked
- the left of the division. There was no firing before the explosion of
- that bomb. The firing began almost immediately on both sides of the
- street and north of me. I, being on the left, rushed my division of
- the company right around toward the sidewalk, and commenced answering
- the charge from that quarter, and Fitzpatrick went the other way,
- to the east, and he commenced shooting right into the crowd on the
- sidewalk, faced them right and left. In our company we had our regular
- revolvers in our pockets, and we had a larger revolver in the sockets
- attached to our belts, on the outside. The club in the socket and the
- revolver in the socket were both hanging to the left side of each
- officer. Pistols and clubs were all in the pockets until the explosion
- of the bomb.”
-
-S. J. WERNEKE, police officer, who was hit with a bullet in the head
-at the Haymarket, testified that he heard Engel at 703 Milwaukee
-Avenue in February, 1886, “advise every man in the audience to join
-them, and urged the people to save up three or four dollars to buy a
-revolver that was good enough to shoot these policemen down. I was at
-the Haymarket in Lieut. Steele’s company. Got hit with a bullet in the
-head.”
-
-JOHN J. RYAN next took the witness-stand. He testified:
-
- “I am a retired officer of the United States navy. Live at 274
- North Clark Street. Lived in Chicago for three years. Have seen the
- defendants Spies, Neebe, Parsons, Fielden and Schwab on the occasion
- of their Sunday afternoon meetings during the summer of last year and
- the year previous. I heard some of them speak there, namely, Spies,
- Parsons and Fielden, in the English language. I can only designate
- particularly two meetings, one previous to the picnic they had last
- year, and one on the Sunday directly after it. That was in July of
- last year, I think. I cannot say that I saw Mr. Spies at either of
- those meetings. Mr. Parsons I remember at one of them.”
-
- “State what he said,” put in the State’s Attorney.
-
- “He was speaking in a general way,” said the witness, “about trouble
- with the workingmen and the people, what he called the proletariat
- class, and spoke about their enemies, the police and the constituted
- authorities; that the authorities would use the police and militia and
- they would have to use force against them. He advised them to purchase
- rifles. If they had not money enough for that, then to buy pistols,
- and if they couldn’t buy pistols they could buy sufficient dynamite
- for twenty-five cents to blow up a building the size of the Pullman
- building?”
-
- “What, if anything, did you hear Fielden say at that meeting?”
-
- “The speeches were very nearly alike; they spoke about dynamite and
- fire-arms to be used against the police, and any one who opposed
- them in their designs; they wanted things their way and to regulate
- society. The speeches were alike Sunday after Sunday. I heard Spies
- speak on the lake front before and after the meetings I mention;
- he represented, as he said, the oppressed class, the workingmen,
- as opposed to the capitalists and property-owners; the latter were
- the enemy of the workingmen; if they couldn’t get their rights in
- a peaceable manner they must get them in a forcible way. I heard
- that talk about ten or fifteen times; the meetings were held there
- every Sunday until late in the fall. After the picnic, Mr. Parsons,
- I think—I won’t be sure of that—spoke about the young German
- experimenting with dynamite at this picnic; that this young German
- had a small quantity of dynamite in a tomato-can; it was thrown into
- a pond or lake, and he spoke of the force this amount of dynamite
- exerted, and what could be done with it in destroying buildings and
- property in the city.”
-
-On cross-examination Mr. Ryan stated:
-
- “Those lake front meetings were held publicly in plain view to
- everybody in every instance. The largest number of persons I ever saw
- attend one of these meetings was not more than 150. The meetings that
- I attended usually lasted two or three hours. I heard two or three
- other persons speak on the lake front at those meetings—Mr. Henry,
- Mrs. Parsons, Mrs. Holmes, and, one Sunday, a young Englishman whose
- name I did not hear; also an Irishman whose name I never heard. The
- meetings were held about half past two. The speeches were made in a
- loud, clear tone, sometimes very loud when they would get excited.
- A policeman who evidently had charge of the park was usually around
- there. It was a general propagation of ideas and doctrines, down there
- on the lake front. Once I heard Mr. Parsons say that now was the time
- to do it. I heard the opinion expressed there that the workingmen
- would have to secure their rights by force, and therefore should be
- prepared for it.”
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 1.
-
-Fig. 2.
-
-1. Package left at Judge Tree’s house.
-
-2. Package left at C. B. & Q. offices.]
-
-HARRY WILKINSON, a reporter for the _Daily News_, testified as follows:
-
- “On Thanksgiving Day, last year, I heard Mr. Parsons speak on the
- Market Square. He advised the workingmen who were present (there
- were several hundred there), to stand together, and to use force in
- procuring their rights. He told them that they were slaves; that out
- of a certain sum of money the per cent. they got was too small; it
- ought to be more evenly divided with the man who employed them. I
- don’t recollect that he said at that time anything as to the means or
- manner of force to be used, or against whom.
-
- “Last January I had several conversations with Mr. Spies, probably
- half a dozen. I first saw Mr. Spies a few days after the 1st of
- January of this year in regard to the matter published in this paper
- (indicating copy of Chicago _Daily News_ of January 13, 1886). I wrote
- up the result of my talk with Mr. Spies for that paper; it was not
- all published. I inquired of Spies about an explosive which had been
- placed on Judge Lambert Tree’s steps, and one that was placed in the
- Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad offices, and he emphatically
- denied that those machines were either made or placed by Socialists
- or Anarchists, and proved it by showing me that they were entirely
- different in character to those used by the Socialists. He showed me
- this bomb (indicating), which he described as the Czar; I took it with
- me. He spoke of the wonderful destructive power of the Czar bomb; said
- it was the same kind that had been used by Nihilists in destroying
- the Czar. I told him that I thought it was a pretty tall story, and
- he became somewhat excited and produced this, and said that there
- were others, larger than that, run by mechanical power—clock-work
- bombs—and he gave me that in a small room adjoining the counting-room
- office of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. He denied that those things were
- made at the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office; he said they were made by
- other persons and that there were several thousand of them in Chicago
- distributed, and that at some times they were distributed through the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office; that those who could make bombs made more
- than they could use, and those that could make them gave them to those
- that could not; that that one was one of the samples. I asked Mr.
- Spies if I could take that (the bomb) and show it to Mr. Stone, and I
- took it over there and didn’t bring it back. On another occasion, Mr.
- Spies and Mr. Gruenhut and myself went to dinner together, and he told
- us there about the organization of their people in a rather boastful
- manner; how they had gone out on excursions on nice summer mornings,
- some miles out of the city, and practiced throwing these bombs; the
- manner of exploding them; that they had demonstrated that bombs made
- of compound metal were much better than the other kind, and that a
- fuse bomb with a detonating cap inside was by far the best; and how
- at one attempt made in his presence one of their machines had been
- exploded in the midst of a little grove, and that it had entirely
- demolished the scenery; blown down four or five trees.
-
- [Illustration: SOCIALISTIC BOMBS,
-
- As illustrated in _Daily News_ of Jan. 14, 1886, from specimens shown
- and description given by August Spies.]
-
- He further described to me some very tall and very strong men, who
- could throw a large-size bomb weighing five pounds, fifty paces; and
- stated how, in case of a conflict with the police or militia, when
- the latter would come marching up a street, they would be received
- by the throwers formed in the shape of the letter V in the mouth
- of the street just crossing the intersection, illustrating this by
- taking some little toothpicks out of a vase on the table, laying them
- down and making a street intersection. He stated the militia would
- probably not stay to see a second or a third bomb go off. If the
- conflict should occur at any of the principal street intersections in
- the city, some of those organized men would be on the tops of houses
- ready to throw bombs overboard among the advancing troops or police.
- All these matters had been investigated; the men were all thoroughly
- trained and organized. The means of access to the house-tops of
- street intersections was a matter of common information among their
- adherents. He said they had no leaders; one was instructed as well as
- another, and when the great day came each one would know his duty and
- do it. I tried to find out when this would probably occur, and he did
- not fix the date precisely or approximately at that time. At another
- of those interviews he said it would probably occur in the first
- conflict between the police and the strikers; that if there would be a
- universal strike for this eight-hour system there would probably be a
- conflict of some sort brought about in some way between the First and
- Second Regiment of the Illinois National Guards and the police, and
- the dynamite upon the other hand. In trying to get at the probable
- number of them, I understood him that there were probably eight or ten
- thousand.
-
- “He spoke of other larger bombs, as large as a cigar-box, to be
- exploded by electricity, which would be placed under a street in case
- they decided to barricade any section of the city, that they had
- experimented with. That certain members of the organization had in
- their possession a complete detail, maps and plans of the underground
- system of the city. That these machines would either destroy everybody
- that was above them when they went off, or so tear up the street
- as to make it impassable. He told me that the ordinary dynamite of
- commerce was about a 60 or 66 per cent. dynamite; that they made a
- finer quality by importing infusorial earth and mixing it themselves;
- that was about a 90 per cent. quality. He showed me no dynamite. I
- don’t think he gave me any information about Herr Most’s ‘Science of
- Revolutionary Warfare.’ I understood that the object of all this was
- the bettering of the workingmen’s condition by the demolition of their
- oppressors. He vaguely spoke of a list of prominent citizens who might
- suddenly be blown up one at a time or all at once. I frequently said
- that I didn’t believe much in the story he told me. He simply uttered
- the renewed declarations.
-
-[Illustration: CHART OF STREET WARFARE.
-
-As published in _Daily News_, Jan. 14, 1886.]
-
- “I had this conversation with Spies in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ at
- his own desk, on the left-hand side as you entered the door in the
- editorial room. Mr. Schwab was there once or twice when I was in. I
- was not acquainted with him personally. The conversations which I have
- chiefly detailed here took place in the Chicago Oyster House and in
- a little room detached from the counting-room down-stairs where he
- kept those specimen bombs. He got this bomb from one of those little
- pigeonholes in that room.
-
- “He particularly mentioned the Market Square, and that it would take
- a very few men to fortify that street against all the police and
- militia in Chicago, and that they would have the tunnel at their back
- for a convenient place of retreat for those who were not engaged in
- throwing the shells, or for women and children whom they might care
- to take there. They were to receive the police or militia with their
- line formed in the shape of a letter V, the open end of the letter V
- facing toward the street intersection. Then there were to be others to
- reinforce them, as it were, on the tops of houses, at those corners.
- The plan here in this copy of the _Daily News_ of January 14th, I drew
- from one that he made right on the table cloth as we sat at dinner
- together, except that he did not put in these little squares, but
- explained to me where these would be, and laid toothpicks to make
- these lines. Those dotted lines and the other dotted lines are to
- represent the dynamiters on tops of houses.”
-
-On cross-examination Mr. Wilkinson testified:
-
- “I got leave of Mr. Spies to carry the bomb off and show it to Mr.
- Stone. I am now twenty-six years old. Have been in the newspaper
- business about four years. I came to Chicago in September of last
- year. I was assigned to this work with Mr. Spies by Mr. Stone
- personally. I advised Mr. Spies of that fact. The circulation of the
- _Daily News_, according to its official statistics, was about 165,000.
- After that conversation in the presence of Joe Gruenhut, I had also an
- interview with Gruenhut. Mr. Gruenhut said that the conflict to which
- our conversation referred at the table would occur probably on the
- 1st of May, or within a few days thereafter, and that it might extend
- all over the country. He spoke of the conflict between the workingmen
- who were to strike for eight hours and their natural enemies, the
- police and militia. I don’t remember that anything was said about the
- capitalists. The Haymarket was not mentioned.
-
- “I did not take any notes while the conversation with Mr. Spies was
- going on. I wrote them up the first opportunity I afterwards had.
- Spies said, as near as I could calculate, that they had about 9,000
- bombs. As to those tall men who could throw a five-pound bomb fifty
- paces, my recollection is that it was a company referred to, without
- number. There were four or five only of that company, as I understood,
- who could throw a five-pound bomb—that is a large-sized shell—and
- fifty yards is a long distance to throw a shell. He described the
- character of the organizations; that if there were three the first
- would know the second and the second the third, but not the third the
- first; that it was Nihilistic in its character, and that they were
- known by other means than names. I don’t think I asked Spies about
- how many men were interested in this project that were drilling and
- getting ready. I don’t recollect his saying anything about that, but
- I concluded that there were as many men as there were bombs, or more.
- There was some delay of about three or four days in the publication of
- my article after it was prepared.
-
- “I did not believe all Spies said. I believed about half of it. The
- article written by me is wound up by the suggestion that when dressed
- to cold facts it was like a scarecrow flapping in the corn-field. I
- did not write that. That was edited by some one who told me he didn’t
- believe as much of the matter as I did. I remember a communication
- from Mr. Spies in the _Daily News_, after this article. I think I
- helped ‘fix it up,’ put a head-line on it. The original was then used
- as copy. I never saw it afterwards. Joe Gruenhut is a Socialist.”
-
-GUSTAV LEHMAN gave his testimony as follows:
-
- “I am a carpenter. On May 4th I lived at 41 Freeman Street. I lived
- there six months. Have been in this country and in this city four
- years. I was born in Prussia. I attended a meeting at 54 West Lake
- Street on the evening of May 3d. Got there a quarter of nine. I went
- there from my home by myself. I was about to go to a carpenters’
- meeting at Zepf’s Hall, but I met several persons who were going to 54
- West Lake Street. I saw a copy of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ containing
- the notice ‘Y—Komme Montag Abend.’ It meant that the armed ones
- should attend the meeting at 54 West Lake Street. When I got there the
- meeting was in session. Somebody made a motion to post somebody at the
- door, and then I went out to the sidewalk, by the door, that no one
- who was going to the water-closet could remain there and listen. I was
- stationed on the sidewalk, where the steps were leading down, maybe a
- good half hour. I went into the meeting twice. I heard that large man,
- with the blonde mustache, say he was going to have hand-bills printed
- and distributed. There were present at the meeting Seliger, Thielen,
- myself, my brother, Fischer, Breitenfeld and the Hermanns. That is
- about all I remember. I don’t know how Engel looks.
-
- [Illustration: INTERIOR PLAN OF GREIF’S HALL.]
-
- “I cannot tell whether Lingg was in the basement, but he went home
- with me. We had a little quarrel. Lingg came up to us from behind, on
- the sidewalk, and said to us, ‘You are all oxen, fools.’ I asked him
- what had taken place at the meeting, where we were just coming from.
- Lingg told me that if I wanted to know something I should come to
- 58 Clybourn Avenue the next evening. There were present Seliger, my
- brother, and one other man. The next day I worked on Sedgwick Street.
- After I quit work, at three o’clock, I met a gentleman, Schneideke,
- and we went to Lingg’s. Got there about five o’clock. I saw there
- Lingg, Seliger, and a blacksmith, whose name I don’t know, and
- Hubner. I stayed there about ten minutes. They did some work in the
- bed-room. I couldn’t understand what they were doing. I did not work
- at anything. Lingg and Huebner had a cloth tied around their faces. I
- had gone there because my countryman wanted to buy a revolver. After
- I left I went home with my countryman. At about seven o’clock I went
- back to Lingg’s, and stayed there perhaps ten minutes. They were still
- busy in the bed-room. Hubner was cutting a fuse, or a coil of fuse,
- into pieces. I saw something like that fuse (indicating a coil of
- fuse) and caps. I didn’t do anything there. They were making these
- fuse and caps in the front room. That afternoon Lingg gave me a small
- hand satchel, with a tin box in it, and three round bombs, and two
- coils of fuse and some caps. This here (indicating) is the box which
- he gave me. It was said that dynamite was in it. It was nearly full.
- This box of caps (indicating) I found afterwards in the satchel.
- Lingg said to me he wanted me to keep these things so that no one
- could find them. I took them home with me, to the wood-shed; got up at
- three o’clock that night and carried them away to the prairie, about
- Clybourn Avenue, behind Ogden’s Grove.
-
- “After supper on that Tuesday evening I was about to go to Uhlich’s
- Hall, but there was no carpenters’ meeting there. Then I was about to
- go home, but we went to 58 Clybourn Avenue, Neff’s Hall, because of
- what Lingg had told us Monday night. Schneideke was with me. We stayed
- at Neff’s Hall about ten minutes. We got there about half past nine. I
- did not see anybody there whom I knew but the barkeeper. After leaving
- Neff’s Hall we went up Clybourn Avenue to Larrabee Street. We had no
- special place in view. I got home about eleven o’clock. We met Seliger
- and Lingg standing together on the sidewalk on Larrabee Street, near
- Clybourn Avenue. We stood there with them, but one—I don’t know
- whether it was Seliger or Lingg—remarked: ‘We four should not keep
- together.’ Then we went towards North Avenue, along Larrabee Street.
- Near North Avenue we met Thielen. I afterwards went to the prairie
- with a detective, about May 19th or 20th, to find the things that
- Lingg had given me. The bombs and the dynamite, the fuse and the caps
- were still there.”
-
- “Have you ever been a member of any Socialistic organization?”
-
- “I have been a member of the North Side Group of the International
- Workingmen’s Association. I belonged to the group about three months
- prior to the 4th of May. The group met at 58 Clybourn Avenue,
- regularly, every Monday evening. We talked together there, advised
- together, and reviewed what had happened among the workingmen during
- the week. We had hunting-guns and shot-guns with which we drilled. I
- kept my gun at my house.”
-
- “Did you ever attend a dance at Florus’ Hall?”
-
- “Yes, about March of this year. It was a ball of the Carpenters’
- Union. Lingg was present there. There was about ten or ten and a half
- dollars’ profit on the beer. The money, according to a resolution
- passed at the next meeting of the Carpenters’ Union, at 71 West Lake
- Street, was handed over to Lingg, with the instruction to buy dynamite
- with it, and experiment with it to find out how it was used. I heard
- Engel make a speech at 58 Clybourn Avenue, about January or February
- of this year, before the assembled workingmen of the North Side. He
- said those who could not buy revolvers should buy dynamite. It was
- cheap and easily handled. A gas-pipe was to be taken and a wooden
- plug put into the ends, and it was to be filled with dynamite. Then
- the other end is also closed up with a wooden plug, and old nails are
- tied around the pipe by means of wire. Then a hole is bored into one
- end of it, and a fuse with a cap is put into that hole. I was chairman
- at that meeting. Engel said some gas-pipe was to be found on the West
- Side, near the river, near the bridge.”
-
-On cross-examination Lehman stated:
-
- “The meeting at which Engel spoke was a public, open-door meeting. A
- notice under the signal ‘Y,’ which was understood to be the call for
- a meeting at 54 West Lake Street, I have seen once before. I belonged
- to the armed section for about three or four months. The meetings of
- the armed section at 54 West Lake Street were irregular, governed by
- such a notice in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. I did not see Lingg at 54
- West Lake Street that Monday night. I don’t know that he was there. As
- we went home he came up to us from behind on the sidewalk. Whether
- he was there or not I cannot say. When I went to Clybourn Avenue
- Tuesday night, Lingg was not there. Seliger went down in the basement
- at the meeting at 54 Lake Street Monday night. He was there for some
- time, but I cannot tell how long. I am sure about that. We went there
- together from where the carpenters’ meeting was to have taken place.
- I, my brother, he and several others went down together. I am as sure
- of Seliger’s having been down there in the basement that night as of
- any fact that I have testified to.”
-
-JEREMIAH SULLIVAN, a detective, testified:
-
- “I was on the Market Square on the night of the inauguration of the
- Board of Trade with Officer Trehorn. When we got down there, there
- was quite a large crowd. One or two people were talking in German and
- trying to hold the crowd until the speakers came. Mr. Schwab came
- there first, and Parsons and Fielden came, and I believe this man
- (indicating Lingg). Parsons spoke about the Board of Trade, and showed
- some figures how the poor man was robbed. Then he denounced the police
- as bloodhounds, the militia as servants of the capitalists, robbing
- the laboring classes, and invited them all in a body to go there and
- partake of some of those twenty-dollar dishes that they had up at the
- Board of Trade building. They were to get there by force. Mr. Fielden
- spoke after him. He denounced the police and militia as bloodhounds.
- At that time there was a company of militia on Market Square for the
- purpose of drilling. Mr. Schwab was there at the time, and called
- the attention of the crowd to the militia, and they all started off
- toward the militia. Schwab spoke in German. Officer Trehorn and I
- went over there and asked the militia to disperse, and they marched
- up Water Street. Then I came back and listened to Mr. Fielden, who
- urged the crowd to force themselves in a body and partake of those
- dishes. Then they all marched in a body, some carrying red flags. I
- saw in the procession Schwab, Parsons, Fielden, and I am not positive
- as to that young fellow (Lingg). There was no United States flag in
- the procession. There was a platoon of police at every crossing. The
- procession stopped at 107 Fifth Avenue. Parsons went in and spoke
- from the window. He denounced the policemen as bloodhounds, and the
- militia also, and stated how they stopped them from going in there and
- partaking of the food; that a good many of his audience did not have
- clothes and could not afford to pay twenty cents for a meal, let alone
- twenty dollars, and wanted them to go and follow him, and he would
- make a raid on those different places, mentioning Marshall Field’s
- and one or two other places. After him Fielden spoke, and wanted
- them all to go down with him in a body and he would lead them. I met
- Williamson, the reporter, just as he was coming down-stairs, that
- evening. We went up-stairs with him. I shook hands with Mr. Fielden
- and spoke to him. They did not know me as a policeman. Fielden,
- Parsons and Schwab were there. Spies was at the desk. Parsons asked
- Spies for this dynamite. He brought it over, and Parsons told how it
- could be used; that if it was thrown into a line of police or militia
- it would take the whole platoon. He also exhibited a coil of fuse.
- I said: ‘You can get that in any quarry. They use that in blasting
- powder.’ He said: ‘It comes in good to load these with—to touch these
- off with,’ referring to dynamite shells. I saw some caps there about
- the size of a 22-caliber cartridge. The substance which he showed
- was dynamite. It looked like red sand. It was shaped about a foot
- long, and about an inch and a half in diameter. I asked one of them
- why they didn’t go into the Board of Trade building. They said that
- they were not prepared that night; that there were too many of the
- bloodhounds before them on the street, but the next time they would
- turn out they would meet them with their own weapons and worse.”
-
-MORITZ NEFF testified:
-
-[Illustration: INTERIOR PLAN OF NEFF’S HALL.]
-
- “I live at 58 Clybourn Avenue, known as Thüringer Hall, also as Neff’s
- Hall, since seven years. I keep a saloon there. Back of the saloon
- is a hall. The North Side group used to meet there. I know all the
- defendants. On the night when the bomb was thrown I was at my saloon.
- Louis Lingg came in, in company with Seliger and another man whom
- I had not seen before. This stranger carried the satchel. It was a
- common bag, probably about a foot and a half long and six inches wide.
- He put it on the counter, after that on the floor. Lingg and Seliger
- were standing by, and Lingg asked me if some one had asked for him.
- That stranger, whose name I afterwards found out to be Muntzenberg,
- carried the satchel on his shoulder; that was ten or fifteen minutes
- after eight. I told Lingg that nobody had inquired for him. Then
- Muntzenberg picked up the bag and went out the side door, in the rear
- of the room, followed by Lingg and Seliger. I have not seen the bag
- since. There was a large meeting of painters, probably two hundred,
- in the hall that evening. For this reason I opened this door in the
- rear of the saloon, so that people going to that meeting would not
- be compelled to go through the saloon. I saw Lingg and Seliger again
- that night about eleven o’clock. Nobody had inquired in the meantime
- for Lingg. I saw Hubner there before Lingg came. I saw Thielen on
- the sidewalk in front of the saloon, but not inside. The two Lehmans
- were there after Lingg had left. They were out on the sidewalk, not
- inside. The first time Lingg stayed about five or ten minutes. He
- went out through the saloon. I did not see Seliger and Muntzenberg go
- out through the saloon. Before Lingg and Seliger came back, at about
- eleven o’clock, several individuals had come into the saloon, among
- them the Hermanns, the two Lehmans, the two Hagemans and Hirschberger.
- Lingg and Seliger dropped in a little later. They were all talking
- together. I didn’t pay much attention to it. I heard one of them
- halloa out very loud, ‘That is all your fault.’ I heard them also say
- that the bomb had been thrown among the police and some of them had
- been killed. They came from the meeting.
-
- “Engel addressed the North Side group in my hall in February last
- winter. It was a public agitation meeting of the North Side group,
- advertised in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_.”
-
- “What did Engel say?”
-
- “He wanted money for a new paper, the _Anarchist_, started by the
- Northwest Side group and two of the South Side groups. He said the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ was not outspoken enough in those Anarchistic
- principles; therefore they started this paper. They distributed some
- of these papers. Later on he gave a kind of history of revolutions in
- the old country, stated that the nobility of France were only forced
- to give up their privileges by brute force; that the slaveholders in
- the South were compelled by force to liberate their slaves, and the
- present wage-slavery would be done away with only by force also. And
- he advised them to arm themselves, and if guns were too dear for them
- they should use cheaper weapons—dynamite or anything they could get
- hold of to fight the enemy. To make bombs, anything that was hollow in
- the shape of gas-pipes would do. That is all I heard him say. I wasn’t
- present all the time. I bought a copy of the _Anarchist_ that night
- for five cents. This here (indicating) is one of the copies, dated
- January 1, 1886. This is one of the copies distributed that night.
- Engel did not distribute it himself. Two other gentlemen who were
- there did that.”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXIII.
-
- A Pinkerton Operative’s Adventures—How the Leading Anarchists Vouched
- for a Detective—An Interesting Scene—An Enemy in the Camp—Getting
- into the Armed Group—No. 16’s Experience—Paul Hull and the Dynamite
- Bomb—A Safe Corner Where the Bullets were Thick—A Revolver
- Tattoo—“Shoot the Devils”—A Reformed Internationalist.
-
-
-THE examination of witnesses continued from day to day before a crowded
-court-room. At times tilts between the attorneys and long arguments on
-knotty legal points varied the proceedings. Every coigne of vantage
-occupied by the State was stubbornly contested by counsel for the
-defendants. But the prosecution maintained its position and brought
-out all the material evidence it had accumulated. The theory of the
-State with reference to conspiracy, murder and “accessory before the
-fact” was gradually being developed with force and effect. Newspaper
-reporters proved important witnesses and rendered the State great
-service.
-
-The greatest interest at this stage of the trial was taken in the
-testimony of ANDREW C. JOHNSON, a Pinkerton detective, who became a
-member of the International Workingmen’s Association February 22, 1885,
-or rather on March 1, 1885, a few days later, for it was on that day
-that he got his red card of membership, bearing his number, and began
-his series of reports to the agency.
-
-Among a number of minor particulars, Johnson told how the blowing up of
-the Board of Trade was proposed on March 29 by Fielden, and indorsed
-by others. The most interesting part of his story, however, is the
-description of his admission into the armed group. This took place on
-August 24, at Greif’s Hall. Said Johnson:
-
- “There were twenty or twenty-three men and two women present. It was
- Monday night. Among them Parsons, Fielden, besides Walters, Bodendick,
- Boyd and Larson, Parker, Franklin and Snyder. After having been there
- a short time, a man armed with a long cavalry sword, dressed in a blue
- blouse, wearing a slouch hat, came into the room. He ordered all those
- present to fall in. He then called off certain names, and all those
- present answered to their names. He then inquired whether there were
- any new members who wished to join the military company. Those who
- did should step to the front. Myself and two others did so. We were
- asked separately to give our names. My name was put down in a book,
- and I was told my number was 16. Previous to my name being put down
- the man asked whether any one present could vouch for me as a true
- man. Parsons and Bodendick vouched for me. The same process was gone
- through in regard to the other two. The man then inquired of two other
- men in the room, whether they were members of the American group, and
- asked to see their cards, and as they were unable to produce their
- cards he told them to leave the room. Two others were expelled. The
- doors were closed and the remainder were asked to fall in line. For
- about half an hour or three-quarters we were put through the regular
- manual drill, marching, counter-marching, turning, forming fours,
- wheeling, etc. That man with a sword drilled us. He was evidently
- a German. After that he stated he would now introduce some of the
- members of the first company of the German organization. He went out
- and in a few minutes returned with ten other men dressed like himself,
- each one armed with a Springfield rifle. He placed them in line in
- front of us and introduced them as members of the first company of
- the L. u. W. V., and proceeded to drill them about ten minutes. After
- that a man whose name I do not know—he was employed by the proprietor
- of the saloon at 54 West Lake Street—came into the room with two
- tin boxes, which he placed on a table. The drill instructor asked
- us to examine them, as they were the latest improved dynamite bomb.
- They had the appearance of ordinary preserve fruit cans, the top
- part unscrewed. The inside of the cans was filled with a light brown
- mixture. There was also a small glass tube inserted in the center of
- the can. The tube was in connection with a screw, and it was explained
- that when the can was thrown against any hard substance it would
- explode. Inside of the glass tube was a liquid. Around the glass tube
- was a brownish mixture which looked like fine saw-dust. The drill
- instructor told us we ought to be very careful in the selection of new
- members of the company, otherwise there was no telling who might get
- into our midst. After that a man named Walters was chosen as captain,
- and defendant Parsons for lieutenant. We decided to call ourselves
- the International Rifles. The drill instructor then suggested that we
- ought to choose some other hall, as we were not quite safe there, and
- added, ‘We have a fine place at 636 Milwaukee Avenue. We have a short
- range in the basement, where we practice shooting regularly.’ Parsons
- inquired whether we couldn’t rent the same place, and the drill
- instructor said he didn’t know. Then the time for the next meeting
- of the armed section was fixed for the following Monday. Parsons and
- Fielden drilled with us that evening. They were present also with a
- number of others at the next meeting, on August 31, at 54 West Lake
- Street. Capt. Walters drilled us for about an hour and a half. Then
- we had a discussion as to the best way of procuring arms. Some one
- suggested that each member pay a weekly amount until he had enough to
- purchase a rifle for each member of the company. Parsons suggested:
- ‘Look here, boys; why can’t we make a raid some night on the militia
- armory? There are only two or three men on guard there, and it is
- easily done.’ This suggestion was favored by some members, but after
- some more discussion the matter of the raid on the armory was put off
- until the nights got a little bit longer.”
-
-The witness, whose testimony was very lengthy, refreshed his
-memory from copies of reports which he had made at the time. On
-cross-examination he was asked why the reports were countersigned
-by L. J. Gage. He replied that he did not know why they were so
-countersigned, but he found that they were. The history he had to tell
-bore chiefly upon the facts leading up to the riot at the Haymarket.
-
-JOSEPH GRUENHUT, a factory and tenement-house inspector of the Health
-Department of the city, had known Spies for six years, Parsons about
-ten years, Fielden and Schwab about two years, more or less.
-
- “I have known Neebe perhaps fifteen or twenty years. I was in the
- habit of meeting some of them daily, at labor meetings or at the
- office of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. I am myself interested in labor
- movements, formerly the Labor Party of the United States. It changed
- its name into the Socialistic Labor Party. I am a Socialist. I don’t
- consider myself an Anarchist. I am not a member of any group of the
- Internationals in the city, nor of the Lehr und Wehr Verein. I was
- present at interviews between the reporter Wilkinson and Mr. Spies. I
- introduced Mr. Wilkinson to Mr. Spies at the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office
- in the forenoon, and on the evening of the same day, I believe, I was
- present at a conversation between them at a restaurant on Madison
- Street. We took supper there together.”
-
- “State the conversation which took place there between Spies and the
- reporter.”
-
- “Mr. Wilkinson asked him how many members belonged to the military
- societies of organized trade and labor unions. Spies said that there
- were many thousand; that these organizations were open to everybody,
- and at meetings people were asked to become members, but their names
- would not be known, because they would be numbered, and they didn’t
- keep any record of names. Mr. Spies laid some toothpicks on the table
- so as to show the position of armed men on tops of houses, on street
- corners, and how they could keep a company of militia or police in
- check by the use of dynamite bombs. The conversation was carried on
- in a conversational tone, half joking, etc., and it lasted perhaps a
- quarter of an hour, while we were taking our supper.”
-
-On cross-examination Mr. Gruenhut stated that he had heard no reference
-to any attack to be made on the first of May, and in the re-direct
-examination he said, with reference to Spies’ attitude on the
-eight-hour movement:
-
- “At the start he said he did not believe they would get it, and then
- it would not amount to anything anyhow; it was only a palliative
- measure—not radical enough. As I recollect, I brought him a list of
- the different organizations in Chicago, and we were trying to pick
- out those which needed organization, and the packers and a great
- many others were directly organized by these men for the eight-hour
- movement. We were in constant consultation about organizing those
- trades which had not been organized before. I don’t suppose he
- ever said that he was in favor of the eight-hour movement. I don’t
- know that he was ever enthusiastically in favor of the eight-hour
- movement, but he was enthusiastically in favor of the eight-hour
- movement that we had talked about on Monday. There never had been
- a general eight-hour mass-meeting. There had been a mass-meeting
- representing the great assemblies, at the Armory, but not the
- Central Labor Union. It was a Socialistic organization; was not
- represented there. In October, 1885, there had been a mass-meeting
- of the Socialistic organizations in favor of the eight-hour movement
- at West Twelfth Street Turner Hall. I was not there. At the time I
- had that conversation with Mr. Spies and the others present about a
- mass-meeting to be held, we did not know where the meeting was to
- be held at all. We only considered the advisability of holding a
- mass-meeting on the question of the eight-hour movement in the open
- air. There are only three or four places where you can hold such a
- meeting; either the lake front or Market Square or the Haymarket. At
- that time I am sure I saw Spies, Rau and Neebe almost every day, but
- I could not tell whether the meeting was agreed upon on Saturday or
- Monday, night or day; but there was a general agreement upon having
- one general mass-meeting in the open air. It was not sure whether the
- meeting was to be in the forenoon, afternoon or night, but at last
- we came to the conclusion it ought to be at night. My recollection
- is that Spies said to Wilkinson, at the time of that conversation,
- that the military associations were open and free to everybody; that
- they meet, advertise their meetings, have picnics and advertise them,
- and meet in halls, even in open ground, at Sheffield, or out on the
- prairie. That proposed mass-meeting was to be an eight-hour meeting
- and an indignation meeting over the killing of men at McCormick’s at
- the same time. Parsons and Spies, during conversations within the
- twelve months before the bomb was thrown, said that arming meant the
- use of dynamite bombs by individuals; all men should individually
- self-help, as against a squad of policeman or company of militia, so
- that they need not be an army.”
-
-F. H. NEWMAN, a physician, attended some of the officers wounded at
-the Haymarket, and identified an iron nut extracted from Hahn. He had
-also examined some ten or twelve officers, and had found some bullets
-and fragments of a combination of metals much lighter than lead. “The
-fragments were also much lighter,” he said, “than the bullets, varying
-very much in size, from perhaps what we would call 22-caliber up to
-45-caliber. The bullets also varied in size. This piece of metal I took
-from the heel of Officer Barber. It made a ragged wound and was buried
-in the bone; crushed the bone considerably, fractured it in several
-places. I examined the wounds of one officer who had a large ragged
-wound in the liver. He died within a few hours. It could have been a
-wound produced by a bullet, if the bullet was very ragged, spread out
-considerably, as they do sometimes.”
-
-MAXWELL E. DICKSON, a newspaper reporter, had had several interviews
-with Parsons. He said:
-
- “The last time I met Mr. Parsons, either the latter part of last year
- or the commencement of this year, he gave me two or three papers, and
- one of them contained one or two diagrams, a plan of warfare. Parsons
- stated that the social revolution would be brought about in the way
- that paper would describe. In November of last year, some time after
- that demonstration on the Market Square, I remarked to Parsons, in a
- sort of joking way, ‘You are not going to blow up anybody, are you?’
- He said: ‘I don’t say that we won’t, I don’t know that we won’t, but
- you will see the revolution brought about, and sooner than you think
- for.’ I attended a number of meetings at which some of the defendants
- spoke.
-
- “The Twelfth Street Turner Hall meeting was a meeting called for
- the purpose of discussing the Socialistic platform. A circular had
- been issued, in which public men, clergy, employers and others who
- were interested in the social question were invited to be present to
- discuss the question of the social movement. The hall was crowded.
- During the meeting Mr. Parsons made a speech, during which he said
- that the degradation of labor was brought about by what was known as
- the rights of private property; he quoted a long line of statistics,
- showing that an average man with a capital of five thousand dollars
- was enabled to make four thousand dollars a year, and thus get rich,
- while his employé, who made the money for him, obtained but $340, and
- there were upwards of two million heads of families who were in want,
- or bordering on want, making their living either by theft, robbery or
- any such occupation as they could get work in; and he said that, while
- they were the champions of free speech and social order, it would
- be hard for the man who stood in the way of liberty, fraternity and
- equality to all. Later on Fielden spoke and said that the majority
- of men were starving because of over-production, and went on to show
- that overcoats were being sent to Africa, to the Congo states, which
- were needed at home, and he could not understand how that was. As a
- Socialist, he believed in the equal rights of every man to live. The
- present condition of the laboring man was due to the domination of
- capital, and they could expect no remedy from legislatures, and there
- were enough present in the hall to take Chicago from the grasp of the
- capitalists; that capital must divide with labor; that the time was
- coming when a contest would arise between capital and labor. He was no
- alarmist, but the Socialist should be prepared for the victory when it
- did come. Several other persons spoke after that. Then Spies spoke in
- German, advising the workingmen to organize in order to obtain their
- rights, and that they might be prepared for the emergency. Then there
- were resolutions adopted denouncing the capitalists, the editors and
- clergymen, and those who had refused to come to hear the truth spoken
- and discuss the question, whereupon the meeting adjourned.
-
- [Illustration: ADOLPH LIESKE.
-
- BEHEADED NOV. 17, 1885.—From Photograph found in the possession of
- Anarchist Bodendick, on back of which was written: “Revenge is Sweet.”]
-
- “At the meeting at Mueller’s Hall Fielden presided and Mr. Griffin
- spoke first, advocating the use of force to right social wrongs. A
- young man named Lichtner said he was in favor of Socialistic ideas,
- but opposed to the use of force. Schwab, in German, said that the
- gap between the rich and the poor was growing wider; that, although
- despotism in Russia had endeavored to suppress Nihilism by executing
- some and sending others to Siberia, Nihilism was still growing. And he
- praised Reinsdorf, who had then been recently executed in Europe, but
- stated that his death had been avenged by the killing of Rumpf, the
- Chief of Police of Frankfort, who had been industrious in endeavoring
- to crush out Socialism; that murder was forced on many a man through
- the misery brought on him by capital; that freedom in the United
- States was a farce, and in Illinois was literally unknown; that both
- of the political parties were corrupt, and what was needed here was a
- bloody revolution which would right their wrongs.
-
- “A young man named Gorsuch was against all government, which was made
- for slaves. The only way the workingmen could get their rights was by
- the Gatling gun, by absolute brute force. Then Mr. Fielden called upon
- the capitalists to answer these arguments and to save their property,
- for when the Socialists decided to appropriate the property of the
- capitalists it would be too late for the capitalists to save anything.
-
- “Then Spies said in German that the workingmen should revolt at once.
- He had been accused of giving this advice before, it was true, and he
- was proud of it. That wage slavery could only be abolished through
- powder and ball. The ballot was a sort of skin game. He compared it to
- a deck of cards in which there was a marked deck put in the place of
- the genuine, and in which the poor man got all of the skin cards, so
- that, when the dealer laid down the cards, his money was taken from
- him. Then Spies offered these resolutions, which were adopted:
-
- “‘Whereas, our comrades in Germany have slain one of the dirtiest
- dogs of his Majesty Lehmann, the greatest disgrace of the present
- time—namely, the spy Rumpf.
-
- “‘_Resolved_, That we rejoice over and applaud the noble and heroic
- act.’
-
- “Then Parsons offered some resolutions favoring the abolition of the
- present social system, and the formation of a new social coöperative
- system that would bring about an equality between capital and labor.
-
- “The next meeting I attended was on the Market Square, on Thanksgiving
- day. Mr. Parsons asked what they had to be thankful for, whether it
- was for their poverty, their lack of sufficient food and clothing,
- etc., and argued that the capitalists on the avenue spent more money
- for wine at one meal than some of them received pay in a month.
- Fielden said they would be justified in going over to Marshall Field’s
- and taking out from there that which belonged to them. A series of
- resolutions were adopted, offered, I believe, by Parsons, denouncing
- the President for having set apart Thanksgiving day—that it was a
- fallacy and a fraud; that the workingmen had nothing to be thankful
- for; that only a few obtained the riches that were produced, while the
- many had to starve.”
-
-On cross-examination Mr. Dickson said:
-
- “Parsons said to me that when the social revolution came, it would
- be better for all men; it would place every man on an equality. He
- pictured me personally as a wage slave, referring to my position as
- a newspaper reporter, and that all reforms had to be brought about
- through revolution, and bloodshed could not be avoided. I frequently
- heard him give expression to such ideas in friendly conversation, in
- which the social outlook of the country was talked over, and Parsons
- frequently insisted that any method would be justifiable to accomplish
- the object which he advocated as the intended result of a social
- revolution. Parsons once stated to me that if it became necessary
- they would use dynamite, and it might become necessary. Parsons never
- expressed any distinct proposal to inaugurate the revolution at any
- particular time, or by the use of any particular force. He simply
- spoke of the social revolution as the inevitable future. I am not
- certain as to whether the paper which Parsons gave me, which contained
- those diagrams, was a copy of the _Alarm_ or of some other paper. This
- article here in the _Alarm_ of July 25, 1885 (indicating), under the
- title, ‘Street Fighting—How to Meet the Enemy,’ is, to the best of
- my recollection, the article to which my attention was called by Mr.
- Parsons at the time. I am positive these diagrams here (indicating)
- are the same as in the article given me by Parsons.
-
- “The position of these parties in meetings that I have attended, since
- January 18, 1885, when they spoke of the industrial condition, was
- that they predicted a social revolution, and they also advised the
- workingmen to bring about that revolution. It was Mr. Fielden on the
- lake front—I cannot fix the date—who used language of that import,
- advised the men to go forward and get that which did belong to them by
- force.”
-
-PAUL C. HULL, a reporter of the _Daily News_, attended the Haymarket
-meeting and heard Fielden speak. He testified as follows:
-
-[Illustration: PARSONS’ HANDWRITING.
-
-The Manuscript of an Advertisement calling a Meeting of the “American
-Group.”]
-
- “When the bomb exploded I was on the iron stairway, about four steps
- from the top landing. After the bomb exploded the firing began from
- the crowd before the police fired. I saw the bomb in the air. My head
- was probably within twelve or fifteen feet above the crowd. It was
- quite dark. Directly opposite me was a pile of boxes on the sidewalk,
- and an area-way surrounded by an iron railing. My eyes were directed
- toward the speakers’ wagon. As the words were in his mouth, I saw
- arching through the air the sparks of the burning fuse. According to
- my recollection it seemed to come from about fifteen or twenty feet
- south of Crane’s alley, flying over the third division of police and
- falling between the second and third. It seemed to throw to the ground
- the second and third divisions of police. At almost the same instant
- there was a rattling of shots that came from both sides of the street
- and not from the police. The meeting was noisy and turbulent. When the
- speaking began there were about eight hundred to one thousand people
- in the crowd. At the time the police came it had dwindled away a third
- from what it was at its largest number. About a quarter of the crowd,
- that part which clustered about the wagon, were enthusiasts, loudly
- applauded the speakers and cheered them on by remarks. The outskirts
- of the crowd seemed to regard the speakers with indifference, often
- laughed at them and hooted them.
-
- “Spies told his version of the McCormick riot. He had been charged
- with being responsible for the riot and the death of those men, by
- Mr. McCormick. He said Mr. McCormick was a liar and was himself
- responsible for the death of the six men which he claimed were killed
- at that time; that he had addressed a meeting on the prairie, and when
- the factory bell rang a body of the meeting which he was addressing
- detached themselves and went toward the factory, and that there the
- riot occurred. He then touched upon the dominating question of labor
- and capital and their relations very briefly, and asked what meant
- this array of Gatling guns, infantry ready to arms, patrol wagons
- and policemen, and deduced from that that it was the Government or
- capitalists preparing to crush them, should they try to right their
- wrongs. I don’t remember that he said anything in his speech about the
- means to be employed against that capitalistic force.
-
- “Parsons dealt considerably in labor statistics. He drew the
- conclusion that the capitalists got eighty-five cents out of the
- dollar, and the laboring man fifteen cents, and that the eight-hour
- agitation and the agitation of the social question was a still hunt
- after the other eighty-five cents. He advised the using of violent
- means by the workingmen to right their wrongs. Said that law and
- government was the tool of the wealthy to oppress the poor; that the
- ballot was no way in which to right their wrongs. That could only be
- done by physical force.
-
- “I only heard a part of Fielden’s speech. He said Martin Foran had
- been sent to Congress to represent the Labor Party, and he did not
- do it satisfactorily. When McCormick’s name was mentioned during
- the speeches there were exclamations like ‘Hang him,’ or ‘Throw him
- into the lake.’ Some such a remark would be made when any prominent
- Chicago capitalist’s name was used. When some one in the crowd cried
- ‘Let’s hang him now,’ when some man’s name was mentioned, one of the
- speakers, either Spies or Parsons, said, ‘No, we are not ready yet.’”
-
-On cross-examination Mr. Hull said:
-
- “The firing of the revolvers startled me. I considered my position
- dangerous and tried to get around the corner. A few moments before
- the explosion of the bomb a threatening cloud came up, and Mr. Spies
- said the meeting would adjourn to 54 West Lake Street, I believe. At
- no time during the meeting was I as near as eight or ten feet from
- the speaker. I don’t believe I heard Fielden say, in a loud voice,
- ‘There come the bloodhounds! Now you do your duty and I’ll do mine,’
- when the police were coming up. I remember that Mr. Fielden said ‘in
- conclusion,’ after I got my position on the stairs again, and when the
- police were forming and marching below. I was confused at the time
- I wrote my reports. (After examining his report in a copy of _Daily
- News_ of May 5th, 1886:) I have said nowhere in this report that the
- crowd fired upon the police. I did say that the police required no
- orders before firing upon the crowd. I wrote this up about an hour
- after the occurrence. After describing the explosion of the bomb, I
- used this language in my report: ‘For an instant after the explosion
- the crowd seemed paralyzed, but, with the revolver shots cracking like
- a tattoo on a mighty drum, and the bullets flying in the air, the
- mob plunged away into the darkness with a yell of rage and fear.’ My
- recollection is that the bomb struck the ground about on a line with
- the south line of the alley. The bomb apparently fell north from the
- point where I first saw it in the air. I judge it came from the south,
- going west-northwest.”
-
-[Illustration: A PICNIC OF THE “REDS” AT SHEFFIELD.
-
-1. Experimenting with Dynamite. 2. Getting Inspiration. 3. Engel on the
-Stump. 4. “Hoch die Anarchie!” 5. Mrs. Parsons addressing the Crowd. 6.
-Children peddling Most’s Literature. 7. A Family Feast.]
-
-WHITING ALLEN, another reporter, was present at the Haymarket meeting
-in company with Mr. Tuttle, another newspaper man, and heard some of
-the speeches. Said the witness:
-
- “Parsons was speaking when we got there. About the only thing that
- I could quote from his speech is this: ‘What good are these strikes
- going to do? Do you think that anything will be accomplished by
- them? Do you think the workingmen are going to gain their point? No,
- no; they will not. The result of them will be that you will have to
- go back to work for less money than you are getting.’ That is his
- language in effect. At one time he mentioned the name of Jay Gould.
- There were cries from the crowd, ‘Hang Jay Gould!’ ‘Throw him into
- the lake!’ and so on. He said, ‘No, no; that would not do any good.
- If you would hang Jay Gould now, there would be another, and perhaps
- a hundred, up to-morrow. It don’t do any good to hang one man; you
- have to kill them all, or get rid of them all.’ Then he went on to say
- that it was not the individual, but the system; that the government
- should be destroyed. It was the wrong government, and these people
- who supported it had to be destroyed. I heard him cry, ‘To arms!’ I
- cannot tell in what connection. The crowd was extremely turbulent. It
- seemed to be thoroughly in sympathy with the speakers; was extremely
- excited, and applauded almost every utterance. I staid there some ten
- or fifteen minutes. I then left and went to Zepf’s Hall. Later I came
- back again, when Fielden was speaking. When the bomb was thrown I was
- in the saloon of Zepf’s Hall, standing about the middle of the room
- at the time. I did not see any of the defendants there. They were not
- there to my knowledge. When I was down at the meeting, I pointed out
- to Mr. Tuttle Mr. Parsons, Fielden, Spies, and a man that I presume
- was Mr. Schwab, but was not certain. The general outline was that of
- Mr. Schwab. I could not get a full view of his face. That must have
- been half past nine.”
-
-CHARLES R. TUTTLE said he did not remember much of what Parsons spoke:
-
- “Parsons made a series of references to existing strikes—one was
- the Southwestern strike—and to Jay Gould, the head of that system
- of railways, and the winding up of the peroration in connection with
- that created a great deal of excitement and many responses from the
- audience. He then spoke of the strike at McCormick’s, and detailed
- the suffering of the people who had wives and children, and who were
- being robbed by one whom I took to be Mr. McCormick, although I cannot
- say that was the idea; who were being robbed, anyway, by capitalists.
- And he said it was no wonder that these persons were struggling for
- their rights, and then said that the police had been called on by the
- capitalists to suppress the first indications of any movement on the
- part of the working people to stand up for rights, and he asked what
- they are going to do. One man—I believe the same one who had spoken
- when he referred to Gould—stuck up his hand with a revolver in it,
- and said, ‘We will shoot the devils,’ or some such expression, and I
- saw two others sticking up their hands, near to him, who made similar
- expressions, and had what I took to be at the time revolvers.”
-
-EDWARD COSGROVE, a detective connected with the Central Station, was on
-duty at the Haymarket. He gave the substance of some of the speeches,
-and, referring to Spies, said:
-
- “Then he talked about the police, the bloodhounds of the law, shooting
- down six of their brothers, and he said: ‘When you are ready to do
- something, do it, and don’t tell anybody you are going to.’ A great
- number of the crowd cheered him loudly. The enthusiastic part of
- the crowd was close to the wagon. Sometimes there would be some on
- the outskirts. I did not hear all of Spies’ speech and only part of
- Parsons’. Parsons talked of statistics—about the price laboring men
- received. He said they got fifteen cents out of a dollar, and they
- were still on the hunt for the other eighty-five. He talked of the
- police and capitalists and Pinkertons. He said he was down in the
- Hocking Valley region, and they were only getting twenty-four cents
- a day, and that was less than Chinamen got. And he said his hearers
- would be worse than Chinamen if they didn’t arm themselves, and they
- would be held responsible for blood that would flow in the near
- future. There was a great deal of cheering close to the wagon during
- his speech. I was in Capt. Ward’s office when the police were called
- out. I came down the street at the time the police did. When the
- police came to a halt, I was on the northwest corner of Randolph and
- Desplaines. I heard no firing of any kind before the explosion of the
- bomb, but immediately after that. I can’t tell from what source the
- pistol shots came, whether the police fired first or the other side.
- I reported at the station from time to time what was going on at the
- meeting.”
-
-On cross-examination Cosgrove said:
-
- “I was twice at the station reporting. My second report was that Mr.
- Parsons said they would be held responsible for the blood that would
- flow in the streets of America in the near future. The police remained
- at the station after this report. I didn’t hear any part of Fielden’s
- speech. When I came out before the police quite a number of the crowd
- had gone away. When I saw Schwab he was about forty feet south of the
- south sidewalk of Randolph Street, on Desplaines. I saw Schwab about
- half past eight, or a little later, at the wagon. My impression is
- that I saw Mr. Schwab near the close of Parsons’ speech, but I am not
- sure. When I saw him at the wagon it was about the time Mr. Spies came
- back the second time to speak.”
-
-TIMOTHY MCKEOUGH, a detective, was present when the meeting opened.
-
- “Spies got on the wagon and called out twice: ‘Is Mr. Parsons here?’
- He received no answer, and said: ‘Never mind, I will go and find him
- myself.’ Somebody said: ‘Let us pull the wagon around on Randolph
- Street and hold the meeting there.’ Mr. Spies said: ‘No, that might
- stop the street-cars.’ He started away then, and Officer Myers and
- myself followed him as far as the corner. There was a man with him
- who, I think, was Schwab, but I am not very sure about that, and
- in about fifteen minutes he returned, and when I got back he was
- addressing the meeting, talking about what happened to their brethren
- the day before at McCormick’s. He had been down to McCormick’s and
- addressed a meeting, and they wanted to stop him; tried to pull him
- off the car because he was a Socialist; that while he was talking
- a portion of the crowd started toward McCormick’s and commenced to
- throw stones, the most harmless amusement they could have; how wagons
- loaded with police came down the Black Road and commenced firing
- into the crowd. Somebody halloaed out: ‘Let us hang him,’ and he
- said: ‘My friends, when you get ready to do anything, go and do it,
- and say nothing about it.’ About that time Parsons arrived and Spies
- introduced him, saying Parsons could talk better English than he, and
- would probably entertain them better. The crowd in the neighborhood
- of the wagon appeared very much excited when Spies spoke about the
- shooting down of workingmen at McCormick’s. Parsons quoted from some
- book on labor statistics, which he thought his hearers probably had
- not read, because they didn’t have the money to buy it or leisure to
- read it, as they had to work too much. He said out of every dollar the
- laboring man makes for capitalists he only gets fifteen cents, and
- they are on a still hunt for the other eighty-five. He had been down
- to the coal mines, and, according to labor statistics, they received
- 24½ cents for their daily labor on the average during a year. That
- was just half as much as the Chinaman would get, and he said: ‘If we
- keep on we will be a great deal worse than Chinamen. I am a tenant and
- I pay rent to a landlord.’ Somebody asked, ‘What does the landlord
- do with it?’ Parsons said the landlord pays taxes, the taxes pay the
- sheriff, the police, the Pinkertonites and the militia, who are ready
- to shoot them down when they are looking for their rights. He said: ‘I
- am a Socialist from the top of my head to the soles of my feet, and I
- will express my sentiments if I die before morning.’ The crowd near
- the wagon loudly cheered him. Later I heard Mr. Parsons say, taking
- off his hat in one hand: ‘To arms! to arms! to arms!’ Then I went over
- to Desplaines Street Station and reported to Inspector Bonfield. When
- I came back Fielden was speaking. He criticised Martin Foran, the
- Congressman that was elected by the working people. Speaking about the
- law, he said the law was for the capitalists. ‘Yesterday, when their
- brothers demanded their rights at McCormick’s, the law came out and
- shot them down. When Mr. McCormick closed his door against them for
- demanding their rights, the law did not protect them.’ If they loved
- their wives, their children, they should take the law, kill it, stab
- it, throttle it, or it would throttle them. That appeared to make
- the crowd near the wagon more excited, and I made another report to
- Inspector Bonfield. I saw Spies, Parsons and Fielden on the wagon. I
- saw Schwab on the wagon in the early part of the evening, and a man
- named Schnaubelt.”
-
-HENRY E. O. HEINEMAN, a reporter of the Chicago _Tribune_, testified:
-
- “I saw the bomb, that is the burning fuse, rise out of the crowd and
- fall among the police. It rose from very nearly the southeast corner
- of the alley. I didn’t hear any shots before the bomb exploded. Almost
- instantly after it shots were heard. I could not say whether the first
- shots came from the police or the crowd. It seems to me as if I heard
- some bullets close to myself, whizzing from the north as I was going
- south.
-
- “Spies started out by saying that the meeting was intended to be a
- peaceable one—it was not called to raise a disturbance—and then gave
- his version of the affair at McCormick’s, the day before. The crowd
- near the speaker’s wagon was in sympathy with the speakers. There was
- occasionally applause. I heard a few Germans talk with one another. I
- heard Parsons call out toward the close of his speech, ‘To arms! to
- arms! to arms!’ Fielden, towards the end of his speech, told the crowd
- to kill the law, to stab it, to throttle it, or else it would throttle
- them. I was formerly an Internationalist. I ceased my connection with
- them about two years ago. At that time the defendant Neebe belonged to
- the same group I belonged to. It is not in existence now. I met Spies
- and Schwab occasionally in the groups. I ceased my connection with
- the Internationale immediately after, and on account of the lectures
- Herr Most delivered in this city. I saw on the wagon at the Haymarket
- meeting Spies, Parsons, Fielden, and at one time Rudolph Schnaubelt.”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXIV.
-
- Reporting under Difficulties—Shorthand in an Overcoat Pocket—An
- Incriminating Conversation—Spies and Schwab in Danger—Gilmer’s
- Story—The Man in the Alley—Schnaubelt the Bomb-thrower—Fixing
- the Guilt—Spies Lit the Fuse—A Searching Cross-Examination—The
- Anarchists Alarmed—Engel and the Shell Machine—The Find at
- Lingg’s House—The Author on the Witness-stand—Talks with the
- Prisoners—Dynamite Experiments—The False Bottom of Lingg’s
- Trunk—The Material in the Shells—Expert Testimony—Incendiary
- Banners—The Prosecution Rests—A Fruitless Attempt to have Neebe
- Discharged.
-
-
-WHEN the public began to see the character of the evidence against the
-Anarchists, sentiment crystalized into a feeling that no fair-minded
-juror could be led astray by specious pleas or sophistical arguments
-into voting for an acquittal of any one of the defendants. The facts
-of the conspiracy had been brought out with startling boldness, and
-with every witness the points against the prisoners were fortified
-with added effect. One of the strongest witnesses as to the incendiary
-utterances of the speakers at the Haymarket meeting was G. P. English,
-then a reporter for the Chicago _Tribune_, but at present private
-secretary of Mayor Roche. Another was M. M. Thompson, who testified as
-to a conversation between Spies and Schwab.
-
-MR. ENGLISH testified as follows:
-
- “I am a reporter for the _Tribune_, and have been for seventeen years.
- I am also a shorthand reporter. I got to the Haymarket meeting, on the
- 4th of May, about half-past seven. I went all around the Haymarket
- Square from Desplaines to Halsted, saw a few people on the street,
- but no meeting. Later on I saw some people going north on Desplaines
- beyond Randolph. I went over there, and in a little while Mr. Spies
- got up on the wagon and said Mr. Fielden and Mr. Parsons were to make
- a speech, but they hadn’t come. Spies got down off the wagon and went
- toward Randolph Street. He was gone perhaps five or ten minutes. As
- he passed me in coming back, I asked him if Parsons was going to
- speak. I understood him to say yes. Then he got up on the wagon and
- said: ‘Gentlemen, please come to order.’ I took shorthand notes of his
- speech, as much as I could. I had a notebook and a short pencil in my
- overcoat pocket and made notes in the pocket. My notes are correct.
- Some of them I can read, some I can’t. I don’t recollect what he or
- the others said without my notes.
-
- “Before Spies commenced to speak somebody in the crowd suggested that
- the meeting should go over to the Haymarket, but Spies said no, that
- the crowd would interfere with the street-cars. Here is what I have of
- Spies’ speech:
-
- “‘Gentlemen and fellow workmen: Mr. Parsons and Mr. Fielden will be
- here in a very short time to address you. I will say, however, first,
- this meeting was called for the purpose of discussing the general
- situation of the eight-hour strike, and the events which have taken
- place during the last forty-eight hours. It seems to have been the
- opinion of the authorities that this meeting has been called for
- the purpose of raising a little row and disturbance. This, however,
- was not the intention of the committee that called the meeting. The
- committee that called the meeting wanted to tell you certain facts
- of which you are probably aware. The capitalistic press has been
- misleading—misrepresenting the cause of labor for the last few weeks,
- so much so’—there is something here unintelligible that I can’t read;
- some of it went off on the side of my pocket. The next is: ‘Whenever
- strikes have taken place; whenever people have been driven to violence
- by the oppression of their’—something unintelligible here—‘Then the
- police’—a few unintelligible words, then there were cheers—‘But
- I want to tell you, gentlemen, that these acts of violence are the
- natural outcome of the degradation and subjection to which working
- people are subjected. I was addressing a meeting of ten thousand wage
- slaves yesterday afternoon in the neighborhood of McCormick’s. They
- did not want me to speak. The most of them were good church-going
- people. They didn’t want me to speak because I was a Socialist. They
- wanted to tear me down from the cars, but I spoke to them and told
- them they must stick together’—some more that is unintelligible—‘and
- he would have to submit to them if they would stick together.’ The
- next I have is: ‘They were not Anarchists, but good church-going
- people—they were good Christians. The patrol wagons came, and blood
- was shed.’
-
- “Some one in the crowd said, ‘Shame on them.’ The next thing I have
- is: ‘Throwing stones at the factory; most harmless sport.’ Then Spies
- said, ‘What did the police do?’ Some one in the crowd said, ‘Murdered
- them.’ Then he went on: ‘They only came to the meeting there as if
- attending church.’ ... ‘Such things tell you of the agitation.’ ...
- ‘Couldn’t help themselves any more.’ ‘It was then when they resorted
- to violence.’ ... ‘Before you starve.’ ... ‘This fight that is going
- on now is simply a struggle for the existence of the oppressed
- classes.’
-
- “My pocket got fuller and fuller of paper; my notes got more
- unintelligible. The meeting seemed to be orderly. I took another
- position in the face of the speaker, took out my paper and reported
- openly during all the rest of the meeting. The balance of my notes I
- have not got. From what appears in my report in the _Tribune_, I can
- give you part of what Spies, Fielden and Parsons said. It is, however,
- only an abstract of what they said. So far as it goes it is verbatim,
- except the pronouns and the verbs are changed.
-
- “The balance of Spies’ speech is as follows (reading): ‘It was said
- that I inspired the attack on McCormick’s. That is a lie. The fight
- is going on. Now is the chance to strike for the existence of the
- oppressed classes. The oppressors want us to be content. They will
- kill us. The thought of liberty which inspired your sires to fight for
- their freedom ought to animate you to-day. The day is not far distant
- when we will resort to hanging these men. (Applause and cries of ‘Hang
- them now.’) McCormick is the man who created the row Monday, and he
- must be held responsible for the murder of our brothers. (Cries of
- ‘Hang him.’) Don’t make any threats, they are of no avail. Whenever
- you get ready to do something, do it, and don’t make any threats
- beforehand. There are in the city to-day between forty and fifty
- thousand men locked out because they refuse to obey the supreme will
- or dictation of a small number of men. The families of twenty-five or
- thirty thousand men are starving because their husbands and fathers
- are not men enough to withstand and resist the dictation of a few
- thieves on a grand scale, to put it out of the power of the few men
- to say whether they should work or not. You place your lives, your
- happiness, everything, out of the arbitrary power of a few rascals who
- have been raised in idleness and luxury upon the fruits of your labor.
- Will you stand that? (Cries of ‘No.’) The press say we are Bohemians,
- Poles, Russians, Germans—that there are no Americans among us. That
- is a lie. Every honest American is with us; those who are not are
- unworthy of their traditions and their forefathers.’
-
- “Spies spoke fifteen or twenty minutes. What I have given here would
- not represent more than five or six minutes of actual talking.
-
- “Parsons stated first that the remedy for the wrongs of the workingmen
- was in Socialism; otherwise they would soon become Chinamen. ‘It is
- time to raise a note of warning. There is nothing in the eight-hour
- movement to excite the capitalists. Do you know that the military
- are under arms, and a Gatling gun is ready to mow you down? Is this
- Germany, Russia or Spain? (A voice: ‘It looks like it.’) Whenever you
- make a demand for eight hours’ pay, an increase of pay, the militia
- and the deputy sheriffs and the Pinkerton men are called out, and you
- are shot and clubbed and murdered in the streets. I am not here for
- the purpose of inciting anybody, but to speak out, to tell the facts
- as they exist, even though it shall cost me my life before morning.’
- Then he spoke about the Cincinnati demonstration, and about the rifle
- guard being needed. Then the report continues: ‘It behooves you, as
- you love your wives and children, if you don’t want to see them perish
- with hunger, killed, or cut down like dogs on the street, Americans,
- in the interest of your liberty and your independence, to arm, to
- arm yourselves. (Applause and cries of ‘We will do it, we are ready
- now.’) You are not.’ Then the rest of it is the wind-up. Besides
- what I have stated above he spoke for a long while about the fact
- that out of every dollar the workingman got fifteen cents, and the
- capitalists—the employers—got eighty-five cents. When he said, ‘To
- arms, to arms,’ he said that in his ordinary way of talking. I did not
- notice any difference in him when he said that.
-
- “The first that I have written out of Fielden’s speech is: ‘There are
- premonitions of danger—all know it. The press say the Anarchists will
- sneak away; we are not going to. If we continue to be robbed it will
- not be long before we will be murdered. There is no security for the
- working classes under the present social system. A few individuals
- control the means of living and hold the workingmen in a vise.
- Everybody does not know that. Those who know it are tired of it, and
- know the others will get tired of it, too. They are determined to
- end it and will end it, and there is no power in the land that will
- prevent them. Congressman Foran says the laborer can get nothing from
- legislation. He also said that the laborers can get some relief from
- their present condition when the rich man knew it was unsafe for
- him to live in a community where there are dissatisfied workingmen,
- for they would solve the labor problem. I don’t know whether you
- are Democrats or Republicans, but whichever you are, you worship at
- the shrine of heaven. John Brown, Jefferson, Washington, Patrick
- Henry and Hopkins said to the people, “The law is your enemy.” We
- are rebels against it. The law is only framed for those that are
- your enslavers. (A voice: ‘That is true.’) Men in their blind rage
- attacked McCormick’s factory and were shot down by the law in cold
- blood, in the city of Chicago, in the protection of property. Those
- men were going to do some damage to a certain person’s interest who
- was a large property-owner; therefore the law came to his defense;
- and when McCormick undertook to do some injury to the interest of
- those who had no property, the law also came to his defense and not
- to the workingman’s defense, when he, McCormick, attacked him and his
- living. (Cries of ‘No.’) There is the difference. The law makes no
- distinctions. A million men hold all the property in this country. The
- law has no use for the other fifty-four millions. (A voice: ‘Right
- enough.’) You have nothing more to do with the law except to lay
- hands on it and throttle it until it makes its last kick. It turns
- your brothers out on the wayside, and has degraded them until they
- have lost the last vestige of humanity, and they are mere things and
- animals. Keep your eye upon it, throttle it, kill it, stab it, do
- everything you can to wound it—to impede its progress. Remember,
- before trusting them to do anything for yourself, prepare to do it
- yourself. Don’t turn over your business to anybody else. No man
- deserves anything unless he is man enough to make an effort to lift
- himself from oppression.’
-
- “Then there was an interruption on account of some storm-clouds.
- Everybody started to go away. Mr. Parsons suggested that they adjourn
- over to Zepf’s Hall. Fielden said no, the people were trying to get
- information, and he would go on. And he went on: ‘Is it not a fact
- that we have no choice as to our existence, for we can’t dictate what
- our labor is worth? He that has to obey the will of another is a
- slave. Can we do anything except by the strong arm of resistance? The
- Socialists are not going to declare war, but I tell you war has been
- declared upon us; and I ask you to get hold of anything that will help
- to resist the onslaught of the enemy and the usurper. The skirmish
- lines have met. People have been shot. Men, women and children have
- not been spared by the capitalists and minions of private capital. It
- has no mercy—so ought you. You are called upon to defend yourselves,
- your lives, your future. What matters it whether you kill yourselves
- with work to get a little relief, or die on the battle-field resisting
- the enemy? What is the difference? Any animal, however loathsome,
- will resist when stepped upon. Are men less than snails or worms? I
- have some resistance in me; I know that you have, too. You have been
- robbed, and you will be starved into a worse condition.’
-
- “That is all I have. At that time some one alongside of me asked
- if the police were coming. I was facing northeast, looked down
- the street, and saw a file of police about the middle of Randolph
- Street. At once I put my paper in my pocket and ran right over to the
- northwest corner of Randolph and Desplaines. Just when I reached the
- sidewalk, the front rank of the police got to the southwest corner
- of Randolph and Desplaines. I stood there until some of the police
- marched by, and the first thing I knew I heard an explosion; and the
- next thing there was a volley of fifteen or twenty or thirty shots,
- and I thought it was about time to leave, so I skinned down Randolph
- Street. While I was running I heard a great lot of shots, and somebody
- tumbled right in front of me, but I didn’t stop to see whether he was
- hurt. I didn’t see who shot first. As to the temper of the crowd, it
- was just an ordinary meeting.”
-
-On cross-examination Mr. English said:
-
- “It was a peaceable and quiet meeting for an out-door meeting. I
- didn’t see any turbulence. I was there all the time. I thought the
- speeches they made that night were a little milder than I had heard
- them make for years. They were all set speeches, about the same thing.
- I didn’t hear any of them say or advise that they were going to use
- force that night. Before I went to the meeting my instructions from
- the _Tribune_ office were to take only the most incendiary part of the
- speeches. I think when Mr. Parsons spoke about the Cincinnati meeting
- he said he had been at Cincinnati and seen the procession. I heard the
- announcement to the crowd to disperse, distinctly. I did not hear Mr.
- Fielden say: ‘There come the bloodhounds now; you do your duty and
- I’ll do mine.’ I heard nothing of that import at all.”
-
-M. M. THOMPSON testified:
-
- “I am at present employed in the dry-goods business of Marshall Field
- & Co. Prior to the 4th of May last I was running a grocery store at
- 108 South Desplaines. I was at the Haymarket Square on the evening
- of May 4th. I walked west on Randolph Street about half past seven
- o’clock, and somebody handed me a circular headed ‘Revenge,’ and
- signed ‘Your Brothers.’ About twenty-five minutes to eight I got to
- the corner of Desplaines and Randolph. I met Mr. Brazleton of the
- _Inter-Ocean_. We talked about fifteen minutes. I asked the time. It
- was ten minutes of eight. Brazleton pointed out to me Mr. Schwab, who
- came rushing along Desplaines Street in a great hurry. I then went
- over to the east side of Desplaines Street. I walked up Desplaines
- Street near the corner of Lake, and came back again to the alley back
- of Crane Bros’. and stood just back of that alley. Then I saw Spies
- get up on the wagon and he asked for Parsons. Parsons didn’t respond.
- He then got down, and Schwab and Spies walked into that alley at Crane
- Bros’., near which the wagon was situated. The first word I heard
- between Schwab and Spies was ‘pistols;’ the next word was ‘police.’
- I think I heard ‘police’ twice, or ‘pistols’ twice. I then walked
- just a little nearer the edge of the alley, and just then Spies said:
- ‘Do you think one is enough, or hadn’t we better go and get more?’ I
- could hear no answer to that. They then walked out of the alley and
- south on Desplaines Street, and west on the north side of Randolph
- to Halsted, and cut across the street and went over to the southwest
- corner; they were there about three minutes, came out of that crowd
- again and came back. On the way back, as they neared Union Street, I
- heard the word ‘police’ again. Just then I went past them, and Schwab
- said: ‘Now, if they come, we will give it to them.’ Spies replied he
- thought they were afraid to bother with them. They came on, and before
- they got up near the wagon they met a third party, and they bunched
- right together there, south of the alley, and appeared to get right
- in a huddle; and there was something passed between Spies and the
- third man—what it was I could not say. This here (indicating picture
- of Schnaubelt, heretofore identified) is, I think, the third man; I
- think his beard was a little longer than in this picture; this is the
- picture of the third man. I saw the third man on the wagon afterwards.
- Whatever it was that Spies gave him, he stuck it in his pocket on the
- right-hand side. Spies got up on the wagon, and I think that third man
- got up right after him. I noticed him afterwards sitting on the wagon,
- and that he kept his hands in his pockets. I stayed there until Mr.
- Fielden commenced to speak; then I left.
-
-On cross-examination Thompson said:
-
- “My grocery store was closed by the Sheriff under an execution.
- I worked for Marshall Field before. I had never seen any of the
- defendants, to my knowledge, before that night, in my life. When I
- saw Spies and Schwab go into the alley, there was a crowd there. I was
- standing right near the alley, or alongside north of it, up against
- the building. I couldn’t see down the alley unless I turned my face
- to it. The first time I had ever seen Spies was when he got up on the
- wagon. Spies got out of the wagon and went into Crane’s alley with
- Schwab. I was right around the corner of the alley within three feet
- probably at the farthest, and I moved down to within half a foot. I
- did not look down the alley, only when they came out of the alley I
- did look. The conversation between Spies and Schwab was in English. I
- don’t understand German. I didn’t hear any words between ‘police’ and
- ‘pistols.’ They were in there probably two or three minutes. When I
- drew up within a foot of the alley, I heard: ‘Do you think one enough,
- or had we better go for more?’ Going up Randolph Street, I heard some
- words spoken in German between them, but not in the conversation at
- the alley. I cannot say that I knew Mr. Schwab’s voice at that time.
- I only knew Mr. Spies’ voice from what I heard him ask on the wagon.
- Spies was the one who used the words ‘pistols’ and ‘police.’ I did
- not see him when he said it. I could not see him without putting my
- head around the corner. They went out of my sight when they went
- into the alley. The whole conversation was done in three minutes, I
- should judge. The first remark that I heard was about a minute and a
- half after they went into the alley and went out of sight. When they
- came out and walked south on Desplaines I followed them within a few
- feet. It was then about a quarter past eight. They walked west on
- Randolph Street to Halsted, and I trailed after them all the time,
- part of the time beside them, part of the time ahead, and past them,
- but all the time close to them. When they came to Halsted there were
- a few people there, not much of a crowd. I was still tagging after
- them with no other object than looking for the meeting, to find where
- the audience was assembled. I don’t know whether they saw me; there
- was nothing whatever to prevent their seeing me. When they were going
- west I couldn’t hear a word of what they did say. The street lamps
- were lighted. When they got down on Halsted there was a crowd, of
- about twenty-five people. They were right in the thickest of the
- crowd, and I stood on the sidewalk, about ten feet from them. I didn’t
- hear either of them say a word. Then they went back east on Randolph
- Street. I was about six feet behind them. They said nothing. There was
- nobody else following them besides me. I couldn’t hear what they said
- until they came to Union Street. Then I got past them. It was light at
- the time; they could see me. Near Union Street Schwab said: ‘Now, if
- they come, we will give it to them,’ and Spies said he did not think
- they would bother them, because they were afraid. This conversation
- was carried on in the English language. I was behind them when I heard
- the first of it, but they kind of slackened, and I got by them. I was
- making my gait quicker to get by them. Schwab finished his remark when
- I got about three feet by them. Schwab made his remark in an ordinary
- tone of street conversation, loud enough for me to hear. I heard no
- more conversation between Schwab and Spies. I testified before the
- Coroner’s jury. I testified to this conversation at Union Street. If I
- didn’t, it was an oversight on my part, or it was because nobody asked
- me any question, but I say that I did say that before the Coroner’s
- inquest.
-
- “Coming back, I stopped on the northwest corner of Randolph and
- Desplaines. I was then about ten or fifteen feet ahead of Spies and
- Schwab. They came up. I can’t say that they were talking. They went
- right through the street, moving diagonally to the wagon. I staid at
- the corner. I did not go after them until they got onto the wagon.
- That was the last time that I saw Schwab. I saw Spies when he got up
- to make a speech. Oh, no, that wasn’t the last time that I saw Schwab
- that night. That was the last time that I saw him until they were out
- of sight and the third man met them. When they started from the corner
- northeast across the street, I stood at the corner just to let them
- cross the street. Then I started after them. They did not get out of
- my sight. I didn’t catch up with them at all. When I got within eight
- or ten feet of them they were standing on the sidewalk. They stopped
- right there, about five feet south of the south line of Crane’s alley.
- There wasn’t probably more than half a dozen people on the east side
- of the street. There were a good many people on the West Side. It
- was then about twenty or twenty-five minutes past eight. When I got
- up within eight or ten feet of them and they stopped, I stopped too,
- and looked at them. They were in plain view of me. I don’t think they
- did see me, though they could see me if they looked up. I think there
- are some electric lights near there, on the Lyceum building. I was
- between them and the electric light. When they stopped there, the next
- thing was that they met that third man. I had never seen that third
- man before. I have seen this picture of Schnaubelt before; I think
- Mr. Furthmann showed it to me about a week ago. That third party came
- from the east. He must have been standing up against the house, and he
- walked west to the front of the sidewalk. Schnaubelt was not facing
- me; he had his back to me. They did not go into the alley. One had his
- back south, one east, and Spies had his back north. I didn’t hear what
- they were talking about. I was on the sidewalk near the curb-stone,
- partly south, not directly south of them. Spies stood directly to the
- north, which would bring his back to me. I don’t know but what he did
- see me. They stood there about thirty seconds. I didn’t hear a word.
- Spies handed that third man something, who put it into his pocket, and
- Spies got up on the wagon and made a speech. I did not see Schwab on
- the wagon. Spies got right up on the wagon and commenced to speak, but
- one or two minutes elapsed in the time.”
-
-AUGUST HUEN, a printer in the employ of Wehrer & Klein, set up the
-German part of the circular headed “Attention, Workingmen!” and
-testified that the last line read, “Workingmen, arm yourselves and
-appear in full force.” Mr. Fischer wrote it. On cross-examination, he
-testified that an hour after the form had been given to the pressman
-the last line was taken out.
-
-HUGH HUME, a reporter for the _Inter-Ocean_, testified:
-
- “I saw Mr. Fielden and other defendants in the sweat-box—that is, the
- cells down-stairs—at the Central Station, about midnight, between the
- 5th and 6th of May last. I had a conversation with Spies. He said he
- had been at the Haymarket meeting. He had gone up there to refute the
- statements of the capitalistic press in regard to what he had said at
- McCormick’s. Up at McCormick’s he had been talking to a lot of people
- whom he could not influence—all good Catholics. During his speech on
- the Haymarket, some people had shown a disposition to hang McCormick.
- He had told them not to make any threats of that kind. He had said,
- ‘When you want to do a thing of that kind, don’t talk so much about
- it, but go out and do it.’ He then said to me that the people had
- reached a condition where they were willing to do any violence, and he
- had advocated violence of that kind. It was necessary to bring about
- the revolution that the Socialists wanted. He said he had advocated
- the use of dynamite. I asked him if he was in favor of killing police
- officers with dynamite. He hesitated a little, and then said the
- police represented the capitalists and were enemies of theirs, and
- when you have an enemy he has got to be removed. That is the gist of
- what he said. Spies said he didn’t know anything about the bomb being
- exploded until afterwards. He had heard a noise that resembled the
- sound of a cannon, and thought the police were firing over the heads
- of the people to frighten them. He said he considered all laws as
- things you could get along without; they were inimical to the best
- interests of the people and of the social growth. He did not think
- that dynamite was in his office when he left it, and had an idea that
- the police put that dynamite there to get a case on him.
-
- “I had a little talk with Mr. Fielden. He was suffering somewhat from
- his wound. When I asked him how the Haymarket affair accorded with
- his ideas of Socialism, he said, ‘You are on dangerous ground now.
- There is an argument, though, that we have, that is to the effect that
- if you cannot do a thing peaceably, it has got to be done by force.’
- Something to that effect; I don’t remember the language. Fielden said,
- as to the number of Socialists in Chicago, that there were a number of
- groups here, containing 250 men. Those were recognized Socialists, but
- they had people from all over the city, from nearly every wholesale
- house; but those people are afraid to come out yet, only awaiting
- an opportunity. He spoke about the decision of the Supreme Court
- prohibiting military companies from marching around with arms. He was
- inclined to think that the decision was not right.
-
- “I had a short interview with Schwab. All he had to say was that
- Socialism was right, even with the blood shed at the Haymarket.”
-
-On cross-examination Mr. Hume said that Spies saw him write down
-answers to the questions and knew that he wanted the interview for
-publication.
-
-HARRY L. GILMER proved a strong witness and testified as follows:
-
- “I am a painter by trade. Reside at 50 North Ann Street. On the
- evening of May 4 last, I was at the Haymarket meeting on Desplaines
- Street. I got there about a quarter to ten o’clock. In going home,
- when I got to the corner of Randolph and Desplaines Streets, I saw
- a crowd over there, and went up to where the speaking was going on,
- on the east side of Desplaines Street. I saw the wagon; did not pay
- particular attention to the speaking. I stood near the lamp-post on
- the corner of Crane Bros’. alley, between the lamp-post and the wagon,
- and up near the east end of the wagon for a few minutes. The gentleman
- here (pointing to Fielden) was speaking when I came there. I staid
- around there a few minutes, was looking for a party whom I expected
- to find there, and stepped back into the alley between Crane Bros’.
- building and the building immediately south of it. The alley was south
- of the wagon. I was standing in the alley looking around for a few
- minutes; noticed parties in conversation, right across the alley, on
- the south side of the alley. Somebody in front of me on the edge of
- the sidewalk said, ‘Here comes the police.’ There was a sort of rush
- to see the police come up. There was a man came from the wagon down to
- the parties that were standing on the south side of the alley. He lit
- a match and touched it off, something or another—the fuse commenced
- to fizzle, and he give a couple of steps forward, and tossed it over
- into the street. He was standing in this direction (illustrating). The
- man that lit the match on this side of him, and two or three of them
- stood together, and he turned around with it in his hand, took two or
- three steps that way, and tossed it that way, over into the street. I
- knew the man by sight who threw that fizzing thing into the street. I
- have seen him several times at meetings at one place and another in
- the city. I do not know his name. He was a man about five feet ten
- inches high, somewhat full-chested, and had a light sandy beard, not
- very long. He was full-faced, his eyes set somewhat back in his head.
- Judging from his appearance, he would probably weigh 180 pounds. My
- impression is his hat was dark brown or black; I don’t know whether
- it was a soft hat, a felt hat or a stiff hat. This here (indicating
- photograph of Schnaubelt heretofore identified) is the man that threw
- the bomb out of the alley. There were four or five standing together
- in the group. This here (pointing to Spies) is the man who came from
- the wagon toward the group.
-
- “I did not see the police myself, there were so many people between
- me and them. I don’t recollect any declaration from any of the police
- officers about this person—nothing distinctly, anyway. That man over
- there (pointing at defendant Fischer) was one of the parties. After
- the bomb was thrown these parties immediately left through the alley.
- I stood there. The firing commenced immediately afterwards, and my
- attention was attracted by the firing, and I paid more attention to
- that than anything else.”
-
-On cross-examination Gilmer testified to having resided formerly in
-Des Moines, Iowa, Fort Dodge, Iowa, Kansas City, Mo., and in various
-localities in Chicago. He then proceeded as follows:
-
- “I know the Coroner’s jury was investigating the matter. I saw an
- account of the investigation of the grand jury in the paper. I first
- told a man by the name of Allen and another party whom I don’t know,
- and a reporter of the _Times_, that I saw the match lighted, and saw
- the man who threw the bomb. I think that it was two or three days
- after the 4th of May. A number of people were talking the matter over
- on the west side of the City Hall, on La Salle Street, and I made the
- remark that I believed if I ever saw the party who threw the bomb I
- could identify him. They didn’t ask me why I made that remark. I don’t
- think they asked me any questions, what I knew about the matter. The
- reporter afterwards told me he had heard the remark. I think that
- was on the 6th of May. On May 5th, I was working on the corner of
- Twentieth Street and Wabash Avenue. On the 6th of May I went down to
- 88 La Salle Street to collect a bill. I went across the street, and
- there had the conversation with the reporter and the others. That
- night I had a note left at my room for me to come down to the Central
- Station. The name of James Bonfield was signed to the note. I went to
- the Central Station and had a conversation with Mr. Bonfield the next
- day; I couldn’t tell exactly whether on the 6th or the 7th. I made my
- statement to Mr. Bonfield. I never appeared before a Coroner’s jury;
- was never subpoenaed to appear before any Coroner’s jury that examined
- any of the dead policemen. I was at the Haymarket meeting about
- fifteen minutes from the time I got there to the explosion of the
- bomb. I was looking for a person who had told me he was going to the
- meeting. I kept looking through the crowd to see if I could find him.
- Fielden was speaking then. I don’t remember anything of his speech,
- except that he made use of the word McCormick. Before I went down-town
- I had read in the paper that there had been a riot at McCormick’s
- the day before, and that the police had shot some men. I was in the
- neighborhood of where Fielden talked for about fifteen minutes. I
- don’t remember anything about the connection in which Fielden spoke
- of McCormick. I was looking for a gentleman by the name of Richard
- Roe, and didn’t pay any attention to what Fielden said. When I stepped
- into the alley I think I was on the north side of the alley, about
- eight feet from the corner of Crane’s building. That group of men
- was right across the alley on the south side. The lamp was burning
- on the corner of the alley at that time, and it shone right down.
- I could see the persons in that party distinctly; could see their
- countenances; they could see myself. They were also about eight or
- nine feet from the mouth of the alley. I could hear them talk. They
- spoke German. I didn’t understand them. Before the man came from the
- wagon I stepped across the alley and was standing on the north side
- of the alley, perhaps three or four feet to the east of that group,
- so that I was standing about twelve or fourteen feet from the mouth
- of Crane’s alley. I did not say that I saw the wagon from that point.
- I could just see the hind end of the wagon from where I stood when
- I went through the alley. I think there was a tail-board. The edges
- of the box of the wagon were perhaps ten inches high. I don’t know
- whether there were side-boards on that wagon or not; I could not say
- positively as to the width of the side-boards on the wagon. They might
- have been higher than ten inches. I am sure there was a box of some
- kind on the wagon. My impression is it was a wagon about twelve or
- thirteen feet long, with low side-boards on. I didn’t see anybody get
- off of the wagon after I went in the alley. I did not say Mr. Spies
- got down off the wagon. I said he came from towards the wagon. I saw
- him standing on the sidewalk before I went in the alley. I did not say
- I saw Spies in the wagon at all. Mr. Spies is the man that came down
- in the alley and lighted the bomb, to the best of my recollection.
- When I saw him standing on the sidewalk he was talking with somebody.
- I would be inclined to think it was this gentleman here (indicating
- Schwab). I could not say for sure. I think it was a dark-complexioned
- man. My impression is it might be him. I have very little doubt but
- Fischer is the man I saw in the group. I am very nearly as positive
- that Fischer is the man as I am that the picture is the picture of
- the man who threw the bomb. I am sure Fischer is the man. I think I
- saw Mr. Parsons there that night talking to some ladies. I had been
- down to the Palmer House that evening to see some gentlemen from Des
- Moines that I understood were in the city. One of them was Judge Cole,
- another was ex-Gov. Samuel Merrill. I didn’t find either of them
- there. I went to the meeting, as I thought I would meet Mr. Roe, and
- we would go home together. That was the only business I had with Mr.
- Roe. It would have been eight or nine blocks from the Haymarket to
- where I lived.
-
- “I did not run at the time of the shooting. I did not move at all. I
- stood right at the mouth of the alley. After it was all over I backed
- out the alley, took a car and went home. There were no bullets coming
- in around my locality in the alley. On the street-car on my way home
- I didn’t talk with anybody about the occurrence. There were quite a
- number of people in the car talking about the Haymarket occurrence,
- and there was considerable excitement in the car on account of it. The
- next morning I went down on the Wabash Avenue car to the corner of
- Twentieth Street and Wabash Avenue.
-
- “I heard people speak about the Haymarket affair in the restaurant,
- on Madison Street, where I took my breakfast. I did not say to them
- anything about my seeing the match lighted and the bomb thrown. I
- bought the _News_ on the car. I think I was working for Frank Crandle
- that day; to the best of my recollection, there was only one man
- working with me on the job. We worked alongside of each other some
- time. Talked about different things, about our business. I did not
- say to him that I saw the bomb thrown, nor that I saw the man light
- the match that lit the bomb. I told him I had been at the Haymarket
- and spoke of the Haymarket riot, and I think I said there were a
- number killed or wounded. In the evening I went home on the Wabash
- Avenue car. People were speaking about the Haymarket meeting in the
- car. I didn’t tell them I knew anything about it. I think I got home
- about half past six. I had no conversation with the landlady. After
- my supper, my impression is I went to Mr. Roe’s house. He was not at
- home. I stayed there about fifteen minutes talking with Mrs. Roe. Her
- daughter, about twelve or thirteen years old, was present during the
- conversation. We talked about the Haymarket meeting. I told her I was
- there. She said she would not let Mr. Roe go to the meeting. I did not
- tell her nor anybody on that occasion that I saw the bomb lighted and
- thrown. Since noon adjournment I had no talk with James Bonfield.”
-
- “Were not you just now walking back and forth in the corridor with
- him?”
-
- “I did not have no—“
-
- “Didn’t you walk back and forth?”
-
- “Yes, sir.”
-
- “You were talking to him?”
-
- “Yes, sir.”
-
- “When I was at Central Station, I think, both Inspector Bonfield and
- Lieut. Kipley were present when I made the statement that I could
- recognize the man, if I ever saw him again, who threw the bomb.
- Afterwards I told all the details to Mr. Grinnell. I explained matters
- more to him than to anybody else. I would not be positive that I told
- Mr. Bonfield I saw the man light the match. I gave a description of
- the man that I saw throw the bomb. I think the man had a black or blue
- sack coat on. I think he had black eyes, and somewhat light whiskers.
- The bomb went in a westerly direction. I have seen Mr. Spies the last
- year and a half, and knew him by sight, not by name. I heard him speak
- at public meetings, seen him very frequently, but never knew his name.
- I heard him once on Market Street, a year ago last spring. I did not
- inquire who it was that spoke. I knew from hearing him and reading the
- papers that Spies was one of the speakers. I frequently heard the name
- of August Spies. At the time I had the conversation with Bonfield I
- described to him as well as I could the man that struck the match and
- lighted the fuse. It was either Bonfield or one of the officers in the
- Central Station. They were all together. I was twice over at police
- headquarters. This picture here (photograph of Schnaubelt) was shown
- to me first some time last week, at the State’s Attorney’s office. I
- was in the city during the time the Coroner’s jury was examining into
- the cause of the death of different policemen, and at the time the
- grand jury was examining into this case. The officers knew my name and
- address. They never called on me to go before the grand jury or the
- Coroner’s jury.
-
- “The man who threw the bomb was about five feet and eight, ten or nine
- inches high. I don’t think he was a man over six feet tall. The first
- time I told Mr. Grinnell of my experience at the Haymarket was when
- I made my second visit to the Central Station, on Sunday after the
- Haymarket meeting. I think at that time I only told Mr. Grinnell that
- I could identify the person that threw the bomb, if I saw him. I think
- I told him at that time that I saw one man strike a match and light
- the fuse, and another man throw the bomb. Mr. Fischer was brought in
- while we had the conversation at the Central Station. I looked at him.
- I said nothing about his being the man that struck the match. I knew
- him by sight. I identified him as being one of the men who composed
- the group in the alley.
-
- “I received some money two or three times when I have been over here
- from Mr. James Bonfield—ten or fifteen cents, sometimes a quarter. At
- the conversation at Central Station I was not told that I was wanted
- as a witness before the grand jury. I saw the picture of Rudolph
- Schnaubelt about six weeks ago, when Mr. Grinnell sent for me. I did
- not tell any person at any time, except the officers that I mentioned,
- that I saw the act of lighting the bomb accomplished. Neither Mr.
- Grinnell nor Bonfield, nor any other officer, told me to keep silent
- in regard to the matter.
-
- “I am six feet three in height. I could pretty near see right over
- the head of the fellow who threw the bomb. When I gave a description
- of the man who came from the wagon and lighted the match that lit the
- fuse they did not bring out Mr. Spies for me to look at. Spies had
- kind of dark clothes on that night. His hat was black or brown. My
- impression is it was a limber-rimmed hat. I first told Mr. Grinnell
- one day last week that this is the man that struck the match, when
- I saw him sitting here in court. I think Mr. Fischer had on a blue
- sack-coat that night. I think he had a black necktie. If Schnaubelt
- had any necktie that night it was a very light one. Spies had a
- turn-down collar that night and not any necktie. I think the upper
- buttons of Mr. Schnaubelt’s coat were buttoned. I think Spies had one
- or two buttons of his coat buttoned up when he came from the wagon
- into the alley.”
-
-MARTIN QUINN was recalled and testified to finding, at Engel’s house, a
-machine for making bombs.
-
- “Engel said it had been left there by some man about four or five
- months previous to that time. Mrs. Engel gave a description of the man
- who left the machine down at the basement door, as a man with long
- black whiskers and pretty tall. Mr. Engel said he thought he knew the
- man, and he thought the machine was made for the purpose of making
- bombs. There had been a meeting at Turner Hall, where this man had
- made a speech about the manufacture of bombs, and the next thing was,
- this machine was brought over, and Engel had said to him he wouldn’t
- allow him to make any bombs in his basement; so the man went away.
- Engel didn’t know where he was.”
-
-JOHN BONFIELD was recalled and testified to being at the Central
-Station when Officer Quinn brought Engel and the machine there.
-Bonfield, being asked by State’s Attorney Grinnell to explain the
-purpose of the apparatus, said:
-
- “This is a blast furnace in miniature—a home-made one. This upright
- part could be lined with fire-clay. This shoulder, some two and a half
- inches from the bottom, could be filled in around with clay, leaving
- the holes open. This, in a blasting furnace, would be known as a
- tweer. It is filled up to a considerable height with clay to protect
- it from the hot fire inside, and the pressure of air is applied
- through those pipes, one or both of them, as may be necessary. When
- the fire is extinguished or removed, the debris or slag that comes
- from the metal, and the ashes and cinders from the material used for
- fuel, can be taken out through the trap at the bottom. The spout is
- for the purpose of passing out the melted metal. It is stopped with a
- plug of clay, and when the plug is removed the metal is poured through
- that tube.”
-
-[Illustration: ENGEL’S BLAST FURNACE.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-LOUIS MAHLENDORF testified as follows:
-
- “I am a tinner by trade, at 292 Milwaukee Avenue, since two years. I
- know the defendant Engel since about eight years. I made this machine
- (referring to blasting-machine) for Engel over a year ago. I cut off
- the iron and formed it up. Another gentleman, a kind of heavy-set man
- with long beard, was with him when he ordered it. Mr. Engel waited for
- it. He took it away with him.”
-
-HERMANN SCHUETTLER, a detective connected with the East Chicago Avenue
-Station, gave the facts with reference to his arrest of Lingg, and his
-search of the room on Sedgwick Street, with Officers Stift, Loewenstein
-and Whalen:
-
- “We searched a trunk and found a round lead bomb in a stocking. The
- trunk was in the southeast room. In another stocking I found a large
- navy revolver. Both revolver and bomb were loaded. I turned them over
- to Capt. Schaack. We found a ladle and some tools, a cold chisel
- and other articles. This here (indicating) is the trunk I found in
- the room. The letters ‘L. L.’ were on it at the time. I recollect a
- round porcelain-lined blue cup made out of china that I found, and I
- believe a file. In the closet underneath the baseboard we found a lot
- of torn-off plaster. The lathing was sawed so you could get your hand
- between the floor and the bottom of the laths underneath. I saw those
- lead pipes (indicating) lying between the house Lingg lived in and the
- next house to it, in a small gangway. On the way to the Chicago Avenue
- Station I asked Lingg why he wanted to kill me. He said: ‘Personally,
- I have nothing against you, but if I had killed you and your partner
- I would have been satisfied. I would have killed myself if I had got
- away with you and your partner.”
-
-On cross-examination witness stated that he had had no search warrant
-for going through Lingg’s trunk.
-
-JACOB LOEWENSTEIN, another detective connected with the same station,
-testified to assisting Schuettler in arresting Lingg and that after
-they had vanquished him Lingg said several times: “Shoot me right here,
-before I will go with you. Kill me!” Witness further stated:
-
- “I was with Officers Whalen, Stift, Schuettler, Cushman and McCormick,
- at Lingg’s room, on May 7, between ten and eleven o’clock. Nobody was
- in the house. The door was locked. Finally we pushed in the door and
- went in. In a little bed-room in the southeast corner of the house
- there was a bed and a wash-stand and a trunk, and a little shelf up
- in the corner with some bottles on it. In the closet there were some
- shells, and some loaded cartridges, and on the floor some metal and
- some lead. Those here (indicating box containing shells) are the
- shells I found in the closet of Lingg’s room. I found those bolts
- (indicating) in the wash-stand. This metal here (indicating) I found
- in a dinner-box with some loaded dynamite bombs in the trunk. There
- were four bombs in this box (indicating), gas-pipe bombs. The two
- in the bottom were loaded. When I first opened the trunk this cover
- (indicating) dropped down, and with this Remington rifle (indicating),
- which was loaded, fell down. I found a lot of papers and books in the
- top of the trunk. In a gray stocking I found this round dynamite bomb,
- loaded (indicating). I found two pieces of solder in that dinner-box.
- I found a blast hammer and one smaller hammer, a couple of iron bits
- and drills, a two-quart pail, with a little substance looking like
- saw-dust in the bottom of it, which I found out to be dynamite. I
- found a little tin quart basin under the bed with a little piece of
- fuse in it. In the bottom of the trunk I found two or three pieces of
- fuse. In the closet we tore off the baseboard, which had been freshly
- nailed down—the nails were projecting out a little bit—and found the
- plaster was torn out all the way around on the baseboard, and there
- were holes there.”
-
-JOSEPH B. CASAGRANDE, telephone operator at the East Chicago Avenue
-Station, but on duty at the Larrabee Street Station on the night of
-May 4, and John K. Soller, a police officer at the last-named station,
-testified to a call for a patrol wagon and its leaving at 10:40 o’clock
-for Desplaines and Randolph Streets with a full load of officers.
-
-JOHN B. MURPHY, a physician and surgeon, was called to the Desplaines
-Street Station after the Haymarket explosion and remained until three
-o’clock in the morning. He was a surgeon at the Cook County Hospital,
-and when he left the station he proceeded direct to that institution.
-At the station Dr. Murphy said that he first dressed Barrett, who was
-complaining and crying with severe pain.
-
- “He had a very large wound in his side, large enough to admit two
- fingers right into his liver, and severely bleeding. I could not reach
- with my finger the piece of shell that caused the injury. It was a
- lacerated wound, much larger than could be made by an ordinary pistol
- bullet. I tampened the liver with gauze to prevent his bleeding to
- death at the station, and I went on to other officers in that way
- until I dressed in all between twenty-six and thirty at the station.
- When we got through with that, at three o’clock, Dr. Lee remained at
- the station while I went to the hospital to take care of those injured
- most severely, who were to be sent to the hospital. Officers Muller,
- Whitney, Keller, Barrett, Flavin and Redden are the principal men that
- I ordered him to send first to the hospital.”
-
-Dr. Murphy then gave a list of the men and specified the particular
-character of their wounds.
-
-E. G. EPLER, a physician and surgeon practicing at No. 505 South Canal
-Street, testified to having dressed a wound of Fielden between eleven
-and twelve at night on May 4.
-
- “The wound was on the left side of the left knee joint, the bullet
- having passed in underneath the skin and passed out again five inches
- from the point of entry. He said he was crawling on the pavement
- trying to get away from the crowd when he received the injury, and the
- bullet glanced off from the pavement and struck him in that position.”
-
-MICHAEL HOFFMAN, a detective connected with the Larrabee Street
-Station, gave evidence as to finding nine round bombs and four long
-ones.
-
- “These two bombs (indicating) I found at the corner of Clyde and
- Clybourn Avenue, near Ogden’s Grove, under the sidewalk. They were
- empty. I found another one there which was loaded, and which I gave to
- Capt. Schaack. Gustav Lehman, who was a witness in this case, was with
- me when I found them. I got two coils of fuse, a can of dynamite and
- a box of caps at the same time. I found these two pieces of gas-pipe
- (indicating) at 509 North Halsted Street, under the house of John
- Thielen, who was arrested, with two cigar-boxes full of dynamite and
- two boxes of cartridges, one rifle, one revolver. The revolver and
- one box of cartridges were buried under the floor of the coal-shed,
- and two bombs which were loaded, the dynamite and rifle and other
- box of cartridges were buried under the house in the ground. The can
- of dynamite which Lehman pointed out to me, and which I found near
- Ogden’s Grove, held about a gallon. This can and the box of caps were
- on the stone of the pavement; the bombs were buried in the ground.”
-
-At this stage of the proceedings I was myself put on the stand. My
-testimony, as taken by the stenographers, was as follows:
-
- “I am police captain of the Fifth Precinct. My headquarters are at
- East Chicago Avenue Station. I have charge of two other stations
- besides. Have been connected with the force for eighteen years. Have
- been captain one year. I have seen Spies, Schwab, Neebe and Fischer.
- Had no personal acquaintance with them. The defendants Engel and Lingg
- were arrested and confined in my station. Lingg was arrested on May
- 14th; Engel about the 18th. I had my first conversation with Lingg
- about this case about three o’clock on the afternoon of May 14th.
- Lingg told me his name, and that he had lived at 442 Sedgwick Street.
- He had been out of work for about four weeks. I asked him whether
- he was at the meeting held in the basement of 54 West Lake Street
- on Monday night, and he said, ‘Yes.’ On Tuesday night, May 4th, he
- said, he was at home—not all the evening. He and Seliger had been
- on Larrabee Street, quite a ways north; had had several glasses of
- beer, and from there he went home. He said he had made some bombs
- to use them himself. He said he had reason for being down on the
- police; they had clubbed him out at McCormick’s. He said he was down
- on capitalists, and found fault with the police for taking the part
- of the capitalists. If the capitalists turned out the militia and the
- police force with their Gatling guns, they couldn’t do anything with
- revolvers, and therefore they had adopted these bombs and dynamite.
- He said he had learned to make bombs in scientific books of warfare
- published by Most, of New York. He had got his dynamite on Lake
- Street, somewhere near Dearborn, and had bought some fuse and caps,
- and told me what he paid for it. He had not used up all his dynamite.
- He said he had made bombs of gas-pipe, and also of metal and lead
- mixed. He found the gas-pipe on the street sometimes. The lead he got
- about the same way. He said the bombs they found in his place were all
- he made. We put Mrs. Seliger face to face with him, and she accused
- him that he had commenced making bombs a few weeks after he came to
- their house. He looked at the woman, but didn’t say anything. John
- Thielen, who was arrested at the time, faced him too. Lingg admitted
- he had given to Thielen the two cigar-boxes full of dynamite and the
- two bombs which Officer Hoffman brought to me; at the same time Lingg
- looked right square at Thielen and shook his head for him to keep
- still. Thielen said to him, ‘Never mind, you might as well tell it.
- They know it all, anyhow.’
-
- “In Lingg’s trunk I discovered a false bottom, and in there I found
- two long cartridges of dynamite, and some fuse four inches long,
- with caps on, and a big coil of fuse. I asked Lingg if that was the
- dynamite he used in his bombs, and he said yes. The dynamite in the
- package is lighter in quality than what was found in his bombs,
- except one that was black. I got three kinds of dynamite. That in
- the gallon-box that Lehman testified was given to him by Lingg
- looked like charcoal; the dynamite in the trunk was white, and the
- dynamite in most of those bombs is dark-colored. Lingg said he had
- tried a round bomb and a long one in the open air somewhere, and
- they worked well. He put one right in the crotch of a tree and split
- it all up. He said he had known Spies for some time. He had been at
- the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office about five times, bringing reports of
- Socialistic and Anarchistic meetings to the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. He
- stated he had been financial secretary of a branch of the Carpenters’
- Union. He had been a Socialist ever since he could think. He told me
- he had been in this country since last July or August; he had been a
- Socialist in Europe.”
-
- “Now give the conversation which you had with Engel.”
-
- “Engel said, in the first conversation that I had with him, that on
- Monday, 3d of May, he was doing some fresco work for a friend by the
- name of Koch, somewhere out west. He had been for a little while at
- the 54 West Lake Street meeting that night, but made no speech there.
-
- “Several days afterwards I had another conversation, when his wife and
- daughter came. Engel complained that his cell was dark and no water
- running in it, and I told him we would give him another cell if we
- had it. The cells were crowded right along that night. And his wife
- said, ‘Do you see now what trouble you got yourself into?’ and Engel
- answered, ‘Mamma, I can’t help it.’ I asked him why he didn’t stop
- that nonsense, and he said: ‘I promised my wife so many times that I
- would stop this business, but I can’t stop it. What is in me has got
- to come out. I can’t help it that I am so gifted with eloquence. It is
- a curse. It has been a curse to a good many other men. A good many men
- have suffered already for the same cause, and I am willing to suffer
- and will stand it like a man.’ And I think he mentioned Louise Michel
- as having taken a leading part in the Anarchist business. Engel said
- on the evening of May 4th he was at home tying on the lounge.
-
- “I have experimented with all dynamite that was brought me; also the
- bombs. I gave a portion of the lead bomb which Officer Schuettler
- testified he found in Lingg’s room to Professor Haines. I took the
- dynamite from that bomb and put the dynamite in a piece of gas-pipe,
- about five inches long, with ends screwed on. I had a box made two
- feet square, of inch boards, pretty well nailed together, and we dug
- a hole three feet deep out at Lake View, in the bushes, put the box
- into the hole, cut a hole in the top of the box, let the bomb into it,
- put a fuse and cap to it, and touched it off. This was found as the
- result of the explosion (indicating fragments). The box was blown all
- to pieces, and some of the pieces flew up in the trees. Everything in
- that box was smashed to pieces. This bomb here (indicating) I have
- made in the same way, and filled it with some black dynamite from that
- gallon can which was given by Lingg to Lehman, as stated here. This
- here (indicating fragments of the exploded bomb) was the result of the
- examination. I put some dynamite also in a beer keg. It smashed the
- keg all to pieces.
-
- “Now here are the fragments from a lead bomb which Lehman gave to
- Hoffman and Hoffman to me. We got a piece of boiler-iron a quarter of
- an inch thick, nineteen inches high, and thirty-four inches wide. Then
- we had a steel top weighing 140 pounds. On the ground I put two-inch
- plank. On top of the plank I put four large metal sheets. I put the
- bomb right in the center, and a big stone weighing about 125 pounds
- on top, and the inside of the boiler-iron, the tub, I had painted so
- we could see where the lead would strike. I touched it off myself. It
- knocked the tub away up in the air, and the stone on top was crushed
- all to pieces. This is the result of the lead after we picked it up on
- top of the boards (indicating fragments of the tub). Here is the bolt
- (indicating) that was on the bomb. The nut we did not find. I counted
- 195 places where the lead struck the painted boiler-iron. There is
- a crack clear through the boiler-iron. In six places it is bulged
- out. Professor Haines has got a piece of this bomb (indicating), and
- Professor Patton another piece. I gave to the professors pieces of
- metal from other bombs.
-
- “Lingg in his conversations with me said there would likely be a
- revolution through this workingmen’s trouble. There was a satchel
- brought from Neff’s place. The satchel was filled with bombs. Thielen
- was present. I asked him if he brought the satchel there. He said he
- saw the satchel there, saw it stand there when he left, and that was
- the last he saw of it. Lingg said he made the molds to make these
- bombs himself. He made them of clay, and that they could be used to
- cast in only about twice. He said he saw the ‘Revenge’ circular on the
- West Side, I believe at 71 West Lake Street. I asked him when he had
- had his hair trimmed and his chin beard shaved. He said on or about
- the 7th of May. He said there had been several persons in his room on
- the afternoon of May 4th, among them the two Lehmans.
-
- “I experimented with fuse. I cut a fuse four inches long and set it
- on fire, and you could count just six until it struck the cap within.
- I experimented with dynamite cartridges. I drilled a hole in one end
- about an inch and a half deep, shoved a percussion cap in, put a fuse
- on, and exploded it. I had it stand free up in the air in a stone
- weighing about twenty or thirty pounds. When it went off it broke the
- stone all up. I put one right in the center of a lot of shrubs and
- bushes, and it broke everything up—took around about four feet each
- way.”
-
-On cross-examination I stated that I had never taken Lingg before any
-magistrate for examination. There was no complaint entered against him.
-
-FREDERICK DREWS saw some cans underneath the sidewalk at his home, No.
-351 North Paulina Street, about three miles from the Haymarket, and
-testified to having turned them over to me. His residence was about a
-mile and a half from Wicker Park.
-
-MICHAEL WHALEN, a detective connected with the Chicago Avenue Station,
-testified to having seen the cans referred to by the preceding witness
-in the yard at No. 351 North Paulina Street, and that there were four
-of those cans, one of which they emptied.
-
-DANIEL COUGHLIN, a police officer, testified as to the explosive
-character of one of the cans found at North Paulina Street, with a
-fulminating cap and fuse about eight inches long. After igniting the
-fuse an explosion was caused which shattered the can, throwing the
-contents, some kind of vitriol, four or five feet around.
-
-CHARLES E. PROUTY, manager of a gun-store at No. 53 State Street,
-recalled a visit of Mr. and Mrs. Engel at the store the previous fall.
-
- “They made some inquiries in regard to some large revolvers. They
- found one there that seemed to be satisfactory, and wanted to know
- at what price they could get a quantity of them, perhaps one or two
- hundred, and wanted to buy that one and pay for it and present it at
- some meeting of some society. They took the pistol and paid for it.
- A week or two after they returned, said the pistol was satisfactory,
- and wanted to know if I could get them a lot. I said I knew of one
- lot in the East, and would inquire. I wrote East, and found the lot
- had been disposed of. They were somewhat disappointed, but said they
- had found something else for a little less money that would answer
- the purpose, and with that they left our store. Mrs. Engel comes
- frequently to our store. She has a little store on the West Side, and
- buys fishing-tackle and other things in our line. I sold cartridges to
- them in a small way, as she might want them in her store. When I spoke
- of guns I meant large revolvers, something about seven-inch barrel—I
- think 44 or 45-caliber, at $5.50 apiece. When I stated the price was
- very cheap they replied they didn’t care to make profit on them, it
- was for a society. I remember seeing Mr. Parsons’ face in the store.
- Never had any dealings with him.”
-
-WILLIAM J. REYNOLDS, in the employ of D. H. Lamberson & Co., gun
-business at No. 76 State Street, testified:
-
- “I think about February or March of this year Mr. Parsons came to
- our store. He said he wanted to buy a quantity of revolvers—I think
- forty or fifty. He wanted what is called an old remodeled Remington
- revolver, 44 or 45-caliber. I agreed to write and get a quotation of
- the revolver. He came in again, and I quoted him a price upon it. He
- did not purchase any revolvers, and was in once or twice after that.
- He seemed undecided about it.”
-
-THOMAS MCNAMARA, a police officer, testified:
-
- “I found thirty loaded and one empty gas-pipe bombs under the sidewalk
- on Bloomingdale Road and Robey Street. The loaded bombs were fixed
- with caps and fuse. They were in an oil-cloth. The corner where I
- found them is about four blocks from Wicker Park. Found them on the
- afternoon of May 23 last. Three coils of fuse in a tin can and two
- boxes of dynamite caps—probably about two hundred caps—were also in
- the package.”
-
-Prof. WALTER S. HAINES examined a number of bomb fragments and
-testified as follows:
-
- “I am professor of chemistry in Rush Medical College in this city. I
- devote most of my time to practical chemistry. I have examined several
- pieces of metal at the request of the State’s Attorney. I received
- from Capt. Schaack, on June 24 this year, a piece of bomb said to have
- been connected with Lingg. I call it ‘Lingg bomb No. 1.’ I received
- from Dr. J. B. Murphy, on the same day, a piece of metal said to have
- been taken from Officer Murphy. I designate it ‘Murphy bomb.’ On July
- 22 I received a piece of metal said to have been taken from Officer
- Degan. I designate it ‘Degan bomb.’ The last piece I received from Mr.
- Furthmann. I subsequently received from Officer Whalen a piece of bomb
- said to have been connected with Lingg. I designate it ‘Lingg bomb No.
- 2,’ The next day I received from Capt. Schaack pieces of two other
- bombs also said to have been connected with Lingg. I designate as
- ‘Lingg bombs Nos. 3 and 4.’ I received from Mr. Furthmann a portion of
- a bomb said to have been connected with Mr. Spies, which I designate
- as ‘Spies bomb.’ These were all subjected to chemical examination.
- Lingg bombs Nos. 1, 3 and 4 were found to consist chiefly of lead,
- with a small percentage of tin and traces of antimony, iron and zinc.
- The amount of tin in these three bombs differs slightly. One of them
- contained about 1.9 per cent., another about 2.4 per cent., the third
- about 2½ per cent. of tin. Lingg bomb No. 2 contained more tin,
- consequently less lead; also a little more antimony and a little more
- zinc. The amount of tin in this bomb was very nearly seven per cent.
- The Murphy bomb was composed of a small proportion of tin, chiefly
- lead and traces of antimony, iron and zinc. The amount of tin was in
- round numbers 1.6 per cent. The Degan bomb contained in round numbers
- 1.6 or 1.7 per cent. The remainder was lead, with traces of antimony,
- iron and zinc. The Spies bomb consisted chiefly of lead with a small
- quantity of tin, about 1.1 per cent., in round numbers, with traces
- of antimony, iron and zinc. The different pieces of the same bomb
- differed slightly in the proportions of the metals present. The Degan
- bomb contained slightly more tin than what I call the Murphy bomb.
- There is no commercial substance with which I am acquainted that has
- such a composition as these bombs. Commercial lead frequently contains
- traces of other substances, but, as far as I know, never tin. Solder
- is composed of from a third to a half tin and the remainder lead. Lead
- must have been the basis for the preparation of the various articles
- which I examined, and this must have been mixed either with tin or
- some substance containing tin, as for instance solder.
-
- “Lingg bomb No. 2 had a minute trace of copper. This piece of
- candlestick (indicating) is composed of tin and lead, with a certain
- amount of antimony and zinc and a little copper. Professor Patton has
- been sick for about two weeks. I worked in connection with Professor
- Delafontaine instead of working with Patton.” (The Spies bomb is the
- one which the witness Wilkinson identified.)
-
-Prof. MARK DELAFONTAINE testified as follows:
-
- “I am a chemist, teacher of chemistry in the High School in this city.
- Have been a chemist for over thirty years. I made an examination
- of the substances described by Prof. Haines, compared results with
- him, and they agreed as closely as they can. I found the piece of
- candlestick to be a mixture of antimony, tin, lead, zinc and a trace
- of copper. I made experiments with old lead pipes upon which there
- was solder. I took a piece of old lead pipe that had been very much
- mended, had much solder put on; I melted it, analyzed it, and the
- amount of tin contained in the mixture was about seven-tenths of one
- per cent. I don’t know of any one commercial product of which the
- pieces of bomb that I examined could be composed. I never found a
- sample of lead containing the least traces of tin.”
-
-MICHAEL WHALEN, recalled, testified that he gave to Prof. Haines two
-pieces of lead which I had given to him.
-
-EDMUND FURTHMANN, Assistant State’s Attorney, stated that the piece of
-lead he gave to Prof. Haines he had received from Dr. Bluthardt, and
-designated the various halls and places spoken of by various witnesses
-as being all located in Cook County and the State of Illinois.
-
-THEODORE J. BLUTHARDT was then called and gave the following evidence:
-
- “I am County Physician. I made a _post-mortem_ examination upon the
- body of Mathias J. Degan, on the 5th day of May last, before the
- Coroner’s inquest, at the Cook County Hospital. I found a deep cut
- upon his forehead, another cut over the right eye and another deep
- cut, about two inches in length, on the left side. I found a large
- wound, apparently a gun-shot wound—a hole in the middle of the
- left thigh. I found seven explosive marks on his right leg and two
- on the left leg. The large hole in the middle of the left thigh was
- the mortal wound caused by an explosive, a piece of lead that had
- penetrated the skin, destroyed the inside muscles and lacerated the
- femoral artery, which caused bleeding to death. Besides that he had a
- wound on the dorsum of the left foot, also caused by a piece of lead,
- which forced its way through the bones of the ankle joint. I found a
- piece behind the inside ankle of the left foot. Both pieces I gave
- to Mr. Furthmann. The external appearance of that wound on that left
- thigh was that of a rifle ball. It was round and not very ragged; it
- was clean cut through the skin, but the muscles of the thigh were all
- contused and torn—formed a kind of pulpy cavity as large as a goose
- egg on the inside. The missile was lodged in the upper part of the
- thigh, about four inches above the place where it entered. Mathias J.
- Degan died of hemorrhage of the femoral artery, caused by this wound
- that I described.
-
- “I made a _post-mortem_ examination on the body of John Barrett on the
- 7th of May, at 171 East Chicago Avenue. A missile had passed through
- the eleventh rib into the upper part of the liver, about three inches
- deep. There I found a piece of lead and a piece of blue cloth with
- lining in. The right lung was collapsed. From the opening into the
- diaphragm the air rushed into the cavity of the chest and compressed
- the lung. In consequence of the wound in the liver there was a good
- deal of hemorrhage into the chest as well as into the abdomen. This
- wound, by this explosive piece of material, was the cause of his
- death. He had several other wounds.
-
- “On the same day I made a _post-mortem_ examination on the body of
- George F. Muller, at the Cook County Hospital. This man died, in my
- opinion, from the effects of a pistol ball which wounded the small
- intestines and caused inflammation of the bowels.
-
- “On May 8th I made a _post-mortem_ examination on the body of Tim
- Flavin. He had a small wound in the back four inches to the left of
- the spine. The missile, which was not a pistol ball, passed into the
- abdomen below the twelfth rib. I found much blood in both cavities,
- and the cause of his death was internal hemorrhage.
-
- “On May 10th I made a _post-mortem_ examination on the body of Michael
- Sheehan. He died from exhaustion caused by a pistol shot wound upon
- the right side of the abdomen, three inches to the right and four
- inches above the umbilicus. The ball passed through the mesentary and
- lower part of the liver into the muscles of the abdomen. There was
- considerable blood in the abdomen and the liver. The surroundings were
- very much inflamed.
-
- “On May 17th I made a _post-mortem_ examination on the body of Thomas
- Redden, at the Cook County Hospital. I found an abrasion over the
- right eye, a slight lacerated wound upon the lower part of the left
- hip, a large lacerated wound perforating the right forearm, a compound
- fracture of the left tibia, a large lacerated wound upon the posterior
- part of the left leg, a circular wound upon the right leg two inches
- below the knee joint, extending to the bone, another wound upon the
- right leg about seven inches above the ankle, a large lacerated wound
- upon the left side of the back. I found the lungs badly inflamed and
- the blood valves enlarged above the kidneys, and the liver somewhat
- inflamed with so-called cloudy swelling. In my opinion he died from
- the effects of these wounds bringing about blood-poisoning.”
-
-JAMES BONFIELD, being recalled, stated:
-
- “I found a number of banners at the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. I found,
- altogether, about forty banners. I can identify only a few of them as
- found at the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_.”
-
-State’s Attorney Grinnell here announced that the prosecution rested
-its case. Thereupon counsel for the defendants moved that the jury be
-sent from the court-room while they would present and argue, on behalf
-of Neebe, a motion that the jury be instructed to find a verdict of not
-guilty as to Neebe. Judge Gary refused the motion.
-
-A like motion on behalf of the other defendants, except August Spies
-and Adolph Fischer, was also overruled by the court.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXV.
-
- The Programme of the Defense—Mayor Harrison’s Memories—Simonson’s
- Story—A Graphic Account—A Bird’s-eye View of Dynamite—Ferguson
- and the Bomb—“As Big as a Base Ball”—The Defense Theory of the
- Riot—Claiming the Police were the Aggressors—Dr. Taylor and the
- Bullet-marks—The Attack on Gilmer’s Veracity—Varying Testimony—The
- Witnesses who Appeared.
-
-
-MR. MOSES SALOMON opened the case for the Anarchists on Saturday, July
-31. He proceeded to state that the defendants had steadily refused to
-believe that any man on the jury would be willing to convict any of the
-defendants because of being an Anarchist or a Socialist.
-
-“Mr. Grinnell,” said Mr. Salomon, “failed to state to you that he had a
-person by whom he could prove who threw the bomb, and he never expected
-to make this proof until he found that without this proof he was unable
-to maintain this prosecution against these defendants; and it was as
-this case neared the prosecution end of it that the State suddenly
-changed front and produced a professional tramp and a professional
-liar, as we will show you, to prove that one of these defendants was
-connected with the throwing of it. They then recognized, as we claimed
-and now claim, that that is the only way they can maintain their case
-here.”
-
-Mr. Salomon next directed the attention of the jury to the charge
-against the defendants and said:
-
- “As I told you a moment ago, they are not charged with Anarchy;
- they are not charged with Socialism; they are not charged with the
- fact that Anarchy and Socialism is dangerous or beneficial to the
- community; but, according to the law under which we are now acting,
- a charge specific in its nature must be made against them, and that
- alone must be sustained, and it is the duty of the jury to weigh
- the evidence as it bears upon that charge; and upon no other point
- can they pay attention to it. Now, gentlemen, the charge here is
- shown by this indictment. This is the accusation. This is what the
- case involves, and upon this the defendants and the prosecution must
- either stand or fall. This indictment is for the murder of Mathias
- J. Degan. It is charged that each one of these defendants committed
- the crime, each defendant individually; and it is charged in a number
- of different ways. Now, I desire to call your attention to the law
- governing this indictment and to read it to you; and I am presenting
- the law to you now, gentlemen, so that you can understand how we view
- this case and how the evidence is affected by what the law is.”
-
-Mr. Salomon then read the law touching murder and the statute on
-accessories and explained:
-
- “The law says, no matter whether these defendants advised generally
- the use of dynamite in the purpose which they claimed to carry out,
- and sought to carry out, yet if none of these defendants advised
- the throwing of that bomb at the Haymarket, they cannot be held
- responsible for the action of others at other times and other places.
- What does the evidence introduced here tend to show? It may occur to
- some of you, gentlemen, to ask: ‘What, then, can these defendants
- preach the use of dynamite? May they be allowed to go on and urge
- people to overturn the present government and the present condition of
- society without being held responsible for it and without punishment?
- Is there no law to which these people can be subjected and punished
- if they do this thing?’ There is, gentlemen, but it is not and never
- has been murder, and if they are amenable, as the evidence introduced
- by the prosecution tends to show, it is under another and a different
- law, and no attempt on the part of the prosecution to jump the wide
- chasm which separates these two offenses can be successful unless it
- is done out of pure hatred, malice, ill-will, or because of prejudice.
- The law protects every citizen. It punishes every guilty man, and
- according to the measure of his crime; no more and no less. If a man
- be guilty of conspiracy, or if he be guilty of treason, he is liable
- to punishment for that offense, and not for a higher one. This is what
- the people of the State of Illinois have said, and that is their law.
- That is what they want enforced, and that is what I stand here for as
- the advocate of these defendants. I claim for them, and for the entire
- people of this State, that the law shall be applied as it is found,
- and as they have directed it to be enforced. Now, what is the statute
- on conspiracy, of which these defendants may be guilty, if they are
- guilty of anything?”
-
-[Illustration: MOSES SALOMON.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-He next read the law with reference to conspiracy and proceeded:
-
- “The proof in this case, with the exception of Gilmer’s testimony,
- showed and shows only that the State has a case within those sections
- which I have last read to you, and no other, if they have a case
- against them at all. Now, gentlemen, I have read to you the section of
- the statute relating to accessories. As I have told you before, it is
- only the perpetrator and abettor in the perpetration of a crime who,
- under the decision of almost every supreme court in the United States
- and England, can be held.”
-
-
-Mr. Salomon touched on one or two minor points and concluded as follows:
-
- “That view of the law, that they must be proven to be accessories
- to the crime, is the one point only upon which the prosecution
- can sustain their case, and is the only one upon which this case
- must proceed, according to our view. Now, these defendants are not
- criminals; they are not robbers; they are not burglars; they are
- not common thieves; they descend to no small criminal act. On the
- contrary, this evidence shows conclusively that they are men of broad
- feelings of humanity, that their only desire has been, and their
- lives have been consecrated to, the betterment of their fellow-men.
- They have not sought to take the life of any man, of any individual,
- to maliciously kill or destroy any person, nor have they sought to
- deprive any man of his property for their own benefit. They have
- not sought to get McCormick’s property for themselves; they have
- not sought to get Marshall Field’s property for themselves, and to
- deprive Marshall Field of it feloniously, but they have endeavored and
- labored to establish a different social system. It is true they have
- adopted means, or _wanted_ to adopt means that were not approved of by
- all mankind. It is true that their methods were dangerous, perhaps;
- but then they should have been stopped at their inception. We shall
- expect to prove to you, gentlemen, that these men have stood by the
- man who has the least friends; that they have endeavored to better
- the condition of the laboring man. The laboring men have few friends
- enough. They have no means, without the combination and assistance of
- their fellow-men, to better their condition, and it was to further
- that purpose and to raise them above constant labor and constant toil
- and constant worry and constant fret, and to have their fellow-men
- act and be as human beings and not as animals, that these defendants
- have consecrated their lives and energies. If it was in pursuance
- of that, wrought up, perhaps, through frequent failures and through
- the constant force exercised against them, that they came to the
- conclusion that it was necessary to use force against force, we know
- not, and we do not expect to prove nor to deny that these defendants
- advocated the use of force, nor do we now intend to apologize for
- anything they have said, nor to excuse their acts. It is neither the
- place nor the time for counsel in this case, nor of the gentlemen
- of the jury, to either excuse the acts of these defendants nor to
- encourage them. With that we have here nothing to do. Our object is
- simply to show that these defendants are not guilty of the murder
- with which they are charged in this indictment. But the issue is
- forced upon us to say whether it was right or wrong, and whether they
- had the right to advocate the bettering of their fellow-men. As Mr.
- Grinnell said, he wanted to hang Socialism and Anarchy; but twelve
- men nor twelve hundred nor twelve thousand can stamp out Anarchy nor
- root out Socialism, no more than they can Democracy or Republicanism,
- that lie within the heart and within the head. Under our forms of
- government every man has the right to believe and the right to express
- his thoughts, whether they be inimical to the present institutions or
- whether they favor them; but if that man, no matter what he advocates
- or who he be, whether Democrat, Republican, Socialist or Anarchist,
- kill and destroy human life deliberately and feloniously, that man,
- whether high or low, is amenable to criminal justice, and must be
- punished for his crime, and for no other.
-
- “Now, what was the object of these defendants, as they are charged, in
- being so bloodthirsty? Their purpose was to change society, to bring
- into force and effect their Socialistic and Anarchistic ideas. Were
- they right or were they wrong, or have we nothing to do with it? As
- I told you, they had the right to express their ideas. They had the
- right. They had the right to gain converts, to make Anarchists and
- Socialists, but whether Socialism or Anarchy shall ever be established
- never rested with these defendants, never rested in a can of dynamite
- or in a dynamite bomb. It rests with the great mass of people, with
- the people of Chicago, of Illinois, of the United States, of the
- world. If they, the people, want Anarchy, want Socialism, if they want
- Democracy or Republicanism, they can and they will inaugurate it.
- But the people, also, will allow a little toleration of views. Now,
- these defendants claim that Socialism is a progressive social science,
- and it will be a part of the proof which you will have to determine.
- Must the world stand as we found it when we were born, or have we a
- right to show our fellow-men a better way, a nobler life, a better
- condition? That is what these defendants claim, if they are forced
- beyond the issue in this case.... In furtherance of that plan, what
- have these defendants done? Have they murdered many people? What was
- their plan when they counseled dynamite? They intended to use dynamite
- in furtherance of the general revolution; never, never against any
- individual. We will show you that it was their purpose, as the proof,
- I think, partly shows already, that when a general revolution or a
- general strike was inaugurated, when they were attacked, that then,
- in fact, while carrying out the purposes of that strike or that
- revolution, that then they should use dynamite, and not until then.
- If it is unlawful to conspire to carry out that thing, these men
- must be held for that thing. We shall show you that these men, in
- carrying out their plan for the bettering of the condition of the
- workingmen, inaugurated the eight-hour movement. They inaugurated the
- early-closing movement. They inaugurated every movement that tended to
- alleviate the condition of the workingman and allow him a greater time
- to his family, for mutual benefit. That is what these defendants set
- up for a defense. That is what they claim was their right to do, and
- that is what they claim they did do, and they did nothing more.
-
- “Now, gentlemen, we don’t say that we desire to go into this proof,
- because we think it has nothing to do with this case, if our theory
- is correct; but if we are forced to show why they did these things it
- is simply to convince you that their objects were not for robbery,
- not for stealing, not to gain property for themselves, and not to
- maliciously or willfully destroy any man’s good name or his property
- interests.
-
- “We expect to show you, further, that these defendants never
- conspired, nor any one of them, to take the life of any single
- individual at any time or place; that they never conspired or plotted
- to take, at this time or at any other time, the life of Mathias Degan
- or any number of policemen, except in self-defense while carrying out
- their original purpose. We expect, further, to show you that on the
- night of the 4th of May these defendants had assembled peaceably,
- that the purpose of the meeting was peaceable, that its objects were
- peaceable, that they delivered the same harangue as before, that the
- crowd listened, and that not a single act transpired there, previous
- to the coming of the policemen, by which any man in the audience could
- be held amenable to law. They assembled there, gentlemen, under the
- provision of our Constitution, to exercise the right of free speech,
- to discuss the situation of the workingmen, to discuss the eight-hour
- question. They assembled there to incidentally discuss what they
- deemed outrages at McCormick’s. No man expected that a bomb would be
- thrown; no man expected that any one would be injured at that meeting;
- but while some of these defendants were there and while this meeting
- was peaceably in progress, the police, with a devilish design, as we
- expect to prove, came down upon that body with their revolvers in
- their hands and pockets, ready for immediate use, intending to destroy
- the life of every man that stood upon that market square. That seems
- terrible, gentlemen, but that is the information which we have and
- which we expect to show you. We expect to show you further, gentlemen,
- that the crowd did not fire, that not a single person fired a single
- shot at the police officers. We expect to show you that Mr. Fielden
- did not have on that night, and never had in his life, a revolver;
- that he did not fire, and that that portion of the testimony here is
- wrong. We expect to show you further, gentlemen, that the witness
- Gilmer, who testified to having seen Spies light the match which
- caused the destruction coming from the bomb, is a professional and
- constitutional liar; that no man in the city of Chicago who knows him
- will believe him under oath, and, indeed, I might almost say that
- it would scarcely need even a witness to show the falsity of his
- testimony, because it seems to me that it must fall of its own weight.
- We expect to show you, gentlemen, that Thompson was greatly mistaken;
- that on that night Schwab never saw or talked with Mr. Spies; that he
- was at the Haymarket early in the evening, but that he left before the
- meeting began and before he saw Mr. Spies on that evening at all. We
- expect to show that Mr. Parsons, so far from thinking anything wrong,
- and Fischer, were quietly seated at Zepf’s Hall, drinking, perhaps,
- a glass of beer at the time the bomb exploded, and that it was as
- great a surprise to them as it was to any of you. We expect to show
- you that Engel was at home at the time the bomb exploded, and that he
- knew nothing about it. With the whereabouts of Lingg you are already
- familiar. It may seem strange why he was manufacturing bombs. The
- answer to that is, he had a right to have his house full of dynamite.
- He had a right to have weapons of all descriptions upon his premises,
- and until he used them, or advised their use, and they were used in
- pursuance of his advice, he is not liable any more than the man who
- commits numerous burglaries, the man who commits numerous thefts, who
- walks the streets, is liable to arrest and punishment only when he
- commits an act which makes him amenable to law.
-
- “I did not expect to address you concerning Mr. Neebe, and it is
- unnecessary for me to make much comment on that, but we will show
- you that Mr. Neebe did not know of this meeting, that he was not
- present, that he was in no manner connected with it, and there is no
- proof to show that he was. We will also prove to you, gentlemen, that
- Mr. Fielden did not go down the alley, as some of the witnesses for
- the State have testified, but that he went down Desplaines Street to
- Randolph, and up Randolph, as, indeed, if my memory serves me right,
- the statements made by Mr. Fielden immediately after the occurrence
- already sufficiently show.
-
- “Now, gentlemen, in conclusion, as I stated to you a moment ago,
- we do not intend to defend against Socialism, we do not intend to
- defend against Anarchism; we expect to be held responsible for that
- only which we have done, and to be held in the manner pointed out
- by law. Under the charge upon which these defendants are held under
- this indictment, we shall prove to you, and I hope to your entire
- satisfaction, that a case has not been made out against them. Whether
- they be Socialists or whether they be Anarchists we hope will not
- influence any one of you, gentlemen. Whatever they may have preached,
- or whatever they may have said, or whatever may have been their
- object, if it was not connected with the throwing of the bomb it is
- your sworn testimony to acquit them. We expect to make all this proof,
- and we expect such a result.”
-
-On the Monday following, being the 2d of August, the defense began its
-testimony. The first witness introduced was CARTER H. HARRISON, then
-Mayor of Chicago. His evidence was as follows:
-
- “I am Mayor of the city of Chicago since over seven years. On the
- 4th of May last I was present during a part of the Haymarket meeting
- so-called. On the day before there was a riot at McCormick’s factory,
- which was represented to me to have grown out of a speech made by
- Mr. Spies. During the morning of the 4th I received information of
- the issuance of a circular of a peculiar character and calling for a
- meeting at the Haymarket that night. I directed the Chief of Police
- that if anything should be said at that meeting that might call out a
- recurrence of such proceedings as at McCormick’s factory, the meeting
- should be dispersed. I believed that it was better for myself to be
- there and disperse the meeting myself instead of leaving it to any
- policeman. I went to the meeting for the purpose of dispersing it in
- case I should feel it necessary for the safety of the city. I arrived
- there about five minutes before eight. There was a large concourse of
- people about the Haymarket, but it was so long before any speaking
- commenced that probably two-thirds of the people there assembled left,
- as it seemed to me. It was about half-past eight when the speaking
- commenced and the meeting congregated around Crane’s building, or the
- alley near it.
-
- “Mr. Spies may have been speaking one or two minutes before I got near
- enough to hear distinctly what he said. I judge I left the meeting
- between 10 and 10:05 o’clock that night. I staid to hear Mr. Spies’
- speech, and I heard all of Mr. Parsons’ up to the time I left, with
- the exception of five or ten minutes, during which I went over to the
- station. When I judged that Mr. Parsons was looking towards the close
- of his speech I went over to the station, spoke to Capt. Bonfield,
- and determined to go home, but instead of going immediately I went
- back to hear a little more; staid there about five minutes longer and
- then left. Within about twenty minutes from the time that I left the
- meeting I heard the sound of the explosion of the bomb at my house.
- While at the meeting I noticed that I was observed when I struck a
- match to light my cigar and the full blaze showed my face. I thought
- Mr. Spies had observed me, as the tone of his speech suddenly changed,
- but that is mere conjecture. Prior to that change in the tone of Mr.
- Spies’ speech I feared his remarks would force me to disperse the
- meeting. I was there for that purpose; that is to say, it was my own
- determination to do it against the will of the police. After that
- occurrence the general tenor of Spies’ speech was such that I remarked
- to Capt. Bonfield that it was tame.”
-
- “Did anything transpire in the address of either Spies or Parsons,
- after the incident of the lighting of your cigar to which you have
- referred, that led you to conclude to take any action in reference to
- the dispersing of the meeting?”
-
- The State objected to an answer, and the objection was sustained.
-
- “I did in fact take no action at the meeting about dispersing it.
- There were occasional replies from the audience, as ‘Shoot him,’
- ‘Hang him’ or the like, but I do not think, from the directions in
- which they came, here and there and around, that there were more
- than two or three hundred actual sympathizers with the speakers.
- Several times cries of ‘Hang him’ would come from a boy in the
- outskirts, and the crowd would laugh. I felt that a majority of the
- crowd were idle spectators, and the replies nearly as much what might
- be called ‘guying’ as absolute applause. Some of the replies were
- evidently bitter; they came from immediately around the stand. The
- audience numbered from eight hundred to one thousand. The people in
- attendance, so far as I could see during the half hour before the
- speaking commenced, were apparently laborers or mechanics, and the
- majority of them not English-speaking people—mostly Germans. There
- was no suggestion made by either of the speakers looking toward
- calling for the immediate use of force or violence toward any person
- that night; if there had been I should have dispersed them at once.
- After I came back from the station Parsons was still speaking, but
- evidently approaching a close. It was becoming cloudy and looked like
- threatening rain, and I thought the thing was about over. There was
- not one-fourth of the crowd that had been there during the evening
- listening to the speakers at that time. In the crowd I heard a great
- many Germans use expressions of their being dissatisfied with bringing
- them there and having this speaking. When I went to the station
- during Parsons’ speech, I stated to Capt. Bonfield that I thought the
- speeches were about over; that nothing had occurred yet or looked
- likely to occur to require interference, and that he had better issue
- orders to his reserves at the other stations to go home. Bonfield
- replied that he had reached the same conclusion from reports brought
- to him, but he thought it would be best to retain the men in the
- station until the meeting broke up, and then referred to a rumor that
- he had heard that night which he thought would make it necessary for
- him to keep his men there, which I concurred in. During my attendance
- of the meeting I saw no weapons at all upon any person.”
-
-On cross-examination Mr. Harrison stated:
-
- “The rumor that I referred to was related to me by Capt. Bonfield
- immediately after my reaching the station. Bonfield told me he had
- just received information that the Haymarket meeting, or a part of
- it, would go over to the Milwaukee and St. Paul freight-houses, then
- filled with ‘scabs,’ and blow it up. There was also an intimation that
- this meeting might be held merely to attract the attention of the
- police to the Haymarket, while the real attack, if any, should be made
- that night on McCormick’s. Those were the contingencies in regard to
- which I was listening to those speeches. In listening to the speeches,
- I concluded it was not an organization to destroy property that night,
- and went home. My order to Bonfield was that the reserves held at the
- other stations might be sent home, because I learned that all was
- quiet in the district where McCormick’s factory is situated. Bonfield
- replied he had already ordered the reserves in the other stations to
- go in their regular order.
-
- “Bonfield was there, detailed by the Chief of Police, in control of
- that meeting, together with Capt. Ward. I don’t remember of hearing
- Parsons call ‘To arms! To arms! To arms!’ When I speak of a rumor in
- regard to a possible attack upon McCormick’s, the fact is it was not a
- rumor that came from others, but rather a fear or apprehension on my
- own part, and it was suggested first by myself that this might be the
- aim of this meeting. There was a direct statement by Mr. Bonfield to
- me that he had heard the rumor about the freight-houses.”
-
-BARTON SIMONSON, a traveling salesman for E. Rothschild & Bros.,
-wholesale clothing, concluded, after taking supper at his mother’s
-house, No. 50 West Ohio Street, to take in the Haymarket meeting,
-and he went there and remained throughout the proceedings, until the
-explosion of the bomb. He testified:
-
- “The speakers were northeast from me, in front of Crane Bros’.
- building, a few feet north of the alley. I remember the alley
- particularly. As far as I remember Spies’ speech, he said: ‘Please
- come to order. This meeting is not called to incite any riot.’ He then
- said that McCormick had charged him with the murder of the people at
- the meeting the night before; that Mr. McCormick was a liar. McCormick
- was himself responsible. Somebody had opposed his speaking at the
- meeting near McCormick’s because he was a Socialist. The people he
- spoke to were good Christian, church-going people. While he was
- speaking, McCormick’s people had come out. Some of the men and boys
- had started for them, and had had some harmless sport throwing stones
- into the windows, etc. Then he said that some workingmen were shot at
- and killed by the police. That is as far as my memory goes.
-
- “Parsons illustrated that the capitalists got the great bulk of the
- profit out of everything done. I remember in his speech he said: ‘To
- arms! To arms! To arms!’ but in what connection I cannot remember.
- Somebody in the crowd said, ‘Shoot’ or ‘Hang Gould,’ and he says, ‘No,
- a great many will jump up and take his place. What Socialism aims at
- is not the death of individuals, but of the system.’
-
- “Fielden spoke very loud, and as I had never attended a Socialistic
- meeting before in my life, I thought they were a little wild. Fielden
- spoke about a Congressman from Ohio who had been elected by the
- workingmen and confessed that no legislation could be enacted in favor
- of the workingmen; consequently he said there was no use trying to
- do anything by legislation. After he had talked awhile a dark cloud
- with cold wind came from the north. Many people had left before, but
- when the cloud came a great many people left. Somebody said, ‘Let’s
- adjourn,’—to some place, I can’t remember the name of the place.
- Fielden said he was about through, there was no need of adjourning.
- He said two or three times, ‘Now, in conclusion,’ or something like
- that, and I became impatient. Then I heard a commotion and a good deal
- of noise in the audience, and somebody said, ‘Police.’ I looked south
- and saw a line of police when it was at about the Randolph Street
- car-tracks. The police moved along until the front of the column got
- about up to the speakers’ wagon. I heard somebody near the wagon say
- something about dispersing. I saw some persons upon the wagon. I could
- not tell who they were. About the time that somebody was giving that
- command to disperse, I distinctly heard two words coming from the
- vicinity of the wagon or from the wagon. I don’t know who uttered
- them. The words were ‘peaceable meeting.’ That was a few seconds
- before the explosion of the bomb. As the police marched through the
- crowd the latter went to the sidewalks on either side, some went
- north, some few went on Randolph Street east, and some west. I did not
- hear any such exclamation as ‘Here come the bloodhounds of the police;
- you do your duty and I’ll do mine,’ from the locality of the wagon
- or from Mr. Fielden. I heard nothing of that sort that night. At the
- time the bomb exploded I was still in my position upon the stairs.
- A reporter talked to me while I was on those stairs. I remember he
- went down, and just before the police came he ran up past me again.
- There was no pistol fired by any person upon the wagon before the bomb
- exploded. No pistol shots anywhere before the explosion of the bomb.
- Just after the command to disperse had been given, I saw a lighted
- fuse or something—I didn’t know what it was at the time—come up from
- a point nearly twenty feet south of the south line of Crane’s alley,
- from about the center of the sidewalk on the east side of the street,
- from behind some boxes. I am positive it was not thrown from the
- alley. I first noticed it about six or seven feet in the air, a little
- above a man’s head. It went in a northwest course and up about fifteen
- feet from the ground, and fell about the middle of the street. The
- explosion followed almost immediately, possibly within two or three
- seconds. Something of a cloud of smoke followed the explosion. After
- the bomb exploded there was pistol-shooting. From my position I could
- distinctly see the flashes of the pistols. My head was about fifteen
- feet from the ground. There might have been fifty to one hundred and
- fifty pistol shots. They proceeded from about the center of where the
- police were. I did not observe either the flashes of pistol shots or
- hear the report of any shots from the crowd upon the police prior to
- the firing by the police. I staid in my position from five to twenty
- seconds. There was shooting going on in every direction, as well up
- as down. I could see from the flashes of the pistols that the police
- were shooting up. The police were not only shooting at the crowd, but
- I noticed several of them shoot just as they happened to throw their
- arms. I concluded that my position was possibly more dangerous than
- down in the crowd, and then I ran down to the foot of the stairs, ran
- west on the sidewalk on Randolph Street a short distance, and then on
- the road. A crowd was running in the same direction. I had to jump
- over a man lying down, and I saw another man fall in front of me about
- one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet west of Desplaines Street.
- I took hold of his arm and wanted to help him, but the firing was so
- lively behind me that I just let go and ran. I was to the rear of the
- crowd running west, the police still behind us. There were no shots
- from the direction to which I was running.
-
- “I am not and have never been a member of any Socialistic party or
- association. Walking through the crowd before the meeting, I noticed
- from their appearance that the meeting was composed principally of
- ordinary workingmen, mechanics, etc. The audience listened, and once
- in awhile there would be yells of ‘Shoot him!’ ‘Hang him!’ from the
- audience. I didn’t find any difference in the bearing of the crowd
- during Fielden’s speech from what it was during Parsons’ or Spies’.
- In the course of the conversation which I had with Capt. Bonfield
- at the station before the meeting that night, I asked him about the
- trouble in the southwestern part of the city. He says, ‘The trouble
- there is that these’—whether he used the word Socialists or strikers,
- I don’t know—‘get their women and children mixed up with them and
- around them and in front of them, and we can’t get at them. I would
- like to get three thousand of them in a crowd, without their women and
- children’—and to the best of my recollection he added, ‘and I will
- make short work of them.’ I noticed a few women and children at the
- bottom of the steps where I was. I don’t think there were any in the
- body of the crowd around the wagon. At the time the police came up
- there, I did not observe any women or children.”
-
-On cross-examination Mr. Simonson said:
-
- “I have several times visited police stations in the city. I attended
- a Salvation Army meeting on East Chicago Avenue, and I thought the
- roughs there interrupted the meeting. I went across to see Capt.
- Schaack two or three times about it. I was once at the Desplaines
- Street Station and made complaint against a policeman for abusing
- an old man, and one evening I brought there a fellow who asked me
- for something to get him a lodging on the West Side, and I asked the
- police to take care of him. And another time, when I heard about the
- way people who had received lodging at the station were treated there,
- I went to the station to satisfy myself what was the fact about the
- matter, and Capt. Ward told me a different story.
-
- “I went to the Haymarket meeting out of curiosity to know what kind
- of meetings they held, believing that the newspapers ordinarily
- misrepresented such things. I had my impression that the papers had
- misrepresented the meetings of workingmen, not from anything definite
- I had, but from having seen reports in papers of occurrences I had
- seen, and, as a rule, they were one-sided. I went to the meeting to
- satisfy myself—to prove or disprove my impression. That was one of my
- reasons for going there. At that conversation with Mr. Bonfield that
- I testified to, nobody else was present. It was in the main office of
- Desplaines Street Station. Capt. Ward, I believe, was walking around
- at the time. There was a good deal of noise in the police station, and
- we talked quietly. I believe no one else could hear it. I believe it
- was last fall that I visited the North Side police station in regard
- to the Salvation Army again. I visited about a half dozen of their
- meetings. I saw Capt. Schaack at the station. I did not ask him to
- arrest any people who had disturbed the meeting, nor to arrest the
- Salvation Army people. I told him that in going to the meeting I
- heard somebody swear a very vicious oath and curse the Salvation Army
- people. The police were standing within hearing, and the crowd joined
- in the laugh. I told him it seemed to me that the police ought not to
- allow anything of that kind. The windows of the Salvation Army were
- filled with boards. I told Capt. Schaack that it seemed not right that
- in front of the police station they should do any such thing. He said
- he would order the boards taken down, and if they wanted protection
- they could get it. I went another time to Capt. Schaack when some
- of the Salvation Army people were confined in the Bridewell. Mayor
- Harrison had given me a note to Mr. Felton, telling him to let them
- go, and I went to Capt. Schaack to tell him that.
-
- “My recollection is that Fielden said: ‘The law is your enemy. Kill
- it, stab it, throttle it, or it will throttle you.’ When the police
- came, I looked at them and at the crowd. I watched both to some
- extent. I don’t know how many lines of police there were. When I saw
- them at the Randolph Street tracks, I saw a straight line of police
- filling the whole street. There was more than one column, but I
- don’t know how many. I was at that time contemplating the question
- of my own safety. I was looking in the direction of the wagon at
- the time the bomb was thrown. I didn’t see the officer command the
- meeting to disperse, but heard somebody, in some form, tell the
- meeting to disperse. The only words I remember to have heard were:
- ‘Command—meeting—to disperse.’ During the delivery of that, or right
- after it, I heard somebody say something, of which I caught the two
- words, ‘Peaceable meeting.’ The first column of police were standing
- on about a line with the north line of the alley. I don’t know where
- the other columns were with reference to where the bomb exploded. I
- only saw the police in a large body march out. It looked to me at
- the time as if the bomb struck the ground and exploded just a little
- behind the front line of police. I saw policemen behind the first line
- of police, but I did not distinguish the columns. I don’t know whether
- the bomb exploded directly behind the front line, or between the
- second and the third or third and fourth lines.
-
- “The firing began from the police, right in the center of the street.
- I did not see a single shot fired from the crowd on either side of the
- street. I didn’t know what became of the men in the wagon. I don’t
- think there were any shots fired in the neighborhood of the wagon.
- I was not looking at the wagon all the time, but was looking over
- the scene in general. If you got up on a place as high as I was, and
- it was dark, you could see every flash; the flashes show themselves
- immediately when they are out of the revolver, on a dark night. The
- scene impressed itself so upon me that now, looking back, I see it
- as I did then. Looking at where the bomb exploded, I could not help
- looking toward the wagon, too. My impression is, the boxes on the
- opposite side of the street were from two to four feet high. I have
- been at the Haymarket to look over the ground, several times since
- the 4th of May, so as to get an idea of the dimensions of the thing.
- I went there of my own volition; nobody asked me to go there. It was
- on my way to mother’s house. I am employed by Rothschild Brothers, on
- commission.”
-
-When this witness returned to the store, the firm by whom he was
-employed at once discharged him, saying that he was one of the worst
-Anarchists in the city and they had no use for him.
-
-JOHN FERGUSON, a resident of Chicago for seventeen years, and in
-the cloak business, passed the Haymarket, and, noticing a crowd
-there, stopped to listen to the speeches. He was accompanied by an
-acquaintance. They stood at the Randolph Street crossing and listened
-about fifteen minutes to Parsons’ speech. Said the witness:
-
- “We could hear all of the speaking plainly, from where we stood, as
- the speakers were facing Randolph Street. During his speech, when he
- mentioned Jay Gould’s name, somebody said: ‘Throw him in the lake;’
- and a man standing almost in front of me took his pipe from his mouth
- and halloaed out: ‘Hang him.’ Parsons replied that would do no good;
- a dozen more Jay Goulds would spring up in his place. ‘Socialism aims
- not at the life of individuals, but at the system.’ I didn’t hear
- any other responses from the crowd than those I mentioned. After
- Parsons concluded, another gentleman got up and began speaking about
- Congressman Foran. After a few minutes I saw quite a storm cloud come
- up. Some one interrupted the speaker with the remark: ‘There is a
- prospect of immediate storm, and those of you who wish to continue
- the meeting can adjourn to’—some hall, I don’t remember the name
- of it; but the speaker, resuming, said: ‘I haven’t but two or three
- words more to say, and then you can go home.’ I walked away from the
- meeting, across Randolph Street to the southwest corner. There I saw
- the police rush out from the station in a body. They whirled into the
- street and came down very rapidly toward us. The gentleman in command
- of the police was swinging his arm and told them to hurry up. After
- they had passed us we turned to walk south toward the station, and
- we heard a slight report, something like breaking boards, or like
- slapping a brick down on the pavement. We turned, and we had just
- about faced around, looking at the crowd, when we saw a fire flying
- out about six or eight feet above the heads of the crowd and falling
- down pretty near the center of the street. It was all dark for almost
- a second, perhaps, then there was a deafening roar. Then almost
- instantly we saw flashes from toward the middle of the street, south
- of Randolph on Desplaines, and heard reports. That side of the street
- where the crowd was was dark. At that time there did not appear to be
- any light there. Then we hurried away. I did not see any flashes from
- either side of the street. The majority of the crowd had gone away on
- the appearance of the approaching storm. The crowd was very orderly,
- as orderly a meeting as I ever saw anywhere in the street.
-
- “It could not have been longer than five minutes from the time that
- Fielden said, ‘We will be through in a short time,’ that the police
- marched down the street. I am not a Socialist, nor an Anarchist, nor a
- Communist; I don’t know anything about what those terms mean.”
-
-LUDWIG ZELLER went to the meeting about a quarter past ten, and took a
-position at a lamp-post near Crane’s alley. A few minutes thereafter
-the police came, and when they passed him he heard the command of the
-Captain, but heard no reply from anybody on the wagon or near the wagon.
-
- “I turned and went south to Randolph Street, and in turning I saw a
- light go through the air about six, or eight, or ten feet south of the
- lamp. It went in a northwesterly direction, right into the middle of
- the street and in the middle of the police; then I heard an explosion
- and shooting, and I tried to get out, because there were a great many
- men falling around me, and a few were crying. I turned the corner on
- Randolph Street east toward Clinton. A great many people were running
- in the same direction; men were falling before me and on the side of
- me. I heard shooting immediately upon the explosion of the bomb. The
- shots came from behind me while I ran. The shots came from the center
- of the street, from north and northwest of me.
-
- “On Sunday, May 2d, I was present at a meeting of the Central Labor
- Union as a delegate from the Cigar-makers’ Union, No. 15. The
- delegates of the Lumber-shovers’ Union at that meeting requested me,
- as a member of the agitation committee, to send a speaker to a meeting
- of the Lumber-shovers’ Union to be held on Monday, May 3d, at the
- Black Road. They wanted a good speaker, who could keep the meeting
- quiet and orderly. In the afternoon of the same day we had another
- meeting of the Central Labor Union, at which Mr. Spies was present as
- a reporter of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, and I told him personally to
- go out to the meeting of the Lumber-shovers’ Union and speak in the
- name of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union is a body
- composed of delegates from about twenty-five or thirty different labor
- unions of the city. The Lumber-shovers’ Union is represented in the
- Central Labor Union by delegates. There are from fifteen to sixteen
- thousand laborers represented by those unions. The agitation committee
- to which I belonged was for the purpose of organizing different
- branches of trade who had no eight-hour organization at that time. I
- did not notice any firing back from the crowd at the police, either on
- Desplaines Street or Randolph Street.”
-
-On cross-examination Mr. Zeller stated:
-
- “Since last December, I don’t belong to any group. Prior to that I
- was a member of the group ‘Freiheit,’ which used to meet on Sherman
- Street. I only attended three meetings of that group. We had no
- numbers. I am not an Anarchist. I am a Socialist.
-
- “I was standing about five or six feet south of that alley. I saw the
- fuse about eight or ten feet south of me. I didn’t know what it was.
- I saw behind that fuse something dark, but I couldn’t distinguish
- what it was. I was only looking where it was going. I cannot say what
- kind of looking thing it was; it seems to me it was more round, and
- about as big as a baseball. I cannot say who fired first after the
- bomb went off. I can’t say exactly whether the police fired—I didn’t
- see. On the wagon I only recognized Fielden. I was too far away from
- the wagon, and it was dark. The gas-light was lighted. I didn’t see
- anybody put it out.”
-
-Carl Richter and F. Liebel gave practically similar stories of the
-riot. The point which the defense seemed to wish to bring out in their
-testimony was that the _gravamen_ lay rather with the police than with
-the Anarchists. They swore that, although standing close to the famous
-wagon, they had heard nothing about “bloodhounds.”
-
-Along this line, also, was the evidence of Dr. James D. Taylor, who
-gave a practically identical account of the explosion. This gentleman,
-however, seemed to be certain that the police had attacked the crowd.
-He had examined the scene of the riot on the next day and found that
-the bullet marks on the buildings came chiefly from the direction from
-which the police had charged. Quite a point was made by the Anarchists
-upon the fact that a telegraph pole, which was said to have thoroughly
-borne out Dr. Taylor’s testimony, had disappeared from the Haymarket.
-It was insinuated that the prosecution had made away with this pole.
-The fact was that the pole had been very prosaically, and in the common
-course of business, removed by the telegraph company.
-
-Frank Stenner, Joseph Gutscher and Frank Raab gave their memories
-of the riot, all agreeing closely with the theory of the defense.
-Wm. Urban, a compositor on the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, after telling the
-same story, swore that he saw something shining—which he believed
-were revolvers—in the hands of the police as they came up toward the
-meeting. The story of the explosion and the murder of the police,
-from the Anarchists’ point of view, was also detailed by Wm. Gleason,
-Wm. Sahl, Eberhard Hierzemenzel, Conrad Messer and August Krumm. This
-last witness, Krumm, also testified that he was lighting his pipe, in
-company with another man, in Crane’s alley, at the time that the bomb
-was thrown, which, it will be remembered, Gilmer swore had been fired
-in this alley by Spies and Schnaubelt—and Krumm declared that there
-was nobody in that little thoroughfare then save his friend and himself.
-
-This was not the only attack on Gilmer’s veracity. Lucius M. Moses had
-known Harry Gilmer six or seven years and would not believe him on
-oath. John O. Brixey stated on the stand that Gilmer’s reputation was
-bad and that he was not worthy of belief. John Garrick, an ex-deputy
-sheriff, knew Gilmer and would not believe him on oath. Mrs. B. P. Lee
-was another who had no confidence in Gilmer’s truth and veracity.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXVI.
-
- Malkoff’s Testimony—A Nihilist’s Correspondence—More about the
- Wagon—Spies’ Brother—A Witness who Contradicts Himself—Printing
- the Revenge Circular—Lizzie Holmes’ Inflammatory Essay—“Have
- You a Match About You?”—The Prisoner Fielden Takes the Stand—An
- Anarchist’s Autobiography—The Red Flag the Symbol of Freedom—The
- “Peaceable” Meeting—Fielden’s Opinion of the Alarm—“Throttling the
- Law”—Expecting Arrest—More about Gilmer.
-
-
-THE evidence so far produced for the defendants showed that their
-counsel had done everything possible in their efforts to offset the
-damaging testimony of the State. They proved themselves not only
-fertile in resources, but ingenious in the selection of witnesses and
-in the manner of presenting their points before the jury. It was no
-fault of theirs that they failed to make “the worse appear the better
-reason.” They labored incessantly for the cause of their clients, and
-they certainly called the best witnesses that could be found among the
-Anarchists and their sympathizers.
-
-ROBERT LINDINGER lived with Carl Richter and accompanied him to the
-Haymarket meeting. He stood at the mouth of the alley and saw at the
-meeting Spies, Parsons and Fielden. He did not see the gentleman on
-trial (indicating Schwab); had never seen him before in his life, and
-he (Schwab) was not on the wagon when Spies was there. He did not hear
-anybody say, “Here come the bloodhounds,” etc., saw no one in the crowd
-fire any shots, and saw no pistol in Fielden’s hand. Witness was a
-cornice-maker, and had been in the country about three years. He was
-not a Socialist, but read the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_.
-
-WILLIAM ALBRIGHT, who stood in the alley with Krumm, stated
-substantially the same facts as given by his companion.
-
-M. D. MALKOFF, a reporter for the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, up to the 5th of
-May, saw Parsons at Zepf’s Hall from five to ten minutes before the
-explosion of the bomb. Said he:
-
- “He was sitting at the window, north of the entrance door, in company
- with Mrs. Parsons and Mrs. Holmes. The saloon was pretty crowded at
- that time. I spoke with Mr. Allen about these parties. I think Mrs.
- Holmes was standing and Mrs. Parsons was sitting on the window-sill
- right on the side of Mr. Parsons. I saw them there when I heard the
- explosion of the bomb.”
-
-On cross-examination Mr. Malkoff said:
-
- “I have been five years in the country; in Chicago about two years
- and a half. When I first came to the country, I was private teacher
- of the Russian language in Brooklyn. I taught Paesig, the editor of
- the Brooklyn _Freie Presse_. He is not a revolutionist; his paper is
- not a revolutionary one. Then I went to Little Rock for about half a
- year, working as a printer for the _Arkansas Staats-Zeitung_. Then
- I went to St. Louis for about three months, found no work there,
- and came to Chicago. I had no letter of introduction to Spies when I
- came here. I had obtained my position at Little Rock through a letter
- of introduction from Mr. Spies, whom I knew by some correspondence
- in regard to a novel which Mr. Paesig and I translated and sold to
- the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. It was not a revolutionary novel. I did not
- get that letter of introduction from Mr. Spies through Herr Most. I
- have seen Most, but don’t know him personally. I know Justus Schwab.
- I did not live with him, but had letters directed to his care. When
- I came to Chicago I went directly to Spies. For about half a year I
- was without employment; then, for a year and a half, up to May 4th,
- I was reporter on the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. I roomed with Balthasar
- Rau for about four months; part of that time was after the Haymarket
- meeting. I had been at Zepf’s Hall for more than an hour before I
- heard the bomb explode, part of the time in the saloon, part of the
- time attending the meeting up-stairs. When I came down again in the
- saloon it was a good half hour before the bomb exploded. I was there
- alone, standing near the counter, where I had one glass of beer. When
- I was talking with Mr. Allen, we stood on the floor between the stove
- and the bar.
-
- “When the bomb exploded we made a few steps toward the rear. Mr. Allen
- thought it was a Gatling gun; it sounded like a Gatling gun. A few
- seconds after that the shooting began, and a good many people came to
- the hall. A good many had been there before that. When the crowd came,
- we rushed out the back door.
-
- “I did not belong to any Nihilistic organization in Russia. I was not
- a Nihilist in Russia. I am not in this country as the agent of the
- Nihilists, or any other society in Russia. The reporters used to call
- me a Nihilist because I was a Russian, that is all. This letter here
- (indicating) is in my handwriting, and has my signature at the bottom.
- I don’t remember to whom I wrote it. I am now working for the _Moscow
- Gazette_, an illustrated paper.”
-
-A translation of the letter heretofore referred to was introduced in
-evidence, as follows:
-
- DEAR MR. EDITOR:—The articles I send you herewith you may read, put
- them into proper form, and, if you consider them competent, reprint
- them in one of your papers. I have also nearly completed a very
- interesting article treating of the secret revolutionary societies of
- Russia, in the so-called Dekabrists—that is, of 1820 to 1830. I have
- also another one in my thoughts, but, being out of work, and having
- no dwelling-place, it is entirely impossible to give even a few hours
- daily to writing. You see, I am writing in German, which I can do—_i.
- e._, I translate every sentence, word for word, from the Russian. You
- have in this connection the not easy task to set the corrupted German
- right. I hope you will pardon me for this. At the time I came over
- here I did not understand one German word. Thanks to Wassilisson,
- which I translated with the help of a dictionary, I have learned
- this little. For your letter I am very thankful to you. I would, of
- course, follow your accommodating invitation, and would have left New
- York long ago, but unfortunately it does not depend upon me. I am a
- proletarian in the fullest sense of the word, and a proletarian is not
- favored to put his ideas into execution.
-
- Respectfully,
- MICHAEL MALKOFF.
-
- Care of J. H. Schwab, 50 First Street, New York. Written on the 22d of
- October, 1883.
-
-WILLIAM A. PATTERSON, a printer, attended the meeting at No. 107 Fifth
-Avenue, on the evening of May 4, in response to an advertisement in
-the _Daily News_, and said it was for the purpose of organizing the
-working women of Chicago. While there, a telephone message came for a
-speaker at Deering, and a clerk in the office answered it. That was a
-little after eight o’clock. They wanted a German speaker, and Schwab’s
-name was mentioned. After that, witness said, he did not see Schwab.
-There was also a call for speakers at the Haymarket. Those present at
-the Fifth Avenue meeting were Parsons, Fielden, Mrs. Parsons, Mrs.
-Holmes, Schwab, Waldo, Brown, Snyder and some others.
-
-HENRY LINDEMEYER, a mason, testified through an interpreter. He
-occasionally did calcimining, and, while working at that in the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_, had occasion to place some things on a shelf in the
-closet off the editorial room. He missed a brush, and looked for it on
-a shelf in that closet. He found some papers, which he took down, but
-he did not find his brush. “I found,” said he, “no bundle, no large
-package, no dynamite on the shelf. Saw no indication of greasiness
-there.”
-
-On cross-examination he testified:
-
- “I have known Spies for seven or eight years. I am on the bond of his
- brother, who is charged with conspiracy growing out of the Haymarket
- trouble. I have known Schwab three or four years. Saw him at public
- meetings, at Turner Hall and other halls. I saw Spies nearly every
- day. He lives in my neighborhood since quite a time. I have been a
- subscriber to the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ since it is in existence. The
- closet was in the southeast part of the room, about four or five feet
- square, and about eleven or twelve feet high, as high as the room.
- There was only one shelf in the closet. There was a wash-stand in
- there, under which I kept some things. I had calcimined that room
- a few weeks before. On the 2d of May I calcimined the upper floor.
- On the 5th of May I calcimined the library. I left my things in the
- closet from the 2d to the forenoon of the 5th of May. When the police
- came I took them to some other place. The things I left in that closet
- were my working-clothes and my tools. My hat and my vest I had on the
- upper part of the shelf, and the rest on the floor. When I examined
- the shelf, I found nothing but a small package of papers, covering as
- much space as the size of an open paper, occupying about one-quarter
- of the shelf. I didn’t feel on the bottom of the shelf to see if there
- was any grease on it. There was no grease on there; else I wouldn’t
- have put my clothes there. The shelf was about six feet from the
- ground.”
-
-EDWARD LEHNERT, testifying through an interpreter, said:
-
- “I know Schnaubelt, and saw him at the Haymarket that night about ten
- o’clock. I was standing on the west side of Desplaines Street, about
- thirty paces from Randolph, about twenty paces south of the wagon. I
- saw Schnaubelt about the time when it grew dark and cloudy. I had a
- conversation with him at that time, at the place where I stood. The
- speaking was still going on. It was before the bomb exploded. August
- Krueger was present. I mean Rudolph Schnaubelt, this man (indicating
- photograph of Schnaubelt).”
-
-“What was the conversation?”
-
-The State objected.
-
- _Mr. Zeisler_—“We offer to show by this witness that Schnaubelt
- stated to Lehnert that he did not understand English; that he had
- expected a German speaker would be present; that no one was present
- who spoke German except Spies; that Spies had already made an English
- speech, and that he did not want to stay any longer, and asked Lehnert
- if he would go along; that Lehnert thereupon said he did not go in the
- same direction; and that then Schnaubelt went away with another party.
- We have been able to trace Schnaubelt only for a short distance on his
- way home. We offer this conversation with Lehnert for the purpose of
- explaining Mr. Schnaubelt’s movements after meeting Lehnert.”
-
-The objection was sustained.
-
-WILLIAM SNYDER, indicted for conspiracy in connection with the
-Haymarket riot, and in jail since the 8th of May, said:
-
- “I am a Socialist, a member of the American group of the
- Internationale since it was organized. I am acquainted with all the
- defendants except Lingg. I saw Parsons and Fielden on Tuesday night,
- May 4 last, at the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ building on Fifth Avenue. I had
- gone there pursuant to a notice of a meeting of the American group
- in the paper. I knew nothing of this meeting of the group before I
- read the notice in the paper. The meeting was called to order about
- half-past eight. Before that we had waited for some time for Mr. and
- Mrs. Parsons. They finally came about half-past eight. I was elected
- chairman. I asked the purpose for which the meeting was called. The
- general topic of consideration was to get money from the treasury for
- the purpose of furthering the organization of the sewing girls of
- this city through Mrs. Parsons and Mrs. Holmes. The meeting lasted
- about half an hour; then nearly all of us went over to the Haymarket
- meeting. I don’t remember seeing Schwab at that meeting. We walked
- over.” Witness got on the wagon and when the police came, he said, he
- got down first in front of Fielden. “Fielden did not shoot; he would
- have killed me if he had shot; I was south of him.” They both started
- for the alley, and there witness lost sight of Fielden. He heard no
- reference to bloodhounds and saw no one shooting except the police.
-
-On cross-examination Snyder said:
-
- “I used to make addresses to the working people. Never missed an
- opportunity to show the injustice which they are laboring under. I
- have been chairman of the American group; addressed meetings of the
- group from time to time. I never talked to people on the lake front. I
- read the _Alarm_ every time it came out.”
-
- “How long have you been a Socialist?”
-
- “Well, I was born one.”
-
-THOMAS BROWN, arrested for conspiracy, belonged to the Internationale
-for about a year and a half, and after Parsons had spoken at the
-Haymarket he and Parsons went to Zepf’s saloon. When the bomb exploded,
-they were sitting there at a table. Fischer was there at the time. On
-cross-examination Brown said:
-
- “I was born in Ireland; came to this country some thirty-four years
- ago. The first organization of Socialists I joined was in the city of
- Chicago, about 1881. I did not know Parsons at that time. I became
- acquainted with Parsons about two or two and a half years ago. When
- the bomb exploded, Parsons and I jumped up. I did not go out with
- Parsons from the rear door. I did not go out until some time after the
- explosion. I next saw Parsons on the corner of Kinzie and Desplaines
- Streets, when he was with Mrs. Parsons and Mrs. Holmes. Parsons asked
- me what I would do in his case. We separated on the corner. I went
- north, and I think Parsons went east.”
-
- “What was the conversation you had with Parsons?”
-
- “I told him I would leave for a while, under the circumstances. He
- said: ‘What do you think I had better do?’ I told him: ‘Suit yourself,
- you are your own boss. You must use your own judgment.’ I then loaned
- him five dollars. Parsons did not say to me that he could not get
- away because he had no money. He simply asked me for five dollars,
- and I lent it to him. I did not state to the State’s Attorney, at the
- Central Station, in the presence of Mr. Furthmann, James Bonfield,
- Lieut. Shea and others, that Parsons had said he had no money to get
- away with; that I advised him to go, and that I would lend him five
- dollars. I used to buy the _Alarm_ every time it came out, and used to
- read it. I had stock in the paper.”
-
-HENRY W. SPIES, a cigar manufacturer, brother of the defendant, went
-to the Haymarket with his brother. When his brother got off the wagon
-to hunt for Parsons, they went in a northwesterly direction from the
-wagon, but Schwab was not there.
-
- “Schnaubelt and my brother went together, and I and Legner followed
- right behind them. After asking, ‘Is Parsons here?’ and descending
- from the wagon, August did not go in the direction of Crane’s Alley,
- nor into Crane’s Alley. He went as far as Union Street, and in fact
- got down on the side of the wagon, pretty near the middle of it. Just
- at that time the explosion took place. I asked him what it was. He
- said, ‘They have got a Gatling gun down there,’ and at the same time,
- as he jumped, somebody jumped behind him with a weapon, right by his
- back, and I grabbed it, and in warding off the pistol from my brother
- I was shot. I don’t know who did the shooting. I didn’t see August any
- more until I went home. I went to Zepf’s Hall, though, and inquired
- for him. August did not leave the wagon about the time the police
- came, or at any time, and go into the alley. Legner and myself helped
- him off the wagon just as the explosion came. The firing came from the
- street.”
-
-On cross-examination the witness testified:
-
- “On the 6th of May I was arrested at my house by Officers Whalen
- and Loewenstein. I told them when the bomb exploded I was at Zepf’s
- Hall, walked out and was shot in the door. I told them I was not at
- the Haymarket at all, from beginning to end. That was not true when
- I told it to them. I lied to them. I have told the truth now, when I
- was under oath. I was afterwards brought down to the Central Station,
- about the 9th or 10th of May. I was there interrogated by either Mr.
- Grinnell or Mr. Furthmann, in the presence of Lieuts. Shea and Kipley.
- I was asked whether I was a Socialist. I don’t believe I said I was
- not. I asked whether you could tell me what a Socialist was. I said
- I had been on business at Zepf’s saloon, which is a fact. I told you
- that I was down there for the purpose of collecting a bill. That was
- true when I said it. I also told you I was down there and did a large
- dealing in cigars. I also stated at that time and place that I was
- not at the Haymarket from the beginning, but was in Zepf’s saloon, and
- was shot when I came out of the door at Zepf’s. I also said that I did
- not see my brother that evening until he called at the house and asked
- me if I had a good physician. I now state that what I then said about
- that was not the truth. I was not under oath then, and I knew the
- treatment which my brothers had found.”
-
-AUGUST KRUEGER said:
-
- “I saw there the man represented on this picture (Schnaubelt). When I
- saw him I was standing with Mr. Lehnert on the west side of Desplaines
- Street, about thirty to forty feet north of Randolph. I saw that man
- about ten o’clock; he came from the northeast. I didn’t know at the
- time what his name was, although I knew him well. Mr. Furthmann since
- told me his name is Schnaubelt. Schnaubelt stayed there about five
- minutes. He wanted to go home, and wanted me to go along, and I went
- with him down on Randolph Street to Clinton. There I left him; he
- went further east on Randolph Street, and I turned north on Clinton
- Street. This is the last I saw of Schnaubelt. I walked down Milwaukee
- Avenue and went to Engel’s house. I reached it about fifteen minutes
- past ten—I don’t remember exactly. Mr. and Mrs. Engel were there. I
- stayed there and drank a pint of beer. Later Gottfried Waller came
- in and said he came from the Haymarket, and that 300 men were shot
- by the police, and we ought to go down there and do something. Engel
- said whoever threw that bomb did a foolish thing; it was nonsense, and
- he didn’t sympathize with such a butchery, and he told Waller he had
- better go home as quick as possible.”
-
-On cross-examination Krueger said he was known as “Little Krueger.”
-
- “I am an Anarchist. I was arrested for a day at the North Side
- station. I had a conversation there with Capt. Schaack and Mr.
- Furthmann. I was shown a picture of Schnaubelt at that time. I
- was asked whether I had ever seen that man. I don’t know whether
- I answered, ‘I might have seen him,’ or what I answered. I know
- I had seen him. There were several other officers present at the
- conversation; I don’t know their names. I told Mr. Furthmann there
- that I was not at the Haymarket; I told him I was at Engel’s house.
- I don’t remember what I stated in regard to the time when I got to
- Engel’s house. It may be that I told him that I got to Engel’s house
- at nine o’clock and staid there until eleven, but I don’t remember.”
-
-ALBERT PRUESSER stated that he telephoned three times to the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ for a speaker for the meeting at Lake View. The
-committee from the Deering factory wanted Spies. Witness was told
-that Spies could not come, and he said it would make no difference
-if they sent some one else. A quarter of an hour later he telephoned
-again and received a reply that Schwab was on the way. He went to meet
-Schwab at the Clybourn Avenue car. He met him on the rear platform of
-the car. That was half past nine o’clock, or twenty minutes to ten.
-They went to Radtke’s saloon, 888 Clybourn Avenue, remained there
-ten minutes, and then Schwab went to the prairie and spoke. He spoke
-about twenty minutes. When he got through they went and had lunch and
-beer at Schilling’s saloon. Schwab then took a car for the city. It
-takes forty-five minutes to reach the corner of Clark and Washington
-Streets, and ten minutes to the Haymarket if there is no interruption.
-On cross-examination Pruesser stated that he had been a carrier for the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ for a time.
-
-JOHANN GRUENEBERG testified that he was an intimate friend of
-Fischer’s. He went to the printing establishment of Wehrer & Klein at
-Fischer’s request and got some circulars with the line: “Workingmen,
-arm yourselves and come in full force.” He took them to the
-compositors’ room in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ and then took some down to
-Spies. Fischer, Spies and witness had some conversation, and then he
-took an order from Fischer to Wehrer & Klein to leave out that line. On
-cross-examination Grueneberg stated:
-
- “I came to this country from Germany four years ago. I have lived in
- Chicago two years. I am a carpenter.”
-
- “Where did the armed section of the Northwest group drill?”
-
- “I don’t know an armed section of the Northwest group. I don’t know
- of a single time that the Northwest group drilled. I know of a paper
- called the _Anarchist_. I distributed it three or four times. I saw
- Fischer on Monday, May 3, between five and half-past five, at the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, in the compositors’ room. I did not see Fischer at
- any other place on Monday. I saw him on Sunday afternoon at my house,
- 570 West Superior Street. I did not see him Sunday morning at any
- place.”
-
- “Were you at home all the morning yourself?”
-
- The defense objected to this question.
-
- _The Court_—“You have put this witness on the stand for the purpose
- of showing a thing was taken out, a particular circular. Whether he
- has told that thing as it occurred depends in some degree upon what
- his associations, feelings, inclinations, biases are in reference to
- the whole business.”
-
- _Mr. Black_—“Whether he has told the truth in regard to that depends
- upon his bias and inclinations?”
-
- _The Court_—“Whether it is to be believed—I don’t mean whether he
- has told the truth.”
-
- “I don’t remember whether I was home on that Sunday morning,”
- continued the witness. “I was not on Emma Street that Sunday
- morning. I have known Spies a year and a half; saw him at the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ and at several Socialistic meetings; once at our
- group, the other times I don’t remember where. I have known Neebe for
- a short time by sight. I have known Schwab as long as Spies; saw him
- at our group. He did not belong to the group. He made a speech once
- every few months. I know Lingg since the 1st of May. I met him at the
- Carpenters’ Union, not any other place.”
-
-MRS. LIZZIE MAY HOLMES, assistant editor of the _Alarm_ for about a
-year, detailed what transpired at the meeting of the American group
-on Tuesday evening, May 4th, and stated that she, in company with Mr.
-and Mrs. Parsons and Mr. Brown, went to the Haymarket. Subsequently
-they went to Zepf’s Hall. She could not say just where Parsons was in
-the saloon when the explosion occurred. She had not heard of the word
-“Ruhe” at the meeting Tuesday evening.
-
-On cross-examination she said:
-
- “My name has been Holmes since November 26th last. Before that my name
- was Swank. All articles in the _Alarm_ under which the initials L.
- M. S. appear are my articles. I wrote an article under date of April
- 23d, 1886, headed, ‘It is Coming.’ I meant it in the same way that
- any prophet means anything, judging from events of past history. I
- was a member of the American group of the Internationale. That night
- I went home with Mrs. Parsons and staid there over night. Mr. Parsons
- did not go home that night. I left him on the corner of Kinzie. I am
- an Anarchist as I understand Anarchy. I have known Spies about three
- years, Fielden about four years. The latter was a stockholder in the
- paper, and I believe complaints were directed to him. I was sometimes
- absent for a whole week from the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ building. I
- wrote my articles at home and at various places. I don’t think I
- have ever been at the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ building more than six or
- eight times. I can’t remember where the Bureau of Information for the
- Internationale was. I suppose it was in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_.
-
- “I never advocated arson, or advised persons to commit arson in my
- life. I wrote the article entitled ‘Notice to Tramps,’ in the April
- 24th number of the _Alarm_, which reads:
-
- “In a beautiful town, not far from Chicago, lives a large class of
- cultivated, well-informed people. They have Shakespeare, Lowell,
- Longfellow and Whittier at their tongues’ ends, and are posted in
- history and grow enthusiastic over the wickedness of the safely
- abolished institutions of the past. They say eloquent things about old
- fugitive slave laws, etc., which made it criminal to feed and shelter
- a starving human being if he were black. Posted at the roadside, in
- the hotels and stores, is a ‘Notice to Tramps,’ an abominable document
- which compares well with the old notices to runaway negroes which
- used to deface similar buildings. It is against the law to feed a
- tramp. You are liable to a fine if you give a cup of coffee and a
- piece of bread to a fellow-man who needs it and asks you for it. This
- is a Christian community, under the flag of the free. Look out, you
- wretched slaves. If, after toiling through your best years, you are
- suddenly thrown out of a job along with thousands of others, do not
- start out to hunt for work, for you will strike plenty of such towns
- as this. You must not walk from town to town. You must not stay where
- you are in idleness—you must move on. You must not ride—you have no
- money, and those tracks and cars you helped to build are not for such
- as you. You must not ask for anything to eat, or a place to sleep. You
- must not lie down and die, for then you would shock people’s morals.
- What are you to do? Great heavens! Jump into the lake? Fly up into the
- air? Or stay—have you a match about you?”
-
-“I wrote that article deliberately; it speaks for itself. I don’t think
-it needs any explanation from me.”
-
-SAMUEL FIELDEN was then put on the witness-stand and testified in his
-own behalf as follows:
-
- “On May 4th last I took a load of stone to Waldheim Cemetery. I had
- engaged to speak that night at 268 Twelfth Street, and intended to go
- there. When I got home in the evening I bought a copy of the _Daily
- News_ and there saw the announcement of a meeting of the American
- group to be held at 107 Fifth Avenue, that night. I believe it said
- important business. I was the treasurer of the American group, and
- as such had all the money it was worth. We should have had our
- semi-annual election the Sunday previous; besides, I thought that
- some money would be wanted, as important business was announced,
- so I determined to go to that meeting instead of to the meeting at
- which I had engaged to speak. I arrived at 107 Fifth Avenue about ten
- minutes before eight. I was there when some telephoning was done with
- reference to the Deering meeting. The witnesses who have detailed
- that occurrence are substantially correct. After I had entered the
- room I asked what the meeting was called for, and a gentleman named
- Patterson, who was not a member of our organization, showed me a
- hand-bill, which did not call that meeting, but had reference to the
- organization of the sewing women. I paid, as treasurer, five dollars
- to those who had laid out the costs of printing those hand-bills,
- and who might need a little money for car-fare in going around to
- hire halls, and other incidental expenses. Schwab must have left
- there about ten or fifteen minutes past eight. During the progress
- of the meeting a request was received from the Haymarket meeting for
- speakers, in response to which Parsons and I went over. Mr. Parsons, I
- believe, brought his two children down-stairs and gave them a drink of
- water in the saloon; then we walked together through the tunnel, and
- from about the west end of the tunnel I walked with Mr. Snyder, with
- whom I had a conversation. Spies spoke about five minutes longer after
- we had arrived there; then he introduced Mr. Parsons. During Parsons’
- speech I was on the wagon. After he concluded I was introduced by Mr.
- Spies to make a short speech. I did not wish to speak, but Mr. Spies
- urged me, and I did speak about twenty minutes. I referred to some
- adverse criticism of the Socialists by an evening paper, which had
- called the Socialists cowards and other uncomplimentary names, and I
- told the audience that that was not true; that the Socialists were
- true to the interests of the laboring classes and would continue to
- advocate the rights of labor. I then spoke briefly of the condition
- of labor. I referred to the classes of people who were continually
- posing as labor reformers for their own benefit, and who had never
- done anything to benefit the laboring classes, but had at all times
- approved the cause of labor, in order to get themselves into office.
- To substantiate this, I cited the case of Martin Foran, who, in a
- speech in Congress on the arbitration bill that was brought in by the
- labor committee, had stated that the working classes of this country
- could get nothing through legislation in Congress, and that only when
- the rich men of this country understood that it was dangerous to live
- in a community where there were dissatisfied people would the labor
- problem be solved. Somebody in the audience cried out, ‘That is not
- true,’ or ‘That is a lie.’ Then I went over it again, adding words
- like these: That here was a man who had been on the spot for years,
- had experience, and knew what could be done there, and this was his
- testimony. It was not the testimony of a Socialist. Then I went on to
- state that under such circumstances the only way in which the working
- people could get any satisfaction from the gradually decreasing
- opportunities for their living—the only thing they could do with the
- law would be to throttle it. I used that word in a figurative sense. I
- said they should throttle it, because it was an expensive article to
- them and could do them no good. I then stated that men were working
- all their lifetime, their love for their families influencing them to
- put forth all their efforts, that their children might have a better
- opportunity of starting in the world than they had had. And the facts,
- the statistics of Great Britain and the United States, would prove
- that every year it was becoming utterly impossible for the younger
- generation, under the present system, to have as good an opportunity
- as the former ones had had.
-
- “Mr. Spies asked me, before I commenced, to mention that the Chicago
- _Herald_ had advised the labor organizations of this city to boycott
- the red flag. I briefly touched on that, and told them not to boycott
- the red flag, because it was the symbol of universal freedom and
- universal liberty.
-
- “I was just closing my remarks about that point, when some one said
- it was going to rain. There was a dark, heavy cloud which seemed to
- be rolling over a little to the northwest of me. I looked at it, and
- some one proposed to adjourn the meeting to Zepf’s Hall. Somebody else
- said: ‘No, there is a meeting there,’ and I said: ‘Never mind; I will
- not talk very long; I will close in a few minutes, and then we will
- all go home.’ Then I advised them to organize as laboring men for
- their own protection—not to trust to any one else, but to organize
- among themselves and depend only upon themselves to advance their
- condition. I do not think I spoke one minute longer when I saw the
- police. I stopped speaking, and Capt. Ward came up to me and raised
- his hand—I do not remember whether he had anything in his hand or
- not—and said: ‘I command this meeting, in the name of the people of
- the State of Illinois, to peaceably disperse.’ I was standing up,
- and I said: ‘Why, Captain, this is a peaceable meeting,’ in a very
- conciliatory tone of voice, and he very angrily and defiantly retorted
- that he commanded it to disperse, and called, as I understood, upon
- the police to disperse it. Just as he turned around in that angry
- mood, I said: ‘All right, we will go,’ and jumped from the wagon, and
- jumped to the sidewalk. This is my impression, after being in jail now
- for over three months, and I am telling, as near as I can remember,
- every incident of it. Then the explosion came. I think I went in a
- somewhat southeasterly direction from the time that I struck the
- street. It was only a couple of steps to the sidewalk. I had just, I
- think, got onto the sidewalk when the explosion came, and, being in
- a diagonal position on the street, I saw the flash. The people began
- to rush past me. I was not decided in my own mind what it was, but
- I heard some one say ‘dynamite,’ and then in my own mind I assented
- that that was the cause of the explosion, and I rushed and was crowded
- with the crowd. There were some of them falling down, others calling
- out in agony, and the police were pouring shots into them. We tried
- to get behind some protection, but there were so many trying to get
- there that little protection was afforded. I then made a dash for the
- northeast corner of Randolph and Desplaines Streets, turned the corner
- and ran until I got to about Jefferson Street. Seeing there was no
- pursuit, I dropped into a fast walk. I turned on Clinton, intending at
- that time to go home.
-
- “Immediately after the explosion of the bomb—I had possibly gone
- three or four steps—I was struck with a ball. I didn’t feel much pain
- at the time, in the excitement, but as I dropped into a walk down on
- Randolph Street I felt the pain, put my finger in the hole of my pants
- and felt my knee was wet. Then I concluded I had been shot. Walking
- down Clinton Street and intending to go home, I began to think about
- those that had been with me. Remembering about Mr. Spies being on
- the wagon at the time the police came up, I thought surely that some
- one of these men must have been killed from all of that shooting.
- I concluded to take a Van Buren Street car and ride down past the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ building and see if any one was there. I caught
- the car on the corner of Canal, but found that it was a car that runs
- directly east to State Street. I left the car on Fifth Avenue and
- walked down Fifth Avenue to Monroe Street. Of course, I was near the
- place and could have walked there, but I thought I was so well known
- in Newspaper Row by the reporters that if I should walk I should be
- known. So I jumped on the car and stood in front of it. I intended
- to go up to the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ building if I saw a light there;
- but there wasn’t any. I alighted near the corner of Randolph Street.
- Intending to go up to Parsons’ house, I took an Indiana Street car.
- When we got to Clinton Street the driver said: ‘Why, there is firing
- going on up there yet,’ and I saw a couple of flashes up near where I
- thought the Haymarket was, and I said, ‘If there is, I am not going up
- there.’ I then walked over on Jefferson Street north to Lake Street,
- and I saw a terrible crowd of people around there, and thought there
- might be a good many detectives there. So I turned back again, caught
- a Canalport Avenue car and rode down to the corner of Canal and
- Twelfth Streets. There I got my knee dressed by a young doctor who was
- on the stand here, as it was becoming very painful at that time.
-
- “I feel sure that Mr. Spies was at my side when Capt. Ward was
- talking. I did not see him after I had spoken to Capt. Ward; I did not
- see him leave the wagon. I jumped off at the south end of the wagon
- into the street. While I was speaking I did not pay any attention to
- the people in the wagon, but I think I noticed four or five there a
- little previous to the police coming up. Mr. Snyder assisted me in
- getting on the wagon. He got on before I did. When I got down from
- the wagon Snyder was on the ground. I think I saw him on the sidewalk
- there. Of course I don’t remember everything as distinctly now as I
- did the next day. I had no revolver with me on the night of May 4th. I
- never had a revolver in my life. I did not fire at any person at the
- Haymarket meeting. I never fired at any person in my life. I did not,
- after leaving the wagon, step back between the wheels of the wagon and
- fire behind the cover of the wagon; I did not stay there. My whole
- course was from the wagon south, without stopping, except, perhaps,
- for the smallest perceptible space of time, when I was startled by the
- explosion.
-
- “I first heard of the word ‘Ruhe’ having been published in the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, and about any significance of that word, when I
- had been in the County Jail for some days. I never had seen or heard
- of the word before, and did not hear of it on May 4th at any time,
- and, as I understand it is a German word, I would not have known
- what it meant if I had seen it. I do not read German. There was no
- understanding or agreement to which I was a party, or of which I had
- knowledge, that violence should be used at the Haymarket meeting, or
- that arms or dynamite should be used there. I anticipated no trouble
- of that character. I did not use, upon the approach of the police, and
- did not hear from any person that night any such expression as: ‘There
- come the bloodhounds; you do your duty and I’ll do mine.’
-
- “The first I heard of the Haymarket meeting was after I got to the
- American group meeting on the night of May 4th. I heard, for the first
- time, about a meeting held by certain persons on Monday night at 54
- Lake Street, after I had been from ten to fourteen days in the County
- Jail, when I read a paper that the police had got track of some such a
- meeting. I wish to say, however, that I spoke to the wagon-makers on
- the upper floor of 54 Lake Street on that Monday night. I was never in
- the basement of that building, except to the water-closet under the
- sidewalk. I did not go down-stairs there at all on that Monday night,
- and did not hear of any meeting being held there until much later,
- when I read about it, as stated before.
-
- “We drilled not over six times at 54 Lake Street, but nobody ever
- had arms there. I think it was proposed to call the organization the
- International Rifles, but I don’t think it was ever decided to call
- it so, as the organization was never perfected, never became an armed
- organization. We began to meet in August, and the last meetings must
- have been very near the end of September, 1885. There was no drilling
- during the winter and spring of 1885-’86. Once a few men belonging to
- the L. u. W. V. came in with their guns and shouldered arms, but they
- did not belong to the American group, and that is the only time that I
- ever saw any arms at any meeting of our organization.
-
- “The shots that were pouring in thick and fast after the explosion of
- the bomb came from the street—I should judge from the police. I did
- not hear the explosion of anything before the explosion of the bomb.
- As I was rushing down the sidewalk, I heard no explosion of any arms
- among any of the citizens who had attended the meeting.
-
- “I remember the testimony of the detective Johnson. I did not have
- the conversation which he testified to as having had with me in the
- presence of the older Mr. Boyd at Twelfth Street Turner Hall, nor at
- any other place, nor at any other time. I knew that he was a detective
- long before that, and I would not be fool enough to advocate anything
- of that kind, if I was a dynamiter, to him. The American group was
- open to everybody. It was not even necessary to have ten cents
- admission fee, but the fee was set at ten cents per month to cover the
- expense of paying for hall rent and advertising. On May 4th I returned
- home from my work about half past five. I bought the _Evening News_ on
- the sidewalk just before I went into the house.
-
- “On May 3d I took several loads of stone from Bodenschatz & Earnshaw’s
- stone dock, Harrison Street and the river, to different places in the
- city. I have worked for that firm three or four years. I owned my team
- and wagon, and they hired those and my services, and paid me by the
- day. I only worked three-quarters of a day on May 3d. Business was not
- brisk at that time. I have been a teamster for at least six years.
- I was arrested at my home at ten o’clock on the morning of May 5th.
- I was never before arrested in my life. I was taken to the Central
- Station by four or five detectives in citizens’ clothes, and have been
- confined ever since.
-
- “I had no examination except that I was brought before the Coroner’s
- jury on the evening of May 5th. I did not state to Officer James
- Bonfield or anybody else, after my arrest at the station, or at any
- other time or place, that I escaped through Crane’s alley on the night
- of May 4th.”
-
-On cross-examination Fielden said:
-
- “I worked in a cotton-mill in England at eight years of age, and
- continued to work in the same mill until I came to the United States.
- I worked my way up until I became a weaver, and when I left the mill I
- was what is called a binder; that is, binding the warps on the beams.
- I joined the International Working People’s Association in July, 1884,
- by joining the American group. I suppose I was an Anarchist soon
- after, as soon as I began to study it. I suppose that I have been
- a revolutionist, in the sense of evolutionary revolution, for some
- years. I don’t know that I have ever been positively of the belief
- that the existing order of things should be overthrown by force. I
- have always been of the belief, and am yet, that the existing order of
- things will have to be overthrown, either peaceably or by force. When
- I had the books of the American group it had about 175 members—that
- was last November. I don’t know how many have been added since. There
- were probably fifteen or twenty ladies among the members. It was
- called the American group because the English language was used in it.
- It was not confined to born Americans.
-
- “We tried to found an English-speaking group a year ago last winter,
- on West Indiana Street. I think we had only two meetings and then
- abandoned it. I have been making speeches for the last two or three
- years. They were labor speeches—not always Socialistic and not always
- Anarchistic; that is, sometimes I have touched on Socialism and
- Anarchy; sometimes they were delivered from an ordinary trades-union
- standpoint. I have made a great many speeches on the lake front, some
- on Market Square, some at West Twelfth Street Turner Hall, some at 106
- Randolph Street, some at 54 West Lake. The meetings on the lake front
- were on Sunday afternoons.”
-
- “Did you make a speech on the night of the opening of the new Board of
- Trade?”
-
- “I did. I have two dollars’ worth of stock in the _Alarm_. I was part
- of the committee to see what should be done about the _Alarm_ when it
- began to get in deep water, and my name was proposed to be put on the
- paper as the recipient of communications as to its management.
-
- “There were possibly twelve or fifteen members of the American group
- present at the meeting at 107 Fifth Avenue on May 4th. There were Mr.
- and Mrs. Parsons, Mr. and Mrs. Timmons, Mrs. Holmes, Snyder, Brown and
- some others. I am not positive whether Walters and Ducy were there.
- I think we staid there until nearly nine o’clock. Balthasar Rau came
- over from the Haymarket and said Spies was there and a large meeting,
- and no one else to speak. Some four or five of us went over together.
- I know that Rau, Parsons, myself and Snyder went about together.
- Schwab left the _Zeitung_ office before us. I had promised, on Sunday
- night at Greif’s Hall, a man who had been to my house before, to
- speak at a labor meeting at either 368 or 378 West Twelfth Street
- that Tuesday night. Of those that were on the speakers’ wagon, I only
- remember Parsons, Spies and Snyder. There were some others there
- who were strangers to me. A boy about sixteen years of age came up
- on the wagon and rather crowded me to one side, and I told him he
- might as well stand down. I spoke because Mr. Spies requested me to
- make a short speech. Mr. Parsons had spoken longer than I thought
- he would, and I thought it was late enough to close. I don’t now
- remember whether or not I used this language: ‘There are premonitions
- of danger. All know it. The press say the Anarchists will sneak away.
- We are not going to.’ I have no desire to deny that I did use that
- language. If I used it—and I don’t know whether I did—if I had any
- idea in my mind at any time which would be expressed in that language,
- I know for what reasons I would have that idea. I used substantially
- all that language which Mr. English, the reporter, who was on the
- stand here, testified as having been used by me in my speech at
- the Haymarket meeting. I did not say that John Brown, Jefferson,
- Washington, Patrick Henry and Hopkins said to the people: ‘The law is
- your enemy.’ If I used the language, ‘We are rebels against it,’—and
- I possibly did,—I referred to the present social system. I don’t
- remember that I said: ‘It had no mercy; so ought you.’ There is not
- much sense in it, and I will not father it. The report of my speech,
- as given by Mr. English, has been garbled, and it does not give the
- connection. I don’t accept that as my speech at all. I think I used
- the language, but you haven’t got the sense of it at all, in quoting
- it in that way.
-
- “After I left the Haymarket meeting, my first intention was to go
- home. I cannot tell now why I changed my mind about that. Impressions
- sometimes come on a person’s mind which he cannot explain why they
- come there. I rode on the car in passing the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_
- office, instead of walking, and I avoided the crowd on Lake Street, in
- which I thought there would be lots of detectives, because I certainly
- didn’t wish to be arrested that night. Of course, I thought I would be
- arrested after the trouble; it was only natural to suppose I would.
- I did not think there was anything inflammatory or incendiary in my
- speech. I did not incite anybody to do any overt act to anybody or
- anything. I spoke generally, from a general standpoint. I meant to say
- they should resist the present social system, which degraded them and
- turned them out of employment, and gave them no opportunity to get a
- living. Somebody threw a bomb. I did not know and do not know now who
- it was, or anything about it. Still I know, from reading of criminal
- proceedings, that in cases of that kind they arrest everybody in order
- to find out who is responsible. I supposed that I, being one of the
- participants of the meeting, would be arrested—for some time, at
- least. Knowing my innocence, I made a statement before the Coroner’s
- jury, expecting that when they examined into the truth of my statement
- I should be released.”
-
-On re-direct examination Fielden said:
-
- “If I did make the remark about premonitions of danger in my Haymarket
- speech, I must have meant that there were so many men striking just
- then for the eight-hour movement that some trouble might possibly
- originate between the strikers and their employers, as had been the
- case in former strikes, and, knowing that all men are not very cool,
- and some men become aggravated—their condition may have a good deal
- to do with it—they sometimes commit acts which the officers of the
- law, in their capacity as such, are compelled to interfere with. I
- was speaking of the general labor question and the issue that was up
- for settlement during the eight-hour movement. I had no reference
- to the presence of dynamite at the meeting. I did not say that John
- Brown, Jefferson, etc., said that the law was their enemy. What I said
- in regard to them was, that we occupied, in relation to the present
- social system, which no longer provided security for the masses, just
- about the position that John Brown, Jefferson, Hopkins, Patrick Henry
- occupied in relation to the government and dictation of Great Britain
- over the Colonies; that they repeatedly appealed to Great Britain to
- peaceably settle the differences in regard to the port duties, the
- stamp act, etc., but when it could not be peaceably settled, they
- could not submit to it any longer, and were compelled to do something
- else; and it was always the element of tyranny which incited strife,
- and as it was in that case, so it would be in this. As to the use of
- the expressions about killing, stabbing, throttling the law, I used
- them just as a Republican orator, in denouncing the Democratic party,
- might say, ‘We will kill it,’ or ‘We will throttle it,’ or ‘defeat
- it,’ or as one might speak of a candidate for office—‘We will knife
- him.’ I used those adjectives, as any speaker would, in rushing along,
- throw in adjectives without thinking much of what their full import
- might be. My remarks that night were intended to call upon the people
- to resist the present social system—not by force, I had no such idea
- in my mind that night—so that they would be enabled to live; to call
- their attention to the fact that by the introduction of labor-saving
- machinery and the subdivision of labor less men were continually
- needed, more productions produced, and their chance to work decreased,
- and that by their organizing together they might become partakers
- in the benefits of civilization, more advantageous and quicker
- productions.”
-
-Together with the testimony given above, of which, of course, the most
-important was that of the prisoner Samuel Fielden, were the stories of
-a number of other witnesses whose names have been here omitted. The
-reason for this is, that while the statements of these persons were
-of much importance in the trial of the case, to print them all would
-stretch this book of mine out to unconscionable length. It will suffice
-to say that several witnesses testified strongly in support of the
-Anarchist theory of the episodes which occurred about the famous wagon
-at the Haymarket. Half a dozen others declared that they would not
-believe Harry W. Gilmer on oath. This statement of the evidence offered
-is made necessary by the space at my disposal. I have tried throughout
-this work to be wholly fair to the defense, and the reader will of
-course understand that these witnesses corroborated the testimony of
-others which has been previously given in full in these pages.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXVII.
-
- The Close of the Defense—Working on the Jury—The Man who Threw
- the Bomb—Conflicting Testimony—Michael Schwab on the Stand—An
- Agitator’s Adventures—Spies in his Own Defense—The Fight at
- McCormick’s—The Desplaines Street Wagon—Bombs and Beer—The
- Wilkinson Interview—The Weapon of the Future—Spies the Reporter’s
- Friend—Bad Treatment by Ebersold—The Hocking Valley Letter—Albert
- R. Parsons in his Own Behalf—His Memories of the Haymarket—The
- Evidence in Rebuttal.
-
-
-THROUGHOUT the trial the defendants maintained an air of careless
-indifference. Occasionally during the presentation of particularly
-striking and damaging evidence—notably that of Thompson and
-Gilmer—they were noticed to wince, but the flush was only momentary.
-It was apparent that the prisoners expected in some manner to extricate
-themselves from their perilous position, and the casual observer would
-have supposed them involved simply in an ordinary trial. Whatever may
-have been their real feelings, they did not betray them. After they
-had begun to place evidence on their own behalf before the jury, they
-even wore a certain air of cheerfulness; and whereas previously a sort
-of stolidity had marked their demeanor, their general bearing now was
-that of supreme confidence. They evidently felt confident of having
-made a favorable impression upon the jury. They possibly calculated
-upon their having successfully impeached the evidence of Gilmer and
-having proven to some extent their own disconnection with the Haymarket
-explosion. Fielden’s plausible explanations also, no doubt, added to
-their confidence.
-
-Taking the evidence of the State as a complete exposition of the
-conspiracy, there seemed to be no consolation in that direction; but
-their hope rested in winning over the jury by raising a reasonable
-doubt through the preponderance of offsetting testimony on their own
-side, and by making the jury believe, by the manner of their conduct
-under the severe fire of the prosecution, that they sincerely felt
-themselves innocent of all “guilty knowledge.”
-
-They played their part well, and their attitude is not at all
-surprising when their former bloodthirsty propensities are taken
-into consideration. In an ordinary murder or conspiracy trial
-Fielden’s statements might have had some influence in mitigation
-of extreme punishment, but, overshadowed as it was by overwhelming
-counter-evidence of complicity in a stupendous crime, the jury
-subsequently determined that it saw no way of disconnecting him from
-the other conspirators.
-
-The defendants pretended they had a host of witnesses beyond those that
-they really required to prove that they had never dreamed there would
-be a bomb thrown at the Haymarket, but that they only needed to use a
-few of these witnesses to establish their innocence. Still, they put a
-very large number on the stand. The testimony of all these pretended to
-show what a harmless set of men the State had arrested and put on trial
-for their lives.
-
-The trend of much of the evidence for the defense seemed directed
-toward proving the police responsible for the massacre, by having
-opened fire on a “peaceable gathering;” and, through a brother of
-the defendant Spies, it was attempted to prove that the enmity of
-the police toward Anarchists was so great that one of them tried to
-shoot the defendant in the back while at the Haymarket. This brother
-of Spies—Henry—had been wounded in the abdomen, and he endeavored,
-on the witness-stand, to show that he had received the injury while
-suddenly pressing down the revolver that was aimed at his brother. The
-explanation was too lame to be serviceable.
-
-At this point several witnesses testified to Lingg’s presence at Zepf’s
-Hall early on the night of May 3d. Others strengthened the Anarchistic
-theory of an alleged police attack at the Haymarket. Still others
-impeached the witness Gilmer’s veracity. Inasmuch as I have previously
-given in full all the evidence which these people merely corroborated,
-I have not thought it necessary to give here their statements at length.
-
-JOHN BERNETT, a candy-maker, said he saw the man who threw the bomb.
-The thrower was right in front of him. The bomb “went west and a little
-bit north.”
-
- “The man who threw it was about my size, maybe a little bit bigger,
- and I think he had a mustache. I think he had no chin beard, and his
- clothes were dark.”
-
- “Did you ever see that picture before?” (handing witness photograph of
- Schnaubelt).
-
- “Yes, sir; Mr. Furthmann showed it to me about two weeks ago.”
-
- “Do you recognize that as being the man who threw the bomb?”
-
- “I guess not.”
-
- “Did you tell Mr. Furthmann so at the time?”
-
- “Yes, sir.”
-
-On cross-examination Bernett said;
-
- “I never could recognize anybody. I told Capt. Schaack and Mr.
- Grinnell that the man who threw the bomb was in front of me, and I
- could not tell how he did look. When the police came up first I stood
- right in the middle of the alley. When the captain of the police
- ordered them to leave that place, I heard somebody say: ‘Stand; don’t
- run,’ and there were about three or four men, about the middle of the
- street, west of the wagon, who halloaed out: ‘No; we won’t do it.’
- That was said in English. I heard Fielden say something to the officer
- who spoke to him, but I could not hear it. The crowd began to rush,
- and rushed me, and I hurried out as fast as I could. I got shot and
- fell on the sidewalk. I told Mr. Furthmann that I thought the bomb
- was fired from about fifteen steps south of the alley—I count my
- steps about two feet and a half. I don’t think it came right from
- behind the boxes. From the place the bomb was thrown up to the other
- corner—the house goes up a little further on the other side—the
- distance is forty-five feet. The bomb was thrown forty-five feet south
- of the corner of the alley. I cannot remember how far the boxes were
- south of the alley that night—there was a lamp-post, and then the
- boxes came. I remember coming to the Central Station on the 7th of
- May and talking to Officer Bonfield in the presence of Mr. Grinnell.
- I don’t know that I said at that time that the bomb was thrown
- from behind the boxes, but I think I am right now. I don’t think I
- stated afterwards, some weeks ago, that it was thrown some twenty or
- twenty-five feet south of the alley. I can’t remember now how many
- feet I stated the distance was, but I think I have got it right now.
- On the 7th of May I was brought over here by Officer Bonfield and
- Officer Haas, so that I could see the defendants. I was asked if I had
- ever seen them before, and I said I had seen them all before on the
- lake front and the Haymarket. I told Capt. Schaack that I could not
- describe the man and would not know him if I saw him, and that the
- man’s back was toward me.”
-
-MICHAEL SCHWAB was then called in his own behalf, and he made the
-following statement:
-
- “Up to the 4th of May I lived at 51 Florimond Street. I was co-editor
- of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. On the evening of May 4th I left home
- twenty minutes to eight, went to the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ and reached
- there about eight o’clock. I left about ten minutes later. While I
- was there a telephone message was received asking Mr. Spies to speak
- at Deering. After that I went over to the Haymarket to see whether
- I could find Mr. Spies. I didn’t stop long over there. I just went
- through the crowd, as the men out at Deering had been waiting for an
- hour already. I went over on Washington Street, turned north down
- Desplaines Street and went across Randolph Street, and north of
- Randolph on Desplaines I met my brother-in-law, Rudolph Schnaubelt,
- and talked to him about the matter; then took a car going in an
- easterly direction and rode up to the Court-house. At the Court-house
- I took a Clybourn Avenue car and went to Deering’s factory. Near the
- car stables I was met by a man and asked whether I was Mr. Schwab.
- The man testified here on the witness-stand. I think his name is
- Preusser, as he told me that night. I should judge it takes about
- ten minutes from the Haymarket to the Court-house and about forty or
- forty-five minutes from there to Fullerton Avenue. I stepped from the
- car with that man; went up to the saloon, 888 Clybourn Avenue, to see
- the committee, but the committee was not there; so we went directly
- to the prairie, corner of Fullerton and Clybourn Avenues, and there I
- met some men who told me that they were the committee. I talked with
- them some minutes, then mounted the stand and made a speech, twenty or
- twenty-five minutes long, about the eight-hour movement, to the men
- who had struck that same day and demanded eight hours’ work and ten
- hours’ pay. I returned home about eleven o’clock at night. I didn’t
- pay any attention to the time. After the meeting was over I went with
- Preusser to a saloon, took a glass of beer and had some lunch, and
- then I took the next car going south. I left the car on Willow Street,
- which is not far north from North Avenue, and walked home, which is a
- distance of about twenty minutes’ walk.
-
- “I did not at any time while I was at the Haymarket enter Crane’s
- alley or any alley with Mr. Spies. I had no conversation with him
- near the mouth of the alley. I did not walk at any time that night
- in company with Mr. Spies on the north side of Randolph Street from
- the corner of Desplaines down past Union Street and return to where
- the wagon stood. I did not, in company with Mr. Spies, meet Schnaubelt
- when Spies handed to Schnaubelt any package or anything. I did not see
- Spies and did not speak to him at all that night at the Haymarket. I
- did not say anything to Spies or anybody else in the mouth of Crane’s
- alley about pistols or police, or whether one would be enough. I had
- no such conversation with anybody at the Haymarket or anywhere. I did
- not say to Mr. Spies or anybody else at any time before the meeting
- began or at any other time that if the police came we were ready for
- them or we would give it to them, or any words to that effect.
-
- “When I left the Haymarket the meeting had not begun; men were
- standing around on all four corners. I had seen Mr. Spies last that
- day in the afternoon. I did not see him again until the next day in
- the morning, when I came to the office.”
-
-On cross-examination Schwab said:
-
- “I was a member of the North Side group of the International
- Workingmen’s Association from the time it started, some years ago,
- until up to the 4th of May last. I walked over to the Haymarket from
- the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ that night through the Washington Street tunnel
- with Balthasar Rau. He left me on Desplaines and Randolph; there I
- lost him. Then I crossed Randolph Street, and about the middle of
- Randolph Street met Mr. Heineman. I inquired of some persons whom I
- knew by sight whether they had seen Spies. I staid there not more than
- five minutes, then took a car and went east. I went alone. I should
- judge it was about half-past eight when I took the car on Randolph
- Street and about twenty minutes of nine when I took the Clybourn
- Avenue car and went north. I was alone on that way. I don’t know
- what time it was when I got to the saloon at 888 Clybourn Avenue.
- From there it is about a block or a little more to the prairie where
- the meeting was held. When I got there I spoke first to some of the
- members of the committee to find out what they wanted me to speak
- about. That took about five minutes. After I had spoken to the meeting
- I went with Preusser to a saloon, corner of Clybourn and Ashland
- Avenues, not the same saloon I went into the first time. I did not see
- Balthasar Rau again that night.”
-
- “Are you an Anarchist?”
-
- “That depends upon what you mean by that. There are several divisions
- of the Anarchists.”
-
- “Are you an Anarchist?”
-
- “Well, I can’t answer that.”
-
-AUGUST VINCENT THEODORE SPIES was next put on the stand to testify in
-his own behalf. He said:
-
- “May 4th last I was one of the editors of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. I
- occupied that position since 1880. Prior to that I was engaged in
- this country principally in the furniture business. I am a member of
- the Socialistic Publishing Society, which is organized under the laws
- of the State of Illinois, and by which the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ was
- published. I was an employé of that society in my position as editor,
- and as such was subject to their control as to the general policy of
- the paper.
-
- “At a meeting of the Central Labor Union in the evening of Sunday,
- May 2, at 54 West Lake Street, which I attended in the capacity of a
- reporter, I was invited by one or two delegates to address a meeting
- of the Lumber-shovers’ Union on the afternoon of May 3, on the corner
- of Twenty-second or Twentieth and Blue Island Avenue. As there were
- no other speakers, I went out. When I came there was a crowd of 6,000
- to 7,000 people assembled on the prairie. When I was invited, which
- was the first information I received of the meeting, nothing was said
- to me about any relationship of Mr. McCormick’s employés to that
- meeting. I did not know that the locality of the meeting was in the
- immediate neighborhood of McCormick’s. I arrived there, as near as I
- can judge, a little after three o’clock. Several men were speaking
- from a car in the Bohemian or Polish language; they were very poor
- speakers, and small crowds of those assembled detached themselves
- to the side and talked together. Balthasar Rau introduced me to the
- chairman of the meeting. I don’t remember his name; he testified here.
- I asked him if I was to speak there, and he said yes. I waited for
- about ten minutes while reports came in from the different owners
- of the lumber-yards as to the demand made by the union, which was
- eight hours’ work at twenty-two cents per hour. They then elected a
- committee to wait upon the bosses to find out what concessions they
- would make, if any. Thereupon I was introduced to address the meeting,
- and spoke from fifteen to twenty minutes. Having spoken two or three
- times almost every day for the preceding two or three weeks, I was
- almost prostrated, and spoke very calmly, and told the people, who
- in my judgment were not of a very high intellectual grade, to stand
- together and to enforce their demands at all hazards; otherwise the
- single bosses would one by one defeat them. While I was speaking I
- heard somebody in the rear, probably a hundred feet away from me,
- cry out something in a language which I didn’t understand—perhaps
- Bohemian or Polish. After the meeting I was told that this man had
- called upon them to follow him up to McCormick’s. I should judge about
- two hundred persons, standing a little ways apart from the main body,
- detached themselves and went away. I didn’t know where they were going
- until probably five minutes later I heard firing, and about that time
- I stopped speaking and inquired where the pistol shots came from,
- and was told that some men had gone up there to stone McCormick’s
- ‘scabs’ and that the police had fired upon them. I stopped there
- probably another five or six minutes, during which time I was elected
- a member of the committee to visit the bosses, when two patrol wagons
- came up in great haste on the Black Road, so-called, driving towards
- McCormick’s, followed immediately by about seventy-five policemen on
- foot, and then other patrol wagons came. I jumped from the car and
- went up to McCormick’s. They were shooting all the while. I thought it
- must be quite a battle. In front of McCormick’s factory there are some
- railroad tracks, on which a number of freight-cars were standing. The
- people were running away and hiding behind these freight-cars as much
- as they could, to keep out of the way of the pistol-firing. The fight
- was going on behind the cars. When I came up there on this prairie,
- right in front of McCormick’s, I saw a policeman run after and fire at
- people who were fleeing, running away.
-
- [Illustration: SPIES ADDRESSING THE STRIKERS AT MCCORMICK’S.]
-
- My blood was boiling, and, seeing unarmed men, women and children, who
- were running away, fired upon, I think in that moment I could have
- done almost anything. At that moment a young Irishman, who probably
- knew me or had seen me at the meeting, came running from behind the
- cars and said: ‘What kind of a—— —— business is this? What h——l
- of a union is that? What people are these who will let those men be
- shot down here like dogs? I just come from there; we have carried away
- two men dead, and there are a number of others lying on the ground
- who will most likely die. At least twenty or twenty-five must have
- been shot who ran away or were carried away by friends.’ Of course
- I could not do anything there. I went back to where the meeting had
- been, which was about three blocks away. I told some of them what was
- going on at McCormick’s, but they were unconcerned and went home. I
- took a car and went down town. The same evening I wrote the report
- of the meeting which appeared in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ of the next
- day. Immediately after I came to the office I wrote the so-called
- Revenge circular, except the heading, ‘Revenge.’ At the time I wrote
- it I believed the statement that six workingmen had been killed that
- afternoon at McCormick’s. I wrote at first that two had been killed,
- and after seeing the report in the five o’clock _News_ I changed the
- two to six, based upon the information contained in the _News_. I
- believe 2,500 copies of that circular were printed, but not more than
- half of them distributed, for I saw quite a lot of them in the office
- of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ on the morning I was arrested. At the time
- I wrote it I was still laboring under the excitement of the scene and
- the hour. I was very indignant.
-
- “On May 4th I was performing my regular duties at the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. A little before nine in the forenoon I was invited
- to address a meeting on the Haymarket that evening. That was the
- first I heard of it. I had no part in calling the meeting. I put
- the announcement of the meeting into the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ at the
- request of a man who invited me to speak. The _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ is an
- afternoon daily paper, and appears at 2 P. M. About eleven o’clock a
- circular calling the Haymarket meeting was handed to me to be inserted
- in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, containing the line, ‘Workingmen, arm
- yourselves and appear in full force.’ I said to the man who brought
- the circular that, if that was the meeting which I had been invited
- to address, I should certainly not speak there, on account of that
- line. He stated that the circulars had not been distributed, and I
- told him if that was the case, and if he would take out that line, it
- would be all right. Mr. Fischer was called down at that time, and he
- sent the man back to the printing-office to have the line taken out.
- I struck out the line myself before I handed it to the compositor to
- put it in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. The man who brought the circular
- to me and took it back with the line stricken out was on the stand
- here—Grueneberg I believe is his name.
-
- “I left home that evening about half-past seven o’clock and walked
- down with my brother Henry, arriving at the Haymarket about twenty or
- twenty-five minutes after eight. I had understood from the invitation
- that I should address the meeting in German; and, knowing that the
- English speeches would come first, I did not go there in time to reach
- the opening of the meeting. When I got there, there was no meeting
- in progress, however; simply crowds were standing around the corners
- here and there, talking together. I called them together. After having
- looked around for a speakers’ stand—we generally had very primitive
- platforms—I saw this wagon on Desplaines Street; and being right
- near the corner, I thought it was a good place to choose and told the
- people that the meeting would take place there. There was no light
- upon the wagon. Early in the meeting I think the sky was bright. I
- cannot tell whether the lamp at the alley was burning or not; my
- impression is that it was. I could not say about any other light. I
- found the wagon just where we used it. It was not an ordinary truck
- wagon; it was a half truck and half express wagon, the truck with the
- box on. I don’t know that there were any stakes on it; it was a large,
- long express wagon. I believe I spoke with my brother Henry as to the
- advisability of choosing that place. Henry was with me during the
- entire evening. After the audience got together, somebody suggested to
- draw the wagon into the Haymarket. I replied that that might interfere
- with the street traffic, and that the cars would make a good deal
- of noise. Then I asked if Mr. Parsons was present. I thought he had
- been invited to address the meeting. I was not on the arrangement
- committee; but seeing the crowd and seeing that the meeting had been
- very poorly arranged, I took the initiative. When I asked for Parsons,
- one of the editors of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, one Schroeder, stepped
- up and said: ‘Parsons is speaking up on the corner of Halsted and
- Randolph Streets; I just saw him there.’ I told him to go and call
- him. He left, but staid quite a while, and I left the wagon myself,
- and, in the company of my brother Henry, one Legner and Schnaubelt,
- whom I had just met, went up the street to find Parsons. Schwab was
- not with me at that time or at any time that evening. Schnaubelt
- told me I had been wanted at Deering, but as I had not been at hand
- Schwab had gone out there. After I left the wagon I did not go to the
- mouth of Crane’s alley. I did not even know at the time that there
- was an alley there at all. I did not enter the alley with Schwab, had
- no conversation with him there in which I referred to pistols and
- police, and in which Schwab asked whether one would be enough, etc.,
- nor anything of that kind. Neither did I have that conversation with
- anybody else. I left the wagon and moved in a southwesterly direction
- obliquely across the street to the corner of the Haymarket. From there
- I went, in company with those I mentioned, up on Randolph Street,
- beyond Union and pretty near Halsted Street, but, seeing only a few
- people, probably twenty or twenty-five, standing there scattered, and
- not seeing Parsons, we returned, walking on the north side of Randolph
- Street, as we had in going down. I went on the wagon and addressed the
- meeting. I had no conversation with Schwab, at or about the crossing
- of Union Street, in which we spoke about being ready for them and that
- they were afraid to come. I had no such conversation with any one. I
- don’t remember exactly of what we were speaking, but Schnaubelt and I,
- as we walked along, were conversing in German. I have known Schnaubelt
- for about two years. I think he has not been in the country more than
- two years. He cannot speak English at all. He wore a light gray suit
- that night. In returning to the wagon I went from the corner of the
- Haymarket right straight to the wagon, in a northeasterly direction. I
- did not, on my return, or at any time that evening, walk with Schwab
- across Desplaines Street to the center of the sidewalk, some fifteen
- feet south of Crane’s alley, and at that point meet Schnaubelt, and
- there take anything out of my pocket, or otherwise, and give it to
- Schnaubelt, or anybody else, at that location.
-
- “I spoke about fifteen or twenty minutes. I began by stating that
- I heard a large number of patrol wagons had gone to Desplaines
- Street Station; that great preparations had been made for a possible
- outbreak; that the militia had been called under arms, and that I
- would state at the beginning that this meeting had not been called for
- the purpose of inciting a riot, but simply to discuss the situation
- of the eight-hour movement and the atrocities of the police on the
- preceding day. Then I referred to one of the morning papers of the
- city, in which Mr. McCormick said that I was responsible for the
- affair near his factory; that I had incited the people to commit
- violence, etc., and I stated that such misrepresentations were made in
- order to discredit the men who took an active part in the movement.
- I stated that such outbreaks as had occurred at McCormick’s, in East
- St. Louis, in Philadelphia, Cleveland and other places, were not the
- work of a band of conspirators, of a few Anarchists or Socialists,
- but the unconscious struggle of a class for emancipation; that such
- outbreaks might be expected at any minute and were not the arbitrary
- work of individuals. I then pointed to the fact that the people who
- committed violence had never been Socialists or Anarchists, but in
- most instances had been up to that time the most lawful citizens,
- good Christians, the exemplary so-called honest workmen, who were
- contrasted by the capitalists with the Anarchists. I stated that the
- meeting at McCormick’s was composed mostly of humble, church-going
- good Christians, and not by any means atheists, or materialists,
- or Anarchists. I then stated that for the past twenty years the
- wage-workers had asked their employers for a reduction of the hours
- of labor; that, according to the statement of the secretary of the
- National Bureau of Labor Statistics, about two millions of physically
- strong men were out of employment; that the productive capacity had,
- by the development of machines, so immensely increased that all that
- any rationally organized society required could be produced in a few
- hours, and that the mechanical working of men for ten hours a day
- was simply another method of murdering them. Though every student of
- social phenomena admitted the fact that society was, under the present
- condition of overwork, almost retrograding and the masses sinking into
- degradation, still their demands have been refused. I proceeded to
- state that the legislators had different interests at stake than those
- involved in this question, and did not care so much about the welfare
- of any class of society as for their own interests, and that at last
- the workingmen had conceived, consciously or unconsciously, the idea
- to take the matter in their own hands; that it was not a political
- question, but an economic question; that neither legislatures nor
- Congress could do anything in the premises, but the workingmen could
- only achieve a normal day’s work of eight hours or less by their own
- efforts.
-
- “I believe when I had gone so far somebody told me that Mr. Parsons
- had arrived. Turning around, I saw Parsons; and as I was fatigued,
- worn out, I broke off and introduced Parsons. I spoke in English.
- After introducing Parsons I staid on the wagon. When I stopped and
- Parsons began, I believe there were pretty nearly 2,000 people there;
- it was an ordinarily packed crowd. The people who wanted to listen
- would crowd to the wagon, others would stand on the opposite sidewalk,
- but I did not see any very packed crowd, exactly. While I spoke, I
- was facing, I believe, in a southwesterly direction; the bulk of the
- audience stood around the wagon south and southwesterly toward the
- Haymarket. Parsons spoke forty-five minutes to an hour. He stopped
- about ten o’clock. I had been requested by several persons to make
- a German speech, but Parsons had spoken longer than I expected,
- it was too late, and I didn’t feel much like speaking; so I asked
- Mr. Fielden to say a few words in conclusion and then adjourn. I
- introduced Fielden to the audience and remained on the wagon until
- the command was given by Capt. Ward to disperse. I did not see the
- police until they formed in columns on the corner of Desplaines and
- Randolph Streets. Somebody behind me, I think, said: ‘The police are
- coming.’ I could not understand that. I did not think even when I
- saw them that they were marching toward the meeting. The meeting was
- almost as well as adjourned. There were not over two hundred on the
- spot. About five minutes previous to that a dark cloud came moving
- from the north, and it looked so threateningly that most of the people
- ran away, and some people suggested an adjournment to Zepf’s Hall;
- more than two-thirds of the attendants left at that time. The police
- halted three or four feet south of the wagon. Capt. Ward walked up to
- the wagon. Fielden was standing in front of me, in the rear of the
- wagon. I was standing in the middle of the wagon. Ward held something
- in his hand, a cane or a club, and said: ‘In the name of the people
- of the State of Illinois, I command you to disperse,’ and Fielden
- said: ‘Why, Captain, this is a peaceable meeting.’ And Ward repeated,
- I think, that command, and then turned around to his men, and while
- I didn’t understand what he said to them, I thought he said, ‘Charge
- upon the crowd,’ or something to that effect. I did not hear him say:
- ‘I call upon you and you to assist;’ he may have said that and I may
- have misunderstood him. My brother and one Legner and several others
- that I did not know stood at the side of the wagon; they reached out
- their hands and helped me off the wagon. I felt very indignant over
- the coming of the police, and intended to ask them what right they
- had to break up the meeting, but I jumped down from the wagon. When
- I reached the sidewalk I heard a terrible detonation; I thought the
- city authority had brought a cannon there to scare the people from the
- street. I did not think they would shoot upon the people, nor did I
- think in the least, at that time, of a bomb. Then I was pushed along;
- there was a throng of people rushing up, and I was just carried away
- with them. I went into Zepf’s Hall. The firing began immediately,
- simultaneously with the explosion. I did not see any firing from the
- crowd upon the police. I did not hear, as I stood upon the wagon,
- either by Fielden or anybody else, any such exclamation as ‘Here come
- the bloodhounds; men, do your duty and I will do mine.’ Fielden did
- not draw a revolver and fire from the wagon upon the police or in
- their direction. I did not, before the explosion of the bomb, leave
- my position upon the wagon, go into the alley, strike a match and
- light a bomb in the hands of Rudolph Schnaubelt. I did not see Rudolph
- Schnaubelt in the mouth of the alley then or at any time that evening
- with a bomb. I did not at that time or any other time that evening go
- into the mouth of the alley and join there Fischer and Schnaubelt and
- strike a match for any purpose. Schnaubelt is about six feet three
- inches tall, I should judge, of large frame and large body.
-
- “I remember the witness Wilkinson, a reporter of the _News_. He was
- up at the office several times, but I only had one conversation with
- him as far as I remember. He made an interview out of it. He was
- introduced to me by Joe Gruenhut, who told me that the _News_ wanted
- to have an article. Wilkinson inquired as to the report of some paper
- that the Anarchists had placed an infernal machine at the door of
- the house of Lambert Tree, and I told him that, in my opinion, the
- Pinkertons were doing such things to force people to engage them and
- to advertise themselves. He then asked whether I had ever seen or
- possessed any bombs? I said yes. I had had at the office for probably
- three years four bombshells. Two of them had been left at the office
- in my absence, by a man who wanted to find out if it was a good
- construction. The other two were left with me one day by some man
- who came, I think, from Cleveland or New York, and was going to New
- Zealand from here. I used to show those shells to newspaper reporters,
- and I showed one to Mr. Wilkinson and allowed him to take it along and
- show it to Mr. Stone. I never asked him for it since. That part of the
- conversation was at noon, while I was in a hurry. Wilkinson came in
- the evening again with Joe Gruenhut, and invited me to dine with him.
- I had just about half an hour to spend. At the table we talked about
- an infernal machine which had been placed a few days previous into
- an office of the Burlington and Quincy Railroad, and about another
- placed in front of Lambert Tree’s house, and I gave the explanation
- which I have already stated. Talking about the riot drill that had
- shortly before been held on the lake front, and about the sensational
- reports published by the papers in regard to the armed organizations
- of Socialists, I told him that it was an open secret that some three
- thousand Socialists in the city of Chicago were armed. I told him
- that the arming of these people, meaning not only Socialists but
- workingmen in general, began right after the strike of 1877, when the
- police attacked workingmen at their meetings, killed some and wounded
- others; that they were of the opinion that if they would enjoy the
- rights of the Constitution, they should prepare to defend them too,
- if necessary; that it was a known fact that these men had paraded the
- streets, as many as 1,500 strong at a time, with their rifles; that
- there was nothing new in that, and I could not see why they talked so
- much about it. And I said I thought that they were still arming and I
- wished that every workingman was well armed.
-
- “Then we spoke generally on modern warfare. Wilkinson was of the
- opinion that the militia and the police could easily defeat any effort
- on the part of the populace by force, could easily quell a riot. I
- differed from him. I told him that the views which the bourgeoise took
- of their military and police was exactly the same as the nobility
- took, some centuries ago, as to their own armament, and that gunpowder
- had come to the relief of the oppressed masses and had done away with
- the aristocracy very quickly; that the iron armor of the nobility was
- penetrated by a leaden bullet just as easily as the blouse of the
- peasant; that dynamite, like gunpowder, had an equalizing, leveling
- tendency; that the two were children of the same parent; that dynamite
- would eventually break down the aristocracy of this age and make
- the principles of democracy a reality. I stated that it had been
- attempted by such men as General Sheridan and others to play havoc
- with an organized body of military or police by the use of dynamite,
- and it would be an easy thing to do it. He asked me if I anticipated
- any trouble, and I said I did. He asked me if the Anarchists and
- Socialists were going to make a revolution. Of course I made fun
- of that; told him that revolutions were not made by individuals or
- conspirators, but were simply the logic of events resting in the
- conditions of things. On the subject of street warfare I illustrated
- with toothpicks the diagram which had appeared in one of the numbers
- of the _Alarm_, introduced in evidence here. I said to him that I
- wasn’t much of a warrior, but had read a good deal on the subject, and
- I particularly referred to that article in the _Alarm_. I said that
- if, for instance, a military body would march up a street, they would
- have men on the house-tops on both sides of the street protecting and
- guarding the main body from possible onslaught, possibly by shooting,
- firing or throwing of bombs. Now, if the revolutionists or civilians,
- men not belonging to the privileged military bodies, would form an
- oblique line on each side of the street at a crossing, they could
- then very successfully combat the on-marching militia and police, by
- attacking them with fire-arms or dynamite. And I used Market Square
- for illustration. I said there was a system of canalization in large
- cities. Now, supposing they expected an attack, they could, by the
- use of a battery and dynamite, blow up whole regiments very easily.
- I don’t think that I said what Wilkinson testified to here in regard
- to the tunnel, but I may have given the talk a little color. I knew
- he wanted a sensational article for publication in the _News_, but
- there was no particular reference to Chicago, or any fighting on our
- part. The topic of the conversation was that a fight was inevitable,
- and that it might take place in the near future, and what might and
- could be done in such an event. It was a general discussion of the
- possibilities of street warfare under modern science.
-
- “I wrote the word ‘Ruhe’ for insertion in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ on
- May 4th. It happened just the same as with any other announcement
- that would come in. I received a batch of announcements from a number
- of labor organizations and societies a little after eleven o’clock,
- in my editorial room, and went over them. Among them was one which
- read: ‘Mr. Editor, please insert in the letter-box the word ‘Ruhe,’
- in prominent letters.’ This was in German. There is an announcement
- column of meetings in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, but a single word or
- something like that would be lost sight of under the announcements.
- In such cases people generally ask to have that inserted under the
- head of ‘Letter-box.’ Upon reading that request, I just took a piece
- of paper and marked on it ‘Briefkasten’ (Letter-box), and the word
- ‘Ruhe.’ The manuscript which is in evidence is in my handwriting. At
- the time I wrote that word and sent it up to be put in the paper,
- I did not know of any import whatever attached to it. My attention
- was next called to it a little after three o’clock in the afternoon.
- Balthasar Rau, an advertising agent of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, came
- and asked me if the word ‘Ruhe’ was in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. I had
- myself forgotten about it, and took a copy of the paper and found it
- there. He asked me if I knew what it meant, and I said I did not. He
- said there was a rumor that the armed sections had held a meeting the
- night before, and had resolved to put in that word as a signal for
- the armed sections to keep themselves in readiness in case the police
- should precipitate a riot, to come to the assistance of the attacked.
- I sent for Fischer, who had invited me to speak at the meeting
- that evening, and asked him if that word had any reference to that
- meeting. He said, ‘None whatever;’ that it was merely a signal for the
- boys—for those who were armed to keep their powder dry, in case they
- might be called upon to fight within the next days. I told Rau it was
- a very silly thing, or at least that there was not much rational sense
- in that, and asked him if he knew how it could be managed that this
- nonsense would be stopped; how it could be undone. Rau said he knew
- some persons who had something to say in the armed organizations, and
- I told him to go and tell them that the word was put in by mistake.
- Rau went pursuant to that suggestion, and returned to me at five
- o’clock.
-
- “I was not a member of any armed section. I have not been for
- six years. I have had in my desk for two years two giant-powder
- cartridges, a roll of fuse and some detonating caps. Originally
- I bought them to experiment with them, as I had read a good deal
- about dynamite and wanted to get acquainted with it, but I never had
- occasion to go out for that purpose, as I was too much occupied. The
- reporters used to bother me a good deal, and when they would come to
- the office for something sensational I would show them these giant
- cartridges. They are the same that were referred to here by certain
- witnesses as having been shown on the evening of the Board of Trade
- demonstration. One of them will yet show a little hole in which I
- put that evening one of those caps, to explain to the reporter how
- terrible a thing it was. In fact, if that cartridge, as it is, were
- exploded in a free place, it would just give a detonation, and the
- concussion of the air might throw one on the floor, but it could
- do no harm to anybody. I know absolutely nothing about the package
- of dynamite which was exhibited here in court, and was claimed to
- have been found on a shelf in a closet in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_
- building. I never saw it before it was produced here in court. I don’t
- know anything about a revolver claimed to have been found in the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. That was not my revolver, but I always carried a
- revolver. I had a very good revolver. I was out late at night, and I
- always considered it a very good thing to be in a position to defend
- myself. Strangely, I did not have that pistol with me on the night of
- the Haymarket. It was too heavy for me, and, while I took it along
- first, I left it with ex-Alderman Stauber on my way. I guess it is
- there now.
-
- “I was arrested on Wednesday morning after the Haymarket meeting,
- about half-past eight o’clock, at the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ editorial
- room. I had begun writing. I had come to the office a little after
- seven o’clock, as usual. A man who afterwards told me he was an
- officer, James Bonfield, asked Mr. Schwab and myself to come over
- to police headquarters; that Superintendent Ebersold wanted to have
- a talk with us on the affair of the previous night. I was very busy
- and asked him if it could not be delayed until after the issue of
- the paper. He said he would rather have me come along then, and I,
- unsuspectingly, went along to the station. The Superintendent received
- us by saying: ‘You dirty Dutch —— ——, you dirty hounds, you rascals,
- we will choke you; we will kill you.’ And then they jumped upon us,
- tore us from one end to the other, went through our pockets, took
- my money and everything I had. I never said anything. They finally
- concluded to put us in a cell, and then Mr. Ebersold said: ‘Well,
- boys, let’s be cool.’ I think Mr. James Bonfield interfered during the
- assault made upon us by Mr. Ebersold, and suggested to him that that
- was not the proper way nor the proper place. I have been continuously
- confined from then until now.”
-
-On cross-examination Spies stated:
-
- “There was in fact no editor-in-chief of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_; there
- was a kind of autonomous editorial arrangement, but I was looked to
- as the editor-in-chief. I mean in the editorial department every one
- wrote what he pleased, and it was published without my looking at
- it. I never assumed any responsibility for the editorials. I never
- was made responsible by the company for the management of the paper.
- Schwab’s salary was the same as mine; our positions were coördinate.
- The management of the paper was left with the board of trustees;
- the editors had very little to say about it. Nobody looked over the
- editorials before they were inserted. Contributed articles were
- looked over sometimes by one of the reporters, sometimes by Schwab or
- Schroeder, or myself. Schroeder was editor for four months. I usually
- glanced at the paper to keep track of what it contained. Fischer was
- merely a compositor of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_; he had nothing to do
- with the editorials or management of the paper. I had nothing to do
- with the _Alarm_, except for four or five weeks, when I edited it in
- the absence of Mr. Parsons.”
-
- “Was money ever sent you for the _Alarm_?”
-
- “There was. I also paid the bills for the printing of the _Alarm_.”
-
- “Did you ever write contributions for the _Alarm_?”
-
- “I have occasionally, whenever they were in need of manuscript. Of
- the bombs I had I received the two iron cast ones first. That was
- about three years ago. A man who gave his name as Schwape or Schwoep
- brought them to me. I only saw him once. I think he was a shoemaker,
- came from Cleveland, and left for New Zealand. He asked me if my name
- was Spies. I told him yes; and he asked me if I had seen any of the
- bombs that they were making, or something like that. I don’t know to
- whom he referred by ‘they.’ He spoke of people in Cleveland with whom
- he had associated; I didn’t ask him and didn’t know what class of
- people. I said I hadn’t seen any of them. I don’t remember anything
- more about the conversation I had with him. I would have twelve or
- fifteen conversations every day; this one was out of the order of
- my regular conversations; my recollection is, I got rid of him as
- soon as he would leave. He left those there; he said he would not
- take them along. I didn’t ask him if he had any more with him. They
- were bombs exploding by percussion, heavier on one side than on the
- other, so that when they were thrown the cap would always come down.
- I think they were at the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ on May 4. I never saw the
- man before or after that. The other two bombs which Wilkinson called
- ‘Czar bombs,’ a term which I never used to him, were left one day, in
- my absence, in the office. When I came from dinner I saw them on my
- desk and was told that a man had brought them there to inquire whether
- they were bombs of a good construction, and the man never called for
- them. That was about a year and a half or two years ago. One I gave to
- Wilkinson; the other one, I suppose, was at the office ever since. I
- don’t know what became of it and of the two iron bombs. I had not seen
- them for some time, but I thought they were at the office. I got the
- dynamite about two years ago from the Ætna Powder Company. I got two
- of those bars. My intention at first was to experiment with them.”
-
- “What object did you have in experimenting with the dynamite?”
-
- “I had read a great deal about dynamite and thought it would be a
- good thing to get acquainted with its use, just the same as I would
- take a revolver and go out and practice with it. I don’t want to say,
- however, that it was merely for curiosity. I can give no further
- explanation. I got the caps and the fuse, because I would need them to
- experiment with. I was never present, to the best of my recollection,
- when experiments were made with dynamite. Neither bombs nor dynamite
- were ever distributed through the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office. I did
- not tell Mr. Wilkinson that they were. I never handled any dynamite
- outside of the two cartridges; never had anything to do with the
- distribution of dynamite. I know Herr Most; I guess I have known him
- for three years. This letter here is from Most. I do not know whether
- I answered that letter. I cannot remember.”
-
- “In whose handwriting is this postal card?”
-
- “It is Most’s handwriting. I suppose I received it—I see my address
- on it. I do not remember having read that postal or this letter at
- this date. I don’t remember the contents of that letter. I have
- undoubtedly received and read it, but don’t recollect anything about
- it now. I never carried on any correspondence with Most. I don’t
- remember whether I answered the postal card, and whether I said or
- wrote to Most anything in regard to the inquiries made of me in this
- letter. I know positively I did not give him the directions where
- to ship the material mentioned in the letter. There may have been a
- letter addressed in my care which I may have sent to Most, but I know
- absolutely nothing outside of that.
-
- “As to the phrase, ‘The social revolution,’ which occurs in my
- writings, I mean by it the evolutionary process, or changes from one
- system to another, which take place in society; I meant a change from
- a wage system, from the present relations between labor and capital,
- to some other system. By the abolition of the wage system I mean the
- doing away with the spoliation of labor, making the worker the owner
- of his own product.
-
- “I was invited to go to the Haymarket meeting at nine o’clock on
- Tuesday, by Mr. Fischer. It was about eleven o’clock when I objected
- to that last line in the circular. I objected to that principally
- because I thought it was ridiculous to put a phrase in which would
- prevent people from attending the meeting. Another reason was that
- there was some excitement at that time, and a call for arms like that
- might have caused trouble between the police and the attendants of
- that meeting. I did not anticipate anything of the kind, but I thought
- it was not a proper thing to put that line in. I wrote the ‘Revenge’
- circular, everything except the word ‘Revenge.’ I wrote the words,
- ‘Workingmen, to arms!’ When I wrote it I thought it was proper; I
- don’t think so now. I wrote it to arouse the working people, who are
- stupid and ignorant, to a consciousness of the condition that they
- were in, not to submit to such brutal treatment as that by which they
- had been shot down at McCormick’s on the previous day. I wanted them
- not to attend meetings under such circumstances, unless they could
- resist. I did not want them to do anything in particular—I did not
- want to do anything. That I called them to arms is a phrase, probably
- an extravagance. I did intend that they should arm themselves. I have
- called upon the workingmen for years and years, and others have done
- the same thing before me, to arm themselves. They have a right, under
- the Constitution, to arm themselves, and it would be well for them
- if they were all armed. I called on them to arm themselves, not for
- the purpose of resisting the lawfully constituted authorities of the
- city and county, in case they should meet with opposition from them,
- but for the purpose of resisting the unlawful attacks of the police
- or the unconstitutional and unlawful demands of any organization,
- whether police, militia or any other. I have not urged them in my
- speeches and editorials to arm themselves in order to bring about a
- social revolution or in order to overthrow the lawful authority of the
- country.”
-
-The letter referred to as that of Most, which was in German, and which
-was dated 1884, was then put in evidence and read, as follows:
-
- “_Dear Spies_:—Are you sure that the letter from the Hocking Valley
- was not written by a detective? In a week I will go to Pittsburg,
- and I have an inclination to go also to the Hocking Valley. For the
- present I send you some printed matter. There Sch. ‘H.’ also existed
- but on paper. I told you this some months ago. On the other hand I am
- in a condition to furnish ‘medicine,’ and the ‘genuine’ article at
- that. Directions for use are perhaps not needed with these people.
- Moreover they were recently published in the ‘Fr.’ The appliances I
- can also send. Now, if you consider the address of Buchtell thoroughly
- reliable, I will ship twenty or twenty-five pounds. But how? Is there
- an express line to the place, or is there another way possible?
- Paulus, the Great, seems to delight in hopping around in the swamps of
- the N. Y. V. Z. like a blown-up (bloated) frog. His tirades excite
- general detestation. He has made himself immensely ridiculous. The
- main thing is only that the fellow cannot smuggle any more rotten
- elements into the newspaper company than are already in it. In this
- regard, the caution is important to be on the minute. The organization
- here is no better nor worse than formerly. Our group has about the
- strength of the North Side group in Chicago; and then, besides this,
- we have also the Soc. Rev. § 1, the Austrian League and the Bohemian
- League, so to say three more groups. Finally, it is easily seen that
- our influence with the trade organizations is steadily growing. We
- insert our meetings in the Fr., and cannot notice that they are worse
- attended than at the time when we got through weekly $1.50 to $2.00
- into the mouth of the N. Y. V. Z. Don’t forget to put yourself into
- communication with Drury in reference to the English organ. He will
- surely work with you much and well. Such a paper is more necessary as
- to the truth. This, indeed, is getting more miserable and confused
- from issue to issue, and in general is whistling from the last hole.
- Enclosed is a fly-leaf which recently appeared at Emden, and is
- perhaps adapted for reprint. Greeting to Schwab, Rau and to you. Yours,
-
- “JOHANN MOST.
-
- “P. S.—To Buchtell I will, of course, write for the present only in
- general terms.
-
- “A. SPIES, No. 107 Fifth Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.”
-
-The postal card referred to was also put in evidence and read, as
-follows:
-
- “L. S. (_Dear Spies_:) I had scarcely mailed my letter yesterday when
- the telegraph brought news from H. M. One does not know whether to
- rejoice over that or not. The advance is in itself elevating. Sad is
- the circumstance that it will remain local, and, therefore, might not
- have a result. At any rate, these people make a better impression than
- the foolish voters on this and the other side of the ocean. Greetings
- and a shake.
-
- “Yours,
- J. M.”
-
-ALBERT R. PARSONS made the following statement in his own behalf:
-
- “I have resided in Chicago for thirteen years. I was born June 20,
- 1848. On Sunday, May 2, I was in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. Came
- back from there to Chicago on Tuesday morning, May 4th, between seven
- and eight o’clock. I caused a notice calling for a meeting of the
- American group at 107 Fifth Avenue, on the evening of May 4th, to
- be inserted in the _Daily News_ of that evening. In the evening I
- left my house in company with Mrs. Holmes, my wife and two children,
- about eight o’clock. We walked from home until we got to Randolph and
- Halsted Streets. There I met two reporters that I have seen frequently
- at workingmen’s meetings. One of them was a reporter whose name I
- don’t know; the other was Mr. Heineman of the _Tribune_. There Mrs.
- Holmes, my wife and children and myself took a car and rode directly
- to the meeting at 107 Fifth Avenue. We arrived there about half-past
- eight and remained about half an hour. After the business for which
- the meeting had been called was about through, some one, I understood
- it was a committee, came over from the Haymarket and said that there
- was a large body of people and no speakers there except Mr. Spies,
- and myself and Mr. Fielden were urged to come over to address the
- mass-meeting. After finishing up the work, we adjourned and walked
- over. Fielden and myself crossed the river through the tunnel.
- There were three or four others present, but I don’t remember their
- names. I think it was after nine o’clock when I reached the meeting
- on Desplaines Street near the Haymarket. Mr. Spies was speaking. I
- managed to squeeze through the crowd, was assisted upon the wagon at
- once by some gentlemen standing about, and within a minute or two
- Mr. Spies concluded, stated that I had arrived and would address the
- meeting, and asked their attention while I was talking. I suppose I
- spoke about three-quarters of an hour. At the close of my speech I
- got down from the wagon. I think I was assisted by Henry Spies, who
- was standing by the wagon. Then I went to the wagon which stood about
- fifteen or twenty feet north of the speakers’ wagon, on which my wife
- and Mrs. Holmes were seated, listening to us. I got into that wagon,
- asked them how they were enjoying themselves, etc., and while talking
- with them, about ten minutes later, a coolness in the atmosphere
- attracted my attention. I looked up and observed white clouds rolling
- over from the north, and as I didn’t want the ladies to get wet, I
- went on to the speakers’ wagon and said: ‘Mr. Fielden, permit me to
- interrupt you a moment.’ ‘Certainly,’ he said. And I said: ‘Gentlemen,
- it appears as though it would rain. It is getting late. We might as
- well adjourn anyway, but if you desire to continue the meeting longer,
- we can adjourn to Zepf’s Hall, on the corner near by.’ Some one in
- the crowd said: ‘No, we can’t; it is occupied by a meeting of the
- furniture workers.’ With that I looked and saw the lights through the
- windows of the hall, and said nothing further. Mr. Fielden remarked
- that it did not matter; he had only a few words more to say. I went
- over again to where the ladies were, helped them off the wagon and
- told them to go down to this corner place, and we would all get
- together and go home. They walked off, and some one detained me for
- a moment; then I followed them and met near the edge of the crowd a
- man whom I knew very familiarly—Mr. Brown. I asked him to have a
- drink with me, as the speaking had made me hoarse, and we moved off
- a little in the rear of the ladies, to the saloon. There had been no
- appearance of the police, no explosion or any disturbance up to that
- time. As I entered the saloon I noticed some four or five gentlemen
- standing at the bar. There were possibly as many as ten people sitting
- at tables on the other side next the wall, and about five or six men
- standing in the center of the floor talking to each other, among whom
- I noticed Mr. Malkoff, talking to a gentleman whom I did not know,
- but I supposed he was a reporter. He was upon the witness-stand in
- this trial. I believe it was Mr. Allen. The ladies took seats about
- ten feet from the door, in the saloon, at the end of the first table,
- with their backs to it, looking into the street. I said something to
- them, and I believe just then I introduced some one to Mrs. Parsons.
- Afterwards I went to the bar with Brown, and we had a glass of beer
- and a cigar. Then I turned around and noticed Mr. Fischer sitting at
- one of the tables and said a few words to him and sat down at the
- table for a few moments. Then I think I went around to where the
- ladies were, and I was standing near them looking out and wondering
- if the meeting would not close, anxious to go home. All at once I
- saw an illumination. It lit up the whole street, followed instantly
- by a deafening roar, and almost simultaneously volleys of shots
- followed, every flash of which, it seemed to me, I could see. The best
- comparison I can make in my mind is that it was as though a hundred
- men held in their hands repeating revolvers and fired them as rapidly
- as possible until they were all gone. That was the first volley. Then
- there were occasional shots, and one or two bullets whistled near
- the door and struck the sign. I was transfixed. Mrs. Parsons did not
- move. In a moment two or three men rushed breathlessly in at the door.
- That broke the apparent charm that was on us by the occurrence in the
- street, and with that I called upon my wife and Mrs. Holmes to come
- with me to the rear of the saloon. We remained there, possibly, twenty
- minutes or so.”
-
-On cross-examination Parsons said:
-
- “I was born in Montgomery, Alabama. Since I came to Chicago I worked
- as a type-setter for the first eight or nine years; then for a year
- and a half myself and wife had a suit business on Larrabee street;
- then for about a year and a half myself and wife made ladies’ wrappers
- and suits, and I went out soliciting orders. For the last two years,
- since October, 1884, I was editor of the _Alarm_. It was a weekly
- paper for about a year, and then a semi-monthly. I wrote down the
- memorandum of my utterances on the night of May 4th, which I used
- in giving my testimony as to my speech, from time to time, as they
- occurred to me, and in looking over Mr. English’s report. When I
- referred to the methods which the Chicago _Times_ and the Chicago
- _Tribune_ and Tom Scott advised against striking workingmen, I told
- them they should defend themselves against such things in any way they
- could, by arming, if necessary. I did not mention dynamite at that
- meeting. I possibly mentioned it at other meetings. I said nothing
- about bombs that night, neither as a defensive means, or something
- to use against them. I did not, when I said that the present social
- system must be changed in the interest of humanity, explain to them
- how the social change should be brought about, because I did not know
- myself. I think I told the audience that the existing order of things
- was founded upon and maintained by force, and that the actions of the
- monopolists and corporations would drive the people into the use of
- force before they could obtain redress. I might have stated that—I
- am not sure. I did not tell them that the ballot was useless for
- them because the majority was against them. That is not correct; the
- workingmen are vastly in the majority. I did not tell them that night
- that the only way they could obtain their rights was by overturning
- the existing order of things by force. I could not tell whether there
- were any strikers present that night. There were very few Socialists
- present. I am a Socialist. I am an Anarchist, as I understand it.”
-
-W. A. S. GRAHAM, a reporter with no Anarchistic tendencies, had
-interviewed Harry Gilmer at the City Hall as to what he had seen at the
-Haymarket and who threw the bomb.
-
-HARRY GILMER was then recalled by the defendants and stated that he had
-seen the gentleman (pointing to Graham) at the Central Station, and
-that he (Graham) asked him if he could identify the man who threw the
-bomb. Gilmer had answered that he could if he saw him. Witness did not
-say during the conversation that he saw the man throw the bomb, but
-that the man had his back to him and had whiskers. Witness did not say
-that the man was of medium size with dark clothes, and that he saw him
-light the fuse and throw the bomb.
-
-Mr. Graham was recalled and stated that the man (Gilmer) just on
-the stand had told him that he saw the man light the fuse and throw
-the bomb, and that he could identify him if he saw him. Gilmer told
-him that the man was of medium height, and thought he had whiskers
-and wore a soft black hat, but had his back turned toward him. On
-cross-examination witness said:
-
- “I had this conversation about four o’clock in the afternoon of May
- 5th. I talked with him about three or four minutes. He said nothing
- about there being more than one man at that location, a knot of men,
- or anything of that kind. He said that one man lighted the fuse and
- threw the bomb; he did not say anything about how it was lighted,
- whether with a match or a cigar, I did not ask him that. He said he
- was standing in Crane’s alley when it was done.
-
-This closed the evidence for the defense, and by agreement several
-newspaper articles and an address of Victor Hugo to the “Rich and Poor”
-were introduced. The State then proceeded to put in rebutting testimony.
-
-DANIEL SCULLY, a justice of the peace, was first examined. He stated
-that at the preliminary examination, held on the 25th of May, Officer
-Wessler had not stated in his testimony that Stenner was the man who
-fired the shot from the wagon; neither had Officer Foley so stated.
-
- “Did he, at that time, give a description of the man who fired the
- shot over the wagon that night as a stout man with heavy whiskers,
- saying at the same time that if he ever saw him again he thought he
- could identify him?” “Yes, sir. Stenner was discharged upon that
- examination.”
-
-INSPECTOR JOHN BONFIELD met Mr. Simonson, a witness in this case,
-at the police station on the night of the Haymarket riot. The man
-was introduced to him by Capt. Ward as a member of the firm of J. V.
-Farwell & Co.
-
- “We three stood together outside of the railing. Mr. Simonson opened
- the conversation by remarking to me that he understood that the horses
- belonging to the Police Department were getting used up with the
- constant work they had, and that either Mr. Farwell or the firm—I
- understood him to say Mr. Farwell—that their horses were at our
- service in case we needed any horses. I told him that our teams had
- stood the work so far very well, but that if the troubles continued
- for any length of time we would likely need assistance and would call
- upon him if occasion demanded it, thanking him for his offer. He
- then spoke about the trouble at McCormick’s and on Centre Avenue and
- Eighteenth Street that afternoon, and said the police ought to have
- dispersed those crowds; not to have allowed them to collect. I did
- not, in the course of that conversation, tell him that I would like to
- get a crowd of 3,000 without any women and children, and in that case
- would make short work of them, or anything to that effect.”
-
-The most important part of the work done by the State at this phase
-of the proceedings was the strong indorsement of Harry W. Gilmer’s
-veracity which was produced before the jury. To the credibility of
-this witness, and to their acquaintance with, and respect for him, the
-following persons testified: Judge Tuthill of the Superior Court, Chas.
-A. Dibble, John Steele, Michael Smith, Benjamin F. Knowles, Chester C.
-Cole, ex-Judge of the Supreme Court of Iowa, Edward R. Mason, Clerk of
-the U. S. Circuit Court at Des Moines, Samuel Merrill, President of
-the Citizens’ National Bank of Des Moines, Canute R. Matson, Sheriff
-of Cook County, Sylvanus Edinburn, W. P. Hardy, John L. Manning, an
-attorney, and many others. Many of these witnesses had known Gilmer in
-Iowa for many years; others were old acquaintances of his in Chicago;
-all of them swore that he was worthy of belief.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXVIII.
-
- Opening of the Argument—Mr. Walker’s Speech—The Law of the
- Case—Was there a Conspiracy?—The Caliber of the Bullets—Tightening
- the Chain—A Propaganda on the Witness-stand—The Eight-hour
- Movement—“One Single Bomb”—The Cry of the Revolutionist—Avoiding
- the Mouse-trap—Parsons and the Murder—Studying “Revolutionary
- War”—Lingg and his Bomb Factory—The Alibi Idea.
-
-
-THE evidence being now all in, Francis W. Walker, Assistant State’s
-Attorney, on the morning of August 11th, began his address to the
-jury. Although his argument was an exceedingly lengthy one, he held
-his audience and the jury to the closest attention from the first word
-to the last. Mr. Walker began by an examination of the law, defining
-what is meant by the term “reasonable doubt,” which he believed would
-be one of the arguments used by the defense. Following this he read
-the statutes showing what murder is, and what an accessory, under the
-laws of Illinois. Under the statute, as he proved, an accessory is
-to be held as a principal. Following this he reviewed at some length
-Mr. Salomon’s statement, in that gentleman’s opening speech, that the
-prisoners had been guilty, if they were guilty at all, of no crime more
-serious than conspiracy. Mr. Walker held that the fact that murder had
-followed the conspiracy proved the conspirators murderers. His logic
-was clear, cogent and unanswerable. Its effect could be seen in the
-gloomy attention which the doomed Anarchists paid to his fatal chain of
-reasoning.
-
-Leaving the authorities to one side, Mr. Walker addressed himself to
-the facts made manifest by the evidence. He said:
-
- “We start out first upon the analysis of the facts of this case
- in this way: Was there an unlawful combination, a conspiracy, to
- overthrow the systems of this Government upon the 1st day of May,
- 1886? Was the bomb thrown on the 4th of May in pursuance of the common
- design? Are these defendants members of that conspiracy? When those
- questions are answered in the affirmative the guilt of each and every
- one of these defendants of murder is proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
- But, if we go further than that, the argument would embrace the topic:
- Was there a murder committed at the Haymarket? Did the defendants
- aid, abet and assist the commission of that act? Or, if they were not
- present aiding, abetting and assisting, had they advised, encouraged,
- aided and abetted the perpetration of the crime? Under either aspect
- of this case, the defendants are guilty of murder with malice
- aforethought.
-
- “Was there a conspiracy? Was there a conspiracy to culminate on
- or about the 1st day of May? Were the defendants members of that
- conspiracy? Was the conspiracy unlawful? Was the bomb thrown in
- pursuance of the common design? Let us investigate the facts and
- answer each proposition.”
-
-Mr. Walker went into the peculiar fact that the bullets found in the
-bodies of the officers were 22 and 44-caliber; the officers carried
-38-caliber. The witnesses who had appeared for the defense in this case
-were armed with pistols of the first-named sizes.
-
-He read to the jury many remarkable extracts from Most’s writings,
-pointing out the peculiar and criminal teachings of that Anarchist
-leader, and showing how Spies and the others had in every detail of
-their connection with the police, after the Haymarket murders, followed
-the printed advice given.
-
-[Illustration: FRANCIS W. WALKER.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
- Following is one of the extracts from Most’s book:
-
- “Shield your person as long as there is a possibility to preserve it
- for future deeds, but when you see that you are irredeemably lost,
- then use the short respite to make the most of it for the propaganda
- of your principles. We have regarded it our duty to give you these
- instructions, the more so as we see from day to day even people who
- are expert in revolutionary matters violating even the plainest rules.
- May their lives be the last which are necessary in this regard.
-
-“I read you, gentlemen, this, so that we may start out from the proper
-standpoint and position, before we argue as to the merits of the
-testimony of the defendants’ witnesses in this case. Who are they? Who
-is their advisor? Why, they have started out in social life agreeing
-to swear to perjury. They belong to the Social Revolution. There is
-not one of them, gentlemen, that bears upon his face the stamp of
-sensibility or of heart, and there can be no argument made when they
-talk about the motive to justify murder and the advice of murder, only
-from the malignant heart. Here they picture murder and gloat over it.
-They feast over the description of how to poison easiest, as the hyena
-does over the corpse of the dead.
-
-“Most laughs in his own book. He tells to the ‘mere compositor’: ‘Use
-a dagger with grooves in it; the poison will stay on it the more
-readily.’ And a file is adopted for the purpose.
-
-“Gentlemen, we have found without any further analysis the reason why
-the defendant Parsons converted the witness-stand into a propaganda.
-It took him an hour by the clock here to repeat the substance of the
-speech that he delivered in less than three-quarters of an hour upon
-the Market Square. He endeavored to deny the conspiracy by an alibi;
-and I mean by that the conspiracy upon the night of May 4th. He only
-said he was in Cincinnati on Sunday, and did not get back until Tuesday
-morning. They never asked him if he knew what ‘Ruhe’ meant. They did
-not ask Schwab if he knew what ‘Ruhe’ meant. The only defendant that
-they have asked as to his personal knowledge of ‘Ruhe’ is the defendant
-Fielden—the only one, the only one from the beginning to the close of
-this case.
-
-“Was there a conspiracy? There has been a conspiracy existing in this
-community to overthrow the law of the State of Illinois by force, for
-years and years. In 1885, upon the anniversary of the birth of George
-Washington, in the city of Grand Rapids, the arch-conspirator in this
-case—because he is the one that is the most contemptible—said in the
-city of Grand Rapids—I refer you now to the testimony of Mr. Moulton
-and George Schook: ‘There are three thousand men, armed, in the city
-of Chicago, secretly drilled. They are known by numbers and not by
-names. Whoever wishes to join may join, but before you have joined you
-cannot know their secrets, Mr. Moulton. There will be a revolution when
-the eight-hour movement takes place. We will favor the eight-hour not
-because we believe in it, but because it will assist us in the social
-revolution, and the eight-hour movement will occur on or about the 1st
-of May, 1886. If I fail, I shall be hanged.’ And then the man that
-puts the word ‘Ruhe’ for the purpose of this case on the shoulder of
-Fischer, compares himself to George Washington, and in his grotesque
-and horrible vanity says: ‘I am a rebel, and if I don’t succeed I shall
-be hanged.’
-
-“On October, 17, 1885, in the city of Chicago, at the West Twelfth
-Street Turner Hall, August Spies again, in a public meeting, admitted
-the great conspiracy and again foreshadowed the coming revolution on
-the first of May; and this was published by his coördinate editor in
-the _Alarm_, at the same office, 107 Fifth Avenue, Mr. Parsons.
-
-“The defendant Spies has been upon the stand. He only denied as to a
-conspiracy, and never whispered a word of denial except when he got to
-the word ‘Ruhe.’ Without explanation he could never escape the effect
-of that word, and his explanation is the evidence of his guilt; he
-tried to put that on Fischer.
-
- “August Spies was introduced at this point and offered the following
- resolutions: Whereas, a general move has been started among the
- organized wage-workers of this country for the establishment of an
- eight-hour work-day, to begin on May 1, 1886; whereas, it is to
- be expected that the class of professional idlers, the governing
- class who prey upon the bone and marrow of the useful members of
- society, will resist this attempt by calling to their assistance the
- Pinkertons, the police and State militia: Therefore, be it
-
- “_Resolved_, That we urge upon all wage-workers the necessity of
- procuring arms before the inauguration of the proposed eight-hour
- strike, in order to be in a position of meeting our foe with their own
- argument, force.
-
-“Here is shown the sincerity of these men in their endeavor to
-ameliorate the laborer—as they call it, the wage-worker.
-
- “Resolved, That while we are skeptical in regard to the benefits
- that will accrue to the wage-worker from the introduction of the
- eight-hour work-day, we nevertheless pledge ourselves to aid and
- assist our brethren of this class with all that lies in our power as
- long as they show an open and defiant front to our common enemy, the
- labor-devouring class of aristocratic vagabonds, the brutal murderers
- of our comrades in St. Louis, Chicago and Philadelphia and other
- places. Our war-cry is, ‘Death to the enemy of the human race, our
- despoilers.’
-
-“What does that mean? It was published in the _Alarm_. Was there a
-conspiracy, gentlemen, against the police on the first day of May,
-1886? After the reading, these resolutions were received with round
-after round of applause, and the chair was about to put a vote, when
-Mr. J. K. Magie arose and said that he understood a discussion of
-them to be in order. He denounced the revolutionary character of the
-resolutions. He believed that six hours of labor was enough! This man
-was a labor agitator and believes in the amelioration of labor. ‘This
-is the best form of government that ever existed,’ he said of this
-Republic. He is an American citizen and believes in the institutions
-of his country. ‘If there are abuses, there is a proper way to correct
-them. Eighty per cent. of the voting population are working people;
-they should strike with the ballot and not with the bullet.’ Then this
-ameliorator of labor, August Spies, supposed that Mr. Magie did not
-like the terms in which the members of the Government were referred
-to. The reason of this was that Mr. Magie was one of those political
-vagabonds himself. There were nine millions of the best people engaged
-in the industrial trades of this country. There were but one million of
-them as yet organized—one million, and by the way, that is significant
-in the fact that these men fought to achieve this result all over the
-country. Schnaubelt had said at 54 West Lake Street the night before,
-the 3d of May, ‘We must telegraph our success to all the other cities
-throughout the country.’
-
-“To make the movement in which they were engaged—the eight-hour
-movement for the 1st of May—a successful one, it must be a
-revolutionary one. ‘Don’t let us,’ he exclaimed, ‘forget the most
-forcible argument, the gun and dynamite.’
-
-“Was there a conspiracy? Turn to the cross-examination of Wilkinson
-by Capt. Black, and find that part where Wilkinson said he had heard
-Joe Gruenhut say that the revolution that Spies spoke of was to occur,
-the conflict was actually to occur on the 1st or after the 1st of May,
-1886. This was brought out by Capt. Black himself on cross-examination
-of this witness. In the first place you must remember that Lingg was
-in this country before the Christmas of 1885, between the 1st day of
-January and the 14th day of January. The Czar bomb, but six or eight
-weeks after Lingg came here, was handed to Wilkinson by Spies—the
-twin, the same bomb in general construction and general make-up as that
-used at the Haymarket on that night, made by Lingg on the afternoon of
-that day, or filled with dynamite on the afternoon of that day.”
-
-Following this Mr. Walker reviewed Parsons’ utterances in the _Alarm_,
-quoting many of them. He argued that it was this sort of language and
-the dynamite bomb at the Haymarket which accounted for the failure of
-the eight-hour movement in the United States.
-
-Coming to August Spies, he read from the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ the
-following characteristic _morceau_:
-
- “‘Six months ago, May 4th, when the eight-hour movement began’—this
- is in Spies’ own handwriting—‘there were speakers and journals of
- the I. A. A.’—that is the International Arbeiter Association—‘who
- proclaimed and wrote: “Workingmen, if you want to see the eight-hour
- system introduced, arm yourselves. If you don’t do this you will be
- sent home with bloody heads, and the birds will sing May songs upon
- your graves.” “That is nonsense,” was the reply. “If the workingmen
- are organized they will gain the eight-hour in their Sunday clothes.”
- Well, what do you say now? Were we right or wrong? Would the
- occurrence of yesterday have been possible if our advice had been
- followed? Wage-workers, yesterday the police of this city murdered
- at McCormick’s factory four of your brothers, and wounded more or
- less,’ etc. ‘If the brothers who defended themselves with stones (a
- few of them had little snappers in the shape of revolvers) had been
- provided with good weapons and one single dynamite bomb, not one of
- the murderers would have escaped their well-merited fate.’
-
- “The police went up there; they were nearly being murdered with
- stones; the mob were throwing at them before they ever fired a shot;
- and this man the next day writes: ‘Had they’—the mob—‘been provided
- with good weapons and one single dynamite bomb, not one of the
- murderers would have escaped his well-deserved fate.’ Then see: ‘As it
- was, only four of them were disfigured. That is too bad.”
-
- “Here, here is a man that has no design upon the police, don’t believe
- in force. ‘That is too bad. The massacre of yesterday took place in
- order to fill the forty thousand workingmen of this city with fear and
- terror; took place in order to force back,’ etc. ‘ Will they succeed
- in this? Will they not find at last that they have miscalculated? The
- near future will answer this question. We will not anticipate the
- course of events with surmises.’
-
- “That is what he himself said. If one single bomb had been used it
- would have been different. He sees these eight thousand men at his
- back, returns immediately to the office of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_
- and writes out this, (indicating the Revenge circular). What did he
- mean? What did he mean? ‘Revenge.’ He says he did not write the word
- ‘Revenge’ in English. _Rache, Rache_, Revenge, Revenge—he never
- denied that he wrote it in the German language, nor any witness for
- him; but it makes no difference whether he wrote it, or whether he did
- not write it. He wrote ‘To arms;’ he says, ‘To arms, workingmen, to
- arms.’ What does that mean? Did anybody say at the Haymarket, ‘Here
- come the bloodhounds; you do your duty and I will do mine’? Let us
- see. ‘The bloodhounds’ was the common expression from the lips of
- these defendants as the designation for the police. Spies says in
- English—did he mean this or didn’t he?”
-
-Mr. Walker here read the text of the “Revenge” circular, both the
-English and German versions, as given in a previous chapter, and
-continued:
-
- “Is that meaningless? ‘To arms, we call you to arms.’ Why, it is the
- cry of the revolutionist; it is the cry of the Communist; it is the
- cry of the Anarchist; it is the cry of Spies and Parsons—‘To arms,
- to arms!’ And yet the English was tame in comparison to the German
- version.
-
- “Did they have no design upon individuals in this conspiracy? Why,
- they had the most awful, damning malice against the police. It was
- the motive-hunting of a motiveless malignity. Without reason and
- without cause they had individualized the police; but Bonfield for the
- second time stood in the way of the Social Revolution. Just see how it
- forces up the blood of this social revolutionist: ‘The bloodhounds,
- the police are at you, in order to cure you, with bullets, of your
- dissatisfaction. Slaves, we ask, we conjure you by all that is sacred
- and dear to you, avenge’—what does that mean? What difference does it
- make whether he wrote revenge at the head of this circular or not? He
- wrote it in it. What did it mean? What did those conspirators mean?
-
- “Avenge the atrocious murder which has been committed upon your
- brothers to-day, and which will be likely to be committed upon you
- to-morrow. Avenge, laboring men. Hercules, you have arrived at the
- cross-way. Which way will you decide, for slavery and hunger, or for
- freedom and bread? If you decide for the latter, then don’t delay
- a moment. Then, people, to arms! Annihilation, annihilation to the
- beasts in human form who call themselves your rulers. Uncompromising
- annihilation to them. This must be your motto. Think of the heroes
- whose blood has fertilized the road to progress, liberty and humanity,
- and strive to become worthy of them. Your brothers.
-
-“Thousands of these were circulated throughout the city. Does that mean
-that there was a conspiracy and no malice against individuals?
-
-“And then on Monday night a meeting at 54 West Lake Street took place,
-which has not been denied, and there were Lingg and Engel and Fischer.
-Engel’s plan was again reiterated; Lingg was to make the bombs, and
-Lingg was there to say he could make the bombs. He may have been to the
-Carpenters’ meeting before that. When he left the 54 West Lake Street
-meeting, he met Lehman upon the way home—Gustav Lehman, who testified
-he got the bombs from Lingg—and he said to Lehman, ‘If you want to
-know anything, you come to 58 Clybourn Avenue to-morrow night.’ In
-response to the question, ‘What has been going on in the meeting at 54
-West Lake Street, in the basement?’
-
-“At that meeting at 54 West Lake Street were represented all the
-different Socialistic and Anarchistic organizations. ‘Y, Come Monday
-night,’ had brought delegates, according to Waller’s testimony, from
-every group in the city. The West Side, the South Side, Southwest Side,
-the North Side, every group was represented, and the Lehr und Wehr
-Verein also had its delegates. The plan was arranged that on to-morrow,
-if the revolution took place in the daytime, and the conflict had
-occurred, the word ‘Ruhe’ should be published, all the men should be
-at their outlying groups ready to annihilate the police, the fire
-department, to cut the telegraph wires, and to prevent communication
-with the central meeting at the Haymarket. Waller had suggested that
-this meeting be at Market Square; Fischer says: ‘No; that is a mouse
-trap; we will make it the Haymarket.’ And then Spies takes it up north
-of the alley, north of the intersection of the street—and, by the way,
-that block has more alleys than perhaps any other block in the city of
-Chicago, and more means of escape—and locates that meeting just where
-he had located the street battle in his description to Mr. Wilkinson,
-and as Parsons had explained street warfare in the _Alarm_.
-
-“Who called the meeting at the Haymarket to order on Desplaines Street
-beyond the alley? Spies. He had written with his own hand the word
-‘Ruhe.’ He was after the social revolution. Why did he move the meeting
-to that place if he knew what ‘Ruhe’ meant? Why was he there at all if
-he knew what ‘Ruhe’ meant? He has told. Why was he on the wagon if he
-knew what ‘Ruhe’ meant? Why didn’t he notify the police, if he knew
-what ‘Ruhe’ meant, not to come to that meeting? Why had he said upon
-the wagon, ‘If you want to do anything, why don’t you do it and say
-nothing?’ if he knew what ‘Ruhe’ meant? Why did he leave his revolver
-before he ever got to that meeting unless he knew what ‘Ruhe’ meant?
-He follows out his own instructions in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, on that
-subject, when some one wrote:
-
- “In the action itself one must be personally at the place to select
- personally that point on the place of the action and that part of the
- action which are the most important and are coupled with the greatest
- danger, upon which depend chiefly the success or failure of the whole
- affair.
-
-“And he selected the place himself. Fischer says: ‘No, the Market
-Square is a mouse trap,’ and they named they Haymarket, and Spies
-designates the place of meeting and publishes the word ‘Ruhe;’ and
-then it is expected from twenty-five to forty thousand people will
-be at the meeting on Haymarket Square. Eight thousand had rebelled
-at McCormick’s; the skirmish lines had met, and it was expected that
-there would be twenty-five thousand at the Haymarket on that night; but
-there were not, and for that reason this mob was not dispersed. The
-police could not see at any time a meeting so large as to be beyond
-their control, but when this meeting became boisterous it was after ten
-o’clock, two hours later than the meeting was called for. If the police
-had been but two hours earlier in dispelling the meeting the flames
-would have been lighted out at Wicker Park; the instrument of fire
-described in Herr Most’s book, and found at Wicker Park, was for that
-purpose. The Northwestern group was to meet at Wicker Park, and come
-down past North Avenue Station. The North Side group was to annihilate
-the North Side Station, and Lingg was at his post of duty for that
-purpose.
-
-“Was there a conspiracy? They take the word and Spies publishes it.
-He says in explanation: ‘Among the announcements it came to me by no
-person of whom I am aware, no one about whom I know anything.’ No
-questions were asked. In this way the mere editor, Spies, publishes in
-the Briefkasten the word ‘Ruhe’ prominently. The Briefkasten is used
-to answer private correspondence, personal letters and editorials, or
-it is used to place the advertisements of secret meetings in, and for
-no other purpose. ‘Y—Come Monday night,’ is found in the Letter-box
-of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. That is a secret thing, and means that the
-armed groups shall meet at 54 West Lake Street. ‘Ruhe’ was an answer to
-no correspondent; the word ‘Ruhe’ could enlighten no ignorant man on
-the subject alone; and the editor-in-chief of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_
-picked up a piece of paper and wrote ‘Ruhe’ on it without ever knowing
-what it meant or where it came from, and says it was handed him among
-the labor announcements: ‘Mr. Editor, please publish the word “Ruhe”
-in the Letter box prominently.’ What tells you that it was a labor
-announcement? Who ever said it was a labor announcement? ‘Ruhe,’
-peace, rest, quiet—‘Ruhe’ a labor announcement! Why, who said so? It
-would be lost if put in the announcements of labor organizations. ‘Mr.
-Editor, publish the word “Ruhe” in the column where you put “Y—Come
-Monday night,” the secret sign of the armed sections, and publish it
-prominently.’ Without a word he did so, and he asks you to believe it.
-Did he know what ‘Ruhe’ meant? Why, he sent for Fischer, and Fischer
-told him it was harmless. ‘Why,’ he said, ‘that is foolish, Fischer;
-don’t do that, don’t do that.’ Rau had only told him that it meant:
-‘Workmen, be at your groups, keep yourselves armed and in preparation,
-so that if you are attacked you can defend yourselves; workingmen, arm
-yourselves and be at your groups.’ That is what Rau said ‘Ruhe’ meant,
-and, when asked, Fischer says: ‘Why, that means, “Keep your powder
-dry,” that is all.’ ‘Well,’ he says, ‘Fischer, that is foolish; that
-is crazy; why, I cannot have that.’ What did he think was foolish and
-crazy? To keep their powder dry, when this man had said the day before,
-‘Workingmen, arm yourselves, arm yourselves!’ This is the explanation
-of the word ‘Ruhe.’
-
-“Did Parsons know of the conspiracy ‘Ruhe’? He was a party to the great
-conspiracy, for he had cried about April 24th for the revolution upon
-the 1st of May. That he has not denied; and to my mind he cuts one of
-the worst figures in this case. He was born at least upon American
-soil, and he stands here alone, alone amongst these vast hordes of
-witnesses who are not citizens of our republic, and whose purpose is
-her destruction. Albert R. Parsons is the only American, and he has no
-right, no right to belong to that nationality. He never said he did not
-know of the conspiracy, and he spoke of the 4th of May; it was said
-that night he staid away—by the way, he left this out—‘I should be
-accused of cowardice;’ but he did say, ‘I would come if I were to die
-before morning.’ Did he know of the conspiracy? Why, he had been in it
-for years. He published the order of street fighting in his _Alarm_,
-foreshadowing the battle in his description; and not only did he do
-that, but he made the alibi by calling at the American group on that
-night, a group organized and holding a meeting for the sewing girls
-when not a sewing girl was present, with no one there but a Nihilist,
-a Communist, a Socialist and an Anarchist. Mrs. Parsons was there and
-Mrs. Holmes. Where was any sewing girl?
-
-“And here I want to ask you if, after hearing all the proof in this
-case; if, after reading Most’s ‘Revolutionary War,’ the instructions to
-the Nihilists and Anarchists; if after reading the _Alarm_ here; if,
-after hearing the testimony of the witnesses, you will here and to-day
-say that the men lied who on that night stood when Captain Bonfield
-said ‘Fall in’—stood there when the concussion had riven to the earth
-sixty of Chicago’s noblest men because they had courage. When, out of
-the hundred and eighty, sixty lay wounded on the ground, the other one
-hundred and twenty killed the revolution with one blow. The men whose
-lives were spared fell in, and not a man has lived to say there was a
-coward in the whole one hundred and eighty.”
-
-In the same manner he went through the evidence proving the guilt of
-Schwab, Fielden and Neebe.
-
- “Was Engel in the conspiracy? He proposed the plan at both meetings.
- He said to Captain Schaack, at the Chicago Avenue Station, that ‘what
- was in him had to come out,’ and he called it the dangerous power
- of internal eloquence. He planned the conspiracy of the Emma Street
- meeting, and has been an Anarchist for years, and instructor in the
- use of weapons, and adviser in the making of bombs. He not only was
- that, but he absolutely and unqualifiedly advised the Socialists to
- buy weapons for the express purpose of killing the police, maiming
- them, and then with all the cunning of a conspirator who has placed
- his neck within the noose, on the morning of the 4th of May he finds
- this infernal machine and takes it to the Chief of Police, and then
- comes the exhibition between Captain Bonfield and the leading counsel
- for the defense on that proposition. The counsel says: ‘He brought it
- to you freely,’ and he emphasized it, and then the tinner came, and
- the counsel says: ‘What is there about this piece of iron that makes
- you identify it? You only made that sheet; is that all? You just cut
- a piece of iron off for Mr. Engel.’ The witness says: ‘Please look at
- the mark on the inside; that is my mark.’ Was Engel in the conspiracy?
-
- “Was Fischer, the lieutenant of Spies, in the conspiracy? Was Fischer,
- the messenger of Spies to the meeting at 54 West Lake Street, in the
- conspiracy? He was at the office on Monday afternoon between five
- and six o’clock, when the ‘Revenge’ circular was printed, and from
- there he went to 54 West Lake Street. Was he in the conspiracy—the
- man with the revolver nearly two feet long, and with the file dagger
- with grooves? What does that mean? Why, prussic acid evaporates;
- it dries off the instrument. ‘Use something with grooves.’ And
- the revolutionists must use files that are ground down, in order
- to have an instrument that is capable of holding poison. If you
- remember, there was another file dagger found in the office of
- the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ besides this one. Verdigris, which anyone
- can easily produce by dipping copper or brass into vinegar, and
- exposing it to the atmosphere, may also be mixed with gum arabic
- and applied to weapons, but the weapons ought to be grooved, so that
- the poison will remain on easier and in larger quantities. That is
- the explanation of the file dagger and the revolver. Was Fischer in
- the conspiracy, with the Lehr und Wehr Verein belt strapped upon his
- person, and traveling in the streets of the city of Chicago with an
- armament worse than any Western outlaw—because no outlaw ever carried
- on his person a dagger grooved, the slightest scratch of which meant
- death. It was conceived by nobody except the mind of the revolutionist
- and lieutenant of Spies.
-
- “Was Lingg in the conspiracy? He made the very bomb that was used on
- that night, and it was used on that night in furtherance of the common
- design. Do you remember the analysis of that bomb? Do you remember
- the nuts used to fasten the half-globes together, identical with the
- one found in the wounded man upon the night of May 4? Do you remember
- Neff’s testimony and Seliger’s testimony—that after the bomb had
- been thrown, and Lingg was at 58 Clybourn Avenue, some one accused
- him and said: ‘You are responsible for all this—see what you have
- done’? Hubner said: ‘You are responsible for all this.’ This does not
- come from the lips of any indicted man, but from the lips of Mr. Neff,
- the proprietor at the place 58 Clybourn Avenue. Then Louis Lingg goes
- home and complains because he has been upbraided for his good work in
- this case, and then he flees, changes his appearance—and he is the
- only living man that changes his appearance in this case except the
- bomb-thrower. They are the two who shaved and cut their hair—Louis
- Lingg and Rudolph Schnaubelt. Was Lingg in the conspiracy? He was not
- only in the conspiracy, but he did everything in the world to carry
- out his part of it that night. ‘Lehman, you come to 58 Clybourn Avenue
- to-night, and you will find out what the meeting in the basement at 54
- meant.’ And Lehman came, and on the next day he was at Lingg’s house,
- and bomb after bomb was distributed from that place before night.
- Where was Lingg in the morning, between eight and one? Looking after
- the revolution in the central part of the city. Men coming and going
- all day after bombs and with bombs—as Mrs. Seliger says—all day
- long, taking them away from that place.
-
- “‘Seliger, make haste!’ ‘Hubner, make haste!’ ‘Muntzenberg, make
- haste!’ ‘Put the cloth over your heads so that you can’t get headache.
- Make haste. These bombs must be done so as to be used to-night!’
- What a nice thing it would be, as he and Seliger stood at the
- corner of North Avenue and Larrabee Street, to throw a bomb in that
- station, Lingg says. Then it is 10:30, and the telephone has called
- for assistance from the North Avenue Station, and the patrol wagon
- goes out, and there stand Lingg and Seliger with bombs, and Lingg
- says, ‘Seliger, give me a light; they are going to the assistance
- of the others. It has happened; the revolution has come. Give me
- a light’—and here I am reminded that when a man throws a bomb in
- furtherance of the social revolution they do it by twos; one furnishes
- the light and the other throws the bomb. And this shows that it was
- not a solitary and single instance that occurred in the alley south
- of Crane’s when a match was lighted and Schnaubelt threw the bomb.
- The same thing was duplicated by Lingg and Seliger when Seliger was
- to furnish the light and Lingg throw the bomb. It was only because
- Seliger hesitated that those men were not killed by Lingg at North
- Avenue. Was Lingg in this conspiracy then? Why, he fled the next day,
- and he is the man who had the courage to give up all hope. You see,
- Lingg is a practical annihilator. He don’t believe in preaching; he
- believes in acting, and not only believes in it, but he will do it at
- any time. He saw Schuettler come into the room and jumped upon him
- the moment he passed the door, with one of those large revolvers. And
- then you will remember the fight and struggle there. Most’s book says
- when there is a possibility to annihilate an opposing party, or where
- it becomes a question of life and death, that death or resistance, or
- both, are advisable.
-
- “That is the advice that Lingg acted on and that Spies acted on, but:
- ‘If you are sure that the arrest is made only on vague suspicion,
- then submit to the inevitable. It is easier in such case to extract
- yourself again. Prove an alibi.’ Was Lingg in this conspiracy? Was
- it a Lingg bomb? Hubner, Neff and Seliger swear that Hubner said to
- Lingg, ‘You are responsible for this, Louis Lingg,’ and they had a
- dispute and a violent discussion when it was discovered there. After
- he tries to throw the bomb at the station he goes home and he sees
- ‘Ruhe,’ and he is almost crazy, and he wants to go to the Haymarket,
- and he goes back to 58 Clybourn Avenue and finds that it is over
- and that the revolution is not accomplished; and then he gets angry
- because he is upraided as the one to blame for the whole thing. ‘You
- have done this,’ Hubner tells him. Hubner was there all day and helped
- to make bombs, and Muntzenberg and the Lehmans were in and out all
- day. Was it Louis Lingg’s bomb?”
-
-Mr. Walker then made a close examination of the evidence in rebuttal,
-and closed his magnificent address with a high tribute to the valor of
-the police and their services to law and order.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXIX.
-
- The Argument for the Defendants—“Newspaper Evidence”—Bringing
- about the Social Revolution—Arson and Murder—The Right to
- Property—Evolution or Revolution—Dynamite as an Argument—The
- Arsenal at 107 Fifth Avenue—Was it all Braggadocio?—An Open
- Conspiracy—Secrets that were not Secrets—The Case Against the
- State’s Attorney—A Good Word for Lingg—More About “Ruhe”—The
- “Alleged” Conspiracy—Ingham’s Answer—The _Freiheit_ Articles—Lord
- Coleridge on Anarchy—Did Fielden Shoot at the Police?—The Bombs
- in the Seliger Family—Circumstantial Evidence in Metal—Chemical
- Analysis of the Czar Bomb—The Crane’s Alley Enigma.
-
-
-ON the morning of August 12, Mr. Sigismund Zeisler opened his argument
-on behalf of the defendants. In view of the desperate condition of his
-case Mr. Zeisler made an able and ingenious plea. His argument occupied
-a whole day.
-
-During the morning hour, he elaborated at some length upon his theory
-of the law, and claimed that it was not only necessary to establish
-that the defendants were parties to a conspiracy, but it was also
-necessary to show that somebody who was a party to that conspiracy
-had committed an act in pursuance of that conspiracy. Besides that it
-was essential that the State should identify the principal. This, he
-held, was the law of the State and of the land and of the Constitution
-of the United States. If the principal is not identified, then no one
-could be held as accessory. Upon this theory the case should stand or
-fall, and it was for this reason that the defense endeavored to impeach
-the testimony of Harry L. Gilmer, as that testimony, he maintained,
-was vital for the case. Mr. Walker, he said, had stated that there
-was a conspiracy to inaugurate the social revolution on the 1st of
-May, citing in support of the claim the conversation between Spies
-and Moulton at Grand Rapids, a resolution adopted at the West Twelfth
-Street Turner Hall in October, 1885, and a conversation between Spies
-and Reporter Wilkinson; but after showing the general drift of those
-conversations and the tenor of the resolutions, Mr. Zeisler contended
-that the reports of these matters in the newspapers at the time could
-not be accepted as evidence, as newspapers are frequently given to
-misstatements. Then, referring to the testimony given by the parties
-named, he said:
-
- “Now, what does that testimony amount to?—the testimony of Mr.
- Moulton, the testimony of Mr. Wilkinson and the testimony in regard
- to the resolutions adopted at the West Twelfth Street Turner Hall?
- Nothing but the fact which is known to all Chicago, that the laboring
- classes had combined to fight for an eight-hours’ work-day on and
- after the 1st of May. That is one thing. And another thing, as far as
- these resolutions are concerned, that it was resolved that, inasmuch
- as the workingmen had to anticipate that the employers would call out
- the police and militia against them, that they should arm themselves
- to meet the employers by the same means that they, the employers, used.
-
- “Now, further than that, Mr. Spies has spoken with Mr. Moulton and
- with Mr. Wilkinson about the coming social revolution; and when asked
- by Mr. Moulton, ‘How can you ever accomplish such a result? How can
- you ever bring about the social revolution? Under what circumstances
- can it be done?’ he says it can be done at a time when the workingmen
- will be unemployed. Substantially the same thing was said to Mr.
- Wilkinson at the time of that interview last January. Now, the State’s
- Attorney and his associates argue to you that Spies said himself the
- social revolution is coming. When is it coming? On the 1st of May. Can
- that be taken literally?”
-
-[Illustration: SIGISMUND ZEISLER.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-Mr. Zeisler held that in the progress of the civilized world a social
-revolution was inevitable, not by the use of dynamite or force, but by
-the peaceable forces at work among the people.
-
- “Now, the attorneys for the State talk to you about the social
- revolution, and try to make you believe that the social revolution
- means bombs and dynamite, and killing and arson and murder and all
- crimes that we know of. Mr. Fielden on the stand gave the proper
- expression. Asked whether he believed in the revolution, he said:
- ‘Yes, in the evolutionary revolution.’ And I tell you, gentlemen of
- the jury, this social revolution is coming—this social revolution in
- the sense in which Webster defines the word Socialism.”
-
-Mr. Zeisler next said that they had not denied that the defendants had
-declared that they would head a procession to go and sack Marshall
-Field’s or Kellogg’s store, because it was a fact, but asked if after
-such advice any one of them had taken the lead in any such procession.
-“No, sir,” he said. “They went and armed themselves with beer. That is
-what they did.” On the night of the Board of Trade opening, Parsons and
-Fielden proposed to lead the crowd to attack the groceries and clothing
-houses, but what did they do? They gracefully retired into the room of
-the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office and were interviewed by a reporter about
-the terrible effects of a fulminating cap. Did any one come up and
-inquire why they had not led the procession to those places? They did
-not, as everybody understood what was meant. Mr. Zeisler continued:
-
- “The listeners of these people are not very highly educated men.
- They are laboring men who, raised in poor families, did not have the
- benefits of a collegiate education; men who since that time worked at
- manual labor from the early morning until the late evening. They could
- not in the nature of things be very intelligent and highly cultivated
- and educated. Now, Fielden and Parsons and Spies could not talk to
- those men by stating to them abstract principles of social science;
- but they told them: ‘Here, look at this state of things. There is a
- man who owns three hundred million dollars; there is another man who
- owns one hundred million. You starve, you get starvation wages. Is
- that a just condition of things? Now, I tell you, Mr. Marshall Field,
- who owns twenty-five millions of dollars, has no right to own them.
- I tell you, you have a right to take from the property which he has
- accumulated; part of it belongs to you. By natural, by equitable laws
- this man is not entitled to live in a palace while you starve. I am
- going to lead you down, if you want me, at once, and we will supply
- our wants from there.’ What is that? Is that an offer to go there?
- Is that an advice to go there? It is an illustration, as you give
- it in school to a child which cannot understand abstract principles
- of science. When they say to them: ‘You have a right to take from
- Marshall Field and Kellogg,’ that means simply in the present state
- of society that is allowed, but this is not a just and equitable
- condition of affairs, and if it were as it ought to be you would
- have a right to share with Marshall Field what he owns. Take it in
- this common-sense view and don’t allow yourselves to be deceived by
- declamations on the part of the attorneys for the State.
-
- “Can a revolution be made? A revolution is a thing which develops
- itself, but no single man nor a dozen of men can control the
- inauguration of a revolution. The social revolution was fixed for the
- 1st of May! Just think of it! The social revolution, the revolution
- by which the present state of proprietary conditions should be
- changed all over the world, was to be inaugurated by Mr. Spies and
- by Mr. Parsons and Mr. Fielden on the first day of May! Has ever a
- ridiculous statement like that been made to an intelligent jury? But
- all that is told you not because they believe it, but because they
- want to make you blind to the real issues in this case, by telling
- you that the social revolution was coming on the 1st of May, and that
- Inspector Bonfield by his cry, ‘Fall in, fall in,’ on the night of
- May 4th, saved the country from the social revolution; by that they
- want to deceive you, they want to scare you, they want to show you
- the monstrosity of these defendants. The social revolution to be
- brought about or inaugurated by the throwing of a bomb on the night
- of May 4th! What do you take these men for? Are they fools? Are they
- children? Don’t you see what their ideal is, and the last aim and
- end of theirs? It is the social revolution, yes, but not the social
- revolution brought about by the throwing of dynamite. It is the social
- revolution which will give the poor man more rights and which will do
- away with pauperism. And the means are left to the future; but for the
- present, in order that you may be strong and respected and be a power
- in the land, arm yourselves, organize. That is the meaning of it.”
-
-Mr. Zeisler then touched on the preparation of bombs and dynamite for
-that social revolution, referring to the evidence showing the finding
-of dynamite and bombs in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office. He held that
-Linnemeyer, who calcimined the closet in which the bag of dynamite was
-found, had proven that there was nothing of the kind there when he
-went in to search for a brush just immediately preceding the arrival
-of the police. He also pointed to a contradiction in the testimony of
-one of the officers that the dynamite was found on a floor below that
-of the closet, in a room not used by Spies and not occupied by him at
-the time of the police search, but in the counting-room, and then the
-subsequent correction by the officer, on being recalled by the State,
-that the package was found in Spies’ editorial room. In reference to
-the bombs there was no secrecy, and Spies admitted that he had one more
-bomb than the police had discovered. That information was volunteered
-on the witness-stand, and the possession of those bombs explained.
-
- “That is the testimony in regard to the arsenal of dynamite and
- bombs and weapons of destruction at 107 Fifth Avenue, and Mr. Spies
- bragged about three thousand revolutionists ready to throw bombs and
- to annihilate the police. What was it? Braggadocio; the same object
- which all these people had in advocating the use of force, in calling
- upon workingmen to arm themselves, to organize, to buy weapons and all
- that sort of thing; and the purpose for which they did it openly and
- publicly was the same purpose Mr. Spies had in bragging that there
- were three thousand revolutionists—to scare the capitalists, to scare
- them into yielding to the demands of the workingmen, to try to induce
- them to make concessions to the laboring classes, as Mr. Fielden said
- in his speech on the night of May the 4th. And remember, gentlemen of
- the jury, that it has been testified to by all the witnesses who spoke
- in regard to the speeches and articles of these men, that they always
- made the same argument. Now, Mr. Fielden made the same argument a
- hundred times before. ‘The employers will not like to see dissatisfied
- workingmen in the community, and the laborer can get some relief if
- the employers find that there are dissatisfied workingmen in the
- city.’ That was the reason why they told them, ‘Arm yourselves and
- organize.’ That was the reason why Mr. Spies bragged about the three
- thousand revolutionists and about the bombs ready to be thrown; that
- was the reason why he told Mr. Wilkinson all about their plans.”
-
-Mr. Zeisler ridiculed the idea that a social revolution was to have
-been inaugurated with the dozens of bombs made by Lingg, and held there
-had been no preparation for it. Coming to the question of conspiracy,
-he said:
-
- “What is a conspiracy? What were you used to understand by the word
- conspiracy all your lifetime? Isn’t in the first place secrecy the
- test of a conspiracy? Was there anything secret about the doings of
- these men, or about their teachings and writings? When they vented
- their feelings at 54 West Lake Street at the meeting of the American
- group and told the people to go to Marshall Field’s and Kellogg’s, and
- offered to head the procession, told them about their rights, told
- them to use force, told them to arm themselves and to organize, the
- next morning the daily press of the city of Chicago, which reaches
- five hundred thousand people, and the State’s Attorney’s office, and
- the Mayor’s office, and the office of every authority in the city of
- Chicago, were informed of it.”
-
-The speaker then proceeded to define conspiracy, and said that to
-constitute a conspiracy “they must agree with one another to do an
-unlawful act; one must have communicated the purpose to another, and
-the others must have consented to it.” Nothing of this kind had been
-done. They had simply propounded principles and expressed truths from
-their standpoint.
-
- “You remember the testimony of Officer Trehorn, who saw the dynamite
- and the caps and the fuse on the night of the inauguration of the
- Board of Trade building, and who the next morning says he went to
- Lieutenant Bedell of the Cottage Grove Avenue Station and told him all
- about it. If that was a conspiracy, and that conspiracy has existed
- for three years, why has the State’s Attorney, or his predecessor in
- office, yet not prosecuted those who are parties to that conspiracy?
- The law of the State of Illinois makes it his duty to prosecute every
- crime which comes to his knowledge. He may plead that he has not known
- of it. If he did not, then it was culpable negligence that he did not
- know it. If he will answer to you that as long as those people did
- not do any overt act there was no reason for him to interfere, then I
- say as long as these people have not done any overt act there was no
- conspiracy. There is no way of escaping this consequence, gentlemen
- of the jury; to every logical mind it is clear. Either the State’s
- Attorney himself must plead guilty to the charge of the murder of
- Mathias J. Degan, or every one of these defendants who cannot be shown
- to have actually thrown or lighted the bomb must be acquitted. If it
- was not conspiracy then, if they had committed a crime up to the 4th
- of May for which it was the duty of the State’s Attorney to prosecute
- them, then what have they added to make their doings murder—to make
- them amenable to the law on a charge for the highest and gravest
- offense, the most heinous crime known to law?”
-
-Mr. Zeisler next turned his attention to the special conspiracy entered
-into by a number of persons at No. 54 West Lake Street and held that
-of all the defendants it had only been shown that Engel and Fischer
-were present. He denied that Lingg was there or that any evidence had
-been introduced to prove it. He scored Waller and reviewed some of
-his testimony, taking occasion to call the attention of the jury to
-the fact that the man testified that the signal word “Ruhe” was not
-mentioned in connection with the Haymarket meeting. Next he alluded
-to the places where some of the witnesses for the State and some of
-those present at 54 West Lake Street had been on the night of May 4,
-and spoke of Engel being at home enjoying a social glass of beer,
-and the others widely scattered. “The only evidence of a conspiracy
-was that of Seliger, who testified that Lingg had asked him if he
-should throw a bomb. Fischer and others who saw the word ‘Ruhe’ in the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ did not go to Wicker Park, but went elsewhere. What
-does Waller’s testimony say? It says that on the appearance of the
-word ‘Ruhe’ all should go to their meeting-places in the outskirts of
-the city, and that none of them were to be at the Haymarket except the
-observation committee.”
-
- “Has ‘Ruhe’ any reference to the Haymarket meeting? Does it not rather
- show that the parties who conspired there were not to take part in
- the Haymarket meeting at all? What, then, has the evidence in regard
- to that meeting got to do with the case? That much (illustrating by
- snapping the fingers).
-
- “Now, to return for a moment to Lingg’s alleged attempt to throw a
- bomb. Has there ever been heard such a ridiculous story as that? It
- is an absolute falsehood upon its face. A revolutionist, a true
- disciple of Herr Most, goes out with bombs in his pocket, next to
- his friends, and takes a walk, and when he goes to the station and
- wants to throw a bomb into the station he isn’t even provided with a
- light to ignite the fuse; he has to ask his friend, ‘Have you got a
- light?’ And the other one says he hasn’t got it or makes some kind of
- excuse. Don’t you see that all that testimony is given in order to
- show you, or in order that Mr. Seliger may show himself to you as a
- highly moral person who has been the dupe of Lingg? He, the man who
- has been an Anarchist for years and years—and his wife herself says
- so—he has been persuaded by Lingg to make bombs, he has been misled
- by Lingg, has been the dupe of Lingg. Seliger, the man with a full
- beard (Seliger had a full beard at the time of the trial), a man of
- over thirty years, has been the dupe of this innocent-looking fellow,
- Lingg! If one was the dupe of the other, then Lingg surely was the
- dupe of Seliger. Seliger is the one who was arrested first. In order
- to save his own worthless neck, he betrays his friend and companion
- and swears against him, and upon the testimony of these treacherous
- lips you are asked to convict Lingg.”
-
-Mr. Zeisler maintained that he had shown that there was no conspiracy,
-no general conspiracy, and insisted that the alleged conspiracy of May
-3 had no reference whatever to the Haymarket meeting; that the throwing
-of the bomb at the Haymarket meeting was in direct contradiction of the
-agreement by the conspirators of May 3, and if one of them had done it,
-he would have done contrary to the conspiracy. He then spoke of the
-object of the Haymarket gathering and said:
-
- “It was called for the purpose of denouncing the atrocious act of
- the police in shooting down their brethren at the McCormick factory.
- That was the only purpose of the meeting, as Mr. Waller testified. Of
- course his testimony is the one that the State relies upon mostly.
- Now, what was the occasion of calling such a meeting to denounce the
- act of the police? It was the meeting at McCormick’s factory.”
-
-The counsel then reviewed the testimony with reference to the
-meeting near McCormick’s factory, pointing to the fact that no one
-had testified to what Spies had actually said on that occasion, and
-maintained that not a single witness had been produced to prove that
-Spies had then and there incited men to riot. Witnesses for the State,
-he said, had shown that Spies continued talking after many of the men
-had started toward McCormick’s factory. Did any one suppose he would
-thus quietly continue speaking there if he had precipitated that riot?
-Mr. Zeisler did not excuse the men for stoning the factory—it was
-wrong—but he did not believe that gave the right to the police to
-shoot at those excited people. Coming back to the Haymarket, he read
-some of the testimony on the side of the State to show that it was an
-ordinary, peaceable meeting, and then said that on the day Spies wrote
-the “Revenge” circular Parsons was on his way back from Cincinnati and
-Fielden in a suburban town in a quarry. He next proceeded to show that
-there was no connection with the printing of the “Revenge” circular
-and the Monday night meeting, and said Spies knew nothing about the
-call for that meeting. He closed by saying that the circular meant
-simply the same thing that Fielden and Parsons meant in their speeches
-on the evening of May 4, and that meaning, he said, he had made plain
-in the earlier part of his address.
-
-MR. GEORGE C. INGHAM, special counsel for the State, followed next.
-His argument was clear, concise and to the point. He opened by citing
-the law in the case, reading numerous authorities with reference to
-conspiracies and commenting thereon at some length. One authority he
-read was “Russell on Crimes,” to show that it was simply putting in the
-shape of a statute that which the common law already declares to be an
-offense, and then cited a case which arose not many years ago upon that
-very statute:
-
- “Johann Most, in the city of London, was indicted, because while there
- he published a paper advocating the assassination of the crowned heads
- of other countries. He was indicted under that statute, and he was
- convicted by a jury. The case went to their highest court, and I wish
- now to read you what the Justice of that court says as to what is
- meant by a solicitation to murder.”
-
-The opinion of Lord Coleridge was read, and Mr. Ingham continued:
-
- “You, gentlemen, will remember that that paper (_Die Freiheit_) is
- now published in the city of New York. The sentence is not given in
- the report I read. The custom is in England that before a sentence is
- pronounced, in case an appeal is taken, that is first passed upon,
- and after that the sentence is pronounced. That case was decided in
- 1881. Shortly after that John Most came to America. They probably
- thought the best thing they could do with him was to pass upon him a
- light sentence and ship him. At any rate they landed him here, and he
- started his _Freiheit_ paper in New York.”
-
-Mr. Ingham next read the case of _Cox_ vs. _The People_, from the
-Illinois Reports, and continued:
-
- “Now, apply the law which I have read to the facts of this case. It
- appears in evidence in this case from the documents which I have read
- to you that these men—Schwab, Fischer and Parsons—were from time
- to time in this city publishing articles printed in papers which
- they owned, for the publishing of which Spies paid, and which they
- declared to be their own, in which they advised the destruction of the
- police of this city by force, in which they advised workingmen from
- time to time to arm themselves with dynamite and be ready whenever
- a conflict came to destroy the police of this city by force. For
- the publication of any one of those articles, if the law had been
- correctly understood, those men could have been convicted and punished
- for a misdemeanor; and when on that night Fielden, in the presence of
- the crowd, told the people before him assembled that the war had come,
- that war had been declared, that they must arm themselves to resist
- what he knew never had taken place, he was making a seditious address,
- and for that reason, if for no other, the police force of this city
- had a right to appear and disperse the meeting.
-
- “Fielden took the stand at the Haymarket, and until he concluded every
- sentence he uttered was a sentence seditious in its character, and
- which, under the decisions of the Supreme Court, would alone subject
- him to punishment for misdemeanor. A trap had been laid—Spies laid
- it; Schwab laid it; Fischer laid it; Engel laid it. A trap had been
- laid to bring out the police force of this city, and that trap was
- baited by the speeches of Parsons and Fielden. When the bait grew
- strong enough, the police did come. The moment they got there—the
- moment they stood opposite that alley, the moment their marching
- motion was stopped and they stood in that position where the bomb
- could be thrown with unerring certainty, the bomb came.
-
-[Illustration: GEORGE C. INGHAM.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
- “Now, who made that bomb? You, gentlemen, have heard the evidence in
- this case, which is not disputed. I ask you, gentlemen, to remember
- that so far I have not alluded to a single fact about which there is
- or can be any dispute. It is uncontradicted in this case that Louis
- Lingg for months had been making bombs of a certain construction. It
- is uncontradicted that on the morning of Tuesday Louis Lingg said
- to Seliger that he must work hard all day; that the bombs would be
- needed and could be disposed of before night. It is in evidence in
- this case that on that morning Louis Lingg left that house and was
- gone all the morning, and nothing has been shown as to where he was.
- It is in evidence that he came back at noon, and because Seliger had
- filled only one bomb and had then laid down on the bed and gone to
- sleep, that Lingg upbraided him and told him that this matter must be
- hurried; and it is in evidence in this case that all that afternoon
- after that time men were coming and going to and from that house and
- working at that house on those bombs. Men came there whom Seliger
- knew; men came there whom Seliger did not know; men came there whom
- Mrs. Seliger knew; men came there whom Mrs. Seliger did not know. She
- tells you that during the whole of that day—Tuesday—men were coming
- and going to and from that house. What for? We put one man on the
- stand who went to that house in the afternoon—the witness Lehman.
- Lehman tells you that on Tuesday he was working at his trade; that he
- quit his work at three o’clock in the afternoon, instead of working
- until the afternoon was over; that he took a fellow-countryman of his,
- whose name I have forgotten, and with him went to Lingg’s house to buy
- a revolver; that they went to the house and dickered first about the
- revolver, and then went back again, and when he went back the second
- time Louis Lingg gave him dynamite—loaded bombs, fuse and detonating
- caps; that during the day Louis Lingg was distributing these bombs to
- different persons in the city.
-
- “I want to call your attention to those bombs of Lingg’s—admitted to
- be his—bombs which he admitted to the officers that he himself made,
- and which were found where he had sent them. Every one of those bombs
- is about three inches in diameter, as nearly as they could be made
- with the rough material which he had. I want to call your attention to
- this bomb, called the ‘Czar’ bomb, obtained from Spies. That bomb in
- its appearance is composed of the same sort of material that Lingg’s
- bombs were. You can see that the only difference is in the bolts; that
- the bolt in the ‘Czar’ bomb was smaller than the bolt in the Lingg
- bomb. This bolt (exhibiting same) would not be large enough to fasten
- together the three-inch bombs; it would not quite reach through. Now,
- suppose that Louis Lingg had this bolt in his possession and wanted
- to make a bomb for it, what would he do? He would file off the edges
- here so as to make its diameter smaller. If you will look at this
- bomb called the ‘Czar’ bomb, you will see that that is just what has
- been done—the edges of it filed off, and it is just in the condition
- it was, with the exception of this scraping here, when the reporter
- Wilkinson got it. The result of that is that its diameter through
- here would be shorter (indicating) than the diameter across there
- (indicating). What else does that show? Of course, as this was filed
- off, it would lessen the diameter of the bomb, and when you measure
- this you will find that that only lacks the eighth of an inch of being
- the same size as the bombs found in Lingg’s possession. In other
- words, if that had not been filed off as it has been in order that
- this shorter bolt could be used, these bombs would be identical in
- size.
-
- “What else is there in evidence in this case in regard to bolts?
- Seliger tells you that he was sent after bolts that day, that he
- bought a lot of bolts. They have been introduced in evidence. You,
- gentlemen, noticed it as soon as they were introduced in evidence,
- that the nut found in the body of the Socialist, and which came out
- of the bomb exploded at the Haymarket Square, is identically the same
- sort of a nut as those found on the bombs in Lingg’s possession on
- that day.
-
- “We have placed on the stand the two most eminent chemists in the
- city of Chicago. Those gentlemen told you that they made examinations
- of pieces of this ‘Czar’ bomb which they took from it themselves;
- that they made examinations of pieces of the four bombs which came
- from Lingg, and that they examined certain articles found in Lingg’s
- possession. And what is the result? They told you that these bombs
- were not made of lead alone; that they were not lead and solder alone;
- that there is not in the city of Chicago or known to commerce any one
- article of which those bombs could be made, but that they are made
- of a mixture—not only the Lingg bombs, but the ‘Czar’ bomb. They
- tell you that three of the Lingg bombs and the ‘Czar’ bomb contained
- identically the same constituents, without any difference whatever
- so far as the constituents themselves are concerned, and the only
- difference is that between those bombs there was a slight difference
- in the amount of the tin and the amount of the lead. They told you
- that in the ‘Czar’ bomb one per cent. or one and one-tenth per cent.
- is tin; that in one of the Lingg bombs one and five-tenths per cent.
- was tin; that in another of them two per cent. was tin. The point of
- it is this: that every bomb was composed of a mixture and not of any
- one metal; that the mixture in the bombs was as nearly identical as it
- could be made by any man using the materials which Louis Lingg used,
- in the way in which he used them. You will remember that he told Capt.
- Schaack that he made these bombs with a mold made of clay; that he
- could only mold one or two bombs, when he had to make a new mold. If
- you will look on the inside of these bombs you will find that they
- were all made by a rough mold, just as you would expect from one made
- with a mold of clay; the only difference being that in the case of the
- ‘Czar’ bomb it had been filed off, as you can see, with a file, in
- order to smooth it.”
-
-Mr. Ingham then read the testimony of Walter S. Haines, one of the
-chemists, and proceeded:
-
- “One of these bombs which Louis Lingg admitted that he made differed
- from the others in that it contained a trace of copper. In the trunk
- of Louis Lingg was found this piece of metal, which he had undoubtedly
- used in making that particular bomb, and which accounts for the trace
- of copper in it, the point being that everything found in any one
- of those bombs was found in some shape in Louis Lingg’s trunk and
- possession.
-
- “The answer to all this is that the bomb, instead of being thrown from
- the alley, was thrown thirty-five feet south of the alley. What of it?
- What if they have proven that? What if they have satisfied your minds
- clearly that the bomb came from thirty-five feet south of the alley?
- Can there be any question in the minds of any reasonable man that he
- who threw that bomb, whether he stood in the alley or thirty-five feet
- south of the alley, was one of the Anarchists associated with these
- men?
-
- “When that question is settled in your minds, that ends this case. We
- have proven the conspiracy. It has not been denied. We have proven
- that Degan died from the effects of that bomb; it has not been denied.
- We have proven it by circumstances making it as clear as the daylight
- that that bomb was thrown by one of the Anarchists, and when we have
- done that we have proven this case—when we have done that we have
- sealed the fate of these men, if jurors do their duty under the law as
- it is written and declared.
-
- “There was a conspiracy. These men know it and have not denied it.
- That bomb came from that conspiracy, and the moment it resulted in
- the death of Degan the crime of conspiracy was merged in the crime of
- murder, and every one of these men made amenable under the law.
-
- “The meeting came; the crowd did not. The Haymarket was covered with
- little groups of people scattered around. Spies goes around and picks
- out the place for the meeting, and, although he knew that the word
- ‘Ruhe’ had been published, although he knew that these armed groups
- were scattered all over this city, although he knew that Balthasar
- Rau in an hour could not notify every man who knew of that plan, he
- himself called it to order in the very place where the police force
- could be massed together and the most enormous destruction done. He
- told Wilkinson that it was discovered that bombs of composite metals
- were best, and when on that fatal night the bomb was thrown seven men
- were killed and sixty wounded, and to-day in a public hospital of this
- county, while these men sit here decked with flowers, there is one man
- with eighteen drainage tubes in his body. Was Spies right when he said
- that bombs of composite metal were best?”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXX.
-
- Foster and Black before the Jury—Making Anarchist History—The Eight
- Leaders—A Skillful Defense—Alibis All Around—The Whereabouts
- of the Conspirators—The “Peaceable Dispersion”—A Miscarriage of
- Revolutionary War—Average Anarchist Credibility—“A Man will Lie
- to Save his Life”—The Attack on Seliger—The Candy-man and the
- Bomb-thrower—Conflicting Testimony—A Philippic against Gilmer—The
- Liars of History—The Search for a Witness—The Man with the Missing
- Link—The Last Word for the Prisoners—Captain Black’s Theory—High
- Explosives and Civilization—The West Lake Street Meeting—Defensive
- Armament—Engel and his Beer—Hiding the Bombs—The Right of
- Revolution—Bonfield and Harrison—The Socialist of Judea.
-
-
-MR. W. A. FOSTER was the next speaker, and he made a very strong case
-for his clients—the strongest that could be made in face of the many
-disadvantages under which he labored in view of the evidence against
-the Anarchists. He is a fluent, easy and graceful talker and held his
-facts well in hand. He began in a deliberate manner, and grew at times,
-as he proceeded, quite eloquent in his exposition of the virtues of
-the defendants. He was pointed and caustic sometimes, but he never
-seemed to lose the purpose of making a strong impression on the jury.
-The opening of his argument was largely devoted to showing that the
-Haymarket meeting was not riotous or boisterous, but that it had been
-called for a peaceable purpose. Then he said:
-
- “Take the theory just suggested by the prosecution in this case, that
- the time had come now that was conceived of years and years ago; the
- time had come now which was suggested by August Spies at Grand Rapids,
- Michigan, the time had come now which was foreseen in conversation had
- with the various defendants to various newspaper reporters at various
- times and various places; the time had come now when the attack could
- be made that was to be incited by the McCormick meeting and the
- McCormick riot; the time had come now when by reason of the gathering
- of the laboring people at the Haymarket Square the attempt was to be
- made and the response was to be made effectual; now history was to
- be written, now the point had come when bowie knives, when sharpened
- files poisoned with acids, when all of these implements of modern
- warfare, as we are told, were to be turned loose upon the world; when
- property rights were to be destroyed, when the police were to be
- killed, when any one aiding, assisting, abetting, standing up for or
- protecting the law was to be ruthlessly slain. The time had come. The
- men were there, the arrangements had been perfected, the police were
- in line, halt was made, and they were commanded to disperse. The time,
- the grand culmination of all the arrangements and conspiracies and
- confederations for years back had arrived—the time when the blow was
- to be struck which was to overturn civilization, which was to overturn
- the country.
-
- “These eight men are the leaders, they tell us. They tell us that
- there are hundreds more that ought to have been indicted, and should
- be indicted—should be prosecuted, and should be convicted, and
- should be destroyed. But the time had come, and the leaders and their
- friends, having been preparing for years, were ready. They courted the
- attack—they hailed the day. They had pleaded for the opportunity,
- and the opportunity had now arrived. Where are these men? Where are
- the men that were to take charge and carry on the warfare that had
- been agreed upon for the last five or six years, or longer, in the
- city of Chicago? Where were they? In the first place, Mr. Parsons and
- Mr. Fischer are at Zepf’s Hall. Think of it! For six long years they
- had been making their preparations for the attack; for days and weeks
- and months they had sown and preached revolution; the skirmish lines
- had met, and they were prepared; and still Parsons and Fischer were
- quietly discussing matters between themselves over a glass of beer
- at Zepf’s Hall. They were principals in this matter, leaders in the
- overthrowing of the Government and the establishment of this idea.
- They were at Zepf’s Hall, away from any scene of action. Where is
- Engel? Engel, the great conspirator—Engel, who made the inflammatory
- speeches at Clybourn Avenue? Quietly at home, engaged in a game of
- cards with his friend—not there at all. There is no man that pretends
- or claims that Mr. Engel, at the time the bomb was thrown, was at the
- Haymarket meeting or near it.
-
- [Illustration: WILLIAM A. FOSTER.
-
- From a Photograph.]
-
- “Where was Schwab, one of the brainy men of this conspiracy, a man
- whose pen had added to its formation, whose genius and whose brain
- had been instrumental in bringing it about? An hour’s ride away, at
- Deering, addressing a quiet meeting of laboring men.
-
- “Where was Neebe? Neebe, one of the leading conspirators, they tell
- us. He is one of the eight heads, one of the chiefs in the overthrow
- of the Government and of property rights, and he was quietly at home.
- Lingg, the man who has prepared the implements of warfare, the man who
- has taken the dynamite, who has prepared the shells and loaded them,
- has inserted the caps and the fuse and made all the preparations for
- the destruction of the police, for the destruction of the militia and
- for the destruction of property everywhere—where is Lingg? Wandering
- about upon Larrabee Street, in the neighborhood of Clybourn Avenue.
-
- “Where is Spies and where is Fielden? Spies and Fielden, the only
- remaining ones of the eight, are upon the wagon, in the presence of
- line after line of the police, armed to the teeth, having not only
- the regulation revolvers in their coat-pockets, but those of larger
- caliber, in some instances, so far as some of the companies were
- concerned, in their belts. Those men were quietly standing upon the
- wagon, right in sight and within the aim of all of these murderous
- weapons, with the idea that an attack was to be made, with the idea
- and knowledge that an assault was to take place, with the idea and
- the knowledge that now the final blow was to strike which should
- carry terror to the hearts of the capitalists and overturn society and
- government. They were there, quietly arguing, arguing with the police
- in command there, that the meeting was peaceable.
-
- “But they say, gentlemen, ‘Ruhe’ is a German word and means peace,
- quiet, rest; that because it means quiet, therefore—this is what
- they intend to have you believe—that because Fielden said, ‘This is
- a quiet meeting,’ or that it was peaceable, or, ‘We are peaceable,’
- that that was the watchword which was to be an order in cipher to
- commence immediately an attack. Now, gentlemen, I say that this is,
- in my opinion, an unfair deduction; it is an unfair conclusion. The
- testimony all agrees that Captain Ward appeared there and said:
- ‘In the name of the people of the State of Illinois, I command you
- to quietly and peaceably disperse.’ That was the expression—‘I
- command you to peaceably disperse’—to which Mr. Fielden replied:
- ‘We are peaceable,’ or ‘This is a peaceable meeting, Captain.’ Could
- anything be more natural than that that reply should be made? Suppose,
- gentlemen, now, that the theory of the prosecution is right; suppose
- that it was the grand beginning of an uncertain end; suppose that
- it was the culmination of the idea that had existed for years. Do
- you believe that bombs would not have hailed from the top of every
- building? Do you believe they would not have been thrown from every
- sidewalk? Do you suppose they would not have been thrown from the
- rear and from the front? In the nature of things, can you, in the
- light of this testimony, say that because some man somewhere, on
- account of some reason, which is not explained here, which never can
- be explained, acting upon his own individual responsibility, lighted
- a bomb and threw it, that therefore you must say that the grand
- conspiracy, the arrangement for years and years had this result,
- or rather that the throwing of that bomb was the result of that
- conspiracy?
-
- “But there is one thing the gentlemen have lost sight of in this
- case, it seems to me. Of course they haven’t, but in their argument
- they have carefully avoided it. A Socialist is not to be believed, a
- Communist is a liar, and an Anarchist is capable of committing any
- crime. That is what they tell us in plain language—that we have
- produced some witnesses here who are Socialists, Communists and
- Anarchists, and because we have done so, their testimony, for that
- reason alone, is to be discarded. Mr. Walker and Mr. Ingham both made
- reference to the character of some of our witnesses upon the theory
- and upon the ground that the evidence showed that they were Anarchists
- or Communists. Well, they were Anarchists, Socialists and Communists,
- some of them.
-
- “Although the gentlemen claim that a conviction might exist, leaving
- out the testimony of Gilmer and of Thompson, they would never concede
- that under any circumstances a conviction could be had were it not
- for the testimony of Seliger and the testimony of Waller; they never
- would concede that, and did the gentlemen ever think, while they were
- presenting to you the case upon which they demanded a conviction, that
- the very witnesses that they proved the facts by upon which they ask
- you to hang these men are Socialists and Communists and Anarchists?
-
- “Not only, then, are Waller and Seliger Communists, Socialists and
- Anarchists, but they are State’s witnesses, co-confederates and
- conspirators, men whose testimony is regarded with disfavor and with
- suspicion by the law.
-
- “They tell us that a man will lie to save his life. Said Mr. Walker,
- ‘Do you believe Mr. Spies? Will he not lie to save his life?’ Then I
- retort the argument of the gentleman upon his own head and say, ‘Would
- not Seliger lie to save his own neck?’
-
- “They take Mr. Seliger down and they examine him and they get his
- statement and they reduce it to writing. The detective force is turned
- loose upon him. His statement is not strong enough; that won’t do;
- it is not enough; still there are missing links. ‘Mr. Seliger, this
- statement won’t do; we want something stronger than that.’ I can
- imagine—I am not giving the testimony now, but I can imagine how
- those detectives would go to Seliger, carried away from his family as
- he was, shut up in a dark dungeon, kept there day after day—‘Now,
- Seliger, here are two propositions: here is a rope and here is a
- statement; choose between them.’ He chose the lesser of the two
- evils—the statement, as any man would, Mr. Walker says, to save his
- own life. He makes the statement. He goes away. I can imagine, I say,
- the conduct and the actions of the detective force as they ply him
- with questions from day to day. ‘It won’t do, Mr. Seliger, it won’t
- do. There are too many missing links. We want something more. Isn’t
- this so, isn’t that so? Didn’t this happen, didn’t that happen?’ And
- poor Seliger, frightened, weak-minded and timid, ignorant of the
- laws of this country, ignorant of the rights which American citizens
- have under the laws, sits down and makes the second statement. And
- still the thing goes on, still he is kept in confinement, still he
- is plied with questions, still he is examined and cross-examined:
- ‘Mr. Seliger, the first statement won’t do, and the second statement
- won’t do. Mr. Seliger, we want more from you than this.’ And, says Mr.
- Walker, ‘Won’t a man lie to save his life?’ And Mr. Seliger makes the
- third statement, and again he goes back to his dungeon, and after a
- while again they go to Seliger and they say to Seliger, ‘This won’t
- do. You have made a statement, you have made a second statement, you
- have made a third statement, but still there are missing links. Isn’t
- this so, isn’t that so?’ And, as Mr. Walker says, ‘Won’t any man lie
- to save his life?’ And the fourth statement is made by Seliger. And
- these statements are unrolled as he sits here quivering and trembling,
- knowing perhaps that he is destroying the lives of these eight men,
- his former friends and associates, and questions are pronounced after
- questions, and the testimony is introduced before you, gentlemen, from
- a Socialist, from a Communist, from an Anarchist, from a conspirator,
- and from a man that will lie to save his own life; and upon that
- testimony you are to act, and you are not to act upon any testimony
- introduced by the defendants in this case.
-
- “You remember the candy-maker that was brought upon the stand by the
- merest accident. You remember the circumstance that when his name was
- called he responded from that corner of the room (indicating)—none
- of us had ever seen him; we didn’t know it, and I don’t to-day hardly
- know how we got any information in regard to the man at all. And when
- he came forward here you will remember that this case was delayed
- until Mr. Zeisler and myself took him into the other room to ascertain
- if possible why he was here and to what facts he was going to testify.
- He came upon the stand, and what does he tell you? He tells you that
- on the night of the 4th of May he was at the Haymarket. He tells you
- that he was south of the alley, and when it was rumored there that
- the police were coming he started with others down. He tells you that
- at the time he did not know how far it was south of the alley, but he
- knows from the location and from the surroundings, and that since then
- he has gone there with his tape-line and he has measured it, and that
- it is thirty-eight feet south of the south line of Crane’s alley. He
- tells you that as they were going down, when the police had come up he
- saw a man with this motion, indicating a backward and upward motion
- with the right hand—not with this motion that Frank Walker tells
- about—cast a burning fuse, as it went hissing through the air; that
- he followed it until it struck, that he looked at it until the whole
- country around about was illuminated by the explosion and policemen
- bit the dust.
-
- “Is he a reliable man, gentlemen? Is there anything wrong in his
- character? If there was, why, as late as two weeks before the time
- that he testified, was Mr. Furthmann placing before him the picture of
- Rudolph Schnaubelt? If he was an unreliable man and they knew it, if
- they did not believe his statement because of his unreliability, why,
- I say, was Mr. Furthmann two weeks before—according to the testimony
- of the witness which Mr. Furthmann has not undertaken to gainsay or
- deny—presenting the photograph of Rudolph Schnaubelt to see whether
- he could identify that man as being the man who threw the bomb? If he
- was an unreliable man, he tells us where he has worked; he tells us
- where he has lived; he tells us who his associates are; he tells us
- all about it. If there is anything wrong, then Captain Schaack would
- turn loose his detectives and his police and in less than an hour’s
- time the character, the true character, the villainous character of
- the man would have been exhibited before you. But nothing of that kind
- is done. They ascertain the fact that he saw the bomb-thrower—they
- know that he saw the bomb-thrower—at least, they believe that he saw
- the bomb-thrower, and the question is, Who shall be used? Shall the
- candy-maker be used, or shall Gilmer be used? Which shall it be—the
- candy-man or Gilmer?
-
- “Now, you will remember that the State was two weeks putting in their
- testimony, and you will remember that the defense was one week—a week
- and one day more. You will remember the testimony of this witness was
- that two weeks before that time, which was one week after the State
- began to introduce their testimony, Mr. Furthmann presented before his
- face the picture of Rudolph Schnaubelt and demanded to know whether he
- could recognize the picture as being the man who threw the bomb. I say
- then it seems, Mr. Gilmer to the contrary notwithstanding, that a week
- after they had commenced the introduction of their testimony it was
- still a doubtful, uncertain and mooted question as to where took place
- the throwing of that bomb, and into whose hands to place it.
-
- “What does the candy-maker say? He says honestly to Mr. Furthmann: ‘I
- cannot recognize that man as being the man; I don’t believe that that
- man had whiskers; all I know is that I think he had a light mustache
- and I think he was an ordinary-sized man; that is all I know about
- him.’
-
- “And, gentlemen, that is a reasonable story. Hurrying away as he was
- in that crowd, supposing that the police had come there for a purpose,
- seeing this thing take place and the disaster that resulted from it
- and the excitement incident to it, would we expect that he would know
- or would be able to see any more than that? He did not recognize
- Schnaubelt as being the man; he did not recognize Fischer as being
- present at the time the bomb was thrown; he did not recognize Spies
- as being the man who lighted the fuse, and the prosecution did not
- want him, and so they sent him back to the candy-shop in obscurity,
- and there intended that he should remain. They did not want him. Why
- didn’t they? They had found a conspiracy, they say, to use violence
- for certain illegal purposes. They had established the fact of murder;
- there was a missing link; that was what was troubling them, and that
- is what has troubled them from the beginning of this trial down to the
- present time—the missing link. Where is the man in all the face of
- God’s green earth, where is the man that can identify one of these men
- that we will show was in any conspiracy to do anything which we might
- criticise or object to, that is in any way responsible for what was
- done at the Haymarket that night? They must have the missing link, or
- else they must fail in this prosecution. The candy-man won’t furnish
- it. He tells his story, a consistent and reasonable story. They
- believe his story because they take him up and they exhibit to him the
- picture—‘Is that the man?’ Oh, if he had only said, ‘Yes, that is the
- man, that is the man that was in company with him,’ how quickly the
- candy-maker would have come before us as a witness. But no; the man
- said honestly, ‘I cannot do that; I was in a crowd in the darkness; I
- was in the bustle and the excitement; I cannot do that.’ They didn’t
- want him; they sent him home. And still there is a missing link. Who
- is going to furnish it?
-
- “Gilmer comes proudly to the front. He says, ‘Rather than have the
- play stopped I will furnish the missing link.’ Gilmer—Harry L.
- Gilmer—the old soldier that they tell us about. I don’t believe it.
- I don’t believe he was ever in the army a day of his life, because I
- believe if he had been that my brother Grinnell, of all witnesses that
- had been called, would have asked him that very first question. Some
- of you gentlemen bear upon your breasts the emblem of the Grand Army
- of the Republic; some of you were in the war and marched at the peril
- of your lives under the stars and stripes, and you would delight in
- meeting a man, and delight in believing in his honor and integrity, if
- you believed that he was engaged in the common cause with you in those
- trying days; and still the shrewd counsel never asked the question.
- A veteran! Yes, a veteran of Battery D, a veteran of Chicago, of
- the Home Rangers, a man that never smelt burnt powder in his life
- perhaps—he is the veteran soldier that is lauded before you gentlemen
- in the argument of counsel who have addressed you on the part of the
- prosecution in this case.
-
- “I undertake to say, gentlemen, that all history, ancient and modern,
- has given to the world three of the grandest, the most consummate
- and infernal liars that ever existed since Adam first was set in the
- Garden of Eden—three names prominently that we find in the history
- that we are making now, in modern history and in ancient, and in
- importance they stand in the order in which I name them. First of all,
- greater than all, above them all in infamy and falsehood, is Harry L.
- Gilmer; next to him comes M. M. Thompson, and third is Ananias of old,
- whose Christian name I never heard, if, in fact, he ever had one. All
- history, ransacked, will furnish no three such men as the three names
- that I have suggested.”
-
-Mr. Foster then adverted to some points in the management of the case,
-and touched at some length on the fact that Gilmer had not testified
-before the grand jury. He proceeded as follows:
-
- “Of all the testimony that has been introduced here, the testimony of
- Harry Gilmer is paramount. Bind the rest of it together in a sheaf,
- set it alongside of the testimony of Harry Gilmer, and it is as a
- molehill compared to a mountain, if the testimony of Harry Gilmer is
- true. If the testimony of Harry Gilmer is true, August Spies and Mr.
- Fischer must die. If you believe him, they must be swept from the
- face of the earth; and yet Mr. Grinnell, saying, ‘We have nothing to
- conceal and nothing to hide,’ forgets to tell you that he has the
- man who saw Mr. Spies, in the presence of Mr. Fischer, light the
- fuse which was thrown by Mr. Schnaubelt, and which destroyed Officer
- Degan. He never expected to prove it. If he did—if it is true that
- he expected to, and if it is true that he had nothing to conceal and
- nothing to hide, why, then, didn’t he say it? Why had it not been
- published broadcast to the land by these newspaper gentlemen? Why was
- it that Harry Gilmer’s face was not published and sent forth in every
- paper that is published in the land? Why was it that it was not said:
- ‘This is the man—this is the man who has the testimony within his
- knowledge which will show the connection and establish the link which
- fastens some of the defendants, at least, to the murder of Mathias J.
- Degan?’ Not a word—not a word upon the subject of Harry L. Gilmer,
- the veteran of the war, the old soldier, so eloquently discoursed upon
- by my brother Walker. Where was Gilmer then?
-
- “I can imagine brother Grinnell, in his anxiety and his quandary in
- determining what course to pursue here, discussing with himself and
- his associates as to whether or not this case should be determined
- upon the testimony of Thompson alone, or Thompson and Gilmer mixed. It
- has been a serious consideration on the part of the gentlemen. There
- can’t be any doubt about that. But the honest man who says, ‘No, I
- can’t identify them,’ is sent home, and Harry Gilmer is brought to
- the front. He will identify Schnaubelt—oh, yes; no question about
- that. He will do more than that; he will identify Fischer—oh, yes; he
- will do more than that. Fischer may prove an alibi; they do not know
- whether Fischer was there, but there is one man that they do know was
- there, and that he was there all that time upon that wagon, and that
- was August Spies, and, if necessary, Harry Gilmer will identify Spies.
- Now, do you believe that, gentlemen? Do you believe that? And I do not
- charge my brother Grinnell with putting Harry Gilmer upon the stand
- knowing that he was swearing to a pack of lies. Not at all; I do not
- charge him with that. I charge him with placing no reliance upon the
- man at all. I say that, if Mr. Grinnell knew at the time he made his
- opening statement that Harry Gilmer was to come upon the stand and
- swear to that fact, he did not do his duty as a lawyer and he did not
- keep his pledge to the jury, and if he did not know it, it shows the
- absolute unreliability of the testimony of Mr. Gilmer.
-
- “Now, I say to you, gentlemen, from all the surrounding circumstances
- in this case—I say that Harry L. Gilmer—and I stated to you the
- other day that I was not in the habit of calling witnesses liars; I
- preferred to present their testimony under the suspicion of mistake
- rather than the suspicion of falsehood—but I say as to Harry L.
- Gilmer that he is a stupendous, colossal, a monumental liar, and
- there is no escape from it. Now, just think of it for a moment.
- The world was excited; every daily paper in the universe published
- accounts—in Paris and in London, in Petersburg and Vienna, on the
- morning following the 4th of May, citizens read of the disaster of the
- Haymarket; the civilized world was shocked with the outrage that was
- perpetrated there. Where was Harry Gilmer, the man who could identify
- the man who threw the bomb, the man who could identify his companion,
- and the man who could identify the person who lit the fuse? Where was
- Harry Gilmer on the 5th day of May? He tells us he was in Crane’s
- alley the night of the 4th; he was there in the alley; he saw Spies;
- he says, ‘That is the man right over there; that is the man that threw
- it;’ he saw that man right over there—Spies—strike a match and light
- the fuse, and saw Fischer in his company. Schnaubelt threw it in the
- ranks of the policemen.
-
- “There is the missing link, and if you believe that testimony as
- to two of these defendants, the chain is complete. Darwin is dead,
- but the missing link has been found. The man who furnished the
- missing link went home. The man that has seen this meandered through
- Crane’s alley and went quietly home to his roost, and he went to bed
- undisturbed. It is true he had seen the man who threw the bomb; he
- would know him anywhere. He would know him by his picture; he knows
- how many buttons of his coat were buttoned. He saw the man that stood
- by. He would know him anywhere. He knows what kind of clothing he had
- on and how many buttons he had buttoned of his clothes. He knew the
- kind of hat, the kind of clothes. He knew the man who lit the match,
- who touched the fuse that exploded the bomb that Schnaubelt threw. He
- knew him. He knew whether his coat was buttoned and how many buttons.
- He knew all about it—everything that every man in the universe
- demanded should be known by the officers of the law. And he went home
- and went to bed and never said a word to any living soul about it. And
- he got up in the morning, fresh upon his mind the fact of this great
- outrage that was perpetrated and that everybody was talking about
- everywhere—in restaurants, on the street and in street-cars—knowing
- that he was the man that could recognize them all—he goes and buys
- a paper on the street and sits down to read how terrible it was,
- goes into a restaurant and there sits, where men were conversing of
- the horror and of the outrage, and never opens his head in regard to
- knowing anything about it—not a word. Then he goes, after he has had
- his ‘meal,’ and gets upon the car—goes to the corner of Twenty-second
- Street and Wabash Avenue, and there he meets a friend, a brother
- painter, and they work all day, and from a third to half the time,
- as he states, they were painting together and lapping each other’s
- brushes as they painted upon the side of the building, and when noon
- came they sat down to discuss matters and talk, over their lunch. They
- speak, at times, about the Haymarket meeting and the great disaster,
- and he never tells his friend that he had seen the bomb thrown, or
- knew anything about it—not a word. The world was in flames, but Harry
- Gilmer was cool.”
-
-Mr. Foster continued his attention to Gilmer at considerable length,
-making, however, no new points against him, and then proceeded:
-
- “Now, Mr. Graham is not a Socialist. He is not a Communist nor an
- Anarchist. He is a reporter, and I say that he is an honorable man.
- His bearing showed it; his countenance indicated it; and the fact
- that he is not attacked nor impeached, nor one word said against him,
- either in argument or in testimony, in my mind establishes it.
-
- “Well, that didn’t amount to very much. There are always knowing ones
- around, and Gilmer was one of them. He liked to loaf about police
- stations. He remembered the time when he was collecting the dog tax in
- Des Moines. He associated with men that wore uniforms, and he liked
- it. He wanted to ingratiate himself into their good opinions, and he
- says: ‘I believe I would know the fellow. I was there. I was right in
- plain sight, and I saw him light the fuse and I saw him toss the bomb.
- His back was to me, it is true, but I do believe I would know him.’
- Ah! where was Fischer then? Where was ‘that man sitting over there,’
- as Gilmer expresses it? Where was Spies and where was Fischer then?
- Well, they hadn’t developed at that stage of the proceeding, that is
- all. They were the afterbirth in his testimony.”
-
-Mr. Foster went into a long and searching examination of the evidence,
-arguing out the more important facts developed, and closing with an
-eloquent appeal to the sympathies of the jury. His speech was effective
-and impressive.
-
-On the next morning—Tuesday—Capt. Black began his argument for the
-defense, and was listened to by the jury with marked attention. He is
-a forcible speaker and dwelt upon the testimony favorable to his side
-with earnestness and emphasis. He traversed necessarily a good deal of
-the ground covered by his colleagues, but he clothed his argument in
-captivating language, and made a striking and effective appeal for his
-clients. The following will show the points he made:
-
- “On the morning of the 5th of May, 1886, the good people of the city
- of Chicago were startled and shocked at the event of the previous
- night, frightened, many of them, not knowing whereunto this thing
- might lead. Fear is the father of cruelty. It was no ordinary case.
- Immediately after that first emotion came a feeling which has found
- expression from many lips in the hearing of many, if not all of you:
- ‘A great wrong has been done; somebody must be punished, somebody
- ought to suffer for the suffering which has been wrought.’ Perhaps
- it was that feeling—I know not—which led to the unusual and
- extraordinary proceedings which were taken in connection with this
- matter immediately following the 4th of May. Perhaps it was that
- feeling, in a large measure, which led to the arrest and presentment
- of these eight defendants. Perhaps it was something of that feeling
- which will explain the conduct of the prosecution in this case. I am
- not disposed to say that there has been any willful or deliberate
- intent on the part of the representatives of the State to act
- unfairly. I am not disposed to charge that there has been upon their
- part any disposition to do an injustice to any man. But in their case,
- as in the case of all, passion perverts the heart, prejudice corrupts
- the judgment.
-
- “On the night of the 4th of May a dynamite bomb was thrown in the city
- of Chicago and exploded. It was the first time that in our immediate
- civilization, and immediately about us, this great destructive
- agency was used in modern contests. I beg you to remember, in the
- consideration of this case, that dynamite is not the invention of
- Socialists; it is not their discovery. Science has turned it loose
- upon the world—an agency of destruction, whether for defense or
- offense, whether for attack or to build the bulwarks round the
- beleaguered city. It has entered into modern warfare. We know from
- what has already transpired in this case that dynamite is being
- experimented with as a weapon of warfare by the great nations of the
- world. What has been read in your hearing has given you the results
- of experiments made under the direction of the Government of Austria,
- and while you have sat in this jury-box considering the things which
- have been deposed before you, with reference to reaching a final and
- correct result, the Government of the United States has voted $350,000
- for the building of a dynamite cruiser. It is in the world by no
- procurement of Socialism, with no necessary relationship thereto. It
- is in the world to stay. It is manufactured freely; it is sold without
- let, hindrance or restriction. You may go from this jury-box to the
- leading powder companies of the country, or their depots, and buy
- all the dynamite that you wish without question as to your purpose,
- without interrogation as to your motive. It is here. Is it necessarily
- a thing of evil? It has entered into the great industries, and we
- know its results. It has cleared the path of commerce where the great
- North River rolls on its way to the sea. It is here and there blasting
- out rocks, digging out mines, and used for helpfulness in the great
- industries of life. But there never came an explosive into the world,
- cheap, simple of construction, easy of manufacture, that it did not
- enter also into the world’s combats.
-
-[Illustration: CAPT. WILLIAM P. BLACK
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
- I beg you to remember also that hand-bombs are not things of
- Socialistic devising. It may be that one or another, here and there,
- professing Socialistic tenets, has devised some improvements in their
- construction, or has made some advances with reference to their
- composition; they have not invented them. The hand-grenade has been
- known in warfare long ere you and I saw the light. The two things have
- come together—the hand-grenade, charged no longer with the powder of
- old days, but charged with the dynamite of modern science. It is a
- union which Socialists are not responsible for. It is a union led up
- to by the logic of events and the necessities of situations, and it
- is a union that will never be divorced. We stand amazed at the dread
- results that are possible to this union; but as we look back over
- history we know this fact, contradictory as it may seem, strange as
- it may first strike us, that in the exact proportion in which the
- implements of warfare have been made effective or destructive, in
- that precise proportion have wars lost the utmost measure of their
- horror, and in that precise proportion has death by war diminished.
- When gunpowder came into European warfare there was an outcry against
- it. All the chivalry which had arrogated to itself the power and glory
- of battle in martial times sprang up against the introduction of
- gunpowder, an agency that made the iron casque and shield and cuirass
- of the plumed knight no better a defense than the hemp doublet of the
- peasant. But now, instead of wars that last through thirty years, that
- are determined by the personal collision of individuals, that desolate
- nations, the great civilized nations of the world hesitate at war
- because of its possibilities of evil, and diplomacy sits where once
- force alone was intrenched. The moral responsibility for dynamite is
- not upon Socialism.”
-
-Captain Black insisted that the sole question before the jury was who
-threw the bomb, for the doctrine of accessory before the fact, under
-which it was sought to hold the defendants, was nothing but the
-application to the criminal law of the civil or common law doctrine
-that what a man does by another he does himself. When the prosecution
-charged that the defendants threw it, their charge involved that the
-bomb was thrown by the procurement of these men, by their advice,
-direction, aid, counsel or encouragement, and that the man who threw
-it acted not alone for himself, or upon his own responsibility, but
-as a result of the encouragement or procurement of these men. He held
-that the State must show that the agent of the defendants did the deed,
-and that it is not sufficient to show that the defendants favored such
-deeds. Upon this point counsel spoke at some length. Next he took up
-the case of one of the talesmen examined with reference to his taking
-a place on the jury, who swore that, having been for three years
-connected with the office of the Prosecuting Attorney in the State of
-New York, he found in himself that the habit of thought and life to
-which he had there devoted himself had created in him a predisposition
-to believe every accused man guilty, which, in his own deliberate
-judgment before God, disqualified him from sitting as an impartial
-juror in a criminal case. The application of this case to the attachés
-of the State’s Attorney’s office who had appeared before the jury was
-made the most of.
-
-After going over the evidence as to the other conspirators Capt. Black
-came to the case against Fischer and Engel. He said:
-
- “It is perhaps proper that, in view of the circumstance that Fischer
- and Engel were the only two defendants at the West Lake Street meeting
- on Monday night, I should present briefly my opinions touching that
- meeting as relating to this case. Two witnesses, Waller and Schrade,
- testified as to what occurred at that meeting. Waller said there were
- seventy or eighty people present; the other placed the attendance at
- thirty-five to forty. Let us suppose thirty-five or forty met together
- in that basement. In the progress of the meeting it transpired that
- there had been a meeting of the North Side group, of which Mr. Engel
- was a member, on the previous morning (Sunday). At that meeting a
- resolution was adopted, which was brought before the Monday night
- meeting for consideration, and it was adopted in the manner indicated
- by Waller. I think I state it fairly to the State and fairly to the
- defendants themselves, when I say that the action then and there
- resolved upon was this, no more, no less: That if in the event of a
- struggle the police should attempt by brute force to overpower the
- strikers unlawfully and unjustly, those men would lend their help
- to their fellow-wageworkers as against the police. A plan of action
- was suggested by one of the group which contemplated the blowing
- up of police stations, cutting telegraph wires and disabling the
- Fire Department. Every particle of that resolution, gentlemen, was
- expressly dependent upon the unlawful invasion of the rights of the
- working people by the police. Nothing was to be inaugurated by the
- so-called conspirators, there was to be no resort to force by them in
- the first instance. It was solely defensive, and had reference alone
- to meeting force by force; it had reference alone to a possible attack
- in the future, dependent upon the action that the police themselves
- might take. I am not here to defend the action of that meeting. The
- question here is: Had that action anything whatever to do with the
- result of the Haymarket meeting? The action of the North Side group
- had nothing to do with that, since the Haymarket meeting had never
- been dreamed of or suggested at that time. By whom was the Tuesday
- meeting suggested? What was its scope, purpose and object? As then
- and there declared, it was simply to be a mass-meeting of workingmen
- with reference to police outrages that had already taken place.
- Were the armed men, those conspirators who met at West Lake Street,
- present? ‘No; they were not there.’ That is the testimony of Waller
- and Schrade. I am not here even to say that the proposition to call
- that meeting was a wise one. The event has proven how sadly unwise
- it was. But I am here to say that the men who in that Monday night
- meeting proposed the calling of the Tuesday night meeting, if we take
- the testimony of the State itself, had no dream or expectation of
- violence, difficulty or contest on that eventful night. But before
- the Tuesday night meeting was proposed, a suggestion was made that
- they ought to have some sort of signal for action, and the word ‘Ruhe’
- was suggested by somebody. Waller could not tell who suggested it;
- Schrade did not know it had been agreed upon. Evidently there was no
- very clear idea that night what ‘Ruhe’ did mean, because Lingg saw it
- in the paper at eleven o’clock, and said: ‘That is a signal that we
- ought to be over at 54 West Lake Street.’ Waller finally, under close
- examination by the State, said the word ‘Ruhe’ was to be inserted in
- the ‘Letter-box’ of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ in the event of the time
- arriving for a downright revolution. Had that revolution come; had
- it commenced when the word was put in the ‘Letter-box’? No. When the
- members saw this in the ‘Letter-box’ what were they to do? Go to the
- Haymarket and attack anybody? No. They were to go to their respective
- places of meeting, and then, according to advices brought to them,
- were to determine upon a course of action. It had no reference to the
- throwing of the bomb at the Haymarket. Did that Monday night meeting
- pick out the man who was to throw the bomb? Did it provide that a
- collision between the police and the people was to be brought about
- at the Haymarket? Did it contemplate murder? Not at all. When Fischer
- told Spies that the word ‘Ruhe’ had no connection with the Haymarket
- meeting, he spoke the truth. It was a signal that the armed men should
- meet at the places designated by themselves to determine what action
- should be taken with reference to whatever might have transpired.
-
- “But it is to be borne in mind that the meeting of the armed section
- never took place. There was no meeting of the Northwest Side groups;
- there was no meeting of any group pursuant to the word ‘Ruhe.’ Were
- any bombs to be thrown, any violence to be resorted to? No. If the
- police made an attack, a committee was to take word to the groups,
- and the groups were then, and not till then, to determine what action
- they should take in the line of offense. Does that make every man who
- was present at the Monday night meeting responsible for the throwing
- of the bomb? Not at all. Unless they are all responsible, it does not
- make Fischer and Engel responsible. Engel was not at the Tuesday night
- meeting. Fischer was there and went quietly away before the bomb was
- thrown. There was absolutely nothing in connection with the Monday
- night meeting which contemplated violence at the Haymarket or provided
- for the throwing of the bomb.
-
- “Let me call your attention, in passing, to another thing. When
- Waller, having from some source heard of the lamentable occurrence
- at the Haymarket, went to Engel’s house, he found him drinking beer
- with two or three friends. After listening to the details of the
- affair Engel said, while Waller was saying, ‘Let’s do something,’ ‘You
- had better go home. I have no sympathy with a movement of this kind.
- The police are of the common people, and when the general revolution
- does occur, they should be with us. I am utterly opposed to this
- slaughtering of them.’ That is the full extent of the case against
- these two defendants, except the further fact that Fischer had a
- pistol and a dagger. It is not right to hang any man for the Haymarket
- murder simply because he had a dagger or a pistol in his possession.
-
- “As to Lingg, he came from that republic sitting in the center of
- Europe preaching the everlasting lesson of liberty. He came here
- in the fall of 1885, and became a member of the Seliger household.
- Whatever he knows of social and labor conditions in this country he
- learned from those about him. He joined a carpenters’ union, being
- himself a carpenter by trade. He attended the meetings of that
- union. Young, active, bright, capable, he enters the band of which
- they speak, and manufactures bombs. There is no law against that,
- gentlemen; but they claim that is a circumstance from which you must
- draw the conclusion of his guilt, when taken with other circumstances,
- for the Haymarket tragedy. The State put on the stand one man, Lehman,
- to whom he gave bombs. Did he tell Lehman to go to the Haymarket and
- use the bombs there? No. Lehman swears that he said: ‘You take these
- and put them in a safe place.’ And Lehman hid them where the officer,
- piloted by him, found them. Does that prove that Lingg sent a bomb to
- the Haymarket for the purpose of having somebody killed? How did he
- come to make bombs? Was it a matter to engage in on his own volition
- or responsibility? No. The Carpenters’ Union at one of its meetings
- resolved to devote a certain amount of money for the purpose of
- experimenting with dynamite. You may say that was not right, but he
- was not responsible for it. There is no more reason in holding him
- responsible for the Haymarket affair on account of his experiments
- than there is to hold every other member of the Carpenters’ Union for
- the same thing. That is how Lingg came to make bombs. Without dynamite
- a bomb-shell is a toy. The Lingg bombs would kill nobody unless some
- human independent agency took hold of them. Did Lingg know on Monday
- night that one of his bombs was to be used? He could not have known
- it, because the testimony is incontrovertible that it was understood
- by the men who met at 54 West Lake Street there should be no violence
- at the Haymarket meeting. And yet the State asks you to say that Lingg
- shall be hanged because he manufactured bombs. The man who threw the
- bomb did the independent act necessary for its explosion. Who was that
- man? Was he connected with the defendants? The evidence does not show
- it.
-
- “And a word more about that. This boy Lingg was dependent upon others
- as to his impressions of our institutions. He went to Seliger’s house.
- Seliger is a Socialist; he has been in this country for years. He is
- thirty-one years of age; Lingg is twenty-one. And yet the great State
- of Illinois, through its legal representatives, bargains with William
- Seliger, the man of mature years, and with his wife, older even than
- himself, that if they will do what they can to put the noose around
- the neck of this boy they shall go scatheless! Ah! gentlemen, what a
- mockery of justice is this.”
-
-Proceeding to discuss the Haymarket meeting, he held that there was no
-law that could take away the right of the people to meet and consider
-grievances. When it was proposed to adopt the Constitution, in 1787,
-the States were so careful to preserve the rights of the people that
-several amendments were put in. Capt. Black spoke of our forefathers,
-who had made the name of the revolutionist immortal, and referred
-to the meetings that had to be held as a preliminary to the great
-struggle. It had been charged against these men that they were guilty
-of misdemeanors for holding meetings, and they had been prosecuted for
-crimes. Before the Constitution could receive the approbation of the
-States, it had been necessary that the amendment providing that no laws
-should be passed by Congress abridging free speech should be inserted.
-Such a provision had been incorporated in the first Constitution of
-Illinois in 1818, and renewed in the subsequent Constitutions of 1848
-and 1870. The Haymarket meeting had been called for the common good.
-Those men believed that a great wrong had been done, a great outrage
-committed, and the rights of the citizens in that assemblage had been
-invaded by an unlawful, unwarrantable and outrageous act.
-
- “Bonfield, in his police office, surrounded by his minions, one
- hundred and eighty strong, armed to the teeth, knew that the meeting
- was quietly and peacefully coming to its close. Nay, he had said
- so to Carter Harrison. When Parsons had concluded, Mayor Harrison
- went to the station and told Bonfield that it was a quiet meeting,
- and Bonfield replied, ‘My detectives make me the same report.’ Yet
- Carter Harrison did not get out of hearing before Inspector Bonfield
- ordered his men to fall in for that death march. Who is responsible
- for it? Who precipitated that conflict? Who made that battle in that
- street that night? The law looks at the approximate cause, not the
- remote. The law looks at the man immediately in fault; not at some
- man who may have manufactured the pistol that does the shooting, the
- dynamite that kills, the bomb that explodes. I ask you, upon your
- oath before God, in a full and honest consideration of this entire
- testimony, who made the Haymarket massacre? Who is responsible for
- that collision? If Bonfield had not marched there, would there have
- been any death? Would not that meeting have dissolved precisely as it
- proposed to do? Did the bomb-thrower go down to the station where the
- police were and attack them? A bomb could have been thrown into that
- station with even more deadly effect than at the Haymarket itself.
- There they were, massed together in close quarters, in hiding, like a
- wild beast in its lair ready to spring. Did the bomb-thrower move upon
- them? Was there here a design to destroy? God sent that warning cloud
- into the heavens; these men were still there, speaking their last
- words; but a deadlier cloud was coming up behind this armed force. In
- disregard of our constitutional rights as citizens, it was proposed to
- order the dispersal of a peaceable meeting. Has it come to pass that
- under the Constitution of the United States and of this State, our
- meetings for the discussion of grievances are subject to be scattered
- to the winds at the breath of a petty police officer? Can they take
- into their hands the law? If so, that is Anarchy; nay, the chaos of
- constitutional right and legally guaranteed liberty. I ask you again,
- charging no legal responsibility here, but looking at the man who is
- morally at fault for the death harvest of that night, who brought it
- on? Would it have been but for the act of Bonfield?”
-
-Captain Black went on to say that as long as the Mayor was there
-Bonfield could not act, but as soon as Harrison had gone the officer
-could not get to the Haymarket quick enough. The police, the speaker
-urged, had been searching the files of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ and
-the _Alarm_ for years to put before the jury the most inflammatory
-articles. After alluding to Christ as the great Socialist of Judea,
-who first preached the Socialism taught by Spies and his other modern
-apostles, he compared John Brown and his attack on Harper’s Ferry to
-the Socialists’ attack on modern evils, concluding:
-
- “Gentlemen, the last words for these eight lives. They are in your
- hands, with no power to whom you ace answerable but God and history,
- and I say to you in closing only the words of that Divine Socialist:
- ‘As ye would that others should do to you, do you even so to them.’”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXI.
-
- Grinnell’s Closing Argument—One Step from Republicanism to Anarchy—A
- Fair Trial—The Law in the Case—The Detective Work—Gilmer and
- his Evidence—“We Knew all the Facts”—Treason and Murder—Arming
- the Anarchists—The Toy-shop Purchases—The Pinkerton Reports—“A
- Lot of Snakes”—The Meaning of the Black Flag—Symbols of the
- Social Revolution—The _Daily News_ Interviews—Spies the
- “Second Washington”—The Rights of “Scabs”—The Chase into the
- River—Inflaming the Workingmen—The “Revenge” Lie—The Meeting at
- the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ Office—A Curious Fact about the Speakers
- at the Haymarket—The Invitation to Spies—Balthasar Rau and the
- Prisoners—Harrison at the Haymarket—The Significance of Fielden’s
- Wound—Witnesses’ Inconsistencies—The Omnipresent Parsons—The
- Meaning of the Manuscript Find—Standing between the Living and the
- Dead.
-
-
-STATE’S ATTORNEY GRINNELL took Wednesday and a part of Thursday in
-which to deliver his argument. He indulged in no flights of oratory,
-but presented a review of the case at once able, convincing and
-unassailable. He began as follows:
-
- “I said to you in the opening, gentlemen, that in this country, above
- all countries in the world, is Anarchy possible. In my investigations
- of this case, in my conduct with it, with my knowledge of my own
- country and the freedom we enjoy and possess, I have been led to
- conclude that that is true. In those strong European governments,
- where there is monarchical or strongly centralized government, they
- strangle Anarchy or ship it here. Everybody comes to our climate;
- everybody reaches our shores; our freedom is great—and it should
- never be abridged—and here with that freedom, with that great
- enjoyment of liberty to all men, they seek to obtain their end by
- Anarchy, which in other countries is impossible. As I said, there is
- one step from republicanism to Anarchy. Let us never take that step,
- and, gentlemen, the responsibility which has devolved upon you in
- this case is greater than any jury in the history of the world ever
- undertook. This is no slight or mean duty that you are called upon to
- perform. You are to say whether that step shall be taken.
-
- “When the Haymarket tragedy occurred, the spontaneous declaration
- by every honest, every law-abiding man and woman in this city was:
- ‘An outrage has been perpetrated; a great crime has been committed;
- but let there be a cool, unimpassioned trial and let the guilty
- suffer. Then and not till then.’ That has been the sentiment of
- every newspaper in this city from which counsel sought to make you
- believe by quotations there had been something said to the contrary.
- The little extracts and abstracts that have been clipped from the
- newspapers that they have talked to you about are such extracts as met
- the disapproval of the newspapers. And even as to what Capt. Black
- referred to the other day in your hearing and which Foster elaborated
- to you, something that some crank has written to the _Inter-Ocean_ as
- to what should be done with these defendants, horrifying you by the
- recital as he did—what does the newspaper say? That the man who wrote
- it was as bad as an Anarchist; that we are here to maintain the law,
- not break it. And that can be said of every newspaper in this city.
- There never has been in the history of America, in the world, such
- unanimity of sentiment as has prevailed through the length and breadth
- of this country, not only as to the crime itself and the perpetrators,
- but as to the perpetrators having a fair trial. And why, especially,
- has there been so much talk about a fair trial in this case? Because
- every honest, country-loving American citizen knew that his country’s
- life was at stake, and the only thing to do was to demonstrate the
- strength of the law by a fair trial, which the defendants have had.”
-
-Mr. Grinnell at this point went into a very lengthy discussion of the
-law in the case. He showed conclusively that in a conspiracy the men
-who had advised and abetted the commission of the crime were fully as
-guilty as the man who had actually made himself the instrument of their
-deed. Inasmuch as the instructions given by the court to the jury are
-really a concise and complete statement of the points of law which Mr.
-Grinnell and the other attorneys for the State urged, I have taken the
-liberty to omit that part of the address.
-
-Coming to the facts in the case, Mr. Grinnell, in his examination of
-the attempt made by the defense to impeach Gilmer’s testimony, said:
-
- “A few days, gentlemen, after the Haymarket riot, for a whole week, as
- is plain from the testimony in this case, and from Captain Schaack,
- there was not the least particle of knowledge or a suspicion, great as
- had been the crime that was committed there—there was not a suspicion
- that it was any farther-reaching than the result of these repeated
- inflammatory speeches which our city had listened to for years. But
- the magnificent efforts of Schaack, without my knowledge at that time,
- got the leading-string which led to the conspiracy. Then it was,
- for the first time, that we knew of Schnaubelt, or that we knew or
- suspected that a conspiracy existed at all. I confess here, gentlemen,
- a weakness; because, whatever may be the instincts of the prosecutor,
- as they say, I have not been so long in this office as to be callous
- to human sentiments and to humanity, and I have not yet become so
- hardened that I believe everybody accused of a crime is guilty. I hope
- in the prosecution of my duty, and in this office, that that time
- will never come. When we had Spies under arrest, I confess to you
- that then, and after it was developed that a conspiracy existed—I
- confess the weakness—that I did not suppose that a man living in our
- community would enter into a conspiracy so hellish and damnable as
- the proof showed, and our investigations subsequently showed, he had
- entered into; and therefore, notwithstanding Gilmer’s statement to us
- so frequently, Spies was not shown to him and not identified.
-
- “Honesty of purpose is the only thing that will determine, in every
- way, the right from the wrong.
-
- “It may sound to you a little out of place for me to say here that the
- only mistake I have made—the only mistake that has been pointed out
- to you that I have made—and I frankly confess it was a mistake—was
- the suggestion in my opening about the bomb-thrower. We knew the
- facts. There was no law compelling me to make any statement. I might
- have proceeded with the proof, if I desired, without any opening
- statement. I did make an opening. I undertook to make it fairly and
- frankly and broad. I was afraid of wearying you, as I was weary
- myself, from the days and days that we had been working here in
- getting a jury, and the anxiety under which I labored. I said in that
- opening that we would show to you who threw that bomb. I said in
- that opening that we would show that the man left the wagon, lighted
- the match and threw the bomb. That was not absolutely correct. I
- should have said that the man who came from the wagon, assisted the
- bomb-thrower, as the proof shows, and who we knew came from the wagon,
- was in that group, and that the bomb was thrown by a man whom we would
- show to you.
-
- “Gentlemen, let me proceed, as fast as I can, in the discussion of
- another branch of this case. The gentlemen upon the other side have
- said to you deliberately, for the purpose of gaining some favor
- in your eyes for their clients, that this is a plain, simple case
- of murder, and that we have no right to discuss anything or talk
- about anything except that which occurred at the Haymarket meeting.
- They read some law to you, yesterday, upon that proposition. It
- was inapplicable, and was manifestly so. There never was a murder
- committed in the world, be it treasonable murder or the murder
- for mere gain, but what the trial of the perpetrator meant an
- investigation of the life of the man who committed the murder. What
- had been his utterances? What has he said? Has he threatened life? Has
- he talked against a system represented by police? Has he advised the
- use of dynamite? Has he advised the use of poison? Has he advised the
- use of the pistol, the rifle, the musket, to accomplish his end? Those
- are legitimate sources of investigation. And further than that, as the
- gentlemen well know, you can go back in those declarations for years
- and years, and there is no statute of limitation against threats, when
- a repeated threat results in the deed threatened.
-
- “On the lake front, at the different halls in the city of Chicago,
- at these Communistic or Socialistic halls, as the gentlemen called
- them—they are Anarchistic halls; don’t let us have any mistake
- about names and titles—in all these months and years there has been
- openly preached to the citizens of this city treason and murder by
- these defendants. Why? To bring about a social revolution. And these
- humanitarians, these God-like men, these defendants who have the
- similitude of Christ—peace—have openly talked murder in our streets.
- I think it ought to have been stopped before. I think when they made
- the utterance from the lake front, or any other spot in the city of
- Chicago, that they should have been snatched by policemen and taken to
- the station and fined for disorderly conduct, as that would be as far
- as they could go, except under the common-law rule which provides that
- if they had advised murder then they could have been punished for such
- advice. We know more law to-day than we did—I do, I am very glad to
- say.”
-
-Following this, Mr. Grinnell took up the case against each of the
-conspirators as follows:
-
- “Why was Engel preparing for the purchase of a large amount of arms?
- That has not been disputed. There is testimony in this case that Engel
- not later than last winter, and perhaps in the spring, negotiated
- for a large amount of arms, with his daughter present. His daughter
- has not been placed upon the stand to deny that fact. Why? He was
- not a dealer in arms. It could have been denied if not true. He
- is a keeper of a toy-store, it appears, over on Milwaukee Avenue.
- These belligerent humanitarians, these men whom Black would have
- you surround and cover with garlands—these are the men that we have
- demonstrated before you have been buying arms and preparing for years
- for something. Why was it that Parsons at another place, no later than
- last winter, or late in the fall, also negotiated for a large amount
- of arms? Has he denied it? He has been on the witness-stand. Why did
- he negotiate for arms? For humanitarian purposes? Why, gentlemen, to
- dispose of the bloodhounds, the police, the capitalists. That has
- been their cry. Their cry on the lake front and everywhere has been
- that same treasonable, infamous cry. Is that the only place they have
- spoken? Their halls are all over the city. Look at the testimony of
- Johnson, the detective, on that subject. The only testimony against
- Johnson, the only syllable in this proof against Pinkerton’s detective
- who is called Johnson, or Jansen, is Foster’s—that is all, except
- that Fielden said, as I remember, that the man O’Brien, in whose
- presence Johnson said Fielden made the remark about a little dynamite
- in his pocket, was not here, and that therefore he did not say it.
- Why, Fielden had been saying it for years—he had been talking it day
- after day and Sunday after Sunday on the lake shore.
-
- “He had been talking it year in and year out. He had been speaking
- for dynamite and demanding its use by the workingmen, and advising
- them to arm themselves with it for months and years. Foster said
- that Johnson is not to be believed because he is a detective, and he
- delivered a very pleasant lecture on that subject. I presume he has
- delivered it in every important trial that he has ever been in. It
- is the ordinary language, the usual philippic against detectives, I
- suppose. I never saw a detective on the witness-stand that commended
- himself so favorably to the honest consideration of any listener as
- did Johnson. And after he had withstood that severe, critical and
- exasperating cross-examination of Foster, he still stood there a
- monument of strength to the truth which he had uttered. He had said
- nothing, gentlemen, but what had been in the public press for years
- about these utterances; and they have not denied a single syllable of
- his testimony. I suppose then, gentlemen, from that follows another
- proposition—that we, in the city of Chicago and elsewhere, must
- suffer murder, must be robbed, our friends killed, our houses invaded,
- law set at defiance, because it would be unfortunate to have anybody
- convicted who was guilty on the testimony of the detective. Foster
- said there never was any great murder trial in the world but what
- there is a detective in it. That may be so. The peculiarity of this
- murder trial and the detective is this—that this report was made
- from day to day by the detective to his principals, and by them to
- citizens, long before this murder. The detective that Foster pictures
- is the one who after the act goes back to make up a case. This was
- making the case without thinking that it would ever take place, and
- the actual written statements made by him from night to night and from
- day to day were here in court; and if they were not, the fact has not
- been denied, and these men have been on the stand. Why didn’t they
- deny it? Did any of them deny the existence of the armed group and the
- marching backward and forward and the explanation of the dynamite cans
- at Greif’s Hall? No; none of them denied it. They would have denied
- it if it had not been so absolutely strong in its proof. The written
- evidence, the handwriting on the wall, was against these men.
-
- “But, not content, these revolutionists, these traitors, these men
- who have committed treason—I thank again the gentleman for the
- word—these men who have committed treason are not content with
- confining their power and influence to the small limits of Cook
- County, but Spies goes to Grand Rapids and there gives utterance to
- these same treasonable sentences; and there is no doubt that other
- proselytes of the humanitarian crowd were at other places in the
- country doing the same thing. It seems that Parsons was at Cincinnati
- Sunday or Saturday before the Haymarket difficulty. Was he down
- there for the same purpose that Spies was at Grand Rapids? And at
- Grand Rapids, what did Spies say? He said that the social revolution
- must come, would come when there were great numbers of laboring men
- out of employment, and foreshadowed the difficulties in the ensuing
- year, in 1886. The great things that he was to accomplish then were
- foreshadowed. ‘But,’ said Moulton to him,—the other witness heard the
- conversation,—‘they will strangle you like a lot of snakes. It will
- be murder.’ ‘Oh no; oh no. No murder about this. We are humanitarians.
- No murder. We will succeed. It will be revolution, and I, great Spies,
- will be the second Washington of America.’ The second Washington of
- America! ‘But if you fail?’ says Moulton. ‘Of course, if we fail,
- that is another thing; but we ain’t going to fail.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because
- hundreds of thousands of laboring men will be out of employment all
- over the United States, and they have the power.’ That is the friend
- of the laboring man, the Anarchist and friend of the laboring man,
- advocating the destruction of property to advance the interests of the
- laboring man. It would be a great benefit to me, with the very little
- property that I have, to have it destroyed; it would enrich me so at
- once!
-
- “But that is not all—and there has been no dispute about that
- interview with Moulton, not a syllable of dispute about that interview
- from any source. Counsel did not even undertake to cross-examine
- Moulton. His intelligence was such, he was so clear-headed and concise
- in what he uttered, that they dropped him. What was all this for? That
- meant preparation and threats toward what? Toward murder, the social
- revolution—and it was murder. That is why this is competent evidence.
- That is why the utterances of these men are material and necessary.
- That is why the proof is overpowering.
-
- “There is no use in my giving you the details of these speeches from
- day to day. They have made indignant every man who has listened to
- them or read them. They have caused other things—they have caused
- bloodshed and riot.
-
- “Foster says to you that there is no difficulty about the black flag;
- that that is a flag they use over in Europe to march around with,
- showing their humanitarian desires, or that they are hungry—that
- that is what it means. It does not mean that here. They were going to
- march down Michigan Avenue under the black flag and strike terror to
- the hearts of the capitalists. Didn’t Fielden and Spies and Parsons
- and all that gang understand that when the valiant crowd would march
- up Michigan Avenue under the black flag, it meant death, no quarter,
- piracy?
-
- “But that is not all. The Board of Trade meeting occurs, and there the
- black flag and the red flag were carried. The article has been read to
- you, and it is unnecessary to go into that again. And there they say
- that that meeting was copiously supplied with nitro-glycerine pills,
- or something of that kind. They did not get at the Board of Trade, but
- had to march clear around it, within a block of it, and then vented
- their spite—aroused by their difficulties, vented their spite in
- speeches from the_ Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office that night, commending
- their valorous deeds and acts, only saying that they were preparing
- for them, declaring: ‘We will wait for some other time, when we are
- ready for the police.’ They did not expect any police that night. They
- thought they would march right down. The police began to wake up.
-
- “Gentlemen, the red flag has passed in our streets enough. At that
- meeting which they comment so much upon in the _Alarm_ and the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, representing its peculiarities, its honor, and
- its humanitarian influences, they suggest that the red flag that was
- carried there, and carried by women, that it is the flag of universal
- liberty, and it is so described here on the witness-stand. Ah,
- gentlemen, there is but one flag of liberty in this land, and that is
- the stars and stripes. That flag is planted on our soil, and planted
- to stay, if you have the courage to carry out the law. It is a plant
- of liberty.
-
- The blades of heroes fence it round;
- Where’er it springs is holy ground.
- From tower and dome its glories spread;
- It waves where lonely sentries tread.
-
- It makes the land as ocean free,
- And plants an empire on the sea—
- Always the banner of the free,
- The starry flower of liberty.
-
- “That is the flag that these men want to wipe out and supplant with
- the black and the red. No wonder those flags over there (indicating
- flags offered in evidence) disturbed Foster. He is an American
- citizen, not tinctured or tainted with any of the Anarchy of his
- clients.
-
- “There is one other suggestion I want to make to you in this
- connection. I wish to hurry along and be as brief as possible. As has
- been said to you by counsel, the case in its magnitude and scope is
- so great that no one man can cover it. Some branches of this case,
- and nearly all, have been well covered by Mr. Walker and Mr. Ingham,
- who preceded me. But there is one forcible suggestion brought to
- my attention by Mr. Ingham, and I wish to again ask: Why all these
- threats? Why all this talk? Why so many threats of murder, outside
- of the question of the desire to accomplish that end? Ah! gentlemen,
- it is so that the revolution could more easily take place by causing
- terror in your hearts and my heart. That is what it meant: causing
- terror in the heart of every American citizen, and thereby making
- more easy the accomplishment of that which they desire and preach.
- Why all these armed groups, scattered throughout and operating in the
- city of Chicago, as they all say, as Most explains in his book, as
- Spies explains and as Parsons and all in their speeches explain? Why
- this network of groups? It was the nucleus, the foundation from which
- that social revolution was to spring, and these armed men were to do
- their part of the duty. There was a desire to strike terror—that is
- the watchword—to strike terror to the hearts of the capitalists and
- their minions, the bloodhounds of the police. That is what it meant.
- Threaten life—specific in one direction—and threaten the peaceful
- citizens and the law-abiding citizens on the other hand, so that they
- would throw up both hands at once, and let it go on. That was their
- scheme. Why? Because these men, in their craven spirit, supposed that
- one hundred thousand honest laboring men in this town would at once
- wheel in behind the ranks of the three thousand and mow down everybody
- else. Lingg, who told Capt. Schaack of all the bombs, not admitting
- that he had made the bomb that killed Degan, admitted and told Schaack
- that they were pills and medicine for the police and capitalists.
-
- “They were not the friends of the laboring man, although they were
- always talking about that in public—such wonderful friends of the
- laboring man! Gentlemen, they wanted to kill the system. They said
- they wanted to kill the system, and on the witness-stand here they
- said that on that night of the Haymarket massacre they meant the
- system. What system? The system of law. They have no malice in their
- hearts against the seven officers—Oh! no. They did not know them. It
- was not the seven officers, as persons, they desired to kill; but they
- desired to kill the officers, and all of them, in order to kill the
- system—the system of law.
-
- “Besides the frequent declarations that have been proven here as
- to the designs of these men foolishly and dishonestly to represent
- themselves as the friends of the laboring man, they have said in their
- writings, and they have preached on the stump, that the eight-hour
- movement, as a movement, would not help the laboring man. And why?
- Because the laboring man must have Anarchy—must have what other
- people have got in the way of property, as they have defined in their
- ideas of property. Black calls that a theory.
-
- “Declarations threatening dynamite were made in our midst for the
- purpose of terrorizing the people, and causing them to believe that
- these men were more powerful than they were, and thereby causing the
- laboring man to come to their ranks. It was a bid for the laboring
- man—that is what it was, and that is why Wilkinson’s interview was
- so easily obtained. Wilkinson interviewed these men, and published
- in the _Daily News_] of the 14th day of January, 1886, his interview
- with Spies as to the purposes and objects of the revolutionists and
- Anarchists in the city of Chicago. What did he say? He told about
- the bombs, the dynamite, their preparation, their network of groups,
- their thousands of armed men in the city of Chicago, their drilling
- from day to day or week to week. He gave him a sample of a bomb,
- and told him further that the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office was a place
- for the distribution of bombs in the city of Chicago, and upon his
- own testimony it appears that he received bombs, as Mr. Ingham has
- explained to you, from one part of the country; and then samples were
- brought in—two more, of which the one here presented and called the
- Czar bomb was one.
-
- “And now, why did he do all that? Why did this foolish man do that?
- They want you to acquit him because he is foolish. Why did this
- foolish man do all that? Gentlemen, the answer is plain and simple.
- First, vanity—the second Washington of this country! God save the
- memory of the father of our country.
-
- “Another thing, he wanted to demonstrate through the public press to
- the one hundred thousand honest laborers in Chicago that Anarchy had
- come. That is what he wanted. That is why it was advertised. That is
- why he so flippantly discussed open secrets in that way. He wanted the
- laboring man to follow in the wake of the despoilers of our country,
- the Anarchists. Yes, and fearing that such talk in the newspapers
- would scare some of his conspirators and co-workers in evil, he goes
- to Fielden when they were having a meeting at Greif’s Hall a day or
- two after, and says to him, ‘Go light on that interview among our
- companions; they may be scared off.’ He was obliged to hedge among
- his companions to keep them in control, and by his vaporings, as
- they call it, seek to pull to them the one hundred thousand laborers
- in this town. If there had been a possibility of the accomplishment
- of his designs, what would we have done in this city with one hundred
- thousand men let loose? Parsons says he was a Knight of Labor. His
- very paper abuses Powderly, the genius and inspiration of the Knights
- of Labor in this country. Their honest leaders in this country are men
- who are opposed to Anarchy, and in the organization of the Knights
- of Labor, gentlemen, the one element in it to-day which is dangerous
- to it and the rights of the laboring man is the very element of
- Anarchy—dangerous wherever it is.
-
- “Parsons was buying arms, negotiating for them; Engel was negotiating
- for them; Lingg was making bombs; Fischer was doing the work of Spies
- in the promulgation of their ideas; Fielden was making speeches
- preparing the public; Parsons, in his humanitarian designs against his
- own country, where his fathers were born and lived—he was writing
- and speaking for the social revolution and against all law, as was
- Schwab and Spies, and it was to take place the 1st of May, 1886.
- Gentlemen, as I said in the opening, I say again, Spies appeared at
- the McCormick meeting for the purpose of inflaming that crowd to the
- highest intensity, as expressed in their editorials—to the highest
- pitch of excitement—appeared at that crowd and spoke. It appears from
- his own lips, and appears in proof here, that before he spoke there
- had been no riot; that while he was speaking the rioting occurred and
- the difficulty was precipitated. I take, gentlemen, his explanation,
- given by himself, written that night, as the full explanation. He in
- that article says: ‘If there had been one dynamite bomb.’ Think of the
- horror! It makes one’s blood run cold—these men deliberating with
- such infamy the destruction of life and property in a country which
- has freedom for its basis and freedom for its glory, and talking riot
- and bloodshed.
-
- “I am not going to discuss further that McCormick meeting, except to
- make this suggestion that seems to have been omitted. It is in regard
- to the ‘Revenge’ circular. I say, gentlemen, that the basis of the
- ‘Revenge’ circular is a lie, premeditated, deliberate, infamous, and
- is the key-note to the situation.
-
- “McCormick had some laboring men—it is the high privilege, the
- great and high privilege of the defendants in this case to call them
- ‘scabs.’ We will call them ‘scabs.’ They were working at McCormick’s
- for their honest daily bread. They had no fight with the world. They
- were seeking their subsistence by daily toil. They had rights which
- every man should respect; they had the right to peaceful employment,
- of coming and going to their labor as they saw fit. They came out
- of that great factory, only a moment before teeming with the busy
- throb of life, to be set upon, attacked and murdered by the strikers
- whom defendant Spies was speaking to. Who there was entitled to
- protection, gentlemen? Was it the duty of the police to protect the
- ‘scabs,’ or the six thousand, part of whom began the riot? The time
- that the attack occurred, gentlemen, there were only two policemen on
- the ground. Those two policemen that came out of McCormick’s factory
- nearly lost their lives; one of them was stoned nearly to death;
- secured himself in a patrol box, which was afterwards pulled down,
- and all for what? Because a few ‘scabs’ coming out of McCormick’s on
- their way to their homes and their families had been attacked by the
- mob which Spies was addressing and instigating. The two policemen
- called a patrol wagon in order, as was their right and duty, to
- protect the property of McCormick, the lives of the ‘scabs’ who swam
- the river, and the lives of the two officers who were there then. He
- calls such protection of a few ‘scabs’ against this army of strikers
- which he sought to inflame—and did not entirely succeed—calls that
- transaction the bloodhounds of the police wickedly shooting down
- your friends. It was a lie. The police were there in honored duty,
- protecting life and property, and the mob began the fight, and not the
- police. Not only has Spies declared in that circular that men were
- killed who were not, but that men were injured who were not hurt;
- not only that, but, pervading it, the whole of it, is a lie, and the
- purpose of that lie was to inflame the laboring men. He rushed down
- to his office and wrote that circular, as he says, ‘with his blood
- boiling against the outrages of the police.’ Poor bloodhounds of the
- police, who had undertaken to protect the lives of a few people, and
- McCormick, who is unfortunate enough to own more property than perhaps
- any of us—to protect his property from being stoned, and his premises
- pillaged, and his men murdered. He writes the ‘Revenge’ circular and
- prepares for war.
-
- “They had prepared, before the McCormick meeting, for this difficulty.
- At Emma Street, on Sunday, was a conspiracy meeting of these infamous
- scoundrels, and among them was Fischer, seeking our lives—seeking
- the destruction of the law. They agreed upon the plan—they agreed
- upon ‘Ruhe’—they agreed that the meeting of the armed men should be
- called for Tuesday night. It is in the history of this conspiracy that
- the first meeting on that Sunday contemplated the difficulties at
- McCormick’s. Where is this Thielen? Where is this German friend—this
- comrade? He was down there with Comrade Spies, on the top of that
- car, and their intention was to do that which was done—to excite
- that mob. That was the preliminary step in this conspiracy to the
- open infraction of law. The general conspiracy had been going along
- for weeks, perhaps for months; it may be for years. But the details
- of the conspiracy were arranged at the Emma Street meeting. Then
- comes the McCormick meeting, the inflaming of the workingmen, and
- then what? The production of the ‘Revenge’ circular, to still more
- incite them. The armed men meet at that Emma Street place, where the
- Northwest Side group meet—the group that the worst Anarchists in the
- city belong to—at that Emma Street meeting it was discussed, talked
- about and suggested, and at that meeting it was arranged and talked
- about as to where and how the fighting should be done when the contest
- came. How was it to be done? One man suggested that they should go
- into the crowd themselves, and begin killing then and there. Another
- says: ‘That won’t do; we may come in contact with the policemen or
- a detective and our lives’—yes, their precious lives—‘might be at
- stake.’ That plan was rejected—that part of it. And another thing
- you will remember: that it was settled that the meeting should not
- be on the Market Square, down here on the South Side, because ‘it
- was a mouse trap,’ because the power of the police, the militia and
- everything of that character was such that it was impossible to get
- out of the way, at Market Square, if the contest came. Courageous men!
-
- “After Spies had written that circular, after he had had it printed,
- where does it appear? He has it sent over to the printer by a boy;
- and that circular, printed by him, ordered by him, is distributed
- broadcast through the city, by whose order? By Spies’. It is another
- significant fact, gentlemen, that it appears at every meeting almost
- simultaneously with the conspiracy meeting; as I remember, brought
- there either by Fischer or Balthasar Rau—that I would not be sure
- of; but it appears almost like the wind in all parts of the city,
- distributed from horseback, and it never could have been distributed
- if it had not been done at the order of the arch-conspirator of all,
- August Spies. That circular was intended to inflame; it did inflame.
- It inflamed people throughout the city who read it; it was a lie.
- They could not know that. The police had not committed the outrages,
- but the mob had. There had not been that number killed nor wounded.
- They could not know that. Their apostle, the individual who has been
- their leader, had said, ‘To arms!’ Some answer, ‘We will.’ That is
- Anarchy. Gentlemen, it is unnecessary for me to go over step by step
- that conspiracy. It is established here so that it never can be
- moved. Mr. Ingham and Mr. Walker went over the ground thoroughly and
- completely. The defense has seen fit to let it alone. The conspiracy
- was established, and all the defendants show themselves as coming into
- it. Isn’t it significant that on Tuesday, on Tuesday morning, between
- nine and ten, as I understand, Parsons appeared from Cincinnati? What
- does he do? He rushes straight to the _Daily News_ office before
- eleven o’clock, and inserts a notice for the American group to meet
- at the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office, where it never had met before. For
- what purpose? For the purpose of ‘important business.’ If that had
- been an honest desire to have the important business for the purpose
- of arranging the sewing girls and their employment, or making a union
- among the sewing girls, as they now claim, why didn’t he say so?
- Before eleven o’clock Parsons appears and has this article inserted.
- Why? So that the main head centers of the conspiracy could be readily
- reached when the contest came ‘to its highest intensity’ at the
- Haymarket. Not another day in the whole history of this organization
- has the American group ever met at Fifth Avenue. Why didn’t it meet
- over at the other place, at Greif’s Hall, where it always met?
- That would not do, because there were meetings there, conspiracy
- meetings and everything else. Whom else do we find here at this
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office? Schwab. What for? He was not a member of
- the American group? What was he there for? He was there, too, for that
- purpose. He had been talking and writing, as has been read to you,
- about Anarchy and bloodshed and dynamite and rifles, and he appears at
- the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office for the first time, when the American
- group meets; never was there with them before, so far as this proof
- shows.
-
- “Fischer seeks to obtain this circular printed; that is his part of
- the programme; he goes out—there is no dispute about these facts—he
- goes out of the meeting and finds the printing-office closed. He waits
- until the next morning. Now, this man is a printer; he is the friend
- of Spies; he went from Spies when the circular was printed; he was
- in the meeting at which the circular was distributed; he knows, as a
- matter of fact, that Spies wrote that circular, ‘Workingmen, to arms.’
- Spies is his general, his boss and chief, and the arch-conspirator.
- He says, ‘Workingmen, to arms!’ What does Fischer say? Why, he says:
- ‘Workingmen, to arms,’ in his circular, and adds: ‘Come in full
- force,’ and it appears the next morning.
-
- “Now the circular was circulated. Who was invited to speak, gentlemen?
- No one. Why? Because they knew that if twenty-five thousand laboring
- men appeared at that meeting that night in the inflamed condition
- of this town with the results following the McCormick meeting—they
- knew that it was the bounden duty of the police to tell those men to
- go home. It is in proof in this case that they expected twenty-five
- thousand laboring men there. They would not need a speaker. If there
- was no speaker, then there would be tumult and crowding and jostling.
- Fights might occur, difficulties be precipitated, and the police
- inevitably would have to come. How do I know that no speakers were
- invited? Spies said that Fischer invited him. From brother Foster’s
- remarks I conclude that he has been on the stump a good many years out
- in Iowa. I venture to say he never went to a public meeting in his
- life, where he addressed it, where great crowds were assembled, where
- talking was to be indulged in, without asking his invitor who else was
- going to speak. It don’t appear in proof here that Fischer was ever
- asked that question. Spies was to speak in German, and that is the
- reason he didn’t hurry to the meeting. Fischer, Spies says, invited
- him to speak. Well, he was invited to speak, and nobody else—and he
- has never said anything about anybody else having been invited—not
- a syllable, not a name given. In fact, every other individual that
- could be invited had gone elsewhere, had prepared his alibi, had
- arranged for the meeting at the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office, at the
- American group; every other speaker was there, but Spies alone was
- invited to speak, he says, and yet he waits, he waits after getting
- to that meeting. He does that which the design showed clearly was the
- intention to do, to precipitate a difficulty at the Haymarket meeting,
- and to gain results by armed men and dynamite early in the evening,
- and then would destruction and chaos come.
-
- “The first words of Spies’ opening speech demonstrate a significant
- thing. Why should Spies open the meeting? Why didn’t Fischer open it?
- Why didn’t the executive committee open it? Spies opened it. After
- idling around there some time in regard to the matter, Spies opened
- the meeting. Had anybody asked him to open the meeting? Why, no. He
- was only an ordinary invited speaker at a meeting at which no other
- speaker had been invited, and he appears there, and the first words
- he says, as I will show you by English’s testimony, are: ‘Mr. Parsons
- and Mr. Fielden will be here in a very short time to address you.’
- How did he know where they were? He had not seen them. There is no
- indication that he had seen Parsons that day. How did he know that
- Parsons was not in Cincinnati? ‘Parsons and Fielden will be here in a
- few moments.’ How do you know, Mr. Spies? Why, they are over at the
- _Alarm_ office, or at the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office, and Balthasar Rau
- is sent over there to get them.
-
- “And now, Belthasar Rau went from this meeting over to the _Alarm_
- office, the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office, and invited those two people
- to come over there, that Spies wanted some help. Why did he want
- help? Well, the meeting was not big enough. It was going to dissolve;
- it looked as though it was going to pieces; the thing was a fiasco;
- he had got to keep it—try and see if he could not do something.
- And he continued, holding the audience till help came, and said:
- ‘I will say, however, first, that this meeting was called for the
- purpose of discussing the general situation of the eight-hour strike,
- and the events which have taken place during the last forty-eight
- hours. It seems to have been the opinion of the authorities that this
- meeting had been called for the purpose of raising a little row and
- disturbance.’
-
- “Now, how did Spies know that the authorities knew anything about
- it? Had Spies told them that there was going to be a row? Oh, no; he
- said nothing of that kind; but he said deliberately in that meeting
- that the authorities are supposed to believe or know that a riot
- is going to take place right there. Had the ‘Revenge’ circular been
- circulated? Yes. Had the other circular been circulated? Yes. What
- was their purpose? To make a row. Spies knew it, and he hedges in
- his inflammatory utterances which you read between the lines. It is
- a Mark Antony style of oratory—inflames most when there is least
- said. He was lying about the Gatling guns and the police, all for
- inflaming purposes, discussing that McCormick matter, about which he
- had in the inception begun to lie, for the same purpose. That was
- a very significant opening. It shows that he knew the purposes and
- object of that meeting. Gentlemen, it was the duty of the police to
- have disturbed and broken up that meeting in its inception. Why? The
- whole town was aflame. You remember it. Riot had occurred the day
- before, and the calling of a meeting upon so public a place as that
- was ill-advised and ought not to have been done. And the police, if
- they had walked down there thus early in the evening and dispersed it,
- would have done what was right. But the police did not walk down there
- and disturb the meeting; they walked down there and asked the meeting
- to disperse. There is no use of talking about proof, gentlemen. Their
- belts were on, their clubs in their sockets, their pistols in their
- pockets. That is the fact. They marched down that street, not with
- the precipitation which they would have you believe. They marched
- down that street perhaps fast, but not with precipitation, not with
- haste. They marched down that street to disperse a meeting that had
- talked ‘To arms;’ that had said: ‘Throttle the law,’ and that had said
- enough to have caused bloodshed then and there, and the only reason
- that more lives were not lost is because they failed to come earlier.
- The arrangement of that meeting was that it should be called, and
- that they should come early, and that it should be precipitated, and
- blood would flow. Engel was there in the evening; he knew about it.
- Fischer walked up with Waller, and Waller was armed. ‘Workingmen,
- come armed.’ A word, gentlemen, only a word, about the breaking-up of
- that meeting. They have played Harrison in and out of this case, for
- the purpose of saving the defendants. Harrison, you remember, went
- there for the purpose of ascertaining if that meeting was organized
- to attack the freight-house of the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad,
- about which you remember there was some difficulty, or McCormick’s,
- or if it was called to attack any particular place. He found, from
- the speeches, that, although inflammatory—and he said so—from the
- speeches themselves he found that no particular place was pointed out
- for an attack.
-
- “It was the same old speeches—riot, bloodshed, the black flag,
- the red flag, dynamite, war, to arms. And counsel upon the other
- side say that that ‘To arms! To arms!’ didn’t mean anything. It was
- Pickwickian, and used to round a sentence. They went down to that
- meeting, and Harrison was there and saw that meeting and heard those
- speeches, and reported back to Bonfield what had been the result,
- namely, that they had ceased to become inflammatory since they had
- seen his face.
-
- “Thinking that the meeting was organized for plunder at the
- freight-house, hearing the speeches, seeing them become more moderate,
- Harrison left, and after he is gone, then come the reports, the
- incendiary character still increased, and when they come, they come in
- such shape that if Bonfield had not gone down there, then and there,
- he would have failed to perform his duty.
-
- “We have had enough of this. It is time it stopped. They were asked
- peaceably to disperse—peaceably to disperse—peaceably to disperse.
- The police had their clubs in their belts, their pistols in their
- belts, and the bomb was thrown. So say Bonfield, Wessler, Foley,
- Bowler, Hanley, Ward, Hubbard, Haas, Hull, Heinemann—and I want to
- suggest a word about Heinemann’s testimony. Heinemann said that when
- that bomb exploded he was getting away on the east side of the street,
- going south. What did he get? He got the whistling of bullets past
- his ear. Where did they come from? Where could they come from? Hull
- was on that platform up there, and Owen was there, and that is where
- Simonson was. Hull says firing began by the crowd. Well, Owen got hit
- up there. It had to come from over there. Dr. Newman says that all
- sizes of bullets were found, from twenty-two to forty-four, and the
- police did not have anything but thirty-eight caliber. That was a
- cruel thrust for counsel to make at men standing up as these men did
- that night—death in their midst—standing there so nobly—a thrust to
- save the lives or the liberty of the defendants—by saying that they
- shot each other in their fright and terror. As Wirt Dexter said in a
- speech about that matter—I wish I could deliver his words to you—in
- praising the act of the police in that transaction: How noble was
- their conduct! Instead of fleeing and running, they said: ‘Fall in,
- boys,’ and the city was saved. Supposing the police had fired first,
- after the bomb. The man who threw that bomb obtained it from Lingg or
- Spies, and threw it in accordance with the general plan of conspiracy,
- and death was the result. I cannot talk to you about families, about
- wives and children, but if I had the power I would like to take
- you all over there to the Haymarket that night, and with you, with
- tears in your eyes, see the dead and mingle with the wounded, the
- dying—see law violated, and then I could, if I had the power, paint
- you a picture that would steel your hearts against the defendants.
- Captain Black said, in argument to you, that the State had no right to
- do that. The State has all the rights that it could possibly possess
- through so weak an instrument as myself. He has no more right. Did
- Fielden shoot? I think so. If he did not, he is made of poorer clay
- than I take him to be. He has been saying for years: ‘The bloodhounds
- of the police should be massacred and killed.’ He it was who said that
- he would march with the black flag down Michigan Avenue and strike
- terror to the heart of the capitalist. He it is who has said, day in
- and day out, since living in this inhospitable country: ‘Death to the
- police and the capitalists—the despoilers—our despoilers—death to
- them!’
-
- “Why, do you mean to say that he would not do what he says he would
- do? Dr. Epler swears that he told him when he dressed the wound that
- he was shot when he was down on the pavement, and he has not denied
- it. That was a significant fact, gentlemen; a very significant fact.
- The officer who was shot thinks it was by Fielden. It may have been by
- somebody else; nobody can tell.
-
- “Another thing. One of the officers swears that he was wounded in
- the knee. I was not looking at Capt. Black when he motioned to you
- the place where the wound occurred. For the purpose of correcting
- myself and making no mistake about it, because the testimony of an
- officer or any witness who put his finger on the spot cannot get into
- the record; and I found by looking at the record that he pointed his
- finger ‘here and here.’ Of course there was no significance to that.
- So I saw the wound again. I had seen it once before. The bullet went
- in there (indicating), and came out above, going around up opposite
- the knee-cap, and was not from behind.
-
- “That bomb was thrown in furtherance of a common design. No matter who
- threw it. But the gentlemen say there can be no conviction in this
- case because we have failed to prove, or cannot prove, who threw that
- identical bomb. That is not the law, as I explained to you yesterday.
- The other question is, Is there anything in this case showing who
- did? Gilmer says that he was in the alley, and a match was lighted,
- and that bomb was thrown by one man; Fischer stood by, and that Spies
- lighted it. Is that remarkable? Spies had been advising the doing
- of that thing for years; and in one of the articles that has been
- read to you, over his own signature, he says: ‘Take as few people
- into your confidence as possible; do it alone; in your revolutionary
- deeds, do it alone; but if you have to consult anybody, take your
- nearest friend, a man you can rely upon.’ Who is Schnaubelt? Schwab’s
- brother-in-law. Who is Fischer? A man who got the meeting up at Spies’
- instance, and works for Spies. Now, gentlemen, I presume, and I have
- no doubt but what if they had raked a little more carefully, we would
- have found the man that said that that bomb was thrown from the top
- of Crane’s building; you could have found the man that said it came
- from away in the alley; any number of men probably would have put it
- north of the alley, and some south. The question here is, about where
- did it come from? The explanation of street warfare is, that it is to
- be done near alleys. Is Spies so craven now, after the deed is done,
- that he shall say, ‘I had no hand in it,’ when he had advised it for
- years? Gentlemen, men’s lives speak for themselves. He has advised
- it, said it, talked it, acted it. Why, the witnesses say, counsel
- upon the other side say to you, ‘Gentlemen, it is impossible that
- this man would do it, because no man saw the light which would have
- flashed up in their faces.’ Why, gentlemen, they put two witnesses on
- the stand to swear distinctly and clearly and positively that they
- had lighted a match and lighted a pipe, which would take a good deal
- longer than lighting a fuse. Spies says in one article: ‘It never goes
- out in a dry night; the Anarchist fuse never fails.’ It could have
- happened; it has been advised to happen] precisely as Gilmer states
- it. Ignore Gilmer, and the case is made. But they want you to ignore
- Thompson too. Why? What for? Because they heard Schwab and Spies talk
- together. Was there anything marvelous in that? Had they said anything
- there together that they had not been saying in public for years?
- But supposing you ignore Thompson’s testimony and say that Thompson
- is mistaken; then it was Schnaubelt, wasn’t it? Why was Spies so
- confidential with Schnaubelt that night? Where is Schnaubelt? He was
- the man that was arrested before the conspiracy was known, and let go;
- shaved his whiskers off, changed his appearance, and he has not been
- seen since. Why was Spies so confidential with Schnaubelt? He says he
- did walk with him; says that Henry Spies walked behind him.
-
- “Gentlemen, let me show you the testimony of these people in pairs.
- It is the most marvelous thing I ever saw in a lawsuit. Ferguson and
- Gleason were together. They went in pairs. You remember it. Ferguson
- says that he was on the corner of Randolph Street when the bomb was
- thrown. Gleason says that was not so; they were away down next to
- the station, more than half a block away. Ferguson says that they
- heard a crash like the breaking of a plank or a pistol, and then
- the bomb exploded. That is when he was on the corner of the street.
- Gleason says that was not so; he didn’t remember of hearing anything
- of that kind, but they both distinctly remembered of seeing, after
- the bomb was exploded, the police fire from that way. The Anarchists
- fired south, the police north. Ferguson and Gleason were south of
- and behind the police, yet they say the police fired south, while
- facing north. Ridiculous. And one or the other of them, I don’t
- know—or it was Taylor—says that they, the police, fired clear
- down to Madison Street, and along Madison Street. Queer that nobody
- else heard of that. What were they shooting down there for? Richter
- and Liniger—you remember them—these are the two loving friends
- that went to that meeting pursuant to the notice that they saw in
- the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_—not only the notice of the meeting, but the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ contained the ‘Revenge’ circular. They went to that
- meeting and lovingly stood in the alley, midway between the edge of
- the walk and the building, arm in arm, for over an hour. Foster knew
- that that was ridiculous, and he tried to get them apart; he asked
- them questions to get them apart, but they clung together for over an
- hour, and finally moved up to the lamp-post, where Taylor had been
- standing before the meeting began, and they didn’t know where the
- meeting was to be.
-
- “Again Krumm stood in the alley with his back to the wall all the time
- except when he lighted his pipe and walked backward and forward in it,
- Albright standing with him. Krumm had his back up against that wall,
- glued like a post for almost an hour, saving only at intervals did he
- leave it; and Krumm and Albright lighted their pipes, and they moved
- to the lamp-post. The lamp-post was peopled thick. Gentlemen, it is
- an insult to your intelligence to suggest a word about the truth of
- that Krumm and Albright’s testimony. Why, Krumm is the man that left
- his boarding-house, boarding with Albright at that time—left his
- house in search of a friend whose name he could not give; if he could
- it was indefinite—and that he was to meet him on the corner of Canal
- and Randolph Streets that night somewhere. He went down to Canal and
- Randolph Streets, wandered around there looking for his friend, or for
- somebody who said he would meet him there, and then walked back to the
- meeting and began to look for Albright, or at least he found Albright.
- Now, isn’t that a queer circumstance—that they neither of them knew
- that that meeting was going to happen, or knew that the other was to
- be there; left the house about the same time, and yet did not leave
- together, and happened to meet right in that alley, with their backs
- up against the wall? The next pair is Fischer and Wandry. That is for
- the alibi. Now, why doesn’t Spies, who was on the stand, who says he
- was in Zepf’s, say something about Fischer being there. Why wasn’t
- Waller, who was on the stand, asked by these men whether Fischer was
- there? The witnesses all congregate at this place, at Zepf’s Hall,
- after the meeting, and Fischer has not been seen by anybody, except
- Wandry. Even this respectable Nihilist from Russia don’t remember of
- seeing Fischer, and got Fischer in a great many different places, as
- they do Parsons. Finding Parsons had got to be in several places,
- and further, finding that they have got him down in the window, they
- get another man there that looks like Parsons—as they did Krumm,
- who lighted his pipe in the alley and looked so much like Spies. To
- digress a moment, Mr. Walker never said to you, gentlemen, that the
- defendants’ lawyers put up Mr. Krumm because of his resemblance to
- Spies and to account for a light in the alley. That was not fair. He
- made the declaration that the other side, or somebody, had put up the
- job.
-
- “We have endeavored to try this lawsuit like gentlemen. I think we
- have succeeded on both sides. There was not that implication to be
- drawn from what Walker said, but it was rather ingenious and sagacious
- to allow you, gentlemen, to believe that we had been saying something
- that was unfair.
-
- “The two men that saw Schnaubelt—Lehnert and Krueger. That was the
- queerest circumstance that I have yet come across. By the way, Krueger
- was in the conspiracy, was in both the meetings, with Schnaubelt, with
- Waller, with Engel, with Lingg; he was there, knew them all, and,
- although he was on the stand, the gentlemen upon the other side never
- asked him nor Grueneberg a question about the conspiracy. Neither did
- they ask Spies, or Parsons, or Schwab. They did ask Fielden.
-
- “August Krueger and Lehnert got this man some twenty or thirty feet
- away from the alley and the wagon, talking in a quiet tone of voice
- about going home. They walk a little ways together. Krueger goes one
- direction and Schnaubelt another. Black tells you that the reason of
- that was because they could not go together any further, as their
- places diverged. It would not have done for them to have gone together
- any further, because Krueger went to Engel’s. There were too many at
- Engel’s—it would not have done.
-
- “I believe that Schnaubelt threw the bomb. You may believe that it is
- an unknown person threw it; it is immaterial.
-
- “Back and Mitlacher. Back, if I remember, is the man that appeared at
- the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office that Tuesday night, at the time of the
- meeting of the American group. Now, what was he there for? He was a
- member of some other group. At all events he was there, and a German;
- he was not an American; he had not been here long enough, to start
- with, and he didn’t look as if he ever wanted to be one of our kind.
-
- “Now, where did these two men stand? They stood on the platform, next
- to the plumber’s shop, on the south side of the alley, and at least
- thirty-five or forty feet from where that wagon was; yet those men,
- one of them, the tall man, says that he distinctly remembers seeing
- Henry Spies. Why, it was a dark night, and the man couldn’t see from
- there. And the other fellow saw Henry Spies’ hat. They stood there all
- the evening, nearly; walked up and down once in a while; stood there
- all the evening. That is another ridiculous suggestion.
-
- “This alibi business and this suggestion of these pairs, couples,
- constitute what Black calls proof. That is right. It is negative,
- and a very poor negative at that. He says that that is all you could
- prove. Didn’t see anything, of course.
-
- “My attention is brought to another fact. Captain Black made a
- mistake. I put it that way. He read Thompson’s testimony to you. Your
- (_i. e._, Captain Black’s) shorthand writer has either made a mistake,
- or your typewriter has. Thompson did not change, in his answers, from
- Spies to Schwab.
-
- “In regard to the testimony of Thompson, gentlemen, it was a
- remarkable feature of the case that he stood that searching
- cross-examination with such splendid equanimity, and no disturbance of
- what he said. And, gentlemen, that same can be said of Gilmer. Let any
- of you go onto that witness-stand, and let the sagacious, clear-headed
- Foster hammer away at you two hours and a half, over some little fact,
- and you would see where you would be. I could not stand it. There
- is not one man in a thousand that could. And it is nothing against
- a man’s character in the city of Chicago that those that know well
- of him do not know where he lives. I do not believe that one of you
- gentlemen knows where I live, or where Foster lives, or where Black
- lives. It is nothing against a man that his employer sometimes speaks
- well of him.
-
- “I have my attention brought—I had almost forgotten it—to a peculiar
- circumstance about this case, and the most significant of anything
- that I have seen in it. When Spies was arrested he left the traces of
- his crime in his office. Free speech had become so common to him—free
- speech, as they call it in this case, had become so remarkably liberal
- that he feared nothing. Bonfield came in and arrested him. He goes
- over to Ebersold. Ebersold, in his indignation, characterizes the
- crowd as you heard it here, and Spies says, upon the witness-stand,
- that he _unsuspectingly_ went over there. If he had had his senses
- about him, he would have destroyed ‘Ruhe,’ the manuscript, and
- everything of that character, and no traces—autonomous traces—would
- be left.
-
- “In speaking of ‘Ruhe,’ I want to speak of another thing. Spies said
- that he received a communication that he was to put in prominent
- letters in the Letter-box. Now, the bare fact of putting it in
- the Letter-box is as prominent as it could be. It is separate and
- distinct. Let us see how he puts it. He puts it in the Letter-box,
- marks a double line under it, which means big letters, puts in an
- exclamation point at the other end, and inserts it. That makes it
- prominent, sure. Now, what does he say about it? He unsuspectingly
- leaves the traces of his crime; and there never was a criminal, great
- or small, in the world, but that somewhere, at some time, committed
- a mistake. It is the little mistakes, the plain, noticeable mistakes
- that they make, which serve for detection. ‘Ruhe’ appears, and he
- says he supposed that it was some labor organization. The idea! Why,
- his labor organizations are all distinct and plain. It says: ‘This
- organization meets so-and-so. That organization meets so and so.’ The
- paper speaks for itself. Talk about a labor organization putting in
- such a word as that ‘Ruhe,’ whose significance is peace, quiet and
- rest, but which meant war and bloodshed!
-
- “The police did not wait any too long. It has been done enough in
- this town. It is time that we American citizens awoke to a full
- realization of the importance of liberty and freedom of speech, and
- that freedom of speech does not mean license to preach murder, to
- preach assassination, to preach crime and the perpetration of it. That
- is not free speech. A man who does that is answerable for it, and for
- the result of his preaching, the result of his words. If it results in
- crime, he is responsible himself. Gentlemen, that is the law. I have
- gone over this case perhaps more _in extenso_ than I intended; more
- perhaps than you desire to listen to; I am through. Your duty is about
- to begin. I felt relieved when you were selected. Some of the great
- responsibility that has rested upon my shoulders I felt I could place
- upon yours. It has been placed there. Gentlemen, the responsibility is
- great. You have to answer yourselves, under your oaths, to the people
- of the State, not to me. My duty is performed, and yours begins, and
- in this connection, gentlemen, let me suggest to you another reason
- why it is important that you should be careful. You can acquit them
- all, one, or none; you can distribute the penalties as you please.
- To some you can administer the extreme penalty of the law; to others
- less than that, if you desire. To some you can give life, administer
- punishment if you desire; to some, years of punishment.
-
- “I have a word to say in this connection about Neebe. The testimony
- has been analyzed, the testimony in regard to his connection with
- the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office; his connection with these people from
- time to time, the evidence that when he saw the dynamite in the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office on that morning when it was discovered
- there, which these men so infamously suggest was put there by the
- police—but I have not argued that question; it looks so insulting to
- a man’s intelligence. If that had been so, if it was not there and did
- not belong there, they could have brought Lizius here. His name is on
- the back of the indictment. They could have brought all the employés
- of the office here. What did Neebe say about the dynamite? Why, he
- said it was stuff to clean type with, he guessed; and he circulated,
- not two circulars, but a lot of them. Gentlemen, I am not here to ask
- you to take the life of Oscar Neebe on this proof. I shall ask you
- to do nothing in this case that I feel I would not do myself were I
- seated in your chairs.
-
- “This case is greater than us all, more important to the country than
- you conceive; the case itself and what it involves is more important
- than all their lives, than all the lives of the unfortunate officers
- who bit the dust that night in defense of our laws.
-
- “Some of these people, we sincerely and honestly believe, should
- receive at your hands the extreme penalty of the law. Spies, Fischer,
- Lingg, Engel, Fielden, Parsons, Schwab, Neebe, in my opinion, based
- upon the proof, is the order of the punishment. It is for you to say
- what it shall be. You have been importuned, gentlemen, to disagree.
- Don’t do that; don’t do that. If, in your judgments, in the judgment
- of some of you, some of these men should suffer death, and others
- think a less punishment would subserve the law, don’t stand on that,
- but agree on something. It is no pleasant task for me to ask the life
- of any man. Personally I have not a word to say against these men.
- As a representative of the law I say to you, the law demands now,
- here, its power. Regardless of me, of Foster, of Black, or of us all,
- that law which the exponents of Anarchy violated to kill Lincoln and
- Garfield, that law that has made us strong to-day, and which you
- have sworn to obey, demands of you a punishment of these men. Don’t
- do it because I ask you. Do it, if it should be done, because the
- law demands it. You stand between the living and the dead. You stand
- between law and violated law. Do your duty courageously, even if that
- duty is an unpleasant and a severe one.”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXII.
-
- The Instructions to the Jury—What Murder Is—Free Speech and
- its Abuse—The Theory of Conspiracy—Value of Circumstantial
- Evidence—Meaning of a “Reasonable Doubt”—What a Jury May
- Decide—Waiting for the Verdict—“Guilty of Murder”—The Death Penalty
- Adjudged—Neebe’s Good Luck—Motion for a New Trial—Affidavits about
- the Jury—The Motion Overruled.
-
-
-ON the conclusion of State’s Attorney Grinnell’s review of the
-arguments made by the defense, Judge Gary proceeded to charge the jury.
-The hour was after the noon recess of Thursday, August 19, and the
-presentation and reading of the instructions consumed a goodly portion
-of the afternoon. When the court had finished the jury retired, and the
-fate of eight men was in their hands.
-
-The instructions given were as follows on behalf of the people:
-
- “The court instructs the jury, in the language of the statute, that
- murder is the unlawful killing of a human being in the peace of the
- people, with malice aforethought, either expressed or implied. An
- unlawful killing may be perpetrated by poisoning, striking, starving,
- drowning, stabbing, shooting, or by any other of the various forms
- or means by which human nature may be overcome, and death thereby
- occasioned.
-
- “Express malice is that deliberate intention unlawfully to take
- away the life of a fellow-creature which is manifested by external
- circumstances capable of proof. Malice shall be implied when no
- considerable provocation appears, or when all the circumstances of the
- killing show an abandoned and malignant heart.
-
- “The court instructs the jury that whoever is guilty of murder shall
- suffer the penalty of death or imprisonment in the penitentiary for
- his natural life, or for a term not less than fourteen years. If the
- accused or any of them are found guilty by the jury, the jury shall
- fix the punishment by their verdict.
-
- “The court instructs the jury that, while it is provided by the
- Constitution of the State of Illinois that every person may freely
- speak, write and publish on all subjects, he is, by the Constitution,
- held responsible under the laws for the abuse of liberty so given.
- Freedom of speech is limited by the laws of the land, to the extent,
- among other limitations, that no man is allowed to advise the
- committing of any crime against the person or property of another; and
- the statute provides: An accessory is he who stands by and aids, abets
- and assists, or who, not being present, aiding, abetting or assisting,
- hath advised, encouraged, aided or abetted the perpetration of the
- crime. He who thus aids, abets, assists, advises or encourages, shall
- be considered as principal, and punished accordingly.
-
- “Every such accessory, when the crime is committed within or without
- this State by his aid or procurement in this State, may be indicted
- and convicted at the same time as the principal, or before or after
- his conviction, whether the principal is convicted or amenable to
- justice or not, and punished as principal.
-
- “The court further instructs the jury, as a matter of law, that if
- they believe from the evidence in this case, beyond a reasonable
- doubt, that the defendants, or any of them, conspired and agreed
- together, or with others, to overthrow the law by force, or to
- unlawfully resist the officers of the law, and if they further believe
- from the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, that, in pursuance of
- such conspiracy and in furtherance of the common object, a bomb was
- thrown by a member of such conspiracy at the time, and that Mathias J.
- Degan was killed, then such of the defendants that the jury believe
- from the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, to have been parties to
- such conspiracy, are guilty of murder, whether present at the killing
- or not, and whether the identity of the person throwing the bomb be
- established or not.
-
- “If the jury believe from the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt,
- that there was in existence in this county and State a conspiracy to
- overthrow the existing order of society, and to bring about social
- revolution by force, or to destroy the legal authorities of this
- city, county or State by force, and that the defendants, or any of
- them, were parties to such conspiracy, and that Degan was killed
- in the manner described in the indictment, that he was killed by a
- bomb, and that the bomb was thrown by a party to the conspiracy,
- and in furtherance of the objects of the conspiracy, then any of
- the defendants who were members of such conspiracy at that time are
- in this case guilty of murder, and that, too, although the jury
- may further believe from the evidence that the time and place for
- the bringing about of such revolution, or the destruction of such
- authorities, had not been definitely, agreed upon by the conspirators,
- but was left to them and the exigencies of time, or to the judgment of
- any of the co-conspirators.”
-
- “If these defendants, or any two or more of them, conspired together
- with or not with any other person or persons to excite the people
- or classes of the people of this city to sedition, tumult and riot,
- to use deadly weapons against and take the lives of other persons,
- as a means to carry their designs and purposes into effect, and in
- pursuance of such conspiracy, and in furtherance of its objects, any
- of the persons so conspiring publicly, by print or speech, advised
- or encouraged the commission of murder without designating time,
- place or occasion at which it should be done, and in pursuance of,
- and induced by such advice or encouragement, murder was committed,
- then all of such conspirators are guilty of such murder, whether the
- person who perpetrated such murder can be identified or not. If such
- murder was committed in pursuance of such advice or encouragement,
- and was induced thereby, it does not matter what change, if any, in
- the order or condition of society, or what, if any, advantage to
- themselves or others the conspirators proposed as the result of their
- conspiracy, nor does it matter whether such advice and encouragement
- had been frequent and long continued or not, except in determining
- whether the perpetrator was or was not acting in pursuance of such
- advice or encouragement, and was or was not induced thereby to commit
- the murder. If there was such conspiracy as in this instruction is
- recited, such advice or encouragement was given, and murder committed
- in pursuance of and induced thereby, then all such conspirators are
- guilty of murder. Nor does it matter, if there was such a conspiracy,
- how impracticable or impossible of success its end and aims were,
- nor how foolish or ill-arranged were the plans for its execution,
- except as bearing upon the question whether there was or was not such
- conspiracy.
-
- “The court instructs the jury that a conspiracy may be established
- by circumstantial evidence the same as any other fact, and that such
- evidence is legal and competent for that purpose. So also whether
- an act which was committed was done by a member of the conspiracy,
- may be established by circumstantial evidence, whether the identity
- of the individual who committed the act be established or not; and
- also whether an act done was in pursuance of the common design may be
- ascertained by the same class of evidence, and if the jury believe
- from the evidence in this case beyond a reasonable doubt that the
- defendants or any of them conspired and agreed together or with others
- to overthrow the law by force, or destroy the legal authorities of
- this city, county or State by force, and that in furtherance of the
- common design, and by a member of such conspiracy, Mathias J. Degan
- was killed, then these defendants, if any, whom the jury believe
- from the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, were parties to such
- conspiracy, are guilty of the murder of Mathias J. Degan, whether the
- identity of the individual doing the killing be established or not, or
- whether such defendants were present at the time of the killing or not.
-
- “The jury are instructed, as a matter of law, that all who take part
- in the conspiracy after it is formed, and while it is in execution,
- and all who with knowledge of the facts concur in the plan originally
- formed, and aid in executing them, are fellow-conspirators. Their
- concurrence without proof of an agreement to concur is conclusive
- against them. They commit the offense when they become parties to
- the transaction or further the original plan with knowledge of the
- conspiracy.
-
- “The court instructs the jury, as a matter of law, that circumstantial
- evidence is just as legal and just as effective as any other evidence,
- provided the circumstances are of such a character and force as to
- satisfy the minds of the jury of the defendants’ guilt beyond a
- reasonable doubt.
-
- “The court instructs the jury that what is meant by circumstantial
- evidence in criminal cases is the proof of such facts and
- circumstances connected with or surrounding the commission of the
- crime charged as tend to show the guilt or innocence of the party
- charged. And if those facts and circumstances are sufficient to
- satisfy the jury of the guilt of the defendants beyond a reasonable
- doubt, then such evidence is sufficient to authorize the jury in
- finding the defendants guilty.
-
- “The law exacts the conviction wherever there is sufficient legal
- evidence to show the defendants’ guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and
- circumstantial evidence is legal evidence.
-
- “The court instructs the jury, as a matter of law, that when the
- defendants August Spies, Michael Schwab, Albert R. Parsons and Samuel
- Fielden testified as witnesses in this case, each became the same as
- any other witness, and the credibility of each is to be attested by
- and subjected to the same tests as are legally applied to any other
- witness; and in determining the degree of credibility that shall be
- accorded to the testimony of any one of said above-named defendants,
- the jury have a right to take into consideration the fact that he is
- interested in the result of this prosecution, as well as his demeanor
- and conduct upon the witness-stand during the trial, and the jury are
- also to take into consideration the fact, if such is the fact, that
- he has been contradicted by other witnesses. And the court further
- instructs the jury that if, after considering all the evidence in
- this case, they find that any one of said defendants August Spies,
- Michael Schwab, Albert R. Parsons and Samuel Fielden has willfully and
- corruptly testified falsely to any fact material to the issue in this
- case, they have the right to entirely disregard his testimony, except
- in so far as his testimony is corroborated by other credible evidence.
-
- “The rule of law which clothes every person accused of crime with the
- presumption of innocence, and imposes upon the State the burden of
- establishing his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, is not intended to
- aid any one who is in fact guilty of crime to escape, but is a humane
- provision of law, intended, so far as human agencies can, to guard
- against the danger of any innocent person being unjustly punished.
-
- “The court instructs the jury, as a matter of law, that in considering
- the case the jury are not to go beyond the evidence to hunt up doubts,
- nor must they entertain such doubts as are merely chimerical or
- conjectural. A doubt, to justify an acquittal, must be reasonable, and
- it must arise from a candid and impartial investigation of all the
- evidence in the case, and unless it is such that, were the same kind
- of doubt interposed in the graver transactions of life, it would cause
- a reasonable and prudent man to hesitate and pause, it is insufficient
- to authorize a verdict of not guilty. If, after considering all the
- evidence, you can say you have an abiding conviction of the truth of
- the charge, you are satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt.
-
- “The court further instructs the jury, as a matter of law, that the
- doubt which the juror is allowed to retain on his own mind, and under
- the influence of which he should frame a verdict of not guilty, must
- always be a reasonable one. A doubt produced by undue sensibility in
- the mind of any juror, in view of the consequences of his verdict,
- is not a reasonable doubt, and a juror is not allowed to create
- sources or materials of doubt by resorting to trivial and fanciful
- suppositions and remote conjectures as to possible states of fact
- differing from that established by the evidence. You are not at
- liberty to disbelieve as jurors if from the evidence you believe as
- men; your oath imposes on you no obligation to doubt where no doubt
- would exist if no oath had been administered.
-
- “The court instructs the jury that they are the judges of the law as
- well as the facts in this case, and if they can say, upon their oaths,
- that they know the law better than the court itself, they have the
- right to do so; but before assuming so solemn a responsibility, they
- should be assured that they are not acting from caprice or prejudice,
- that they are not controlled by their will or their wishes, but from
- a deep and confident conviction that the court is wrong and that
- they are right. Before saying this, upon their oaths, it is their
- duty to reflect whether, from their study and experience, they are
- better qualified to judge of the law than the court. If, under all the
- circumstances, they are prepared to say that the court is wrong in its
- exposition of the law, the statute has given them that right.
-
- “In this case the jury may, as in their judgment the evidence
- warrants, find any or all of the defendants guilty or not, or all of
- them not guilty; and if, in their judgment, the evidence warrants,
- they may, in case they find the defendants, or any of them, guilty,
- fix the same penalty for all the defendants found guilty, or different
- penalties for the different defendants found guilty.
-
- “In case they find the defendants, or any of them, guilty of murder,
- they should fix the penalty either at death or at imprisonment in the
- penitentiary for life, or at imprisonment in the penitentiary for a
- term of any number of years, not less than fourteen.”
-
-The instructions given on behalf of defendants were as follows:
-
- “The jury in a criminal case are the judges of the law and the
- evidence, and have to act according to their best judgment of such law
- and the facts.
-
- “The jury have a right to disregard the instructions of the court,
- provided they can say upon their oaths that they believe they know the
- law better than the court.
-
- “The law presumes the defendants innocent of the charge in the
- indictment until the jury are satisfied by the evidence, beyond all
- reasonable doubt, of the guilt of the defendants.
-
- “If a reasonable doubt of any facts, necessary to convict the accused,
- is raised in the minds of the jury by the evidence itself, or by
- the ingenuity of counsel upon any hypothesis reasonably consistent
- with the evidence, that doubt is decisive in favor of the prisoners’
- acquittal. A verdict of not guilty simply means that the guilt of the
- accused has not been demonstrated in the precise, specific and narrow
- forms prescribed by the law.
-
- “No jury should convict anybody of crime upon mere suspicion, however
- strong, or because there is a preponderance of all the evidence
- against him, but the jury must be convinced of the defendant’s guilt,
- beyond all reasonable doubt, before they can lawfully convict.
-
- “The law does not require the defendants to prove themselves innocent,
- but the burden of proof that they are guilty beyond all reasonable
- doubt is upon the prosecution.
-
- “The indictment is of itself a mere accusation and no proof of the
- guilt of the defendants.
-
- “The presumption of the innocence of the defendants is not a mere
- form, but an essential, substantial part of the law of the land, and
- it is the duty of the jury to give the defendants the full benefit of
- this presumption in this case.
-
- “It is incumbent upon the prosecution to prove beyond all reasonable
- doubt every material allegation in the indictment, and unless that has
- been done, the jury should find the defendants not guilty.
-
- “The burden is upon the prosecution to prove by credible evidence,
- beyond all reasonable doubt, that the defendants are guilty as charged
- in the indictment of the murder of Mathias J. Degan; it is the duty of
- the jury to acquit any of the defendants as to whom there is a failure
- of such proof. The jury are not at liberty to adopt any unreasonable
- theories or suppositions in considering the evidence in order to
- justify a verdict of conviction.
-
- “A reasonable doubt is that state of mind in which the jury, after
- considering all the evidence, cannot say they feel an abiding faith,
- amounting to a moral certainty, from the evidence in the case, that
- the defendants are guilty as charged in the indictment.
-
- “The rules of evidence as to the amount of evidence in this case are
- different from those in a civil case; a mere preponderance of evidence
- would not warrant a verdict of guilty.
-
- “Mere probability of the defendants’ guilt is not sufficient to
- warrant a conviction.
-
- “Your personal opinions as to facts not proved cannot be the basis of
- your verdict, but you must form your verdict from the evidence, and
- that alone, unaided and uninfluenced by any opinions or presumptions
- not founded upon the evidence.
-
- “The jury are the sole judges of the credibility of witnesses, and in
- passing thereon may consider their prejudices, motives or feelings of
- revenge, if any such have appeared, and if the jury believe from the
- evidence that any witness has knowingly or willfully testified falsely
- as to any material fact, they may disregard his entire testimony,
- unless it is corroborated by other credible evidence.
-
- “If one single fact is proved by a preponderance of the evidence which
- is inconsistent with the guilt of a defendant, this is sufficient
- to raise a reasonable doubt as to his guilt and entitles him to an
- acquittal. In order to justify the inference of legal guilt from
- circumstantial evidence, the existence of the inculpatory facts must
- be absolutely incompatible with the innocence of the accused upon any
- rational theory.
-
- “The witnesses Gottfried Waller and Wilhelm Seliger are accomplices,
- and while a person accused of crime may be convicted upon the
- uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice, still the jury should weigh
- it with great care and caution, and convict upon it only if they are
- satisfied beyond any reasonable doubt of its truth.
-
- “If you believe from the evidence that the witnesses Gottfried
- Waller and Wilhelm Seliger were induced to become witnesses by any
- promise of immunity from punishment, or by any hope held out to
- them, that it would go easier with them in case they disclosed who
- their confederates were, or in case they implicated some one else
- in the crime, then you should take such facts into consideration in
- determining the weight to be given to their testimony.
-
- “Same instruction in regard to the testimony of any other witnesses
- for the prosecution.
-
- “The testimony of an accomplice should be subjected to critical
- examination in the light of all the other evidence.
-
- “A person charged with crime may testify in his own behalf, but his
- neglect to do so shall not create any presumption against him.
-
- “The jury should endeavor to reconcile the testimony of the
- defendants’ witnesses with the belief that all of them endeavored
- to tell the truth, and you should attribute any contradictions or
- differences in their testimony to mistake or misrecollection rather
- than to a willful intention to swear falsely, if you can reasonably do
- so under the evidence.
-
- “The jury should fairly and impartially consider the testimony of the
- defendants, together with all the other evidence.
-
- “If the verbal admission of a defendant is offered in evidence, the
- whole of the admission must be taken together, and those parts which
- are in favor of the defendant are entitled to as much consideration as
- any other parts, unless disproved, or apparently improbable or untrue,
- when considered with all the other evidence.
-
- “It would be improper for the jury to regard any statements of the
- prosecuting attorneys, not based upon the evidence, as entitled to any
- weight.
-
- “If all the facts and circumstances relied on by the People to
- secure a conviction can be reasonably accounted for upon any theory
- consistent with the innocence of the defendants, or any of them, then
- you should acquit such of them as to whom the facts proven can thus be
- accounted for.
-
- “It is not enough to warrant the conviction of a person charged with
- crime that he contemplated the commission of such crime. If any
- reasonable hypothesis exists that such crime may have been committed
- by another in no way connected with the defendants, the accused should
- be acquitted.
-
- “If the evidence leaves a reasonable doubt of the guilt of the
- defendants, as charged in the indictment, the jury should acquit,
- although the evidence may show conduct of no less turpitude than the
- crime charged.
-
- “The allusions and references of the prosecuting attorneys to the
- supposed dangerous character of any views entertained or principles
- contended for by the accused should in no way influence you in
- determining this case.
-
- “Individuals and communities have the legal right to arm themselves
- for the defense and protection of their persons and property, and
- a proposition by any person, publicly proclaimed, to arm for such
- protection and defense, is not an offense against the laws of this
- State.
-
- “If the defendants, or some of them, agreed together, or with others,
- in the event of the workingmen or strikers being attacked, that they
- (defendants) would assist the strikers to resist such an attack,
- this would not constitute conspiracy if the anticipated attack was
- unjustified and illegal, and such contemplated resistance simply
- the opposing of force wrongfully and illegally exercised, by force
- sufficient to repel said assault.
-
- “The burden is not cast upon the defendants of proving that the person
- who threw the bomb was not acting under their advice, teaching or
- procurement. Unless the evidence proves beyond all reasonable doubt
- that either some of the defendants threw said bomb, or that the person
- who threw it acted under the advice and procurement of defendants or
- some of them, the defendants should be acquitted. Such advice may not
- necessarily be special as to the bomb, but general, so as to include
- it.
-
- “It is not proper for the jury to guess that the person who threw the
- bomb was instigated to do the act by the procurement of defendants
- or any of them. There must be a direct connection established, by
- credible evidence, between the advice and consummation of the crime,
- beyond all reasonable doubt.
-
- “The bomb might have been thrown by some one unfamiliar with, and
- unprompted by, the teachings of the defendants or any of them. Before
- defendants can be held liable therefor, the evidence must satisfy you
- beyond all reasonable doubt that the person throwing said bomb was
- acting as the result of the teaching or encouragement of defendants or
- some of them.
-
- “Before a person charged as accessory to a crime can be convicted,
- the evidence must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the crime was
- committed by some person acting under the advice, aid, encouragement,
- abetting or procurement of the defendant whose conviction as accessory
- is sought. Though you may believe from the evidence that a party in
- fact advised the commission in certain contingencies of acts amounting
- to crime, yet, if the act complained of was in fact committed by some
- third party of his own mere volition, hatred, malice or ill-will,
- and not materially influenced, either directly or indirectly, by
- such advice of the party charged, or any party for whose advice the
- defendants are responsible, the party charged would not in such case
- be responsible.
-
- “If you find that at a meeting held on the evening of May 3d at 54
- West Lake Street, at which some of the defendants were present, it was
- agreed that in the event of a collision between the police, militia
- or firemen, and the striking laborers, certain armed organizations,
- of which some of the defendants were members, should meet at certain
- places in Chicago, that a committee should attend public places and
- meetings where an attack by the police and others might be expected,
- and in the event of such attack report the same to said organizations
- to the end that such attack might be resisted and the police stations
- of the city destroyed, still, if the evidence does not prove, beyond
- all reasonable doubt, that the throwing of the bomb which killed
- Mathias J. Degan was the result of any act in furtherance of the
- common design herein stated, and if it may have been the unauthorized
- and individual act of some person acting upon his own responsibility
- and volition, then none of the defendants can be held responsible
- therefor on account of said West Lake Street meeting.”
-
-Upon the conclusion of the reading of the instructions in behalf of
-the defendants, which were read after the instructions on behalf of
-the people, the court of its own motion gave to the jury the following
-instruction:
-
- “The statute requires that instructions by the court to the jury shall
- be in writing, and only relate to the law of the case.
-
- “The practice under the statute is that the counsel prepare on each
- side a set of instructions and present them to the court, and, if
- approved, to be read by the court as the law of the case. It may
- happen, by reason of the great number presented and the hurry and
- confusion of passing on them in the midst of the trial, with a
- large audience to keep in order, that there may be some apparent
- inconsistency in them, but if they are carefully scrutinized such
- inconsistencies will probably disappear. In any event, however, the
- gist and pith of all is that if advice and encouragement to murder
- was given, if murder was done in pursuance of and materially induced
- by such advice and encouragement, then those who gave such advice
- and encouragement are guilty of the murder. Unless the evidence,
- either direct or circumstantial, or both, proves the guilt of one or
- more of the defendants upon this principle so fully that there is
- no reasonable doubt of it, your duty to them requires you to acquit
- them. If it does so prove, then your duty to the State requires you to
- convict whoever is so proved guilty. The case of each defendant should
- be considered with the same care and scrutiny as if he alone were on
- trial. If a conspiracy, having violence and murder as its object, is
- fully proved, then the acts and declarations of each conspirator in
- furtherance of the conspiracy are the acts and declarations of each
- one of the conspirators. But the declarations of any conspirator
- before or after the 4th of May which are merely narrative as to what
- had been or would be done, and not made to aid in carrying into effect
- the object of the conspiracy, are only evidence against the one who
- made them.
-
- “What are the facts and what is the truth the jury must determine
- from the evidence, and from that alone. If there are any unguarded
- expressions in any of the instructions which seem to assume the
- existence of any facts, or to be any intimation as to what is proved,
- all such expressions must be disregarded, and the evidence only looked
- to to determine the facts.”
-
-The jury the next day reported to the court that they had agreed upon a
-verdict. The members were accordingly brought in, and the clerk of the
-court read the verdict as follows:
-
- “We, the jury, find the defendants August Spies, Michael Schwab,
- Samuel Fielden, Albert R. Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel
- and Louis Lingg guilty of murder in manner and form as charged in
- the indictment and fix the penalty at death. We find the defendant
- Oscar W. Neebe guilty of murder in manner and form as charged in the
- indictment, and fix the penalty at imprisonment in the penitentiary
- for fifteen years.”
-
-This was a great surprise to the defendants, and their counsel at
-once entered a motion for a new trial. The hearing of the motion was
-postponed until the next term, and on the 1st of October arguments
-were submitted. The grounds upon which the motion was based were
-numerous. They first related to a refusal of some, and a modification
-of several other instructions at the hands of the court asked for by
-the defendants; a claim that jurors had been summoned by the officers
-with the avowed view to conviction; improper language by the State’s
-Attorney in his closing argument; erroneous rulings of the court in
-regard to the competency of jurors, and the refusal of separate trials
-for the defendants. Other grounds touched on a statement made by one of
-the members of the jury, Mr. Adams, prior to the trial, with reference
-to the Haymarket massacre, showing prejudice against the defendants,
-backed by an affidavit as to what he said; an affidavit of one Mr.
-Love, that he met Gilmer on the night of May 4, shortly after eight
-o’clock, and went to a saloon with him, where they and another person
-drank beer and talked until 9:20 o’clock, and also a further reason
-that the defendants had discovered some new evidence, to back which an
-affidavit was submitted from John Philip Deluse, dated August 24, 1886,
-concerning a mysterious individual who had called at his saloon, in
-Indianapolis, Ind., in May, 1886.
-
-The argument of counsel on each side, on the points raised, consumed
-several days, and finally, on the 7th of October, 1886, Judge Gary, in
-an elaborate and exhaustive opinion, overruled the motion.
-
-The defendants then entered a motion in arrest of judgment, and this
-was also overruled.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXIII.
-
- The Last Scene in Court—Reasons Against the Death Sentence—Spies’
- Speech—A Heinous Conspiracy to Commit Murder—Death for the
- Truth—The Anarchists’ Final Defense—Dying for Labor—The Conflict
- of the Classes—Not Guilty, but Scapegoats—Michael Schwab’s
- Appeal—The Curse of Labor-saving Machinery—Neebe Finds Out what
- Law Is—“I am Sorry I am not to be Hung”—Adolph Fischer’s Last
- Words—Louis Lingg in his own Behalf—“Convicted, not of Murder, but
- of Anarchy”—An Attack on the Police—“I Despise your Order, your
- Laws, your Force-propped Authority. Hang me for it!”—George Engel’s
- Unconcern—The Development of Anarchy—“I Hate and Combat, not the
- Individual Capitalist, but the System”—Samuel Fielden and the
- Haymarket—An Illegal Arrest—The Defense of Albert R. Parsons—The
- History of his Life—A Long and Thrilling Speech—The Sentence of
- Death—“Remove the Prisoners.”
-
-
-AFTER motion in arrest of judgment had been overruled by Judge Gary,
-Spies was asked if he had anything to say why sentence of death
-should not be passed upon him. The prisoner rose, with pallid cheeks
-and distended eyes, and advanced toward the bench with a hesitating
-tread. The moment he faced the court he recovered his equanimity and
-proceeded with much deliberation to give his reasons why he should not
-be sent to death on the gallows. He spoke in a firm, almost a menacing
-tone of voice, and seemed bent on posing as a martyr to the cause of
-the laboring classes. In his very opening sentence he desired to have
-that understood. “In addressing this court,” he said, “I speak as the
-representative of one class to the representative of another. I will
-begin with the words uttered five hundred years ago, on a similar
-occasion, by the Venetian Doge Falieri, who, addressing the court,
-said, ‘My defense is your accusation. The cause of my alleged crime
-is your history.’” He then referred to his conviction, holding that
-there was no evidence to show that he had any knowledge of the man who
-threw the bomb, or that he had had anything to do with its throwing.
-There being no evidence to establish his legal responsibility, he
-maintained, his “conviction and the execution of the sentence would be
-nothing less than willful, malicious and deliberate murder, as foul a
-murder as may be found in the annals of religious, political or any
-sort of persecution.” He charged that the representative of the State
-had “fabricated most of the testimony which was used as a pretense to
-convict,” and that the defendants had been convicted “by a jury picked
-out to convict.”
-
-“I charge,” he continued, “the State’s Attorney and Bonfield with
-the heinous conspiracy to commit murder.” Having thus proved the
-truth of the old adage that “no rogue e’er felt the halter draw with
-good opinion of the law,” Spies next paid his compliments to the
-Citizens’ Association, the Bankers’ Association and the Board of Trade,
-attributing to them the inspiration for the attack on the Haymarket
-meeting, and he proceeded to give an account of his movements on the
-night of that meeting in the company of Legner. He again repeated that,
-“notwithstanding the purchased and perjured testimony of some,” the
-prosecution had not established the defendants’ legal responsibility,
-and insisted that those who had brought about their conviction were
-the “real and only law-breakers.” When he approached this part of the
-subject Spies’ anger scarcely knew any bounds. He rose in a towering
-passion and characterized the proceedings of the trial as “rascalities
-perpetrated in the name of the people.” He continued:
-
- “The contemplated murder of eight men, whose only crime is that they
- have dared to speak the truth, may open the eyes of these suffering
- millions; may wake them up. Indeed, I have noticed that our conviction
- has worked miracles in this direction already. The class that clamors
- for our lives, the good, devout Christians, have attempted in every
- way, through their newspapers and otherwise, to conceal the true
- and only issue in this case. By simply designating the defendants
- as ‘Anarchists,’ and picturing them as a newly-discovered species
- of cannibals, and by inventing shocking and horrifying stories of
- dark conspiracies said to be planned by them, these good Christians
- zealously sought to keep the naked fact from the working people
- and other righteous parties, namely: That on the evening of May 4
- two hundred armed men, under the command of a notorious ruffian,
- attacked a meeting of peaceable citizens! With what intention? With
- the intention of murdering them, or as many of them as they could. I
- refer to the testimony given by two of our witnesses. The wage-workers
- of this city began to object to being fleeced too much—they began
- to say some very true things, but they were highly disagreeable to
- our patrician class; they put forth—well, some very modest demands.
- They thought eight hours’ hard toil a day, for scarcely two hours’
- pay, was enough. This lawless rabble had to be silenced! The only
- way to silence them was to frighten them, and murder those whom they
- looked up to as their ‘leaders.’ Yes, these foreign dogs had to be
- taught a lesson, so that they might never again interfere with the
- high-handed exploitation of their benevolent and Christian masters.
- Bonfield, the man who would bring a blush of shame to the managers
- of the Bartholomew night—Bonfield, the illustrious gentleman with a
- visage that would have done excellent service to Doré in portraying
- Dante’s fiends of hell—Bonfield was the man best fitted to consummate
- the conspiracy of the Citizens’ Association of our patricians. If I
- had thrown that bomb, or had caused it to be thrown, or had known of
- it, I would not hesitate a moment to state so. It is true a number of
- lives were lost—many were wounded. But hundreds of lives were thereby
- saved! But for that bomb there would have been a hundred widows and
- hundreds of orphans where now there are few. These facts have been
- carefully suppressed, and we were accused and convicted of conspiracy
- by the real conspirators and their agents. This, your honor, is one
- reason why sentence should not be passed by a court of justice—if
- that name has any significance at all.”
-
-Spies then adverted to the fact of his having published articles on
-the manufacture of dynamite and bombs, and wanted to know what other
-newspapers in the city had not done the same thing. He forgot to show,
-however, that other papers had never urged the people to use dynamite
-to the destruction of the lives and property of the people.
-
-Spies claimed that his only offense was in espousing the cause of “the
-disinherited and disfranchised millions,” and asked what they had said
-in their speeches and publications.
-
- “We have interpreted to the people their condition and relations in
- society. We have explained to them the different social phenomena
- and the social laws and circumstances under which they occur. We
- have, by way of scientific investigation, incontrovertibly proved and
- brought to their knowledge that the system of wages is the root of
- the present social iniquities—iniquities so monstrous that they cry
- to heaven. We have further said that the wage system, as a specific
- form of social development, would, by the necessity of logic, have
- to make room for higher forms of civilization; that the wage system
- must prepare the way and furnish the foundation for a social system of
- coöperation—that is, _Socialism_. That whether this or that theory,
- this or that scheme regarding future arrangements were accepted, was
- not a matter of choice, but one of historical necessity, and that to
- us the tendency of progress seemed to be _Anarchism_—that is, a free
- society without kings or classes—a society of sovereigns in which
- the liberty and economic equality of all would furnish an unshakable
- equilibrium as a foundation and condition of natural order.”
-
-After some further explanation of Socialism, he said:
-
- “I may have told that individual who appeared here as a witness that
- the workingmen should procure arms, as force would in all probability
- be the _ultima ratio_, and that in Chicago there were so and so many
- armed men, but I certainly did not say that we proposed to inaugurate
- the social revolution. And let me say here: Revolutions are no more
- made than earthquakes and cyclones. Revolutions are the effect of
- certain causes and conditions. I have made social philosophy a
- specific study for more than ten years, and I could not have given
- vent to such nonsense! I do believe, however, that the revolution
- is near at hand—in fact, that it is upon us. But is the physician
- responsible for the death of the patient because he foretold that
- death?”
-
-If the opinions of the court were good, Spies held there was “no person
-in this country who could not be lawfully hanged,” and maintained
-that they ought to be exempted from responsibility because they had
-sought to bring about reforms. Then he turned to the labor movement and
-pronounced his anathema against the wealthy classes.
-
- “If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labor
- movement—the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the
- millions who toil and live in want and misery—the wage slaves—expect
- salvation—if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread
- upon a spark, but there, and there, and behind you and in front of
- you, and everywhere, flames will blaze up. It is a subterranean
- fire. You cannot put it out. The ground is on fire upon which you
- stand. You can’t understand it. You don’t believe in magical arts,
- as your grandfathers did, who burned witches at the stake, but you
- do believe in conspiracies; you believe that all these occurrences
- of late are the work of conspirators! You resemble the child that
- is looking for his picture behind the mirror. What you see and what
- you try to grasp is nothing but the deceptive reflex of the stings of
- your bad conscience. You want to ‘stamp out the conspirators’—the
- agitators? Ah! stamp out every factory lord who has grown wealthy
- upon the unpaid labor of his employés. Stamp out every landlord who
- has amassed fortunes from the rent of overburdened workingmen and
- farmers. Stamp out every machine that is revolutionizing industry and
- agriculture, that intensifies the production, ruins the producer,
- that increases the national wealth, while the creator of all these
- things stands amidst them, tantalized with hunger! Stamp out the
- railroads, the telegraph, the telephone, steam and yourselves—for
- everything breathes the revolutionary spirit. You, gentlemen, are the
- revolutionists. You rebel against the effects of social conditions
- which have tossed you, by the fair hand of fortune, into a magnificent
- paradise. Without inquiring, you imagine that no one else has a
- right in that place. You insist that you are the chosen ones, the
- sole proprietors. The forces that tossed you into the paradise, the
- industrial forces, are still at work. They are growing more active
- and intense from day to day. Their tendency is to elevate all mankind
- to the same level, to have all humanity share in the paradise you now
- monopolize. You, in your blindness, think you can stop the tidal wave
- of civilization and human emancipation by placing a few policemen,
- a few Gatling guns and some regiments of militia on the shore—you
- think you can frighten the rising waves back into the unfathomable
- depths whence they have arisen, by erecting a few gallows in the
- perspective. You, who oppose the natural course of things, _you_ are
- the real revolutionists. _You_ and _you_ alone are the conspirators
- and destructionists!
-
- “Said the court yesterday, in referring to the Board of Trade
- demonstration: ‘These men started out with the express purpose of
- sacking the Board of Trade building.’ While I can’t see what sense
- there would have been in such an undertaking, and while I know that
- the said demonstration was arranged simply as a means of propaganda
- against the system that legalizes the respectable business carried on
- there, I will assume that the three thousand workingmen who marched
- in that procession really intended to sack the building. In this case
- they would have differed from the respectable Board of Trade men only
- in this—that they sought to recover property in an unlawful way,
- while the others sack the entire country lawfully and unlawfully—this
- being their highly respectable profession. This court of ‘justice
- and equity’ proclaims the principle that when two persons do the
- same thing, it is not the same thing. I thank the court for this
- confession. It contains all that we have taught, and for which we are
- to be hanged, in a nutshell. Theft is a respectable profession when
- practiced by the privileged class. It is a felony when resorted to in
- self-preservation by the other class.”
-
-He then scored the capitalistic class, and referred to the strikes in
-the Hocking Valley, East St. Louis, Milwaukee and Chicago. Reverting
-again to the prosecution, he continued:
-
- “‘These men,’ Grinnell said repeatedly, ‘have no principle; they
- are common murderers, assassins, robbers,’ etc. I admit that our
- aspirations and objects are incomprehensible to some, but surely for
- this we are not to be blamed. The assertion, if I mistake not, was
- based on the ground that we sought to destroy property. Whether this
- perversion of facts was intentional, I know not. But in justification
- of our doctrines I will say that the assertion is an infamous
- falsehood. Articles have been read here from the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_
- and _Alarm_ to show the dangerous character of the defendants. The
- files of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ and _Alarm_ have been searched for
- the past years. Those articles which generally commented upon some
- atrocity committed by the authorities upon striking workingmen were
- picked out and read to you. Other articles were not read to the court.
- Other articles were not what was wanted. The State’s Attorney, upon
- those articles (who well knows that he tells a falsehood when he says
- it), asserts that ‘these men have no principle.’”
-
-What a perversion of facts! Some of the articles did comment on some
-alleged atrocity, but those taken at various dates and published
-in a preceding chapter show that force by the use of dynamite
-was continually being agitated. However, in his criticism of the
-prosecution Spies seemed to overlook a great many points. He repeated
-what he had said to the Congregational ministers at the Grand Pacific
-Hotel, on the 9th of January, 1886, with reference to Socialism, and
-then stated that he had seen Lingg only twice before he was arrested,
-but had never spoken to him. With Engel he had not been on speaking
-terms for at least a year, and Fischer had gone about making speeches
-against him. The article in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ with reference to
-the Board of Trade demonstration, he claimed, he had not seen until he
-had read it in the paper. In conclusion he said:
-
- “Now, if we cannot be directly implicated with this affair, connected
- with the throwing of the bomb, where is the law that says that ‘these
- men shall be picked out to suffer’? Show me that law if you have it!
- If the position of the court is correct, then half of this city—half
- of the population of this city—ought to be hanged, because they are
- responsible the same as we are for that act on May 4th. And if not
- half of the population of Chicago is hanged, then show me the law
- that says, ‘Eight men shall be picked out and hanged, as scapegoats’?
- You have no good law. Your decision, your verdict, our conviction is
- nothing but an arbitrary will of this lawless court. It is true there
- is no precedent in jurisprudence in this case! It is true that we have
- called upon the people to arm themselves. It is true that we have told
- them time and again that the great day of change was coming. It was
- not our desire to have bloodshed. We are not beasts. We would not be
- Socialists if we were beasts. It is because of our sensitiveness that
- we have gone into this movement for the emancipation of the oppressed
- and suffering. It is true that we have called upon the people to arm
- and prepare for the stormy times before us. This seems to be the
- ground upon which the verdict is to be sustained. ‘But when a long
- train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object,
- evinces a design to reduce the people under absolute despotism, it
- is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government and
- provide new guards for their future safety.’ This is a quotation
- from the ‘Declaration of Independence.’ Have we broken any laws by
- showing to the people how the abuses that have occurred for the last
- twenty years are invariably pursuing one object, viz.: to establish an
- _oligarchy_ in this country as strong and powerful and monstrous as
- never before has existed in any country? I can well understand why
- that man Grinnell did not urge upon the grand jury to charge us with
- treason. I can well understand it. You cannot try and convict a man
- for treason who has upheld the Constitution against those who try to
- trample it under their feet. It would not have been as easy a job to
- do that, Mr. Grinnell, as to charge ‘these men’ with murder.
-
- “Now these are my ideas. They constitute a part of myself. I cannot
- divest myself of them, nor would I if I could. And if you think that
- you can crush out these ideas that are gaining ground more and more
- every day, if you think you can crush them out by sending us to the
- gallows—if you would once more have people suffer the penalty of
- death because they have dared to tell the truth—and I defy you to
- show us where we have told a lie—I say, if death is the penalty for
- proclaiming the truth, then I will proudly and defiantly pay the
- costly price! Call your hangman! Truth crucified in Socrates, in
- Christ, in Giordano Bruno, in Huss, Galileo, still lives—they and
- others whose number is legion have preceded us on this path. We are
- ready to follow.”
-
-MICHAEL SCHWAB had very little to say, but what he did say was that
-it was “idle and hypocritical to think about justice” having been
-done to them. He criticised the acts of the prosecution in securing
-his conviction “for writing newspaper articles and making speeches,”
-and contended that they had engaged in no conspiracy, as “all they
-did was done in open daylight.” He seemed rather vindictive toward
-Mr. Furthmann for having had the articles in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_
-translated, and excused his own inflammatory utterances by holding that
-after the mayoralty election, in the spring of 1885, Edwin Lee Brown,
-president of the Citizens’ Association, had urged the people, in a
-public speech, “to take possession of the Court-house by force, even
-if they had to wade in blood.” Schwab touched on the labor problem,
-drawing largely from his own experience while living among the poor in
-Europe, and then spoke of the condition of laborers in Chicago, holding
-that they lived in miserable, dilapidated hovels, owned by greedy
-landlords. He continued:
-
- “What these common laborers are to-day, the skilled laborer will be
- to-morrow. Improved machinery, that ought to be a blessing for the
- workingman, under the existing conditions turns for him to a curse.
- Machinery multiplies the army of unskilled laborers, makes the laborer
- more dependent upon the men who own the land and the machines. And
- that is the reason that Socialism and Communism got a foothold in
- this country. The outcry that Socialism, Communism and Anarchism are
- the creed of foreigners, is a big mistake. There are more Socialists
- of American birth in this country than foreigners, and that is much,
- if we consider that nearly half of all industrial workingmen are not
- native Americans. There are Socialistic papers in a great many States,
- edited by Americans for Americans. The capitalistic newspapers conceal
- that fact very carefully.”
-
-In conclusion Schwab said:
-
- “If Anarchy were the thing the State’s Attorney makes it out to be,
- how could it be that such eminent scholars as Prince Krapotkin and the
- greatest living geographer, Elisée Reclus, were avowed Anarchists,
- even editors of Anarchistic newspapers? Anarchy is a dream, but only
- in the present. It will be realized. Reason will grow in spite of all
- obstacles. Who is the man that has the cheek to tell us that human
- development has already reached its culminating point? I know that our
- ideal will not be accomplished this or next year, but I know that it
- will be accomplished as near as possible, some day, in the future. It
- is entirely wrong to use the word Anarchy as synonymous with violence.
- Violence is one thing and Anarchy another. In the present state of
- society violence is used on all sides, and therefore we advocated
- the use of violence against violence, but against violence only, as
- a necessary means of defense. I never read Mr. Most’s book, simply
- because I did not find time to read it. And if I had read it, what
- of it? I am an agnostic, but I like to read the Bible nevertheless.
- I have not the slightest idea who threw the bomb on the Haymarket,
- and had no knowledge of any conspiracy to use violence on that or any
- other night.”
-
-OSCAR NEEBE followed. In his opening sentence he very correctly
-diagnosed the situation when he said: “I have found out during the
-last few days what law is. Before I didn’t know.” He, more than all
-the other defendants, except Parsons, ought to have known the law. He
-was a citizen, and as such he should have known the law of the land
-long before he engaged in the inculcation of force. He spoke of his
-having presided at Socialistic meetings, having headed the Board of
-Trade procession, and how he happened to drive to the office of the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ after learning on May 5 that Spies and Schwab had
-been arrested.
-
-The rest of his statement consists simply of abuse of the prosecution,
-laudation of his own acts in endeavoring to ameliorate the
-condition of the workingmen and in continuing the publication of
-the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ after May 4, and a disavowal of his having
-distributed the “Revenge” circular. In speaking of his having organized
-the Beer-brewers’ Union and attended a meeting at the North Side Turner
-Hall to announce the result of his conference with the bosses, he said:
-
- “I entered the hall. I went on the platform and I presented the union
- with a document signed by every beer-brewer of Chicago, guaranteeing
- ten hours’ labor and $65 wages—$15 more wages per month—and no
- Sunday work, to give the men a chance to go to church, as many of
- them are good Christians. There are a good many Christians among
- them. So, in that way, I was aiding Christianity—helping the men to
- go to church. After the meeting I left the hall, and stepped into
- the front saloon, and there were circulars lying there called the
- ‘Revenge’ circular. I picked up a couple of them from a table and
- folded them together and put them in my pocket, not having a chance to
- read them, because everybody wanted to treat me. They all thought it
- was by my efforts that they got $15 a month more wages and ten hours
- a day. Why, I didn’t have a chance to read the circulars. From there
- I went to another saloon across the street, and the president of the
- Beer-brewers’ Union was there; he asked me to walk with him, and on
- the way home we went into Heine’s saloon. He was talking to Heine
- about the McCormick affair, and I picked up a circular and read it,
- and Heine asked me: ‘Can you give me one?’ I gave him one, and he
- laid it back on his counter. That is my statement.”
-
-In conclusion Neebe said:
-
- “They found a revolver in my house, and a red flag there. I
- organized trades-unions. I was for reduction of the hours of labor,
- and the education of laboring men, and the reëstablishment of the
- _Arbeiter-Zeitung_—the workingmen’s newspaper. There is no evidence
- to show that I was connected with the bomb-throwing, or that I
- was near it, or anything of that kind. So I am only sorry, your
- honor—that is, if you can stop it or help it, I will ask you to do
- it—that is to hang me, too; for I think it is more honorable to die
- suddenly than to be killed by inches. I have a family and children;
- and if they know their father is dead, they will bury him. They can go
- to the grave, and kneel down by the side of it; but they can’t go to
- the penitentiary and see their father, who was convicted for a crime
- that he hasn’t had anything to do with. That is all I have got to say.
- Your honor, I am sorry I am not to be hung with the rest of the men.”
-
-ADOLPH FISCHER rose with some signs of nervousness and proceeded slowly
-and deliberately with his protest. “I was tried here in this room,” he
-said, “for murder, and I was convicted of Anarchy.” He objected most
-vigorously to the charge that he was a murderer, and insisted that
-he had had nothing to do with the throwing of the bomb. He confessed
-to having made arrangements for the Haymarket meeting, to having
-been present, but urged that it had not been called for the purpose
-of committing violence or crime. He said he had been present at the
-Monday evening meeting,] of which Waller was chairman, but aside from
-volunteering to have hand-bills printed for the Haymarket meeting he
-had not done anything. He had invited Spies to speak at the Haymarket,
-and in the original copy he had had the line put in, “Workingmen,
-appear armed!” His reason for this was, he said, that he “did not want
-the workingmen to be shot down in that meeting as on other occasions.”
-He then entered into some details as to his movements on the night of
-the Haymarket gathering and again launched into a protest against the
-jury’s verdict. He said that the verdict against him was because he was
-an Anarchist, and “an Anarchist,” he explained with a defiant toss of
-his head, “is always ready to die for his principles.” He concluded as
-follows:
-
- “The more the believers in just causes are persecuted, the more
- quickly will their ideas be realized. For instance, in rendering
- such an unjust and barbarous verdict, the twelve ‘honorable men’ in
- the jury-box have done more for the furtherance of Anarchism than
- the convicted have accomplished in a generation. This verdict is
- a death-blow to free speech, free press and free thought in this
- country, and the people will be conscious of it, too. This is all I
- care to say.”
-
-[Illustration:
-
-LINGG’S SUICIDE BOMBS.—FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.
-
-Made of gas-pipe, six inches in length, and with a notched bolt, as
-shown, inserted in the bottom of each. These were found in Lingg’s
-cell, and are similar to the bomb with which he took his life. The fuse
-is so short that explosion ensues in one second after lighting, making
-them fitted for self-destruction only.]
-
-LOUIS LINGG was in no gentle frame of mind when he advanced to enter
-his objection at the bar of the court. After a thrust at the court,
-he said that he had been accused of murder and been convicted; and
-“what proof,” he defiantly asked, “have you brought that I am guilty?”
-He acknowledged that he had helped Seliger to make bombs; “but,” he
-stoutly maintained, “what you have not proven—even with the assistance
-of your bought ‘squealer,’ Seliger, who would appear to have acted
-such a prominent part in the affair—is that any of those bombs were
-taken to the Haymarket.” He referred to the testimony of the experts as
-simply showing that the Haymarket bomb bore “a certain resemblance to
-those bombs of his,” and that was the kind of evidence, he held, upon
-which he had been convicted. He had been convicted of murder, but it
-was Anarchy on which the verdict was based. “You have charged me with
-despising ‘law and order,’” he said. “What does your ‘law and order’
-amount to? Its representatives are the police, and they have thieves in
-their ranks.” He then opened fire on me because the detectives I had
-sent out had broken into his room, as he claimed, to effect his arrest,
-and insisted that he had not been at the Monday night meeting, but at
-Zepf’s Hall, at that time, which I had stated to be false.
-
-Lingg next turned his attention to Mr. Grinnell, and accused him
-of having “leagued himself with a parcel of base, hireling knaves,
-to bring me to the gallows.” Then the Judge came in for a scoring.
-“The Judge himself,” he held, “was forced to admit that the State’s
-Attorney had not been able to connect me with the bomb-throwing.
-The latter knows how to get around it, however. He charges me with
-being a ‘conspirator.’ How does he prove it? Simply by declaring the
-International Workingmen’s Association to be a ‘conspiracy.’ I was a
-member of that body, so he has the charge securely fastened on me.
-Excellent!” He concluded as follows:
-
- “I tell you frankly and openly, I am for force. I have already told
- Captain Schaack, ‘If they use cannon against us, we shall use dynamite
- against them.’ I repeat that I am the enemy of the ‘order’ of to-day,
- and I repeat that, with all my powers, so long as breath remains in
- me, I shall combat it. I declare again, frankly and openly, that I am
- in favor of using force. I have told Captain Schaack, and I stand by
- it, ‘If you cannonade us, we shall dynamite you.’ You laugh! Perhaps
- you think, ‘You’ll throw no more bombs,’ but let me assure you that
- I die happy on the gallows, so confident am I that the hundreds and
- thousands to whom I have spoken will remember my words; and when
- you shall have hanged us, then, mark my words, they will do the
- bomb-throwing! In this hope do I say to you: ‘I despise you. I despise
- your order, your laws, your force-propped authority.’ Hang me for it!”
-
-GEORGE ENGEL appeared the least concerned of all when it came his turn
-to respond to the court’s question as to any reasons he might have
-against the infliction of the death penalty. He opened by setting
-forth his arrival in America in 1872 and gave some reasons which had
-prompted him to espouse Anarchy. It was “the poverty, the misery of the
-working classes.” People here in a free land, he said, were “doomed
-to die of starvation.” He had read the works of Lassalle, Marx and
-George, and after studying the labor question carefully he had come, he
-said, to the conclusion that “a workingman could not decently exist in
-this rich country.” He had sought to remedy the inequalities through
-the ballot-box, but after a time, he said, it had become clear to him
-“that the working classes could never bring about a form of society
-guaranteeing work, bread and a happy life by means of the ballot.” He
-had labored for a time in the interest of the Social-Democratic party,
-but, finding political corruption in its ranks, he had left it.
-
- “I left this party and joined the International Working People’s
- Association, that was just being organized. The members of that body
- have the firm conviction that the workingman can free himself from
- the tyranny of capitalism only through force—just as all advances
- of which history speaks have been brought about through force alone.
- We see from the history of this country that the first colonists won
- their liberty only through force; that through force slavery was
- abolished, and just as the man who agitated against slavery in this
- country had to ascend the gallows, so also must we. He who speaks
- for the workingmen to-day must hang. And why? Because this republic
- is not governed by people who have obtained their office honestly.
- Who are the leaders at Washington that are to guard the interests of
- this nation? Have they been elected by the people, or by the aid of
- their money? They have no right to make laws for us, because they were
- not elected by the people. These are the reasons why I have lost all
- respect for American laws.”
-
-Engel then alluded to the displacement of labor by machinery and held
-that the amelioration of the workingmen’s condition could only be
-effected through Socialism. As to his conviction, he declared that he
-was not at all surprised. He had learned long ago that the workingman
-had no more rights here than anywhere else in the world. His crime,
-he insisted, consisted simply in having labored to “bring about a
-system of society by which it is impossible for one to hoard millions,
-through the improvements in machinery, while the great masses sink to
-degradation and misery.” He believed that inventions should be free
-to all and touched on the aims of Anarchy. In his opinion “Anarchy
-and Socialism were as much alike as one egg is to another.” Whatever
-difference existed was in tactics.
-
- “It is true, I am acquainted with several of my fellow-defendants;
- with most of them, however, but slightly, through seeing them at
- meetings, and hearing them speak. Nor do I deny that I, too, have
- spoken at meetings, saying that, if every workingman had a bomb in his
- pocket, capitalistic rule would soon come to an end.
-
- “That is my opinion, and my wish; it became my conviction when I
- mentioned the wickedness of the capitalistic conditions of the day.
-
- “Can any one feel any respect for a government that accords rights
- only to the privileged classes, and none for the workers? We have
- seen but recently how the coal barons combined to form a conspiracy
- to raise the price of coal, while at the same time reducing the
- already low wages of their men. Are they accused of conspiracy on that
- account? But when workingmen dare ask an increase in their wages, the
- militia and the police are sent out to shoot them down.
-
- “For such a government as this I can feel no respect, and will combat
- them, despite their power, despite their police, despite their spies.
-
- “I hate and combat, not the individual capitalist, but the system that
- gives him those privileges. My greatest wish is that workingmen may
- recognize who are their friends and who are their enemies.
-
- “As to my conviction, brought about, as it was, through capitalistic
- influence, I have not one word to say.”
-
-SAMUEL FIELDEN entered into a long disquisition on the troubles of the
-working classes all over the world, and covered much of the ground
-traversed by him when on the witness-stand. He spoke of his having
-been in England a Sunday School superintendent, a local preacher of
-the Methodist Church, and an exhorter, and then chronicled his change
-of convictions after his arrival in the United States in 1868. He
-branched out into an exposition of Socialism and cited instances of the
-oppression practiced on working people by capitalists. He then reviewed
-some of the points in the testimony against him and sought to show
-wherein his speeches at various meetings had been incorrectly reported
-in the newspapers. He had neither said at the Haymarket meeting, “Here
-come the bloodhounds,” nor had he fired a revolver. He claimed that
-the meeting had been a peaceable one, and held that there had been no
-indication of trouble, and that his language had not been incendiary.
-He said:
-
- “I am charged with having said, ‘Stab the law.’ No one claims but that
- it was in connection with my conception of the meaning of Foran’s
- speech, and the word ‘stab’ is not necessarily a threat of violence
- upon any person. Here at your primary elections you frequently hear
- the adherents of different candidates state before the primaries are
- called that they will ‘knife’ so and so. Do they mean that they are
- going to kill him, stab him, take his life away from him? They are
- forcible expressions—very emphatic expressions. They are adjectives
- which are used in different ways to carry conviction, and perhaps make
- the language more startling to the audience, in order that they may
- pay attention.”
-
-In speaking of his arrest he said:
-
- “I didn’t attempt to run away. I had been out walking around the
- street that morning, and there was plenty of opportunity for me to
- have been hundreds of miles away. When the officer came there I opened
- the door to him. He said he wanted me. I knew him by sight and I knew
- what was his occupation. I said: ‘All right; I will go with you.’ I
- have said here that I thought, when the representatives of the State
- had inquired by means of their policemen as to my connection with it,
- that I should have been released. And I say now, in view of all the
- authorities that have been read on the law and regarding accessories,
- that there is nothing in the evidence that has been introduced to
- connect me with that affair. One of the Chicago papers, at the
- conclusion of the State’s Attorney’s case, said that they might have
- proved more about these men, about where they were and what they were
- doing on the 2d and 3d of May. When I was told that Captain Schaack
- had got confessions out of certain persons connected with this affair,
- I said: ‘Let them confess all they like. As long as they will tell
- only the truth, I care nothing for their confessions.’”
-
-Fielden next dwelt upon his treatment at the Central Station, and
-criticised the searching of houses without warrant. With reference to
-the trial he said:
-
- “We claim that the foulest criminal that could have been picked up in
- the slums of any city of Christendom, or outside of it, would never
- have been convicted on such testimony as has been brought in here,
- if he had not been a dangerous man in the opinion of the privileged
- classes. We claim that we are convicted, not because we have committed
- murder. We are convicted because we were very energetic in advocacy
- of the rights of labor. I call your attention to a very significant
- fact—that on this day, at this time when the sentence of death is
- going to be passed on us, the Stock-yards employers have notified
- their employés that they will be required to work ten hours next
- Monday or they will shut down. I think it is a logical conclusion to
- draw that these men think they have got a dangerous element out of
- the way now, and they can return again to the ten-hour system. I know
- that I had considerable to do with the eight-hour question, although I
- only spoke once in that neighborhood, every man there being a stranger
- to me—but I went down there in March previous and made an eight hour
- speech and formed the nucleus of an eight-hour organization there, and
- the Stock-yards succeeded in starting the eight-hour system, though
- they have not been able to keep it up in its entirety. We claim that
- we have done much.”
-
-He predicted that it would be a grand day when everybody adopted
-Socialism, and then touched on his own case, denying that he had
-entered into a conspiracy. Fischer, Lingg and Engel, he said, were
-men with whom he had not associated for a year, and therefore, he
-maintained, he could not have been conspiring with them. He had never,
-he said, seen a dynamite bomb till he saw one in the court-room, and
-had never known that dynamite was kept at the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_
-office. In concluding his speech Fielden said:
-
- Your honor, I have worked at hard labor since I was eight years of
- age. I went into a cotton factory when I was eight years old, and I
- have worked continually since, and there has never been a time in my
- history that I could have been bought or paid into a single thing by
- any man or for any purpose which I did not believe to be true. To
- contradict the lie that was published in connection with the bill by
- the grand jury charging us with murder, I wish to say that I have
- never received one cent for agitating. When I have gone out of the
- city I have had my expenses paid. But often when I have gone into
- communities, when I would have to depend upon those communities for
- paying my way, I have often come back to this city with money out of
- pocket, which I had earned by hard labor, and I had to pay for the
- privilege of my agitation out of the little money I might have in
- my possession. To-day as the beautiful autumn sun kisses with balmy
- breeze the cheek of every free man, I stand here never to bathe
- my head in its rays again. I have loved my fellow-men as I have
- loved myself. I have hated trickery, dishonesty and injustice. The
- nineteenth century commits the crime of killing its best friend. It
- will live to repent of it. But, as I have said before, if it will do
- any good, I freely give myself up. I trust the time will come when
- there will be a better understanding, more intelligence, and above
- the mountains of iniquity, wrong and corruption, I hope the sun of
- righteousness and truth and justice will come to bathe in its balmy
- light an emancipated world.”
-
-ALBERT R. PARSONS consumed a great deal of time in the delivery of
-his speech. He began by declaring that the trial had been conducted
-with “passion, heat and anger,” and pronounced the verdict as one of
-“passion, born in passion, nurtured in passion, and the sum totality of
-the organized passion of the city of Chicago.” For that reason he asked
-for a suspension of sentence and a new trial. He said:
-
- “Now, I stand here as one of the people, a common man, a workingman,
- one of the masses, and I ask you to give ear to what I have to say.
- You stand as a bulwark; you are as a brake between them and us. You
- are here as the representative of justice, holding the poised scales
- in your hands. You are expected to look neither to the right nor to
- the left, but to that by which justice, and justice alone, shall be
- subserved. The conviction of a man, your honor, does not necessarily
- prove that he is guilty. Your law-books are filled with instances
- where men have been carried to the scaffold and after their death
- it has been proven that their execution was a judicial murder. Now,
- what end can be subserved in hurrying this matter through in the
- manner in which it has been done? Where are the ends of justice
- subserved, and where is truth found in hurrying seven human beings at
- the rate of express speed upon a fast train to the scaffold and an
- ignominious death? Why, if your honor please, the very method of our
- extermination, the deep damnation of its taking-off, appeals to your
- honor’s sense of justice, of rectitude, and of honor. A judge may also
- be an unjust man. Such things have been known.”
-
-Parsons acknowledged being an Anarchist and proceeded to show the ends
-Anarchy sought. Then he asked:
-
- “Now, what is this labor question which these gentlemen treat with
- such profound contempt, which these distinguished ‘honorable’
- gentlemen would throttle and put to ignominious death, and hurry us
- like rats to our holes? What is it? You will pardon me if I exhibit
- some feeling? I have sat here for two months, and these men have
- poured their vituperations out upon my head, and I have not been
- permitted to utter a single word in my own defense. For two months
- they have poured their poison upon me and my colleagues. For two
- months they have sat here and spat like adders the vile poison
- of their tongues, and if men could have been placed in a mental
- inquisition and tortured to death, these men would have succeeded here
- now—vilified, misrepresented, held in loathsome contempt, without a
- chance to speak or contradict a word. Therefore, if I show emotion,
- it is because of this, and if my comrades and colleagues with me
- here have spoken in such strains as these, it is because of this.
- Pardon us. Look at it from the right standpoint. What is this labor
- question? It is not a question of emotion; the labor question is not
- a question of sentiment; it is not a religious matter; it is not a
- political problem; no, sir, it is a stern economic fact, a stubborn
- and immovable fact.”
-
-He entered into a long explanation of the capitalistic system and
-pointed to the troubles experienced by the laboring classes under
-the present conditions. He spoke of capitalistic combinations and
-“corners,” touched on landlordism, discoursed on the eight-hour
-movement, and then reviewed some of the evidence against him. Referring
-to the _Alarm_, of which he had been editor, he said:
-
- “Why, the very article that you quote in the _Alarm_, a copy of which
- I have not, but which I would like to see, calling the American group
- to assemble for the purpose of considering military matters and
- military organization, states specifically that the purpose and object
- is to take into consideration measures of defense against unlawful and
- unconstitutional attacks of the police. The identical article shows
- it. You forgot surely that fact when you made this observation; and
- I defy any one to show, in a speech that is susceptible of proof, by
- proof, that I have ever said aught by word of mouth or by written
- article except self-defense. Does not the Constitution of the country,
- under whose flag myself and my forefathers were born for the last
- two hundred and sixty years, provide that protection, and give me,
- their descendant, that right? Does not the Constitution say that I,
- as an American, have a right to keep and to bear arms? I stand upon
- that right. Let me see if this court will deprive me of it. Let me
- call your attention to another point here. These articles that appear
- in the _Alarm_, for some of them I am not responsible any more than
- is the editor of any other paper. And I did not write everything in
- the _Alarm_, and it might be possible that there were some things in
- that paper which I am not ready to indorse. I am frank to admit that
- such is the case. I suppose that you can scarcely find an editor of a
- paper in the world but that could conscientiously say the same thing.
- Now, am I to be dragged up here and executed for the utterances and
- writings of other men, even though they were published in the columns
- of a paper of which I was the editor? Your honor, you must remember
- that the _Alarm_ was a labor paper, published by the International
- Working People’s Association, belonging to that body. I was elected
- its editor by the organization, and, as labor editors generally are,
- I was handsomely paid. I had saw-dust pudding as a general thing for
- dinner. My salary was eight dollars a week, and I have received that
- salary as editor of the _Alarm_ for over two years and a half—eight
- dollars a week! I was paid by the association. It stands upon the
- books. Go down to the office and consult the business manager. Look
- over the record in the book, and it will show you that A. R. Parsons
- received eight dollars a week as editor of the _Alarm_ for over two
- years and a half. This paper belonged to the organization. It was
- theirs. They sent in their articles—Tom, Dick and Harry; everybody
- wanted to have something to say, and I had no right to shut off
- anybody’s complaint.”
-
-He then offered some reasons to justify his utterances on labor
-questions. He quoted from newspapers to show their hostility to
-the interests of labor, and he dwelt on various strikes in the
-United States and endeavored to show how the men had been treated
-by corporations. The tramp question was next handled, and Parsons
-maintained that the present social system was responsible for the fact
-that millions did not know where to get a bed or supper. He continued:
-
- “Who are the mob? Why, dissatisfied people, dissatisfied workingmen
- and women; people who are working for starvation wages, people who are
- on a strike for better pay—these are the mob. They are always the
- mob. That is what the riot drill is for. Suppose a case that occurs.
- The First Regiment is out with a thousand men armed with the latest
- improved Winchester rifles. Here are the mobs; here are the Knights
- of Labor and the trades-unions, and all of the organizations without
- arms. They have no treasury, and a Winchester rifle costs eighteen
- dollars. They cannot purchase those things. We cannot organize an
- army. It takes capital to organize an army. It takes as much money to
- organize an army as to organize industry, or as to build railroads;
- therefore, it is impossible for the working classes to organize and
- buy Winchester rifles. What can they do? What must they do? Your
- honor, the dynamite bomb, I am told, costs six cents. It can be made
- by anybody. The Winchester rifle costs eighteen dollars. That is the
- difference. Am I to be blamed for that? Am I to be hanged for saying
- this? Am I to be destroyed for this? What have I done? Go dig up the
- ashes of the man who invented this thing. Find his ashes and scatter
- them to the winds, because he gave this power to the world. It was not
- I.”
-
-Coming to the Haymarket meeting and referring to the presence of the
-police as an affront, he said:
-
- “Was not that a most grievous outrage? Was not that a violation of
- all of those principles for which our forefathers struggled in this
- country? At this juncture some unknown and unproven person throws a
- bomb among the police, killing several men. You say that I did it,
- or you say that I knew of it. Where is your proof, gentlemen of the
- prosecution? You have none. You didn’t have any. Oh, but you have
- a theory, and that theory is that no one else could have had any
- motive to hurl that missile of death except myself, and, as is the
- common remark of the great papers of the city, the police are never
- short of a theory. There is always a theory on hand for everything.
- A theory they have got, and especially the detectives; they hatch up
- a theory at once and begin to follow that out. There was a theory
- carried out during this trial. Let us examine that theory. I say that
- a Pinkerton man, or a member of the Chicago police force itself, had
- as much inducement to throw that bomb as I had, and why? Because it
- would demonstrate the necessity for their existence and result in an
- increase of their pay and their wages. Are these people any too good
- to do such a thing? Are they any better than I am? Are their motives
- any better than my own? Let us look at this thing now from every
- standpoint. Perhaps, on the other hand, the dread missile was hurled
- in revenge by some poor man or woman, or child even, whose parent or
- protector or friend was killed by the police in some of their numerous
- massacres of the people before. Who knows? And if it was, are we seven
- to suffer death for that? Are we responsible for that act? Or, might
- it not be that some person with the fear of death in his eyes threw
- that bomb in self-defense? And if they did, am I responsible for it?
- Am I to be executed for that? Is it law to put me to death for that?
- And who knows? My own deliberate opinion concerning this Haymarket
- affair is that the death-dealing missile was the work, the deliberate
- work, of monopoly, the act of those who themselves charge us with the
- deed. I am not alone in this view of the matter.”
-
-Monopoly, Parsons held, was responsible for the labor troubles;
-
- “What are the real facts of that Haymarket tragedy? Mayor Harrison, of
- Chicago, has caused to be published his opinion—because, mark you,
- your honor, this is all a matter of conjecture. It is only presumed
- that I threw the bomb. They have only assumed that some one of these
- men threw that bomb. It is only an inference that any of us had
- anything to do with it. It is not a fact, and it is not proven. It is
- merely an opinion. Your honor admits that we did not perpetrate the
- deed, or know who did it, but that we, by our speeches, instigated
- some one else to do so. Now, let us see the other side of this case.
- Mayor Harrison, of Chicago, has caused to be published in the New York
- _World_—and the interview was copied in the _Tribune_ of this city,
- in which he says: ‘I do not believe there was any intention on the
- part of Spies and those men to have bombs thrown at the Haymarket.
- If so, why was there but one thrown? It was just as easy for them to
- throw a dozen or fifty, and to throw them in all parts of the city,
- as it was to have thrown one. And again, if it was intended to throw
- bombs that night, the leaders would not have been there at all, in
- my opinion. Like commanders-in-chief, they would have been in a safe
- place. No, it cannot be shown that there was any intention on the
- part of these individuals to kill that particular man who was killed
- at that Haymarket meeting.’ Now, your honor, this is the Mayor of
- Chicago. He is a sensible man. He is in a position to know what he is
- talking about. He has first-rate opportunities to form an intelligent
- opinion, and his opinion is worthy of respect. He knows more about
- this thing than the jury that sat in this room, for he knows—I
- suspect that the Mayor knows—of some of the methods by which most of
- this so-called evidence and testimony was manufactured. I don’t charge
- it, but possibly he has had some intimation of it, and if he has, he
- knows more about this case and the merits of this case than did the
- jury who sat here. There is too much at stake to take anything for
- granted. Your honor can’t afford to do that.
-
- “Is it nothing to destroy the lives of seven men? Are the rights of
- the poor of no consequence? Is it nothing that we should regard it so
- lightly, as a mere pastime? That is why I stand here at such length
- to present this case to you, that you may understand it; that you may
- have our side of this question as well as that of the prosecution.”
-
-Parsons then referred to attacks of the police on workingmen’s
-meetings, and reviewed some of the evidence against himself, insisting
-that he had never seen Lingg until he saw him in the court-room.
-
- “Waller testified in chief, and reiterated it in cross-examination,
- that Engel and Fischer, these noble and brave Germans, offered a
- resolution at Greif’s Hall, on the announcement that six men had been
- wantonly and brutally murdered by the police at McCormick’s, that if
- other men should come into encounter with the police we should aid
- them; and further swore that this plan was to be followed only when
- the police, by brutal force, should interfere with the workmen’s right
- of free assemblage and free speech. Now, then, where is the foul and
- dastardly criminal conspiracy here? Where is it? So preposterous was
- it on its face to call such a noble compact to do a lawful thing a
- conspiracy, that it became necessary, in face of a dozen witnesses,
- both for the prosecution and the defense, who swear that the bomb
- came from the pavement on Desplaines Street, south of the alley,
- between the alley and Randolph Street—a statement made by Bonfield
- himself to reporters about half an hour after the tragedy occurred,
- and published in the _Times_, on May 5, the following morning—Louis
- Haas, Bonfield’s special detective on the ground, at the Coroner’s
- inquest, swore the bomb was thrown from the east side of Desplaines
- Street, and about fifteen feet, he believed, south of the alley,
- a statement confirmed by the witness Burnett, for the defense,
- who located it fifteen feet further south than Haas or Bonfield
- did—still, on the impeached testimony of Gilmer, who swore the bomb
- was thrown from within the alley, we are convicted, because he was
- also willing to perjure himself by swearing that Spies lit the fuse of
- the fatal missile. The idea of a man striking a match in an alley to
- light a bomb in the midst of a crowd, the people and police standing
- all around him! It seems to me that such a statement as that ought,
- among sensible men, on the face of it, to carry its own refutation.
- Perfectly absurd! If this statement bore the semblance of truth with
- regard to Gilmer, or was the truth, not one of these defendants would
- shrink from the responsibility of the right of self-defense, your
- honor, and of free speech, and the right of the people peaceably to
- assemble. It is because this is not the work of the Anarchists or of
- the workingmen that we repel the charge, which proves there was no
- concerted action, and that it was none of the plans of these groups.
- It is not unlawful to repel an invasion of our meetings.
-
- “About this time some one, as testified to by three reputable
- witnesses, stopped at Indianapolis. That was in May. The Haymarket
- tragedy was the 4th. This man testifies to that fact. A stranger
- stops there. He says: ‘I am going to Chicago. I have something that
- will work. You will hear from it.’ The man was in his cups, no doubt;
- probably he drank too much. The Pinkertons are not all temperance men;
- they sometimes take a little, and sometimes possibly take a little too
- much. Possibly he talked a little more than he ought to have talked.
- Possibly he didn’t care, but at any rate it is sworn to that he said
- it. He came to Chicago, and the bomb was heard from and heard around
- the world. Your honor, is this an unreasonable assumption? It is far
- more likely, much more reasonable than your honor’s surmise that I
- instigated some one to do it.
-
- “The absolute proof that the missile thrown was not dynamite, but
- what was known in the late civil war as an infernal bomb, is in
- the evidence of every surgeon who testified—that all incisions
- were clean, and that the flesh was torn as from an explosive in the
- interior. It was testified by these scientific men, your honor,
- that dynamite is percussive, and had a shell the size of Lingg’s
- manufacture, on exhibition in evidence, been thrown in the closed
- ranks of the police, as was this infernal machine, instead of killing
- but one on the spot, and wounding a few others, it would have blown to
- unrecognizable fragments the platoons in the vicinity, and the wounds,
- where there were wounds, would have been as clean as with solid
- projectiles.
-
- “This was an infernal bomb from New York, brought there by the
- Indianapolis traveler, and not a dynamite bomb, the description in its
- effects upon its victims exactly corresponding with the description
- of those explosives when once used in battle on the Potomac. The
- hollow bullets within the shell, after entering the victim, exploded,
- lacerating the flesh and inflicting ugly internal and really infernal
- wounds.
-
- “Six of these condemned men were not even present at the Haymarket
- meeting when the tragedy occurred. One of them was five miles
- away, at the Deering Harvester Works, in Lake View, addressing a
- mass-meeting of two thousand workingmen. Another was at home, in bed,
- and knew not of the meeting being held at all until the next day.
- These facts, your honor, stand uncontradicted before this court. Only
- one witness—Gilmer—and his testimony is overwhelmingly impeached,
- as I remarked before—connected the other two—two only—of these men
- with the tragedy at the Haymarket at all.
-
- “Now, with these facts, the attempt to make out a case of conspiracy
- against us is a contemptible farce. What are the facts testified
- to by the two so-called informers? They said that two of these
- defendants were present at the so-called conspiracy meeting of Monday
- night. What, then, have you done with the other six men who were
- not members—who were not present, and did not know of the meeting
- being held Monday night? These two so-called informers testified
- that at the so-called conspiracy meeting of May 3 it was resolved
- that in the future, when police and militia should attack and club
- and kill workingmen at their meetings, then, and then only, they
- were in duty bound to help defend these working people against such
- unlawful, unrighteous and outrageous assaults. That was all that was
- said or done. Was that a conspiracy? If it was, your honor, it was a
- conspiracy to do right and oppose what is wrong.
-
- “But your sentence says that it is criminal for the workingmen to
- resolve to defend their lives and their liberties and their happiness
- against brutal, bloody and unlawful assaults of the police and
- militia.”
-
-Parsons again returned to Anarchy and defined its doctrines at some
-length. In concluding his remarks, which consumed two hours on Friday
-and six hours on Saturday, he said:
-
- “The next day I saw that they were dragging these men to prison,
- treating them in a shameful manner. I left the city. I went to Geneva,
- Ill., for a couple of days; staid there with friend Holmes. Then I
- went to Elgin, Ill.; staid there a couple of days. Then I left there
- and went to Waukesha, Wis., where I obtained employment as a carpenter
- and afterwards as a painter, and remained for over seven weeks in
- Waukesha. My health was debilitated, and I went to the springs when
- I was thirsty. The house I was working on was only half a block from
- the springs, and I needed the recreation and the rest, and the pure
- air, and the water besides. When I saw the day fixed for the opening
- of this trial, knowing I was an innocent man, and also feeling that
- it was my duty to come forward and share whatever fate had in store
- for my comrades, and also to stand, if need be, on the scaffold, and
- vindicate the rights of labor, the cause of liberty, and the relief of
- the oppressed, I returned. How did I return? It is interesting, but
- it will take time to relate it, and I will not state it. I ran the
- gauntlet. I went from Waukesha to Milwaukee. I took the St. Paul train
- at the Milwaukee depot and came to Chicago; arrived here at 8:30, I
- suppose, in the morning; went to the house of my friend Mrs. Ames, on
- Morgan Street, sent for my wife and had a talk with her. I sent word
- to Captain Black that I was here and prepared to surrender. He sent
- word back to me that he was ready to receive me. I met him at the
- threshold of this building, and we came up here together. I stood in
- the presence of this court. I have nothing, not even now, to regret.”
-
-The speeches of the defendants occupied three days—the 7th to the
-9th of October, inclusive—and when Parsons had finished the court
-proceeded to pronounce sentence. Judge Gary said:
-
- “I am quite well aware that what you have said, although addressed
- to me, has been said to the world; yet nothing has been said which
- weakens the force of the proof, or the conclusions therefrom upon
- which the verdict is based. You are all men of intelligence, and know
- that, if the verdict stands, it must be executed. The reasons why it
- shall stand I have already sufficiently stated in deciding the motion
- for a new trial.
-
- “I am sorry beyond any power of expression for your unhappy condition,
- and for the terrible events that have brought it about. I shall
- address to you neither reproaches nor exhortation. What I shall say
- shall be said in the faint hope that a few words from a place where
- the people of the State of Illinois have delegated the authority to
- declare the penalty of a violation of their laws, and spoken upon an
- occasion so solemn and awful as this, may come to the knowledge of and
- be heeded by the ignorant, deluded and misguided men who have listened
- to your counsels and followed your advice. I say in the faint hope;
- for if men are persuaded that because of business differences, whether
- about labor or anything else, they may destroy property and assault
- and beat other men and kill the police if they, in the discharge of
- their duty, interfere to preserve the peace, there is little ground to
- hope that they will listen to any warning.
-
- “It is not the least among the hardships of peaceable, frugal and
- laborious people to endure the tyranny of mobs who, with lawless
- force, dictate to them, under penalty of peril to limb and life,
- where, when and upon what terms they may earn a livelihood for
- themselves and their families. Any government that is worthy of
- the name will strenuously endeavor to secure to all within its
- jurisdiction freedom to follow their lawful avocations in safety for
- their property and their persons, while obeying the law; and the law
- is common sense. It holds each man responsible for the natural and
- probable consequences of his own acts. It holds that whoever advises
- murder is himself guilty of the murder that is committed pursuant to
- his advice, and if men band together for forcible resistance to the
- execution of the law, and advise murder as a means of making such
- resistance effectual,—whether such advice be to one man to murder
- another or to a numerous class to murder men of another class,—all
- who are so banded together are guilty of any murder that is committed
- in pursuance of such advice.
-
- “The people of this country love their institutions. They love their
- homes. They love their property. They will never consent that by
- violence and murder their institutions shall be broken down, their
- homes despoiled and their property destroyed. And the people are
- strong enough to protect and sustain their institutions and to punish
- all offenders against their laws. And those who threaten danger to
- civil society if the law is enforced are leading to destruction
- whoever may attempt to execute such threats.
-
- “The existing order of society can be changed only by the will of the
- majority. Each man has the full right to entertain and advance, by
- speech and print, such opinions as suit himself; and the great body of
- the people will usually care little what he says. But if he proposes
- murder as a means of enforcing them he puts his own life at stake. And
- no clamor about free speech or the evils to be cured or the wrongs to
- be redressed will shield him from the consequences of his crime. His
- liberty is not a license to destroy. The toleration that he enjoys
- he must extend to others, and he must not arrogantly assume that the
- great majority are wrong and that they may rightfully be coerced by
- terror or removed by dynamite.
-
-[Illustration: E. F. L. GAUSS.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
- “It only remains that for the crime you have committed—and of which
- you have been convicted after a trial unexampled in the patience
- with which an outraged people have extended you every protection and
- privilege of the law which you derided and defied—the sentence of
- that law be now given.
-
- “In form and detail that sentence will appear upon the records of
- the court. In substance and effect it is that the defendant Neebe be
- imprisoned in the State Penitentiary at Joliet at hard labor for the
- term of fifteen years.
-
- “And that each of the other defendants, between the hours of ten
- o’clock in the forenoon and two o’clock in the afternoon of the third
- day of December next, in the manner provided by the statute of this
- State, be hung by the neck until he is dead. Remove the prisoners.”
-
- _Capt. Black_—“Your honor knows that we intend to take an appeal to
- the Supreme Court in behalf of all the defendants. I ask that there
- be a stay of execution in the case of Mr. Neebe until the 3d day of
- December.”
-
-[Illustration: HENRY SEVERIN.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
- _Mr. Grinnell_—“If the court please, that is a matter that usually
- stands between counsel for the defendants and the State. Every
- possible facility will be allowed and everything will be granted you
- in that particular that good sense and propriety dictate.”
-
- _Captain Black_—“That is sufficient.”
-
-Thus closed the most remarkable trial which ever engaged the attention
-of a judge and jury in America. It was begun, as stated, on the 21st
-day of June, 1886, and ended on the 20th day of August, thus occupying
-exactly two months. I cannot close this chapter without paying a
-deserved tribute to Mr. E. F. L. Gauss, who acted as interpreter
-throughout the trial. A very large proportion of the witnesses
-testified in foreign tongues, but in all the mass of testimony rendered
-into English by Mr. Gauss, not a syllable of the translation was ever
-challenged.
-
-Chief Bailiff Henry Severin, with his staff of twenty-six men, had
-charge of the eight defendants. It was his duty to bring the prisoners
-from and to the court, to preserve order in the crowded court-room, and
-to guard the jury, escorting them to and from their hotel and in their
-walks, and watching out to prevent any attack by the malcontents upon
-the officers of the court.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXIV.
-
- In the Supreme Court—A _Supersedeas_ Secured—Justice Magruder
- Delivers the Opinion—A Comprehensive Statement of the Case—How Degan
- was Murdered—Who Killed Him?—The Law of Accessory—The Meaning
- of the Statute—Were the Defendants Accessories?—The Questions
- at Issue—The Characteristics of the Bomb—Fastening the Guilt on
- Lingg—The Purposes of the Conspiracy—How they were Proved—A
- Damning Array of Evidence—Examining the Instructions—No Error Found
- in the Trial Court’s Work—The Objection to the Jury—The Juror
- Sandford—Judge Gary Sustained—Mr. Justice Mulkey’s Remarks—The Law
- Vindicated.
-
-
-ALTHOUGH doomed to die, the prisoners did not despair. Their counsel
-led them to believe that the State Supreme Court would certainly
-grant them a rehearing, and the first step to get their case before
-that court was to secure a stay of the execution of the sentence. For
-this purpose Hon. Leonard Swett was called into the case to assist
-Capt. Black, and the two gentlemen accordingly went before Chief
-Justice Scott, and on the 25th of November, 1886, secured the desired
-_supersedeas_. In March, 1887, the appeal came before the Supreme Court
-of Illinois, and arguments were heard in the case until the 18th of
-the same month, when the matter was taken under advisement. Several
-months elapsed before a decision was handed down, but meanwhile all
-the prisoners expressed the utmost confidence in a reversal of the
-judgment of the Criminal Court. Their counsel were alike confident of a
-rehearing, and sympathizers joined in the hopes indulged in by the men
-behind the bars and their representatives before the bar.
-
-On Wednesday, September 14, 1887, however, the Supreme Court rendered
-its decision, sustaining the findings of the lower court in every
-particular. It was given by the full bench, and there was not a
-dissenting opinion. Justice Benjamin D. Magruder delivered the opinion.
-After stating various rulings bearing on murder, conspiracy, accessory
-before the fact and other legal points involved in the case, and citing
-numerous extracts from the organs of the Anarchists and Herr Most’s
-book, he reviewed the authorities given by the counsel to sustain their
-respective sides, and then delivered the opinion of the court, as
-follows:
-
- “This case comes before us by writ of error to the Criminal Court of
- Cook County. The writ has been made a _supersedeas_.
-
- “Plaintiffs in error were tried in the summer of 1886 for the murder
- of Mathias J. Degan, on May 4, 1886, in the city of Chicago, Cook
- County, Illinois. On August 20, 1886, the jury returned a verdict
- finding the defendants August Spies, Michael Schwab, Samuel Fielden,
- Albert R. Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel and Louis Lingg guilty
- of murder, and fixing death as the penalty. By the same verdict they
- also found Oscar W. Neebe guilty of murder and fixed the penalty at
- imprisonment in the penitentiary for fifteen years.
-
-[Illustration: JUDGE BENJAMIN D. MAGRUDER.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
- “About the 1st day of May, 1886, the workingmen of Chicago and of
- other industrial centers in the United States were greatly excited
- upon the subject of inducing their employers to reduce the time during
- which they should be required to labor on each day to eight hours. In
- the midst of the excitement growing out of this eight-hour movement,
- as it was called, a meeting was held on the evening of May 4, 1886,
- at the Haymarket, on Randolph Street, in the West Division of the
- city of Chicago. This meeting was addressed by the defendants Spies,
- Parsons and Fielden. While the latter was making the closing speech,
- and at some point of time between ten and half-past ten o’clock in the
- evening, several companies of policemen, numbering one hundred and
- eighty men, marched into the crowd from their station on Desplaines
- Street, and ordered the meeting to disperse. As soon as the order
- was given, some one threw among the policemen a dynamite bomb, which
- struck Degan, one of the police officers, and killed him. As a result
- of the throwing of the bomb and of the firing of pistol shots, which
- immediately succeeded the throwing of the bomb, six policemen besides
- Degan were killed, and sixty more were seriously wounded.”
-
-The court then went into the law of accessory, confirming the
-interpretation and ruling of the trial court, that all distinction
-between principals and accessories is by the Illinois statute
-abolished. The issue thus became: Were the defendants accessories to
-the murder of Degan?
-
-To find the answers to these questions the court went into an
-exhaustive review of all the evidence in the case, covering the same
-ground which has been gone over in the previous chapters of this book.
-
-First the bomb with which the murder had been done was considered.
-It had been proven to be round; to have a projecting fuse; to be
-of composite manufacture; to contain tin and lead, with traces of
-antimony, iron and zinc; to have upon it a small iron nut. All these
-characteristics were found in the bombs which Louis Lingg manufactured,
-and for these and other reasons the court held that the jury was
-warranted in believing that the bomb which killed Degan had been made
-by Lingg.
-
-The purposes of the conspiracy were next inquired into, and the
-articles in the _Alarm_, the platform of the Internationale and similar
-incendiary and dangerous language from many sources are quoted in full
-in the opinion. The organization of the Anarchists was also inquired
-into, and the divisions into groups, the make-up of the Lehr and Wehr
-Verein and like matters stated. The court declared this to be an
-“illegal conspiracy.”
-
-The damning array of evidence against the assassins was brought
-together relentlessly and completely. The speeches of the defendants
-were sifted, their teachings examined, and there could be left in no
-mind a doubt that these men had advised murder and arson, and that they
-were guilty technically as well as morally. The opinion of the court
-was a masterly presentation of the facts, and the conclusions drawn
-from them settled once for all both the law and the equity of this
-celebrated case. It was evident that there was law enough in America to
-protect society.
-
-That the Haymarket murders were the legitimate and expected result of
-the teachings of the ring-leaders of the conspiracy was conclusively
-shown with a ruthless logic that left no hope for pardon, nor for
-interference with the law’s stern course.
-
-Lingg’s case, and the case of Spies, of Engel, of Fischer, of Parsons,
-of Neebe, of Fielden were taken up separately, examined with a care
-that might be described as almost microscopic, and in each case there
-was no flaw in the record—no reason why these men should not pay the
-penalty for their crime.
-
-The concluding part of the opinion is so important from a legal
-standpoint, and at the same time of such general interest, that I will
-quote it entire:
-
- “If the defendants, as a means of bringing about the social revolution
- and as a part of the larger conspiracy to effect such revolution, also
- conspired to excite classes of workingmen in Chicago into sedition,
- tumult and riot and to the use of deadly weapons and the taking of
- human life, and, for the purpose of producing such tumult, riot, use
- of weapons and taking of life, advised and encouraged such classes
- by newspaper articles and speeches to murder the authorities of the
- city, and a murder of a policeman resulted from such advice and
- encouragement, then defendants are responsible therefor.
-
- “It is a familiar doctrine of the law, in criminal cases, that, if
- a reasonable doubt of the guilt of the prisoner is entertained, the
- jury have no discretion, but must acquit. The twelfth and thirteenth
- instructions for the prosecution are objected to as not correctly
- stating to the jury the meaning of ‘reasonable doubt.’ The twelfth
- instruction is an exact copy, _verbatim et literatim_, of the sixth
- instruction in _Miller et. al._ vs. _The People_, 39 Ill. 457, which
- we approved in that case, and which since that case we have indorsed
- as correct in at least three cases, to-wit: _May_ vs. _The People_,
- 60 Ill. 119, _Connaghan_ vs. _The People_, 88 id. 460, and _Dunn_ vs.
- _The People_, 109 id. 635.
-
- “The portion of the thirteenth instruction which plaintiffs in error
- complain of is that which is contained in the following words: ‘You
- are not at liberty to disbelieve as jurors if from the evidence
- you believe as men.’ This expression has been sanctioned by the
- Supreme Court of Pennsylvania as having been properly used in an
- instruction given to the jury by a trial judge, and we are inclined to
- follow the ruling there laid down. That court said in _Nevling_ vs.
- _Commonwealth_, 98 Pa. St. 322: ‘The learned judge then proceeded to
- say that the doubt must be a reasonable one, and that jurymen could
- not doubt as jurymen what they believed as men. In all this there
- was no error. It is the familiar language found in the textbooks and
- decisions which treat of the subject.’
-
- “By the twelfth and thirteenth instructions, considered in connection
- with the eleventh instruction for the State, and also in connection
- with the definitions of reasonable doubt as embodied in the
- instructions given for the defense, we think the law upon this subject
- was correctly presented to the jury.
-
- “The statute of this State provides that ‘juries in all criminal cases
- shall be judges of the law and fact.’ Instruction number thirteen
- and a half, given for the prosecution, is objected to as improperly
- limiting and qualifying this provision of the statute. It tells the
- jury, that ‘if they can say upon their oaths that they know the law
- better than the court itself, they have the right to do so,’ ...
- but that ‘before saying this, upon their oaths, it is their duty
- to reflect whether from their study and experience they are better
- qualified to judge of the law than the court,’ etc.
-
- “The language of instruction number thirteen and a half is an exact
- copy, _verbatim et literatim_, of the language used by this court
- in _Schnier_ vs. _The People_, 23 Ill. 17. The views expressed in
- _Schnier_ vs. _The People_ have been approved of and indorsed in
- _Fisher_ vs. _The People_, 23 Ill. 283, _Mullinix_ vs. _The People_,
- 76 id. 211, and _Davison_ vs. _The People_, 90 id. 221. The question
- is settled, and we see no reason to retreat from our position upon
- this subject.
-
- “It is also claimed that the court erred in refusing to give certain
- instructions asked by the defendants. The refusal of refused
- instructions numbered 3, 8, 9, 11 and 18 is especially insisted upon
- as error.
-
- “Instruction No. 3 was properly refused because it told the jury
- that those of the defendants who were not present at the Haymarket,
- counseling, aiding or abetting the throwing of the bomb, should
- be acquitted. Under our statute and the decision of this court in
- _Brennan_ vs. _The People_, 15 Ill. 517, the defendants were guilty if
- they advised and encouraged the murder to be committed, although they
- may not have been present.
-
- “Instruction No. 8 was wrong for a number of reasons, but it is
- sufficient to refer to one: it assumes that ‘a conspiracy to bring
- about a change of government ... by peaceful means if possible, but,
- if necessary, to resort to force for that purpose,’ is not unlawful.
- The fact that the conspirators may not have intended to resort to
- force, unless, in their judgment, they should deem it necessary to do
- so, would not make their conspiracy any the less unlawful.
-
- “All that was material in instructions 9, 11 and 18 was embodied in
- the instructions which were given for the defendants.
-
- “The defendants also complain that the court refused to give an
- instruction for them which contained the following statement: ‘It can
- not be material in this case that defendants, or some of them, are or
- may be Socialists, Communists or Anarchists,’ etc.
-
- “If there was a conspiracy, it was material to show its purposes and
- objects, with a view to determining whether and in what respects it
- was unlawful. Anarchy is the absence of government; it is a state of
- society where there is no law or supreme power. If the conspiracy had
- for its object the destruction of the law and the government, and
- of the police and militia as representatives of law and government,
- it had for its object the bringing about of practical Anarchy.
- Whether or not the defendants were Anarchists, may have been a proper
- circumstance to be considered in connection with all the other
- circumstances in the case, with a view to showing what connection,
- if any, they had with the conspiracy and what were their purposes in
- joining it. Therefore, we can not say that it was error to refuse an
- instruction containing such a broad declaration as that announced in
- the above quotation.
-
- “Defendants further complain because the instruction numbered 13,
- which was asked by them, was refused by the trial court. The refusal
- of this instruction was not error. It was proper enough, so far as
- it stated that if a person at the Haymarket ‘without the knowledge,
- aid, counsel, procurement, encouragement or abetting of the defendants
- or any of them, then or theretofore given, ... threw a bomb among
- the police, wherefrom resulted the murder or homicide charged in the
- indictment, then the defendants would not be liable for the results
- of such bomb,’ etc. But the instruction is so ingeniously worded as
- to lead the jury to believe that the person who threw the bomb at the
- Haymarket was justified in doing so if the meeting there was lawfully
- convened and peaceably conducted and if the order to disperse was
- unauthorized and illegal. Counsel inject into the instruction the
- hypothesis that the bomb may have been thrown by an outside party ‘in
- pursuance of his view of the right of self-defense.’ A mere order to
- disperse can not be an excuse for throwing a dynamite bomb into a body
- of policemen. If the bomb-thrower had been illegally and improperly
- attacked by the police, while quietly attending a peaceable meeting,
- and had thrown the bomb to defend himself against such attack, another
- question would be presented. The vice of the instruction lies in the
- insidious intimation embodied in it, that when a body of policemen,
- even if in excess of their authority, give a verbal order to an
- assemblage to disperse, a member of that assemblage will be excusable
- for throwing a bomb, on the ground of self-defense and because of the
- supposed invasion of his rights.
-
- “The instruction given by the court of its own motion, and which has
- already been referred to, is also claimed to be erroneous. So far as
- it speaks of murder and advice to commit murder in general terms,
- it is sufficiently limited and qualified when read in connection
- with all the other instructions, to which it specifically calls
- attention. It does not supersede and stand as a substitute for the
- other instructions, given for both sides. It does not so purport
- upon its face. On the contrary, the jury are directed to ‘carefully
- scrutinize’ such other instructions, and are told that their apparent
- inconsistencies will disappear under such scrutiny. In the last
- sentence they are requested to disregard any unguarded expressions
- that may have crept into the instructions, ‘which seem to assume the
- existence of any facts,’ and look only to the evidence, etc. Why
- caution the jury to disregard certain expressions of a particular
- kind in the other instructions, if the latter were to be entirely
- superseded? We do not think that the instruction given by the trial
- judge _sua motu_ is obnoxious to the objections urged against it.
-
- “Defendants also object to the instruction as to the form of the
- verdict as being erroneous. It is claimed that the jury were obliged,
- under this instruction, to find the defendants either guilty or not
- guilty of murder, whereas the jury were entitled to find that the
- offense was a lower grade of homicide than murder, if the evidence so
- warranted. This position is fully answered by our decisions in the
- cases of _Dunn_ vs. _The People_, 109 Ill. 646, and _Dacey_ vs. _The
- People_, 116 id. 555. If counsel desired to have the jury differently
- instructed as to the form of the verdict, they should have prepared an
- instruction, indicating such form as they deemed to be correct, and
- should have asked the trial court to give it. They did not do so, and
- are in no position to complain here.
-
- “The court, at the request of the defendants, did give the jury an
- instruction defining manslaughter in the words of the statute and
- specifying the punishment therefor as fixed by the statute. The court
- also gave the jury the following instruction: ‘The jury are instructed
- that under an indictment for murder a party accused may be found
- guilty of manslaughter; and in this case, if from a full and careful
- consideration of all the evidence before you, you believe beyond a
- reasonable doubt that the defendants or any of them are guilty of
- manslaughter, you may so find by your verdict.’
-
- “The next error assigned has reference to the impaneling of the
- jury. The counsel for plaintiffs in error have made an able and
- elaborate argument for the purpose of showing that the jury which
- tried this case was not an _impartial_ jury in the sense in which
- the word ‘impartial’ is used in our Constitution. We do not deem
- a consideration of all the points presented as necessary to a
- determination of the case, and shall only notice those that seem to us
- to be material.
-
- “Nine hundred and eighty-one men were called into the jury-box and
- sworn to answer questions. Each one of the eight defendants was
- entitled to a peremptory challenge of twenty jurors, making the whole
- number of peremptory challenges allowed to the defense one hundred and
- sixty. The State was entitled to the same number. Seven hundred and
- fifty-seven were excused upon challenge for cause. One hundred and
- sixty were challenged peremptorily by the defense and fifty-two by the
- State.
-
- “Of the twelve jurors who tried the case, eleven were accepted by the
- defendants. They challenged one of these, whose name was Denker, for
- cause, but, after the court overruled the challenge, they proceeded
- to further question him and finally accepted him, although one
- hundred and forty-two of their peremptory challenges were at that
- time unused. They accepted the ten others, including the juror Adams,
- without objection. When Adams, the eleventh juror, was taken, they had
- forty-three peremptory challenges which they had not yet used.
-
- “Therefore, as to eleven of the jurymen, the defendants are estopped
- from complaining. They virtually agreed to be tried by them, because
- they accepted them, when, by the exercise of their unused peremptory
- challenges, they could have compelled every one of them to stand aside.
-
- “Counsel for the defense complain that the trial court overruled their
- challenges for cause of twenty-six talesmen, to whose examinations
- they specifically call our attention. As they afterwards peremptorily
- challenged the talesmen so referred to, no one of them sat upon
- the jury. Every one of these twenty-six men had been peremptorily
- challenged before the eleventh juror was taken.
-
- “After the eleventh juror was accepted, the forty-three peremptory
- challenges which then remained to the defendants were all used by them
- before the twelfth juror was taken.
-
- “After the defendants had examined the twelfth juror, whose name was
- Sandford, they challenged him for cause. Their challenge was overruled
- and they excepted.
-
- “The one hundred and sixty talesmen who were peremptorily challenged
- by defendants were first challenged for cause, and the challenges for
- cause were overruled by the trial court. It is claimed that, inasmuch
- as the defendants exhausted all their peremptory challenges before
- the panel was finally completed, the action of the court in regard to
- these particular jurors will be considered, and, if erroneous, such
- action is good ground of reversal. We think it must be made to appear
- that an objectionable juror was put upon the defendants after they had
- exhausted their peremptory challenges. ‘Unless objection is shown to
- one or more of the jury who tried the case, the antecedent rulings of
- the court upon the competency or incompetency of jurors who have been
- challenged and stood aside will not be inquired into in this court.’
- _Holt_ vs. _State_, 9 Texas Ct. App. 571.
-
- “We cannot reverse this judgment for errors committed in the lower
- court in overruling challenges for cause to jurors, even though
- defendants exhausted their peremptory challenges, unless it is further
- shown that an objectionable juror was forced upon them and sat upon
- the case after they had exhausted their peremptory challenges. This
- doctrine is ably discussed in _Loggins_ vs. _State_, 12 Texas Ct.
- App. 65. We think the reasoning in that case is sound and answers the
- objection here made.
-
- “In addition to this reason, we have carefully considered the
- examinations of the several jurors challenged by the defendants
- peremptorily, and while we cannot approve all that was said by the
- trial judge in respect to some of them, we find no such error in the
- rulings of the court in overruling the challenges for cause as to any
- of them as would justify a reversal of the cause. The examinations,
- as they appear in the record, of the forty-three talesmen who were
- challenged peremptorily after the eleventh juror was accepted, show
- that many of the forty-three challenges were exercised arbitrarily and
- without any apparent cause. Such challenges were not compelled by any
- demonstrated unfitness of the jurors, but seem to have been used up
- for no other purpose than to force the selection of one juror after
- the forty-three challenges were exhausted.
-
- “The only question, then, which we deem it material to consider, is:
- Did the trial court err in overruling the challenge for cause of
- Sandford, the twelfth juror? or, in other words, Was he a competent
- juror?
-
- “The following is the material portion of his examination:
-
- “Have you an opinion as to whether or not there was an offense
- committed at the Haymarket meeting by the throwing of a bomb? A. Yes.
- Q. Now, from all that you have read and all that you have heard,
- have you an opinion as to the guilt or innocence of any of the eight
- defendants of the throwing of that bomb? A. Yes. Q. You have an
- opinion upon that question also? A. I have.... Q. Now, if you should
- be selected as a juror in this case to try and determine it, do you
- believe that you could exercise legally the duties of a juror, that
- you could listen to the testimony and all of the testimony and the
- charge of the court, and after deliberation return a verdict which
- would be right and fair as between the defendants and the People of
- the State of Illinois? A. Yes, sir. Q. You believe that you could
- do that? A. Yes, sir. Q. You could fairly and impartially listen to
- the testimony that is introduced here? A. Yes. Q. And the charge of
- the court, and render an impartial verdict, you believe? A. Yes. Q.
- Have you any knowledge of the principles contended for by Socialists,
- Communists and Anarchists? A. Nothing except what I read in the
- papers. Q. Just general reading? A. Yes. Q. You are not a Socialist, I
- presume, or a Communist? A. No, sir. Q. Have you a prejudice against
- them from what you have read in the papers? A. Decided. Q. Do you
- believe that that would influence your verdict in this case or would
- you try the real issue which is here as to whether the defendants
- were guilty of the murder of Mr. Degan or not, or would you try the
- question of Socialism and Anarchism, which really has nothing to
- do with the case? A. Well, as I know so little about it in reality
- at present, it is a pretty hard question to answer. Q. You would
- undertake, you would attempt of course to try the case upon the
- evidence introduced here, upon the issue which is presented here? A.
- Yes, sir.... Q. Well, then, so far as that is concerned, I do not
- care very much what your opinion may be now, for your opinion now
- is made up of random conversations and from newspaper reading, as I
- understand? A. Yes. Q. That is nothing reliable. You do not regard
- that as being in the nature of sworn testimony at all, do you? A.
- No. Q. Now, when the testimony is introduced here and the witnesses
- are examined, you see them and look into their countenances, judge
- who are worthy of belief and who are not worthy of belief, don’t you
- think then you would be able to determine the question? A. Yes. Q.
- Regardless of any impression that you might have or any opinion? A.
- Yes. Q. Have you any opposition to the organization by laboring men
- of associations or societies or unions so far as they have reference
- to their own advancement and protection and are not in violation of
- law? A. No, sir. Q. Do you know any of the members of the police
- force of the city of Chicago? A. Not one by name. Q. You are not
- acquainted with any one that was either injured or killed, I suppose,
- at the Haymarket meeting? A. No.... Q. If you should be selected as a
- juror in this case, do you believe that, regardless of all prejudice
- or opinion which you now have, you could listen to the legitimate
- testimony introduced in court, and upon that, and that alone, render
- and return a fair and impartial, unprejudiced and unbiased verdict? A.
- Yes.
-
-The foregoing examination was by the defense. The following was by the
-State:
-
- “Q. Upon what is your opinion founded—upon newspaper reports?
- A. Well, it is founded on the general theory and what I read in the
- newspapers. Q. And what you read in the papers? A. Yes, sir. Q. Have
- you ever talked with any one that was present at the Haymarket at the
- time the bomb was thrown? A. No, sir. Q. Have you ever talked with
- any one who professed of his own knowledge to know anything about
- the connection of the defendants with the throwing of that bomb? A.
- No. Q. Have you ever said to any one whether or not you believed the
- statement of facts in the newspapers to be true? A. I have never
- expressed it exactly in that way, but still I have no reason to think
- they were false. Q. Well, the question is not what your opinion of
- that was. The question simply is—it is a question made necessary
- by our statute, perhaps. A. Well, I don’t recall whether I have or
- not. Q. So far as you know then, you never have? A. No, sir. Q. Do
- you believe that, if taken as a juror, you can try this case fairly
- and impartially and render an impartial verdict upon the law and the
- evidence? A. Yes.
-
-“It is objected that Sandford had formed such an opinion as
-disqualified him from sitting upon the jury.
-
-“It is apparent from the foregoing examination that the opinion of the
-juror was based upon rumor or newspaper statements, and that he had
-expressed no opinion as to the truth of such rumors or statements.
-He stated upon oath that he believed he could fairly and impartially
-render a verdict in the case in accordance with the law and the
-evidence. That the trial court was satisfied of the truth of his
-statement would appear from the fact that the challenge for cause was
-overruled.
-
-“Therefore, the examination of the juror shows a state of facts which
-brings his case exactly within the scope and meaning of the third
-proviso of the 14th section of chapter 78, entitled ‘Jurors,’ of our
-Revised Statutes. That proviso is as follows: ‘_And provided further_,
-that, in the trial of any criminal cause, the fact that a person called
-as a juror has formed an opinion or impression, based upon rumor or
-upon newspaper statements (about the truth of which he has expressed
-no opinion), shall not disqualify him to serve as a juror in such
-case, if he shall, upon oath, state that he believes he can fairly and
-impartially render a verdict therein in accordance with the law and
-the evidence, and the court shall be satisfied of the truth of such
-statement.’
-
-“In _Wilson_ vs. _The People_, 94 Ill. 299, one William Gray was
-examined touching his qualifications as a juror and said: ‘I have
-read newspaper accounts of the commission of the crime with which the
-defendant is charged and have also conversed with several persons in
-regard to it since coming to Carthage and during my attendance upon
-this term of court; do not know whether they are witnesses in the case
-or not; do not know who the witnesses in the case are. From accounts I
-have read and from conversations I have had, I have formed an opinion
-in the case; would have an opinion now if the facts should turn out as
-I heard them, and I think it would take some evidence to remove that
-opinion; would be governed by the evidence in the case and can give
-the defendant a fair and impartial trial according to the law and the
-evidence.’ Gray was challenged for cause and the challenge overruled by
-the trial court. We held that all objection to Gray’s competency was
-clearly removed by the proviso above quoted. We also there said: ‘The
-opinion formed seems not to have been decided, but one of a light and
-transient character which at no time would have disqualified the juror
-from serving.’
-
-“The expressions of Sandford in the case at bar as to the opinion
-formed by him are not so strong as those used by Gray in the Wilson
-case in regard to his opinion. Sandford’s impressions were not such
-as would refuse to yield to the testimony that might be offered, nor
-were they such as to close his mind to a fair consideration of the
-testimony. They were not ‘strong and deep impressions,’ such as are
-referred to by Chief Justice Marshall when he said upon the trial of
-Aaron Burr for treason: ‘Those strong and deep impressions which will
-close the mind against the testimony which may be offered in opposition
-to them, which will combat that testimony and resist its force, do
-constitute a sufficient objection’ to a juror. (1 Burr’s Trial, 416.)
-
-“Counsel for the defense seem to claim in their argument that the
-proviso above quoted is unconstitutional in that it violates section
-9 of article 2 of the present Constitution of this State, which
-guarantees to the accused party in every criminal prosecution ‘a speedy
-public trial by _an impartial jury_ of the county or district in which
-the offense is alleged to have been committed.’ We do not think that
-the proviso is unconstitutional for the reason stated. The rule which
-it lays down, when wisely applied, does not lead to the selection of
-partial jurors. On the contrary, it tends to secure intelligence in
-the jury-box and to exclude from it that dense ignorance which has
-often subjected the jury system to just criticism. A statute upon this
-subject, similar to ours and attacked as unconstitutional for the same
-reason here indicated, was held to be constitutional by the Court of
-Appeals in the State of New York in _Stokes_ vs. _The People_, 53 N. Y.
-171.
-
-“The juror Sandford further stated that he had a prejudice against
-Socialists, Communists and Anarchists. This did not disqualify him
-from sitting as a juror. If the theories of the Anarchists should be
-carried into practical effect, they would involve the destruction of
-all law and government. Law and government cannot be abolished without
-revolution, bloodshed and murder. The Socialist or Communist, if he
-attempted to put into practical operation his doctrine of a community
-of property, would destroy individual rights in property. Practically
-considered, the idea of taking a man’s property from him without his
-consent, for the purpose of putting it into a common fund for the
-benefit of the community at large, involves the commission of theft and
-robbery. Therefore, the prejudice which the ordinary citizen, who looks
-at things from a practical standpoint, would have against Anarchism and
-Communism, would be nothing more than a prejudice against crime.
-
-“In _Winnesheik Insurance Co._ vs. _Schueller_, 60 Ill. 465, we said:
-‘A man may have a prejudice against crime, against a mean action,
-against dishonesty, and still be a competent juror. This is proper,
-and such prejudice will never force a jury to prejudge an innocent and
-honest man.’ In _Robinson et al._ vs. _Randall_, _supra_, we again
-said: ‘The mere fact, therefore that a juror may have a prejudice
-against crime does not disqualify him as a juror. A juror may be
-prejudiced against larceny, or burglary, or murder, and yet such fact
-would not in the least disqualify him from sitting upon a jury to try
-some person who might be charged with one of these crimes.’
-
-“Sandford stated that he would ‘attempt to try the case upon the
-evidence introduced here upon the issue which is presented here.’ The
-issue presented was whether the defendants were guilty or not guilty
-of the murder of Mathias J. Degan. Any prejudice against Communism
-or Anarchism would not render a juror incapable of trying that issue
-fairly and impartially.
-
-“We cannot see that the trial court erred in overruling the challenge
-for cause of the twelfth juror. This being so, it does not appear that
-the defendants were injured, or that their rights were in any way
-prejudiced by his selection as a juryman.
-
-“On the motion for a new trial the defendants read three affidavits
-for the purpose of showing that, shortly after May 4, 1886, two of the
-jurors had given utterance to expressions showing prejudice against the
-defendants. The two jurors made counter-affidavits denying that they
-had used the expressions attributed to them.
-
-“We do not think that the affidavits satisfactorily proved previously
-expressed opinions on the part of the two jurors referred to. It was a
-dangerous practice to allow verdicts to be set aside upon _ex parte_
-affidavits as to what jurors are claimed to have said before they were
-summoned to act as jurymen. The parties making such affidavits submit
-to no cross-examination, and the correctness of their statements is
-subjected to no test whatever. We adhere to the views which we have
-recently expressed upon this subject in the case of _Hughes_ vs. _The
-People_, 116 Ill. 330.
-
-“The defendants claim that, although they were entitled to one hundred
-and sixty peremptory challenges, yet the State was entitled to only
-twenty, and they charge it as error that the State was allowed to
-peremptorily challenge more than twenty talesmen. The statute says:
-‘The attorney prosecuting on behalf of the people shall be admitted to
-a peremptory challenge of the same number of jurors that the accused
-is entitled to.’ (Rev. Stat. chap. 38, sec. 432.) We cannot conceive
-how language can be plainer than that here used. It explains itself and
-requires no further remark. The defendants also claim that the trial
-court erred in refusing a separate trial, from the other defendants, to
-the defendants Spies, Schwab, Fielden, Neebe and Parsons. Error cannot
-be assigned upon the refusal to grant separate trials where several
-are jointly indicted. It was a matter of discretion with the court
-below. We so decided in _Maton et al._ vs. _The People_, 15 Ill. 536.
-We are unable to see any abuse of the discretion in this case.
-
-“Defendants also take exceptions to the conduct of the special
-bailiff.[ The regular panel having been exhausted and the defendants
-having objected ‘to the Sheriff summoning a sufficient number of
-persons to fill the panel’ of jurors, the court appointed a special
-bailiff named Ryce to summon such persons under section 13, chapter
-78, of the Revised Statutes. On the motion for new trial, defendants
-read the affidavit of one Stevens, in which Stevens swore that he had
-heard one Favor say that he, Favor, had heard Ryce say that he, Ryce,
-was summoning as jurors such men as the defense would be compelled to
-challenge peremptorily, etc. The defendants then made a motion, based
-upon this affidavit, that Favor be compelled to come into court and
-testify to what Ryce had said to him. The refusal of the court to grant
-the application is complained of as error.
-
-“The statements in the affidavit were mere hearsay and were too
-indefinite and remote to base any motion upon. Moreover, if Ryce
-did make the remark in question to Favor, it does not appear that
-defendants were harmed by it. There is nothing to show that Ryce made
-any remarks of any kind, proper or improper, to the jurors whom he
-summoned. In addition to this, it is not shown that the defendants
-served Favor with a subpœna so as to lay a foundation for compelling
-his attendance.
-
-“We think that the course pursued on the trial in regard to the manner
-of impaneling the jury was correct and in accordance with the plain
-meaning of section 21, chapter 78, of the Revised Statutes. That
-section says ‘that the jury shall be passed upon and accepted in panels
-of four by the parties, commencing with the plaintiff.’ The State is
-not called upon to tender the defendants a second panel before the
-defendants tender it back four.
-
-“We can not see that the remarks of the State’s Attorney in his
-argument to the jury were marked by any such improprieties as require
-a reversal of the judgment. _Wilson_ vs. _The People_, _supra_, and
-_Garrity_ vs. _The People_, 107 Ill. 162.
-
-“In their lengthy argument counsel for the defense make some other
-points of minor importance, which are not here noticed. As to these,
-it is sufficient to say that we have considered them and do not regard
-them as well taken.
-
-“The judgment of the Criminal Court of Cook County is affirmed.”
-
-After the reading of the decision, Justice Mulkey stated that it
-had been his intention, if health had permitted, to file a separate
-opinion. He said:
-
- “While I concur in the conclusion reached, and also in the general
- view presented in the opinion filed, I do not wish to be understood as
- holding that the record is free from error, for I do not think it is.
- I am nevertheless of opinion that none of the errors complained of are
- of so serious a character as to require a reversal of the judgment.
-
- “In view of the number of defendants on trial, the great length of
- time it was in progress, the vast amount of testimony offered and
- passed upon by the court, and the almost numberless rulings the court
- was required to make, the wonder with me is, that the errors were not
- more numerous and more serious than they are.
-
- “In short, after having carefully examined the record, and given all
- the questions arising upon it my very best thought, with an earnest
- and conscientious desire to faithfully discharge my whole duty, I am
- satisfied fully that the conclusion reached vindicates the law, does
- complete justice between the prisoners and the State, and that it is
- fully warranted by the law and the evidence.”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXV.
-
- The Last Legal Struggle—The Need of Money—Expensive Counsel
- Secured—Work of the “Defense Committee”—Pardon, the Only Hope—Pleas
- for Mercy to Gov. Oglesby—Curious Changes of Sentiment—Spies’
- Remarkable Offer—Lingg’s Horrible Death—Bombs in the Starch-box—An
- Accidental Discovery—My own Theory—Description of the “Suicide
- Bombs”—Meaning of the Short Fuse—“Count Four and Throw”—Details of
- Lingg’s Self-murder—A Human Wreck—The Bloody Record in the Cell—The
- Governor’s Decision—Fielden and Schwab Taken to the Penitentiary.
-
-
-IN spite of this overwhelming defeat at the hands of the Supreme Court
-of Illinois, counsel for the Anarchists did not lose hope. They at once
-set about formulating plans to carry their case before the highest
-tribunal under the law, the Supreme Court of the United States, and
-for some time they labored unremittingly in preparing the necessary
-grounds on which to bring the matter within the jurisdiction of that
-court. The point on which they mainly relied was a constitutional
-question involving the validity of the jury law of the State of
-Illinois, but time was necessary to put in proper shape other questions
-incidental to the main issue, growing out of rulings in the trial
-court. Meanwhile money was needed, just as it had been during the
-trial and the appeal to the State Supreme Court. It had been resolved
-to call into the service of the convicted men eminent constitutional
-lawyers, of national reputation as well as of high standing before
-the highest tribunal in the land, and contributions were accordingly
-sought throughout the country by the Anarchist “Defense Committee”
-of Chicago, a body which had been organized preceding the trial. In
-compliance with the call, a great deal of money was subscribed, and the
-local counsel began to cast about for legal assistance among the most
-noted constitutional expounders in the Union, to properly prepare the
-case for presentation at Washington. Capt. Black, to whom this duty
-seems to have been mainly intrusted, finally decided upon Gen. Pryor,
-of New York, and J. Randolph Tucker, and with these eminent jurists he
-held long consultations on the best points to make before the court of
-last resort. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler was also called into the case as
-special counsel for Spies and Fielden.
-
-Finally, on Thursday, October 27, 1887, the case was brought before
-the United States Supreme Court, and arguments were heard before a
-full bench. Mr. Tucker was the first to speak, and held the court’s
-attention for some time, contending that the Illinois jury law was
-in contravention of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of
-the United States. That amendment, he said, had been adopted, and
-had been construed by the court as for the special protection of the
-negro, and he insisted that it should be opened up for the protection
-of the whites as well. Upon this point he elaborated at some length,
-consuming nearly the whole time allotted to him, and then he proceeded
-to show that an impartial jury had not been chosen in the trial court,
-some men upon it—reference being made to Denker and Sandford—having
-formed a newspaper opinion, but, in spite of that fact, having still
-been admitted under the rulings of the court. The first ten amendments
-to the Constitution, he held, limited the States in the adoption of
-laws abridging the rights of citizens. His whole argument received
-marked attention and was ably presented.
-
-Benjamin F. Butler made a few points in addition to those presented in
-his brief, but the main burden of his plea was that his clients, Spies
-and Fielden, were aliens and had come to this country under treaties
-made with Germany and England, long before the jury law of Illinois was
-passed.
-
-Attorney-General Hunt, of Illinois, replied to the various points made
-by the petitioners, showing that the Federal Constitution, in its
-first ten amendments, did not restrict the rights of a State in the
-regulation of jury selections, and that there was no refuge for any
-of the defendants under the treaties. It was an eloquent and masterly
-argument, and its effect on the court was subsequently shown in the
-decision, which closely followed in the line of Mr. Hunt’s position on
-the matters in question.
-
-State’s Attorney Grinnell was present simply to assist the
-Attorney-General in pointing out the salient features in the record
-of the trial court, with which he was so thoroughly familiar, but, on
-solicitation, he also addressed the court at some length. He spoke with
-reference to some details in the trial, and made a clear and concise
-exposition of the case. He was followed by General Butler, who spoke
-at considerable length, but advanced no new points, except that he
-maintained that Spies had been compelled to testify against himself.
-
-The arguments occupied two days, and the court reserved its decision
-until Wednesday, November 2. On that day the court decided, on the
-claim that the first ten amendments to the Constitution limited the
-rights of a State in the passage of laws affecting personal rights,
-that they “were not intended to limit the powers of the State
-Government in respect to their own citizens, but to operate on the
-National Government alone.” This had been decided more than fifty years
-before, and that decision had been steadily adhered to ever since. “It
-was contended in argument,” said the court, “that, although originally
-the first two amendments were adopted as limitations on Federal power,
-yet, in so far as they secure and recognize fundamental rights,
-common-law rights of the man, they make them privileges and immunities
-of the man as a citizen of the United States and cannot now be abridged
-by a State under the Fourteenth Amendment.” The objections raised, in
-brief, were that a statute of the State, as construed by the court,
-deprived the petitioners of a trial by an impartial jury and that Spies
-was compelled to give evidence against himself. The statute to which
-special objection was made, continued the court, was approved March 12,
-1874, and went into force on July 1 of that year. The claim set up by
-petitioners was that the trial court, acting under this law, compelled
-them against their will to submit to a trial by a jury that was not
-impartial, and thus deprived them of one of the fundamental rights they
-had as citizens of the United States under the Federal Constitution,
-and that if the sentence was carried out they would be deprived of
-their lives “without due process of law.” The court then referred to
-the peremptory challenges allowed petitioners and held that with these
-the constitutional right of the accused had been maintained.
-
-“Although a juror called as a juryman,” said the court, “may have
-formed an opinion based upon rumor or newspaper statement, he is still
-qualified as a juror if he states that he can fairly and impartially
-render a verdict thereon in accordance with the law and the evidence.
-Indeed, the rule of the statute of Illinois as construed by the trial
-court is not materially different from that which has been adopted
-by the courts in many other States without any legislation. We agree
-entirely with the Illinois Supreme Court in the opinion that the
-statute on its face, as construed by the trial court, is not repugnant
-to section 9 of article 2 of the Constitution of that State, which
-guarantees to the accused party in every criminal prosecution a speedy
-trial by an impartial jury of the county or district in which the
-offense is alleged to have been committed.”
-
-Speaking of the alleged bias of one of the jurors—Denker—the court
-says that neither party at the close of the examination challenged
-the juror peremptorily. “When this occurred it was not denied,” says
-the court, “that the defendants were still entitled to 143 peremptory
-challenges, or about that number.” As to Juror Sandford, the court said
-that “at the close of his examination on the part of the defendants the
-juror was challenged on their behalf for cause, and the attorney for
-the State, after having ascertained that all the peremptory challenges
-of the defendants had been exhausted, took up the examination of the
-juror.” It then appearing that he could render an impartial verdict, he
-was sworn in under the proper rulings of the court.
-
-As to Spies being compelled to be a witness against himself, the court
-ruled that, inasmuch as he had voluntarily offered himself as a witness
-in his own behalf, by so doing he had become bound to submit himself to
-a proper cross-examination. But it was said that the reading of Most’s
-letter was not proper evidence. “That is,” continued the court, “a
-question of State law in the courts of the States, and not of Federal
-law.” Something was said about the alleged unreasonable search and
-seizure of the papers and property of some of the defendants, and their
-use in evidence in the trial of the case. Special reference was made to
-letters from Most to Spies, about which he was cross-examined; but “we
-have,” said the court, “not been referred to any part of the record in
-which it appears that objection was made to the use of the evidence on
-that account,” and therefore, “as the Supreme Court of Illinois says
-so, we cannot consider the constitutional question involved.”
-
-The writ of error prayed for in the petitions and briefs filed and the
-arguments made on their merits was therefore denied.
-
-The late Chief Justice Waite read the decision, and there was not a
-dissenting opinion, thus overwhelmingly sustaining the most important
-rulings made by Judge Gary and attesting the impregnable position taken
-by the State.
-
-The prisoners in the Cook County Jail were now confronted with the
-awful fate in store for them nine days hence from the rendering of the
-Supreme Court’s decision. But, like drowning men grasping at straws,
-they turned in the direction of executive clemency. Their counsel,
-Capt. Black especially, entertained strong hopes of securing from Gov.
-Oglesby a commutation of sentence to imprisonment in the penitentiary.
-Steps were accordingly taken looking to that end. Petitions to the
-chief executive of Illinois were at once put in circulation for
-signatures, and friends and sympathizers of the condemned busied
-themselves in writing personal letters pleading for mercy.
-
-As the day of execution approached, it was surprising to note how many,
-who had hitherto clamored for blood in atonement for the Haymarket
-massacre, now exerted themselves in the effort to secure executive
-clemency. With my own eyes I saw people who had made the most fuss
-shouting, “Hang the Anarchists! Don’t give them a chance for their
-lives. Destroy them at once. They must be roasted out; the balance of
-them must leave the country,” the first to weaken. They began calling
-the doomed Anarchists “poor innocent men; it is too bad to hang them.
-If they would only promise to do better hereafter, the authorities
-ought to let them go.” There were others, again, who wished to see the
-laws enforced, but who failed to make their true feelings known during
-the interval immediately preceding the day set for the execution.
-These, when it became almost certain that the Anarchists must hang,
-showed themselves very firm and openly declared that the men fully
-deserved hanging, and should be hanged as determined by the verdict of
-the jury.
-
-Some of those who had given their moral support to the prosecution
-even went to the extent of giving up rooms in their residences for
-meetings of parties interested in imploring executive clemency, and
-avowed Anarchists and Socialists spread their feet under mahogany
-tables and shuffled dirt-laden shoes over velvety rugs in houses that
-had hitherto sheltered owners who, on the streets and in the marts of
-trade, had denounced the Anarchists in unmeasured terms. But there were
-those who believed, from the conclusion of the trial up to the last
-moment, that the law should take its course, and these were largely
-in the majority. Governor Oglesby is made of stern material, but the
-most stern and rugged natures, with the clearest perceptions of duty
-and the most absolute belief in guilt, would have yielded to public
-sentiment as being the best guide in a case involving the lives of
-human, fallible beings. Really public sentiment upheld the verdict, and
-only yielded in the abatement of the sentence of Fielden and Schwab as
-justified by the mitigating circumstances in their cases.
-
-The day drew near for decisive action, and, on the 9th of November,
-Capt. Black, accompanied by his wife, George Schilling, Mrs. Schwab,
-Mrs. and Miss Spies, Miss Engel, Miss Mueller, Lingg’s sweetheart, and
-Mrs. Fischer, repaired to the Capitol at Springfield, to personally
-intercede for mercy. The “Amnesty Committee,” organized shortly before
-to arouse interest in preventing the execution, was represented by
-Cora L. V. Richmond, a noted trance-spiritualistic exhorter, and a few
-others of less renown. Mr. W. M. Salter, of the Ethical Society of
-Chicago, Gen. M. M. Trumbull, Henry D. Lloyd and S. P. McConnell also
-proceeded to the State capital on special missions in behalf of one or
-the other of the Anarchists, and besides there was a large sprinkling
-of labor representatives. Governor Oglesby, who had meanwhile
-accumulated a voluminous mass of letters and had received lengthy
-petitions from Chicago and all other parts of the country, even from
-the Commune of Paris, met the various delegations in his office in the
-Executive Department.
-
-The first speaker was Capt. Black, who presented a long petition, which
-he read, signed by Schwab, Fielden and Spies. It set forth the grounds
-upon which an exercise of the pardoning power was invoked, claiming
-that the signers were wholly innocent of any knowledge of the throwing
-of the bomb, and giving a brief epitome of the history of the case. It
-gave ten reasons for asking a pardon. These reasons may be summarized
-as follows: 1. They were innocent of the bomb-throwing, alike in act
-and intent. 2. They had no knowledge of any purpose or arrangement for
-the throwing of the bomb. 3. They (those present) counseled peace at
-the Haymarket meeting and there disclaimed any purpose of violence.
-4. A great deal of evidence was permitted to be presented in court
-which had no specific reference to the crime charged, and an effort
-was made to prove that their utterances and advice had reference
-alone to “defensive action by the wage class as against any unlawful
-attacks upon them,” and in thus publicly expressing their sentiments
-by pen and speech they were not conscious that they were violating the
-law. 5. Under a rule of responsibility allowed, which was contrary
-to Anglo-Saxon legislation but expressed in the statute law of the
-State, they were held to be accessories “for the act of a supposed
-but absolutely unknown and unidentified principal, when the actor
-in the commission of the crime charged may have acted, not as the
-agent, but the enemy, of the accused;” and they had been tried as “the
-supposed leaders of a general movement or conspiracy embracing a much
-larger number of men.” 6. Their trial was at a time of great public
-excitement, when press and public demanded their conviction as enemies
-of public order. 7. That men were allowed to sit upon the jury with
-strong prejudices against them. 8. They were not tried by men according
-to constitutional rights, but had jurors “with a prejudgment of their
-guilt induced and inflamed by the daily reading of the papers,” whose
-columns had never ceased to denounce them. 9. Some of them were
-subjected to illegal cross-examinations, and “the provisions of the
-Constitution and the law were set aside, and property unlawfully seized
-in unauthorized searches was introduced to bring about a conviction.”
-10. They believed and charged that the special bailiff who was
-intrusted with securing talesmen for the jury had deliberately selected
-men whose views he was assured were hostile to them.
-
-Capt. Black commented upon each point made in the petition, and
-explained that up to the time of the Haymarket meeting his clients had
-had the absolute, uniform acquiescence of the municipal authorities
-in all their public and secret gatherings. He also read an affidavit
-of Otis S. Favor, to show that the bailiff had said to affiant that
-he was “managing this case” (meaning selection of the jury to try the
-Anarchists) and “he knew what he was about.”
-
-The plea was an eloquent and forcible one, but the Governor never gave
-the slightest sign as to how far it had affected his judgment of the
-case.
-
-Mrs. Richmond spoke with reference to the petitions which her
-committee had presented, containing many signatures, and explained
-that “the majority of those who had signed them had done so because
-they considered it a matter of public policy that these men should
-not be hanged.” Another reason she advanced was that “these men did
-not intend a murder, and the fact cannot be shown that they had any
-direct connection in the throwing of the bomb which caused the death
-of Officer Degan.” She held that public opinion was unanimous that
-these men could not afford to be sacrificed. “The shock upon the
-rising generation will be such that it will take fifty or one hundred
-years to wipe it out, and we believe it never could be wiped out from
-the records of this State.” She asked that the sentence be commuted
-“on the higher ground that it should be done for the welfare of the
-people,” and then, after deploring the existence of capital punishment
-in Illinois, she said that if mercy was shown by the Governor, his name
-would forever be written on the scroll of humanity along with that of
-the martyred Abraham Lincoln. “I again implore you, sir, to extend
-clemency to these condemned men, and enroll your name among those who
-have dared to do for humanity what all the courts of the land have
-denied.”
-
-Gen. M. M. Trumbull had had a pamphlet prepared respecting the trial,
-and after presenting a copy of it to the Governor, and calling
-attention to the fact that he had therein reviewed the unfairness of
-the trial, he made a few remarks, closing as follows: “In behalf of
-the families of these men; in behalf of the men themselves; in behalf
-of thousands and hundreds of thousands of people who sympathize with
-them in their misfortunes, I implore your Excellency to show mercy in
-their case.”
-
-Elijah M. Haines, ex-Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives,
-said: “I do not come here, your Excellency, like others, to appeal to
-the executive of this State to exercise an act of clemency; neither do
-I come here representing petitioners. But I come here representing a
-sentiment appealing to the executive branch of the government for an
-act of justice.” His plea was based simply on the ground of justice,
-not policy, and he held that what had been a crime years ago was not a
-crime now, and that “this sentence, at this time, would not have been
-the sentence of the barbarous race that preceded us.” He held that no
-conspiracy had been proven, and that the men had been condemned to
-die through prejudice. He did not believe in capital punishment, and
-concluded that “the peculiar complication of this case would make the
-execution of these men hazardous to the best interests of society.”
-
-State Senator Streeter made a short address. He began by saying: “We
-are not here to favor any crime, but we do believe that this case marks
-an epoch in our history; that you and I, Governor, and the people who
-are living, probably never met or never will again meet an emergency in
-history like this. It is almost without parallel.” He then pleaded for
-clemency on the ground of “the common good of society,” and asked the
-Governor to give the petition a careful consideration.
-
-Messrs. Bailey and Campbell, representing the Trades and Labor Assembly
-of Quincy, Ill., each spoke a few words for the doomed men, and they
-were followed by William Urban, who spoke “for the German workingmen
-of North Chicago,” and presented a set of resolutions passed by the
-Central Labor Union.
-
-L. S. Oliver, on behalf of the “Amnesty Committee,” made a few
-statements and presented a petition containing 41,000 names.
-
-Mr. Shullenberg, of Detroit, Mich., said he represented forty-five
-organizations, and he asked, on their behalf, that executive clemency
-be extended.
-
-C. G. Dixon, of Chicago, also submitted a long petition, and addressed
-the Governor at some length. He was followed by Samuel Gompers, of
-New York, President of the American Federation of Labor, who went
-into an account of the eight-hour movement, and held that the police
-were responsible for the Haymarket riot. He said that thousands would
-consider that the men had been executed because they had stood up for
-free speech and free assemblage, and maintained that throughout the
-civilized world there had arisen a protest against the execution of the
-men. He concluded by saying that the throwing of that bomb had killed
-the eight-hour movement, and that, had it not been for that, it would
-have been successful to a great extent.
-
-Other addresses were made by Edward King, of District Assembly 49,
-of New York; President Quinn, of the same organization, and George
-Schilling. The various delegations then withdrew to permit the
-relatives of the doomed men to confer personally with the Governor, and
-then each in turn gave a few reasons why the Governor should be lenient.
-
-After this conference Mr. J. R. Buchanan and Mrs. George Schilling,
-accompanied by two friends, sought an audience with the Governor and
-presented a personal letter from August Spies. In that letter, dated
-November 6, among other things he wrote:
-
- “I care not to protest my innocence of any crime, and of the one I am
- accused of in particular. I have done that, and leave the rest to the
- judgment of history.... If a sacrifice of life there must be, will
- not my life suffice? The State’s Attorney of Cook County asked for no
- more. Take this, then! Take my life! I offer it to you so that you may
- satisfy the fury of a semi-barbaric mob, and save that of my comrades.”
-
-This extract fully indicates the whole tenor of the letter.
-
-Messrs. Salter, Lloyd and McConnell next visited the Governor and spoke
-on behalf of the men.
-
-Mr. Edward Johnson, a slate and stone dealer of Chicago, presented a
-petition on behalf of Fielden’s former employers, numbering thirty-one
-firms, and in that document they set forth that they had known Fielden
-for fifteen years as an honest, hard-working, sober, reliable employé,
-with no brutal or bloody instincts, and that the only trouble with him
-was that “he was cursed with a gift of rude eloquence, a fatal facility
-of speech, and had a consuming desire for the praise and applause of
-his fellow-men, and in this lay the cause of his downfall.”
-
-This petition was accompanied by a personal letter from Fielden, dated
-November 5, 1887. After speaking of his earlier years, and his interest
-in the cause of workingmen, the letter concludes:
-
- “I was intoxicated with the applause of my hearers, and, the more
- violent my language, the more applause I received. My audience and
- myself mutually excited each other. I think, however, it is true
- that, for sensational or other purposes, words were put in my mouth
- and charged to me which I never uttered; but, whether this be true or
- not, I say now that I no longer believe it proper that any class of
- society should attempt to right its own wrongs by violence. I can now
- see that much that I said under excitement was unwise, and all this
- I regret. It is not true, however, that I ever consciously attempted
- to incite any man to the commission of crime. Although I do admit
- that I belonged to an organization which was engaged at one time in
- preparing for a social revolution, I was not engaged in any conspiracy
- to manufacture or throw bombs. I never owned or carried a revolver
- in my life and did not fire one at the Haymarket. I had not the
- slightest idea that the meeting at the Haymarket would be other than
- a peaceable and orderly one, such as I had often addressed in this
- city, and was utterly astounded at its bloody outcome, and have always
- felt keenly the loss of life and suffering there occasioned.
-
- “In view of these facts I respectfully submit that, while I confess
- with regret the use of extravagant and unjustifiable words, I am not a
- murderer. I never had any murderous intent, and I humbly pray relief
- from the murderer’s doom. That these statements are true I do again
- solemnly affirm by every tie that I hold sacred, and I hope that your
- Excellency will give a considerate hearing to the merits of my case,
- and also to those of my imprisoned companions who have been sentenced
- with me.”
-
-Judge Gary and Mr. Grinnell also wrote a letter setting forth this
-natural desire of Fielden’s for applause and saying that there was no
-evidence showing that he knew of any preparations to throw the bomb.
-They believed him to have been an honest and industrious man and
-thought executive clemency in his case would be justifiable.
-
-A letter from Schwab was also presented to the Governor. It was short
-and read as follows:
-
- “As supplemental to the petition heretofore signed by me, I desire
- to say that I realize that many utterances of mine in connection
- with the labor agitation of the past, expressions made under intense
- excitement, and often without any deliberation, were injudicious.
- These I regret, believing that they must have had a tendency to
- incite to unnecessary violence oftentimes. I protest again that I had
- no thought or purpose of violence in connection with the Haymarket
- meeting, which I did not even attend, and that I have always deplored
- the results of that meeting.”
-
-This was accompanied by a letter from Judge Gary, concurring with
-State’s Attorney Grinnell’s opinion that Schwab’s case deserved
-consideration, as the man was friendless and had evidently been the
-pliant tool of stronger-willed men. George C. Ingham also wrote, saying
-that if executive clemency was shown to Fielden and Schwab it would not
-be misplaced.
-
-While the case was thus being discussed at Springfield, Parsons, Lingg,
-Engel and Fischer were strongly urged by their friends to send personal
-letters appealing for clemency, but each absolutely refused. They wrote
-letters to the Governor, but declared that they would not accept a
-pardon unless it restored them to full liberty. They held that they had
-committed no wrong, and hence could seek no clemency except that which
-would release them from imprisonment.
-
-On the same day that the delegations appeared before the Governor, Mr.
-Vere V. Hunt went before Judge Richard J. Prendergast, of the County
-Court in Chicago, and filed a petition to try the sanity of Lingg. He
-gave as witnesses Dr. James G. Kiernan, George E. Detwiler, Ferdinand
-Spies, Ida Spies, Henry Spies, Chris Spies, Mr. Kuttleman, Gustav Poch,
-Louis Zetter, Mr. Linnemeyer and W. Bentthin. After arguments, Judge
-Prendergast held that, in view of the judgment of the Supreme Court,
-affirming the sentence of the Criminal Court, he had no jurisdiction.
-The next day Mr. Hunt presented the same petition to Judge Frank
-Baker, but, after hearing arguments, the court declined to examine into
-the question of the bomb-maker’s sanity.
-
-Another curious move was also made on behalf of Parsons on the day
-preceding the execution. It was an application for a writ of _habeas
-corpus_ by Attorney Salomon, and was presented before Judge M. F.
-Tuley. The grounds on which it was based were that the judgment
-affirmed by the Supreme Court was directed against seven men and
-not against one, and that the prisoner, not being in court when the
-sentence was passed, could not be executed under it. He also claimed
-that the death warrant was not legal because it did not run in the name
-of the people of the State of Illinois. Judge Tuley said the court
-had no power to correct any errors of the Supreme Court, and that the
-prisoner was legally in the custody of the Sheriff, and the application
-would accordingly be denied.
-
-[Illustration: JAILOR FOLZ.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-While favorable results were being anticipated by some as to the
-Governor’s decision, an incident occurred which dampened their
-expectations and somewhat affected public sentiment in the belief of
-the guilt of the conspirators. Although it probably had no effect on
-the Governor’s decision, Anarchists at large thought it would highly
-prejudice the case of their friends at his hands. This incident was the
-horrible suicide of Louis Lingg.
-
-While the Anarchists were confined in the Cook County Jail they were
-quartered in that portion of the premises known as “murderers’ row.”
-This row faces south on the first gallery, in view of the entrance to
-the jail corridor, and had been so designated because in times past men
-accused of murder and awaiting trial, or men convicted of murder and
-awaiting execution of sentence, were kept in the cells on that tier.
-Lingg, the most defiant Anarchist of them all, occupied cell No. 22;
-Engel, No. 23; Spies, No. 24; Schwab, No. 26; Fielden, No. 27, and
-Fischer, No. 28. During Neebe’s detention, before being taken to the
-penitentiary, he occupied cell No. 21. All the prisoners were subjected
-to strict prison discipline. The rules of the jail knew no relaxation
-in the case of any one brought into that part of the establishment, and
-each regulation was carried out to the very letter.
-
-Jailor Folz is a veteran in the service, having filled the jailorship
-off and on for twenty-two years, and he thoroughly understands all the
-requirements in the way of jail discipline, to prevent escapes and
-guard against suicides and assaults. I know him well, and he always has
-one ear and one eye open to the conduct of the prisoners and the other
-eye and ear for his own security, like a sailor who gives one-half of
-his body to the ship and reserves the other half for his own safety.
-Where so many desperate characters are confined it requires the utmost
-vigilance to keep them under control and restrain them from violent
-outbreaks. Men whose lives have been almost a continual record of
-misdeeds, crimes and murders are not, as a rule, easily handled, and
-the wonder is that there have been so few to create trouble in Folz’s
-bailiwick.
-
-One of the rules is a regular inspection of all the cells for
-contraband articles and the exclusion of all implements calculated
-to aid a prisoner in effecting his escape. Sometimes a revolver may
-be found during these inspections; at other times a tiny saw for
-cutting the bars, and then again some tool for cutting through the
-flagstones with a view to reaching the air-shaft or getting into the
-sewer underneath; and, though rarely, even smuggled poison has been
-discovered.
-
-All prisoners are carefully searched before being locked up, but it
-frequently happens that prisoners are permitted to talk with their
-friends through the lawyers’ cage. This cage is an inclosure ten by
-sixteen feet in dimensions, with iron bars and strong wires, and
-while it would seem impossible to pass anything through the narrow
-interstices, now and then an aperture is pried open wide enough to
-pass in contraband articles. In this way many things have been found
-smuggled into the jail. Food and delicacies handed into the jail office
-for prisoners are always carefully examined, and this precaution was
-particularly exercised in the case of the Anarchists as the time
-approached for their execution.
-
-On Sunday morning, November 6, 1887, Mr. Folz gave orders about
-eight o’clock to have the cells of the Anarchists searched, and
-Deputies John Eagan and O. E. Hogan were detailed for that purpose.
-Lingg’s cell was first examined, and while the search proceeded he
-was locked up in the “lawyers’ cage.” A lot of revolutionary books,
-copies of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ and other papers were taken out and
-thrown temporarily in the corridor. In one corner of the room stood a
-ten-pound starch-box, in one nook of which there was a kerosene lamp,
-about which again some onions were piled. Box and onions were placed on
-the gallery platform for the time being.
-
-The officers were next about to proceed to a search of Engel’s cell,
-but just before doing so Hogan happened to kick box, onions and all
-over the platform, down onto the main floor. At the time some of
-the prisoners, who were exercising themselves in the corridor, got
-curious as to the contents of the rubbish, and, in the hope of finding
-something they might desire, began a search of the pile. Some of them
-seemed particularly interested in something they had discovered, and
-Hogan, noticing their intent gaze, stopped to look at them. He noticed
-that one of the prisoners had something strange in his hands. Eagan
-also noticed the same thing and started on a run down-stairs. Arriving
-at the place where the knot of prisoners had gathered, he found that
-the curious object which they were scrutinizing was nothing else than
-a dynamite bomb. The bomb, it appears, had been dashed out of the box
-as it fell on the floor from the gallery platform above, and interest
-at once centered in the innocent-looking box. Mr. Eagan found therein
-three other bombs, and they were immediately taken to Jailor Folz’s
-office. The box was next carefully examined, and it was found to have
-a false bottom, in which the bombs had been concealed. Some six days
-before this box had been brought into the jail, and, being apparently
-empty, it had been passed in to Lingg. It was evident that it had been
-made according to Lingg’s instructions by some handy carpenter who was
-a close friend, and, judging from its construction, it seems to have
-been patterned after Lingg’s trunk, which, it will be remembered, also
-had a false bottom, and in whose secret apartment I found a lot of
-dynamite, together with a coil of fuse and a supply of caps. Either the
-bombs were in the box at the time it was brought to the jail, or they
-must have been smuggled in through a temporarily-forced opening in the
-wire cage. The officials incline to the former theory.
-
-Lingg was a most interested spectator. It was evident from his actions
-that the discovery greatly troubled him. His face became almost livid
-with rage, his eyes fairly snapped fire, and he fumed in his cage like
-an imprisoned beast of prey. He was speechless with anger, and every
-motion betrayed an energy of passion that was fearful to behold.
-
-After a little while Lingg was taken out of the “lawyers’ cage,” and
-thereafter he was confined in a cell fixed up for him on the lower
-floor, where he could be directly under the eyes of the officials,
-who by this time had come to regard him as a very dangerous man.
-At ten o’clock on the same morning, I received a dispatch from the
-Sheriff asking me to call at the jail immediately. Arriving there, I
-met Sheriff Matson and Jailor Folz, and after they had explained the
-circumstances of the morning’s find, the four bombs were handed to me
-for examination. I found that they were all loaded with dynamite of the
-regular kind, and I gave it as my opinion that they were manifestly
-intended for suicidal purposes, to escape the gallows. I could not
-believe that they were made for any other purpose. Both the Sheriff and
-the Jailor concurred in this view, and they so expressed themselves
-to outsiders, although sensational reports were circulated in the
-newspapers that the bombs were smuggled in to be used especially on the
-day of the execution, to blow the jail, prisoners and visitors to the
-four winds.
-
-I took charge of the bombs, and subsequently, at the station, gave
-them a more thorough examination. They were all of the same size,
-being six inches long, three-eighth gas-pipe, and one end of each had
-been plugged with a boiler rivet one inch long. On each rivet there
-had been cut about a dozen notches with a sharp chisel, and after the
-rivets had been inserted hot lead had been poured into the pipe from
-the top, thus fastening them in place. A wooden plug, through which
-a hole had been bored in the center for the cap and fuse, had been
-put at the other end of each pipe; and thus plugged, with a charge of
-dynamite inside, it was a most destructive implement. The dynamite
-used was of the regular factory make, the percussion cap of English
-manufacture, and the fuse of the tar-cloth, water-proof kind. The fuse
-was cut scarcely an inch long, and a fuse of that length would explode
-the cap as soon almost as it was ignited. I explained these features
-in a general way to Sheriff Matson and Jailor Folz, and told them that
-with such a short fuse no one using one of these deadly contrivances
-could light it and then throw the bomb away before it would explode.
-It might, as I explained to them, be kept about the body or inserted
-in a man’s mouth, and in an instant after being lighted an explosion
-would follow. Hence my theory was that they were designed exclusively
-for suicidal purposes. A photographic illustration of the suicide bombs
-appears on page 595.
-
-[Illustration: BENJ. P. PRICE.]
-
-The bomb used at the Haymarket was of the kind called the “five and six
-seconds fuse.” The fuse on a bomb of that kind was cut at a length of
-four inches, and the instruction to Anarchists in handling one of them
-was to count four just as soon as the fuse caught fire, and then throw
-it. If the bombs found in Lingg’s cell had had that length of fuse,
-then it might have been possible that they were intended for general
-destruction. These bombs had evidently been made under instructions
-from Lingg. He was the only one who made bombs by plugging up one end
-with lead, and, whoever the party was that turned them out for him, he
-must have had some prior experience with Lingg in bomb-making. That
-could be plainly seen, too, in the way the fuse had been fastened in
-the caps. It was also manifest that the man must have been a machinist.
-But no clue as to his identity could be secured, and, of course, Lingg
-never gave the slightest hint to any of the officers, or even to his
-associates.
-
-Thereafter, as might have been expected, Lingg was more carefully
-watched than ever. No strange visitors were permitted to see him. The
-discovery of the explosives had created an intense and wide-spread
-excitement, and Sheriff Matson issued most stringent orders with
-reference, not only to Lingg, but to all the other confined Anarchists.
-By these orders the public was measurably reassured.
-
-[Illustration: LOUIS LINGG’S TERRIBLE DEATH.]
-
-The bomb-maker had been committed to cell No. 11, and every article
-constituting its outfit had been subjected to the closest inspection.
-It seemed certain that there could be no dynamite in that cell.
-Besides this, Mr. Benjamin P. Price, the Jail Clerk, made it his
-special business to look after the desperate man, and there seemed no
-possibility of danger from that quarter.
-
-But on the morning of the 10th of November, at 8:45 o’clock, the
-officials as well as occupants of the jail were startled by the sound
-of a terrific explosion. Consternation seized everybody for the moment.
-Each surmised that some sad havoc had been created in some portion of
-the jail, and that his special section had miraculously escaped. All
-within the jail precincts jumped to their feet, and the most eager
-inquiries were made as to the cause of the noise. Even the inmates of
-the cells in the immediate vicinity of the spot where the explosion had
-occurred thought that some other portion of the building had been blown
-up, and they were uncertain whether the attack had come from without or
-within.
-
-The first idea credited the explosion to confederates of the Anarchists
-on the outside. This was a perfectly natural conclusion. All sorts of
-rumors about violent demonstrations and forcible attempts at rescue
-of the doomed Anarchists were in circulation about the city, and the
-instant this detonation was heard it was supposed that the threats had
-been finally carried into effect. So loud was the report that people
-passing on the streets surrounding the jail imagined that fearful
-destruction must have been created inside. But after the first flush
-of excitement had subsided, the source of the commotion was easily and
-speedily ascertained.
-
-The explosion had occurred in Lingg’s cell. The night before Lingg had
-appeared in one of his complacent moods, and when the death-watch eyed
-him closely the next morning nothing unusual was discovered in his
-demeanor. Lingg seemed to be resting easily on his couch, and there was
-not the slightest indication that anything tragic was contemplated.
-While the death-watch, Deputy Sheriff Osborne, was giving his attention
-to something else for a moment, however, Lingg saw his opportunity,
-rose stealthily from his bed, seized a candle that flickered dimly in a
-corner of the cell, and, jumping back to his couch, put the bomb in his
-mouth and applied the flame. In an instant a loud explosion followed.
-
-Officials were soon in the cell and found Lingg lying on his side on
-the couch, with one arm thrown over his head and the other resting on
-a little table. A stream of blood was coursing down the pillow, and
-pools of it had gathered upon the bedding. The deputies raised him up
-gently. A ghastly sight met their gaze. The lower jaw had been almost
-entirely blown away, the upper lip was completely torn to shreds,
-the greater part of his nose was in tatters, only a fragment of his
-tongue remained, and every vestige of front teeth had disappeared. What
-remained of his cheeks looked like flesh torn by vultures, and every
-jagged part bled profusely. The inside of his upper jaw was horribly
-lacerated. It looked as though no man could survive such a wound for
-a moment after its infliction. And yet the bomb-maker was alive and
-breathing regularly.
-
-Lingg was at once removed from the cell to a large bath-room near
-the Jailor’s office, and made as comfortable as circumstances would
-permit. Drs. Fenger, Moyer and Bluthardt were at once sent for, and
-they responded immediately. They applied such restoratives as medical
-science suggested, but they found no little difficulty in stopping the
-bleeding and preventing the blood from running down the man’s throat
-and interfering with his breathing. Now and then he coughed, and with
-each spell emitted large quantities of blood. The pallet upon which he
-rested, and the floor underneath, were saturated with blood, and its
-strong flow attested a superb physical condition—a wonderful vitality.
-
-[Illustration: LINGG’S LAST WORDS.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-During all the operations of the surgeons Lingg remained perfectly
-conscious and eyed them as complacently as though they had been at
-work on some other patient. He showed no concern and never quivered.
-While calmly stretched on the cot, he closely observed all who entered
-the room and seemed surprised at their consternation. It was only
-when some police officers entered to look at him that he showed signs
-of nervousness, and then, with pantomimic flourishes of his hand, he
-indicated that he desired them to leave. The signs were correctly
-interpreted; for the moment the officers left he quieted down easily,
-and a grateful look from his eyes expressed his satisfaction. John C.
-Klein, who afterwards became famous for the active part he took in the
-troubles in the island of Samoa—readers will remember that there was a
-great deal of diplomatic correspondence on account of them, that there
-was even talk of war between the United States and Germany—was at that
-time a reporter for one of the Chicago dailies, and in that capacity
-was present in the room. While still being operated upon, Lingg
-beckoned to Klein for pencil and paper, and, these being handed to him,
-he wrote, in German: “Please support my back. When I lie down I cannot
-breathe.” That piece of paper, stained with Lingg’s blood, is still in
-existence, and is shown in the engraving.
-
-[Illustration: JOHN C. KLEIN.]
-
-Everything was done to alleviate Lingg’s sufferings, but he died at
-2:45 that afternoon.
-
-The bomb-maker’s remains were placed in a neat coffin, and Bailiff
-Eagan was detailed to critically examine Lingg’s cell. It was
-discovered that when Lingg had lighted the bomb, which had been placed
-firmly between the teeth, he was reclining on his cot, with his head
-near the wall. This was indicated by the fact that Eagan found portions
-of the man’s mustache, pieces of the tongue and shreds of flesh
-clinging firmly to the wall nearest where the head had rested. A piece
-of the tallow candle which had stood before its tragic use in a corner
-of the cell was found in the bed, and the wall where the head had lain
-was not only marred by the almost direct force of the explosion, but
-thickly bespattered with blood. All this indicated unmistakably the
-means Lingg had used to light the bomb and the position he had assumed
-when applying the fatal spark.
-
-The bomb used was undoubtedly similar to the lot discovered a few days
-previously. But how it became separated and in what manner it was
-concealed and smuggled into Lingg’s hands after he had been placed in a
-new cell and put under strict surveillance, are matters of conjecture.
-My own theory is that Lingg had a confidential friend among the
-smaller class of criminals. To such a friend this bomb was intrusted
-for safe-keeping in the event of the discovery of the bombs in his
-own cell, and when they were found he relied on that trusted friend
-to help him to escape the gallows. In no other way could this bomb
-have come into the possession of Lingg, since the prisoner had been
-searched several times and nothing found upon him. A confederate must
-have carefully kept the bomb and smuggled it to him at the last moment.
-Everything indicated that the bomb had been part of the discovered
-explosives, and its use fully corroborated the opinion I had given to
-Sheriff Matson and Jailor Folz at the time of the find, that the bombs
-were only intended for suicidal purposes and had been brought into
-the jail for no other object. At the time this opinion was given I
-was severely criticised by Chief Ebersold and others—the newspapers
-especially—for advancing such a theory. They maintained that the bombs
-had been brought in to be thrown at the time of the execution, so as
-not only to kill all who might become spectators, but to enable the
-Anarchists to escape hanging by death in the general destruction around
-them. A few of the papers even went so far as to attribute the opinion
-to “Schaack’s stupidity.”
-
-The doomed Anarchists were closely watched when it became quite
-apparent that there was no chance of their escaping the gallows either
-through an intervention of the courts or through executive clemency.
-Before this, however, some latitude had been allowed them. They had
-been watched, of course, but the rigorous scrutiny subsequently adopted
-had not then prevailed. Visitors had been admitted, and, although
-separate conversations had not been permitted, prisoners and friends
-had been close together. No contraband articles had ever been noticed,
-however, the general opinion among the jail officials being that,
-considering the prisoners were so hopeful of good results from the
-labors of their counsel, such a thing as suicide was not contemplated
-by any one of them.
-
-The first thing to arouse Jailor Folz’s suspicion was Engel’s action
-one day about the 1st of November. It appears that at that time Engel
-was very nervous and restless, and secured some morphine to quiet his
-nerves. He took an over-dose, and when charged with having deliberately
-done so with suicidal intent, he stoutly maintained that he had taken
-too much by mistake. Folz thought no man could take such a dose except
-with a view to suicide, and he resolved to keep a close watch on Engel
-thereafter and allow him no medicine save what was administered by
-a physician. The others were also more closely watched after that
-episode. All were searched at stated intervals, as I have already
-mentioned.
-
-One day, while Parsons was being searched, he was handed a common white
-shirt by Otto Folz, a son of the Jailor. Parsons looked at it for a
-moment and then exclaimed:
-
-“My God! you are not going to put a shroud on a live man?”
-
-After the bomb discovery the doomed Anarchists were removed from their
-old cells and placed on the lower floor, along the tier containing
-Lingg’s cell. Parsons was put in cell No. 7, Fischer, No. 8, and Engel,
-No. 9. When Lingg had been removed to the bath-room, his comrades were
-again subjected to an examination, and their clothes were all changed
-in the Jailor’s office. While this change was being effected, Parsons
-became greatly agitated, and he remarked:
-
-“If I only had one of the bombs Lingg had in his cell, I would make
-very short work of all this.”
-
-Fischer also made a similar remark. He said that he was ready to die
-at any time, and he did not care how he died. He was very defiant, and
-showed that he was in earnest in his expressions.
-
-Late in the afternoon of November 10, Gov. Oglesby gave his decision on
-the various applications for mercy. It reads:
-
- STATE OF ILLINOIS, EXECUTIVE OFFICE, SPRINGFIELD, NOV. 10.
-
- On the 20th day of August, 1886, in the Cook County Criminal Court,
- August Spies, Albert R. Parsons, Samuel Fielden, Michael Schwab,
- Adolph Fischer, George Engel and Louis Lingg were found guilty by
- the verdict of the jury and afterward sentenced to be hanged for the
- murder of Mathias J. Degan.
-
- An appeal was taken from such finding and sentence, to the Supreme
- Court of the State. That court, upon a final hearing and after mature
- deliberation, unanimously affirmed the judgment of the court below.
-
- The case now comes before me by petition of the defendants, for
- consideration as Governor of the State, if the letters of Albert
- R. Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel and Louis Lingg demanding
- “unconditional release,” or, as they express it, “liberty or death,”
- and protesting in the strongest language against mercy or commutation
- of the sentence pronounced against them, can be considered petitions.
-
- Pardon, could it be granted, which might imply any guilt whatever
- upon the part of either of them, would not be such a vindication as
- they demand. Executive intervention upon the grounds insisted upon by
- the four above-named persons could in no proper sense be deemed an
- exercise of the constitutional power to grant reprieves, commutations
- and pardons, unless based upon the belief on my part of their entire
- innocence of the crime of which they stand convicted.
-
- A careful consideration of the evidence in the record of the trial of
- the parties, as well as of all alleged and claimed for them outside of
- the record, has failed to produce upon my mind any impression tending
- to impeach the verdict of the jury or the judgment of the trial court
- or of the Supreme Court, affirming the guilt of all these parties.
-
- Satisfied, therefore, as I am, of their guilt, I am precluded from
- considering the question of commutation of the sentences of Albert R.
- Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel and Louis Lingg to imprisonment
- in the penitentiary, as they emphatically declare they will not accept
- such commutation. Samuel Fielden, Michael Schwab and August Spies
- unite in a petition for “executive clemency.” Fielden and Schwab,
- in addition, present separate and supplementary petitions for the
- commutation of their sentences. While, as said above, I am satisfied
- of the guilt of all the parties, as found by the verdict of the jury,
- which was sustained by the judgments of the courts, a most careful
- consideration of the whole subject leads me to the conclusion that the
- sentence of the law as to Samuel Fielden and Michael Schwab may be
- modified as to each of them, in the interest of humanity, and without
- doing violence to public justice.
-
- As to the said Samuel Fielden and Michael Schwab, the sentence is
- commuted to imprisonment in the penitentiary for life.
-
- As to all the other above-named defendants, I do not feel justified in
- interfering with the sentence of the court. While I would gladly have
- come to a different conclusion in regard to the sentence of defendants
- August Spies, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, Albert R. Parsons and
- Louis Lingg, I regret to say that under the solemn sense of the
- obligations of my office I have been unable to do so.
-
- RICHARD J. OGLESBY, GOVERNOR.
-
-This removed the last hope of the Anarchists. Spies said he had been
-prepared for the worst, and that he had only signed the petition of
-Fielden and Schwab for clemency at the solicitation of Miss Van Zandt.
-
-On the next morning after the Governor’s decision Fielden and Schwab
-were removed to the penitentiary at Joliet.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXVI.
-
- The Last Hours of the Doomed Men—Planning a Rescue—The Feeling
- in Chicago—Police Precautions—Looking for a Leak—Vitriol for
- a Detective—Guarding the Jail—The Dread of Dynamite—How the
- Anarchists Passed their Last Night—The Final Partings—Parsons
- Sings “Annie Laurie”—Putting up the Gallows—Scenes Outside the
- Prison—A Cordon of Officers—Mrs. Parsons Makes a Scene—The Death
- Warrants—Courage of the Condemned—Shackled and Shrouded for the
- Grave—The March to the Scaffold—Under the Dangling Ropes—The
- Last Words—“Hoch die Anarchie!”—“My Silence will be More Terrible
- than Speech”—“Let the Voice of the People be Heard”—The Chute to
- Death—Preparations for the Funeral—Scenes at the Homes of the
- Dead Anarchists—The Passage to Waldheim—Howell Trogden Carries
- the American Flag—Captain Black’s Eulogy—The Burial—Speeches
- by Grottkau and Currlin—Was Engel Sincere?—His Advice to his
- Daughter—A Curious Episode—Adolph Fischer and his Death-watch.
-
-
-THE Anarchists of Chicago now became desperate. Many of them had
-calculated on the worst for some time, and they had formed into small
-groups to be better able to plot for their imprisoned friends with the
-least possible danger of police detection. While assembling in large
-bodies, they had discovered that many of their secrets were in my
-possession, and after the decision of the Illinois Supreme Court they
-realized that it was essential to the success of any movement they
-might decide upon to keep all knowledge of it within the circle of true
-and trusted men. The leading lights in the order accordingly resorted
-to private residences, as I have already stated.
-
-Sometimes they were joined in meetings of a general nature by some who
-had previously been anti-Anarchists, but who since the decision of the
-Illinois court had secretly expressed sympathy with the condemned men.
-Becoming emboldened by what they thought to be a growing sentiment in
-favor of the prisoners, these secret abettors finally threw off their
-masks, and, openly expressing their views, many of them speedily lost
-the esteem and friendship of neighbors by whom they had previously
-been highly regarded. With a view to aiding to effect a general change
-in public sentiment, some of these sympathizers even threw open
-their doors to Anarchists, as I have indicated in a prior chapter.
-But whenever some risky project was contemplated the small bands of
-conspirators saw to it that none but avowed and tried adherents of the
-red flag were present.
-
-It was at this time that the police discovered the plot to release the
-doomed men, and one day Detective Schuettler learned of a place where
-numerous secret conferences were being held from time to time. He was
-under orders of Mr. Ebersold, who had taken him away from the Chicago
-Avenue Station with a view to crippling my force, but nevertheless the
-detective found a way, even while engaged in other directions, to keep
-a keen eye on secret revolutionary movements. He had been too long in
-the service to lose his interest in things Anarchistic, and he resolved
-to get at the bottom of the rumored clandestine gatherings.
-
-Learning that star-chamber sessions were being held in the room of an
-old-time Communist named Theodore Appell, at No. 234 West Division
-Street, Schuettler at once rented an adjoining room. In this apartment
-there was a closet, and after reconnoitering about the premises at a
-favorable opportunity, he discovered that by cutting a hole in the
-closet wall he could obtain a good view of those who might be present
-at future meetings. A hole was accordingly cut. This gave him a fine
-chance both to see and hear. Everything worked nicely for a time, but
-finally the conspirators became suspicious, as they found their secrets
-getting beyond their own circle, and, satisfied that the leakage was
-not due to members in their own set, they instituted a search. The
-result was that the officer’s peep-hole was discovered. That closed
-their deliberations in that place, but they resolved to take revenge
-on the man who had thus obtruded his attentions upon them. For this
-purpose they decided to hold a mock meeting in the old quarters, and
-then and there, when they were satisfied that the concealed individual
-had his eye at the hole, to discharge a syringe filled with vitriol.
-This would destroy the eye-sight as well as disfigure for life the face
-of the man who had dared to intrude on their secrecy. I learned of this
-plan, however, and warned the officer. Schuettler never again went near
-that closet. But he had already gathered all the information that was
-needed.
-
-The conspirators left the place like young birds leave the old nest,
-with a flop and a flourish, never to return; but we had learned that
-they had in view the liberation of their friends in jail.
-
-This information put the authorities on their guard, and it is possible
-that this timely discovery averted a jail delivery.
-
-But the Anarchists did not lose hope. When they learned that the United
-States Supreme Court had refused to interfere with the execution they
-became more desperate than ever. Where before they had been revengeful,
-they now were frantic, and their schemes now embraced more drastic
-and destructive measures. They considered propositions looking to a
-blowing-up of the jail building with dynamite, and in the turmoil and
-confusion incident to the wreckage of a part of the building and the
-destruction of life within they contemplated a rush to the untouched
-portion containing their comrades, whom they would thus rescue from the
-hands of the law. This diabolical plot was earnestly debated, and about
-the time the reds became satisfied that the Governor would not step in
-between their convicted leaders and the gallows they even went so far
-as to advocate an explosion that would not only rob the gallows of its
-victims, but kill those whom curiosity might assemble about the jail a
-short time before the expected event. If their comrades must die, they
-should not die alone. The disgrace of an execution must be averted, and
-a terrible lesson imparted to the enemies of Anarchy.
-
-But the jail officials joined me in most rigid measures to prevent the
-execution of each and all of the plots, and officers and detectives
-were stationed in goodly numbers about the building, night and day, to
-watch the movements of suspicious characters. When the decision of the
-Governor was finally announced this vigilance was redoubled, and we
-made sure that no secret mines had been constructed under any of the
-sidewalks surrounding the building or across under the alley on the
-west side of the jail structure.
-
-[Illustration: THE CHICAGO WATER-WORKS.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-It was not only the liberation of the imprisoned Anarchists that was
-aimed at in the numerous conspiracies which came to our knowledge about
-this time. One plot which was reported to me embraced a wanton scheme
-of incendiarism and pillage, and in order to facilitate this, it was
-proposed to cut off the water supply of the city by demolishing the
-stand-pipe in the Water-works tower. In some manner the conspirators
-had learned the exact spot in the tower where a charge of dynamite
-would accomplish the most effective execution, and the reports brought
-to me showed that this project was debated most minutely. For the space
-of two months we were required therefore to keep extra guard over the
-source of Chicago’s water supply, and the contemplated attack of the
-reds was not attempted.
-
-While the plots on the outside of the jail were thus met with
-vigilance, the doomed conspirators within appeared quiet and
-resigned. They received the Governor’s decision with extraordinary
-composure, and, having felt throughout that day that they must face
-the inevitable on the morrow, they busied themselves in arranging
-their earthly affairs, writing letters to friends and relatives and
-giving directions as to the disposition of personal matters and the
-publication of their autobiographies and other manuscripts. Early in
-the evening they received their immediate friends and relatives to
-bid them farewell, and through all that trying ordeal they remained
-unmoved. Tears coursed down the blanched faces of wives, sisters
-and daughters as the last loving words were spoken, but no emotion
-of despair or grief seemed to agitate the men. They were solemn and
-stoical in their demeanor, and their efforts were mainly directed to
-administering words of cheer and consolation. When the final parting
-had taken place, they returned to their cells, and their last night on
-earth was varied with letter-writing and chats with the death-watch.
-None of them retired early. Parsons did not seek his couch till after
-midnight, and then it was some time before the rapid thoughts coursing
-through his brain would permit him to sleep. Before morning he broke
-the stillness of his surroundings by singing a favorite song of his
-earlier days—“Annie Laurie.” The clear tones echoing down the corridor
-startled all then awake, and prisoners and death-watch eagerly inclined
-their heads to catch every word and note. When Parsons drew near the
-closing stanza, his voice tripped and hesitated, unmistakably showing
-that his feelings were giving way to the recollections of former times.
-
-Spies lay down to rest at a late hour, but his thoughts, as he chatted
-with his death-watch, seemed busy with the events that had brought
-him to a murderer’s doom. He denounced the verdict as iniquitous, and
-declared that the people would shortly see the error of hanging men for
-seeking the welfare of the laboring classes.
-
-Fischer was the quietest and most self-composed of all, and he had very
-little to say even to his death-watch. He soon apparently fell into a
-slumber and seemed to rest easily.
-
-Engel was also remarkably self-possessed, and he was the last to retire
-to his couch—not because of thoughts of the morrow occupying his mind,
-but for another reason, as will appear further along.
-
-During the latter part of the night, if any one of them had happened
-to be awake, the horrible preparations for the execution could have
-been distinctly heard. Around the corner, in the corridor north of the
-one in which their cells were located, the gallows were being placed
-in position, and, even though the sounds of the hammer were subdued,
-the echo plainly told the character of the work the carpenters were
-engaged upon. It was the same scaffold on which the three Italians had
-two years before atoned for the death of a murdered countryman, and on
-which the murderer Mulkowsky had also paid the penalty for his foul
-crime. It was a large structure—large enough to have dropped seven men
-had the original sentence of the trial court been carried into full
-execution. At the end of each rope one hundred and eighty pound weights
-were attached, so as to give a heavier fall, and, thus arranged, by
-daylight the trap of death was ready for its victims.
-
-When morning dawned, the four Anarchists arose early, but each seemed
-to have had a restful night. Their demeanor had not changed perceptibly
-from that of other mornings. After their ablutions they perused the
-morning papers and subsequently partook of breakfast, brought in from a
-neighboring restaurant. They ate quite heartily, and then each turned
-his attention again to letter-writing. Their communications were mainly
-directed to their families and to friends in the city, and some to
-Anarchists in other parts of the country, and very nearly the last
-they penned were directed to the Sheriff and to the Coroner and had
-reference to the disposition of their bodies and personal effects after
-death.
-
-[Illustration: CANUTE R. MATSON.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-During the fleeting morning hours, the Anarchists were visited by the
-Rev. Mr. Bolton, of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Chicago,
-who came to assist in their spiritual preparation for death, but while
-each received him courteously, they all declined his kindly proffered
-ministrations. They had no faith in the gospel and frankly told the
-clergyman that they did not desire his services. They wanted to die as
-they had lived, with no faith in God or man as exalted above general
-humanity. Some of them even went into discussion with the clergyman,
-stoutly combatting every point he made to reach their hearts; but the
-talk always ended as it had begun—in a positive refusal to accept any
-spiritual guidance or advice. The Rev. Mr. Bolton was forced to retire
-without having made any impression, and the men treated the whole
-matter afterwards in a most indifferent and flippant manner.
-
-While the unfortunates on the inside were apparently unmoved by their
-impending fate, commotion and excitement prevailed on the outside of
-the jail. At a very early hour in the morning a contingent of the
-police force, numbering three hundred men, was detailed to preserve
-order and keep away from the immediate vicinity of the building all
-persons not having proper credentials or not properly vouched for.
-Across Michigan and Illinois Streets, on the east side of Clark Street,
-and on Dearborn Avenue at its intersections with the two first-named
-streets, stout ropes were stretched, and within the inclosure thus
-formed and at the barriers squads of policemen were marching up and
-down with glistening bayonets and Winchester rifles. There were also
-policemen in and about the Criminal Court and jail building and on the
-roof, commanding the streets below in all directions. There was thus a
-most complete arrangement to meet any unexpected attack or any violent
-hostile demonstration.
-
-As the hour approached for the execution the streets beyond the ropes
-became crowded with people of all grades and descriptions, impelled by
-curiosity; but they were all kept moving by policemen scattered along
-the thoroughfares amongst them, so that no groups might gather and
-under the excitement of the moment precipitate a row or a riot. Along
-toward ten o’clock Mrs. Parsons, dressed in mourning and accompanied
-by her two children, presented herself at the ropes and demanded
-admittance to see her husband “murdered by law.” She was, of course,
-delicately refused, and then she endeavored to create a scene, but
-the police promptly called a patrol wagon and sent her to the Chicago
-Avenue Station, where she was detained until after the execution.
-During the forenoon thousands of people passed in the vicinity of the
-building, but the only satisfaction they received for their pains was a
-sight of the somber walls of the jail at a distance. Taking the crowd
-as a whole, it was remarkably orderly, although there was more or less
-subdued muttering among the Anarchists who had sought the vicinity only
-to find themselves ordered to “move on.” These generally sought solace
-for their wounded feelings in neighboring saloons, where they cast dire
-imprecations upon the police, promising to be avenged in time.
-
-Within the jail everything was quiet, and, except for the presence
-of those who had come to witness the execution, there seemed to be
-no special indication of the tragedy to be enacted. The officials
-moved about quietly while making the preliminary arrangements, and
-the unfortunate Anarchists smoked, wrote hasty notes and chatted at
-intervals with their attendants.
-
-At 11:30 o’clock Sheriff Matson, accompanied by Deputies Hartke,
-Cleveland, Spears and Peters, County Physician Moyer and Jailor Folz,
-started from the jail office, and repaired to the cell occupied by
-Spies. The iron-barred door was opened, and Spies advanced to meet the
-Sheriff. Mr. Matson at once proceeded to read the death warrant. Spies
-listened with folded arms, and there was no indication of nervousness
-nor trace of emotion. His feelings could not be divined from his
-demeanor. The facial muscles remained unmoved, and no color rose to
-flush the usual paleness of the cheeks, nor was the pallor of his face
-heightened when the last fearful words of the warrant had been read.
-The Sheriff was visibly agitated, and his voice was at times tremulous.
-On the conclusion of the reading Spies merely bowed his head slightly,
-and then stepped out into the corridor in obedience to the deputies’
-request. Around his chest was placed a leather belt about an inch and a
-half wide, with which to pinion his arms just above the elbows, and his
-hands were handcuffed behind his back. Then a white muslin shroud was
-thrown over him and fastened slightly at the neck and waist.
-
-[Illustration: THE EXECUTION.]
-
-While these details were being carried out, the Sheriff was at
-Fischer’s cell, and the same programme of preparation was gone through
-with. The Anarchist was manacled, pinioned and shrouded, and he
-gazed upon each operation with curious interest, but with no sign of
-perturbation or weakness. Now and then he faintly smiled, and he seemed
-more concerned about the trepidation of the deputies than about his own
-situation.
-
-Meantime the death warrant had been read to Engel, who was soon arrayed
-in the habiliments of death. He stood it all unflinchingly, and seemed
-even less concerned than his comrades. There was also an entire absence
-of affected indifference.
-
-Parsons was the last to step out of his cell, and, as he stood
-receiving the ghastly paraphernalia, he endeavored to display no sign
-of fear. He bore up well, although he evidently wrestled with his inner
-feelings.
-
-The solemn march to the scaffold began with the Sheriff in the lead.
-In the east corner of the north corridor stood the scaffold. Below
-and before it were benches for the two hundred spectators. The death
-procession moved slowly and with measured tread. As it neared the
-corner the footfalls became distinctly audible to those assembled.
-When the shuffling of feet on the iron stairway leading to the first
-gallery, which was on a level with the gallows, was heard, the buzz of
-conversation ceased, and every eye was centered on the spot whence the
-Anarchists would be first seen. It was only a moment, and then Spies,
-Fischer, Engel and Parsons, one after the other, came into view, each
-with a deputy by his side. Having reached their respective places
-on the trap, they faced the spectators. Spies, the moment he caught
-sight of the audience, gave it a contemptuous look, and thereafter his
-eyes seemed centered on some invisible object down the corridor above
-the heads of the spectators. Fischer merely looked down for a moment
-on the uncovered heads below, and then his eyes wandered in various
-directions. Engel seemed the most unconcerned of all, and swept the
-audience with a cool glance as though it might have been composed of
-friends. Parsons was superbly stiff, and his gaze, after a snap at
-those below, firmly set itself in the direction of the cell tiers.
-
-As soon as those on the platform had taken the positions assigned,
-the lower limbs of the four Anarchists were pinioned. This was done
-very quickly. The nooses dangling overhead were then lifted from their
-hooks, and Spies was the first to have the rope placed around his
-neck. The noose had been slipped a little too tight, and, noticing the
-uneasiness it gave him, the deputy instantly loosened it a trifle.
-Spies gave a faint smile in acknowledgment of the kindness and again
-seemed at ease. Not a tremor was visible during the adjustment of the
-rope. Another deputy next placed the rope around the neck of Fischer,
-who, to facilitate its proper adjustment, bent his tall form slightly
-and received it with head inclined until the knot rested in its proper
-place under the left ear. Engel received the noose as if it had been
-a decoration about to be placed upon his shoulders by friendly
-hands, and several times he turned his head around to exchange a
-word or two with the deputy, accompanying his whispered utterances
-with a smile. Parsons stood unmoved when his turn came, and appeared
-entirely indifferent to the operation. Loose-fitting white caps were
-now produced, and, as these came in sight, Fischer and Engel turned
-their heads slightly to the left and spoke a second to their respective
-deputies. Spies first, Fischer next, then Engel, and Parsons last,
-was the order in which the caps were adjusted, and the heads had no
-sooner been enveloped, shutting out forever the light of day, than all
-knew that the fatal moment had arrived. During all the preliminary
-preparations not a relaxation of nerve or an expression of anguish or
-despair had been observed. Now the tension of silence was painful.
-But suddenly there broke from the lips of Spies an exclamation that
-startled the auditors as if by a shock.
-
-“You may strangle this voice,” said he, in clear but subdued tones,
-“but my silence will be more terrible than speech.”
-
-Spies had scarcely uttered his last words, when Fischer shouted:
-
-“This is the happiest moment of my life. _Hoch die Anarchie!_”
-
-Engel immediately caught up the sentiment, and in a strong voice, and
-with a pronounced German accent, cried:
-
-“Hurrah for Anarchy!”
-
-Parsons then lifted his voice, and in firm, deliberate tones,
-exclaimed: “O men of America!”
-
-Then, lowering his voice to an appealing accent:
-
-“Mr. Sheriff, may I be permitted to say a few words?”
-
-Raising his voice again, without waiting for an answer, and continuing
-in the same breath, he said:
-
-“O men of America, let the voice of the people be heard.”
-
-The last word had barely escaped his lips, when the signal was given to
-the unknown and hidden man in the sentry-box back of the platform, the
-rope controlling the trap was cut, and four bodies shot downward into
-space. The intervals between the adjustment of the caps, the utterances
-and the drop were only a few moments, but they were moments that
-seemed like hours. The first instant after the drop, the bodies all
-seemed motionless, but immediately one after the other began violent
-contortions, the limbs contracted, the breasts swelled with spasms,
-and the arms shook convulsively. It was fully eight minutes before the
-last was limp and lifeless. The bodies, however, were left hanging for
-twenty-six minutes, and then they were deposited in plain coffins,
-ready to be turned over to their relatives. The jury selected by the
-Sheriff to pass upon the death, as required by law, next viewed the
-remains and then signed the usual legal certificates. Those composing
-the jury were Dr. Ferdinand Henrotin, Dr. Denslow Lewis, Dr. G. A.
-Hall, Dr. Harry Brown, Dr. J. B. Andrews, Dr. M. W. Thompson, John N.
-Hills, William B. Keep, ex-Sheriff John Hoffman, Edwin Wynn, George
-Lanz, George M. Moulton, John L. Woodward and H. L. Anderson.
-
-It was subsequently ascertained that the necks of none of the
-Anarchists had been broken, and that death had come in each case
-through strangulation.
-
-Within an hour and a half the coffins were removed, the bodies of
-Spies, Parsons and Fischer being receipted for by a committee of the
-Central Labor Union, and those of Engel and Lingg by a friend of Mrs.
-Engel. The body of Lingg had reposed in the women’s department of the
-jail. Shortly before his death, the bomb-maker had expressed the wish
-that his body be allowed to repose by the side of Engel’s, and that it
-be given in charge of Engel’s family, as he himself had no relatives in
-America.
-
-[Illustration: JOHN A. ROCHE.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-The remains of Spies, Fischer and Parsons were taken to an undertaking
-establishment at No. 596 Milwaukee Avenue, and those of Engel and
-Lingg to a similar place at No. 186 Milwaukee Avenue, and there
-costly and ornamental coffins were provided after the bodies had been
-first embalmed. Subsequently they were removed to the houses of their
-respective relatives, and arrangements were at once set on foot for a
-tremendous demonstration at the funeral, the following Sunday.
-
-No sooner had each coffin been taken to the relatives than hundreds of
-Anarchists flocked in to view the remains. Others, too—men, women and
-children, moved by morbid curiosity—crowded in to view the dead. The
-families were in almost constant tears, and deep were the lamentations
-over the fate of their loved ones. Mrs. Parsons was in paroxysms of
-grief and had to be almost forcibly removed from beside the bier of her
-husband. Her curses were loud against the police, and she strenuously
-refused all comfort. At the Spies residence there were copious tears,
-and no one was more deeply moved than Miss Van Zandt. The sorrow of
-Mrs. Engel and her daughter was more subdued, but nevertheless keen and
-poignant. It was the same at Fischer’s home.
-
-Meantime the preparations for the funeral went on, and the committee
-having it in charge determined that it should be conducted with the
-utmost pomp, ceremony and display. They desired that on this occasion
-the red flag should again be unfurled and wave over the bodies of those
-whom they regarded as martyrs. The police learned of it, and when a
-committee waited upon Mayor Roche to secure the necessary permission
-for the procession, he set his face firmly against the red flag.
-
-“The American flag,” said he, “is good enough for us, and it is good
-enough for you. If that flag don’t suit you, I am sorry. No red flag
-shall ever take its place while I am Mayor of Chicago.”
-
-Sunday, November 13, came, and every Anarchistic organization in the
-city turned out to attend the funeral. The procession, which started
-at an early hour, first called at the Spies residence, No. 154 Bryson
-Street, for the coffin of the editor, and then moved on to Mrs.
-Parsons’ residence at No. 785 Milwaukee Avenue. After the coffin of
-Parsons had been placed in the hearse, Fischer’s house was reached, and
-next that of Engel, and when all the hearses were in line, the entire
-funeral procession proceeded down Milwaukee Avenue, thence to Lake
-Street, and thence along Fifth Avenue to the depot of the Wisconsin
-Central Railway. At each of the houses of the executed Anarchists the
-cortege had been joined by friends and by various societies of which
-the dead had been members, and with these accessions the procession,
-as it finally moved on to its destination, numbered not less than six
-thousand. The hearses were loaded down with flowers, wreaths and other
-floral tributes, and each was followed by carriages containing the
-mourners. Close behind the Spies hearse was a carriage containing Mrs.
-and Miss Van Zandt, mother and daughter, and Mrs. Spies, the mother,
-and Miss Gretchen, the sister of the deceased. All along the line of
-march, the sidewalks were thronged, and there must have been over fifty
-thousand persons who viewed the procession as it passed. Hundreds
-had gathered at the residences before the procession started, and
-when they joined the throngs already on Milwaukee Avenue the streets
-became almost impassable. Policemen were stationed at the various
-street corners, and these gave the processionists ample room to move
-unimpeded. The procession did not lack music, several bands having been
-engaged, and the “Marseillaise” and “Annie Laurie” were the airs most
-frequently heard.
-
-The absence of the red banner on the street was commented on, but with
-a seeming defiance of the Mayor’s orders two red flags decked the
-coffins of Engel and Lingg. What was still more significant was the
-fact that not a single flag of the Union was borne by the procession.
-It was only when the Anarchists reached Lake Street that the red, white
-and blue was unfurled to the breeze, and then it was done, not by an
-Anarchist, but by Howell Trogden, a veteran of the civil war. It was
-a small emblem in size, and of cheap material, but he held it high
-above his head and proudly carried it before the cortege, clear down to
-the depot, greatly to the discomfiture and chagrin of the reds. When
-remonstrated with by some one who was in the crowd that had gathered
-about him and cheered him on the way, he defiantly exclaimed in plain,
-though perhaps not elegant, language:
-
-“What, furl the ensign of the nation I fought for? Not much! You bet
-your life, I’ll carry this flag and I’ll kill the first man who tries
-to wrest it from me. I’ll shed my blood to keep it there.”
-
-And the flag was kept there.
-
-Arriving at the depot, the various organizations boarded the trains in
-waiting, and shortly after one o’clock all were under way to Waldheim
-Cemetery, situated some nine miles west of Chicago. It was a gloomy,
-cold day, but nevertheless an immense concourse of people followed
-the remains to the vault in which they were temporarily deposited.
-Those who had immediate charge of the funeral arrangements were Frank
-A. Stauber, H. Linnemeyer, George Schilling, R. M. Burke, Julius
-Leon, Edwin Goettge, Charles F. Seib, Ernst Litzman, H. Ulharn, F.
-G. Bielefeld, William Urban, Dr. Ernst Schmidt and T. J. Morgan, all
-members of the Defense Committee and the Amnesty Association.
-
-After the coffins had been placed in the vault, Capt. W. P. Black took
-a position near the entrance and delivered the funeral oration. In
-concluding his address, he said, speaking of a day “when righteousness
-should reign”:
-
- “We look forward to that day. We hope for it. We wait for it, and with
- such a hope in our hearts can we not bring the judgment of charity to
- bear upon any mistakes of policy or action that may have been made by
- any of those who, acknowledging the sublime and glorious hope in their
- hearts, rushed forward to meet it? We are not here this afternoon to
- weep. We are not here to mourn over our dead. We are here to pay by
- our presence and our words the tribute of our appreciation and the
- witness of our love. I loved these men. I knew them not until I came
- to know them in the time of their sore travail and anguish. As months
- went by and I found in the lives of those with whom I talked the
- witness of their love for the people, of their patience, gentleness
- and courage, my heart was taken captive in their cause. For this I
- have no apology. If any of you feel that the tears are coming listen
- to the last words spoken by one of these, our dead.
-
- “‘Go not to my grave with your mourning, with your lamentations
- and tears, with your forebodings and fears. When my lips are dumb,
- do not thus come. Bring no long train of carriages; no hearse with
- waving plumes, with the gaunt glory of death illumed; but with hands
- on my heart let me rest. Ye who are left on this desolate shore,
- there still to suffer alone, deeply do I pity you. For me no more
- are the hardships, the bitterness, heartache and strife, the sadness
- and sorrow of life, but the glory of the divine, that is mine. Poor
- creatures, afraid of the darkness, who groan at the sight of the
- anguish in our silent night, go to my tomb. Peal no solemn bell—I am
- well.’
-
- “It has been said that these men knew no religion. I repel the charge.
- I know but one religion—the religion which seeks to manifest itself
- by its service of God—or of the supreme good—by its service of
- humanity in its anguish and its hours of despair. And one of these,
- our dead, while within the very gloom of approaching death, gave in
- these words: ‘My religion is this: To live right. To do right is to
- live right, and the service of humanity is my worship of God.’
-
- “I remember that back in the centuries it was written in words that
- shall never perish: ‘He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even
- as He is righteous.’ There is no conception possible to humanity of
- that which we call God other than the conception which sets our life
- aflame in the service of our fellow-men. But I must not keep you.
- There is no necessity for multiplying words in such a presence as
- this. There are times when silence is more terrible than speech; when
- men moving to the supreme issue of life can say, standing with their
- feet on earth and their hands reaching out into the unknown, in a
- sublime burst of enthusiasm: ‘This is the happiest moment of my life’
- (the last words of Fischer), and then in that hour can cheer for the
- cause to which they have given their lives (as Engel did), and men in
- that hour, forgetting themselves, can speak of the voice of the people
- (Parsons’ last words) until utterance is silenced forever, what need
- is there to stand by such men and multiply words?
-
- “I say that a mistake may well be forgotten in the glory of the
- purpose which we condemn—it may be through undue haste. I say that
- whatever of fault may have been in them, these, the people whom they
- loved and in whose cause they died, may well close the volume and seal
- up the record and give our lips to the praise of their heroic deeds
- and their sublime self-sacrifice.”
-
-Some weeks afterwards arrangements were made for the final interment
-of the bodies. A suitable lot had been purchased with money collected
-by the “Defense Committee,” and accordingly on Sunday, the 18th of
-December, 1887, the Anarchists were invited out to Waldheim to witness
-the last rites over the dead conspirators. It was a cold, chilling
-day, and only about a thousand people were in attendance. The remains
-of the five Anarchists were removed from the vault, the coffins opened
-and the bodies viewed by all who desired. They were then placed in one
-grave, and a heavy flagstone was lowered and firmly cemented to protect
-them. The orators on this occasion were Mr. Buchanan, of Chicago, Paul
-Grottkau, of Milwaukee, and Albert Currlin, of St. Louis. The tenor of
-Grottkau’s speech may be judged from the following extract:
-
- “Those cold clods of clay were the first offerings required at our
- hands, but they will not be the last. Our lords believed that with
- them they could slaughter the idea and ideals they represent. They
- imagined that the fivefold gallows would forever choke liberty.
- How they have succeeded the future will show. Let them erect their
- gallows, put them up by the million, and they will never destroy
- the glorious principles. Not all their revolvers, their armories of
- bayonets and Gatling guns, not all their bristling rows of cannon, can
- conquer us. (‘Bravo!’ ‘Bravo!’) From this land the fame of our martyrs
- and our principles will go out to the whole world. Our strangled
- ones are put at the head of the column. Their names will ever be the
- brightest on history’s page. Party hate or sectional strife cannot
- dim their laurels. They were the champions of degraded and plundered
- humanity. They fought long and manfully for us; they died to serve
- us; and more than that man cannot do. It but remains for us to do
- our duty as they did theirs. We must be moved by their spirit. All
- mean personal desires must depart from us. We must continue our
- organization. We must be unswervingly loyal to the principles they
- taught us—the great principles that will free the wretched and
- enslaved proletarians and drive all injustice from the face of the
- earth. Brothers, they (pointing to the five coffins) have done their
- duty; let us do ours.”
-
-Currlin closed his address as follows:
-
- “We have been constantly bought, sold and delivered at the ballot-box
- (Applause.) These heroes and true men had well considered the folly of
- relying on the ballot, and with firm hearts and resounding voices had
- pointed out the road to the thinking and the brave.
-
- “They are gone. Shall the sacrifice of these noble lives be fruitful
- or not? It will, it must be. Let the dreadful act cement us together.
- Let us be loftier, firmer than ever. You have your Golgotha. See to it
- that you have your Easter, and have it soon. You owe it to yourselves
- and your families that you ever revere these dead. If at any time you
- become soul-weary or discouraged, make a pilgrimage to this hallowed
- spot and be reinvigorated for the strife. Let the prison, even the
- gallows, be powerless to overturn your purpose. Let us struggle for
- the right, for justice, freedom, and true fraternity until the nations
- of the earth are of us and with us, until the peoples are regenerated,
- and clean hands and clean hearts have authority to rule.” (Applause.)
-
-With the final burial of the dead, it may perhaps be well to inquire
-whether one of them continued to believe in Anarchy when he saw that
-there was no escaping from his fate. That one about whose faith there
-is most doubt is Engel.
-
-It is frequently the case that men condemned to death, either on the
-gallows or otherwise, make a powerful effort to die bravely, and that,
-whatever may have been their true feelings, the truth dies with them.
-It is seldom that any one reveals from the bottom of his heart his true
-sentiments. In this case, Engel was a man known to have been sober and
-sincere, who believed that everything he said was true and right, and
-who expressed his opinions freely before all his people. He professed
-the same sentiments to the public up to the moment of his death, his
-last words being, “Hurrah for Anarchy!” Yet he felt differently. It
-is a well-known fact that people sentenced to death adhere until the
-last second to the position that they are right in their opinions or
-doctrines, or they simulate innocence. Now, as to Engel, it had been
-shown by the evidence that he had frequented many places at night, to
-attend Anarchist meetings, and at many of them he delivered addresses.
-On some of these occasions he was accompanied by his only daughter,
-a bright young girl about fifteen or sixteen years of age, and she
-often heard him utter sentiments which she ought not to have heard.
-But the girl could not help it. She was there, and she had to listen.
-After these meetings they would walk home together, and the daughter’s
-company was always a source of great pleasure to Engel. She was also
-greatly attached to her father, and, naturally, whatever she heard him
-say she regarded as true, having the most implicit faith in him. Engel
-knew all this, and many stormy nights she would brave the weather to
-be at his side at meetings he felt himself obliged to attend. She
-would cling to his arm, and through snow and storm they would face the
-elements. When Engel’s last night on earth came, he asked the Sheriff
-and Jailor to permit his beloved daughter to remain with him during
-the night, and, the officials having satisfied themselves that no
-sinister purpose was in view, the wish was granted. This was the night
-of November 10, and young Mary kept her father cheerful company during
-the long hours. Engel seemed to have had something on his mind, but
-he refrained from saying anything until shortly before the time for
-her departure. It was evident that Engel had a deep solicitude for her
-welfare, in spite of his pretended stolidity. In theory he had always
-expressed the greatest admiration for Louise Michel, and on every
-occasion he had lauded that Frenchwoman for her bravery in suffering
-imprisonment and readiness to sacrifice her life for Anarchy. But he
-regarded theory and practice as separate and distinct, and in the face
-of death his thoughts concerned themselves with the future of his dear
-child. Should she espouse Anarchy and follow in his footsteps, taking
-up his work where he had left off? This is what agitated Engel, and he
-soon decided the issue. With a serious and earnest manner, and in a
-very strong voice, he said in German:
-
-“Mein liebes Kind, kümmere dich nicht um Anarchie. Du siehest wie
-es mir geht. Und vergesse diese Worte nicht so lange du lebst.”
-(Translated: “My dear child, do not trouble yourself about Anarchy. You
-see my situation. Do not forget these words as long as you live.”)
-
-[Illustration: KIERLAN’S SOUVENIR.]
-
-I am happy to record this to Engel’s credit. He was conscious that he
-had been in the wrong for some time, and he had the manhood to warn
-his daughter not to embrace Anarchy. He wished her to maintain a good
-character and grow up to be a good woman.
-
-The words I have given are true to the letter, just as they were spoken
-by Engel to his daughter, at the time I have stated, and, no matter how
-strenuously Anarchists may deny this, it will still remain the truth.
-I will even add that I have no doubt that Engel’s comrades entertained
-similar sentiments.
-
-The other doomed Anarchists, however, kept their own counsel, and no
-one seems to have been able to probe their real feelings. Spies and
-Parsons were decidedly reserved, and Fischer had a severe demeanor,
-which only relaxed to intimate and trusted friends. A slight exception
-to his rule was made in his conduct toward his death-watch, John B.
-Kierlan. In speaking of Fischer, Kierlan, who was a deputy in the jail
-building, says:
-
-“At the beginning of February, 1887, I was detailed as death-watch to
-Fischer. When I first went on watch Fischer did not care much for my
-company, but after a week or so we got to be friends. He asked me to
-play cards with him, and I often joined him in a game. We played for
-imaginary and invisible beers. Sometimes I would lose, and then again
-he would be the loser. The one who lost generally wanted satisfaction,
-and the next night we would ‘saw off’ the games, and in this way we
-were accustomed to spend our evenings together until the last few
-nights preceding November 11th. Fischer was at this time in cell No.
-28, second row. He became greatly attached to me, and was always
-pleased to see me. He had more confidence in me than in any other
-officer in the building, and I was with him nearly all the morning of
-November 11th. When it was nearly eleven o’clock that morning he said:
-
-“‘Well, John, what about the beer you owe me?’
-
-“I was so greatly astonished that I could not answer him. Then Fischer
-threw his arm around my neck and said:
-
-“‘Dear John, we must part.’
-
-“At the same time he kissed my cheek. This was a trying moment for me,
-as I had become greatly attached to him. While I knew him, he never
-used bad language or said anything unbecoming a gentleman. He asked me:
-
-“‘John, will you remember me?’
-
-“‘I said: ‘Yes, but I would like to have something to remember you by.’
-
-“He then pulled out a card from his pocket and wrote these words:
-
-“‘Liberty or death. Adolph Fischer, Cook County Jail, November 11,
-1887.’
-
-“This card was given to me forty-five minutes before he died, and I am
-positive that these were the last words he wrote in his life.”
-
-A _fac-simile_ of the card appears on another page.
-
-The _Freiheit_ of March 16th prints what it calls Lingg’s literary
-testament. It is stated in the introduction to the article that while
-in prison the bomb-maker carved a handsome little casket, which shortly
-before his death he presented to Johann Most as a souvenir. In a secret
-compartment of this casket was contained a small book, on the leaves of
-which Lingg had inscribed his sentiments, and from which the following
-is extracted:
-
- “What is Anarchy?
-
- “A man-worthy existence for the entire term of life, guaranteed to
- every one through complete individual liberty, all human needs being
- supplied by means of equal participation in the enjoyment of all the
- products of the community.
-
- “Free society (Anarchy) finds its limits only in those of the earth.
-
- “The object of Anarchy is to secure the greatest possible happiness to
- all.
-
- “This object is attained through the total extermination of all
- domination.
-
- “Domination is personified in exploiters (_Ausbeuter_) and tyrants.
-
- “The extermination of these, in view of their sources of power, can
- best be accomplished by means of dynamite.
-
- “After such extermination the workingmen will organize according to
- their inclinations, for protection and consumption.
-
- “Centralization—_i. e._, subordination of the different groups of
- production and consumption under a clique composed of individuals,
- or even under a majority of society—is not advisable, because in
- that way another domination would be established, and such would make
- illusory the stated purpose of free society—Anarchy.”
-
-In writing this book I have endeavored at all times to be fair and
-honest. While I have done everything in my power and made use of every
-faculty which God has given me to ferret out and to combat Anarchy,
-and while I believe now, as I always have believed, that the men
-who suffered death at the hand of justice in the Cook County Jail
-deserved their fate, I also believe that there are those unhanged,
-and who probably never will be hanged, who are morally as guilty, and
-who deserve even a harsher fate than befell the men whose lives the
-law demanded. For these cowards—selfish, sneaking conspirators as
-they are, who fight from ambush and take no risks—would not deserve
-even the sympathy of the poor fools whom they lead to ruin. I firmly
-believe that Engel, Lingg and Fischer were at least sincere in their
-convictions and honest in their belief and in their expressions. Spies,
-I think, was led to his fate by vanity and a consuming desire for
-notoriety.
-
-In my investigations I of course looked carefully into the antecedents
-of all the Anarchists who were arrested by my command, and I will
-say right here that not a dishonest act, as regards the rights of
-property, was laid to the door of any one of them. Lingg, particularly,
-was scrupulously honest and conscientious in his dealings with his
-fellow-man. The day after the Haymarket massacre he found himself
-penniless, and for that reason refused at first to partake of the food
-offered him at Seliger’s table.
-
-“I cannot partake of what belongs to you and your wife,” he said, “nor
-of what I cannot pay for. You are as poor as I am.”
-
-“You must share with us as long as we have food,” replied Seliger; but
-it was only after considerable urging that Lingg consented to appease
-his hunger.
-
-While apparent bravery in facing death on the gallows counts for
-nothing—I have seen craven cowards meet their doom like stage
-heroes—I believe that Lingg, Engel and Fischer would have died calmly
-and bravely even without the stimulants which are always administered
-to the condemned before the fatal moment, and which were, of course,
-administered to the four men before they were led to the fatal trap
-which hurled them into eternity. Lingg, particularly, during the entire
-term of his confinement, through the long months of the trial, and
-up to the very day when he so tragically took his own life, showed a
-consistency and a determination which would have been heroic had he not
-been the dupe of designing men who saw in the ardor of his temperament
-and in the resistless force of his enthusiastic energy the means to
-further and carry out iniquitous plots with which they had not the
-courage to openly identify themselves. I repeat again, there are those
-still unhanged, who are even now parading before a credible public as
-apostles of the cause of labor, and whose cowardice keeps them out
-of the reach of law, who deserve the greater share of public odium.
-Some of these, and others like them, are still at work in our midst,
-and in the midst of all communities in which the revolutionists see a
-chance of making propaganda out of differences between employers and
-employed. I hope that one result of my book may be to open the eyes of
-honest workingmen to the fact that those who preach violence and those
-who stir up trouble and intensify discontent are the enemies of honest
-labor.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXVII.
-
- Anarchy Now—The Fund for the Condemned Men’s Families—$10,000
- Subscribed—The Disposition of the Money—The Festival of
- Sorrow—Parsons’ Posthumous Letter—The Haymarket Monument—Present
- Strength of the Discontented—7,300 Revolutionists in Chicago—A
- Nucleus of Desperate Men—The New Organization—Building Societies
- and Sunday-schools—What the Children are Taught—Education
- and Blasphemy—The Secret Propaganda—Bodendick and his
- Adventures—“The Rebel Vagabond”—The Plot to Murder Grinnell, Gary
- and Bonfield—Arrest of the Conspirators Hronek, Capek, Sevic and
- Chleboun—Chleboun’s Story—Hronek Sent to the Penitentiary.
-
-
-THE question which will naturally present itself to the reader at this
-time is: What is the present condition of Anarchy in Chicago? Has the
-frightful fate of the convicted conspirators proven a salutary lesson
-to the others, or is the propaganda still maintained?
-
-Unfortunately these questions must be answered in a manner not
-calculated to allay public apprehension.
-
-After the death and the burial of the executed leaders there was a
-period of quietness among the Anarchists. They seemed stunned by the
-blow which had been leveled at them, but the impression soon wore away,
-and in a short time they were as rampant as ever.
-
-Their first work was to provide for the families of the dead, and for
-this purpose a fund of $10,000 was speedily raised. Of this amount,
-strange to say, $4,000 has been invested in four per cent. Cook County
-bonds. This amount was intended as a reserve fund for the support of
-the families, and the rest of the money they are paying out in weekly
-installments to the families. On New Year’s Day of 1888 each of the
-families was presented with $202 in cash, and loans have been made to
-Mrs. Parsons, Mrs. Fielden and Mrs. Engel to the amount of $400 in
-each case. These loans are deducted in small amounts from the weekly
-allowances to these women. Later in the year funds were found to send
-Mrs. Parsons on a lecturing tour to England, an adventure which did not
-prove a conspicuous success if the reports are to be believed, for the
-English discontents showed marked disapproval of Mrs. Parsons’ dynamite
-appeals.
-
-Money is still being collected for a monument at Waldheim Cemetery
-which shall be the shrine of Anarchist pilgrimages from every part of
-the country. In this connection the revolutionists have established a
-“Festival of Sorrow,” as they curiously call it, upon the anniversary
-of the execution.
-
-In the proceedings of commemoration held at the cemetery on November
-11, 1888, the most interesting episode was the reading of the following
-letter from Albert R. Parsons to his children, which had, by his
-instructions, remained sealed for a year. It ran as follows:
-
- DUNGEON NO. 7, COOK COUNTY JAIL, CHICAGO, ILL., November 9, 1887.—_To
- My Darling, Precious Little Children, Albert R. Parsons, Jr., and his
- Sister, Lulu Eda Parsons_: As I write this word I blot your names with
- a tear. We never meet again. Oh, my children, how deeply, dearly your
- papa loves you. We show our love by living _for_ our loved ones; we
- also _prove_ our love by dying, when necessary, for them. Of my life
- and the cause of my unnatural and cruel death you will learn from
- others. _Your father is a self-offered sacrifice upon the altar of
- liberty and happiness._ To you I leave the legacy of an honest name
- and duty done. Preserve it, emulate it. Be true to yourselves, you
- cannot then be false to others. Be industrious, sober and cheerful.
- Your mother! Ah, she is the grandest, noblest of women. Love, honor
- and obey her. My children, my precious ones, I request you to read
- this parting message on each recurring anniversary of my death in
- remembrance of him who dies not alone for you, but for the children
- yet unborn. Bless you, my darlings. Farewell.
-
- Your father,
- ALBERT R. PARSONS.
-
-It was a somewhat disappointing epistle, for all the Anarchists had
-expected a sensational document, as the result of such a theatrical
-instruction.
-
-On the other hand the people of Chicago have not been idle. A monument
-to the memory of the murdered policemen will soon grace Haymarket
-Square as a lasting memorial to the brave men who fell in the line of
-duty, and as showing the gratitude of the city to its defenders.
-
-The pedestal for the police monument was completed long before the
-figure was ready to be placed. The foundation was begun and finished
-in December, 1888. The cost of the pedestal, with railings, light
-supports, and everything complete, in readiness for the figure,
-aggregated $5,000. The contract price for the pedestal was $3,500. This
-was increased to $4,000 by minor changes and extra work. The railings,
-electric lights and supports, and placing the figure in position,
-will add another $1,000. The figure itself will make the value of the
-monument $10,000.
-
-The pedestal sits on a circular sub-base of dressed granite, sixteen
-feet nine inches in diameter, elevated two steps above the foundation.
-A base of dressed granite with Ionic cornices rests on the center of
-this circular sub-base. The central cube, decorated with a shield on
-which is the coat of arms of the city, supports a block bearing an
-inscription giving the date of the riot and appropriate sentiments.
-Worked around these inscriptions are branches and leaves of oak,
-indicative of strength. By a graceful series of Ionic cornices the
-pedestal ascends to the base of the figure, the height from the
-foundation being seven feet six inches. The pedestal is oblong,
-extending north and south across the circular base. Two arms of granite
-extending from the base unite on either side the granite base of the
-posts which support the lights.
-
-The designer of the figure which surmounts the pedestal, and which
-represents a police officer in full uniform with his arm extended, is
-Charles F. Batchelder.
-
-[Illustration: LAW
-
-PEACE
-
-ORDER
-
-THE HAYMARKET MONUMENT.]
-
-All of these are facts directly connected with and growing out of
-the trial of the case. I come now to the present status of Anarchy.
-The authorities have recognized the constant menace which the
-existence of this conspiracy conveyed to the cause of law and order,
-and consequently the malcontents have been watched with unceasing
-vigilance. Their meetings, their plottings, their purposes, their plan
-of organization and their system of propaganda we know nearly as well
-as they know it themselves.
-
-The Socialists themselves estimate their numbers in Chicago at 75,000
-men, women and children. As Socialism is the parent of Anarchy—the two
-are identical in their ultimate aims, differing only in tactics—these
-figures are significant.
-
-The number of Anarchists in Chicago to-day is not far from 7,300 men
-and women. Of these there are thirty-five known to us to be desperate
-men, ready to commit murder, arson or any other crime to revenge
-themselves upon the officers and the magistrates who were concerned
-in bringing about the hanging of their leaders. These are the most
-dangerous conspirators in the body, and it may easily be believed that
-rather close attention is paid to their movements. Next to these comes
-a collection of some 275 men who are at heart dynamiters, and who
-would be ready to plunge into a revolt at any moment if they were not
-held back by the more prudent counsels of the others. These men are
-dangerous. Next to these there is a body of about 5,000 Anarchists,
-who would join in a revolt if they could persuade themselves or be
-persuaded that there was any real chance for success; but they are as
-a rule careful of themselves, and they are not going to rush to the
-gallows if they can help it. Only in a time of great public tumult are
-they to be really feared. I place in still another category a body of
-2,000 “sympathizers”—men upon whom neither the Anarchists nor society
-could rely. They are a doubtful class, and might easily be led one way
-or the other by a decided victory on either side in a time of real
-struggle.
-
-Many women are to be found in each of these classifications, from the
-most desperate up. There are about forty “women-workers” so called who
-are engaged in the Anarchic propaganda in the city, six of them being
-lecturers. They are doing a great deal of harm.
-
-The present plans of the reds, as broadly stated by one of the open
-leaders, contemplate the use of every force in society—“the force of
-education, the force of agitation and the force of arms; the first now
-and always; the second, with great care and judgment; the last, when
-the time shall arrive for a strike at liberty.” The reds throughout
-the world have learned a lesson from the failure of Spies and his
-companions, and while their aims and sentiments are unchanged, their
-plans have undergone considerable modification.
-
-A new system of organization has also been developed. They met at first
-in little groups of five or ten, fearing to gather in larger numbers in
-the excited times following the hanging. It was proposed to organize
-ward clubs, but this was negatived because the politicians would mix
-up with them to get their votes, and thus destroy the secrecy that
-they wanted. Their demand was for some sort of an organization enabling
-many people to meet together without attracting suspicion or inviting
-investigation by the police, and this they succeeded in doing by
-getting up a Building Society. This was followed by another and another
-in different parts of the town. They charge an initiation of ten
-cents, none but approved and guaranteed Anarchists are admitted, and
-the societies are working in full force, although I doubt whether they
-will greatly contribute to the material improvement of Chicago. The
-Anarchists are a very quarrelsome lot, and they often get into serious
-disputes with each other, and thus one party, to get revenge, would
-often come to me with information on his enemy. This has been stopped
-by the “Building Association,” which maintains committees to settle all
-quarrels between members.
-
-Aside from a majority of the thirty-two organizations affiliated with
-the Central Labor Union, the reds of late have been propagating the
-revolutionary cause through the following societies:
-
-1. The Workingmen’s Defense Association, composed chiefly of men,
-of which Fred Bentthin is secretary. This same organization raised
-the money to defend the reds who were tried for the conspiracy to
-assassinate Judges Gary and Grinnell, Bonfield and others.
-
-2. The Pioneer Aid and Relief Society, composed chiefly of women. This
-institution came into existence immediately after the arrest of the
-Anarchists in May, 1886.
-
-3. A. R. Parsons Assembly No. 1. This is a reorganization of the
-suspended or expelled Assembly 1307, once known as the Sons of
-Liberty. It has always been a hotbed of Anarchy, and is now composed
-of Anarchists almost exclusively. Its membership is composed of such
-revolutionary lights as Oliver, Holmes, Snyder, Brown, Glasgow, and
-other fire-brands. Snyder and Brown were arrested at the time of the
-Haymarket massacre and held in custody for months.
-
-4. The English branch of the Socialistic Labor party, Waverly Hall, 122
-Randolph Street.
-
-5. The German branch of the Socialistic Labor party, 54 West Lake
-Street.
-
-6. The Socialistic Publishing Society, which controls the
-_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ on the communistic plan and devotes all surplus to
-the cause of the social revolution.
-
-7. The “Arbeiter-Bund,” or Working People’s Confederation, recently
-organized at 636 Milwaukee Avenue. This is the most violent public
-organization of Anarchists in Chicago.
-
-It was the Arbeiter-Bund which, through its attorneys, applied to Judge
-Tuley only a short time ago for an injunction to restrain the police
-from interfering with meetings of Socialists and Anarchists. While the
-injunction was not technically granted, still the decision was such
-as to render the police powerless to interfere with their gatherings.
-The Chancellor’s opinion is too lengthy to print here, but it was made
-on a broad construction of the constitutional provision guaranteeing
-free speech. I am not a lawyer, and I will not attempt to say that the
-learned Chancellor misunderstands the law or the Constitution, but it
-does seem that there ought to be some provision which should make it
-unsafe or impossible for bloody-minded revolutionists to preach their
-foreign doctrine in open defiance of a respectable and law-abiding
-community.
-
-The impudence shown by the Anarchists, extreme Socialists and other
-enemies of society in claiming redress under the law would seem
-ridiculous if it were not contemptible. These agitators shout “throttle
-the law,” and then complain that their meetings are suppressed contrary
-to law. At their meetings, in their speeches, and in other ways they
-cover the courts and judges with opprobrium, and then apply to the
-courts for restraining orders forbidding the police to interfere
-with their meetings. With yells and screeches in foreign tongues
-they declare that the Constitution shall be destroyed, and then
-complain that they are denied freedom of speech in violation of the
-Constitution. Putting themselves outside the law and demanding its
-destruction, they at the same time demand its protection.
-
-Other forms of public organization are the “Schulgemeinde” of the
-Northwest Side, and the “Arbeiter Bildungs-Verein.” The two last-named
-seem to have for their special object the establishment and maintenance
-of “Sunday schools.”
-
-Of all this more will be said hereafter, but first I will call
-attention to the fact that the organizations named are only what
-appear on the surface. Underlying and controlling all these is the
-secret organization, which in Chicago consists of an “invisible
-committee.” It must be understood that the movement toward the object
-to which the Internationale looks forward—the social revolution—is
-local, national, and international, and it is probable that the
-committee for Chicago was appointed from the headquarters of the
-Internationale in New York, at the suggestion of that arch-conspirator
-and mischief-maker, Johann Most. The “invisible committee,” although
-they have full direction of the movement in Chicago, are supposed to be
-unknown to the mass of the order. They work individually, and not as a
-body, and always quietly. Their identity they hold sacredly secret. It
-is only when open revolutionary work has actually begun that they are
-to come to the front. In the meantime, the open workers and agitators
-report to the individual “invisibles,” and act under their advice.
-The “invisibles” themselves make it a point to practice moderation in
-their public utterances to divert suspicion. The old-time centralized
-organization, the reds believe, led to the detection and conviction
-of their leaders, after the failure of the Haymarket plot, and this
-it was that made the new plan not only advisable but necessary.
-Decentralization is now the ruling principle.
-
-The public agitators are such people as Currlin, Holmes, Morgan,
-Mikolanda, Grottkau, Mostler, Bergman, G. Smith, Poch, Mittag, Mentzer
-and others. They declare themselves openly as Anarchists and agitators.
-They are of course well known to the police, and consequently they
-are on the look-out not to come in contact with us. They only enlist
-recruits, however. The secret agitators visit public meetings
-occasionally, but they very seldom do any talking. Nobody notices them,
-and this is what they want. They are seldom members of any “Verein,”
-and they form acquaintances on the street, in shops or saloons, but
-always with the utmost caution until they have gained confidence. They
-meet at private houses in parties of three or four, agitating wherever
-they can gain a point. When charged with being Anarchists they deny it,
-and to throw off suspicion some of them even go regularly to church.
-Among these there are fanatics who would do almost anything to gain
-their ends. I know a great many of this class, and I would not believe
-it if I did not know of my own knowledge that they are Anarchists of
-the purest water. They are the most harmless-looking men in Chicago.
-
-The open and public movement still goes on under cover of the cause
-of labor. The plan of campaign is, so far as the public associations
-and meetings are concerned, to teach Anarchy; to create in the minds
-of Socialistic adherents a hatred of all law and of all religion, and
-to inspire a spirit of revenge for the execution of Spies and his
-comrades. Their teachings are carried out by speeches more or less
-incendiary.
-
-The most potent factor for evil in Chicago to-day, as heretofore, is
-the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. When this paper was first established it was
-delivered secretly through alleyways and at back doors. Now it has a
-circulation of 7,000 copies daily. Time was when the daily tirades of
-abuse scattered broadcast by that sheet were viewed with indifference
-by the English-speaking press of this city. That was in the seed-time
-of “theoretic” and “practical” Anarchy in Chicago. Then the dire
-meaning of it all escaped the bulk of the population. It was said—and
-the saying was flaunted in the faces of the sullen hordes until it
-acted like the red rag on an infuriated bull—that all this talk would
-end where it began—in talk. The paper is more readable and interesting
-now than it ever was. Its present editorial staff is an abler one,
-and understands better on occasion how to convey its meaning without
-expressing it in so many plain words. It comprises not only some of the
-old-time writers—men like Paul Grottkau and Albert Currlin—but it has
-now at its head a man of infinitely more cunning and ability than ever
-distinguished August Spies.
-
-Editor Jens Christensen, a native of the formerly Danish province
-of Schleswig, is a good-looking young German, and bears quite a
-resemblance to his predecessor in personal appearance. He is thoroughly
-proficient not only in German, but also in English, French, and all
-the Scandinavian tongues, is a scientifically trained man, and has at
-command an arsenal of facts, arguments and deductions to be marshaled
-up in defense of his specious pleadings.
-
-Christensen was at one time a Socialist candidate for the German
-Reichstag, and is now in constant and confidential correspondence with
-the leading European prophets of destruction. Although he has been in
-America less than a year, he has inspired in his disciples within that
-short time a degree of confidence which Spies never possessed. He has
-not the easy address of Spies in dealing with a crowd, and he is at
-all times a better, more logical and more forcible writer than orator;
-but he is, for all that, the best public speaker the destructionists
-of this city have within their ranks to-day. He is more suave than
-impassioned in his speech—reserved and self-possessed, and never at
-a loss for a reply. He is a zealot and a fanatic in the cause he has
-espoused, and he is probably the only Socialist in Chicago who can give
-a scientific basis for every dogma he announces, and a proof for every
-word he utters.
-
-Since Christensen’s arrival here he has been in a newspaper warfare
-with Johann Most. He attacked Most, charging him with being an injury
-to the cause of the revolution by his bad judgment and radical plans of
-dynamite and other methods for the application of physical force. Most
-has been striking back in his characteristic way, and this has brought
-Christensen into considerable prominence. Moreover, he is a writer with
-great executive ability. He is a man of strong convictions, evident
-courage, but is quite a diplomat, and does not propose to follow his
-“comrades” to the gallows by any slip of the pen or tongue if he can
-help it. Christensen is a Socialist, not an Anarchist, he says, and
-yet he declares with a good deal of frankness that Socialists and
-Anarchists are pretty much the same, so far as the result sought is
-concerned, the only essential differences being in the tactics used to
-reach the object aimed at.
-
-Such a man, it will be readily seen, when once started in the wrong
-path, is a much more dangerous foe than the hot-headed, rather
-selfish, openly ambitious Spies. And he shows his power in nothing
-better than in his manner of conducting the avowed organ of all the
-destructionists. Since his advent, this afternoon sheet has set the
-ferment of social agitation going again until the movement, as a matter
-of fact, is to-day in reality more formidable than it was three years
-ago, for now it is directed by a cautious, self-contained man who
-weighs every step before advising it, and who in all things considers
-the question of expediency first.
-
-The paper he presides over is a daily proof of his skill and of his
-capacity for doing harm. It spreads the old doctrine of destruction
-and social upheaval, but it does so in a much more insidious, in a more
-guarded, and, probably, in a more effective manner. There is a general
-policy laid down, and that is never deviated from. Every line that
-goes into the reading columns of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ has to serve a
-purpose. That purpose is to teach a lesson, to serve as one more grain
-of disgust with the existing state of things, to render the reader
-more weary of the society of to-day. Every piece of news is bent to
-that end—distorted, falsified, or magnified—so as to “point a moral
-or adorn a tale.” If a laborer has been cheated out of his wages, for
-instance, by his employer, a general deduction as to all employers is
-made. If a wealthy thief escape more or less merited punishment, the
-sharp edge of sarcasm and of lament over the futility of trying to
-regenerate this world by any but “radical” means is again used. Every
-piece of rascality, in fact, on the part of well-to-do or highly placed
-men, every misstep, every error, every unwise law and every unwise
-application of a wise one—all of these things and many more are seized
-and made to serve the purpose of this personally smooth and amiable
-Mephistopheles, and are dished up to his benighted readers, peppered,
-salted and seasoned with Chile sauce, to make them palatable.
-
-Thus the paper acts on that vast body of half or wholly discontented,
-on all those who, with or without their own fault, are not as well
-off as they might be, on all those thousands who sympathized or still
-sympathize with the dread fate of the eight Anarchists arrested after
-the Haymarket slaughter, as a constant irritant, distorting everything
-to their mental eye and keeping them forever in an irritable mood and
-in a sort of self-made purgatory which embitters even their hours of
-rest and recreation. That this sort of effect cannot go accumulating
-in the minds of many thousands of men and women and children without
-finally producing something tangible, an explosion, is self-evident
-and needs no emphasizing. Did space permit, I should like to give here
-extracts to show how insidious and subtle the poison which is daily
-instilled into the minds of these readers.
-
-Mr. Currlin, ex-editor of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, is known as
-the wandering missionary of Anarchy. He is busily engaged in the
-propagation of revolutionary ideas. His style of oratory and the
-general drift of his sentiments may be gathered from quotations
-heretofore given in this book.
-
-George Schilling would strenuously object to being called an Anarchist.
-But he admits being a Socialist. When asked a short time ago if he
-expected another outbreak as the result of existing revolutionary
-forces, he said:
-
-“I expect something of the kind about the end of the present
-century—say in ten years. Society is just now dormant, like a river
-frozen in winter time, but some night there will be a mighty crack in
-the ice, and under the warming influences of evolutionary forces there
-will be a mighty upheaval. There will no doubt be a squall or two
-before that time, but the great event will not come, in my judgment,
-much sooner. There will be lots of men and women who will not be able
-to see beyond the squall, and they will think the time has arrived. It
-will come, not as the result of a conspiracy of Anarchists, but as a
-conspiracy of all the evolutionary forces of society.”
-
-Mrs. Lucy Parsons is still an active exhorter in the cause. She is
-simply irrepressible, and has made herself obnoxious to the more
-peaceable and conservative Socialists. To the ordinary hearer her
-harangues would seem ridiculous, were it not for the fact that the loss
-of a husband by death on the gallows naturally creates sympathy, even
-for a fanatic.
-
-“Prison bars nor the scaffold shall ever prevent me from speaking the
-truth,” she exclaimed at a Sunday afternoon meeting of Socialists at
-Waverly Hall a few months ago. “The ballot is useless as a remedy,
-and a change in the present condition of the wage slave will never be
-brought about peacefully. Force is the only remedy, and force will
-certainly be used.”
-
-This meeting had been called to listen to a paper by Prof. Charles
-Orchardson on “Salvation from Poverty.” The speaker, deprecating the
-incendiary arguments and appeals to forceful measures on the part of
-what were known as Anarchists, said that Anarchy never would improve
-the condition of society. He devoted himself principally to the private
-ownership of land, and claimed that more frauds had been committed in
-that name than in any other. Fire and murder were the sole right and
-title of the original owners of the land, and no original robbery could
-be tortured into a righteous transaction. The owner of the land was
-the owner of the inhabitants. Land in Chicago originally worth $1 an
-acre was now, in some localities, worth perhaps $1,000,000 an acre.
-The people made this value, but the land-owner reaped the benefit of
-the advance the people had created. A land speculator was nothing but
-a land peculator, and held the people at his mercy. The three evils
-of society to-day, the speaker said, were private enterprise, the
-competitive system and private ownership of land. The first remedy to
-be applied was the education of the people. Another remedy was to adopt
-the single-tax theories of Henry George and to establish the Australian
-method of secret voting, so that the employé could fearlessly deposit
-his ballot without fear of discharge from his employer. This method
-would also abolish the buying and selling of votes. Then men should
-be elected to represent the people in the halls of legislation and to
-resist the encroachments of the capitalists and monopolists. Private
-ownership in land should be abolished, and the capitalists should be
-compelled to stop the work of increasing poverty by curtailing the
-productions of the labor of man.
-
-During the discussion which followed the reading of Prof. Orchardson’s
-paper, the ringing voice of Mrs. Parsons was heard in the rear of the
-hall. She had entered late, and few were aware of her presence, but
-she was greeted with loud applause as she rapidly and defiantly made
-her way to the front of the platform. She said:
-
- “I did not hear the beginning of this lecture to-day, but I heard it
- last evening at 599 Milwaukee Avenue. I have heard what he had to
- say about the Anarchists, and I want to say to him and to everybody
- else that it is about time to give the Anarchists a rest. Are there
- not enough of them dead? Do you need to go into their graves and aid
- the detectives in their work of digging up their memories for abuse
- and obloquy? Last night the Professor was asked what remedy he would
- propose if the men elected to the legislature betrayed their trust
- and sold out their poor constituents, and he then said his remedy
- would be to organize secret societies and assassinate the men who
- proved unfaithful to their trusts. He need not deny this, for I have
- witnesses here to prove that he said this. And now to-day he throws
- his slings at Anarchy. Anarchy, as I understand it, is one of the
- most beautiful theories, and I do not agree with the speaker when he
- favors assassination. I hold human life too sacred, and do not believe
- in assassinating the men who sell out. Before they talk about Anarchy
- let them define it. It is a philosophy which they do not, or will not,
- understand....
-
- “Men talk about revolution as if it were a terrible thing. Every one
- present is a revolutionist because he is poor. Every man who lives in
- a tenement-house and wants to secure a better home is a revolutionist,
- because the beneficial change means a revolution in his very life. I
- know I have to be careful what I say nowadays, but I assert that any
- and all means are justified in order to get rid of the present system
- of wage slavery. (Loud applause.) Any means, I say. If the ballot will
- accomplish that purpose, adopt it; but if it will not, let us adopt
- some more potent means. (Applause.)
-
- “The speaker has argued in favor of Australian laws, but I know the
- same state of society exists there that exists here, and the laws
- furnish no remedy. Does any one suppose that the capitalists—your
- masters—will ever permit you to peacefully take their lands from them
- while they can invoke the aid of a policeman’s club or a Gatling gun?
- The ballot-box is useless to reform the evils of society, and there
- is not a State Socialist living who believes that a reform can be
- brought about peaceably. They all admit it, but they claim that it is
- not policy to say so. I am not afraid to say what I believe, whether
- it leads me to prison bars or the scaffold. The capitalists never have
- relinquished anything until they were compelled to, and they will not
- now, unless they have a change of heart, or something of that sort.
- But go on voting. Vote for what you want, but don’t forget that the
- Bill of Rights gives every man the right to keep and bear arms, and
- when you want to vote take your little musket to the polls with you,
- and then your vote will be counted—not before. Take the ballot; but
- first put an idea, a strong arm and determination behind, and then buy
- yourselves good Winchester rifles. Then you will be prepared to fight
- for your rights. Men who are armed are bound to be free, and you are
- all wage slaves to-day because you are not.”
-
-Here the applause was almost deafening. Mrs. Parsons paused and gazed
-around the room.
-
-“I do not care,” said she, “whether there are any policemen or
-detectives here or not, or whether the newspapers want to come out with
-sensational head-lines about me. Go on voting, and in ten years you
-will find yourselves where I am now. You will be no further advanced,
-and then you will have to come to the revolution of force which I
-advocate now.”
-
-Her voice rang out strong and clear, and as she finished it seemed
-evident from the loud applause that followed that the majority of those
-present were in full accord with her sentiments.
-
-Professor Orchardson then replied to his critic. He claimed that Mrs.
-Parsons had begun by picturing Anarchy as one of the most lovely
-and beautiful conditions imaginable, but before she had finished
-she had advocated murder, force, carbines and every violent measure
-conceivable. She had claimed that Anarchy did not mean war, and in the
-same breath had urged that all means were justifiable to secure it. “A
-man who undertakes to philosophize upon this question,” said he, “soon
-becomes contaminated by that horrible theory Anarchism.”
-
-A few hisses were heard about the room.
-
-“I see I have no sympathy here,” he continued, “and I here declare that
-if I live I will never speak again where Anarchists are admitted and
-permitted to speak.”
-
-Here a storm of hisses and loud cries of “Shame” were heard on all
-sides, and for a moment it seemed as if trouble was imminent. The
-chairman, however, succeeded in restoring order, and the speaker was
-about to continue his remarks, when he was interrupted by Mrs. Parsons.
-
-“Did you not advocate assassination in your lecture last night?” she
-asked.
-
-“I did not. I simply said that if humanity had sunk so low that men
-would sell themselves out, secret societies should be formed for the
-purpose of bringing retribution on the men who had betrayed their
-trusts.”
-
-“You said assassination,” shouted Mrs. Parsons, “and I can prove it.”
-
-“I never did and never will advocate the vicious, horrible and
-bloodthirsty ideas of the Anarchists, that made it so hard to argue the
-Socialistic question before the people,” concluded the Professor, in
-evident disgust; “and I again repeat that I never will attend another
-meeting where such ideas are advocated.”
-
-As the speaker took his seat, he was warmly cheered by a number
-present, but there was a loud murmur of dissent from the rear of the
-room, where Mrs. Parsons sat surrounded by her friends.
-
-The most conspicuous feature of the propaganda of the Internationale
-in Chicago to-day is the Sunday school movement. There are now four of
-these schools in successful and established operation, and a number of
-others are fairly started.
-
-[Illustration: AN ANARCHIST “SUNDAY SCHOOL.” TEACHING UNBELIEF AND
-LAWLESSNESS.]
-
-The first was opened in the spring of 1888, at Lake View, by the
-“Socialistic Turn-Verein.” The second was begun in August, 1888, at
-Jefferson, by the Turn-Verein “Fortschritt.” The third was commenced
-in September, at “Thalia Hall,” by the “Arbeiter Bildungs-Verein” of
-the Northwest Side, and the fourth was started at 58 Clybourn Avenue,
-by the “Arbeiter Bildungs-Verein” of the North Side. The school at
-Lake View is frequented by about 190 children; the school of the
-Turn-Verein “Fortschritt” has from forty to fifty pupils; the school
-of the Northwest Side was visited on Sunday, December 9, 1888, by
-230 children, and this Verein will have to rent another hall, as the
-present one is not large enough to accommodate all the pupils. The
-North Side school was attended by about 100 children on the same day.
-All schools are under the supervision of the one organized on December
-9, 1888, at Aurora Turn Hall. The main mission of this school is the
-organization of others. It can easily be seen that the schools now
-established are prospering, because the number of pupils is increasing
-from day to day. The schools are of Socialistic and Anarchistic origin.
-Nothing is taught relating to dynamite or bombs. The German language
-is used in all the schools, and all the ordinary branches of education
-are embraced in the curriculum, but underneath and above all is the
-spirit of contempt for law and religion. The children are instructed
-that religion is nothing but a humbug; that there exists no God and
-no devil, no heaven and no hell, and that Christianity is only a
-preventive system adopted by the capitalists to rule the working people
-and keep them under. After this they are to be taught the spirit of
-revolution. In all, the main point is agitation for Socialism and
-Anarchy.
-
-As showing the spirit of the Anarchist Sunday schools, I append the
-following appeal for Christmas presents from the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ of
-December 7, 1888. It seems to me that it leaves very little to be said,
-except perhaps to point out that 58 Clybourn Avenue is a low-class
-groggery, and that it was in the very room in which the school is held
-that the Anarchists who were to carry out Engel’s plan on the 4th of
-May, 1886, secured their supplies of dynamite and bombs:
-
- _Christmas Presents for the Scholars of the Sunday School of the North
- Side._
-
- The “Arbeiter Bildungs-Verein” of the North Side held a meeting
- December 3d, and adopted the following: A presentation of Christmas
- presents and a lottery for the children of the Sunday school will be
- held at 58 Clybourn Avenue on Christmas day. Every one is invited
- who has an interest in taking from the clergy the power over our
- little ones, and who will help us to educate our children to become
- useful persons—also parents, their friends and business people who
- are willing to contribute a small sum of money for the benefit of
- this noble cause. Leave your contributions for the presentation of
- Christmas presents or for the dressing of the Christmas tree for the
- dear little ones until Saturday, December 22, with the committee, No.
- 58 Clybourn Avenue.
-
- Receipts for presents will be published in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_.
-
- ARBEITER BILDUNGS-VEREIN.
-
-Dr. E. G. Kleinoldt, who lives at 591 Sedgwick Street, is one of the
-chief teachers. He is an enthusiast in instructing innocent children
-that there is no God and no hereafter. He tells his small charges
-that priests, and ministers alike are swindlers, and there are in this
-city fathers who bring their children to the rear of a beer saloon on
-Sundays to be taught such doctrine by a drunkard.
-
-On Saturday night, December 1, 1888, a dance was in progress in
-Yondorf’s Hall. Officer Lorch, of my command, called in to see what
-kind of a gathering it was. Entering the hall, he saw Kleinoldt with
-three young men, talking very busily. The officer approached near
-enough to hear that Kleinoldt was talking about dynamite, and finally
-heard him tell the young men how to make bombs, explaining the process
-in the same manner as Engel had done. He also suggested that if his
-hearers would make bombs and put them under “the leafers of policemen,”
-it would make the “bloodhounds” jump. The officer approached Kleinoldt
-and said:
-
-“This is not an Anarchist meeting. Stop your talk, or I will put you
-out.”
-
-Kleinoldt made some insulting remarks, and the officer took him by the
-back of the neck and pushed him out of the hall. This was the last of
-him there for that night, but the young men he had been talking to
-were not Anarchists. One of the three followed him out on the sidewalk
-and there met a friend whom he told what Kleinoldt had advised. The
-newcomer, who happened to carry a large turkey, was a little under the
-influence of liquor himself, but was sober enough to oppose Anarchy. He
-followed Kleinoldt, struck him with the turkey, knocked him down and
-broke his eye-glasses, apparently for the purpose of demonstrating to
-the worthy pedagogue that all people who drink too much beer are not
-necessarily Anarchists.
-
-This man Kleinoldt was interviewed a short time ago by a reporter of
-the Chicago _Herald_. While other Anarchist pedagogues are loth to
-communicate their plans and doings, Kleinoldt talked readily, and what
-he said seems to me sufficiently interesting to repeat here.
-
-“We do not teach Socialism or Anarchism in our Sunday-schools, and the
-newspapers do us an injustice when they say so,” said Dr. Kleinoldt.
-“The object of our Sunday schools is to keep the children away from
-the influence of the Jesuits, who teach the Bible, religious songs,
-and church doctrine, subjects that are very distasteful to us who are
-Socialists. I was one of the prime movers in the project to organize
-schools to be held on Sundays all over the city, which shall be open
-to children of all parents who are opposed to the hurtful influences
-of church instruction. While it is possibly true that most of those in
-attendance are the offspring of Socialists and Anarchists, still it
-is by no means restricted to them, for in one school, at 58 Clybourn
-Avenue, as well as others, you will find those whose fathers have no
-sympathy with our advanced ideas on sociology.”
-
-“What do you teach at these schools?” asked the reporter.
-
-“Our course takes in reading, writing, natural history, geography,
-literature, general history and morality—so much of ethics as young
-minds are capable of receiving.”
-
-“And you do not teach the tenets of Anarchy?” queried the reporter.
-
-“By no means. We say nothing of bombs, dynamite, overthrow of kingdoms,
-uprooting of our present social system, or anything of that kind.
-What would be the use of it? If you had a correct appreciation of the
-principles of Anarchy and Socialism you would readily understand that
-the questions are too grave for the apprehension of juvenile minds.
-Later on—well, that is something else.”
-
-“Still, Doctor, your teachers are thoroughly imbued with these
-sentiments, and it would be only natural for you to desire, if you are
-honest in your convictions, that these young people should grow up in
-your peculiar faith.”
-
-“That is another matter,” replied Dr. Kleinoldt, regarding the reporter
-fixedly through his spectacles. “As the twig is bent the tree’s
-inclined. We are honest in what we profess, else why should we profess
-at all, since we have nothing to gain but obloquy, in the present at
-least? Being honest and believing that our teachings are best for the
-human family, we should be strange beings indeed if we were not anxious
-to have our children grow up into our faith. What I have said is, and I
-repeat it, that we do not teach Anarchistic or Socialistic principles
-to the pupils in our Sunday schools.”
-
-The reporter here read to the Doctor a paragraph from one of the
-Chicago dailies to the effect that at the school held in the rear of
-Rachau Bros’. saloon, corner of Lincoln Avenue and Halsted Street, the
-day before, a teacher had dilated upon the death of Spies and Parsons,
-declaring they were murdered by the capitalists and that they were
-martyrs.
-
-“Of that I know nothing. All I know is that such is not the design of
-our schools. Such talk is not heard at our school in the rear of the
-saloon at 58 Clybourn Avenue. We use the same books that are used in
-the day schools, and what we teach is as I have told you before—only
-this and nothing more.”
-
-“But since your teachers hold to these peculiar views, and since
-children have investigating minds—being eager to ask questions—is
-there anything to prevent teachers from defining their views even if
-they do not enter into arguments to demonstrate the tenableness of
-their position?”
-
-“I repeat again, there are many children in attendance upon our schools
-whose parents are not Anarchists or Socialists. Those who are hear
-these opinions at their homes. Those who are not do not hear them.”
-
-“True; but there are some, doubtless, in every class, who have heard
-at their homes the teachings of Anarchy or Socialism; they may ask
-questions. Is there anything to prevent the teachers from replying to
-them in such manner as to indoctrinate the others in this faith?”
-
-“It is possible, I admit. But I say again, it is not so in our school.
-Indeed, most of the children are too small to know anything about
-such matters. You will say time will correct that. I add that our
-primary object is the education of the young people. We teach in German
-altogether, because the children learn English in the public schools.
-They all attend the latter, because it is a primary principle with us
-that it is education alone that can make men free. In addition to the
-studies named, we teach music and singing, and we hold a session at 58
-Clybourn Avenue in the afternoon of each Sunday, when teachers from
-the Workingmen’s Educational Society—an art organization—teach them
-drawing.”
-
-[Illustration: FRANK CHLEBOUN.
-
-From a Photograph.]
-
-The Doctor is a short, thick-set, mild-mannered man, possessed of a
-gentle voice, and is, apparently, about thirty-five years old. He spoke
-carefully, and without excitement.
-
-“Let me tell you further,” he said, after a brief pause, “we do not
-teach anything of what is termed religion, because we do not believe in
-that. We do teach morals, the duties we owe to our neighbors, the great
-principles of right and wrong. We desire the children to grow up into
-Socialists, that they may be worthy successors of their parents; but we
-do not think the Sunday school we have organized is the proper place to
-inculcate such doctrines.”
-
-“Because your pupils are too young?” asked the reporter.
-
-“Yes, and because, as I have said, the parents of some of the children
-do not hold to our views, and it is our desire to bring into our fold
-as many as possible, thus saving as many as we can from the evil
-influences of the church.”
-
-“You say you teach music and songs. Do these include sacred music?”
-
-“Our music and songs are strictly secular; we have nothing to do with
-anything connected with the churches.”
-
-[Illustration: FRANK CAPEK.
-
-From a Photograph taken by the Police.]
-
-Dr. Kleinoldt may be correct in his statement that the school at 58
-Clybourn Avenue has not taught Anarchy, yet it is nevertheless true
-that at least two of the school’s enthusiastic teachers have dilated
-upon the “martyrdom” of Spies, Parsons, Fischer and Engel, declaring
-that they died for a glorious cause, and that those officials who were
-instrumental in their arrest, and those who took part in the trial
-and at the execution, are guilty of the vilest of crimes. At one of
-the schools, a teacher even went so far as to allude to the Savior as
-the lazy loafer of Nazareth. It will not demand a very close reading
-“between the lines” of the interview with Dr. Kleinoldt, however, to
-find out that, whatever the motive of those who have inaugurated this
-movement, the ultimate result will be the same as though the open and
-expressed object were the dissemination of those views now universally
-regarded among civilized nations as subversive of all government.
-The schools are organized for the purpose of sowing in the minds of
-innocent children the seeds of atheism, discontent and lawlessness.
-
-The Sunday school movement is only one feature of the general plan
-of the revolutionists. The Socialists fear as heartily as they hate
-the church, and of late they have had especial reason, from their
-standpoint, for both. Both Catholic and Protestant churches located
-in German, Bohemian and Polish sections have recently extended their
-facilities for reaching the youth of their nationalities, and hundreds
-of children have been gathered into Christian schools on Sundays, thus
-taking them for a brief while on that day from the squalid streets upon
-which they roam without restraint, and bringing them in contact with
-Christian influences. Even scores of children of Socialistic parents
-have had this experience. The great aim of the Internationals now, as
-always, is to increase their numerical strength. To do this they hold
-it necessary to establish secular Sunday schools wherein the principles
-of Socialism will be taught and where children will be made to despise,
-though they may obey, the laws.
-
-It need only be added here that all the schools of the Socialists now
-in operation in Chicago are held either in the rear or in the basements
-of beer saloons.
-
-Judge Tuley, in his decision on the application for an injunction,
-stated that “there are Christian Anarchists.” I venture the assertion,
-however, that the learned jurist has never seen one of that class.
-I know that I have not, and I never expect to see one. Christianity
-and Anarchy are entirely opposite. While it is possible of course
-that a man professing the religion of Christ should be blinded by the
-plausible preachings of the Anarchists, still the hallucination would
-be only temporary. Religion and Anarchy, as I understand and have seen
-it, do not and never will go together.
-
-The conspirator Hronek, at his trial, was asked if he believed in God.
-
-“I have never seen him,” was the reply.
-
-Scratch the hide of an Anarchist, and you will find an infidel or a
-fool. An intelligent human being cannot reconcile the violent doctrines
-of Anarchy with any form of Christianity.
-
-Charles L. Bodendick, twenty-five years old, 5 feet 4 inches tall,
-weighing 150 pounds, was arrested by Officer Hanley for robbing Justice
-White, March 18, 1886, and was held to the Criminal Court in $1,500
-bonds. He was tried and sentenced to the penitentiary in Joliet for
-one year. During his trial it was demonstrated that he was a thorough
-Anarchist. The _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ then called him a “crank” and said
-that he was crazy. Before he was arrested, however, he had made his
-home about the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office, and at that time he had been
-looked on as a valuable man. The poor fellow had kept hanging around
-there, reading their misleading trash, until he was destitute and a
-vagrant. The next steps were robbery and the penitentiary.
-
-[Illustration: CHARLES L. BODENDICK.
-
-From a Photograph taken by the Police.]
-
-After his release from prison Bodendick came back to the city, and,
-roaming about from place to place, finally fell into his old ways
-again, living on wind and Anarchy. He grew more desperate even than
-before his arrest. He wanted to manufacture something stronger than
-dynamite. A card was given to him by Dyer D. Lum, and he called at
-the Public Library for the “Techno-Chemical Receipt Book,” K 4314. On
-page 30 of this book Bodendick learned what he knew of the make-up of
-explosives. He admitted that he wanted to use sulphur, saltpeter and
-soda potash. He also procured other books on explosives, and he finally
-purchased a quantity of material and went to his room to experiment.
-But before he had learned very much he was arrested. Bodendick was kept
-in the Central Station in the sweat-box for two weeks. He was defiant
-at first, but finally sent word to the Inspector that he wanted to talk
-with him. He was brought to the office, and after he had given a lot of
-information, and promised to leave the city at once, he was released.
-The Anarchists claim that he never did “squeal.”
-
-This Bodendick was an odd genius. Here is _verbatim et literatim_ a
-poem in which he melodiously voiced his sentiments some years ago:
-
-
-THE REBELL-VAGABOND.
-
- I live and will _take the right_,
- To demand of the world abundance;
- To do so, I’m prepared to fight
- the world and all its Dungeons.
-
- Your a Loafer, says “the upper ten,”
- You aught to go to Prison.
- But, who are the priveledged ones
- To loaf? the toilers lot dissmissend?
-
- I’ve toiled hard, sometime ago,
- From early morn till late.
- That I ain’t worth some millions now
- Is really too bad.
-
- You see, a generous toiling man
- Gets never much ahead;
- For which a rascal always can
- Rob men of life and (e)state.
-
- 7-10 from what I have produced
- You took in your possessions
- While the toiling part you have reduced
- To crime and degradations.
-
- Not only this, nay vamper like
- Do suck the Blood of men
- And with the bones you take the hide
- But, things get to an end.
-
- That time I was quiet ignorant
- of, who was my enemy real,
- That I’ve become to you a torment
- Is only the result you feel.
-
- I’ll work for life and liberty,
- For thiefs like you I wont
- The courage that is left in me
- Makes me a Rebell-Vagabond.
-
-The most serious recent development of the spirit of revolt and
-disorder, however, is that shown in the attempt of the men Hronek and
-Capek to assassinate Judges Gary and Grinnell and Inspector Bonfield.
-
-In July of 1888, Judge Grinnell sent for me and told me that he had
-been informed by a Bohemian citizen that there was a conspiracy afoot
-to murder himself, Gary and Bonfield, and that he thought there
-was something in the information. It appears that there were three
-Bohemian Anarchists, John Hronek, Frank Capek and Frank Chleboun, who
-had determined to avenge the “martyrdom,” as they called it, of the
-Anarchist leaders. Chleboun was never in real sympathy with the others,
-and when the affair began to grow very serious he went to a Bohemian
-friend and confided to him the plot. This gentleman at once advised
-Judge Grinnell. Among the details was the fact that three men had
-examined the Judge’s house on July 4th, with a view to blowing it up if
-a good opportunity offered, and the Judge remembered having seen three
-suspicious-looking men loitering about Aldine Square on that day. They
-had eyed him so strangely that his attention was attracted to them.
-This fact made him attach much weight to the story he had been told.
-The Judge wished me to conduct the investigation, but the suspects all
-lived in Inspector Bonfield’s district, and I urged that the inquiry
-should be made by him, of course promising to cooperate as heartily
-as I could. After this Bonfield, the Judge and I had a conference in
-which we went over the whole ground. We had all the facts in the case
-pretty well in hand. On the morning of July 17th, Bonfield was ready
-to strike, and the arrests were made. On the evening before warrants
-were sworn out for these three men, and at 4 A.M. Bonfield drove Lieut.
-Elliott past Hronek’s house, 2952 Farrell Street, so that he might
-know it. Officers Rowan, Miller, Nordrum, Murtha, Styx and Meichowsky
-assisted in the arrests.
-
-In describing what followed Inspector Bonfield said:
-
- “We had reason to believe that Hronek, who only occupied the two rear
- rooms of a two-story frame dwelling, had dynamite, a revolver and a
- formidable-looking dagger, which we had been told was poisoned. We
- had also been given to understand that Hronek was a reckless fellow
- of the Lingg type and would offer a desperate resistance, and for
- that reason, in order not to jeopardize the lives of any of our
- men, we thought it prudent, instead of entering the house, to catch
- him unawares when he came out early in the morning. At the side of
- the house is a covered stairway leading from the ground to Hronek’s
- rooms, and about seven o’clock we saw our man come down these, and he
- was immediately arrested by Officers Nordrum and one or two others.
- Leaving one or two men to watch the house, we took the prisoner, who
- appeared utterly indifferent, and astonished perhaps, to the nearest
- patrol-box, called the wagon, and sent him to Deering Street Station,
- whence he was removed to the Central Station later on.
-
- “We then searched the house, and in a sort of closet we found a small
- quantity of dynamite in the original Ætna No. 2 packages. In the
- bed-room we found our information to be true, for under the pillow
- on which Hronek had a short time previous been sleeping we found
- a vicious-looking dagger, in a leather sheath, and a revolver. In
- addition to these we also found in the rooms several bombs, some of
- which are empty and some of which are loaded. The bombs are made of
- cast-iron piping, plugged at each end. The pipe had been made for some
- other purpose and turned to that use, and the bombs were four or five
- inches long and about an inch and a half in diameter.”
-
-Frank Capek was arrested at his home, 498 West Twentieth Street, at the
-same time as was Frank Chleboun, who was found at Zion Place. Capek’s
-house was not searched, as it was known that he had made away with the
-dynamite that he had had there.
-
-The arrests caused the greatest excitement in the city as soon as it
-became generally known what was the charge.
-
-About the truth of it there could be no doubt. Hronek was a desperate
-fellow, quite ready and willing for any violence. He was an
-enthusiastic Anarchist, and a great admirer of the “martyrs,” as he
-called them, and he had a regular arsenal of explosives and weapons.
-
-Chleboun’s story was a singular one. He was a tailor who had come from
-Bohemia to Chicago in 1882. He met Hronek shortly after the Haymarket
-riot, and the two struck up an acquaintanceship. With Frank Capek they
-discussed Anarchy and the trial of the leaders, and all went well as
-long as they confined themselves to theory and beer.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Chleboun was one of those weak-minded people who like to play at
-conspiracy, but he soon found that he had allied himself with desperate
-and dangerous men and that the chances were altogether in favor of his
-own neck paying the penalty for his comrades’ work. This alarmed him,
-and he seems to have tried to draw away from them. But they would not
-let him. For a time he lent them money and tried to get along with
-them, but they made his life a burden to him. In October, 1887, he
-wanted to visit the old country, and desired to take out citizen’s
-papers before he left. It shows the relations between the men, that
-Hronek and Capek would not help him to get naturalized until he had
-formally agreed to the plot to kill Grinnell, Gary and Bonfield. They,
-also demanded $25 from him, and he paid it. He returned from Europe
-in December, and they at once pounced on him again. The poor fellow
-did not know which way to turn, and he finally did the wisest thing by
-making a clean breast of the whole plot.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The trial of the would-be assassins came on in the November term, but
-the prisoners secured a severance, and only Hronek was tried, Capek’s
-trial being deferred until the next term. On the stand Chleboun told
-the story of the conspiracy at great length and in detail, and a very
-severe cross-examination failed to shake his testimony in any way. He
-showed how Hronek had planned the murder of the three men coolly and
-deliberately; how he had provided dynamite made up into tin bombs, and
-in other ways, and had secured a poisoned dagger, as well as a pistol.
-Capek seemed to concur in what the others did, but Hronek was the
-undoubted leader. Among other things Hronek told them was that he had
-met Inspector Bonfield, and had had a safe chance to kill him, but that
-he had had no arms with him and could not do it. Hronek was very angry
-over his disappointment. Chleboun described the visit of the three
-men—himself, Hronek and Capek—to Judge Grinnell’s house in Aldine
-Square, and the reconnoissance they made.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Dynamite was in the possession of all the parties, and on one occasion
-a man named Janauschek tried to get Chleboun to give him an order on
-Mikolanda, one of the open leaders, for some of the stuff. This was not
-done, however.
-
-Hronek, in his own testimony, steadily denied any purpose of
-killing either of the threatened gentlemen, but under the skillful
-cross-examination of Mr. Elliott he failed to convince the jury that
-his possession of the bombs, which he claimed had been left at his
-house by a man named Karefit, was innocent. In fact, the testimony
-against him was too strong, and it was corroborated in many places even
-by his own admissions, and the jury found him guilty. He was sentenced
-to twelve years in the penitentiary.
-
-[Illustration: JOHN HRONEK’S PORTRAIT AND DESCRIPTION—I.
-
-Showing the New Method of Recording Criminals for Identification.]
-
-The trial was watched closely by the general public as well as by
-Anarchists, and among those of the red fraternity who found admission
-to the court-room there were many curious characters. Some of these
-were sketched by an artist of my acquaintance, and three of his
-sketches are given on page 678. They are truthful representations of
-men who have not yet sat for our rogues’ gallery photographer, but
-their associations warrant the fear that they will some day have their
-pictures taken at the expense of the taxpayers.
-
-[Illustration: JOHN HRONEK’S PORTRAIT AND DESCRIPTION—II.
-
-Showing the New Method of Recording Criminals for Identification.]
-
-Portraits of Hronek taken by the police photographer are shown here,
-and a slightly reduced _fac-simile_ of the form now used by the
-Police Department for identifying criminals. Formerly only front
-view photographs, as a rule, were to be found in rogues’ gallery
-collections. The new method is a vast improvement, and the reader will
-note from the details of the blank that it provides all the necessary
-data for perfect and unmistakable identification.
-
-The case against Hronek was conducted by Judge Longenecker, the State’s
-Attorney, and by Mr. Elliott, and was followed with the closest
-attention by the people of Chicago, as it displayed in unmistakable
-colors to what a pitch of desperation the Anarchist conspirators in
-this city can bring themselves.
-
-Let us hope that the lesson will prove a salutary one.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXVIII.
-
- The Movement in Europe—Present Plans of the Reds—Stringent
- Measures Adopted by Various European Governments—Bebel and
- Liebknecht—A London Celebration—Whitechapel Outcasts—“Blood, Blood,
- Blood!”—Verestchagin’s Views—The Bulwarks of Society—The Condition
- of Anarchy in New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, St. Louis
- and other American Cities—A New Era of Revolutionary Activity—A
- Fight to the Death—Are we Prepared?
-
-
-AS regards the present plans and movements of the reds in Europe, of
-course it is almost impossible to obtain an adequate conception here.
-It is known, however, that the French, German, English and Belgian
-governments have only recently adopted most stringent measures, the
-effect of which will undoubtedly be to send some very undesirable
-immigrants to our hospitable shores.
-
-Notwithstanding the measures taken by the French Government, it is
-reported as tolerably certain that the Revolutionary Congress will meet
-at Paris, although there is a pressure to have the date of the session
-delayed until October. Much will depend, probably, upon the proceedings
-of the proposed meeting of German, Swiss and Austrian Socialists at
-Zurich the coming summer.
-
-With all their talk of universal brotherhood and a grand combination of
-the proletariat of every nation against tyranny, race hatreds are very
-strong among the Socialists of Europe. A French Communist would be more
-likely to cut a German Socialist’s throat than labor with him for the
-overthrow of the common oppressor.
-
-The social conference soon to convene at The Hague, it is said, will
-ask the German leaders to take the decisive step of annulling the
-Zurich meeting, in order to give the Paris congress the more importance
-and avoid giving any possible offense by such action as may be taken
-there. It is well known that Bebel, Liebknecht and their immediate
-followers have no particular love for the dynamite faction of the Paris
-Communists, but there are many Swiss, South Germans and Russians who
-are engaged in the thankless and seemingly hopeless task of reconciling
-national differences, and these men have no small influence over their
-fellows by reason of their intelligence and approved courage and the
-sacrifices they have made for the common cause. By their unceasing
-labor a large proportion of the rank and file of the German army have
-been won over to the Socialistic movement, and they do not despair of
-allaying the French repugnance to affiliating with men of their own
-ideas from across the Rhine.
-
-The London celebration of the anniversary of the Paris Commune on the
-night of March 18, 1889, consisted of a small crowd of boozy, beery,
-pot-valiant, squalid, frowsy, sodden Whitechapel outcasts who shrieked
-and fought in a small hall in their district under the eye of a single
-policeman.
-
-“Better not go in, sir,” the policeman said to a correspondent who
-entered the door of the small hall at 87 Commonwealth Road. “There
-ain’t no danger, but it’s very unpleasant.”
-
-It was the fumes of scores of dirty pipes and a thousand other causes
-that made the air almost unbearable. About two hundred people, a fourth
-of whom were lushed, soggy Whitechapel women, were in the low-ceilinged
-hall, while a long-haired Pole was screaming an address from the
-platform. He cursed and swore with frantic blasphemy, and called upon
-his hearers to arm themselves and wade to liberty through blood.
-Whenever he uttered the word “blood,” the muddled and maudlin crowd set
-up a shriek of “Blood, blood, blood!” that was deafening. All of the
-women and most of the men had soiled red flags and handkerchiefs, which
-they waved in the air as they shrieked “Blood!” in chorus. Then they
-would sink back into drunken indifference till the word “blood” was
-mentioned again.
-
-Two women and a man, says the correspondent, lay in senseless stupor,
-with the crowd treading on them. One woman’s rags did not half cover
-her. An illiterate Englishman pushed the Pole aside and began to
-harangue the people from the platform. It was the most shameless,
-ribald and obscene harangue imaginable. In the midst of it one woman
-struck another with a piece of a broken beer glass, and the two females
-began to fight like cats. Faces were cut and bleeding. No one paid the
-slightest attention except the policeman, who looked indifferently on.
-Presently one of the women ran sobbing from the hall with her face
-streaming blood. Another woman started after her, when a man made a
-sign to a policeman, and she was restrained. Then a neighbor plucked
-the correspondent’s sleeve:
-
-“Don’t let that nasty scene deceive you,” he said shortly, “it doesn’t
-mean that Socialism is dead in London. It means that it is more
-intelligent. They’ve left off shouting in public and begun to work
-under cover. This thing to-night proves it.”
-
-The following, from the pen of Vassili Verestchagin, the eminent
-Russian painter, whose realistic representations of battle scenes have
-created a great sensation wherever exhibited, and who is also a writer
-of great ability, will show how the situation in Europe as regards
-Socialism, Anarchy and Nihilism appears to one close and intelligent
-observer:
-
- “There is no gainsaying the fact that all the other questions of our
- time are paling before the question of Socialism that advances on us,
- threateningly, like a tremendous thunder-cloud.
-
- “The masses that have been for centuries leading a life of expectancy,
- while hanging on the very borders of starvation, are willing to
- wait no more. Their former hopes in the future are discarded; their
- appetites are whetted, and they are clamoring for arrears, which
- means now the division of all the riches, and so as to make the
- division more lasting, they are claiming that talents and capacities
- should be leveled down to one standard, all workers of progress and
- comfort alike drawing the same pay. They are striving to reconstruct
- society on new foundations, and, in case of opposition to their aims,
- they threaten to apply the torch to all the monuments pertaining to an
- order that, according to them, has already outlived its usefulness;
- they threaten to blow up the public buildings, the churches, the art
- galleries, libraries and museums—a downright religion of despair!...
-
- “My friend the late General Skobeleff once asked me, ‘How do you
- understand the movement of the Socialists and the Anarchists?’ He
- owned to it that he himself did not understand at all what they aimed
- at. ‘What do they want? What are they striving to attain?’
-
- “‘First of all,’ I answered, ‘those people object to wars between
- nations; again, their appreciation of art is very limited, the art of
- painting not excluded. Thus, if they ever come into power, you, with
- your strategic combinations, and I, with my pictures, will both be
- shelved immediately. Do you understand this?’
-
- “‘Yes, I understand this,’ rejoined Skobeleff, ‘and from this on I am
- determined to fight them.’
-
- “There is no mistaking the fact that, as I have said before,
- society is seriously threatened at the hands of a large mass of
- people counting hundreds of millions. Those are the people who, for
- generations, during entire centuries, have been on the brink of
- starvation, poorly clad, living in filthy and unhealthy quarters;
- paupers, and such people as have scarcely any property, or no property
- at all. Well, who is it that is to blame for their poverty—are they
- not themselves to be blamed for it?
-
- “No, it would be unjust to lay all the blame at their door; it is more
- likely that society at large is more to blame for their condition than
- they are themselves.
-
- “Is there any way out of the situation?
-
- “Certainly there is. Christ, our Great Teacher, has long ago pointed
- out the way in which the rich and the powerful could remedy the
- situation without bringing things to a revolutionary pass, without any
- upheaval of the existing social order, if they would only seriously
- take care of the miserable; that certainly would have insured them
- the undisturbed enjoyment of the bulk of their fortune. But there is
- little hope of a peaceful solution of the question now; it is certain
- that the well-to-do classes will still prefer to remain Christian
- in name only; they will still hope that palliative measures will be
- sufficient to remedy the situation; or else, believing the danger to
- be distant yet, they will not be disposed to give up much; while the
- paupers—though formerly they were ready for a compromise—may be soon
- found unwilling to take the pittance offered them.
-
- “What do they want, then?
-
- “Nothing less than the equalization of riches in the society to come;
- they claim the material as well as the moral equalization of all
- rights, trades, all capacities and talents; as we have already said,
- they strive to undermine all the foundations of the existing state of
- society, and, in inaugurating a new order of things they claim to be
- able to open a real era of liberty, equality and fraternity, instead
- of the shadows of those lofty things, as existing now....
-
- “I do not mean to go into the discussion of the matter; I would
- not pretend to point out how much justice or injustice, how much
- soundness or unsoundness there is in these claims; I state only the
- fact that there is a deep gulf between the former cries for bread and
- the sharply formulated claims of the present. It is evident that the
- appetite of the masses has grown within the past centuries, and the
- bill which they intend to present for payment will not be a small one.
-
- “Who will be required to pay this bill?
-
- “Society, most certainly.
-
- “Will it be done willingly?
-
- “Evidently not.
-
- “Consequently there will be complications, quarrels, civil wars.
-
- “Certainly there will be serious complications; they are already
- casting their shadows before them in the shape of disturbances of a
- Socialistic character that are originating here and there. In America,
- most likely, those disturbances are lesser and less pointed, but in
- Europe, in France and Belgium, for instance, such disorders assume a
- very threatening aspect.
-
- “Who is likely to be victorious in this struggle?
-
- “Unless Napoleon I. was wrong in his assertion that victory will
- always remain with the _gros bataillons_, the ‘regulators’ will
- win. Their numbers will be very great; whoever knows human nature
- will understand that all such as have not much to lose will, at the
- decisive moment, join the claims of those who have nothing to lose....
-
- “It is generally supposed that the danger is not so imminent yet; but,
- as far as I was able to judge, the impendence of the danger varies in
- different countries. France, for instance—that long-suffering country
- which is forever experimenting on herself, whether it be in social or
- scientific questions, or in politics—is the nearest to a crisis; then
- follow Belgium and other countries.
-
- “It is very possible that even the present generation will witness
- something serious in that respect. As to the coming generations, there
- is no doubt that they will assist at a thorough reconstruction of the
- social structure in all countries.
-
- “The claims of Socialists, and, particularly, the Anarchists, as well
- as the disorders incited by them, generally produce a great sensation
- in society. But no sooner are the disorders suppressed, than society
- relapses again into its usual unconcern, and no one gives a thought to
- the fact that the frequency of those painful symptoms, recurring with
- so much persistency, is in itself a sign of disease.
-
- “Far-seeing people begin to realize that palliative measures are of
- no more use; that a change of governments and of rulers will not
- avail any more; and that nothing is left but to await developments
- contingent on the attitude of the opposed parties—the energetic
- determination of the well-to-do classes, not to yield, and that of the
- proletaires, to keep their courage and persevere....
-
- “The only consolation remaining to the rich consists in the fact that
- the ‘regulators’ have not had time yet to organize their forces for a
- successful struggle with society. This is true to a certain extent.
- But, though they do it slowly, the ‘regulators’ are perfecting their
- organization all the time; yet, on the other hand, can we say that
- society is well enough organized not to stand in dread of attack?
-
- “Who are the recognized and official defenders of society?
-
- “The army and the church.
-
- “A soldier, there is no doubt of it, is a good support; he represents
- a solid defense; the only trouble about him is that the soldier
- himself begins to get weary of his ungrateful part. It is likely that
- for many years to come yet the soldier will shoot with a light heart
- at such as are called his ‘enemies;’ but the time is not far distant
- when he will refuse to shoot at his own people.
-
- “Who is a good soldier? Only one to whom you can point out his father,
- his mother or his brother in the crowd, saying, ‘Those are enemies of
- society, kill them’—and who will obey.
-
- “I may remark here, in passing, that it occurred to me to refer to
- this idea in a conversation I had with the well-known French writer
- and thinker, Alexandre Dumas, _fils_, and with what success? Conceding
- the justice of the apprehension, he had no other comforting suggestion
- to offer than to say: ‘Oh, yes, the soldier will shoot yet!’
-
- “The other defender of society, the priest, has been less ill-used
- than the soldier, and consequently he is not so tired of his task;
- but, on the other hand, people begin to tire of him, less heed is paid
- to his words, and there arises a doubt as to the truth of all that he
- preaches.
-
- “There was a time when it was possible to tell the people that there
- is but one sun in the heavens as there is but one God-appointed king
- in the country. As stars of the first, second, third and fourth
- magnitude are grouping themselves around the sun, so the powerful,
- the rich, the poor and the miserable surround the king on earth. And,
- as all that appeared plausible, people used to believe that such
- arrangements are as they ought to be. All was accepted, all went on
- smoothly; none of such things can be advanced nowadays, however; no
- one will be ready to believe in them....
-
- “Clearly, things assume a serious aspect. Suppose the day comes when
- the priests will entirely lose their hold on the people, when the
- soldiers will turn their guns muzzles down—where will society look
- for bulwarks then? Is it possible that it has no more reliable defense?
-
- “Certainly, it has such a defense, and it is nothing else but
- _talents_, and their representatives in science, literature and art in
- all its ramifications.
-
- “Art must and will defend society. Its influence is less apparent
- and palpable, but it is very great; it might even be said that its
- influence over the minds, the hearts and the actions of people is
- enormous, unsurpassed, unrivaled. Art must and will defend society
- with all the more care and earnestness, because its devotees know
- that the ‘regulators’ are not disposed to give them the honorable,
- respectable position they occupy now—since, according to them, a
- good pair of boots is more useful than a good picture, a novel or a
- statue. Those people declare that talent is luxury; that talent is
- aristocratic, and that, consequently, talent has to be brought down
- from its pedestal to the common level—a principle to which we shall
- never submit.
-
- “Let us not deceive ourselves. There will arise new talents, which
- will gradually adapt themselves to new conditions, if such will
- prevail, and their works may perhaps gain from it, but we shall not
- agree to the principle of general demolition and reconstruction,
- when such have no other foundation but the well-known thesis:
- ‘Let us destroy everything and clear the ground; as to the
- reconstruction—about that we shall see later on.’ We shall defend and
- advocate the improvement of the existing things by means of peaceful
- and gradual measures.”
-
-That is Verestchagin’s view. It is certainly original and at least
-presents matter for serious reflection to the thoughtful, even though
-his deductions are not agreed to.
-
-Only recently a tremendous sensation was caused by the discovery of a
-dynamite bomb factory in Zurich, secretly conducted by students, and
-the tracing therefrom of a Nihilist conspiracy against the Czar, with
-extensive ramifications throughout Russia. Official and court circles
-in St. Petersburg were panic-stricken at the news, and the public
-journals, as usual, were promptly forbidden publishing information,
-making comment, or saying a word on the subject. In the meantime the
-police pushed investigation in all directions and a large number of
-arrests were made.
-
-Following up the traces of the plot, they found in a street of
-the capital most important evidences of its ramifications in St.
-Petersburg. This conspiracy was said to be more formidable than any
-preceding one. Nor was the danger diminished by the discoveries made.
-The arrests were only of minor people, and these maintained unbroken
-fidelity to their leaders, refusing to divulge even the little they
-were allowed to know.
-
-All over the world the apostles of disorder, rapine and Anarchy are
-to-day pressing forward their work of ruin, and preaching their
-gospel of disaster to all the nations with a more fiery energy and a
-better organized propaganda than was ever known before. People who
-imagine that the energy of the revolutionists has slackened, or that
-their determination to wreck all the existing systems has grown less
-bitter, are deceiving themselves. The conspiracy against society is as
-determined as it ever was, and among every nation the spirit of revolt
-is being galvanized into a newer and more dangerous life.
-
-In Chicago the signs of the times are so plain that he who runs may
-read. The skulking conspirators, who but a few months ago met secretly
-and in fear, in out-of-the-way cellars and thoroughly tiled halls, now
-court publicity. Their meetings are advertised and open—any one who
-chooses may attend—and they evidently feel a confidence and security
-which was unknown before this year of grace 1889. If this feeling is
-rampant here in Chicago, where the heaviest blow was struck at Anarchy,
-what must it be in other American cities, New York for instance,
-where the reds have a formidable and growing organization, or in
-Philadelphia, Pittsburg or Cincinnati? It is manifest that a new era of
-“revolutionary activity” is at hand, and it is to be questioned whether
-the proper means for meeting the proposed attack have been taken, or
-are being prepared.
-
-In Europe the same ferment is apparent. In England the conspiracy
-is still largely under cover, for the English proletariat, as the
-Anarchists love to call the raw material of Anarchy, is slow to move
-and difficult to arouse. But the propaganda is busy, and occasional
-rumblings may be heard of the work going on underground, which should
-be received as the danger signals they are. In London there are all
-the factors for the most dangerous mob the world can produce. There
-are thousands upon thousands of half-starved, desperate men, who have
-absolutely nothing to lose save lives which they themselves hold as
-almost worthless, and there is the constant temptation before them
-of wealth so great and so flaunting, and of a wealthy class often so
-cruelly unjust, that it need never be a matter of wonder when the
-East End of London springs at the throat of the West. In England,
-however, nobody seems to believe that there can be such a thing as a
-servile revolt—that might occur among the French or the Germans or
-the Russians, but never in John Bull’s island,—and the conspirators,
-safely covered by the fancied security of the people, are permitted to
-undermine at their will the fabric of English society.
-
-In France the Commune is stronger than it ever was, and the Red Terror
-may appear with every turn of the whirligig of politics. France does
-not disbelieve in the danger, but it is practically powerless to avert
-it, owing to the general demoralization which has followed Boulanger’s
-success. Of course, it can only be a wild and bloody riot followed by a
-wild and bloody retribution, by a nation frightened out of freedom back
-into the arms of a strong government, for in France the issues are made
-up, and the country has made up its mind.
-
-In Spain and Italy, and especially in the smaller states—Switzerland,
-Belgium and the Scandinavian countries—the Socialists are busy, while
-in Germany and in Russia a crisis is at hand. Thus, the world over,
-it is evident that Anarchy is at work with a feverish purpose never
-before displayed, and the governments are menaced with a danger before
-which foreign war is as nothing. Nothing but the uprooting of the very
-foundations and groundwork of our civilization will satisfy these
-enemies of order. Their fight is to the death. They will neither take
-nor give quarter. It is war _à l’outrance_—composition or truce is
-futile and foolish.
-
-Are we prepared, or are we even preparing for the shock?
-
-Let none mistake either the purpose or the devotion of these fanatics,
-nor their growing strength. This is methodic—not a haphazard
-conspiracy. The ferment in Russia is controlled by the same heads and
-the same hands as the activity in Chicago. There is a cold-blooded,
-calculating purpose behind this revolt, manipulating every part of
-it, the world over, to a common and ruinous end. Whether the next
-demonstration of the Red Terror will occur where its disciples are
-goaded to desperation under despotic measures, as in the land of
-the Czar, or in our own country, where they are allowed to preach
-its bloody doctrines under a broad construction of the American
-constitutional right of free speech, time alone can tell.
-
-But believe me, Anarchy is not an enemy for society to despise.
-
-
-
-
-APPENDIX A.
-
-
-THE meeting places of the Anarchist groups in Chicago prior to May 4,
-1886, were as follows:
-
- South Side, Saturday nights, 2883 Wentworth Avenue.
-
- Southwest Side, No. 1, Saturday nights, 691 South Halsted Street.
-
- Southwest Side, No. 3, Saturday nights, 611 Throop Street.
-
- Vorwaerts, Saturday nights, 204 Blue Island Avenue.
-
- Jefferson, Saturday nights, at or near 1800 Milwaukee Avenue.
-
- Town of Lake, No. 1, Saturday nights, 514 State Street.
-
- Town of Lake, No. 2, every other Sunday evening, in Thomas Hall,
- corner of Fifty-eighth and Laflin Streets.
-
- Bridgeport, Sunday afternoons, 2 o’clock, 2513 South Halsted Street.
-
-The Lehr und Wehr Verein companies met as follows:
-
- First Group—Tuesday and Friday evenings, at Mueller’s Hall, corner
- of Sedgwick and North Avenue; also, at No. 58 Clybourn Avenue, Sunday
- mornings, for instruction in shooting and rifle practice.
-
- Second Group—Wednesday evenings, and two weekly meetings, together
- with the Northwest Side Group, at 8 o’clock, at 636 Milwaukee Avenue.
-
- Third Group—Wednesday evenings at the West Twelfth Street Turner Hall.
-
- No. 58 Clybourn Avenue was a general meeting-place. A general
- invitation was extended to all to come there on Sundays for practice
- in shooting.
-
-List of names of Anarchists and Socialists as found on record with
-Secretaries Seliger and Lingg, at 442 Sedgwick Street:
-
- William Hesse.
- Moritz Neff.
- William Lange.
- Balthasar Rau.
- Albert Bonien.
- Michael Schwab.
- H. Harmening.
- William Medow.
- A. Hovestadt.
- Oscar Neebe.
- Franz Hoffman.
- Ch. Charlevitz.
- H. Kaune.
- H. Tietgens.
- Theodore Polling.
- Louis Hensling.
- E. Buschner.
- Henry Bonnefoi.
- George Meng.
- W. L. Rosenberg.
- Carl Wichmann.
- Ch. Mauner.
- Chr. Mauer.
- John Nedovlacid, _alias_ Pohl.
- A. Hirschberger.
- Edward Schnaubelt.
- John Altherr.
- William Buffleben.
- Carl Milbi.
- Chr. Ramm.
- Max Mitlacher.
- Paul Grottkau.
- Joseph Bach.
- Albert Gorns.
- Julius Stegemann.
- Otto Habitzreiter.
- William Hoelscher.
- William Ludwig.
- H. Perschke.
- A. Roehr.
- William Urban.
- Ernst Altenhofer.
- H. Fasshauer.
- Abraham Hermann.
- Michael Hermann.
- Lorenz Hermann.
- Peter Huber.
- John Neubauer.
- Rudolph Kobitch.
- Julius Habitzreiter.
- Fritz Fischer.
- Albin Mittlacher.
- Fritz Reuter.
- Carl Teuber.
- Rudolph Ohlf.
- Theodore Remane.
- E. Brassholz.
- Joseph Knochelman.
- A. Picard.
- Arthur Fritzsche.
- Franz Domes.
- John B. Lotz.
- John Wohlleben.
- Gustav Moeller.
- H. Ulrich.
- William Neumann.
- H. Kallina.
- August Stollidorf.
- W. Senderson.
- George Rosenzweig.
- Robert W. Ebill.
- S. Heidenbluth.
- William Luetzgerath.
- R. Lauterbach.
- Ernst Fischer.
- Carl Schroeder.
- Otto Voigt.
- Heinrich Menge.
- John Neunkirchen.
- William Kaune.
- Chris Ammer.
- Carl Leukert.
- H. Boeltscher.
- H. Vogelsaenger.
- B. Leber.
- Joseph Mattius.
- John Holm.
- William Walteck.
- Carl Puder.
- N. Willes.
- William Linden.
- George Menge.
- Louis Krauthahn.
- Wilhelm Schleuter.
- Paul Riedel.
- Fritz Huebner.
- Louis Liebl.
- Rudolph Effinger.
- Wilhelm Lindner.
- Conrad Meier.
- August Baer.
- Wilhelm Rieger.
- Hans Reindel.
- Rudolph Schnaubelt.
- William Heinze.
- Anton Schmidt.
- Fritz Schmidt.
- Albert Wilke.
- Gustav Schroth.
- Carl Meier.
- George Engelett.
- H. Marcmann.
- H. Albert.
- Ch. Blendow.
- August Neuhaus.
- Chr. Hase.
- H. C. Eden.
- H. Thomser.
- Claus Boege.
- Frederick Boecer.
- H. Kirvitt.
- H. Lehman.
- Nic Schroegel.
- Max Biehle.
- Andrew Decker.
- Johann Mass.
- Hermann Klug.
- H. Honsel.
- Edward Koelble.
- Adolph Greschner.
- Guenther Bock.
- Fritz Bock.
- C. Bock.
- Fritz Linden.
- Leo Wierig.
- Nic Keller.
- Aug. Wassilof.
- Linarz.
- Fr. Rathke.
- Baehrendt.
- Henry Schmidt.
- Franz Hein.
- Chas. Meyer.
- Otto Bathke.
- Louis Peters.
- Wm. Seliger.
- Christ Jansen.
- Chas. Scholl.
- B. Horschke.
- Kinder.
- Robert Moench.
- Latinker.
- Leopold Miller.
- E. Trolson.
- Otto Blonk.
- Ludwig Sitzberger.
- Albert Sommer.
- Albert Dilke.
- Alfred Bartels.
- August Asher.
- Henry Slvetera.
- Hermann Pabst.
- John Richlich.
- Ernst J. Nitschke.
- Fritz Roeber.
- W. Callinius.
- E. Hoffman.
- W. Matuspkirvitz.
- Carl Pundt.
- E. Rudolph.
- Franz Stahr.
- Hermann Weg.
- H. Judknecht.
- Christ. Drawert.
- Julius Blecksmith.
- Carl Rick.
- Carl Leukert.
- Gustav Stolze.
- Edward Heis.
- Wilhelm Waldeck.
- Ludwig Lintz.
- August Pavel.
- H. Hildemann.
- Ernst Altenhofer.
- John Kleinsten.
- Hermann Hoges.
- Wilhelm Alb.
- H. Markmann.
- H. Albert.
- Blendow.
- H. C. Eden.
- John Maas.
- Hermann Klug.
- H. Hansel.
- F. Thiesen.
- Henry Abelman.
- Joseph Neder.
- Leo Wierig.
- Nic Keller.
- Max Hollock.
- George Binder.
- Wm. Lueneberg.
- Anton Besser.
- Franz Springer.
- O. Deichman.
- Joseph Schramm.
- Carl Kroger.
- Franz Turban.
- George Binder.
- John Kerr.
- Wenzel Kinzill.
- Ernst Niendorf.
- Theodore Blumbach.
- H. Zwierlein.
- August Metschke.
- K. Kumberg.
- Charles Lovitte.
- H. Kauney.
- H. Mathge.
- Ludwig Luetzeberger.
- Frederick Schmiecke.
- Christ Wegemann.
- Carol Fischhammer.
- E. Andauer.
- Bernard Labor.
- August Litch.
- Paul Polke.
- Franz Schumann.
- Franz Hermann.
- Franz Bohl.
- Christ. Killgers.
- Max Hollock.
- Total number of members, 232.
-
-Names of Socialists belonging to different parts of the city:
-
- Fritz Kaderli.
- Alois Preiss.
- Anton Bonner.
- Gustav Zerbe.
- Carl Weidenhammer.
- Berthold Bauer.
- Nic Goebel.
- Franz Frank.
- George H. Karst.
- Fritz Witt.
- August Ziemann.
- Rudolph Spuhr.
- Ernst Blanck.
- August Krause.
- Wilhelm Helm.
- Franz Krueger.
- Frederick Luebbe.
- Jacob Beck.
- Hermann Wechmann.
- Hermann Boese.
- B. Gromall.
- Fred Wessling.
- Franz Schips.
- Michael Michels.
- John Tallmann.
- Gustav Hopper.
- Carl Chuast.
- Nic Mueller.
- Franz Schlopp.
- Philipp Glaser.
- John Woehrle.
- Louis Boechlke.
- Albert Koch.
- John Voss.
- Fred Heiden.
- Franz Heidench.
- Carl Michael.
- George Bloecher.
- Fred Naffs.
- Robert Wegener.
- Max Miller.
- Frank Wiederkehr.
- Heinrich Volkmann.
- Friederich Wargowsky.
- Gustav Bressmann.
- Hermann Jocks.
- Peter Dieterich.
- John Fromm.
- Frederich Hanne.
- Carl Norvotny.
- Heinrich Simon.
- August Rieger.
- Henry Lebierri.
- Christ Erbman.
- Rudolph Arndt.
- John Sellmann.
- William Rehfeldt.
- Emil Kaiser.
- Carl Swansen.
- Louis Jansen.
- Jacob Lieser.
- Carl Billhardt.
- Johann Grefflath.
- Fritz Peters.
- Albert Bittelkau.
- Leo Engelmann.
- Christ Feidler.
- Peter Bucher.
- George Lange.
- August Littele.
- Hermann Pretch.
- Albert Fork.
- Wilhelm Hohmann.
- Hermann Theile.
- Carl Heinrich.
- Friederich Rathman.
- Carl Wild.
- Wilhelm Wetendorf.
- Carl Gerbech.
- Friederich Assmussen.
- Louis Griep.
- Heinrich Zeiss.
- Carl Mund.
- George Schmidt.
- August Buchwald.
- Peter Weber.
- Christ. Jungknecht.
- Johann Fleischmann.
- August Bernatzki.
- Julius Koschnitzki.
- Bernard Kaelle.
- Richard Wagner.
- Christ. Schumann.
- George Stange.
- Johann Siegfried.
- Frank Ehlert.
- Heinrich Becker.
- Johann Peters.
- Hermann Junke.
- Julius Beck.
- Louis Thiess.
- John Weber.
- Robert Lattmann.
- Mike Hartmann.
- Heinrich Pressler.
- Otto Bartell.
- Martin Lausgres.
- Heinrich Koehler.
- Fritz Geding.
- Peter Ferneeten.
- Louis Schroeder.
- Heinrich Rauch.
- John Mangels.
- Hermann Tombrow.
- John Koehler.
- Wilhelm Kramp.
- Hermann Gnadke.
- Peter Pauls.
- Adolph Rudemann.
- Louis Schalk.
- Rudolph Firo.
- Joseph Kaiser.
- Frank Allring.
- Heinrich Block.
- Carl Beck.
- John Urech.
- Gustav Roshke.
- Ed. Peterson.
- M. Grant.
- August Hoffman.
- Gustav Kerstarm.
- J. Casper.
- Philipp Wichmann.
- John Bernier.
- August Schnedort.
- Total number, 139.
-
-Names of Socialistic women of North Side, 1886:
-
- Mrs. Back.
- Mrs. W. Lange.
- Mrs. Mattius.
- Mrs. Rehm.
- Mrs. Johanna Schroeder.
- Mrs. Antonie Hoverstadt.
- Mrs. Rosenzweig.
- Mrs. Fisher.
- Mrs. Wilhelmina Menge.
- Mrs. H. Habitzreiter.
- Mrs. Elizabeth Reuter.
- Marie Schnaubelt.
- Mrs. Lane.
- Mrs. Hermann.
- Mrs. Pohl.
- Mrs. Neuhaus.
- Ida Schnaubelt.
- Johanna Schnaubelt.
- Mrs. Schwab.
- Mrs. Miller.
- Mrs. Huber.
- Total number, 21.
-
-
-
-
-ILLUSTRATIONS.
-
-
- Portrait of the Author, Frontispiece
-
- The French Revolution—The Feast of Reason, 16
-
- Storming the Bastile, 18
-
- Karl Marx, 19
-
- Michael Bakounine, 20
-
- Pierre Joseph Proudhon, 21
-
- Louise Michel, 24
-
- Ferdinand Lassalle, 25
-
- Excavated Dynamite Mine in Moscow, 33
-
- “It is Too Soon to Thank God.”—The Assassination of Czar
- Alexander II., 35
-
- The Czar’s Carriage after the Explosion, 36
-
- Diagram of Elnikoff’s Bomb, 36
-
- The Nihilists in the Dock, 38
-
- Execution of the Nihilist Conspirators, 39
-
- The Book Bomb, 40
-
- Scenes from the Riots at Pittsburg, 1877, 51
-
- The Great Strike in Baltimore—The Militia Fighting their Way
- through the Streets, 57
-
- The Labor Troubles of 1877—Riots at the Halsted Street Viaduct,
- Chicago, 63
-
- Dr. Carl Eduard Nobiling, 67
-
- Max Hoedel, 67
-
- Banners of the Social Revolution—I., 69
-
- Carter H. Harrison, 70
-
- The Black Flag, 75
-
- The Office of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, 76
-
- An Anarchist Procession, 78
-
- The Board of Trade, 80
-
- Banners of the Social Revolution—II., 85
-
- A Group of Anarchists, 87
-
- Banners of the Social Revolution—III., 91
-
- The Red Banner of the Carpenters’ Union, 93
-
- Dr. Nobiling’s Attempt to Assassinate the Emperor of Germany, 95
-
- August Reinsdorf, 96
-
- Johann Most, 100
-
- Banners of the Social Revolution—IV., 109
-
- Interior View of Neff’s Hall, 111
-
- A Strike—The Walking Delegate Sowing the Seed of Discontent, 114
-
- Greif’s Hall, 115
-
- A Round-up, 118
-
- Specimen Rioters—Hynek Djenek and Anton Seveski, 120
-
- —— John Pototski and Frank Novak, 121
-
- —— Vaclav Djenek and Anton Stimak, 122
-
- —— Ignatz Urban and Joseph Sugar, 123
-
- Charging the Mob at McCormick’s, 126
-
- Officer Casey’s Peril, 127
-
- Franz Mikolanda, a Polish Conspirator, 128
-
- _Fac-simile_ of the Famous “Revenge” Circular, 130
-
- The Call for the Haymarket Meeting—_Fac-simile_ I., 132
-
- —— _Fac-simile_ II., 135
-
- Neff’s Hall, Exterior View, 136
-
- The Haymarket Meeting—“In the Name of the People I Command You to
- Disperse,” 140
-
- The Haymarket Riot—The Explosion and the Conflict, 142
-
- Inspector John Bonfield, 143
-
- Captain William Ward, 144
-
- Lieut. (now Chief) G. W. Hubbard, 145
-
- Sergt. (now Capt.) J. E. Fitzpatrick, 146
-
- Lieut. James P. Stanton, 147
-
- Lieut. Bowler, 147
-
- The Desplaines Street Station, 151
-
- The Haymarket Martyrs, 154
-
- Adolph Fischer, 157
-
- The Fischer Family, 158
-
- Fischer’s Belt and Poisoned Daggers, 159
-
- August Spies, 160
-
- Miss Nina Van Zandt, 162
-
- Chris Spies, 163
-
- Miss Gretchen Spies, 164
-
- Michael Schwab, 165
-
- Albert R. Parsons, 166
-
- Mrs. Lucy Parsons, 167
-
- Oscar W. Neebe, 168
-
- Rudolph Schnaubelt, the Bomb-Thrower, 170
-
- Balthasar Rau, 173
-
- Lingg’s Candlestick, 177
-
- Round Iron Bomb, 180
-
- Samuel Fielden, 181
-
- Detective James Bonfield, 184
-
- Officer Henry Palmer, 185
-
- Officer (now Lieut.) Baer, 186
-
- Detective Hermann Schuettler, 189
-
- Detective Michael Hoffman, 189
-
- Detective Michael Whalen, 189
-
- Detective Charles Rehm, 189
-
- Detective John Stift, 189
-
- Detective Jacob Loewenstein, 189
-
- Edmund Furthmann, 191
-
- The East Chicago Avenue Station, 193
-
- A Back-Yard Interview, 195
-
- A Friendly Communication, 197
-
- The Notorious Florus’ Hall, 203
-
- The Shadowed Detectives, 204
-
- The “Red” Sisterhood, 207
-
- Turning the Tables, 209
-
- Underground Auditors, 211
-
- Betrayed by Beauty, 214
-
- Thalia Hall, 218
-
- Underground Conspirators, 220
-
- Officer Nordrum, 221
-
- The Scared Amateur Anarchist, 223
-
- Watching a Suspect, 225
-
- Julius Oppenheimer’s Double, 231
-
- Mr. and Mrs. William Seliger, 236
-
- A Noble Woman’s Influence-A Kiss that Prevented Bloodshed, 239
-
- John Thielen, 248
-
- Louis Lingg, the Bomb-maker, 257
-
- Lingg’s Trunk, 258
-
- Coils of Fuse Found in Lingg’s Trunk, 259
-
- Composition Bomb Found in Lingg’s Room, 261
-
- Cast-Iron and Large Gas-pipe Bombs, 262
-
- Gas-pipe Bombs Found in Lingg’s Room, 263
-
- Gas-pipe Bombs without Fuse, 264
-
- Unfinished Gas-pipe Bombs Found in Lingg’s Dinner-box, 265
-
- Lingg’s Revolver, 267
-
- A Desperate Struggle—Louis Lingg’s Arrest, 269
-
- Iron Bolt Found in Lingg’s Trunk, 271
-
- Lingg’s Sweetheart, 274
-
- Ladle used by Lingg in Casting, with Can of English Dynamite, 276
-
- Muntzenberg Peddling Books and Bombs, 281
-
- George Engel, 284
-
- Miss Mary Engel, 285
-
- Gottfried Waller, 287
-
- Underground Rifle Practice—A Meeting of the Lehr und Wehr Verein, 289
-
- Numbered Plates from L. u. W. V. Rifles, 290
-
- “Liberty Hall,” 295
-
- Otto Lehman, 298
-
- Gustav Lehman, 303
-
- Zepf’s Hall, 306
-
- Timmerhof Hall, 309
-
- Herman Muntzenberg, 313
-
- A Hasty Toilet, 325
-
- A Dangerous Storing-Place, 327
-
- An Obstreperous Prisoner, 329
-
- The Conspiracy Meeting—Waller Reading Engel’s “Plan,” 336
-
- The “Czar” Bomb, 343
-
- Anarchist Ammunition—I., 348
- 1. Incendiary Bomb, with powder flask detached.
- 2. Gas-Pipe Bombs, without cap or fuse, but loaded with
- dynamite. Found in Lingg’s Room.
- 3. Bombs used in Evidence, after analysis by chemists.
- 4. Gas-pipe Bombs, with fuse and caps, secreted by Julius
- Oppenheimer under a dancing-platform.
-
- A Group of the Lehr und Wehr Verein, 352
-
- The Wife-Beater’s Trial, 362
-
- An Incendiary Can, 365
-
- Henry Spies, 368
-
- The Larrabee Street Station, 371
-
- The Hinman Street Station, 374
-
- Neebe’s Sword and Belt, 377
-
- Anarchist Ammunition—II., 381
- 1. Round Iron Bombs, cast whole, and designed for use with
- percussion caps, to explode on falling.
- 2. Sheet-iron Molds, used by Lingg in the construction of
- infernal machines.
- 3, 4. Sectional Views of the “Czar” Bomb.
-
- Hon Joseph E. Gary, 384
-
- Portraits of the Jury, 386
-
- Portraits of the Jury, 387
-
- Hon. Julius S. Grinnell, 391
-
- The Great Trial—Scene in the Court-room, 410
-
- Spies’ Manuscript of the Famous “Ruhe” Signal—_Fac-simile_, 421
-
- “Y—Come Monday Evening”—_Fac-simile_, 422
-
- Reduced _Fac-simile_ of Heading of the _Fackel_, 423
-
- Plan of the Seliger Residence, 425
-
- Dynamite Packages, 436
- 1. Package left at Judge Tree’s House.
- 2. Package left at C., B. & Q. Railroad offices.
-
- Socialistic Bombs—Diagrams from _Daily News_ of January 14, 1886, 437
-
- Chart of Street Warfare, 438
-
- Interior Plan of Greif’s Hall, 440
-
- Interior Plan of Neff’s Hall, 443
-
- Adolph Lieske, 449
-
- Parsons’ Handwriting, 451
-
- A Picnic of the “Reds” at Sheffield, 453
- 1. Experimenting with Dynamite.
- 2. Getting Inspiration.
- 3. Engel on the Stump.
- 4. “Hoch die Anarchie!”
- 5. Mrs. Parsons Addressing the Crowd.
- 6. Children Peddling Most’s Literature.
- 7. A Family Feast.
-
- Engel’s Blast Furnace, 469
-
- Moses Salomon, 479
-
- Spies Addressing the Strikers at McCormick’s, 511
-
- Francis W. Walker, 526
-
- Sigismund Zeisler, 536
-
- George C. Ingham, 542
-
- William A. Foster, 546
-
- Capt. William P. Black, 554
-
- Lingg’s Suicide Bombs, 595
-
- E. F. L. Gauss, 607
-
- Henry Severin, 607
-
- Judge Benjamin D. Magruder, 609
-
- Jailor Folz, 629
-
- Benjamin P. Price, 632
-
- Lingg’s Terrible Death, 633
- 1. Lighting the Deadly Bomb.
- 2. The Explosion.
- 3. The Deputy Entering Lingg’s Cell.
- 4. The Dying Bomb-Maker in the Hands of the Surgeons.
-
- Lingg’s Last Request, 635
-
- John C. Klein, 636
-
- The Chicago Water-works, 641
-
- Sheriff Canute R. Matson, 643
-
- The Execution, 645
-
- John A. Roche, 648
-
- Kierlan’s Souvenir, 653
-
- The Haymarket Monument, 659
-
- An Anarchist “Sunday-school”—Teaching Unbelief and Lawlessness, 669
-
- Frank Chleboun, 673
-
- Frank Capek, 673
-
- Charles L. Bodendick, 675
-
- Anarchist Sympathizers—Court-room Sketches, 678
-
- Anarchist Sympathizers—Court-room Sketches, 678
-
- Anarchist Sympathizers—Court-room Sketches, 678
-
- Hronek’s Portrait and Description—I. Showing New Police Method of
- Identifying Criminals, 679
-
- Hronek’s Portrait and Description—II., 680
-
-
-
-
-
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-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: Anarchy and Anarchists
- Communism, Socialism, and Nihilism in Doctrine and in Deed
-
-Author: Michael Schaack
-
-Release Date: August 15, 2016 [EBook #52811]
-
-Language: English
-
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-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANARCHY AND ANARCHISTS ***
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-Produced by Giovanni Fini, Richard Hulse and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
-
-
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-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-<div class="limit">
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<div class="transnote p4">
-<p class="pc large">TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE:</p>
-<p class="ptn">&mdash;Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="350" height="567" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/fr.jpg" width="400" height="660" id="fr"
- alt=""
- title="" />
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h1 class="p4"><span class="smcap">Anarchy and Anarchists.</span></h1>
-
-<p class="pc4">A HISTORY OF<br />
-THE RED TERROR AND THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION<br />
-IN AMERICA AND EUROPE.</p>
-
-<hr class="d1" />
-
-<p class="pc large">COMMUNISM, SOCIALISM, AND NIHILISM</p>
-<p class="pc2">IN DOCTRINE AND IN DEED.</p>
-
-<hr class="d1" />
-
-<p class="pc mid">THE CHICAGO HAYMARKET CONSPIRACY,</p>
-<p class="pc2">AND THE DETECTION AND TRIAL OF THE CONSPIRATORS.</p>
-
-<hr class="d1" />
-
-<p class="pc lmid">BY</p>
-<p class="pc large"><span class="smcap">Michael J. Schaack,</span></p>
-<p class="pc lmid"><span class="smcap">Captain of Police</span>.</p>
-
-<p class="pc2 lmid">WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS FROM AUTHENTIC PHOTOGRAPHS,
-AND FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS</p>
-
-<p class="pc2"><span class="smcap">By Wm. A. McCullough, Wm. Ottman, Louis Braunhold, True
-Williams, Chas. Foerster, O. F. Kritzner, and Others.</span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/logo.jpg" width="200" height="163"
- alt=""
- title="" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="pc mid">CHICAGO:</p>
-<p class="pc1 lmid"><span class="smcap">F. J. Schulte &amp; Company.</span></p>
-<p class="pc1"><span class="smcap">New York and Philadelphia: W. A. Houghton.</span></p>
-<p class="pc1"><span class="smcap">St. Louis: S. F. Junkin &amp; Co.<span class="smcap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Pittsburg: P. J. Fleming &amp; Co.</span></p>
-<p class="pc1">MDCCCLXXXIX.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="pc4"><span class="smcap">Copyright,</span> 1889,<br />
-<span class="lmid">BY MICHAEL J. SCHAACK.</span><br />
-<span class="reduct">ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.</span></p>
-
-<hr class="d2" />
-
-<p class="pc">&#8258;<i>THE ILLUSTRATIONS IN THIS WORK ARE ALL ORIGINAL, AND ARE<br />
-PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT.</i></p>
-
-<hr class="d3" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="pc">TO<br />
-<span class="mid">HON. JOSEPH E. GARY</span><br />
-AND TO<br />
-<span class="mid">HON. JULIUS S. GRINNELL</span><br />
-THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY<br />
-<span class="mid">THE AUTHOR.</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span></p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-
-<h2>PREFACE.</h2>
-
-<p class="pc2">*<br />*<span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;</span>*</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">IT has seemed to me that there should be a history of the development,
-the revolt, and the tragedy of Anarchy in Chicago. This history I
-have written as impartially and as fairly as I knew how to write it. I
-have kept steadily before my eyes the motto,&mdash;</p>
-
-<p class="pp6q p1">“Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">It will be found in the succeeding pages that neither animosity against
-the revolutionists, nor partiality to the State, has influenced the work. I
-have dealt with this episode in Chicago’s history as calmly and as fairly as
-I am able. I have tried to put myself in the position of the misguided
-men whose conspiracy led to the Haymarket explosion and to the gallows;
-to understand their motives; to appreciate their ideals&mdash;for so only could
-this volume be properly written.</p>
-
-<p>And to present a broader view, I have added a history of all forms of
-Socialism, Communism, Nihilism and Anarchy. In this, though necessarily
-brief, it has been the purpose to give all the important facts, and to set
-forth the theories of all those who, whether moderate or radical, whether
-sincerely laboring in the interests of humanity or boisterously striving for
-notoriety, have endeavored or pretended to improve upon the existing order
-of society.</p>
-
-<p>After the dynamite bomb exploded, carrying death into the ranks of men
-with whom I had been for years closely associated&mdash;after an impudent attack
-had been made upon our law and upon our system, which I was sworn to
-defend&mdash;it came to me as a duty to the State, a duty to my dead and
-wounded comrades, to bring the guilty men to justice; to expose the conspiracy
-to the world, and thus to assist in vindicating the law. How the
-duty was performed, this story tells.</p>
-
-<p>It is a plain narrative whose interest lies in the momentous character of
-the facts which it relates. Much of it is now for the first time given to the
-public. I have drawn upon the records of the case, made in court, but
-more especially upon the reports made to me, during the progress of the
-investigation, by the many detectives who were working under my direction.</p>
-
-<p>I can say for my book no more than this: that from the first page to the
-last there is no material statement which is not to my knowledge true. The
-reader, then, may at least depend upon the accuracy of the information
-presented here, even if I cannot make any other claim.</p>
-
-<p>It would be unfair and ungrateful if I did not seize this opportunity to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span>
-put on lasting record my obligations to Judge Julius S. Grinnell, who was
-State’s Attorney during the investigation. His support, steady and full of
-tact, enabled me to go through with the work, in spite of obstacles deliberately
-put in my way. My position was a delicate and difficult one: had it not
-been for him, and for others, success would have been almost impossible.</p>
-
-<p>Nor can I forego this occasion to bear testimony to the magnificent
-police work done in the case by Inspector Bonfield and his brother, James
-Bonfield, and by the officers who acted directly with me. These were
-Lieut. Charles A. Larsen and Officers Herman Schuettler, Michael Whalen,
-Jacob Loewenstein, Michael Hoffman, Charles Rehm, John Stift and B. P.
-Baer. Mr. Edmund Furthmann, at that time Assistant State’s Attorney, as
-I have elsewhere recorded, worked upon the inquiry into the conspiracy
-with an acumen, a perseverance and an industry which were beyond all
-praise. I knew, when he was first associated with me in the case, that the
-outcome must be a victory for outraged law, and the result vindicated the
-prediction. To Mr. Thomas O. Thompson and to Mr. John T. McEnnis
-much of the literary form of this volume is to be credited, and to them also
-I am under lasting obligations.</p>
-
-<p class="pr2"><span class="smcap">Michael J. Schaack.</span></p>
-<p class="pi4"><i>Chicago, February, 1889.</i></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">TABLE OF CONTENTS.</h2>
-
-<p class="pc2">*<br />*<span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;</span>*</p>
-
-<table id="toc" summary="cont">
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER I.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">The Beginning of Anarchy&mdash;The German School of Discontent&mdash;The
-Socialist Future&mdash;The Asylum in London&mdash;Birth of a Word&mdash;Work of the French
-Revolution&mdash;The Conspiracy of Babeuf&mdash;Etienne Cabet’s Experiment&mdash;The Colony
-in the United States&mdash;Settled at Nauvoo&mdash;Fourier and his System&mdash;The Familistère
-at Guise&mdash;Louis Blanc and the National Work-shops&mdash;Proudhon, the Founder of
-French Anarchy&mdash;German Socialism: Its Rise and Development&mdash;Rodbertus and his
-Followers&mdash;“Capital,” by Karl Marx&mdash;The “Bible of the Socialists”&mdash;The Red
-Internationale&mdash;Bakounine and his Expulsion from the Society&mdash;The New Conspiracy&mdash;Ferdinand
-Lassalle and the Social Democrats&mdash;The Birth of a Great Movement&mdash;Growth
-of Discontent&mdash;Leaders after Lassalle&mdash;The Central Idea of the Revolt&mdash;American
-Methods and the Police Position,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER II.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">Dynamite in Politics-Historical Assassinations&mdash;Infernal Machines in
-France&mdash;The Inventor of Dynamite&mdash;M. Noble and his Ideas&mdash;The Nitro-Compounds&mdash;How
-Dynamite is Made&mdash;The New French Explosive&mdash;“Black Jelley” and the Nihilists&mdash;What
-the Nihilists Believe and What they Want&mdash;The Conditions in Russia&mdash;The
-White and the Red Terrors&mdash;Vera Sassoulitch&mdash;Tourgenieff and the Russian Girl&mdash;The
-Assassination of the Czar&mdash;“It is too Soon to Thank God”&mdash;The Dying Emperor&mdash;Two
-Bombs Thrown&mdash;Running Down the Conspirators&mdash;Sophia Perowskaja, the
-Nihilist Leader&mdash;The Handkerchief Signal&mdash;The Murder Roll&mdash;Tried and Convicted&mdash;A
-Brutal Execution&mdash;Five Nihilists Pay the Penalty&mdash;Last Words Spoken but Unheard&mdash;A
-Deafening Tattoo&mdash;The Book-bomb and the Present Czar&mdash;Strychnine-coated
-Bullets&mdash;St. Peter and Paul’s Fortress&mdash;Dynamite Outrages in England&mdash;The
-Record of Crime&mdash;Twenty-nine Convicts and their Offenses&mdash;Ingenious Bomb-making&mdash;The
-Failures of Dynamite,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER III.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">The Exodus to Chicago&mdash;Waiting for an Opportunity&mdash;A Political Party
-Formed&mdash;A Question of $600,000&mdash;The First Socialist Platform&mdash;Details of the Organization&mdash;Work
-at the Ballot-Box&mdash;Statistics of Socialist Progress&mdash;The “International
-Workingmen’s Party” and The “Workingmen’s Party of the United States”&mdash;The
-Eleven Commandments of Labor&mdash;How the Work was to be Done&mdash;A Curious
-Constitution&mdash;Beginnings of the Labor Press&mdash;The Union Congress&mdash;Criticising the
-Ballot-Box&mdash;The Executive Committee and its Powers&mdash;Annals of 1876&mdash;A Period of
-Preparation&mdash;The Great Railroad Strikes of 1877&mdash;The First Attack on Society&mdash;A
-Decisive Defeat&mdash;Trying Politics Again&mdash;The “Socialistic Party”&mdash;Its Leaders and
-its Aims&mdash;August Spies as an Editor&mdash;Buying the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>&mdash;How the Money
-was Raised&mdash;Anarchist Campaign Songs&mdash;The Group Organization&mdash;Plan of the Propaganda&mdash;Dynamite
-First Taught&mdash;“The Bureau of Information”&mdash;An Attack on
-Arbitration&mdash;No Compromise with Capital&mdash;Unity of the Internationalists and the
-Socialists,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER IV.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii"><span class="small">[viii]</span></a></span></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">Socialism, Theoretic and Practical&mdash;Statements of the Leaders&mdash;Vengeance
-on the “Spitzels”&mdash;The Black Flag in the Streets&mdash;Resolutions in the <i>Alarm</i>&mdash;The
-Board of Trade Procession&mdash;Why it Failed&mdash;Experts on Anarchy&mdash;Parsons, Spies,
-Schwab and Fielden Outline their Belief&mdash;The International Platform&mdash;Why Communism
-Must Fail&mdash;A French Experiment and its Lesson&mdash;The Law of Averages&mdash;Extracts
-from the Anarchistic Press&mdash;Preaching Murder&mdash;Dynamite or the Ballot-Box?&mdash;“The
-Reaction in America”&mdash;Plans for Street Fighting&mdash;Riot Drill and Tactics&mdash;Bakounine
-and the Social Revolution&mdash;Twenty-one Statements of an Anarchist’s Duty&mdash;Herways’
-Formula&mdash;Predicting the Haymarket&mdash;The Lehr und Wehr Verein and the Supreme
-Court&mdash;The White Terror and the Red&mdash;Reinsdorf, the Father of Anarchy&mdash;His
-Association with Hoedel and Nobiling&mdash;Attempt to Assassinate the German Emperor&mdash;Reinsdorf
-at Berlin&mdash;His Desperate Plan&mdash;“Old Lehmann” and the Socialist’s Dagger&mdash;The
-Germania Monument&mdash;An Attempt to Kill the Whole Court&mdash;A Culvert
-Full of Dynamite&mdash;A Wet Fuse and no Explosion&mdash;Reinsdorf Condemned to Death&mdash;His
-Last Letters&mdash;Chicago Students of his Teachings&mdash;De Tocqueville and Socialism,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER V.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">The Socialistic Programme&mdash;Fighting a Compromise&mdash;Opposition to the
-Eight-hour Movement&mdash;The Memorial to Congress&mdash;Eight Hours’ Work Enough&mdash;The
-Anarchist Position&mdash;An <i>Alarm</i> Editorial&mdash;“Capitalists and Wage Slaves”&mdash;Parsons’
-Ideas&mdash;The Anarchists and the Knights of Labor&mdash;Powderly’s Warning&mdash;Working
-up a Riot&mdash;The Effect of Labor-saving Machinery&mdash;Views of Edison and
-Wells&mdash;The Socialistic Demonstration&mdash;The Procession of April 25, 1886&mdash;How the
-<i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> Helped on the Crisis&mdash;The Secret Circular of 1886,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER VI.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">The Eight-hour Movement&mdash;Anarchist Activity&mdash;The Lock-out at McCormick’s&mdash;Distorting
-the Facts&mdash;A Socialist Lie&mdash;The True Facts about McCormick’s&mdash;Who
-Shall Run the Shops?&mdash;Abusing the “Scabs”&mdash;High Wages for
-Cheap Work&mdash;The Union Loses $3,000 a Day&mdash;Preparing for Trouble&mdash;Arming the
-Anarchists&mdash;Ammunition Depots&mdash;Pistols and Dynamite&mdash;Threatening the Police&mdash;The
-Conspirators Show the White Feather&mdash;Capt. O’Donnell’s Magnificent Police
-Work&mdash;The Revolution Blocked&mdash;A Foreign Reservation&mdash;An Attempt to Mob the
-Police&mdash;The History of the First Secret Meeting&mdash;Lingg’s First Appearance in the
-Conspiracy&mdash;The Captured Documents&mdash;Bloodshed at McCormick’s&mdash;“The Battle
-Was Lost”&mdash;Officer Casey’s Narrow Escape,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER VII.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">The <i>Coup d’État</i> a Miscarriage&mdash;Effect of the Anarchist Failure at
-McCormick’s&mdash;“Revenge”&mdash;Text of the Famous Circular&mdash;The German Version&mdash;An
-Incitement to Murder&mdash;Bringing on a Conflict&mdash;Engel’s Diabolical Plan&mdash;The
-Rôle of the Lehr und Wehr Verein&mdash;The Gathering of the Armed Groups&mdash;Fischer’s
-Sanguinary Talk&mdash;The Signal for Murder&mdash;“Ruhe” and its Meaning&mdash;Keeping
-Clear of the Mouse-Trap&mdash;The Haymarket Selected&mdash;Its Advantages for Revolutionary
-War&mdash;The Call for the Murder Meeting&mdash;“Workingmen, Arm Yourselves”&mdash;Preparing
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span>the Dynamite&mdash;The <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> Arsenal&mdash;The Assassins’ Roost at
-58 Clybourn Avenue&mdash;The Projected Attack on the Police Stations&mdash;Bombs for All
-who Wished Them&mdash;Waiting for the Word of Command&mdash;Why it was not Given&mdash;The
-Leaders’ Courage Fails,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER VIII.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">The Air Full of Rumors&mdash;A Riot Feared&mdash;Police Preparations&mdash;Bonfield
-in Command&mdash;The Haymarket&mdash;Strategic Value of the Anarchists’ Position&mdash;Crane’s
-Alley&mdash;The Theory of Street Warfare&mdash;Inflaming the Mob&mdash;Schnaubelt and
-his Bomb&mdash;“Throttle the Law”&mdash;The Limit of Patience Reached&mdash;“In the Name of
-the People, Disperse”&mdash;The Signal Given&mdash;The Crash of Dynamite First Heard on
-an American Street&mdash;Murder in the Air&mdash;A Rally and a Charge&mdash;The Anarchists
-Swept Away&mdash;A Battle Worthy of Veterans,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER IX.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">The Dead and the Wounded&mdash;Moans of Anguish in the Police Station&mdash;Caring
-for Friend and Foe&mdash;Counting the Cost&mdash;A City’s Sympathy&mdash;The Death
-List&mdash;Sketches of the Men&mdash;The Doctors’ Work&mdash;Dynamite Havoc&mdash;Veterans of
-the Haymarket&mdash;A Roll of Honor&mdash;The Anarchist Loss&mdash;Guesses at their Dead&mdash;Concealing
-Wounded Rioters&mdash;The Explosion a Failure&mdash;Disappointment of the
-Terrorists,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER X.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">The Core of the Conspiracy&mdash;Search of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> Office&mdash;The
-Captured Manuscript&mdash;Jealousies in the Police Department&mdash;The Case Threatened
-with Failure&mdash;Stupidity at the Central Office&mdash;Fischer Brought in&mdash;Rotten Detective
-Work&mdash;The Arrest of Spies&mdash;His Egregious Vanity&mdash;An Anarchist “Ladies’ Man”&mdash;Wine
-Suppers with the Actresses&mdash;Nina Van Zandt’s Antecedents&mdash;Her Romantic
-Connection with the Case&mdash;Fashionable Toilets&mdash;Did Spies Really Love Her?&mdash;His
-Curious Conduct&mdash;The Proxy Marriage&mdash;The End of the Romance&mdash;The Other Conspirators&mdash;Mrs.
-Parsons’ Origin&mdash;The Bomb-Thrower in Custody&mdash;The Assassin
-Kicked Out of the Chief’s Office&mdash;Schnaubelt and the Detectives&mdash;Suspicious Conduct
-at Headquarters&mdash;Schnaubelt Ordered to Keep Away From the City Hall&mdash;An
-Amazing Incident&mdash;A Friendly Tip to a Murderer&mdash;My Impressions of the Schnaubelt
-Episode&mdash;Balthasar Rau and Mr. Furthmann&mdash;Phantom Shackles in a Pullman&mdash;Experiments
-with Dynamite&mdash;An Explosive Dangerous to Friend and Foe&mdash;Testing
-the Bombs&mdash;Fielden and the Chief,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_156">156</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XI.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">My Connection with the Anarchist Cases&mdash;A Scene at the Central Office&mdash;Mr.
-Hanssen’s Discovery&mdash;Politics and Detective Work&mdash;Jealousy Against Inspector
-Bonfield&mdash;Dynamiters on Exhibition&mdash;Courtesies to the Prize-fighters&mdash;A Friendly
-Tip&mdash;My First Light on the Case&mdash;A Promise of Confidence&mdash;One Night’s Work&mdash;The
-Chief Agrees to my Taking up the Case&mdash;Laying Our Plans&mdash;“We Have
-Found the Bomb Factory!”&mdash;Is it a Trap?&mdash;A Patrol-wagon Full of Dynamite&mdash;No
-Help Hoped for from Headquarters&mdash;Conference with State’s Attorney Grinnell&mdash;Furthmann’s
-Work&mdash;Opening up the Plot&mdash;Trouble with the Newspaper Men&mdash;Unexpected
-Advantage of Hostile Criticism&mdash;Information from Unexpected Quarters&mdash;Queer
-Episodes of the Hunt&mdash;Clues Good, Bad and Indifferent&mdash;A Mysterious Lady
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span>with a Veil&mdash;A Conference in my Back Yard&mdash;The Anarchists Alarmed&mdash;A Breezy
-Conference with Ebersold&mdash;Threatening Letters&mdash;Menaces Sent to the Wives of the
-Men Working on the Case&mdash;How the Ladies Behaved&mdash;The Judge and Mrs. Gary&mdash;Detectives
-on Each Other’s Trail&mdash;The Humors of the Case&mdash;Amusing Incidents,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_183">183</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XII.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">Tracking the Conspirators&mdash;Female Anarchists&mdash;A Bevy of Beauties&mdash;Petticoated
-Ugliness&mdash;The Breathless Messenger&mdash;A Detective’s Danger&mdash;Turning
-the Tables&mdash;“That Man is a Detective!”&mdash;A Close Call&mdash;Gaining Revolutionists’
-Confidence&mdash;Vouched for by the Conspirators&mdash;Speech-making Extraordinary&mdash;The
-Hiding-place in the Anarchists’ Hall&mdash;Betrayed by a Woman&mdash;The Assassination of
-Detective Brown at Cedar Lake&mdash;Saloon-keepers and the Revolution&mdash;“Anarchists for
-Revenue Only”&mdash;Another Murder Plot&mdash;The Peep-hole Found&mdash;Hunting for Detectives&mdash;Some
-Amusing Ruses of the Revolutionists&mdash;A Collector of “Red” Literature
-and his Dangerous Bonfire&mdash;Ebersold’s Vacation&mdash;Threatening the Jury&mdash;Measures
-Taken for their Protection&mdash;Grinnell’s Danger&mdash;A “Bad Man” in Court&mdash;The Find
-at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> Office&mdash;Schnaubelt’s Impudent Letter&mdash;Captured Correspondence&mdash;The
-Anarchists’ Complete Letter-writer,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_206">206</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XIII.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">The Difficulties of Detection&mdash;Moving on the Enemy&mdash;A Hebrew Anarchist&mdash;Oppenheimer’s
-Story&mdash;Dancing over Dynamite&mdash;Twenty-Five Dollars’ Worth
-of Practical Socialism&mdash;A Woman’s Work&mdash;How Mrs. Seliger Saved the North Side&mdash;A
-Well-merited Tribute&mdash;Seliger Saved by his Wife&mdash;The Shadow of the Hangman’s
-Rope&mdash;A Hunt for a Witness&mdash;Shadowing a Hack&mdash;The Commune Celebration&mdash;Fixing
-Lingg’s Guilt&mdash;Preparing the Infernal Machines&mdash;A Boy Conspirator&mdash;Lingg’s
-Youthful Friend&mdash;Anarchy in the Blood&mdash;How John Thielen was Taken into Camp&mdash;His
-Curious Confession&mdash;Other Arrests,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_230">230</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XIV.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">Completing the Case&mdash;Looking for Lingg&mdash;The Bomb-maker’s Birth&mdash;Was
-he of Royal Blood?&mdash;A Romantic Family History&mdash;Lingg and his Mother&mdash;Captured
-Correspondence&mdash;A Desperate and Dangerous Character&mdash;Lingg Disappears&mdash;A
-Faint Trail Found&mdash;Looking for Express Wagon 1999&mdash;The Number that Cost
-the Fugitive his Life&mdash;A Desperado at Bay&mdash;Schuettler’s Death Grapple&mdash;Lingg in
-the Shackles&mdash;His Statement at the Station&mdash;The Transfer to the Jail&mdash;Lingg’s Love
-for Children&mdash;The Identity of his Sweetheart&mdash;An Interview with Hubner&mdash;His
-Confession&mdash;The Meeting at Neff’s Place,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_256">256</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XV.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">Engel in the Toils&mdash;His Character and Rough Eloquence&mdash;Facing his
-Accusers&mdash;Waller’s Confession&mdash;The Work of the Lehr und Wehr Verein&mdash;A
-Dangerous Organization&mdash;The Romance of Conspiracy&mdash;Organization of the Armed
-Sections&mdash;Plans and Purposes&mdash;Rifles Bought in St. Louis&mdash;The Picnics at Sheffield&mdash;A
-Dynamite Drill&mdash;The Attack on McCormick’s&mdash;A Frightened Anarchist&mdash;Lehman
-in the Calaboose&mdash;Information from many Quarters&mdash;The Cost of Revolvers&mdash;Lorenz
-Hermann’s Story&mdash;Some Expert Lying,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_283">283</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XVI.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">Pushing the Anarchists&mdash;A Scene on a Street-car&mdash;How Hermann
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span>Muntzenberg Gave Himself Away&mdash;The Secret Signal&mdash;“D&mdash;&mdash;n the Informers”&mdash;A
-Satchelful of Bombs&mdash;More about Engel’s Murderous Plan&mdash;Drilling the Lehr und
-Wehr Verein&mdash;Breitenfeld’s Cowardice&mdash;An Anarchist Judas&mdash;The Hagemans&mdash;Dynamite
-in Gas-pipe&mdash;An Admirer of Lingg&mdash;A Scheme to Remove the Author&mdash;The
-Hospitalities of the Police Station&mdash;Mrs. Jebolinski’s Indignation&mdash;A Bogus Milkman&mdash;An
-Unwilling Visitor&mdash;Mistaken for a Detective&mdash;An Eccentric Prisoner&mdash;Division
-of Labor at the Dynamite Factory&mdash;Clermont’s Dilemma&mdash;The Arrangements for the
-Haymarket,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_312">312</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XVII.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">Fluttering the Anarchist Dove-cote&mdash;Confessions by Piecemeal&mdash;Statements
-from the Small Fry&mdash;One of Schnaubelt’s Friends&mdash;“Some One Wants to
-Hang Me”&mdash;Neebe’s Bloodthirsty Threats&mdash;Burrowing in the Dark&mdash;The Starved-out
-Cut-throat&mdash;Torturing a Woman&mdash;Hopes of <i>Habeas Corpus</i>&mdash;“Little” Krueger’s
-Work&mdash;Planning a Rescue&mdash;The Signal “? ? ?” and its Meaning&mdash;A Red-haired
-Man’s Story&mdash;Firing the Socialist Heart&mdash;Meetings with Locked Doors&mdash;An Ambush
-for the Police&mdash;The Red Flag Episode&mdash;Beer and Philosophy&mdash;Baum’s Wife and
-Baby&mdash;A Wife-beating Revolutionist&mdash;Brother Eppinger’s Duties,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_334">334</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XVIII.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">The Plot against the Police&mdash;Anarchist Banners and Emblems&mdash;Stealing
-a Captured Flag&mdash;A Mystery at a Station-house&mdash;Finding the Fire Cans&mdash;Their
-Construction and Use&mdash;Imitating the Parisian Petroleuses&mdash;Glass Bombs&mdash;Putting
-the Women Forward&mdash;Cans and Bombs Still Hidden Among the Bohemians&mdash;Testing
-the Infernal Machines&mdash;The Effects of Anarchy&mdash;The Moral to be Drawn&mdash;Looking
-for Labor Sympathy&mdash;A Crazy Scheme&mdash;Gatling Gun <i>vs.</i> Dynamite&mdash;The
-Threatened Attack on the Station-houses&mdash;Watching the Third Window&mdash;Selecting a
-Weapon&mdash;Planning Murder&mdash;The Test of Would-be Assassins&mdash;The Meeting at Lincoln
-Park&mdash;Peril of the Hinman Street Station-house&mdash;A Fortunate Escape,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_364">364</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XIX.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">The Legal Battle&mdash;The Beginning of Proceedings in Court&mdash;Work in
-the Grand Jury Room&mdash;The Circulation of Anarchistic Literature&mdash;A Witness who was
-not Positive&mdash;Side Lights on the Testimony&mdash;The Indictments Returned&mdash;Selecting
-a Jury&mdash;Sketches of the Jurymen&mdash;Ready for the Struggle,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_376">376</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XX.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">Judge Grinnell’s Opening&mdash;Statement of the Case&mdash;The Light of the 4th
-of May&mdash;The Dynamite Argument&mdash;Spies’ Fatal Prophecy&mdash;The Eight-hour Strike&mdash;The
-Growth of the Conspiracy&mdash;Spies’ Cowardice at McCormick’s&mdash;The “Revenge”
-Circular&mdash;Work of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> and the <i>Alarm</i>&mdash;The Secret Signal&mdash;A Frightful
-Plan&mdash;“Ruhe”&mdash;Lingg, the Bomb-maker&mdash;The Haymarket Conspiracy&mdash;The
-Meeting&mdash;“We are Peaceable”&mdash;After the Murder&mdash;The Complete Case Presented,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_390">390</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XXI.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">The Great Trial Opens&mdash;Bonfield’s History of the Massacre&mdash;How the
-Bomb Exploded&mdash;Dynamite in the Air&mdash;A Thrilling Story&mdash;Gottfried Waller’s Testimony&mdash;An
-Anarchist’s “Squeal”&mdash;The Murder Conspiracy Made Manifest by Many
-Witnesses,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_404">404</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XXII.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii"><span class="reduct">[xii]</span></a></span></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">“We are Peaceable”&mdash;Capt. Ward’s Memories of the Massacre&mdash;A Nest
-of Anarchists&mdash;Scenes in the Court&mdash;Seliger’s Revelations&mdash;Lingg, the Bomb-maker&mdash;How
-he cast his Shells&mdash;A Dynamite Romance&mdash;Inside History of the Conspiracy&mdash;The
-Shadow of the Gallows&mdash;Mrs. Seliger and the Anarchists&mdash;Tightening the
-Coils&mdash;An Explosive Arsenal&mdash;The Schnaubelt Blunder&mdash;Harry Wilkinson and Spies&mdash;A
-Threat in Toothpicks&mdash;The Bomb Factory&mdash;The Board of Trade Demonstration,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_419">419</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XXIII.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">A Pinkerton Operative’s Adventures&mdash;How the Leading Anarchists
-Vouched for a Detective&mdash;An Interesting Scene&mdash;An Enemy in the Camp&mdash;Getting
-into the Armed Group&mdash;No. 16’s Experience&mdash;Paul Hull and the Dynamite Bomb&mdash;A
-Safe Corner Where the Bullets were Thick&mdash;A Revolver Tattoo&mdash;“Shoot the
-Devils”&mdash;A Reformed Internationalist,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_445">445</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XXIV.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">Reporting under Difficulties&mdash;Shorthand in an Overcoat Pocket&mdash;An
-Incriminating Conversation&mdash;Spies and Schwab in Danger&mdash;Gilmer’s Story&mdash;The Man
-in the Alley&mdash;Schnaubelt the Bomb-thrower&mdash;Fixing the Guilt&mdash;Spies Lit the Fuse&mdash;A
-Searching Cross-Examination&mdash;The Anarchists Alarmed&mdash;Engel and the Shell
-Machine&mdash;The Find at Lingg’s House&mdash;The Author on the Witness-stand&mdash;Talks
-with the Prisoners&mdash;Dynamite Experiments&mdash;The False Bottom of Lingg’s Trunk&mdash;The
-Material in the Shells&mdash;Expert Testimony&mdash;Incendiary Banners&mdash;The Prosecution
-Rests&mdash;A Fruitless Attempt to have Neebe Discharged,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_457">457</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XXV.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">The Programme of the Defense&mdash;Mayor Harrison’s Memories&mdash;Simonson’s
-Story&mdash;A Graphic Account&mdash;A Bird’s-eye View of Dynamite&mdash;Ferguson and the
-Bomb&mdash;“As Big as a Base Ball”&mdash;The Defense Theory of the Riot&mdash;Claiming the
-Police were the Aggressors&mdash;Dr. Taylor and the Bullet-marks&mdash;The Attack on Gilmer’s
-Veracity&mdash;Varying Testimony&mdash;The Witnesses who Appeared,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_478">478</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XXVI.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">Malkoff’s Testimony&mdash;A Nihilist’s Correspondence&mdash;More about the
-Wagon&mdash;Spies’ Brother&mdash;A Witness who Contradicts Himself&mdash;Printing the Revenge
-Circular&mdash;Lizzie Holmes’ Inflammatory Essay&mdash;“Have You a Match About You?”&mdash;The
-Prisoner Fielden Takes the Stand&mdash;An Anarchist’s Autobiography&mdash;The Red Flag
-the Symbol of Freedom&mdash;The “Peaceable” Meeting&mdash;Fielden’s Opinion of the <i>Alarm</i>&mdash;“Throttling
-the Law”&mdash;Expecting Arrest&mdash;More about Gilmer,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_491">491</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XXVII.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">The Close of the Defense&mdash;Working on the Jury&mdash;The Man who Threw
-the Bomb&mdash;Conflicting Testimony&mdash;Michael Schwab on the Stand&mdash;An Agitator’s
-Adventures&mdash;Spies in his Own Defense&mdash;The Fight at McCormick’s&mdash;The Desplaines
-Street Wagon&mdash;Bombs and Beer&mdash;The Wilkinson Interview&mdash;The Weapon of the
-Future&mdash;Spies the Reporter’s Friend&mdash;Bad Treatment by Ebersold&mdash;The Hocking
-Valley Letter&mdash;Albert R. Parsons in his Own Behalf&mdash;His Memories of the Haymarket&mdash;The
-Evidence in Rebuttal,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_506">506</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XXVIII.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii"><span class="reduct">[xiii]</span></a></span></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">Opening of the Argument&mdash;Mr. Walker’s Speech&mdash;The Law of the Case&mdash;Was
-there a Conspiracy?&mdash;The Caliber of the Bullets&mdash;Tightening the Chain&mdash;A
-Propaganda on the Witness-stand&mdash;The Eight-hour Movement&mdash;“One Single Bomb”&mdash;The
-Cry of the Revolutionist&mdash;Avoiding the Mouse-trap&mdash;Parsons and the Murder&mdash;Studying
-“Revolutionary War”&mdash;Lingg and his Bomb Factory&mdash;The Alibi
-Idea,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_525">525</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XXIX.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">The Argument for the Defendants&mdash;“Newspaper Evidence”&mdash;Bringing
-about the Social Revolution&mdash;Arson and Murder&mdash;The Right to Property&mdash;Evolution
-or Revolution&mdash;Dynamite as an Argument&mdash;The Arsenal at 107 Fifth Avenue&mdash;Was it all
-Braggadocio?&mdash;An Open Conspiracy&mdash;Secrets that were not Secrets&mdash;The Case
-Against the State’s Attorney&mdash;A Good Word for Lingg&mdash;More About “Ruhe”&mdash;The
-“Alleged” Conspiracy&mdash;Ingham’s Answer&mdash;The <i>Freiheit</i> Articles&mdash;Lord Coleridge on
-Anarchy&mdash;Did Fielden Shoot at the Police?&mdash;The Bombs in the Seliger Family&mdash;Circumstantial
-Evidence in Metal&mdash;Chemical Analysis of the Czar Bomb&mdash;The Crane’s
-Alley Enigma,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_535">535</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XXX.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">Foster and Black before the Jury&mdash;Making Anarchist History&mdash;The Eight
-Leaders&mdash;A Skillful Defense&mdash;Alibis All Around&mdash;The Whereabouts of the Conspirators&mdash;The
-“Peaceable Dispersion”&mdash;A Miscarriage of Revolutionary War&mdash;Average
-Anarchist Credibility&mdash;“A Man will Lie to Save his Life”&mdash;The Attack on Seliger&mdash;The
-Candy-man and the Bomb-thrower&mdash;Conflicting Testimony&mdash;A Philippic against
-Gilmer&mdash;The Liars of History&mdash;The Search for a Witness&mdash;The Man with the Missing
-Link&mdash;The Last Word for the Prisoners&mdash;Captain Black’s Theory&mdash;High Explosives
-and Civilization&mdash;The West Lake Street Meeting&mdash;Defensive Armament&mdash;Engel
-and his Beer&mdash;Hiding the Bombs&mdash;The Right of Revolution&mdash;Bonfield and Harrison&mdash;The
-Socialist of Judea,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_545">545</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XXXI.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">Grinnell’s Closing Argument&mdash;One Step from Republicanism to Anarchy&mdash;A
-Fair Trial&mdash;The Law in the Case&mdash;The Detective Work&mdash;Gilmer and his Evidence&mdash;“We
-Knew all the Facts”&mdash;Treason and Murder&mdash;Arming the Anarchists&mdash;The
-Toy Shop Purchases&mdash;The Pinkerton Reports&mdash;“A Lot of Snakes”&mdash;The Meaning
-of the Black Flag&mdash;Symbols of the Social Revolution&mdash;The <i>Daily News</i> Interviews&mdash;Spies
-the “Second Washington”&mdash;The Rights of “Scabs”&mdash;The Chase Into
-the River&mdash;Inflaming the Workingmen&mdash;The “Revenge” Lie&mdash;The Meeting at the
-<i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> Office&mdash;A Curious Fact about the Speakers at the Haymarket&mdash;The
-Invitation to Spies&mdash;Balthasar Rau and the Prisoners&mdash;Harrison at the Haymarket&mdash;The
-Significance of Fielden’s Wound&mdash;Witnesses’ Inconsistencies&mdash;The Omnipresent
-Parsons&mdash;The Meaning of the Manuscript Find&mdash;Standing between the Living and
-the Dead,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_560">560</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XXXII.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">The Instructions to the Jury&mdash;What Murder is&mdash;Free Speech and its
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</a></span>Abuse&mdash;The Theory of Conspiracy&mdash;Value of Circumstantial Evidence&mdash;Meaning of
-a “Reasonable Doubt”&mdash;What a Jury May Decide&mdash;Waiting for the Verdict&mdash;“Guilty
-of Murder”&mdash;The Death Penalty Adjudged&mdash;Neebe’s Good Luck&mdash;Motion for a New
-Trial&mdash;Affidavits about the Jury&mdash;The Motion Overruled,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_578">578</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XXXIII.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">The Last Scene in Court&mdash;Reasons Against the Death Sentence&mdash;Spies’
-Speech&mdash;A Heinous Conspiracy to Commit Murder&mdash;Death for the Truth&mdash;The Anarchists’
-Final Defense&mdash;Dying for Labor&mdash;The Conflict of the Classes&mdash;Not Guilty, but
-Scapegoats&mdash;Michael Schwab’s Appeal&mdash;The Curse of Labor-saving Machinery&mdash;Neebe
-Finds Out what Law Is&mdash;“I am Sorry I am not to be Hung”&mdash;Adolph Fischer’s
-Last Words&mdash;Louis Lingg in his own Behalf&mdash;“Convicted, not of Murder, but of Anarchy”&mdash;An
-Attack on the Police&mdash;“I Despise your Order, your Laws, your Force-propped
-Authority. Hang me for it!”&mdash;George Engel’s Unconcern&mdash;The Development
-of Anarchy&mdash;“I Hate and Combat, not the Individual Capitalist, but the System”&mdash;Samuel
-Fielden and the Haymarket&mdash;An Illegal Arrest&mdash;The Defense of Albert R.
-Parsons&mdash;The History of his Life&mdash;A Long and Thrilling Speech&mdash;The Sentence of
-Death&mdash;“Remove the Prisoners,”</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_587">587</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XXXIV.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">In the Supreme Court&mdash;A <i>Supersedeas</i> Secured&mdash;Justice Magruder Delivers
-the Opinion&mdash;A Comprehensive Statement of the Case&mdash;How Degan was Murdered&mdash;Who
-Killed Him?&mdash;The Law of Accessory&mdash;The Meaning of the Statute&mdash;Were
-the Defendants Accessories?&mdash;The Questions at Issue&mdash;The Characteristics of
-the Bomb&mdash;Fastening the Guilt on Lingg&mdash;The Purposes of the Conspiracy&mdash;How
-they were Proved&mdash;A Damning Array of Evidence&mdash;Examining the Instructions&mdash;No
-Error Found in the Trial Court’s Work&mdash;The Objection to the Jury&mdash;The Juror
-Sandford&mdash;Judge Gary Sustained&mdash;Mr. Justice Mulkey’s Remarks&mdash;The Law Vindicated,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_608">608</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XXXV.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">The Last Legal Struggle&mdash;The Need of Money&mdash;Expensive Counsel
-Secured&mdash;Work of the “Defense Committee”&mdash;Pardon, the Only Hope&mdash;Pleas for
-Mercy to Gov. Oglesby&mdash;Curious Changes of Sentiment&mdash;Spies’ Remarkable Offer&mdash;Lingg’s
-Horrible Death&mdash;Bombs in the Starch-box&mdash;An Accidental Discovery&mdash;My
-own Theory&mdash;Description of the “Suicide Bombs”&mdash;Meaning of the Short Fuse&mdash;“Count
-Four and Throw”&mdash;Details of Lingg’s Self-murder&mdash;A Human Wreck&mdash;The
-Bloody Record in the Cell&mdash;The Governor’s Decision&mdash;Fielden and Schwab Taken to
-the Penitentiary,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_620">620</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XXXVI.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">The Last Hours of the Doomed Men&mdash;Planning a Rescue&mdash;The Feeling
-in Chicago&mdash;Police Precautions&mdash;Looking for a Leak&mdash;Vitriol for a Detective&mdash;Guarding
-the Jail&mdash;The Dread of Dynamite&mdash;How the Anarchists Passed their Last
-Night&mdash;The Final Partings&mdash;Parsons Sings “Annie Laurie”&mdash;Putting up the Gallows&mdash;Scenes
-Outside the Prison&mdash;A Cordon of Officers&mdash;Mrs. Parsons Makes a Scene&mdash;The
-Death Warrants&mdash;Courage of the Condemned&mdash;Shackled and Shrouded for the
-Grave&mdash;The March to the Scaffold&mdash;Under the Dangling Ropes&mdash;The Last Words&mdash;“Hoch
-die Anarchie!”&mdash;“My Silence will be More Terrible than Speech”&mdash;“Let the
-Voice of the People be Heard”&mdash;The Chute to Death&mdash;Preparations for the Funeral&mdash;Scenes
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[xv]</a></span>at the Homes of the Dead Anarchists&mdash;The Passage to Waldheim&mdash;Howell
-Trogden Carries the American Flag&mdash;Captain Black’s Eulogy&mdash;The Burial&mdash;Speeches
-by Grottkau and Currlin&mdash;Was Engel Sincere?&mdash;His Advice to his Daughter&mdash;A Curious
-Episode&mdash;Adolph Fischer and his Death-watch,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_639">639</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XXXVII.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">Anarchy Now&mdash;The Fund for the Condemned Men’s Families&mdash;$10,000
-Subscribed&mdash;The Disposition of the Money&mdash;The Festival of Sorrow&mdash;Parsons’ Posthumous
-Letter&mdash;The Haymarket Monument&mdash;Present Strength of the Discontented&mdash;7,300
-Revolutionists in Chicago&mdash;A Nucleus of Desperate Men&mdash;The New Organization&mdash;Building
-Societies and Sunday-schools&mdash;What the Children are Taught&mdash;Education
-and Blasphemy&mdash;The Secret Propaganda&mdash;Bodendick and his Adventures&mdash;“The
-Rebel Vagabond”&mdash;The Plot to Murder Grinnell, Gary and Bonfield&mdash;Arrest of the
-Conspirators Hronek, Capek, Sevic and Chleboun&mdash;Chleboun’s Story&mdash;Hronek Sent
-to the Penitentiary,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_657">657</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="tch">CHAPTER XXXVIII.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2">The Movement in Europe&mdash;Present Plans of the Reds&mdash;Stringent Measures
-Adopted by Various European Governments&mdash;Bebel and Liebknecht&mdash;A London
-Celebration&mdash;Whitechapel Outcasts&mdash;“Blood, Blood, Blood!”&mdash;Verestchagin’s Views&mdash;The
-Bulwarks of Society&mdash;The Condition of Anarchy in New York, Philadelphia,
-Pittsburg, Cincinnati, St. Louis and other American Cities&mdash;A New Era of Revolutionary
-Activity&mdash;A Fight to the Death&mdash;Are we Prepared?</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_682">682</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td>&nbsp;</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti2"><span class="smcap">Appendices,</span></td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#Page_691">691</a></td>
- </tr>
-
-</table>
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-016.jpg" width="400" height="259" id="i16"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">THE FRENCH REVOLUTION&mdash;“THE FEAST OF REASON.”</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="pc4 elarge">ANARCHY AND ANARCHISTS.</p>
-
-<p class="pc2">*<br />*<span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;</span>*</p>
-
-<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">The Beginning of Anarchy&mdash;The German School of Discontent&mdash;The
-Socialist Future&mdash;The Asylum in London&mdash;Birth of a Word&mdash;Work of the French
-Revolution&mdash;The Conspiracy of Babeuf&mdash;Etienne Cabet’s Experiment&mdash;The Colony
-in the United States&mdash;Settled at Nauvoo&mdash;Fourier and his System&mdash;The Familistère
-at Guise&mdash;Louis Blanc and the National Work-shops&mdash;Proudhon, the Founder of
-French Anarchy&mdash;German Socialism: Its Rise and Development&mdash;Rodbertus and his
-Followers&mdash;“Capital,” by Karl Marx&mdash;The “Bible of the Socialists”&mdash;The Red
-Internationale&mdash;Bakounine and his Expulsion from the Society&mdash;The New Conspiracy&mdash;Ferdinand
-Lassalle and the Social Democrats&mdash;The Birth of a Great Movement&mdash;Growth
-of Discontent&mdash;Leaders after Lassalle&mdash;The Central Idea of the Revolt&mdash;American
-Methods and the Police Position.</p>
-
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">THE conspiracy which culminated in the blaze of dynamite and the
-groans of murdered policemen on that fatal night of May 4th, 1886,
-had its origin far away from Chicago, and under a social system very different
-from ours.</p>
-
-<p>In order that the reader may understand the tragedy, it will be necessary
-for me to go back to the commencement of the agitation, and to show how
-Anarchy in this city is the direct development of the social revolt in Europe.
-After “the red fool fury of the French” had burnt itself out, the nations of
-the Old World, exhausted by the Titanic struggle with Napoleon, lay quiet
-for nearly a quarter of a century. The doctrines which had brought on the
-Reign of Terror had not died. After a period of quiet, the evangel of the
-Social Revolution again began. There was uneasiness throughout Europe.
-In France the Bourbons were driven out, although the cause of the people
-was betrayed by Louis Napoleon. In Germany the demand for a constitution
-was pushed so strongly that even the sturdy Hohenzollerns had to
-give way before it. In Hungary there was a popular ferment. Poland was
-ready for a new rising against Russia. In Russia the movement which
-subsequently came to be known as Nihilism was born. In Italy Garibaldi
-and Mazzini were laying the foundations for the throne which the house of
-Savoy built upon the work of the secret societies.</p>
-
-<p>Nor must the reader believe that all this turmoil had not beneath it real
-grievances and honest causes. The peasantry and the laboring classes of
-Europe had been oppressed and plundered for centuries. The common
-people were just beginning to learn their power, and, while the excesses
-into which they were led were deplorable, it is not difficult to understand
-the causes which made the crisis inevitable.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>There is nothing ever lost by endeavoring to enter fairly and impartially
-into another’s position&mdash;by trying to understand the reasons which move
-men, and the creeds which sway them. Anarchy as a theory is as old as the
-school men of the middle ages. It was gravely debated in the monasteries,
-and supported by learned casuists five centuries ago. As a practice it was
-first taught in France, and later in Germany. It caught the unthinking,
-impressible throng as the proper protest against too much government and
-wrong government. It was ably argued by leaders capable of better things,&mdash;men
-who turned great talents toward the destruction of society instead of
-its upbuilding,&mdash;and the fruit of their
-teachings we have with us in Chicago
-to-day.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-018.jpg" width="400" height="459" id="i18"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">STORMING THE BASTILE.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Our Anarchy is of the German
-school, which is more nearly akin to
-Nihilism than to the doctrines taught
-in France. It is founded upon the teachings
-of Karl Marx and his disciples,
-and it aims directly at the complete
-destruction of all forms of government
-and religion. It offers no solution of
-the problems which will arise when
-society, as we understand it, shall disappear,
-but contents itself with declaring<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
-that the duty at hand is tearing down; that the work of building up
-must come later. There are several reasons why the revolutionary programme
-stops short at the work of Anarchy, chief among which is the fact
-that there are as many panaceas for the future as there are revolutionists,
-and it would be a hopeless task to think of binding them all to one platform
-of construction. The Anarchists are all agreed that the present system
-must go, and so far they can work together; after that each will take his
-own path into Utopia.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-019.jpg" width="250" height="332" id="i19"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">KARL MARX.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Their dream of the future is accordingly as many-colored as Joseph’s
-coat. Each man has his own ideal. Engels, who is Karl Marx’s successor
-in the leadership of the movement,
-believes that men will associate
-themselves into organizations like
-coöperative societies for mutual
-protection, support and improvement,
-and that these will be the
-only units in the country of a social
-nature. There will be no law, no
-church, no capital, no anything that
-we regard as necessary to the life
-of a nation.</p>
-
-<p>The theory of Anarchy will,
-however, be sufficiently developed
-in the pages that follow. It is its
-history as a school which must first
-be examined.</p>
-
-<p>England is really responsible
-for much of the present strength
-of the conspiracy against all governments,
-for it was in the secure
-asylum of London that speculative
-Anarchy was thought out by German exiles for German use, and from
-London that the “red Internationale” was and probably is directed. This
-was the result of political scheming, for the fomenting of discontent on the
-continent has always been one of the weapons in the British armory.</p>
-
-<p>In England itself the movement has only lately won any prominence,
-although it was in England that it was baptized “Socialism” by Robert
-Owen, in 1835, a name which was afterwards taken up both in France and
-Germany. The English development is hardly worth consideration in as
-brief a presentation of the subject as I shall be able to give. Before passing
-to an investigation of the growth and the history of Socialism and
-Anarchy, I wish to express here, once for all, my obligations to Prof.
-Richard T. Ely’s most excellent history of “French and German Socialism<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
-in Modern Times.” This monograph, like everything else which has come
-from the pen of this gifted young economist, contains so clear a statement
-and so complete a marshaling of the facts that it is not necessary
-to go beyond it for the story of continental discontent.</p>
-
-<p>The French Revolution drew a broad red line across the world’s history.
-It is the most momentous fact in the annals of modern times. There is
-no need for us to go behind it, or to examine its causes. We can take it
-as a fact&mdash;as the great revolt of the common people&mdash;and push on to the
-things that followed it.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-020.jpg" width="250" height="259" id="i20"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">MICHAEL BAKOUNINE.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Babeuf&mdash;“Gracchus” Babeuf, as he called himself&mdash;after serving part
-of a term in prison for forgery,
-escaped, went to Paris
-in the heat of the Revolution,
-and started <i>The Tribune of
-the People</i>, the first Socialistic
-paper ever published.
-He was too incendiary even
-for Robespierre, and was imprisoned
-in 1795. In prison
-he formed the famous “Conspiracy
-of Babeuf,” which
-was to establish the Communistic
-republic. For this
-conspiracy he and Darthé
-were beheaded May 24, 1797.</p>
-
-<p>Etienne Cabet was a Socialist
-before the term was
-invented, but he was a peaceful
-and honest one. He published,
-in 1842, his “Travels
-in Icaria,” describing an ideal state. Like most political reformers, he chose
-the United States as the best place to try his experiment upon. It is a curious
-fact that there is not a nation in Europe, however much of a failure it
-may have made of all those things that go to make up rational liberty, which
-does not feel itself competent to tell us just what we ought to do, instead
-of what we are doing. Cabet secured a grant of land on the Red River in
-Texas just after the Mexican War, and a colony of Icarians came out.
-They took the yellow fever and were dispersed before Cabet came with the
-second part of the colony. About this time the Mormons left Nauvoo in
-Illinois, and the Icarians came to take their places. The colony has since
-established itself at Grinnell, Iowa, and a branch is at San Bernardino,
-California. The Nauvoo settlement has, I believe, been abandoned.</p>
-
-<p>Babeuf and Cabet prepared the way for Saint Simon. He was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
-count, and a lineal descendant of Charlemagne. He fought in our War of
-the Revolution under Washington, and passed its concluding years in a
-British prison. He preached nearly the modern Socialism,&mdash;the revolt of
-the proletariat against property,&mdash;and his work has indelibly impressed
-itself upon the whole movement in France.</p>
-
-<p>Charles Fourier, born in 1772, was the son of a grocer in Besançon, and
-he was a man who exercised great influence upon the movement among
-the French. He was rather a dreamer than a man of action, and, although
-attempts have been made to carry his familistère into practice, there is no
-conspicuous success to record, save, perhaps, that of the familistère at Guise,
-in France, which has been
-conducted for a long time
-on the principles laid
-down by Fourier.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-021.jpg" width="250" height="267" id="i21"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">PIERRE JOSEPH PROUDHON.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>All these men had before
-them concrete
-schemes for a new society
-in which the evils of the
-present system would be
-avoided by what they considered
-a more equable
-division of wealth, and
-each made the effort to
-carry his scheme from
-theory into practice, so
-that the world might see
-the success and imitate
-it. Following them came
-the men who held that,
-before the new society
-can be formed, the old
-society must be got rid of&mdash;the men who see but one way towards Socialism,
-and that through Anarchy.</p>
-
-<p>Louis Blanc was the first of these, although he would not have described
-himself as an Anarchist, nor would it be fair to call him one. He represented
-the transition stage. He attempted political reforms of a most
-sweeping character during the revolution of 1848. The government of
-the day established “national work-shops” as a concession to him. Of
-these more is said hereafter.</p>
-
-<p>Pierre Joseph Proudhon, born in Besançon July 15, 1809, is really the
-father of French Anarchy. His great work, “What Is Property?” was
-published in 1840, and he declared that property was theft and property-holders
-thieves. It is to this epoch-making work that the whole school<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
-of modern Anarchy, in any of its departments, may be traced. Proudhon
-was fired by an actual hatred of the rich. He describes a proprietor as
-“essentially a libidinous animal, without virtue and without shame.” The
-importance of his work is shown by the effect it has had even upon orthodox
-political economy, while on the other side it has been the inspiration of
-Karl Marx. Proudhon died in Passy in 1865.</p>
-
-<p>Since his time until within the last year or two, French Socialism has
-been but a reflex of the German school. It has produced no first-rates,
-and has been content to take its doctrine from Lassalle. Karl Marx and
-Engels, the leaders of the German movement, and Bakounine and Prince
-Krapotkin, the Russian terrorists, have impressed their ideas deeply upon
-the French discontented ones. The revolt of the Commune of Paris after
-the Franco-German war was not exactly an Anarchist uprising, although the
-Anarchists impressed their ideas upon much of the work done. The Commune
-of Paris means very much the same as “the people of Illinois.” It
-is the legal designation of the commonwealth, and does not imply Communism
-any more than the word commonwealth does. It was a fight for
-the autonomy of Paris, and one in which many people were engaged who
-had no sympathy with Anarchy, although certainly the lawless element
-finally obtained complete control of the situation. The rising in Lyons
-several years later was distinctly and wholly anarchic, and it was for this
-that Prince Krapotkin and others were sent to prison.</p>
-
-<p>At the present day there is no practical distinction between Socialism
-and Anarchy in France. All Socialists are Anarchists as a first step,
-although all Anarchists are not precisely Socialists. They look to the
-Russian Nihilists and the German irreconcilables as their leaders.</p>
-
-<p>German Socialism is really the doctrine which is now taught all over
-the world, and it was this teaching that led directly to the Haymarket
-massacre in Chicago. It began with Karl Rodbertus, who lived from 1805
-to 1875. He first became prominent in Germany in 1848, and he was for
-some time Minister of Education and Public Worship in Prussia. He was
-a theorist rather than a practical reformer, but competent critics assign to
-him the very highest rank as a political economist. His first work was
-“Our Economic Condition,” which was published in 1843, and his other
-books, which he published up to within a short time of his death, were
-simply elucidations of the principles he had first laid down. His writings
-have had a greater effect on modern Socialism than those of any other
-thinker, not even excepting Karl Marx or Lassalle. His theories were
-brought to a practical issue by Marx, who united into a compact whole
-the teachings of Proudhon and of Rodbertus, his own genius giving a new
-luster and a new value to the result. Marx is far and away the greatest
-man that the Socialism of the nineteenth century has produced. He was a
-deep student, a man of most formidable mental power, eloquent, persuasive,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
-and honest. His great book, “Capital,” has been called the Socialist’s
-Bible. Ely places it in the very first rank, saying of it that it is “among the
-ablest political economic treatises ever written.” And while the best
-scientific thought of the age agrees that Marx was mistaken in his premises
-and his fundamental propositions, there is accorded to him upon
-every hand the tribute which profound learning pays to hard work and deep
-thinking.</p>
-
-<p>Coming from theory to practice brings us naturally from Marx to the
-International Society. It was founded in London in 1864 and was meant
-to include the whole of the labor class of Christendom. Marx was the
-chief, but he held the sovereignty uneasily. The Anarchists constantly
-antagonized him. Bakounine, the apostle of dynamite, opposed Marx at
-every point, and finally Marx had him expelled from the society. Bakounine
-thereupon formed a new Internationale, based upon anarchic principles
-and the gospel of force. The Internationale of which Marx was the founder
-has shrunk to a mere name, although the organization is still kept up, and
-the body with which the civilized world has now to reckon is that which
-Bakounine formed after his expulsion from the old body in 1872. It is a
-curious fact that many of the Socialists in Chicago to-day are enthusiastic
-admirers of Marx and at the same time members of the society and followers
-of the man Marx declared to be the most dangerous enemy of the
-modern workingman.</p>
-
-<p>Marx is dead, however; many things are said in his name of which he
-himself would never have approved, and the “Red Internationale” proclaims
-the man a saint who refused either to indorse its principles or to
-consult with its leaders. It is the same as though, twenty years hence,
-the men who last year followed Barry out of the Knights of Labor were
-to hold up Powderly to the world as their law-giver and their chief.</p>
-
-<p>Louise Michel, who was a very active worker in the radical cause during
-the outbreak of the Paris Commune, was born in 1830, and first attracted
-attention by verses full of force which she published very early in life. She
-was sentenced in 1871 to deportation for life, and was transported with
-others to New Caledonia. At the time of the general amnesty, in 1880, she
-returned to Paris, and became editor of <i>La Révolution Sociale</i>.</p>
-
-<p>Ferdinand Lassalle, like Marx of Hebrew blood, and of early aristocratic
-prejudices, was the father of German Anarchy as it exists to-day.
-He was a deep student, and a remarkably able man. He took his inspiration
-from Rodbertus and from Marx, but applied himself more to work
-among the poor. Marx was over the heads of the common people. His
-“Capital” is very hard reading. Lassalle popularized its teachings. On
-May 23, 1863, a few men met at Leipsic under the leadership of Lassalle
-and formed the “Universal German Laborers’ Union.” This was the
-foundation of Social Democracy, and its teachings were wholly anarchic.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
-It aimed at the subversion of the whole German social system, by peaceful
-political means at first, but soon by force.</p>
-
-<p>Lassalle was shortly afterwards killed in a duel over a love-affair, but
-he was canonized by the German Social Democrats as though his death
-were a martyrdom. Even Bismarck in the Reichstag paid a tribute to his
-memory. Lassalle died just about the time that a change was occurring in
-his convictions, and had he lived longer, and if contemporary history is to
-be believed, he would have taken office under the German Government and
-applied himself heartily to the building up of the Empire.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-024.jpg" width="250" height="297" id="i24"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">LOUISE MICHEL.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>After Lassalle’s death the movement which he had initiated went forward
-with increased force. The German laborer was finally, as the Internationalists
-put it, aroused. The German
-Empire, following the example of
-the Bund, decreed universal suffrage
-in 1871. Before this, in
-Prussia especially, the laborer had
-but the smallest political influence.
-The vote of a man in the
-wealthiest class in Berlin counted
-for as much as the vote of fifteen
-of the “proletariat,” so called.
-Lassalle died in 1864, and suffrage
-was first granted in 1867.
-The Social Democrats at first
-were in close accord with Bismarck.
-It was the Social Democratic
-vote which elected Bismarck
-to the Reichstag in the
-first election after the suffrage
-was granted. In the fall of 1867
-they sent eight members to the
-parliament of the Bund. In the
-elections after the formation of
-the Empire the Socialistic vote stood: In 1871, 123,975; in 1874, 351,952;
-in 1877, 493,288; in 1878, 437,158. The Social Democrats poll nearly 10
-per cent of the whole vote of Germany at the present time.</p>
-
-<p>In 1878 occurred the two attempts on the life of the Emperor of Germany
-described in a succeeding chapter, and the result was severe repressive
-measures against the Social Democrats. Their vote fell off, and their
-influence declined, but in the past two years, 1887 and 1888, they have more
-than recovered their past strength, and they now poll more votes and
-seem to exercise a greater political control in Germany than ever before.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-025.jpg" width="250" height="394" id="i25"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">FERDINAND LASSALLE.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The passage of the “Ausnahmsgesetz,” the exceptional law against<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
-German Socialists, drove many of them to this country, but had no effect
-in diminishing the propaganda in Germany. The result was an exodus
-of Socialists, or rather Anarchists, to America&mdash;by this time the two terms,
-wide apart as they may seem, had become one&mdash;and to Chicago came
-most of the irreconcilable
-ones. The American
-sympathizers, thus
-formed, at first fixed
-their attention upon the
-political situation in the
-old country, and they
-applied themselves
-closely to work in connection
-with the agitators
-who had not expatriated
-themselves.
-Money was sent in large
-quantities to the old
-country.</p>
-
-<p>In Germany, in the
-meantime, the movement
-varied and shifted
-with each wind of doctrine;
-one president after
-another was tried and
-found wanting, until at
-last Jean von Schweitzer
-was chosen, and he
-guided the party until it
-was finally swallowed up
-in the organization perfected
-by Liebknecht and
-Bebel. Liebknecht was
-really but an interpreter
-of Marx, but he was honest, enthusiastic and devoted, and no man in
-the whole line of German political energy has left his name more
-thoroughly impressed upon the time. Out of these conditions and
-born of these ideas came the Anarchy which hurled the bomb whose
-crash at the Haymarket Square first aroused us to the work which is being
-done in our midst.</p>
-
-<p>The Anarchists of Chicago are exotics. Discontent here is a German
-plant transferred from Berlin and Leipsic and thriving to flourish in the
-west. In our garden it is a weed to be plucked out by the roots and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
-destroyed, for our conditions neither warrant its growth nor excuse its
-existence.</p>
-
-<p>The central idea of all Socialistic and Anarchic systems is the interference
-with the right of property by society. If we can convince ourselves that
-society has the right and the duty thus to interfere, then there is to be said
-nothing more. As long as the American citizen can buy his own land and
-raise his own crops, as long as average industry and economy will lead a
-man to competence, Socialism can only be like typhus fever&mdash;a growth of
-the city slums. There is no real danger in it. There is no peril which
-those charged with the protection of law and order are not ready to
-face, for every officer of the law that unreasonable discontent may
-menace is backed by the whole power of the republic; and the republic
-is founded upon principles which this alien revolt can neither harm nor
-affright.</p>
-
-<p>There is a fact which, before I leave this chapter, I wish to bring home
-to the mind of every reader, and that is this:</p>
-
-<p>The police of Chicago, like the police of every city in the Union, are
-actuated by no feeling of hostility to these people. We understand the
-genesis of their movement; we can put ourselves in their places and feel
-the things which actuate them; we are prepared to make as many excuses
-for them as they can make for themselves; we are ready to grant everything
-that they could claim, and more; but we see beyond this, and above
-this, facts which they forget and forego.</p>
-
-<p>We have a government in these United States so firm and so elastic
-that it has every bulwark against either foreign or domestic attack, and yet
-it provides every opportunity to adjust itself to the will of the people.</p>
-
-<p>The majority must rule, and does rule; but under our Constitution it
-rules only along lines decreed by the fathers long ago for the protection of
-the minority. There is a legal and constitutional means provided for every
-man to carry his theories of good government into actual practice. Every
-citizen has the right to vote, and to have his vote counted, and this right
-belongs to Anarchist and conservative, to radical and reactionist. There
-is no man can stand before the American people and say we have refused
-him his right: if it were done, the whole power of the Government would
-be marshaled to do him justice. When, then, we have provided every
-man with a means to impress his convictions upon the government of the
-country&mdash;when we have done everything that human ingenuity can do to
-secure a full and free expression of the popular will, as the final and
-supreme test upon every public question, we may be excused for refusing
-to let the Anarchists have their way. They are a minority of a minority,
-yet they would impose their system and their doctrine upon the majority.
-They would substitute for the ballot-box the dynamite bomb&mdash;for the will
-of the people the will of a contemptible rabble of discontents, un-American<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
-in birth, training, education and idea, few in numbers and ridiculous in
-power.</p>
-
-<p>Thus, while the police entertain no animosity against these men, we
-feel&mdash;I feel and every officer under my command feels&mdash;that we are bound
-by our oaths and by our loyalty to the State and to society to meet force
-with force, and cunning with cunning. We are the conservators of the law
-and the preservers of the peace, and the law will be vindicated and the
-peace preserved in spite of any and all attacks.</p>
-
-<p>If our system is wrong, which I do not believe; if the principle that the
-majority of the citizens is to be ruled by an alien minority is to be accepted,
-which I do not accept, still there is the orderly and well-protected
-means provided by law, and guaranteed by the Government, to transform
-that idea into a governing fact. There is the ballot, free to every citizen,
-safe, satisfying, final. The men who try other methods are rushing to their
-own destruction. We pity them, we sympathize with them; but our duty
-is clear and manifest. We have a government worth fighting for, and even
-worth dying for, and the police feel that truth as keenly as any class in the
-community.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER II.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">Dynamite in Politics-Historical Assassinations&mdash;Infernal Machines in
-France&mdash;The Inventor of Dynamite&mdash;M. Nobel and his Ideas&mdash;The Nitro-Compounds&mdash;How
-Dynamite is Made&mdash;The New French Explosive&mdash;“Black Jelly” and the Nihilists&mdash;What
-the Nihilists Believe and What they Want&mdash;The Conditions in Russia&mdash;The
-White and the Red Terrors&mdash;Vera Sassoulitch&mdash;Tourgeneff and the Russian Girl&mdash;The
-Assassination of the Czar&mdash;“It is too Soon to Thank God”&mdash;The Dying Emperor&mdash;Two
-Bombs Thrown&mdash;Running Down The Conspirators&mdash;Sophia Perowskaja, the
-Nihilist Leader&mdash;The Handkerchief Signal&mdash;The Murder Roll&mdash;Tried and Convicted&mdash;A
-Brutal Execution&mdash;Five Nihilists Pay the Penalty&mdash;Last Words Spoken but Unheard&mdash;A
-Deafening Tattoo&mdash;The Book-bomb and the Present Czar&mdash;Strychnine-coated
-Bullets&mdash;St. Peter and Paul’s Fortress&mdash;Dynamite Outrages in England&mdash;The
-Record of Crime&mdash;Twenty-nine Convicts and their Offenses&mdash;Ingenious Bomb-making&mdash;The
-Failures of Dynamite.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">THE attempt to gain political ends by an appeal to infernal machines
-is not a new one. It is as old as gunpowder&mdash;and the evangel of
-assassination is older still. Murder was the recognized political weapon
-of the Eastern and Western Empires, and the Chicago Anarchists have
-proved themselves neither better nor worse than the “old man of the
-mountain” or the Italian princes of the middle ages. During the reign of
-Mary Queen of Scots the mysterious explosion occurred in the Kirk of Feld
-in which Darnley lost his life. Somewhat later was the “gunpowder plot,”
-in which Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators tried to blow up the Houses
-of Parliament. The petard and the hand-grenade were the grandfather and
-the grandmother of the modern bomb, and murderous invention came to its
-new phase in the infernal machine which Ceruchi, the Italian sculptor, contrived
-to kill Napoleon when First Consul&mdash;a catastrophe which was avoided
-by the fact that Napoleon’s coachman was drunk and took the wrong turn in
-going to the opera-house.</p>
-
-<p>France was fertile in this sort of machinery. Some years later Fieschi,
-Morey and Pepin tried to kill Louis Philippe with a similar apparatus on the
-Boulevard de Temple. The King escaped, but the brave Marshal Mortier was
-slain. Orsini and Pieri made a bomb, round and bristling with nippers,
-each of which was charged with fulminate of mercury, to explode the powder
-within, meaning to assassinate the Emperor Napoleon and the Empress
-Eugenie.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1866, according to the most trustworthy authorities, dynamite
-was first made by Alfred Nobel. In speaking of the invention, Adolf Houssaye,
-the French litterateur, recently said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">It should be remembered that nine-tenths, probably, of the dynamite made is used in
-peaceful pursuits; in mining, and similar works. Indeed, since its invention great engineering
-achievements have been accomplished which would have been entirely impossible without
-it. I do not see, then, much room for doubt that it has on the whole been a great blessing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
-to humanity. Such certainly its inventor regards it. “If I did not look upon it as such,” I
-heard him say recently, “I should close up all my manufactories and not make another ounce
-of the stuff.” He is a strong advocate of peace, and regards with the utmost horror the use
-of dynamite by assassins and political conspirators. When the news of the Haymarket tragedy
-in Chicago reached him, M. Nobel was in Paris, and I well remember his expressions of
-horror and detestation at the cowardly crime.</p>
-
-<p>“Look you,” he exclaimed. “I am a man of peace. But when I see these miscreants
-misusing my invention, do you know how it makes me feel? It makes me feel like gathering
-the whole crowd of them into a storehouse full of dynamite and blowing them all up together!”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Few people know what dynamite is, though it has attracted a good deal
-of attention of late, and before considering its use as a mode for political
-murder it may be well here to give an account of its making.</p>
-
-<p>Nitro-glycerine, although not the strongest explosive known to science,
-is the only one of any industrial importance, as the others are too dangerous
-for manufacture. It was discovered by Salvero, an Italian chemist, in 1845.
-It is composed of glycerine and nitric acid compounded together in a certain
-proportion, and at a certain temperature. It is very unsafe to handle, and
-to this reason is to be ascribed the invention of dynamite, which is, after all,
-merely a sort of earth and nitro-glycerine, the use of the earth being to hold
-the explosive safely as a piece of blotting-paper would hold water until it
-was needed. Nobel first tried kieselguhr, or flint froth, which was ground
-to a powder, heated thoroughly and dried, and the nitro-glycerine was
-kneaded into it like so much dough. Of course, many other substances are
-now used, besides infusorial earth, as vehicles for the explosive&mdash;saw-dust,
-rotten-stone, charcoal, plaster of Paris, black powder, etc., etc. These
-are all forms of dynamite or giant powder, and mean the same thing.
-When the substance is thoroughly kneaded, work that must be done with
-the hands, it is molded into sticks somewhat like big candles, and wrapped
-in parchment paper. Nitro-glycerine has a sweet, aromatic, pungent taste,
-and the peculiar property of causing a violent headache when placed
-on the tongue or the wrist. It freezes at 40° Fahrenheit, and must
-be melted by the application of water at a temperature of 100°. In
-dynamite the usual proportions are 25 per cent. of earth and 75 per cent. of
-nitro-glycerine. The explosive is fired by fulminate of silver or mercury
-in copper caps.</p>
-
-<p>Outside of the French arsenals it is to be doubted if anybody knows
-anything more about the new explosive, melinite, further than that it is one of
-the compounds of picric acid&mdash;and picric acid is a more frightful explosive
-than nitro-glycerine. I find in my scrap-book the following excerpt from the
-London <i>Standard</i>, describing the artillery experiments at Lydd with the new
-explosive which the British Admiralty has lately been examining. The
-<i>Standard</i>, after declaring that the experiments are “entirely satisfactory,”
-says:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">The character of the compound employed is said to be “akin to melinite,” but its precise
-nature is not divulged. We have reason to believe that the “kinship” is very close. The
-details of the experiments which have lately been conducted at Lydd are known to very few
-individuals. But it is unquestionable that the results were such as demonstrate the enormous
-advantage to be gained by using a more powerful class of explosives than that which
-has been hitherto employed. There could be no mistake as to the destructive energy of the
-projectiles. Neither was there any mishap in the use of these terrible appliances. The like
-immunity was enjoyed at Portsmouth. A deterrent to the adoption of violent explosives for
-war purposes has consisted in the risk of premature explosion. But there is still the consideration
-that the advantage to be gained far exceeds the risk which has to be incurred.
-France has not neglected this question, and she is ahead of us. Her chosen explosive is
-melinite, and with this she has armed herself to an extent of which the British public has no
-conception. All the requisite materials, in the shape of steel projectiles and the melinite for
-filling them, have been provided for the French service and distributed so as to furnish a
-complete supply for the army and the navy. Whatever may be said as to the danger which
-besets the use of melinite, the French authorities are confident that they have mastered the
-problem of making this powerful compound subservient to the purposes of war. Concerning
-the composition of this explosive great secrecy is observed by the French Government, as
-also with regard to the experiments that are made with it. But Col. Majendie states that
-melinite is largely composed of picric acid in a fused or consolidated condition. Of the violence
-with which picric acid will explode, an example was given on the occasion of a fire at some
-chemical works near Manchester a year ago. The shock was felt over a distance of two
-miles from the seat of the explosion, and the sound was heard for a distance of twenty miles.</p>
-
-<p>The conduct of the French in committing themselves so absolutely to the use of melinite
-as a <i>material</i> of war clearly signifies that with them the use of such a substance has passed
-out of the region of doubt and experiment. Their experimental investigations extended over
-a considerable period of time, but at last the stage of inquiry gave place to one of confidence
-and assurance. So great is the confidence of the French Government in the new shell that
-it is said the French forts are henceforth to be protected by a composite material better
-adapted than iron or steel to resist the force of a projectile charged with a high explosive. In
-naval warfare the value of shells charged in this manner is likely to be more especially
-shown in connection with the rapid-fire guns which are now coming into use. The question
-is whether the ponderous <i>staccato</i> fire of monster ordnance may not be largely superseded
-by another mode of attack, in which a storm of shells, charged with something far more
-potent than gunpowder, will be poured forth in a constant stream from numerous guns of
-comparatively small weight and caliber.</p>
-
-<p>Combined with rapidity of fire, these shells cannot but prove formidable to an armor-clad,
-independently of any damage inflicted on the plates. The great thickness now given
-to ship armor is accomplished by a mode of concentration which, while affecting to shield
-the vital parts, leaves a large portion of the ship entirely unprotected. On the unarmored
-portion a tremendous effect will be produced by the quick-firing guns dashing their powerful
-shells in a fiery deluge on the ship.</p>
-
-<p>Altogether the new force which is now entering into the composition of artillery is one
-which demands the attention of the British Government in the form of prompt and vigorous
-action. While we are experimenting, others are arming.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Dynamite, however, is the weapon with which the “revolution” has
-armed itself for its assault upon society. A terrible arm truly, but one
-difficult to handle, dangerous to hold, and certainly no stronger in their
-hands than in ours, if it should ever become necessary to use it in defense
-of law and order.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>A number of Russian chemists, members of the Nihilist party, were the
-first to apply dynamite to the work of murder. It is to their researches that
-is to be credited the invention of the “black jelly,” so called, of which so
-much was expected, and by which so little was done.</p>
-
-<p>Nihilist activity in Russia commenced almost as soon as the emancipated
-peasantry began to be in condition for the evangel of discontent. It was
-Tourgeneff, the novelist, who baptized the movement with its name of
-Nihilism&mdash;and the truth is that it is a movement rather than an organization.
-It is a loose, uncentralized, uncodified society, secret by necessity and murderous
-by belief; but it is a secret society without grips or passwords, without
-a purpose save indiscriminate destruction, and its very formlessness and
-vagueness have been its chief protection from the Russian police, who are,
-perhaps, after all is said and done, the best police in the world. A statement
-of Nihilism by that very famous Nihilist who is known as Stepniak,
-but who is suspected to be entitled to a much more illustrious name, runs
-thus:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">By our general conviction we are Socialists and democrats. We are convinced that on
-Socialistic grounds humanity can become the embodiment of freedom, equality and fraternity,
-while it secures for itself a general prosperity, a harmonious development of man and
-his social progress. We are convinced, moreover, that only the will of the people should
-give sanction to any social institution, and that the development of the nation is sound only
-when free and independent and when every idea in practical use shall have previously passed
-the test of national consideration and of the national will. We further think that as Socialists
-and democrats we must first recognize an immediate purpose to liberate the nation from
-its present state of oppression by creating a political revolution. We would thus transfer the
-supreme power into the hands of the people. We think that the will of the nation should
-be expressed with perfect clearness, and best, by a National Assembly freely elected by the
-votes of all the citizens, the representatives to be carefully instructed by their constituents.
-We do not consider this as the ideal form of expressing the people’s will, but as the most
-acceptable form to be realized in practice. Submitting ourselves to the will of the nation,
-we, as a party, feel bound to appear before our own country with our own programme or
-platform, which we shall propagate even before the revolution, recommend to the electors
-during electoral periods, and afterwards defend in the National Assembly.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">The Nihilist programme in Russia has been officially formulated thus:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1"><i>First</i>&mdash;The permanent Representative Assembly to have supreme control and direction in
-all general state questions.</p>
-
-<p><i>Second</i>&mdash;In the provinces, self-government to a large extent; to secure it, all public functionaries
-to be elected.</p>
-
-<p><i>Third</i>&mdash;To secure the independence of the Village Commune (“Mir”) as an economical
-and administrative unit.</p>
-
-<p><i>Fourth</i>&mdash;All the land to be proclaimed national property.</p>
-
-<p><i>Fifth</i>&mdash;A series of measures preparatory to a final transfer of ownership in manufactures
-to the workmen.</p>
-
-<p><i>Sixth</i>&mdash;Perfect liberty of conscience, of the press, speech, meetings, associations and
-electoral agitation.</p>
-
-<p><i>Seventh</i>&mdash;The right to vote to be extended to all citizens of legal age, without class or
-property restrictions.</p>
-
-<p><i>Eighth</i>&mdash;Abolition of the standing army; the army to be replaced by a territorial militia.</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="p1">It must be remembered that the conditions in Russia are peculiar. The
-country is ruled by an autocracy; government is not by the people, but by
-“divine right.” The conditions which the English-speaking people ended
-at Runnymede still exist in Muscovy. There is neither free speech, free
-assembly, nor a free press, and naturally discontent vents itself in revolt.
-There is no safety-valve. Russia is full of generous, high-minded young
-men and women, who find their church dead, and their state a cruel despotism.
-They find themselves face to face with the White Terror, and they
-have sought in the Red Terror a relief. Flying at last from the hopeless
-contest, they have carried the hate of government born of bad ruling into
-Western Europe, and it is the infection of this poison that we have to deal
-with here. The average Russian Nihilist is a young man or a young woman&mdash;very
-often the latter&mdash;who, by the contemplation of real wrongs and fallacious
-remedies, has come to be the implacable enemy of all order and all
-system. Usually they are half-educated, with just that superficial smattering
-of knowledge to make them conceited in their own opinions, but without
-enough real learning to make them either impartial critics or safe citizens of
-non-Russian countries. We can pity them, for it is easy to see how step by
-step they have been pushed into revolt. But they are dangerous.</p>
-
-<p>When one reads such a case as that which gave Vera Sassoulitch her
-notoriety, it is easier to understand Russia. General Trepoff, the Chief of
-Police of St. Petersburg, had arrested Vera’s lover on suspicion of high
-treason. The young man was by Trepoff’s order frequently flogged to make
-him confess his crime. Sassoulitch called on Trepoff and shot him. She
-was tried by a St. Petersburg jury and acquitted. Immediately a law was
-declared that no case of political crime should be tried by a jury, except
-when the Government had selected it. The arrest of the woman was ordered
-that she might be tried again under the new regulation, but in the meantime
-her friends had spirited her away.</p>
-
-<p>A very similar crime was that attempted by another Nihilist heroine,
-Maria Kaliouchnaia, who attempted to kill Col. Katauski for his severity to
-her brother. In the assassination of the Czar, as I shall relate, a number of
-women were concerned, and their bravery was greatly more desperate than
-that of their male companions. The Russian woman is peculiar. I know
-no better picture of the “devoted ones” than that given in Tourgeneff’s
-“Verses in Prose”:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">I see a huge building with a narrow door in its front wall; the door is open, and a dismal
-darkness stretches beyond. Before the high threshold stands a girl&mdash;a Russian girl. Frost
-breathes out of the impenetrable darkness, and with the icy draught from the depths of the
-building there comes forth a slow and hollow voice:</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, thou who art wanting to cross this threshold, dost thou know what awaits thee?”</p>
-
-<p>“I know it,” answers the girl.</p>
-
-<p>“Cold, hunger, hatred, derision, contempt, insults, a fearful death even.”</p>
-
-<p>“I know it.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Complete isolation and separation from all?”</p>
-
-<p>“I know it. I am ready. I will bear all sorrows and miseries.”</p>
-
-<p>“Not only if inflicted by enemies, but when done by kindred and friends?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, even when done by them.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, are you ready for self-sacrifice?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes!”</p>
-
-<p>“For anonymous self-sacrifice? You shall die, and nobody shall know even whose
-memory is to be honored?”</p>
-
-<p>“I want neither gratitude nor pity. I want no name.”</p>
-
-<p>“Are you ready for a crime?”</p>
-
-<p>The girl bent her head. “I am ready&mdash;even for a crime.”</p>
-
-<p>The voice paused awhile before renewing its interrogatories. Then again: “Dost thou
-know,” it said at last, “that thou mayest lose thy faith in what thou now believest; that thou
-mayest feel that thou hast been mistaken and hast lost thy young life in vain?”</p>
-
-<p>“I know that also, and nevertheless I will enter!”</p>
-
-<p>“Enter, then!”</p>
-
-<p>The girl crossed the threshold, and a heavy curtain fell behind her.</p>
-
-<p>“A fool!” gnashed some one outside.</p>
-
-<p>“A saint!” answered a voice from somewhere.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">With such material it was not difficult to build up the tragedy of 1881.
-Before the day of
-the Czar’s death
-came, there had
-been desperate
-attempts upon
-his life. Prince Krapotkin,
-a relative of
-the Nihilist of the
-same name, was
-murdered in February,
-1879, and
-following this deed
-the terrorists applied
-themselves
-resolutely to the
-removal of the Emperor.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-033.jpg" width="300" height="226" id="i33"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">EXCAVATED DYNAMITE MINE IN MOSCOW.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>For instance, in November, 1879, was the mine laid at Moscow. It was
-intended to blow up the railway train upon which the Czar was to enter the
-city, and for this purpose Solovieff and his comrades laid three dynamite
-mines under the tracks. Hartmann, who subsequently figured in the
-assassination, was one of the leaders, and here, too, was Sophie Peroosky,
-another of the regicides. They hired a house near the railway tracks and
-tunneled under the road amidst incredible difficulties and always in the
-most imminent danger. One hundred and twenty pounds of dynamite
-was in position, but the Czar passed by in a common train before the imperial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
-one on which he was expected, and his life was saved. On February
-5, 1880, the mine under the Winter Palace was exploded; eleven persons
-were killed, but again the Czar escaped.</p>
-
-<p>For some time before March 13, 1881, Gen. Count Loris Melikoff, the
-officer responsible for the safety of Czar Alexander II., had received disquieting
-reports which gave him the greatest anxiety. On the 10th of the
-month Jelaboff, the ringleader of the conspiracy, was arrested by accident,
-and the direction of the attempt on the Czar’s life was accordingly left to
-Sophie Perowskaja, a young, pretty and highly educated noblewoman, who
-had left everything to join the Nihilists. It is said that on the morning of
-the 13th Melikoff begged the Czar to forego his purpose of reviewing the
-Marine Corps, and keep within the palace. The Emperor laughed at him,
-and declared there was no danger. There was no incident until after the
-review. As the Emperor drove back beside the Ekaterinofsky Canal, just opposite
-the imperial stables, a young woman on the other side of the canal
-fluttered a handkerchief, and immediately a man started out from the crowd
-that was watching the passing of the Czar, and threw a bomb under the
-closed carriage. There was a roaring explosion, a cloud of smoke. The
-rear of the vehicle was blown away, and the horror-stricken multitude saw
-the Czar standing unhurt, staring about him. On the ground were several
-members of the Life Guard, groaning and writhing in pain. The assassin had
-pulled out a revolver to complete his work, but he was at once mobbed by
-the people. Col. Dvorjitsky and Captains Kock and Kulebiekan, of the
-guards, rushed up to their master and asked him if he was hurt.</p>
-
-<p>“Thank God! no,” said the Czar. “Come, let us look after the
-wounded.”</p>
-
-<p>And he started toward one of the Cossacks.</p>
-
-<p>“It is too soon to thank God yet, Alexander Nicolaivitch,” said a clear,
-threatening voice in the crowd, and before any one could stop him, a young
-man bounded forward, lifted up both arms above his head, and brought
-them down with a swing. There was a crash of dynamite, a blaze, a smoke,
-and the autocrat of all the Russias was lying on the bloody snow, with his
-murderer also dying in front of him. Col. Dvorjitsky lifted up the Czar,
-who whispered:</p>
-
-<p>“I am cold, my friend, so cold,&mdash;take me to the Winter Palace to
-die.”</p>
-
-<p>The desperate Nihilist had thrown his bomb right between the Czar’s
-feet, and had sacrificed his own life to kill the Emperor.</p>
-
-<p>Alexander was shockingly mutilated. Both of his legs were broken, and
-the lower part of his body was frightfully torn and mangled. The assassin&mdash;his
-name was Nicholas Elnikoff, of Wilna&mdash;was even more badly hurt.
-He died at once.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-035.jpg" width="400" height="258" id="i35"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">“IT IS TOO SOON TO THANK GOD!”<br /><span class="smcap wn">The Assassination of Czar Alexander II.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The Czar was taken into an open sled, and although it was claimed he
-received the last sacrament at the Winter Palace, most of those who know
-believe that he died on the way there.</p>
-
-<p>In the meantime the police, with the utmost difficulty, rescued the first
-bomb-thrower from the maddened mob. The man, whose name proved to
-be Risakoff, coolly thanked the officers for preserving him, and then tried
-to swallow some poison
-which he had ready. In
-this he was foiled, and he
-was taken to prison.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-036a.jpg" width="250" height="146" id="i36a"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc250">THE CZAR’S CARRIAGE AFTER THE EXPLOSION.<br />
-<span class="wn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The infernal machine
-used by Elnikoff was about
-7½ inches in height, and
-its construction is exemplified
-in the annexed diagram.
-Metal tubes (<i>b b</i>)
-filled with chlorate of
-potash, and enclosing glass
-tubes (<i>c c</i>) filled with sulphuric acid (commonly called oil of vitriol),
-intersect the cylinder. Around the glass tubes are rings of iron (<i>d d</i>) closely
-attached as weights. The construction is such that, no matter how the
-bomb falls, one of the glass tubes is sure to break. The chlorate of
-potash in that case, combining with the sulphuric acid, ignites at once,
-and the flames communicate over the fuse (<i>f f</i>) with the piston (<i>e</i>), filled
-with fulminate of silver. The concussion thus
-caused explodes the dynamite or “black jelly”
-(<i>a</i>) with which the cylinder is closely packed.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-036b.jpg" width="200" height="229" id="i36b"
- alt=""
- title="" />
-</div>
-
-<p>I said above that Jelaboff, the real leader
-of the conspiracy, had been arrested on the
-10th. He was merely a suspect, and it was
-some time before the police realized what an
-important arrest had been made. Only two
-hours before the murder of the Emperor, Jelaboff’s
-house was searched, and there was found a
-great quantity of black dynamite, India rubber
-tubes, fuses and other articles. Jelaboff had
-been living here with a woman who was called Lidia Voinoff. This Lidia
-Voinoff was arrested on the Newsky Prospect, on March 22nd, and almost
-immediately identified as Sophia Perowskaja, the young woman who had
-given the handkerchief signal to the bomb-throwers, and who was wanted
-besides for the Moscow railway mine case. On the prisoner were found
-papers which led to the search of a house on Telejewskaia Street, where a
-man named Sablin committed suicide immediately on the appearance of
-the police, and a woman named Hessy Helfmann was arrested. A regular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>
-Nihilist arsenal of black jelly, fuses, maps of different districts of St.
-Petersburg, with the Czar’s usual routes marked upon them, copies of
-papers from the secret press, etc., were found. While the police were still
-engaged in the search of the premises Timothy Mikhaeloff came in by
-accident. He was taken, and on him was found a copy of the new Czar’s
-proclamation, and penciled on the back were the names of three shops with
-three different hours in the afternoon. The officers descended on these
-places and gathered in customers, shop-keepers and everybody else about
-the place,&mdash;a process which brought in Kibaltchik, the Nihilist chemist and
-bomb-maker.</p>
-
-<p>The evidence was soon got in shape, and early in April the trial began.
-It was shown that Jelaboff was agent in the third degree of the Revolutionary
-Executive Committee; that he had issued the call for volunteers for the
-killing of the Czar, and that forty-seven persons had offered themselves, out
-of whom Risakoff, Mikhaeloff, Hessy Helfmann, Kibaltchik, Sophia Perowskaja
-and Elnikoff had been accepted. Elnikoff was dead, but the others,
-with Jelaboff, were put in the dock. They all confessed except Hessy
-Helfmann, and upon April 11th all were condemned to death, with the
-proviso needed under the Russian law that the sentence of Sophia Perowskaja
-should be approved by the Czar, as she was a member of the class of
-nobles, and a noble may not be put to death without the Emperor’s concurrence.
-The Czar concurred, and on April 15th, at 9 a. m., all the prisoners
-save Hessy Helfmann were hung. This woman was reprieved because she
-was about to become a mother. The execution was a most brutal one. It
-took place on a plain two miles out of the city, in the presence of a hundred
-thousand people. The prisoners were taken out of the fortress on two-wheeled
-carts, surrounded by drummers and pipers, who played continuously and
-loudly, so that nothing the condemned might say could be heard by the
-crowd. At the scaffold the drummers were stationed in a hollow square
-around the gallows, and a deafening tattoo was kept up from the time the prisoners
-were brought in until their bodies were cut down. The hanging was
-very cruel. Each person was mounted on a small box, after kissing each
-other passionately all round. They said something, but it could not be
-heard for the drumming. The executioner was said to be evidently drunk.
-There was no drop. When the signal was given the condemned were
-pushed off their boxes and left to strangle. Mikhaeloff’s rope broke twice,
-and the attendants held him up while the executioner tied a new cord around
-his neck and over the beam. The bodies were buried privately.</p>
-
-<p>The present Czar has had several narrow escapes, none of them more
-nearly fatal than the conspiracy of the book-bomb in March last. On the
-13th of March, 1888, the anniversary of his father’s terrible death, the Czar
-made the usual visit to the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, where the body
-of Alexander II. is buried. For some time before the ceremony St. Petersburg<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
-was full of rumors that a catastrophe was impending, and, although
-the police took the most careful precautions, the Czar himself paid no attention
-to the warnings of the “Third Section,” and would permit no alteration
-in the preparations for the requiem.</p>
-
-<p>In Christmas week of 1887, the Russian agents at Geneva, in Switzerland,
-reported the presence in that city of two revolutionary agents who
-seemed to have the closest relations with the committee of the discontents
-in London and Paris. They were shadowed for a time, but lost. In February
-they reappeared in Berlin. They were known to be in communication
-with the St. Petersburg Nihilists. Before facts enough had accumulated to
-justify their arrest they disappeared once more and were believed to have
-gone to the Russian capital. The facts were reported to the Czar, but he
-laughed at Chief Gresser of the capital police.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-038.jpg" width="400" height="262" id="i38"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">THE NIHILISTS IN THE DOCK.<br />
-<span class="wn">1. Risakoff. 2. Mikhaeloff. 3. Hessy Helfmann. 4. Kibaltchik. 5. Sophia Peroffskaja. 6. Jelaboff.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>In solemnizing the requiem of the late Czar a public progress was made
-to the Cathedral, amid a dense throng of citizens, among whom were all the
-detectives that Chief Gresser could get together. In a small café in one of
-the side streets of the Morokaya two of the detectives ran across a couple
-of uniformed university students&mdash;in Russia the students have a peculiar
-costume&mdash;who were acting suspiciously. They were conversing in a most
-excited manner with a man dressed as a peasant. The trio were watched.
-At the café door they separated, but all three made by different routes for
-the Newsky Prospect, the chief drive of the capital and the one along
-which the Czar was to return. The peasant was lost by the detectives, but
-the other two were kept in sight, and the suspicions of the police were made
-all the more keen by the fact that the young men passed each other in the
-crowd several times with an elaborate appearance of not knowing each
-other. One of them had a law-book in his hand; the other had a traveling-bag
-over his shoulder.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-039.jpg" width="400" height="255" id="i39"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">EXECUTION OF THE NIHILIST CONSPIRATORS.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>A few moments before the Czar was to pass on his return from the Cathedral
-the students came together and whispered, and the two were immediately
-and quietly arrested. Their names were given as Andreieffsky and
-Petroff, university students, and this was proven to be the truth.</p>
-
-<p>A thrilling discovery was made, however, at once. The innocent-looking
-law-book was really a most dangerous infernal machine&mdash;sufficiently powerful
-not alone to kill everybody in the Czar’s carriage, but many in the crowd,
-and perhaps to have
-blown down some of
-the neighboring
-houses. The traveling-sack
-was full of
-dynamite bombs of
-the ordinary spherical
-pattern.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-040.jpg" width="300" height="166" id="i40"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc"><span class="vh">&mdash;</span>Fig. 1. Interior.<span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</span>Fig. 2. Exterior.<br />
-<span class="wnn">A. Glass Tube. B. Fulminate. C. Bullets. D. Dynamite.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>I reproduce here a
-diagram of the book-bomb
-from the excellent
-account of the
-attempted assassination
-given by the New York <i>World</i> a few days after it occurred.</p>
-
-<p>The outside was made of wood and pasteboard, so artistically that only
-the closest inspection would discover the fact that the machine was not
-really a book. In the center of the interior, in the place marked <i>C</i>, were
-a number of hollow bullets filled with strychnine, which poison was also
-plastered upon the outside of the missiles. Above this were small compartments
-filled with fulminate, with a glass tube of sulphuric acid. To the
-tube was tied a string, which would break it when thrown, spilling it into
-the fulminate and thus exploding the dynamite with which the whole of the
-hollow parts of the interior was densely packed. Fully a hundred people
-must have been killed had the bomb been exploded as intended. The
-expert who examined the bomb, after handling the bullets carelessly put his
-finger in his mouth, and was seriously, though not fatally, poisoned.</p>
-
-<p>Hardly had the arrest been made when the Czar was notified at the
-Cathedral. He ordered that the news should be withheld from the Empress,
-although he was himself visibly affected. He sprang into his sleigh with
-the Czarowitz, and drove by an unused route to the railway station. The
-Czarina followed shortly after in a carriage, greatly agitated by a presentiment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
-of evil. Not until the train had started was she informed of the occurrence.
-She burst into tears, and was inconsolable for the rest of the journey.
-Once safe in his Gatschina Palace, the Czar is said to have given vent to his
-feelings in the strongest language, heaping anathemas upon the heads of the
-Nihilists, and threatening dire revenge.</p>
-
-<p>Less than two hours after the arrest of Andreieffsky and Petroff their
-companion peasant fell into the hands of the police. His name was Generaloff,
-a native of Jaroslav, South Russia. He had been actively engaged
-in the Nihilist propaganda for some time past. He also carried bombs on
-his person.</p>
-
-<p>These arrests were supplemented by numerous others. The lodgings of
-the prisoners in the suburbs of St. Petersburg known as the Peski (the Sands)
-were searched, and other explosives as well as documents incriminating
-other persons were found. As a result the procession of prisoners to the
-Peter and Paul’s Fortress for a time was almost unremitting, and no one
-felt safe against police intrusion. All three of the prisoners were subsequently
-executed.</p>
-
-<p>England shortly afterward became the mark for the next development
-of the dynamite war. It is the fact that shortly after the assassination of
-the Czar an attack on the British Government was begun.</p>
-
-<p>Prior to this there had been two outrages in 1881&mdash;one an attempt to
-blow up the barracks at Salford with dynamite, the other a gunpowder
-explosion at the Mansion House, London.</p>
-
-<p>The record of the year, as compiled by Col. Majendie, the Inspector of
-Explosives, then runs on:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1"><i>1881: 16 May.</i> Attempt to blow up the police barracks at Liverpool with gunpowder in
-iron piping. Damage to the building was inconsiderable, and no one hurt.</p>
-
-<p><i>10 June.</i> Attempt to blow up the Town Hall, Liverpool, by an infernal machine probably
-filled with dynamite. A great number of windows broken, and some iron railings
-destroyed, but no one injured. The two perpetrators captured.</p>
-
-<p><i>14 June.</i> A piece of iron piping filled with gunpowder exploded against the police station
-at Loanhead, near Edinburgh. Some windows broken, but no other damage effected.</p>
-
-<p><i>30 June.</i> An importation of six infernal machines at Liverpool from America in the
-“Malta,” concealed in barrels of cement. They contained lignin dynamite, with a clock-work
-arrangement for firing it.</p>
-
-<p><i>2 July.</i> An importation of four similar machines at Liverpool in the “Bavaria.”</p>
-
-<p><i>September.</i> An attempt to produce an explosion at the barracks, Castlebar. A canister
-containing gunpowder was thrown over the wall, close to the magazine. The lighted fuse
-which was attached fell out, and no harm was done.</p>
-
-<p><i>1882: 26 March.</i> An attempt to blow up Weston House, Galway, with dynamite in an
-iron pot enclosed in a sack. Five persons were afterwards convicted of the outrage.</p>
-
-<p><i>27 March</i>. A 6-inch shell charged with explosive thrown into a house in Letterkenny.
-The explosion caused considerable damage.</p>
-
-<p><i>2 April.</i> An attempt to destroy a police barrack in Limerick by firing some dynamite on
-the window sill.</p>
-
-<p><i>12 May.</i> A discovery of a parcel containing 12 lbs. to 20 lbs. of gunpowder, with lighted
-touch-paper or fuse attached, at the Mansion House, London.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p>
-
-<p><i>1883: 21 January.</i> An explosion of lignin dynamite at Possil Bridge, Glasgow. Two
-or three persons passing sustained slight injury.</p>
-
-<p><i>21 January.</i> An explosion of lignin dynamite at Buchanan Street Station, Glasgow, in a
-disused goods shed.</p>
-
-<p><i>15 March.</i> An explosion at the Local Government Board Office, Whitehall, causing considerable
-local damage.</p>
-
-<p><i>15 March.</i> An abortive explosion of lignin dynamite outside a window at the <i>Times</i> office.</p>
-
-<p><i>April.</i> Two infernal machines, containing 28 lbs. of lignin dynamite (probably home-made),
-discovered at Liverpool. Four persons were convicted and sentenced to penal servitude
-for life.</p>
-
-<p><i>April.</i> The discovery of a factory of nitro-glycerine at Birmingham, and of a large
-amount of nitro-glycerine brought thence to London. The occupier of the house and others
-were subsequently convicted and sentenced to penal servitude for life.</p>
-
-<p><i>30 October.</i> An explosion in the Metropolitan Railway, between Charing Cross and
-Westminster, unattended with personal or serious structural injury.</p>
-
-<p><i>30 October.</i> An explosion on the Metropolitan Railway, near Praed Street. Three carriages
-sustained serious injury, and about sixty-two persons were cut by the broken glass and
-debris, and otherwise injured.</p>
-
-<p><i>November.</i> Two infernal machines discovered in a house in Westminster, occupied by a
-German named Woolf. Two men were tried, and in the result the jury disagreed and a <i>nolle
-prosequi</i> was entered on behalf of the Crown.</p>
-
-<p><i>1884: January.</i> The discovery of some slabs of Atlas Powder A (American make), in
-Primose Hill tunnel.</p>
-
-<p><i>February.</i> An explosion in the cloak-room of the London, Brighton, and South Coast
-Railway at Victoria Station of Atlas Powder A (American make), left in a bag or portmanteau.</p>
-
-<p><i>27 February.</i> The discovery of a bag containing some Atlas Powder A, with clock-work
-and detonators, at Charing Cross Station.</p>
-
-<p><i>28 February.</i> A similar discovery at Paddington Station.</p>
-
-<p><i>1 March.</i> A similar discovery at Ludgate Hill Station.</p>
-
-<p><i>April.</i> A discovery of three metal bombs, containing dynamite (probably American
-make), at Birkenhead, in possession of a man named Daly, who was afterwards sentenced to
-penal servitude for life.</p>
-
-<p><i>30 May.</i> An explosion of dynamite at the Junior Carlton Club, St. James’ Square.
-About fourteen persons were injured.</p>
-
-<p><i>30 May.</i> An explosion of dynamite at the residence of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, St.
-James’ Square.</p>
-
-<p><i>30 May.</i> An explosion of dynamite in a urinal under a room occupied by some of the
-detective staff in Scotland Yard. It brought down a portion of the building, besides severely
-injuring a policeman and some persons who were at an adjacent public-house.</p>
-
-<p><i>30 May.</i> A discovery of Atlas Powder A, with fuse and detonators, in Trafalgar Square.</p>
-
-<p><i>28 November.</i> An attempted destruction of a house at Edenburn, near Tralee, occupied
-by Mr. Hussey. The injury, which was doubtless accomplished with dynamite, was less
-serious than was intended, and no one sustained bodily harm.</p>
-
-<p><i>12 December.</i> An explosion of a charge of dynamite or other nitro-compound under London
-Bridge, fortunately doing very little damage.</p>
-
-<p><i>1885: 2 January.</i> An explosion in the Gower Street tunnel of the Metropolitan Railway,
-caused by about two pounds of some nitro-compound fired apparently by a percussion fuse.
-Damage inconsiderable.</p>
-
-<p><i>24 January.</i> An explosion in the Tower of London, caused, beyond all reasonable
-doubt, by about five to eight pounds of Atlas Powder A (American make). Three or four
-persons were slightly injured, and considerable damage was done to the Armory.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p>
-
-<p><i>24 January.</i> An explosion of Atlas Powder A (American make), in Westminster Hall.
-Three persons were injured severely, and others slightly, and very considerable damage was
-done to the Hall and surroundings.</p>
-
-<p><i>24 January.</i> An explosion in the House of Commons (probably caused by a similar
-amount of the same explosive). No persons were injured, but very considerable damage was
-done to the Houses of Parliament.</p>
-
-<p><i>February.</i> A discovery of dynamite (of American make) in a house in Harrow Road,
-Paddington.</p>
-
-<p><i>9 March.</i> A discovery of Atlas Powder A in the roof of a saw-mill at Bootle.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">As a result of these various conspiracies and political outrages, twenty-nine
-persons were convicted.</p>
-
-<p>Some of the bombs used in the London explosions were very ingeniously
-made. Usually they had a clock-work arrangement which released a hammer
-and exploded the infernal machine at the time set. Others again had
-a time fuse depending upon the percolation of acid through parchment. In
-every case, however, the destruction wrought by the explosives was ridiculously
-disappointing to the conspirators, and in England as elsewhere the
-event proved that high explosives are a delusion and a snare from the
-revolutionist’s point of view. They are greatly more dangerous to the persons
-who employ them than to the people or the property against which
-they may be aimed.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER III.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">The Exodus to Chicago&mdash;Waiting for an Opportunity&mdash;A Political Party
-Formed&mdash;A Question of $600,000&mdash;The First Socialist Platform&mdash;Details of the Organization&mdash;Work
-at the Ballot-Box&mdash;Statistics of Socialist Progress&mdash;“The International
-Workingmen’s Party” and The “Workingmen’s Party of the United States”&mdash;The
-Eleven Commandments of Labor&mdash;How the Work was to be Done&mdash;A Curious
-Constitution&mdash;Beginnings of the Labor Press&mdash;The Union Congress&mdash;Criticising the
-Ballot-Box&mdash;The Executive Committee and its Powers&mdash;Annals of 1876&mdash;A Period of
-Preparation&mdash;The Great Railroad Strikes of 1877&mdash;The First Attack on Society&mdash;A
-Decisive Defeat&mdash;Trying Politics Again&mdash;The “Socialistic Party”&mdash;Its Leaders and
-its Aims&mdash;August Spies as an Editor&mdash;Buying the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>&mdash;How the Money
-was Raised&mdash;Anarchist Campaign Songs&mdash;The Group Organization&mdash;Plan of the Propaganda&mdash;Dynamite
-First Taught&mdash;“The Bureau of Information”&mdash;An Attack on
-Arbitration&mdash;No Compromise with Capital&mdash;Unity of the Internationalists and the
-Socialists.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap16">AFTER the enactment of the stringent Socialist law in Germany, and
-the determined opposition of Prince Bismarck to the creed of the
-Social Democrats, the exodus to America began, and Chicago, unfortunately
-for this city, was the Mecca to which the exiles came. At first but
-little attention was paid to the incoming people. It was thought that free
-air and free institutions would disarm them of their rancor against organized
-society, and but little attention was paid to the vaporings of the leaders.
-We had heard that sort of thing before,&mdash;especially in the years following
-1848,&mdash;and it had come to nothing; and people generally, when they heard
-the mouthings of the apostles of disorder, told themselves that when these
-apostles had each bought a home, there would come naturally, and out of
-the logic of facts, a change in their convictions.</p>
-
-<p>Hence, although there were some inflammatory speeches, and a pretense
-of Socialistic activity, it was not until the year 1873 that any serious attention
-was paid to the movement. Even then the interest it excited was that
-solely of a political novelty.</p>
-
-<p>The period was one of general business depression, however, and additional
-impetus was given to the feelings of discontent by the labor troubles
-in New York, Boston, St. Louis and other large cities. In New York the
-labor demonstrations were particularly violent. The special object sought
-to be accomplished there was the introduction of the eight-hour system.
-Eastern Internationalists saw in this an opportunity to strengthen their
-foothold in America, and they were not slow in fomenting discord among
-the members of the different trades-unions which had inaugurated the
-movement. They even went so far as to proclaim that, if there was any
-interference with the eight-hour strike, the streets would run red with the
-blood of capitalists. The Communists of Chicago sympathized with their
-brethren in the East, but they lacked numbers and similar conditions of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
-violent discontent to urge force and bloodshed in the attainment of the same
-object, which, however, had been for some time under discussion by the
-Trades Assembly of Chicago. They consequently contented themselves
-with wild attacks upon the prevailing system of labor and urged a severance
-from existing political parties and the formation of a party exclusively
-devoted to the amelioration of the condition of workingmen.</p>
-
-<p>Toward the end of the year 1873, the leaders seem to have concluded
-that they had a sufficient number of adherents to form a party, and a committee
-was appointed to prepare and submit a plan of organization. On
-the 1st of January following, this committee reported. They suggested
-organization into societies according to nationalities, and that all societies
-thus organized should be directed by a central committee, to be appointed
-from the several sections. At the same time it was publicly announced that
-“the new organization did not seek the overthrow of the national, State or
-city government by violence,” but would work out its mission peaceably
-through the ballot-box.</p>
-
-<p>While the formation of a party was under consideration, times were
-exceedingly dull in the city. Thousands were idle, and there was a general
-clamor among the unemployed for relief. This discontent was seized upon
-to influence the minds of the poor against capital, and the remedy was
-declared to lie only in Socialism. The Relief and Aid Society formed the first
-point of attack. The Socialist leaders loudly proclaimed that it had on
-hand over $600,000,&mdash;the charitable contributions of the world sent to Chicago
-after the fire for the benefit of the poor,&mdash;which sum was held, they
-claimed, for the enrichment of the managers of that society and the benefit
-of “rich paupers.” In the early part of December, 1873, a procession of
-the unemployed marched through the streets of the city and demanded
-assistance from the municipal authorities. They finally decided to appeal
-to the Relief Society, and, backed by hundreds in line, a committee
-attempted to wait upon the officials of that organization. They were
-excluded, however, on the ground that all deserving cases would be aided
-without the intervention of a committee.</p>
-
-<p>The condition of labor now formed the pretext for many a diatribe
-against capital in general and the alleged favoritism of the Relief and Aid
-Society in particular; and many allied themselves with the Socialistic
-organization&mdash;not comprehending its meaning, but because it happened at
-the moment to appeal to their passions.</p>
-
-<p>It was this state of affairs which spurred on the Socialist leaders to the
-formation of a party. Having accepted the general plan of organization as
-recommended by the committee, another meeting was held in January, 1874.
-A declaration of principles was then formulated. There were nine articles,
-which may be summarized as follows:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">Abolition of all class legislation and repeal of all existing laws favoring monopolies.</p>
-
-<p>All means of transportation, such as railroads, canals, telegraph, etc., to be controlled,
-managed and operated by the State.</p>
-
-<p>Abolition of the prevailing system of letting out public work by contract, the State or
-municipality to have all work of a public nature done under its own supervision and control.</p>
-
-<p>An amendment to the laws in regard to the recovery of wages, all suits brought for the
-recovery of wages to be decided within eight days.</p>
-
-<p>The payment of wages by the month to be abolished, and weekly payments substituted.</p>
-
-<p>A discontinuance of the hiring-out of prison labor to companies or individuals, prisoners
-to be employed by and for the benefit of the State only.</p>
-
-<p>Adoption by the State of compulsory education of all children between the ages of seven
-and fourteen years; the hiring-out of children under fourteen to be prohibited.</p>
-
-<p>All banking, both commercial and savings, to be done by the State.</p>
-
-<p>All kinds of salary grabs to be discontinued; all public officers to be paid a fixed salary
-instead of fees.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Specifically stated, the organization was made to consist of sections and
-divisions and a central committee. Each section was made to consist of
-twenty-five members, and was entitled to one delegate to the conventions of
-the order, with one delegate for every additional one hundred members or
-fraction thereof. The central committee was to be composed of nine members,
-to be chosen by the delegates. The duties of the committee were fixed under
-such rules as might be adopted by the organization. Their term was from
-one general convention to another. Each delegate was allowed as many
-votes as there were members of the section he represented. Delegates from
-each section were obliged to assemble every week to report all party affairs,
-and, if necessary, were expected to make similar reports to the central committee.
-Sections and divisions elected officers for six months. Two-thirds
-of the members of each section were required to be wage-workers. Each
-member had to pay only five cents initiation fee and five cents monthly dues.
-One-half of the income from fees was given to the central committee for
-printing and general expenses. All in arrears for three months, barring
-sickness or want of employment, were expelled. Each section was given
-the power to dismiss such members as acted by word, writing or deed to the
-detriment of the party and its principles. The right of appeal to the central
-committee was given to any member in case three of his section favored
-it. Monthly reports to sections and quarterly reports to the central committee
-as to the condition of the organization and the treasury were required
-of the secretary. In the event that any officer lost the confidence of his
-section, he could be expelled before the expiration of his term by a majority
-vote.</p>
-
-<p>Such were the principles and plans of the organization at the outset.
-There does not appear anywhere anything to show that the ulterior object
-of the party was to use violence to enforce its demands. On the contrary,
-at a subsequent general gathering a preamble to the platform expressly
-stated that the party was organized “to advocate and advance the political<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
-platform of the Workingmen’s Party, to acquire power in legislative bodies
-and to uphold the principles of the platform.” Subsequent mass-meetings,
-held in January, ratified the declaration of principles, and the various
-speakers urged that, inasmuch as the “other political parties were for the
-benefit of unprincipled scalawags,” their party had come into existence
-“pure and undefiled, to secure to workingmen their rights.” The prime
-movers in the party at this time were John McAuliff, L. Thorsmark,
-Carl Klings, Henry Stahl, August Arnold, J. Zimple, Leo Meilbeck,
-Prokup Hudek, O. A. Bishop, John Feltes, John Simmens, Jacob Winnen,
-J. Krueger, William Jeffers and Robert Mueller. The organization was
-styled “The Workingmen’s Party of Illinois.”</p>
-
-<p>Active agitation at once commenced in various parts of the city. Meetings
-were held wherever possible in the poorer sections of the North and
-West Divisions. In all speeches the prevalent distress was dwelt upon and
-the people were urged to combine against capital. Some of the points made
-at these gatherings may be judged from the remarks of the agitators at a
-meeting of the various sections of the party at No. 68 West Lake Street on
-the 1st of March, 1874. While the sentiments were somewhat rabid, there
-was no encouragement to deeds of violence. One of the speakers, Mr.
-Zimple, spoke of the object of the meeting as being “to devise means for
-marching on the bulwarks of aristocracy, and gain for the working classes
-that social position to which they were by right entitled.” Then followed
-an invective against capital and society. “All existing things must be torn
-down,” he continued, “and a new system of society built up.” Slaves even
-were allowed to live, but, as things were then, workingmen, who could work
-no longer, had to starve. If they stood together and elected good men to
-the Legislature next fall, this state of affairs would be changed. Legislators
-were too stupid to make a living by honest work, therefore they had to subsist
-by robbing the people. Mr. Thorsmark expressed confidence in the
-success of Socialism and said that if all workingmen would do their duty
-“the present state of society would be re-formed, not only for their benefit,
-but for the benefit of mankind.” Carl Klings could conceive of “nothing
-more inhuman, cruel and outrageous than the present state of society,” and
-it was for this reason, he said, that they had banded together to “strike a
-blow which would effect a change for all time to come.” The same tyrants,
-he argued, who had slaughtered their brethren in cold blood and oppressed
-them in France, could be found in Chicago. The workingmen of America
-had not accomplished anything as yet, because they were not yet fully prepared,
-but gradually they were becoming a great power, and soon would “no
-longer be compelled to drink the bitter poison from the cup of the aristocrats.”
-Mr. McAuliff touched on the wrongs of the existing state of society
-as he saw it and held that “they all had to unite in one common body and
-seek success at the ballot-box.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>To gain political power, the Socialists made their first attempt by placing
-a ticket in the field. A convention was held in Thieleman’s Theater, in
-the North Division of the city, on the 29th of March, 1874. Although there
-were general city officers to be elected the following month, the Socialists
-confined their efforts to making nominations only for the town offices of
-North Chicago, in which section their theories seemed, at that time, to have
-found the most fertile soil. Their ticket was made up as follows: Assessor,
-George F. Duffy; Collector, Philip Koerber; Supervisor, August Arnold;
-Town Clerk, Frederick Oest; Constable, James Jones.</p>
-
-<p>At this convention an impetus was given to the new organ of the party,
-the <i>Vorbote</i>, which had just issued its initial number, and, although this
-journal was given a considerable circulation to boom the new-fledged candidates,
-the ticket only polled 950 votes.</p>
-
-<p>But the leaders were not disheartened. They continued their political
-agitation, and at the approach of the fall campaign they decided to branch
-out more extensively, and to measure swords with the other political parties
-for all the offices in sight. On the 25th of October, 1874, a convention
-was held in Bohemian Turner Hall, on Taylor Street, near Canal, and Congressional,
-county and city tickets were put into the field. For Congress
-they selected, for the West Side, W. S. Le Grand; for the North Side,
-F. A. Hoffman, Jr. It was left an open question whom they should support
-on the South Side. Their candidates for the Legislature were: Madden,
-Rice, Hudek, Kranel, Thrane and Hymann; and for the Senate, Rowe,
-Bishop, Methua and Koellner. County Commissioners, Mueller, Bettetil,
-Bley and Maiewsky for the West Side, and German and Breitenstein for
-the North Side. Their candidate for Sheriff was E. Melchior, and for
-Coroner, Dr. Geiger. The aldermanic selections were: In the Second
-Ward, Wasika; in the Fourth, Tuer; in the Sixth, Grapsicsky; in the
-Seventh, Maj. Warnecke and E. A. Haller; in the Eighth, Leonhard; in
-the Ninth, George Heck; in the Tenth, Sticker; in the Eleventh, Urenharst;
-in the Twelfth, Zirbes; in the Fourteenth, Sirks; in the Fifteenth,
-Schwenn and Anderson; in the Sixteenth, Seilheimer; in the Seventeenth,
-H. Jensen; in the Eighteenth, Frey; and in the Twentieth, Otto F. Schalz.
-In the wards not given no nominations were made.</p>
-
-<p>The strength of the ticket may be gathered by the fact that at the election,
-on November 5th, Melchior received only 378 votes, while his
-opponent, Agnew, Democrat, scored 28,549, and Bradley, Republican,
-21,080. The Socialist candidate who polled the largest number of votes was
-Breitenstein, for County Commissioner&mdash;790.</p>
-
-<p>The leaders now became convinced that a German morning daily was
-necessary to further the interests of their party. The <i>Illinois Staats-Zeitung</i>
-and the <i>Freie Presse</i> had almost neutralized their efforts on the stump, and
-they saw that they must have an organ to meet these papers and reach the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
-masses. They had seen the effects of workingmen’s papers in Germany,
-where several representatives had been sent to the Reichstag, and as their
-party shibboleth then was “to secure power in legislative bodies” in Illinois,
-they determined to found a paper of their own. On the 13th of December,
-1874, on Market Street, they held a secret meeting. The leading
-spirits in the proceedings were Mueller, Simmens and Klings. It was proposed
-that stock to the amount of $20,000 should be issued for a daily, but as
-no one seemed to be thoroughly posted in the matter of publishing a paper,
-it was decided to select a committee. Messrs. Klings, Helmerdeg, Simmens,
-Methua, Kelting, Winner and Finkensieber were so selected, but
-whether they made any progress, or submitted a report as to their conclusions,
-is not known. It is certain that no daily appeared to supplement the
-efforts of their weekly organ at that time, and it was not until four or
-five years later that such a paper finally made its appearance.</p>
-
-<p>In the winter of 1874 and the spring of 1875 the Socialist agitators were not
-openly aggressive, but they nevertheless kept quietly at work sowing the
-seed of discontent. Finally, in October, 1875, they resumed open and
-active agitation. The only meeting they held that fall was at No. 529 Milwaukee
-Avenue, and their wrath was directed especially against the Republican
-and Democratic candidates for County Treasurer. The speakers were
-J. Webeking, John Feltis, Jacob Winnen, A. Zimmerman and John Simmens.
-The burden of their harangues was that “the workingmen should
-no longer believe the scoundrels” put up by the other parties. It was time,
-they urged, to “destroy the power of the robber band.” Workingmen must
-“organize, place laborers on the throne, and drive capitalists from power.”</p>
-
-<p>In the election, held the following month, they took no active part, and
-this fact, together with the apparently quiescent condition of the organization,
-prompted the <i>Tribune</i> to remark:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">No longer do they work openly (smarting under former failures), nor do they allow
-outsiders like Oelke, Gruenhut and others to get into their ranks. The Workingmen’s Party
-of Illinois, as the Communists of this city style themselves, no longer acts as an independent
-organization, but has placed itself under the protectorate of the society of the Internationalists,
-which has branches in every city in the world. The executive committee of this society,
-which formerly resided in Paris and Leipsic, has now its headquarters in New York, and its
-mandates are implicitly complied with by all the local organizations. The central committee
-believe that during the winter large numbers will be without employment, and hence a
-proper time will come to strike a blow. For months they have been organizing military
-companies and maturing plans to burn Chicago and other large cities in the United States
-and the Old World.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">At about this time a secret meeting was held at No. 140 West Lake
-Street. Only members of the local committee of the Internationale and the
-executive committee of the Workingmen’s Party were present. It came to
-the surface that other than political measures were discussed. The Socialist
-leaders denied all intention of abandoning politics, but they did not hesitate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
-to avow a belief that some startling blow would facilitate the success of
-their movement. What seemed to give a strong color of truth to reports
-about their incendiary intentions was the action they took with reference to
-Carl Klings. He had been one of the most active spirits in their organization.
-He was a fiery, impetuous speaker and carried the crowds with him
-in all his harangues. For some unknown reason, not explainable upon any
-other hypothesis than that some violent demonstration was contemplated
-as a change from their past policy, the party had decided to take no hand in
-the election of November, and yet, in spite of this decision, Klings had entered
-into it most bitterly and violently to accomplish the defeat of a candidate
-against whom he cherished the greatest enmity. It would seem that this,
-viewed from a Socialistic standpoint, ought to have commended him to his
-brethren, especially as the candidate was beaten in the election, but, on the
-representation that he had violated an order of the party, Klings was summarily
-expelled from the organization on the 13th of December, 1875. The
-fact that he had never secretly advocated violent means undoubtedly accounts
-for his expulsion.</p>
-
-<p>It is unquestionably true that at this time the Communists were beginning
-to think of more serious matters than politics, and gradually drifting
-away from their peaceful mission as avowed in their early party platform
-and public declarations, and it is not unwarranted to attribute their non-intervention
-in politics that fall to the efforts and influence of the Internationale.
-They proved in more ways than one that they had at heart
-revolutionary methods, and that they were only awaiting an opportune
-time to boldly proclaim their sentiments. Even if there could exist a doubt
-on this point, it was dissipated by the utterances of the Socialists at a mass-meeting
-held December 26, 1875, at West Twelfth Street Turner Hall, to
-protest against the treatment of Communist prisoners in New Caledonia by
-the French Government.</p>
-
-<p>As already stated, the Socialists had established in 1874 an “International
-Workingmen’s Party of the State of Illinois,” and for some time
-they held meetings under that pretentious title, principally on Clybourn
-Avenue. The organization struggled along for awhile and finally was lost
-to sight. Subsequently a “Workingmen’s Party of the United States”
-appeared in the Socialistic world, and some of the leaders of the old local
-organization began to identify themselves with its establishment and success.
-They held frequent meetings on North Avenue. The declaration of principles
-of the new party was as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">The emancipation of the working classes must be achieved by the working classes
-themselves, independently of all political parties of the propertied class.</p>
-
-<p>The struggle for the emancipation of the working classes means not a struggle for class
-privileges and monopolies, but for equal rights and duties, and the abolition of all class
-rule.</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-051.jpg" width="400" height="605" id="i51"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">SCENES FROM THE RIOTS AT PITTSBURG, 1877.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">The economical subjection of the man of labor to the monopolizers of the means of
-labor, the sources of life, lies at the bottom of servitude in all its forms, of all social misery,
-mental degradation and political dependence.</p>
-
-<p>The economical emancipation of the working classes is, therefore, the great end to
-which every political movement ought to be subordinate as a means.</p>
-
-<p>All efforts aiming at that great end have hitherto failed from want of solidarity between
-the manifold divisions of labor in each country, and from the absence of concerted action
-between the workingmen of all countries.</p>
-
-<p>The emancipation of labor is neither a local nor a national, but a social problem, embracing
-all countries in which modern society exists, and depending for its solution upon the
-practical and theoretical concurrence and coöperation of the most advanced countries.</p>
-
-<p>For these reasons the Workingmen’s Party of the United States has been founded. It
-enters into proper relations and connections with the workingmen of other countries.</p>
-
-<p>Whereas, political liberty without economical freedom is but an empty phrase; therefore,
-we will, in the first place, direct our efforts to the economical question. We repudiate
-entirely connection with all political parties of the propertied class without regard to
-their name. We demand that all the means of labor, land, machinery, railroads, telegraphs,
-canals, etc., become the common property of the whole people, for the purpose of abolishing
-the wage-system, and substituting in its place coöperative production with a just distribution
-of its rewards.</p>
-
-<p>The political action of the party will be confined generally to obtaining legislative acts in
-the interest of the working class proper. It will not enter into a political campaign before
-being strong enough to exercise a perceptible influence, and then in the first place locally in
-the towns or cities, when demands of purely local character may be presented, provided they
-are not in conflict with the platform and principles of the party. We work for organization
-of the trades-unions upon a national and international basis, to ameliorate the condition of
-the working people and seek to spread therein the above principles. The Workingmen’s
-Party of the United States proposes to introduce the following measures as a means to
-improve the condition of the working classes:</p>
-
-<p>1. Eight hours’ work for the present as a normal working day, and legal punishment for
-all violators.</p>
-
-<p>2. Sanitary inspection of all conditions of labor, means of subsistence and dwellings
-included.</p>
-
-<p>3. Establishment of bureaus of labor statistics in all States as well as by the National
-Government, the officers of these bureaus to be taken from the ranks of the labor organizations
-and elected by them.</p>
-
-<p>4. Prohibition of the use of prison labor by private employers.</p>
-
-<p>5. Prohibitory laws against the employment of children under fourteen years of age in
-industrial establishments.</p>
-
-<p>6. Gratuitous instruction in all educational institutions.</p>
-
-<p>7. Strict laws making employers liable for all accidents to the injury of their employes.</p>
-
-<p>8. Gratuitous administration of justice in courts of law.</p>
-
-<p>9. Abolition of all conspiracy laws.</p>
-
-<p>10. Railroads, telegraphs and all means of transportation to be taken hold of and
-operated by the Government.</p>
-
-<p>11. All industrial enterprises to be placed under the control of the Government as fast as
-practicable and operated by free coöperative trades-unions for the good of the whole
-people.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The Constitution of the “Workingmen’s Party of the United States”
-was as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">The affairs of the party shall be conducted by three bodies: 1. The Congress. 2. The
-Executive Committee. 3. The Board of Supervision.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Article I. The Congress.</span> 1. At least every two years a Congress shall be held, composed
-of the delegates from the different sections that have been connected with the party at
-least two months previously and complied with all their duties. Sections of less than one
-hundred members shall be entitled to one delegate; from one hundred to two hundred, to two
-delegates; and one more delegate for each additional hundred.</p>
-
-<p>2. No suspended section shall be admitted to a seat before the Congress has examined
-and passed judgment on the case. It shall, however, be the duty of every Congress to put
-such cases on the order of business and dispose of them immediately after the election of its
-officers.</p>
-
-<p>3. The Congress defines and establishes the political position of the party, decides finally
-on all differences within the party, appoints time and place of next Congress and designates
-the seat of the Executive Committee and of the Board of Supervisors.</p>
-
-<p>4. The entire expenses of Congress, as well as mileage and salaries of the delegates,
-shall be paid by the party and provided for by a special tax to be levied six weeks before the
-Congress meets before the year 1880; however, no mileage will be paid beyond the 36th
-degree of northern latitude, nor beyond the 59th degree of western longitude.</p>
-
-<p>5. All propositions and motions to be considered and acted upon by Congress shall be
-communicated to all sections at least six weeks previously.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Article II. The Executive Committee.</span> 1. The Executive Committee shall consist
-of seven members and shall appoint from its own midst one corresponding secretary, one
-recording secretary, one financial secretary and one treasurer. The Executive Committee
-shall be elected by the sections of the place designated as its seat, and vacancies shall be
-filled in the same way.</p>
-
-<p>2. The Executive Committee shall hold office from one Congress to the ensuing one.</p>
-
-<p>3. The duties of the Executive Committee shall be to execute all resolutions of Congress,
-and to see that they are strictly observed by all sections and members, to organize and
-centralize the propaganda, to represent the organization at home and abroad, to entertain
-and open relations with the workingmen’s parties of other countries, to make a quarterly
-report to the sections concerning the status of the organization and its financial position, to
-make all necessary preparations for the Congress as well as a detailed report on all party
-matters.</p>
-
-<p>4. <i>Right and Power of the Executive Committee.</i> The Executive Committee, with the
-concurrence of the Board of Supervision, may refuse to admit to the organization individuals
-and sections as well as suspend members and sections till the next Congress for injuring the
-party interests. In case of urgency the Executive Committee may make suitable propositions,
-which propositions shall become binding, if approved of by a majority of the members
-within two months. The Executive Committee has the right to establish rules and regulations
-for the policy to be observed by the party papers, to watch their course, and in cases of
-vacancies to appoint editors <i>pro tempore</i>. The Executive Committee may send the corresponding
-secretary as delegate to Congress; the delegate will have no vote and shall be prohibited
-from accepting any other credentials.</p>
-
-<p>5. The salary of the party officers shall be fixed by the Executive Committee with the
-concurrence of the Board of Supervision.</p>
-
-<p>6. The corresponding secretary shall copy all documents and writings issuing from the
-Executive Committee, place on file all communications received, and keep a correct record
-thereof. He shall receive a proper salary.</p>
-
-<p>7. The financial secretary shall keep and make out the lists of sections and members,
-receive and record all money and hand the same over to the treasurer, taking his voucher
-therefore.</p>
-
-<p>8. The treasurer shall receive all moneys from the financial secretary, pay bills and honor
-all orders of the Executive Committee, after they are countersigned by the corresponding
-secretary and one more member of the Executive Committee, make a correct report on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
-status of the treasury to the Executive Committee at every meeting and to the whole organization
-every three months, and give security in the amount fixed by the Executive Committee.
-The report of the treasurer must be examined at a regular session of the Executive Committee
-and indorsed by the same.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Article III. The Board of Supervision.</span> 1. The Board of Supervision shall consist
-of five members, to hold office and be elected in the same way as the Executive Committee.</p>
-
-<p>2. The duties of the Board of Supervision shall be to watch over the action of the
-Executive Committee and that of the whole party; to superintend the administration and the
-editorial management of the organs of the party, and to interfere in case of need; to adjust
-all differences occurring in the party within four weeks after receiving the necessary evidence,
-subject to the final decision of the Congress; to make a detailed report of its actions to
-Congress.</p>
-
-<p>3. In case of any urgency the Board of Supervision may suspend officers and editors
-until the meeting of the next Congress, such suspension to be submitted at once to a general
-vote, the result of which shall be made known within four weeks thereafter.</p>
-
-<p>4. The Board of Supervision is entitled to send one delegate to the Congress under the
-same conditions as the Executive Committee.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Article IV. Sections.</span> Ten persons speaking the same language and being wage-workers
-shall be entitled to form a section, provided they acknowledge the principles, statutes
-and Congress resolutions and belong to no political party of the propertied classes. They
-shall demand admission from the Executive Committee by transmitting the dues for the current
-month, and their list of members, their letter to contain the names, residences and
-trade of members, and to show their conditions as wage-laborers. At least three-fourths
-of the members of a section must be wage-laborers. There shall be no more than one section
-of the same language in one place, which meet at different parts of the town or city for
-the purpose of an active propaganda. Business meetings shall be held once a month.
-Each section is responsible for the integrity of its members. Each section is required to
-make a monthly report to the Executive Committee concerning its activity, membership and
-financial situation, to entertain friendly relations with the trades-unions and to promote their
-formation, to hold regular meetings at least once every week, and to direct its efforts exclusively
-to the organization, enlightening and emancipating the working classes. No section shall take
-part in political movements without the consent of the Executive Committee. Five sections
-of different localities shall be entitled to call for the convention of an extraordinary Congress,
-such Congress to be convened if a majority of the sections decides in its favor.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Article V. Dues and Contributions.</span> A monthly due of five cents for each member
-shall be transmitted to the Executive Committee to meet the expenses of the propaganda and
-administration. In case of need, and with the consent of the Board of Supervision, the
-Executive Committee is empowered to levy an extraordinary tax.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Article VI. General Regulations.</span> All officers, committees, boards, etc., shall be
-chosen by a majority vote. No member of the organization shall hold more than one office
-at the same time. All officers, authorities, committees, boards, etc., of the organization,
-may be dismissed or removed at any time by a general vote of their constituencies, and such
-general vote shall be taken within one month from the date of the motion to this effect;
-provided, however, that said motion be seconded by not less than one-third of the respective
-constituents. Expulsion from one section shall be valid for the whole organization if
-approved by the Executive Committee and the Board of Supervision.</p>
-
-<p>All members of the organization, by the adoption of this constitution, take upon themselves
-the duty to assist each other morally and materially in case of need.</p>
-
-<p>The Congress alone has the right of amending, altering or adding to this constitution,
-subject to a general vote of all sections, the result of which is to be communicated to the
-Executive Committee within four weeks.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Article VII. Local Statutes.</span> Each section shall chose from its ranks one organizer,
-one corresponding and recording secretary, one financial secretary, one treasurer and two
-members of an auditing committee. All these officers shall be elected for six months, and
-the Executive Committee shall take timely measures to make the election of newly formed
-sections correspond with the general election of the whole party. The organizer conducts
-the local propaganda and is responsible to the section.</p>
-
-<p>The organizers of the various sections of one locality shall be in constant communication
-with each other in order to secure concerted action. The secretary is charged with the
-minutes and the correspondence. The financial secretary shall keep and make out the list
-of members, sign the cards of membership, collect the dues, hand them over to the treasurer
-and correctly enter them. The treasurer shall receive all moneys from the financial secretary
-and hold them subject to the order of the section. The auditing committee shall superintend
-all books and the general management of the affairs, and audit bills. All officers
-shall make monthly reports to the section. A chairman is elected in every meeting for maintaining
-the usual parliamentary order.</p>
-
-<p>The monthly dues of each member shall be no less than ten cents, five cents of which
-shall be paid to the Executive Committee. Members being in arrears for three consecutive
-months shall be suspended until fulfilling their duties, always excepted those who are sick or
-out of work. Persons not belonging to the wages-class can only be admitted in a regular
-business meeting by a two-thirds vote. The result of every election within the section must
-be at once communicated to the Executive Committee.</p>
-
-<p><i>Regulations concerning the Press of the Workingmen’s Party of the United States.</i>&mdash;The
-<i>Labor Standard</i> of New York, the <i>Arbeiter-Stimme</i> of New York and the <i>Vorbote</i> of
-Chicago are recognized as the organs and property of the party. The organs of the party
-shall represent the interest of labor, awaken and arouse class feelings amongst the workingmen,
-promote their organization as well as the trades-union movement, and spread economical
-knowledge amongst them. The editorial management of each one of the papers of the
-party shall be intrusted to an editor appointed by Congress or by the Executive Committee
-and the Board of Supervision jointly, the editor to receive an appropriate salary. Whenever
-needed, assistant editors shall be appointed by the Executive Committee with the advice and
-consent of the chief editor. The chief editor is responsible for the contents of the paper
-and is to be guided in matters of principle by the declarations of principles of the party; in
-technical and formal matters by the regulations of the Executive Committee. Whenever
-refusing to insert a communication from a member of the organization, the editor is to make
-it known to the writer thereof, directly or by an editorial notice, when an appeal can be taken
-to the Executive Committee. The editor shall observe strict neutrality toward differences
-arising within the party till the Board of Supervision and the Congress have given their decision.
-For each one of the three party papers there shall be elected at their respective places
-of publication a council of administration of five members, who, jointly with the Executive
-Committee, shall appoint and remove the business manager and his assistants. The council
-of administration shall be chosen for one year in the first week of August of each year. The
-council of administration shall establish rules for the business management, superintend the
-same, investigate all complaints concerning the business management, redress all grievances,
-pay their weekly salaries to the editors and managers, and make a full report of the status
-of the paper every three months to all sections by a circular. The manager is bound to mail
-punctually and address correctly the papers; he shall receive all moneys, book them and hand
-them over to the treasurer of the council of administration, and he shall keep the office of
-the paper in good order; his salary shall be fixed by the Congress or by the Executive Committee.
-All sums over and above the amount of the security shall be deposited in a bank by
-the council of administration. The receipts of all moneys from without shall be published
-in the paper.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The treasurer of the council of administration and the manager shall give security to
-the council of administration in the amount fixed by the Executive Committee. The
-chief editor’s salary shall be from $15 to $20 per week. All complaints against the editorial
-management shall in the first place be put before the Executive Committee, in the
-second place before the Board of Supervision. All complaints against the business management
-shall be first referred to the council of administration, in the second place to the
-Board of Supervision. The sections are responsible for the financial liabilities of the
-newspaper agents appointed by them. The Congress alone can alter, amend or add to
-these regulations.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The spring of 1876 found the local party in a quiescent state as regards
-active participation in politics, but they did not abandon their meetings.
-The First Regiment of the National Guard at this period had assumed
-goodly proportions, and it naturally came in for a good deal of attention at
-the hands of the speakers. They never failed to denounce it; but, to cover
-their own sinister designs and lull others to a sense of security, they invariably
-declared that the Communists intended no war. They continued their
-“vacant-lot” oratory and in every way sought to increase the number of
-their party adherents.</p>
-
-<p>Toward the end of July, 1876, a Union Congress was held in Philadelphia,
-and these new declarations of principles were formulated:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">The Union Congress of the Workingmen’s Party of the United States declares: The
-emancipation of labor is a social problem concerning the whole human race and embracing
-all sexes. The emancipation of women will be accomplished with the emancipation of men,
-and the so-called woman’s rights question will be solved with the labor question. All evils
-and wrongs of the present society can be abolished only when economical freedom is gained
-for men as well as for women. It is the duty, therefore, of the wives and daughters of the
-workingmen to organize themselves and take their places within the ranks of struggling labor.
-To aid and support them in this work is the duty of men. By uniting their efforts they will
-succeed in breaking the economical fetters, and a new and free race of men and women will
-arise, recognizing each other as peers. We acknowledge the perfect equality of rights of both
-sexes, and in the Workingmen’s Party of the United States this equality of rights is a principle
-and is strictly observed.</p>
-
-<p><i>The Ballot-box.</i>&mdash;Considering that the economical emancipation of the working classes is
-the great end, to which every political movement ought to be subordinate as a means; considering
-that the Workingmen’s Party of the United States in the first place directs its efforts
-to the economical struggle; considering that only in the economical arena the combatants for
-the Workingmen’s Party can be trained and disciplined; considering that in this country the
-ballot-box has long ago ceased to record the popular will, and only serves to falsify the same
-in the hands of professional politicians; considering that the organization of the working
-people is not yet far enough developed to overthrow at once this state of corruption; considering
-that this middle class republic has produced an enormous amount of small reformers
-and quacks, the intruding of whom will only be facilitated by a political movement of the
-Workingmen’s Party of the United States and considering that the corruption and misapplication
-of the ballot-box, as well as the silly reform movements, flourish most in years of Presidential
-elections, at such times greatly endangering the organization of workingmen: For
-these reasons the Union Congress, meeting at Philadelphia in July, 1876, resolves:</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-057.jpg" width="400" height="259" id="i57"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">THE GREAT STRIKE IN BALTIMORE.<br />
-<span class="smcap wn">The Militia Fighting their Way Through the Streets.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>The sections of this party as well as all workingmen in general are earnestly invited to
-abstain from all political movements for the present and to turn their back on the ballot-box.
-The workingmen will thus save themselves bitter disappointments, and their time and efforts
-will be directed far better towards their own organization, which is frequently destroyed and
-always injured by a hasty political movement.</p>
-
-<p>Let us bide our time! It will come.</p>
-
-<p><i>Party Government.</i>&mdash;Chicago shall be the seat of the Executive Committee for the
-ensuing term; New Haven, the seat of the Board of Supervision.</p>
-
-<p><i>The Next Congress.</i>&mdash;The Executive Committee, in connection with the Board of Supervision,
-shall select a place for holding the next Congress in the following named cities:
-Chicago, Ill.; Newark, N. J.; Boston, Mass. The end of August shall be the time for the
-meeting of the next Congress, and the Executive Committee jointly with the Board of Supervision
-shall decide whether the next Congress shall be held in 1877 or 1878.</p>
-
-<p><i>The Party Press.</i>&mdash;As editor of the <i>Labor Standard</i>, J. P. McDonnell is appointed at a
-salary of $15 per week; at least one member of Typographical Union No. 6 shall be employed
-as a compositor. As editor of the <i>Arbeiter-Stimme</i> Dr. A. Otto Walster is appointed at a
-salary of $18 per week; the paper is to be enlarged in a proper way in October next. As
-editor of the <i>Vorbote</i> C. Conzett is appointed at a salary of $18 per week. In consideration
-of the claim of C. Conzett upon the paper for past services it is resolved that after a thorough
-investigation of the books the Executive Committee shall give to C. Conzett a promissory
-note for an amount not exceeding the sum of $1,430; for payment of this note two-thirds of
-the net gains made by party festivities in Chicago and the whole of the gain resulting from a
-general New Year’s festivity in the year 1876 shall be appropriated. Stock and assets to pass
-into the hands of the party. A coöperative printing association like the one in New York
-shall be formed in Chicago, which shall publish the <i>Vorbote</i> at cost price, adding the usual
-percentage of wear and tear, and which shall buy the stock for not less than $600. A diminution
-of the size of the <i>Vorbote</i> is proposed, and Conzett is empowered to act in this matter
-with due regard to the interests of the party. Dr. A. Douai is appointed assistant editor of
-all three papers. It is also resolved to employ the late editor of the English paper as assistant
-editor for numbers 18 and 19 of the <i>Labor Standard</i> and pay him his usual salary of $12
-per week for two weeks more. It is resolved to levy an extraordinary tax of ten cents per
-member, and to continue said extraordinary tax every three months until all liabilities of the
-party shall be paid. All sections are invited to hold festivities in honor of the Union, now
-accomplished, and to devote the proceeds of these festivities to aid the press of the party and
-to pay the extraordinary taxes.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">It was further resolved that “no local paper shall be founded without
-the consent of the Executive Committee and the Board of Supervision.” It
-was resolved to place the agencies of all foreign publications in the hands
-of the party. After having come to an understanding with the various
-publishers of labor papers in other countries, a central depot was to be
-established. The two councils of administration of the party organs in
-New York were charged with making the necessary preparations for opening
-the central depot on the first day of October in New York. It was also
-recommended to the party authorities to publish labor pamphlets adapted
-to the conditions of this country.</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1"><i>Decisions of the Executive Committee.</i>&mdash;In order to insure the collection of the extra tax
-of ten cents per quarter, levied by the Congress, the moneys sent in for dues will be credited
-to the extra tax account for the preceding quarter year, should such delinquencies occur.
-Any section in arrears for three months will be notified, and if within one month thereafter
-the section has not restored its good standing, it will be declared defunct. Where sections
-cannot appoint their own newspaper agent from among the members, they may appoint any
-person as their agent, but such agent must be personally responsible. Where sections fail<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
-to report gain or loss of members, they will be charged for dues and extra tax, according to
-the number of members enrolled at the last report. Every section shall be judge of its own
-members, but no expulsion from the whole party can be effected except as provided for by
-the constitution. No person can be a member of two sections at the same time.</p>
-
-<p><i>Amendments to the Constitution.</i>&mdash;Paragraph 3, division 4, under “Sections.” First amendment,
-adopted December 16th by a general election: In addition to one section (composed
-of men of each language of any locality) there may also be organized one section of women
-under the same regulations as the others. Second amendment, adopted July 15: Article 1,
-paragraph 4, is amended to read: “For the Congress to be held in the year 1887, the expenses
-of each delegate will be borne by the section or sections represented by him.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">During the winter of 1876 the excitement on the possible outcome of the
-national election prostrated business throughout the country. There were
-even rumors and threats of bloody conflict. Capital naturally hesitated, and
-investments were confined to projects in which there was no element of
-chance and for which the returns were measurably certain. The Socialists
-of Chicago sought in every possible way to make the most of the situation
-by inflaming the minds of the unemployed against capital, and labored to
-secure proselytes by urging that such a state of affairs could never exist
-under Socialism. Meetings were held wherever either a hall or a vacant lot
-could be secured. A. R. Parsons, Philip Van Patten, George A. Schilling,
-T. J. Morgan and Ben Sibley, who had hitherto figured only before
-small street crowds, now became prominent as speakers at large gatherings,
-and their harangues proved that they were apt students in the Socialistic
-school, and ready expounders of the proposed new social system.</p>
-
-<p>The Legislature of Illinois was in session at the time under review, and
-in March, 1877, the Socialist leaders entered into a discussion of the necessity
-of forcing that body to pass the bills then pending before it with reference
-to the establishment of a bureau of statistics on wages and earnings,
-cost and manner of living, fatal accidents in each branch of labor and their
-causes, coöperation, hours of labor, etc., and for the collection of wages.
-They urged that the laboring classes should demand these measures and insisted
-that the “boss classes, the capitalistic classes, the aristocrats, who
-lived in riot and luxury on the fruit which labor had tilled and ought to enjoy,”
-should not stand in the way of their passage. Time and again they
-rang the various changes on the “iniquity and inequalities of the present
-social system,” and fairly howled themselves hoarse in declaring that “the
-Labor party was organized not only to destroy that system, but to secure a
-division of property, which Socialism demanded and was determined to
-have.”</p>
-
-<p>Early in July, 1877, the firemen and brakemen of the Baltimore and
-Ohio Railroad began a strike at Baltimore against a reduction of wages.
-This strike soon reached Martinsburg, W. Va., and caused an immense
-blockade of freight traffic. The strikers finally grew so riotous that the
-local authorities were powerless, and President Hayes, being appealed to by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
-the Governor of Maryland, issued a proclamation. United States troops
-were at the same time dispatched from Washington and Fort McHenry to
-the scene of disturbances, and order was finally brought out of chaos.</p>
-
-<p>Following close upon the heels of this strike came one on the Pennsylvania
-Railroad at Pittsburg, against an order doubling up trains and thus
-dispensing with a large number of employés. The railroad people, in
-explanation of their action, showed that during June preceding not only had
-there been a great depreciation of railroad stocks, but a shrinkage in the
-value of railroad property from 20 to 70 per cent., caused by a great falling-off
-in business. It is needless for the purpose of this chapter to recount
-the wild scenes of riot and bloodshed that ensued at Pittsburg, when troops
-numbering two thousand, sent from Philadelphia, engaged in deadly conflict
-with the unbridled mob and when millions of dollars’ worth of property
-was destroyed by the incendiary torch.</p>
-
-<p>While this carnival of fire, death and bloodshed still startled the world,
-a strike broke out in Chicago among railroad men. While the strikers
-here sought to contend in an orderly manner against their employers, the
-same element which had inspired and carried out deeds of violence in the
-East&mdash;the Communists&mdash;were not slow to seize upon the opportunity in
-Chicago to widen the breach between capital and labor. Threats and riotous
-demonstrations were their weapons. They virtually took possession of
-all the large manufacturing establishments in the city, and by intimidation
-and force compelled men willing to work and satisfied with their wages to
-join their howling mobs. Not alone did they succeed in stopping freight
-traffic, but they clogged the wheels of industry in the principal factories and
-shops of the city. The leaders were active during the day directing the
-riotous movements of their followers, and at night they assembled to devise
-methods to increase the general turmoil. Their headquarters were at No.
-131 Milwaukee Avenue, and here all-night sessions were sometimes held.
-Proclamations were frequently sent out to workingmen, urging them to
-stand firmly in defense of their rights.</p>
-
-<p>The leading spirits at this time were Philip Van Patten, now of Cincinnati,
-J. H. White, J. Paulsen and Charles Erickson, who constituted the
-executive committee of the Workingmen’s Party, and A. R. Parsons and
-George Schilling.</p>
-
-<p>Some of the meetings referred to were quite stormy in character.
-Threats were made to “clean out” the police, and some speakers advised
-attacks on the guardians of the peace with stones, bricks and revolvers. The
-leaders were too cautious, however, to advise anything of the kind in their
-public declarations. Violence was reserved for the mobs on the inspiration
-of the moment, or at the instigation of trusted adherents at the proper time.</p>
-
-<p>That such were their intentions is apparent from a statement of one of
-the members, who said:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“To-morrow Chicago will see a big day, and no one can predict what
-will be the end of this contest.”</p>
-
-<p>Sure enough, on the day following&mdash;the 25th of July&mdash;a conflict
-ensued between the police and strong mobs at the Halsted Street Viaduct
-and elsewhere, in which several of the rioters were injured. On the day
-following, the riots reached their culminating point, and between the
-police, infantry and cavalry the Communistic element were driven to their
-holes with many killed and wounded. That effectually terminated the
-reign of riot, and the city resumed its normal condition. The trouble in
-the East also subsided about the same time.</p>
-
-<p>The Communists, after this severe lesson, remained dormant for some
-months. Evidently they saw that the time had not arrived for the commencement
-of that revolution which they had at heart. In the fall of 1877
-they seem to have reached the conclusion that they would exchange the art
-of war for arts political. Accordingly, in October they were again to be
-found on the campaign stump&mdash;for the first time since 1874. There were
-then four parties in the field,&mdash;Democrats, Republicans, Industrials and
-Greenbackers,&mdash;and this situation may have suggested a chance for the success
-of their ticket or an opportunity to secure concessions from the dominant
-parties that would result to their advantage. C. J. Dixon was then
-chairman of the “Industrial Party.” This party claimed to seek redress
-for the grievances of workingmen without resorting to destruction of society
-or government, and if it had denied affiliation with the Socialists it might
-have become a factor in politics. It may be stated that for a time after the
-election Dixon held to his principles, but a few years later became a representative
-in the Legislature of the Communistic element.</p>
-
-<p>The outcome of the political agitation of the Socialists that fall was the
-nomination of the following ticket: For County Treasurer, Frank A. Stauber;
-County Clerk, A. R. Parsons; Probate Clerk, Philip Van Patten;
-Clerk of the Criminal Court, Tim O’Meara; Superintendent of Schools,
-John McAuliff; County Commissioners, W. A. Barr, Samuel Goldwater,
-T. J. Morgan, Max Nisler and L. Thorsmark. For Judge, John A. Jameson,
-then on the bench, was indorsed, and Julius Rosenthal&mdash;not a Socialist&mdash;was
-nominated for Judge of the Probate Court. The election held on the
-8th of November showed some gains for the party. Omitting the “Industrials”
-which were swallowed up by the other parties in the way of “election
-trades,” the Socialists secured a vote of 6,592 in the contest for the
-County Treasurership, while McCrea, Republican, polled a vote of 22,423;
-Lynch, Democrat, 18,388, and Hammond, Greenbacker, 769.</p>
-
-<p>In 1878 a session of the Congress was again held, and then it was decided
-to change the name of the “Workingmen’s Party of the United States” to
-the “Socialistic Labor Party,” and it was also resolved to “use the ballot-box
-as a means for the elevation of working people” and for “electing men<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
-from their own ranks to the halls of legislation and to the municipal government.”</p>
-
-<p>The different wards of Chicago were subsequently organized into ward
-clubs, each with a captain and secretary as permanent officers for a year.
-It was made the duty of the captain of a ward to find halls for public meetings
-and to report to the central committee. He was to open the meetings
-in his ward and see that a chairman was chosen from among those attending.
-The duty of the secretary was to issue cards of membership to new
-members, to collect monthly dues of ten cents from each member, and to
-receipt for the same on the back of the cards; he was also to keep minutes
-of the meetings and have them published in the party papers. The captain
-was authorized to appoint a precinct captain for every precinct in his ward,
-whose duty it was to control the distribution of tickets at elections. The
-precinct captain was also directed to appoint lieutenants in his precinct,
-one for each block if possible, to assist him in the work of agitation and the
-distribution of tickets.</p>
-
-<p>Under the plans formulated by the Socialistic Congress a central committee
-was again organized in the city of Chicago. It was composed of a
-chairman, a secretary and a treasurer, who were elected by a joint meeting
-of the different sections every six months. In 1878 there were four sections
-in Chicago&mdash;one German, one English, one French and one Scandinavian.
-The German section had the largest number of members, between three
-and four hundred, and was steadily gaining. The English section numbered
-only about one hundred and fifty. The Scandinavian branch had
-about an equal number. The French only mustered fifty members. During
-a campaign the ward captains were made members of the central
-committee. They were charged with the duty of reporting the progress of
-the ward clubs, notifying the committee where halls had been rented and
-indicating what speakers were needed. It was the duty of the central
-committee to advertise all club meetings, pay for the halls rented when the
-clubs could not pay, and settle all bills and expenses incident to an election.
-The committee was the only body authorized to order the printing of tickets,
-and for all their acts they were held responsible to the “Socialistic Labor
-Party.” The money needed to defray expenses was raised mostly through
-subscriptions and collections in the various clubs. The meetings of the
-committee were conducted openly. Representatives of the press were permitted
-to be present if at any prior meeting they had not purposely distorted
-the proceedings. During the years 1878 and 1879 the meetings of
-the committee were generally held in a hall on the second floor of No. 7
-South Clark Street.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-063.jpg" width="400" height="257" id="i63"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">THE LABOR TROUBLES OF 1877.<br />
-<span class="smcap wn">Riots at the Halsted Street Viaduct, Chicago.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>With an organization thus perfected under the plan of the Socialistic
-Congress, the Socialists felt themselves in condition to cope with the other
-parties. They saw in the vote of 1877 a chance for seating some of their
-members in the City Council, and set out to talk politics at all their gatherings
-for the spring of 1878. On the 15th of March of that year they held a
-convention at No. 45 North Clark Street, and put up a ticket for Aldermen
-in all the wards except the Eleventh and Eighteenth, and for the various
-town offices in the three divisions of Chicago. Inasmuch as the “old
-timber” was worked over for these various offices, it is needless to repeat
-names. Their platform reiterated the demands made in the first declaration
-of principles, and, in addition, asked for the establishment of public baths
-in each division of the city; extension of the school system; annulment of
-the gas and street-car companies’ charters, the same to be operated by the
-city after payment to the owners of principal and interest on moneys actually
-invested, out of the profits; prompt payment of taxes, and employment for
-all residents of the city that needed it.</p>
-
-<p>During the campaign incident to the election, Paul Grottkau, then a
-recent arrival from Berlin, proved a conspicuous figure and made a number
-of stirring appeals. He expounded the principles of Socialism and invariably
-wound up by characterizing the members of the Democratic and
-Republican parties as “liars and horse-thieves.” Through his active participation
-in the Socialistic movement in Chicago Grottkau became editor of
-the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, but, fortunately for himself, was displaced in 1880 by
-August Spies.</p>
-
-<p>The election of April, 1878, resulted in placing one member in the City
-Council&mdash;Stauber, from the Fourteenth Ward.</p>
-
-<p>This was the first political victory the Socialists had achieved in the city,
-and, having noticed a small but steady increase in their voting force, they
-proceeded to organize and agitate more diligently than ever before in a
-political way. Meanwhile they saw the growing strength of the State
-militia, and as an offset to the organization of the various military companies
-in Chicago they determined to raise and equip companies from
-their own ranks. They had begun in a quiet way to start the nucleus of
-military companies some time after the First Regiment had been organized,
-but it was not until 1878 that it became generally known that they had men
-armed and drilled in military tactics, to be marshaled against society upon
-a favorable opportunity. In the early part of 1878 the very flower and
-strength of their military was the Lehr und Wehr Verein, composed of
-picked men and veterans who had been baptized with fire on European
-battlefields. Its strength was variously estimated at from four to six
-thousand, but it never exceeded four hundred members. The “Jaeger
-Verein,” the “Bohemian Sharpshooters” and the “Labor Guard of the
-Fifth Ward,” each with no more than fifty members, were auxiliary organizations
-and composed mainly of raw recruits. Their instruction in the
-manual of arms was mainly given by Major Presser, a trained and skilled
-European tactician.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Meantime the party had been greatly strengthened by the aid of newspapers
-printed in its interest. In 1874, <i>Die Volks-Zeitung</i> had been started
-by a stock company called the Social-Democratic Printing Association.
-This paper was published at No. 94 South Market Street, with Mr. Brucker
-as editor. Shortly thereafter, the <i>Vorbote</i>, a weekly paper, was started
-under the auspices of the Workingmen’s Party at the same number. C.
-Conzett, formerly a resident of Berne, Switzerland, became its editor. He
-subsequently bought out the <i>Volks-Zeitung</i> and thereafter published a tri-weekly
-paper under the name of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, which became a
-private enterprise in the interest of workingmen. His assistant editor was
-Gustav Leiser. They made the paper an advocate of revolutionary
-methods and urged the organization of trades-unions. They encouraged
-strikes and held that only through such means could workingmen secure
-their rights. They published without charge all grievances of laboring
-men on the score of non-payment of wages and abuses of manufacturing
-concerns, but each article had the full name of the writer. At first the
-editors did not favor a resort to the ballot-box to remedy grievances. It
-was not until after the great railroad strike of July, 1877, that they advocated
-an organized fight in elections independently of the old parties. The
-workingmen, they urged, must elect men of their own in order to secure
-favorable legislation.</p>
-
-<p>In 1878 an English weekly called the <i>Socialist</i> was started under the
-auspices of the main section of the Socialistic Labor Party of Chicago.
-This main section was composed of the German, English, Scandinavian
-and French sections, and they employed Frank Hirth as editor at a salary
-of $15 per week and A. R. Parsons as assistant at a salary of $12 per week.
-This paper was made the organ in the English language of the Socialistic
-Labor Party, and, while it made some headway at the start, it succumbed
-within a year, owing to jealousies and differences of opinion between the
-German and English sections.</p>
-
-<p>About the time the <i>Socialist</i> was established another paper was put in
-the field by the Scandinavian section. It was called <i>Den Nye Tid</i>, and was
-edited by Mr. Peterson.</p>
-
-<p>In 1878 the proprietor of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> signified a willingness to
-sell his paper to the Socialistic Labor Party, and, in order to consummate
-the transfer, the main section held a meeting in May of that year at Steinmueller’s
-Hall, No. 45 North Clark Street. Plans were then and there matured
-for its purchase. It was decided to borrow the money and issue notes
-at 6 per cent. interest, payable as soon as the treasury had secured enough
-from collections and other sources to take them up. Collectors were
-appointed for each division of the city, and they were directed to collect
-money from workingmen and storekeepers. On the evening of June 29,
-1878, a meeting was held at No. 7 South Clark Street, and the reports<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
-showed that enough money had been raised to purchase the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>.
-Subsequently a general meeting was held and a society was organized called
-the “Socialistische Druckgesellschaft.” A board of trustees was chosen,
-and they applied to the Secretary of State for a charter. That official
-declined to issue the charter because the name of the society was in German.
-Another meeting was held at No. 54 West Lake Street, and the name was
-changed to the “Socialistic Publishing Company,” after which the charter
-was readily secured. The paper was then transferred by Herr Conzett to the
-new company, and subsequently the managers added a Sunday edition called
-<i>Die Fackel</i>. Paul Grottkau, formerly editor of the Berlin <i>Freie Presse</i>, was
-appointed editor under the new management at a salary of $15 per week,
-and F. J. Pfeiffer, of Chicago, was made assistant editor. The society
-which now had charge of the paper was composed of <i>bona fide</i> members
-of the German section. Their meetings were conducted in the same
-manner as those of the Socialistic Labor Party. The price of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-was reduced, and all money realized from its sale over and above
-expenses was applied for purposes of agitation. While the paper was
-reported in a prospering condition, it was decided to take steps to pay off
-its indebtednes as represented by the outstanding notes, and to this end a
-grand festival was to be held, the proceeds of which should be devoted to
-the press fund. Some trouble was experienced in getting a hall large
-enough for the purpose. The Exposition Building was finally decided upon,
-and it was secured without much delay, with results as noted further along
-in this chapter.</p>
-
-<p>Soon after the <i>Socialist</i> had expired, the members of the Workingmen’s
-Party felt the need of an English organ, and, having meanwhile come to a
-better understanding, they decided that they would make another effort to
-put one before the people. The result of several conferences was a monster
-picnic at Wright’s Grove on the 16th of June, 1878. The procession formed
-to make the occasion imposing numbered about three thousand, and side by
-side with the American flag was borne the red banner of Anarchy. This
-emblem, although it finally crowded out the “stars and stripes,” had
-hitherto been reserved in public demonstrations for a minor place. Some of
-the mottoes displayed on this occasion ran as follows: “No Rich, no Poor&mdash;All
-Alike.” “No Monopolies&mdash;All for One and One for All.” “Land belongs
-to Society,” and “No Masters, no Slaves.”</p>
-
-<p>The result of the picnic was that the <i>Alarm</i> was established, and A. R.
-Parsons became its editor on a weekly allowance of $5, subsequently raised
-to $8.</p>
-
-<p>In the fall campaign of 1878 we find the Socialists again in the field with
-a full ticket for Congressmen, the Legislature and local offices. Former
-party platforms were reaffirmed, and mass-meetings to fire the hearts of
-workingmen were frequently held. At these gatherings capitalists were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
-denounced as usual, and the police came in for some attention. The campaign
-song was also introduced, and the chorus of one, rendered by an
-untamed troubadour named W. B. Creech, and referring to the police, ran
-after this style, to the air of “Peeler and Goat”:</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-067a.jpg" width="250" height="306" id="i67a"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">DR. CARL EDUARD NOBILING.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="pp21 p1">Then raise your voices, workingmen,</p>
-<p class="pp22">Against such cowardly hirelings, O!</p>
-<p class="pp21">Go to the polls and slaughter them</p>
-<p class="pp22">With ballots, instead of bullets, O!</p>
-
-<p class="p1">One Dr. McIntosh could always be depended
-on for grinding out any quantity of
-doggerel of this kind for any occasion.
-The Socialists claimed that they
-would poll on the day of election&mdash;Nov.
-5th&mdash;from 9,000 to 13,000 votes.
-Their calculations, like their utterances,
-were wild and wide off the
-mark, however, as their candidate for
-Sheriff, Ryan, only secured 5,980
-votes, while Hoffman, Republican,
-had 16,592; Kern, Democrat, 16,586,
-and Dixon, Greenbacker, 4,491. They
-secured, however, a member of the State Senate, Sylvester Artley, and three
-members of the lower house of the Legislature&mdash;Leo Meilbeck, Charles
-Ehrhardt and Christian Meier.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-067b.jpg" width="250" height="376" id="i67b"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">MAX HOEDEL.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>This gave them great confidence, and they
-pushed with greater vigor than ever their
-political work. Meetings were kept up
-throughout the winter, and, among other
-things, they discussed measures which they
-demanded from the Legislature in the interest
-of labor. These demands included
-reducing the hours of labor; the establishment
-of a bureau of labor statistics; abolishment
-of convict labor; sanitary inspection
-of food, dwellings, factories, work-shops and
-mines; abolition of child labor; liability of
-employers for all accidents to employés
-through the employers’ neglect, and priority
-of demands for wages over all other
-claims. They found time also to give their
-attention to their brethren in Europe, and
-at a meeting held Sunday, January 19,
-1879, they adopted resolutions denouncing
-Bismarck for persecutions of workingmen in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
-Germany. The pretext for these persecutions, they claimed, grew out of
-the attempts on the life of Emperor William by Hoedel and Dr. Nobiling.
-The would-be assassins, they confessed, had once been Socialists, but at the
-time of the attack had had nothing in common with the order. Hoedel,
-they said, had been expelled, and had subsequently joined the “Christian
-Socialistic Party,” which they asserted had the favor of the Government,
-and at the head of which was a Government official. They claimed
-that Hoedel had been instigated to the deed by the German court, and
-they even doubted that he had been beheaded in expiation of his
-crime. Hoedel, they said, had been simply an instrument in the hands of
-Bismarck, who wanted a pretext to persecute the Socialists and secure the
-passage of a bill in the Reichstag for their suppression. Under the provisions
-of that bill, they asserted, men, women and children were thrown into
-dungeons without trial, and they insisted that the Congress of the United
-States should voice their protest against such persecutions.</p>
-
-<p>At nearly every large meeting held during the winter in question, Creech
-was to the front with new songs, among one the chorus of which ran thus:</p>
-
-<p class="pp7 p1">Raise aloft the crimson banner, emblem of the free;<br />
-Mighty tyrants now are trembling, here and o’er the sea.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">On the evening of March 22, 1879, they held the celebration in the Exposition
-Building already referred to. This was ostensibly in commemoration
-of the establishment of the Paris Commune in 1848 and again in 1871.
-The real purpose, however, was to obtain funds to defray the expenses
-incident to the coming spring campaign and to aid in making a daily out of
-their tri-weekly organ, the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. There were from 20,000 to
-25,000 people in the building, and the amount reported realized reached
-$4,500. There was speech-making by Dr. Ernst Schmidt, A. R. Parsons,
-Paul Grottkau, and lesser lights, and the various military companies of the
-organization strutted about in their uniforms, with belts, cartridge-boxes,
-bayonet scabbards and breech-loading Remingtons.</p>
-
-<p>With part of the proceeds of this celebration, the Socialists fitted up
-campaign headquarters in a top-story room on the northeast corner of
-Madison and La Salle Streets, in the very heart of the business center.
-Their ticket covered all the offices from Mayor lo Aldermen. The only new
-names that figured on this ticket were those of N. H. Jorgensen, J. J.
-Alpeter, Robert Buck, Henry Johnson, Max Selle, George Brown, R.
-Lorenz, James Lynn and R. Van Deventer. The election occurred on the
-1st of April, 1879, and their candidate for Mayor, Dr. Schmidt, secured
-11,829 votes, while Carter H. Harrison, Democrat, scored 25,685, and A. M.
-Wright, Republican, 20,496. They elected three Aldermen, however&mdash;Alpeter
-from the Sixth Ward, Lorenz from the Fourteenth, and Meier, then
-in the Legislature, from the Sixteenth, which made, with Stauber, four
-representatives in the City Council.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-069.jpg" width="400" height="254" id="i69"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="figcenter"><p class="pc">BANNERS OF THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION&mdash;I.<br /><span class="smcap wn">From Photographs.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>With the inauguration of Carter Harrison’s administration, a good deal
-of attention was given to the Socialists by him as well as by his Democratic
-co-laborers. Some of their men were given employment in the departments
-of the city. Although they still continued their agitation, these appointments
-and other favors had the effect of undermining their political
-strength.</p>
-
-<p>In the next Mayoralty election they made a show of keeping up their
-organization and nominated George Schilling for Mayor and Frank Stauber
-for City Treasurer. But in the election held April 5th, 1881, the former only
-polled 240 votes, and Stauber 1,999, thus demonstrating an almost complete
-collapse of the party.</p>
-
-<p>This virtually took them out of politics. Thenceforward the Socialists
-seem to have decided to abandon the
-ballot-box, and to rely on force only for
-the attainment of their objects. Accordingly
-their harangues were directed to
-the dissemination of the doctrines of
-revolution. They endeavored still, it is
-true, to maintain a representation in the
-City Council, but in 1884 the Socialistic
-element was entirely eliminated from
-that body.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-070.jpg" width="250" height="330" id="i70"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">CARTER H. HARRISON.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>At the session of the Congress of
-the International Workingmen’s Association
-held at Pittsburg from the 14th
-to the 16th of October, 1883, there was
-a large delegation of Chicago Anarchists.
-A question arose as to the use of
-the ballot for remedying the wrongs of
-the laboring people. The delegates
-from Baltimore insisted that recourse
-should be had to the ballot-box, but those from Pittsburg were of another
-mind, and favored something stronger. This suggestion gave the Anarchist
-contingent from Chicago an opportunity to come to the front, and, while
-some of these did not hold to extreme measures, they all agreed that the
-ballot-box only served to keep capitalistic representatives in office. The
-radical Chicago element went still further, holding that the theory of
-Karl Marx, the use of force, was the correct one, and that that force should
-be dynamite. But here a split occurred in their own delegation, the milder
-ones holding to the theory of Lassalle, that they should first give the
-ballot a thorough trial and use force only in the event of failure. The sentiment
-of the convention predominated in favor of force, and the conservative
-Anarchists ceased to be members.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The controversy thus begun was carried back to Chicago, and the radicals
-set themselves strenuously to work to bring their disaffected associates
-to the advocacy of dynamite. The members of the Lehr und Wehr Verein
-were particularly opposed to the use of the bomb. They had equipped
-themselves and drilled in the use of guns so as to be able to meet the police
-and militia after failure at the polls, and they contended that men carrying
-bombs would be apt, through lack of experience, to hurt themselves as much
-as their opponents. Men thoroughly drilled in the handling of a gun, they
-argued, could accomplish something, and to that end every one should be
-instructed in military tactics. The radicals of the various “groups” did
-not believe in guns, however, and held that, inasmuch as they had experimented
-with dynamite with some success, they should adopt it as a means of
-warfare. They finally brought all to their ideas, and from that time to the
-present they have given the subject of dynamite and explosives a great
-deal of study.</p>
-
-<p>As indicating the sense of the Pittsburg Congress their plan of organization
-and resolutions are here given:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">The name of the organization shall be “International Workingmen’s Association.”</p>
-
-<p>1. The organization shall consist of federal groups which recognize the principles laid
-down in the manifesto and consider themselves bound by them.</p>
-
-<p>2. Five persons shall have the right to form a group.</p>
-
-<p>3. Each group shall have complete independence (autonomy) and shall further have the
-right to conduct the propaganda in accordance with its own judgment, but the same must
-not collide with the fundamental principles of the organization.</p>
-
-<p>4. Each group may call itself by the name of its location. When there is more than one
-group, they shall be numbered.</p>
-
-<p>5. In places where there is more than one group it is recommended that a general committee
-be formed to secure united action. Such committees shall, however, have no executive
-power.</p>
-
-<p>6. A Bureau of Information shall be created at Chicago and shall consist of a secretary
-of each of the groups of different languages. It is the duty of such bureau to keep an exact
-list of all the groups belonging to the organization and to keep up correspondence with and
-between the domestic and foreign groups.</p>
-
-<p>7. Groups intending to join the organization must, after they have recognized its principles,
-send their application and list of members to the groups located nearest to them,
-whose duty it is then to forward such application to the Bureau of Information. The groups
-shall send a report of the situation to the Bureau of Information at least every three
-months.</p>
-
-<p>8. A Congress can be called at any time by a majority of the groups.</p>
-
-<p>9. All the necessary expenses of the Bureau of Information shall be met by voluntary
-contributions of the groups.</p>
-
-<p><i>Plan for the Propaganda.</i>&mdash;The organization of North America shall be divided into nine
-districts of agitation, as follows: 1. Canada. 2. District of Columbia. 3. The Eastern
-States (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New
-York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland). 4. The Middle States (Ohio,
-West Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois). 5. The Western
-States (Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Dakota, Kansas, Indian Territory and New
-Mexico). 6. The Rocky Mountain States (Colorado, Montana, Idaho Territory, Utah and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
-Nevada). 7. The Pacific Coast States. 8. The Southern States (Virginia, North Carolina,
-South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana
-and Texas.) 9. Mexico.</p>
-
-<p>It is recommended to the several districts to organize general district committees for the
-purpose of more effective and united action. It is the duty of these general committees to
-provide that whenever practicable agitators shall be sent forth. If there is a lack of proper
-agitators in a district the general committee shall inform the Bureau of Information. This
-shall be done also when there is a surplus of workers, so that the bureau shall be able to
-bring about an equal distribution of the working elements.</p>
-
-<p>The expenses of the traveling agitators shall be paid by local groups, or, when these are
-without means, by the general organization.</p>
-
-<p><i>Resolutions.</i>&mdash;The following resolutions were offered by A. R. Parsons:</p>
-
-<p>“In consideration that the protection capitalists are men who, by excluding the cheap
-products of labor of competing countries, intend to make enormous profits, while the free-trade
-capitalists intend to make just as large profits by the sale of the cheap products of
-labor of other countries; and</p>
-
-<p>“In consideration that the only difference between the two is this: That the one wants
-to import the products of cheap foreign labor, while the others consider it of greater advantage
-to import the cheap labor itself of other countries; and</p>
-
-<p>“In consideration that it is a great injustice to tax by a protective tariff a whole people for
-the benefit of a few privileged capitalists or of branches of industry: Be it, therefore,</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Resolved</i>, That we, the International Workingmen’s Association, consider the protective
-tariff and free trade questions capitalistic questions, which have not the least interest for
-wage-workers&mdash;questions which are intended to confuse and mislead the workingman. The
-fight on both sides is only one for the possession of the robbed products of labor. The
-question whether there should be a protective tariff or free trade are political questions,
-which for some time past have divided governments and nations into opposing factions, but
-which, as already said, do not contribute toward the solution of social questions. The
-adage, <i>Polvere negli occhi</i> (throwing dust in the eyes), expresses the intentions of both parties.</p>
-
-<p>“In consideration that we see in trades-unions advocating progressive principles the
-abolishment of the wage system&mdash;the corner-stone of a better and more just system of society
-than the present; and</p>
-
-<p>“In consideration, further, that these trades-unions consist of an army of robbed and disinherited
-fellow-sufferers and brothers, called to overthrow the economic establishments of
-the present time for the purpose of general and free coöperation: Be it, therefore,</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Resolved</i>, That we, the I. W. M. A., proffer the hand of fellowship to them, and give
-them our sympathy and help in their fight against the ever-growing despotism of private
-capital; and</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Resolved</i>, That while we give such progressive trades-unions our fullest sympathy and
-assure them of every assistance in our power, we are, on the other hand, determined to fight
-and, if possible, to annihilate every organization given to reactionary principles, as these are
-the enemies of the emancipation of the workingmen, as well as of humanity and of progress.</p>
-
-<p>“In consideration that the courts of arbitration for settlement of differences between the
-workingmen and their employers, without the fundamental condition of free and independent
-action on both sides, are simply contrary to reason; and</p>
-
-<p>“In consideration that a free settlement between the rich and the poor is impossible since
-the wage-worker has but the choice to obey or to starve; and</p>
-
-<p>“In consideration that arbitration is possible and just only in case both parties are so
-situated that they can accept or refuse an offer entirely of their own free will: Be it, therefore,</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Resolved</i>, That arbitration between capital and labor is to be condemned. Wage-workers
-ought never to resort to it.”</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="p1">After expressions of sympathy for the striking coal-miners in Dubois,
-Pa., who were advised to arm themselves for defense against the bandits of
-order, the resolutions proceed:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“In consideration that our brothers and fellow combatants in the Old World are engaged
-in a terrible struggle against our common foe, the crowned and uncrowned despots of the
-world, the church and priestcraft, and thousands of them are languishing in prison and in
-Siberia and are suffering in exile: Be it, therefore,</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Resolved</i>, That we tender these heroic martyrs our sympathies, encouragement and aid.</p>
-
-<p>“In consideration that there is no material difference existing between the aims of the
-I. W. M. A. and the Socialistic Labor Party: Be it, therefore,</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Resolved</i>, That we invite the members of the S. L. P. to unite with us on the basis of
-the principles laid down in our manifesto for the purpose of a common and effective propaganda.”</p>
-
-<p>Issued by order of the Pittsburg Congress of the International Workingmen’s Association.
-For further information apply to the undersigned “Bureau of Information.”</p></div>
-
-<table id="t01" summary="t01">
-
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Secretary of the English language,</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Aug. Spies</span>.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Secretary of the German language,</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Paul Grottkau</span>.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Secretary of the French language,</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Wm. Medow</span>.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Secretary of the Bohemian language,</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">J. Mikolanda</span>.</td>
- </tr>
-
-</table>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">No. 107 Fifth Avenue, Chicago.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">In accordance with pre-arranged plans, therefore, when the street-car
-riots occurred on the West Division Railroad in the summer of 1885, the
-Anarchists and Socialists of Chicago took a prominent part and did everything
-in their power to create a bloody conflict between the police and the
-strikers. In 1886, when the laboring classes of Chicago had decided to
-strike on the 1st of May for eight hours as a day’s work, they came forward
-and resolved to strike a blow which would terrorize the community and
-inaugurate the rule of the Commune. How they went to work in that
-direction and how they succeeded is fully shown in succeeding chapters.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER IV.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">Socialism, Theoretic and Practical&mdash;Statements of the Leaders&mdash;Vengeance
-on the “Spitzels”&mdash;The Black Flag in the Streets&mdash;Resolutions in the <i>Alarm</i>&mdash;The
-Board of Trade Procession&mdash;Why it Failed&mdash;Experts on Anarchy&mdash;Parsons, Spies,
-Schwab and Fielden Outline their Belief&mdash;The International Platform&mdash;Why Communism
-Must Fail&mdash;A French Experiment and its Lesson&mdash;The Law of Averages&mdash;Extracts
-from the Anarchic Press&mdash;Preaching Murder&mdash;Dynamite or the Ballot-Box?&mdash;“The
-Reaction in America”&mdash;Plans for Street Fighting&mdash;Riot Drill and Tactics&mdash;Bakounine
-and the Social Revolution&mdash;Twenty-one Statements of an Anarchist’s Duty&mdash;Herways’
-Formula&mdash;Predicting the Haymarket&mdash;The Lehr und Wehr Verein and the Supreme
-Court&mdash;The White Terror and the Red&mdash;Reinsdorf, the Father of Anarchy&mdash;His
-Association with Hoedel and Nobiling&mdash;Attempt to Assassinate the German Emperor&mdash;Reinsdorf
-at Berlin&mdash;His Desperate Plan&mdash;“Old Lehmann” and the Socialist’s Dagger&mdash;The
-Germania Monument&mdash;An Attempt to Kill the Whole Court&mdash;A Culvert
-Full of Dynamite&mdash;A Wet Fuse and no Explosion&mdash;Reinsdorf Condemned to Death&mdash;His
-Last Letters&mdash;Chicago Students of his Teachings&mdash;De Tocqueville and Socialism.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">THE Constitution of the United States guarantees the right of free
-speech, free discussion and free assemblage. These are the cardinal
-doctrines of our free institutions. But when liberty is trenched upon to
-the extent of advocacy of revolutionary methods, subversion of law and
-order and the displacement of existing society, Socialism places itself beyond
-the pale of moral forces and arrays itself on the side of the freebooter,
-the bandit, the cut-throat and the traitor. Public measures and public men
-are open to the widest criticism consistent with truth, decency and justice,
-but differences of opinion are no more to be brought into harmony through
-blood than the settlement of private disputes is to be effected by means of
-the bludgeon, the knife or the bullet. The freedom of speech which is valuable
-either to the individual or to humanity is that which builds up, not
-destroys, society.</p>
-
-<p>Now, what does Socialism, or Anarchy, precisely teach, and at what does
-it aim? It is true, there are two schools of Socialism&mdash;one conservative and
-the other radical to a sanguinary degree; one seeking a change in existing
-society and government through enlightenment, and the other the attainment
-of the same principles through force. But the conservatives form so
-small a portion of the Socialistic body that they cut no figure in the general
-direction and management of the organization; and so far as relates to the
-visible manifestations of that body, Socialism in the United States may be
-regarded as synonymous with Anarchy.</p>
-
-<p>As I have shown, the ostensible object of the organization in Chicago, as
-elsewhere, at the outset, was peaceful, but the ulterior aim&mdash;the establishment
-of Socialism through force, when sufficiently powerful in numbers&mdash;has
-in later years clearly developed. The early Socialist orators only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>
-hinted at force as a possible factor in the social revolution they advocated,
-and it was reserved for the active agitators of the past ten years to boldly
-and openly proclaim for the methods of the Paris Commune.</p>
-
-<p>Before proceeding to particulars as to the utterances of Anarchist
-leaders, the sources of their inspiration and their definition of Socialism,
-it may be well to advert to some incidents in connection with their
-movements as a revolutionary party. One incident specially worthy of
-mention was a meeting held at Mueller’s Hall, corner of Sedgwick
-Street and North Avenue, on the evening of January 12, 1885.
-It was a secret gathering, but, despite Socialistic vigilance, Officer
-Michael Hoffman managed to remain
-and quietly note the drift of
-the speeches. Parsons first took
-the floor, and said:</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-075.jpg" width="250" height="395" id="i75"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc"><span class="smcap">The Black Flag.</span> <span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">Gentlemen, before we call this meeting
-to order, I want you to be sure that we are
-all right and all one. I want you to see
-if there are any reporters or policemen present.
-See if you can discover any spies.
-If you find any one here, you can do with
-him as you please, but my advice to you
-is, take him and strangle him and then
-throw him out of the window; then let the
-people think that the fellow fell out. And
-if you should give one of them a chance
-for his life, tell him, if he has any more
-notions to come to our meetings, he should
-first go to St. Michael’s Church, see the
-priest and prepare himself for death, say
-farewell to all his friends and family&mdash;and
-then let him enter. I want all these
-people to know that I am not afraid of
-them; I don’t like them, and let them stay
-away from me.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">After precautions had been taken
-to exclude objectionable persons, the proceedings began. Four speeches
-were delivered, two in English and two in German. Parsons confined his
-remarks to the capitalists. All present were poor, he said, and they only
-had themselves to blame. One-half of all the wealth in the country belonged
-to the poor people, but the capitalists had robbed them of it. The poor
-offered no resistance, and yet the capitalist was doing the same thing day
-after day. He was getting richer, and the poor poorer, because the working
-people lay down and permitted themselves to be robbed. He recounted
-some of Most’s experiences, and insisted that capitalists must
-submit to workingmen. They must be shown that their lives are worth
-no more than the lives of the working people.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-076.jpg" width="300" height="395" id="i76"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">THE OFFICE OF THE ARBEITER-ZEITUNG.<br />
-<span class="wn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>He next touched upon the merits of a new invention by which, he said,
-many hundreds of houses could be set on fire, and exhibited a small tin box
-or can with a capacity of four ounces. This can, he remarked, could be
-filled with some chemical stuff to serve as an explosive. A great many of
-these cans could be carried in a basket, and, traveling around as match peddlers
-or under some other guise, his hearers could secure entrance to the
-houses of capitalists. All they would then be obliged to do was to either
-place or drop one of “those darlings” in a secure place and go about their
-business. It would do
-its work, without any
-one’s presence to attend
-to it, in less time than
-an hour. If they would
-get the boxes ready, he
-would tell them where
-to get the “stuff.” This
-plan of operations would
-keep the fire and police
-departments quite busy.
-If they organized and
-went to work with a
-resolute spirit, they
-could have things all
-their own way throughout
-the city and obtain
-possession of what remained
-after their work
-of destruction. He also
-urged all his comrades
-to become familiar with
-dynamite and said that
-for the necessary instructions
-they could
-come to a building on
-Fifth Avenue (107, the offices of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> and <i>Alarm</i>), where
-he and others could be found to help them. There was no other way now
-left, he continued, except for the laborers to use the sword, the bullet
-and dynamite, and, closing sententiously, he said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">I probably will be hung as soon as I get out on the street, but if they do hang me, boys,
-don’t forget what I have been telling you about the little can and the dear stuff, dynamite,
-because this is the only way I and you can get our rights.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">It goes without saying that Parsons was applauded to the echo. Another
-speaker emphasized his remarks about dynamite, but refrained from making<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
-a speech, because, as he said, Parsons had “covered the ground so well and
-thoroughly.” One of the German speakers gave his attention to King
-William and the Pope, scoring them in the strongest language he could command.
-He held that the “police of Chicago were only kept to protect the
-property of capitalists and to club poor workingmen.”</p>
-
-<p>Another event memorable in the history of the party was the flaunting of
-the black flag on the streets of Chicago for the first time. On that occasion&mdash;November
-25, 1884, Thanksgiving Day&mdash;they marched through the
-fashionable thoroughfares of the South and North Divisions, and, with two
-women as standard-bearers for the black and the red, they made it a point
-to halt before the residences of the wealthy, uttering groans and using
-threatening language. Their route included Dearborn Street to Maple on
-the North Side. There they massed in front of the residence of Hon. E. B.
-Washburne, ex-Minister to France. They pulled the door-bell and insulted
-the family by indulging in all sorts of noises, groans and cat-calls. They
-rested satisfied with this last exhibition, and retraced their steps, proceeding
-to Market Square, where they dispersed.</p>
-
-<p>The preliminaries leading up to the procession just described were thus
-given in the <i>Alarm</i> on the following Saturday:</p>
-
-<p class="pc1">THE BLACK FLAG.</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="pch2 p1"><i>The Emblem of Hunger Unfolded by the Proletarians of Chicago.&mdash;The Red Flag Borne Aloft
-by Thousands of Workingmen on Thanksgiving Day.&mdash;The Poverty of the Poor is Created
-by the Robbery of the Rich.&mdash;Speeches, Resolutions and a Grand Demonstration of the Unemployed,
-the Tramps and Miserables of the City.&mdash;Significant Incidents.</i></p>
-
-<p class="p1">Shortly before Thanksgiving Day some of the working people, after consultation, issued
-the following circular to wage-workers and tramps:</p>
-
-<p class="p1">The Governor has ordained next Thursday for Thanksgiving. You are to give thanks
-because your masters refuse you employment; because you are hungry and without home
-or shelter, and your masters have taken away what you have created, and arranged to shoot
-you by the police or militia if you refuse to die in your hovels, in due observation of Law and
-Order. You must give thanks that you face the blizzards without an overcoat; without fit
-shoes and clothes, while abundant clothing made by you spoils in the storehouses; that you
-suffer hunger while millions of bushels of grain rots in the elevators. For this purpose a thanksgiving
-meeting will be held on Market Square at 2:30 o’clock, to be followed by a demonstration
-to express our thanks to our “Christian brothers on Michigan Avenue.” Every one that feels
-the mockery of this Thanksgiving order should be present. Signed, the Committee of the
-Grateful Workingpeople’s International Association.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Thursday opened with sleet and rain, cold and miserable. At 2:30 over three thousand
-people assembled on Market Street, under the unpitying rain and sleet. A stranger said,
-“What you want is guns; you don’t want to be heard talking.” He was stopped for the
-regular arrangements. The meeting being called to order, A. R. Parsons said: “We assemble
-as representatives of the disinherited, to speak in the name of forty thousand unemployed
-workingmen of Chicago&mdash;two millions in the United States and fifteen millions in the civilized
-world.” He compared the Thanksgiving feast to that of Belshazzar, and said the champagne
-wrung from the blood of the poor ought to strangle the rich. He then read as follows: “St.
-James, chapter 5, says, ‘Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries which
-are to come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
-Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and
-shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasures together for the last days.</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-078.jpg" width="400" height="260" id="i78"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="figcenter"><p class="pc">AN ANARCHIST PROCESSION.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which ye have kept back by
-fraud, crieth: ‘Woe to them that bring about iniquity by law.’ The prophet Habakkuk says:
-‘Woe to him that buildeth a town by blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity.’ The
-prophet Amos says: ‘Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor to
-fail from the land, that I may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes.’
-The prophet Isaiah says: ‘Woe unto them that chain house to house, and lay field to field, till
-there is no place, that they may be alone in the midst of the earth.’ Solomon says: ‘There
-is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed of their filthiness; a
-generation, O, how lifted are their eyes, and how their eyelids are lifted up: A generation
-whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw-teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the
-earth, and the needy from among men.’”</p>
-
-<p>And, concluding, he said: “We did not intend to wait for a future existence, but to do
-something for ourselves in this.”</p>
-
-<p>He introduced S. S. Griffin, who said this was an international assembly in the interests
-of humanity, having no quarrel with each other and objecting to being set at work by governmental
-scheme. “Don’t believe that any government or system should be allowed to pit
-man against man, for any cause; and to get at the root of these evils, we must go to the
-foundation of property rights and the wage system. The old system could not meet the
-demands of our present civilization. The present cry is against over-production, because it
-operates against humanity. Over-production, glutting the market, causes a lock-out, depriving
-the wage class of the means of purchasing. Vacant houses stop the building industry,
-and result in throwing builders out of employment. Ragged because of a surplus of clothing;
-homeless because of too many houses; hungry because there is too much bread; freezing
-because too much coal is produced. The system must be changed. Man can wear but one
-suit of clothes at a time and can consume only about so much. The genius of our age is
-inventing and increasing the productive power. A system that in effect tells the working
-classes that, the more they produce, the less they will have to enjoy, is a check on human progress
-and cannot continue. Everything must be made free. No man should control what he
-has no personal use for.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Upon Mr. Parsons’ call the resolutions were read, as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Whereas</span>, We have outlived wage and property system; and whereas, the right of property
-requires more effort to adjust it between man and man than to produce and distribute it:</p>
-
-<p><i>Resolved</i>, That property rights should no longer be maintained or respected, and that
-all useless workers should be deprived of useless employment and required to engage in
-productive industry; and as this is impossible under the payment system,</p>
-
-<p><i>Resolved</i>, That no man shall pay for anything, or receive pay for anything, or deprive
-himself of what he may desire, that he finds out of use or vacant.</p>
-
-<p><i>Resolved</i>, That whoever refuses to devote a reasonable amount of energy to the production
-or distribution of necessaries is the enemy of mankind and ought to be so treated; and
-so of the willful waster.</p>
-
-<p>As this system cannot be introduced as against existing ignorance and selfishness without
-force, <i>Resolved</i>, That, when introduced, the good of mankind and the saving of blood requires
-that forcible opposition shall be dealt with summarily; but that no one should be harmed for
-holding opposite opinions.</p>
-
-<p><i>Resolved</i>, That our policy is wise, humane and practical and ought to be enforced at the
-earliest possible moment.</p>
-
-<p>As an expression of thankfulness, <i>Resolved</i>, That we are thankful we have learned the true
-cause of poverty and the remedies, and can only be more thankful when the remedy is applied.</p>
-
-<p>The next speaker was Samuel Fielden. He denounced the hypocrisy of calling upon
-people to thank God for prosperity, while providing no changes for the better, when so many
-people were in actual want in the midst of abundance. When he was a boy, his mother had
-taught him to say, “Our Father who art in Heaven,” but so far as he knew, God remained
-there and would not come here until things were better arranged. “Our motto is, Liberty,
-Equality and Fraternity, embracing all men. Our international movement is to unite all
-countries and to do away with the robber class.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>August Spies spoke. Pointing to the black flag, he said it was the first time the emblem
-of hunger and starvation had been unfurled on American soil. He said we had got to strike
-down these robbers who were robbing the working people.</p>
-
-<p>In answer to a call from the Germans, Mr. Schwab spoke in German a few minutes. A
-stranger said: “Get your guns out and go for them. That is all I have got to say.” Three
-cheers were given for the social revolution. The audience then formed a procession three
-thousand strong.</p></div>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-080.jpg" width="250" height="369" id="i80"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">THE BOARD OF TRADE.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Another notable procession was on the evening of the opening of the
-new Board of Trade building. The
-Anarchists gathered in front of the
-<i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office and were
-addressed by Parsons and Fielden.
-The speeches were highly inflammatory.
-Parsons insisted that they
-ought to blow up the institution,
-and urged them to arm themselves
-“to meet their oppressors
-with weapons.” The Board of
-Trade, he said, was a robbers’
-roost, and they were reveling on
-the proceeds of the workingmen.
-“How many,” he asked, “of my
-hearers could give twenty dollars
-for a supper to-night? We will
-never gain anything by arguments
-and words. While those men are
-enjoying a sumptuous supper, workingmen
-are starving.” He characterized
-the police as bloodhounds
-and servants of the robbing capitalists,
-and suggested that the mob
-loot Marshall Field’s dry-goods
-store and other places and secure
-such things as they needed. It was apparent that these sentiments appealed
-strongly to the inclinations of the assembled rabble, and when Parsons had
-concluded the mob was ready for an even more violent harangue.</p>
-
-<p>Fielden went as far as to urge the mob to follow him and rob those
-places, and, like Parsons, held that the Board of Trade building had been
-built out of money of which they had been robbed, and that all who transacted
-business in that place were “robbers, and thieves, and ought to be
-killed.”</p>
-
-<p>There were hundreds of tramps in the throng addressed, and naturally
-all allusions to capitalists as robbers, and all suggestions to plunder, were
-greeted with applause. A procession was formed, with Oscar W. Neebe,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
-Parsons and Fielden at the head, and with two women following next carrying
-the red and black flags. They marched down to the Board of Trade,
-but, arriving at the street leading to the building, a company of police
-headed them off. Thus balked, they had to content themselves with marching
-through the streets back to their starting-point, where they separated
-without further exhibition of violence than subsequently hurling a stone
-through the window of a carriage occupied by a prominent West Side resident
-and his wife, whom they took to be a millionaire on his way to the
-Board of Trade reception. A tougher-looking lot of men than those who
-composed the procession it would be difficult to find, and, once started in
-the direction of violence at the building, there is no telling the extent of
-damage they might have inflicted. The toleration of such a parade by the
-municipal authorities was severely criticised by the community, for, had it
-not been for the action of the late Col. Welter, then Inspector of Police, in
-intercepting the procession, a serious riot would have occurred.</p>
-
-<p>Parsons, when asked subsequently why they had not blown up the Board
-of Trade building, replied that they had not looked for police interference
-and were not prepared. “The next time,” he said, “we will be prepared
-to meet them with bombs and dynamite.” Fielden reiterated the same
-sentiments and expressed the opinion that in the course of a year they
-might be ready for the police.</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Now what</span> is the Socialism or Anarchy they seek to establish? In his
-speech before Judge Gary in the Criminal Court, when asked why sentence
-of death should not be imposed upon him, Anarchist Parsons, among other
-things, thus described the condition of affairs when Socialism should obtain
-sway:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">Anarchy is a free society where there is no concentrated or centralized power, no state, no
-king, no emperor, no ruler, no president, no magistrate, no potentate of any character whatever.
-Law is the enslaving power of men. Blackstone defines the law to be a rule of action, prescribing
-what is right and prohibiting what is wrong. Now, very true. Anarchists hold
-that it is wrong for one person to prescribe what is the right action for another person, and
-then compel that person to obey that rule. Therefore, right action consists in each person
-attending to his business, and allowing everybody else to do likewise. Whoever prescribes a
-rule of action for another to obey is a tyrant, a usurper and an enemy of liberty. This is
-precisely what every statute does. Anarchy is the natural law, instead of the man-made
-statute, and gives men leaders in the place of drivers and bosses. All political law, statute
-and common, gets its right to operate from the statute; therefore, all political law is statute
-law. A statute law is a written scheme by which cunning takes advantage of the unsuspecting,
-and provides the inducement to do so, and protects the one who does it. In other words,
-a statute is the science of rascality or the law of usurpation. If a few sharks rob mankind of
-all the earth,&mdash;turn them all out of house and home, make them ragged slaves and beggars,
-and freeze and starve them to death,&mdash;still they are expected to obey the statute because it is
-sacred. This ridiculous nonsense, that human laws are sacred, and that if they are not respected
-and continued we cannot prosper, is the stupidest and most criminal nightmare of
-the age. Statutes are the last and greatest curse of men, and, when destroyed, the world will
-be free.... The statute law is the great science of rascality, by which alone the few<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
-trample upon and enslave the many. There are natural laws provided for every work of
-man. Natural laws are self-operating. They punish all who violate them, and reward all
-who obey them. They cannot be repealed, amended, dodged or bribed, and it costs neither
-time, money nor attention to apply them. It is time to stop legislation against them. We
-want to obey laws, not men, nor the tricks of men. Statutes are human tricks. The law&mdash;the
-statute law&mdash;is the coward’s weapon, the tool of the thief.... Free access to the
-means of production is the natural right of every man able and willing to work. It is the
-legal right of the capitalist to refuse such access to labor, and to take from the laborer all the
-wealth he creates over and above a bare subsistence for allowing him the privilege of working.
-A laborer has the natural right to life, and, as life is impossible without the means of
-production, the equal right to life involves an equal right to the means of production....
-Laws&mdash;just laws&mdash;natural laws&mdash;are not made; they are discovered. Law-enacting is an
-insult to divine intelligence; and law-enforcing is the impeachment of God’s integrity and His
-power.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">August Spies on the same memorable occasion gave his views of Socialism
-in these words:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">Socialism is a constructive and not a destructive science. While capitalism expropriates
-the masses for the benefit of the privileged class; while capitalism is that school of economics
-which teaches how one can live upon the labor (<i>i. e.</i>, property) of the other, Socialism
-teaches how all may possess property, and further teaches that every man must work
-honestly for his own living, and not be playing the respectable Board of Trade man, or any
-other highly too respectable business man or banker. Socialism, in short, seeks to establish
-a universal system of coöperation and to render accessible to each and every member of the
-human family the achievements and benefits of civilization, which, under capitalism, are
-being monopolized by a privileged class, and employed, not, as they should be, for the common
-good of all, but for the brutish gratification of an avaricious class. Under capitalism,
-the great inventions of the past, far from being a blessing for mankind, have been turned
-into a curse! Socialism teaches that machines, the means of transportation and communication,
-are the result of the combined efforts of society, past and present, and that they are
-therefore rightfully the indivisible property of society, just the same as the soil and the mines
-and all natural gifts should be. This declaration implies that those who have appropriated
-this wealth wrongfully, though lawfully, shall be expropriated by society. The expropriation
-of the masses by the monopolists has reached such a degree that the expropriation of
-the expropriateurs has become an imperative necessity, an act of social self-preservation.
-Society will reclaim its own even though you erect a gibbet on every street-corner. And
-Anarchism, this terrible “ism,” deduces that under a coöperative organization of society,
-under economic equality and individual independence, the “state”&mdash;the political state&mdash;will
-pass into barbaric antiquity. And we will be where all are free, where there are no
-longer masters and servants. Where intellect stands for brute force, there will no longer be
-any use for the policeman and militia to preserve the so-called “peace and order.” Anarchism,
-or Socialism, means the reorganization of society upon scientific principles and the
-abolition of causes which produce vice and crime.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Michael Schwab, in his utterances before the same tribunal, held as
-follows:</p>
-
-
-<p class="pbq p1">Socialism, as we understand it, means that land and machinery shall be held in common
-by the people. The production of goods shall be carried on by producing groups which
-shall supply the demands of the people. Under such a system every human being would
-have an opportunity to do useful work, and no doubt would work. Some hours’ work every
-day would suffice to produce all that, according to statistics, is necessary for a comfortable
-living. Time would be left to cultivate the mind and to further science and art. That is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
-what Socialists propose. According to our vocabulary, Anarchy is a state of society in which
-the only government is reason. A state of society in which all human beings do right for the
-simple reason that it is right and hate wrong because it is wrong. In such a society no laws,
-no compulsion will be necessary.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Samuel Fielden, standing before the same court, also dwelt upon Socialism,
-saying:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">And it will be a good time, a grand day for the world; it will be a grand day for humanity;
-it will never have taken a step so far onward toward perfection, if it can ever reach that
-goal, as it will when it accepts the principles of Socialism. They are the principles that
-injure no man. They are the principles that consider the interest of every one. They are
-the principles which will do away with wrong; and injustice and suffering will be reduced at
-least to a minimum under such an organization of society. As compared to the present
-struggle for existence, which is degrading society and making men merely things and animals,
-Socialism will give them opportunities of developing the possibilities of their nature.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">The platform of the International Association of Workingmen, indorsed
-by the local organization, formulates the principles of Socialism as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">1. Destruction of existing class domination, through inexorable revolution and international
-activity.</p>
-
-<p>2. The building of a free society on communistic organizations or production.</p>
-
-<p>3. Free exchange of equivalent products through the productive organization without
-jobbing and profit-making.</p>
-
-<p>4. Organization of the educational system upon a non-religious and scientific and equal
-basis for both sexes.</p>
-
-<p>5. Equal rights for all, without distinction of sex or race.</p>
-
-<p>6. The regulation of public affairs through agreements between the independent communes
-and confederacies.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The above was published in the <i>Alarm</i> of November 1, 1884, with the
-following comment:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">Proletarians of all countries, unite. Fellow workmen, all we need for the achievement of
-this great end is organization and unity.</p>
-
-<p>There exists now no great obstacle to that unity. The work of peaceful education and
-revolutionary conspiracy will, can and ought to run in parallel lines.</p>
-
-<p>The day has come for solidarity. Join our ranks! Let the drum beat defiantly the roll
-of battle; workingmen of all lands, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains; you
-have a world to win. Tremble, oppressors of the world! Not far beyond your purblind
-sight there dawn the scarlet and sable lights of the judgment day!</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Such, in brief, are the aims of Socialism as expounded by its most
-extreme representatives. The state of society they seek to establish may
-be highly beneficial to a class which, under any conditions, lacks sobriety,
-frugality, thrift and self-reliance; but just where the general mass of humanity
-is to be bettered or elevated, socially, morally or politically, is a point not
-satisfactorily explained. Their theory may look well on paper, and their
-glittering generalities may draw adherents from the ranks of the illiterate
-and the vicious, but a condition of society in which there are no masters
-and no authority can only lead to chaos. In a society “in which all
-human beings do right for the simple reason that it is right,” there can be
-neither stability nor permanence, unless human nature is recast, reconstructed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
-and regenerated. Human nature must be treated as it is found in
-the general make-up of man; and therefore a society in which all special
-desires, all ambition and all self-elevation have been eliminated, precludes
-development and progress. It reduces everything to utter shiftlessness and
-stagnation. In such a society there can be no incentive to great achievements
-in art, literature, mechanics or invention. If all are to be placed on
-an equal footing, the ignorant with the educated, the dullard with the
-genius, the profligate with the provident, and the drunken wretch with the
-industrious, what encouragement for special effort? If you “render accessible
-to each and every member of the human family the achievements and
-benefits of civilization,” holding “property in common,” why should a man
-rack his brain or strain his muscles in producing something which he
-expects to prove remunerative to himself in some way, but which under the
-Socialistic state would go to the financial benefit of all? Take away all
-incentive to improvement, and you make life scarcely worth the living.
-Where the state, or the “independent commune,” is to be entrusted with
-the care and equal distribution of wealth and the employment of men,
-the individual will give little concern for the morrow or for anything beyond
-his immediate wants. What need he accomplish more than his neighbor,
-since everything that is produced is shared jointly?</p>
-
-<p>In the Socialistic society, every man might “work honestly for his own
-living,” as Spies declares, but what would be the inevitable result of a system
-in which the state or commune undertakes to see that all have employment?</p>
-
-<p>History does not leave us room for doubt. The various constitutions of
-France recognized the right of the people to employment. It was provided
-in 1792 that it was the duty of society to afford such employment, and in
-the following year it was added that the remuneration of the laborer should
-be sufficient to support him. This doctrine was recognized until 1819,
-when it fell into “innocuous desuetude,” and it was not revived until 1848.
-In that year a placard appeared on the dead walls of Paris, to the following
-effect:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">The Provisional Government of the French Republic guarantees existence to the laborer
-by labor. It guarantees labor to every citizen. It guarantees that laborers may associate to
-obtain the profits of their legitimate labor.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">In consequence of this proclamation the Government was appealed to,
-and national work-shops were established under the auspices of the Government.
-The establishments were open to all, but, as no one was specially
-interested in their financial success, they soon proved too great a drain upon
-the resources of the nation. Failure was the result. In the assignment
-of work at the factories, skill and fitness never entered into consideration.
-One workman was as good as another, and the men, so long as they had the
-Government at their back, with living guaranteed, did not bother much
-about the kind of article they produced. The result was that inferior goods
-were thrown upon the market, and purchasers were difficult to find. This
-speedily led to the closing of the work-shops, and since then the French
-Government has never maintained that society at large must operate work-shops
-for the benefit of all. Any commune that undertakes the same task
-again must similarly fail.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-085.jpg" width="400" height="615" id="i85"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="figcenter">BANNERS OF THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION&mdash;II.<br /><span class="smcap wn">From Photographs.</span><br />
-<span class="wn">1. “Down with all Laws.”<span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;</span>6. “Long live the Social Revolution!”</span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Now, suppose that, in the new economic conditions, it should be determined
-by the “independent communes” that wages should in a measure be
-fixed according to the skill, ability and energy of the workingmen, what
-sort of allotment would fall to the great body of workers? Edward Atkinson,
-an accurate statistician of world-wide reputation, has furnished the
-public with a compilation showing what each would receive if the aggregate
-production in the United States were divided among its inhabitants. The
-annual production, he calculates, of all the industries of our country, does not
-exceed $200 per head of population. This would give a total of $12,000,000.
-If this were divided equally among families of five persons each, on a basis of
-a sixty-million population, each family would have $1,000 per annum. But,
-as I have said, suppose some families secure more than others, on account
-of greater efficiency, and that one-third of these families secure $2,000 each
-per annum. The remaining two-thirds would only secure an average of
-$500. “Suppose,” it has been said, “one-half of this third to be fortunate
-enough, or skillful enough, to increase their average to $3,000. The remaining
-half continuing at $2,000, the average share of the two-thirds would
-fall to $250, or $50 only per head, per annum.”</p>
-
-<p>As Prof. Barnard, dwelling upon the facts to be deduced from Atkinson’s
-showing, says: “Inasmuch as the idea of an average implies that as
-many are below it as are above it, it is easy to see that the only way of
-removing the scourge of poverty from the entire human race is to increase
-the productiveness of labor so that want can only be a consequence of willful
-idleness, or improvidence, or vice.”</p>
-
-<p>In the “wonderful readjustment” of wealth and the products of labor
-Socialists propose to inaugurate, there would be everywhere more misery,
-more poverty and more crime than the people are now contending with in
-the purlieus of London and Paris. That there is room for improvement in
-the condition of our social state is true, but that changes for the better can
-be obtained by Socialism and by means of violence is false. These social
-as well as governmental improvements can only be brought about by peaceable
-means. Never by force, as the logic of events demonstrated in the
-Cook County Jail. There is no question that crack-brained theorists will
-continue to spring up and exist. They have existed in the past. The
-Babeufs, the Lassalles, the Fouriers and the Karl Marxes may continue to
-preach their one-sided ideas, but universal education in the United States
-and the general morality of the masses may be safely counted upon as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
-guaranty that neither the gospel of violence nor isolated cases of bloodshed
-will ever succeed in establishing exploded and ruinous theories of politics.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-087.jpg" width="300" height="389" id="i87"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">A GROUP OF ANARCHISTS.</p>
-<p class="pch1">From a Photograph.&mdash;The central figure is that of a man in the uniform of the
-Lehr und Wehr Verein. The reclining figure in foreground is Moritz
-Neff, proprietor of Neff’s Hall.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="p2"><span class="smcap">After</span> the Socialists of Chicago had organized their military companies,
-it soon became evident that they intended to use their forces against organized
-society, and as they paraded them before the community on all public
-occasions as a
-menace to good order,
-the Illinois Legislature
-in 1879 settled
-their status
-effectually by adopting
-a law prohibiting
-armed forces in
-the State except
-those willing to
-swear to support the
-institutions of the
-State as well as of
-the nation, or to become
-members of
-the State militia. It
-was also made a
-punishable offense
-for any body of men
-to assemble with
-arms, drill or parade
-within the State
-without authority.
-The Socialists were
-not seeking State
-honors, and they
-took an appeal to
-the State Supreme
-Court on the ground
-that the legislative
-act was unconstitutional. They were beaten, and accordingly forced to
-abandon their ten companies.</p>
-
-<p>From carrying arms, however, they soon turned their attention to the
-study of explosives. They began experiments at once, and some years
-later boldly urged their adherents to become adepts in the manufacture
-and use of the most approved explosive&mdash;dynamite.</p>
-
-<p>In the <i>Alarm</i> of October 18, 1884, the following was published:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">One man armed with a dynamite bomb is equal to one regiment of militia, when it is used
-at the right time and place. Anarchists are of the opinion that the bayonet and Gatling gun
-will cut but sorry part in the social revolution. The whole method of warfare has been
-revolutionized by latter-day discoveries of science, and the American people will avail themselves
-of its advantages in the conflict with upstarts and contemptible braggarts who expect to
-continue their rascality under the plea of preserving law and order.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">The same paper, in its issue of November 1, 1884, contained this pronunciamento:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">How can all this be done? Simply by making ourselves masters of the use of dynamite,
-then declaring we will make no further claim to ownership in anything, and deny every other
-person’s right to be the owner of anything, and administer instant death, by any and all
-means, to any and every person who attempts to continue to claim personal ownership in
-anything. This method, and this alone, can relieve the world of this infernal monster called
-the “right of property.”</p>
-
-<p>Let us try and not strike too soon, when our numbers are too small, or before more of us
-understand the use and manufacture of the weapons.</p>
-
-<p>To avoid unnecessary bloodshed, confusion and discouragement, we must be prepared,
-know why we strike and for just what we strike, and then strike in unison and with all our
-might.</p>
-
-<p>Our war is not against men, but against systems; yet we must prepare to kill men who
-will try to defeat our cause, or we will strive in vain.</p>
-
-<p>The rich are only worse than the poor because they have more power to wield this
-infernal “property right,” and because they have more power to reform, and take less
-interest in doing so. Therefore, it is easy to see where the bloodiest blows must be dealt.</p>
-
-<p>We can expect but few or no converts among the rich, and it will be better for our cause
-if they do not wait for us to strike first.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Again, on February 21, 1885, from the same paper:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">The deep-rooted, malignant evil which compels the wealth-producers to become the
-independent hirelings of a few capitalistic czars, can not be reached by means of the ballot.</p>
-
-<p>The ballot can be wielded by free men alone; but slaves can only revolt and rise in insurrection
-against their despoilers.</p>
-
-<p>Let us bear in mind the fact that here in America, as elsewhere, the worker is held in
-economic bondage by the use of force, and the employment of force, therefore, becomes a
-necessity to his economic preservation. Poverty can’t vote!</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">In the same issue also appeared the following:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">Dynamite! Of all the good stuff, this is the stuff. Stuff several pounds of this sublime
-stuff into an inch pipe (gas or water pipe), plug up both ends, insert a cap with a fuse
-attached, place this in the immediate neighborhood of a lot of rich loafers who live by the
-sweat of other people’s brows, and light the fuse. A most cheerful and gratifying result
-will follow. In giving dynamite to the downtrodden millions of the globe science has
-done its best work. The dear stuff can be carried in the pocket without danger, while it is
-a formidable weapon against any force of militia, police or detectives that may want to
-stifle the cry for justice that goes forth from the plundered slaves. It is something not very
-ornamental, but exceedingly useful. It can be used against persons and things. It is better
-to use it against the former than against bricks and masonry. It is a genuine boon for the
-disinherited, while it brings terror and fear to the robbers. A pound of this good stuff beats
-a bushel of ballots all hollow, and don’t you forget it! Our law-makers might as well try to
-sit down on the crater of a volcano or a bayonet as to endeavor to stop the manufacture and
-use of dynamite. It takes more justice and right than is contained in laws to quiet the
-spirit of unrest.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="p1">In the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> of March 19, 1886, appeared the following,
-after many articles had been previously published of the same tenor as
-those in the <i>Alarm</i>:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">The only aim of the workingman should be the liberation of mankind from the shackles
-of the existing damnable slavery. Here, in America, where the workingman possesses yet
-the freedom of meeting, of speech, and of the press, most should be done for the emancipation
-of suffering mankind. But the press gang and the teachers in the schools do all in their
-power to keep the people in the dark. Thus everything tends to degrade mankind more and
-more, from day to day, and this effects a “beastening,” as is observable with Irishmen, and
-more apparent, even, with the Chinese.</p>
-
-<p>If we do not soon bestir ourselves for a bloody revolution, we can not leave anything to
-our children but poverty and slavery. Therefore prepare yourselves, in all quietness, for
-the revolution.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The following extracts are from the first number of the <i>Anarchist</i>,
-Engel’s paper, dated January 1, 1886, with the motto, “All government we
-hate”:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">Workingmen and fellows: We recognize it our duty to contend against existing rule,
-but he who would war successfully must equip himself with all implements adapted to destroy
-his opponents and secure victory. In consideration thereof we have resolved to publish the
-<i>Anarchist</i> as a line in the fight for the disinherited. It is necessary to disseminate Anarchistic
-doctrine. As we strive for freedom from government we advocate the principle of autonomy,
-in this sense: We strive towards the overthrow of the existing order, that an end may be
-put to the “abhorrent work of destruction on the part of mankind, and fratricide done away.”
-The equality of all, without distinction of race, color or nationality, is our fundamental
-principle, thus ending rule and servitude. We reject reformatory endeavors as useless play,
-adding to the derision and oppression of the workingmen. Against the never-to-be-satisfied
-ferocity of capital we recommend the radical means of the present age. All endeavors of the
-working classes not aiming at the overthrow of existing conditions of ownership and at complete
-self-government are to us reactionary. The idea of the absence of authority warrants
-that we will carry on a fight of principles only....</p>
-
-<p>No one can deny that man brings with him into the world the right to live. But this is
-denied by the property beast. He who has the whip of power will brandish it over the poor.
-What does the world offer to the poor who are compelled to carry on a mere struggle for
-existence? Patented machinery, combined with capital and other means of preservation,
-denies work to the workmen on account of the excessive offer of working powers. Workingmen
-should, therefore, enter the ranks of those who propose to set aside the present system
-of inequality and build up a system of equality and freedom. Let every one join the International
-Workingmen’s Association, and arm himself with the best weapons of modern
-times....</p>
-
-<p>The authorities in America have hitherto refused to prosecute Anarchists as the European
-powers do, not because of hatred to despotism, but from fear that the American people
-might be driven into Anarchism. As Anarchists increase, however, it is intended to do away
-with them by slow degrees. To this end a bill was introduced in Congress refusing to and
-revoking citizenship of such. Yet the Anarchist declines citizenship because he regards himself
-as cosmopolitan. We hope for more foolish things to open the eyes of American workingmen....</p>
-
-<p><i>Reflections of an Anarchist at the Grave of Leiske.</i>&mdash;After the workingman becomes a
-journeyman he feels free, casts a glance into the world&mdash;it is glorious, beautiful. He thinks
-there is happiness for him somewhere. He proposes to go abroad, but a terrible cry falls upon
-his ears&mdash;the outcry of a tormented people. He inquires, have the pariahs of to-day a right<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
-to live? and answers yes. Why otherwise born, if suffered to die with hunger? And hunger
-and poverty are the results of the stealings of the rich. Having thus concluded, he swears
-to help in the work of liberation, “in the great struggle of mankind for a better condition;”
-to take vengeance upon those responsible for this misery. In his investigations he learns the
-utter vileness of the police power, and a policeman is killed. Whereupon the workman is
-arrested, charged with the murder of Rumpf, and killed after nearly a year of most devilish
-torture. With what contempt Leiske met his executioners, and with what heroism he went
-unto his death, is known to our fellows, and he shall be avenged.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The <i>Alarm</i>, January 13, 1885:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“Force the only defense against injustice and oppression.” Because the Socialists
-advocate resistance, they are accused of brutality and want of wisdom. All men agree that
-themselves should not be trampled upon by others. If you can compel a man to agree to
-allow others to exercise control over him, you will find that the soldier will soon claim all
-you have acquired for yourselves. This only teaches that it is dangerous for the wicked to
-teach war; not so with justice. Justice can never create opposition to itself. Therefore
-“justice is always safe in accumulating force, while injustice can only accumulate force at
-its peril.” We are told force is cruel, but this is only true when the opposition is less cruel.
-If the opposition is relentless power, starving, freezing, etc., and the application of force will
-require less suffering, then force is humane. Therefore we say that dynamite is both humane
-and economical. It will, at the expense of less suffering, prevent more. It is not humane
-to compel ten persons to starve to death, when the execution of five persons would prevent
-it. A system that is starving and freezing tens of thousands of little children, in the midst
-of a world of plenty, cannot be defended against dynamiters on the ground of humanity. If
-every child that starved to death in the United States were retaliated for by the execution of
-a rich man in his own parlor, the brutal system of wage property would not last six weeks.
-It is a wonder that a father, after his vain search for bread, can see his little ones starve or
-freeze, without striking that vengeful, just and bloody blow at the cause that would prevent
-other little ones suffering a similar fate. It is not probable that men will always endure this
-cruel, relentless process of monopoly and competition.</p>
-
-<p>The privileged class use force to perpetuate their power, and the despoiled workers must
-use force to prevent it.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The <i>Alarm</i>, July 25, 1885:</p>
-
-<p class="pc1">STREET FIGHTING.</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="pch2 p1"><i>How to Meet the Enemy.&mdash;Some Valuable Hints for the Revolutionary Soldiers.&mdash;What an
-Officer of the United States Army has to Say.</i></p>
-
-<p class="p1">The following letter, published in the San Francisco <i>Truth</i> some time ago, will be read
-with interest. The letter is quoted as follows, in substance: “I am an officer in the army
-of the United States, and know whereof I write. John Upton said to me, with great earnestness,
-that the day of armies is passing away. I believe this. This introduces my subject.
-I desire to place the details of the science of butchery before the people; to point out its
-weak points, so that in future uprisings the people may stand some chance of winning. They
-have for the past twenty years been overcome only because of their own ignorance. They
-have been slaughtered and subdued because of a lack of coolness, want of knowledge, and
-adherence to what is called ‘humanity,’ ‘honorable warfare,’ etc. I assume that my readers
-agree with me that against tyrants all means are legitimate, and that in war that course is
-best, though bloodiest, which soonest ends the contest. My purpose is to persuade the people
-to add a little common sense in future to their heroism, and thus insure success.</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-091.jpg" width="400" height="621" id="i91"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="figcenter"><p class="pc">BANNERS OF THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION&mdash;III.<br />
-<span class="smcap wn">From Photographs.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="pbq">“United States and State regiments are organized on the unit of four, which permits the
-most rapid and effective change of front that can be devised. The art of war consists in
-making soldiers fight. The line of retreat must be kept open to avoid capture. In future
-revolts the people shall assume the aggressive. Army officers have wasted years of study
-over the science of street fighting, unavailingly. The plan below shows a method adopted
-as best. The troops are formed on the street in two bodies in column of four, headed by
-a Gatling gun. On the sidewalk a line of skirmishers and sharpshooters, whose duty it is to
-fire into the houses, the whole advancing cautiously. When a cross street is reached, a company
-is left to hold it, in order to keep open the avenue of retreat. Military knowledge has
-become popularized since 1877, and now, in almost any contest, it would be easy to find
-some fair leaders of the people who would devise some means of meeting such an advance,
-as indicated by the following diagram. The diagram represents a street corner. The plan
-is, at the street crossing to have bodies of revolutionists with movable barracks placed obliquely
-on the cross street, and who from there will fire vigorously upon the advancing column.
-They have supporters also in the building, also at the corner, whose duty is to throw
-dynamite upon the troops. If the position is carried, the party defending escape through
-the cross streets. The rear of the column can also be attacked from the cross streets. If
-the men in the barricades are armed with the new international dynamite rifle (which I am
-told exists in the hands of the revolutionists), I give it as a careful technical opinion, that,
-pursuing these tactics under brave and able leaders, fifty men can hold at bay and finally
-destroy in any of your cities an attacking force of five thousand troops.” Signed “R. S. S.”
-Alcatraz Island, December 8.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">The <i>Alarm</i>, December 26, 1885:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="pch2 p1"><i>Bakounine’s Groundwork for the Social Revolution.&mdash;A Revolutionist’s Duty to Himself. (Free
-translation from the German.)</i></p>
-
-<p class="p1">1. The revolutionist is self-offered; has no personal interest, but is absorbed by the one
-passion, the revolution.</p>
-
-<p>2. He is at war with the existing order of society and lives to destroy it.</p>
-
-<p>3. He despises society in its present form and leaves its reorganization to the future,
-himself knowing only the science of destruction. He studies mathematics, chemistry, etc.,
-for this purpose. The quick and sure overthrow of the present unreasonable order is his
-object.</p>
-
-<p>4. He despises public sentiment and acknowledges as moral whatever favors the revolution;
-as criminal whatever opposes it.</p>
-
-<p>5. He is consecrated; he will not spare, nor does he expect mercy. Between him and
-society reigns the war of death or life.</p>
-
-<p>6. Stringent with himself, he must be stringent with others. All sentiment must be
-suppressed by his passion for the revolutionary work. He must be ready to die and to kill.</p>
-
-<p>7. He excludes romance and sentiment and also personal hatred and revenge; never
-obeying his personal inclinations, but his revolutionary duty.</p>
-
-<p class="pc1"><i>Toward his Comrades.</i></p>
-
-<p class="p1">8. His friendship is only for his comrade, and is measured by that comrade’s usefulness
-in the practical work of the revolution.</p>
-
-<p>9. As to important affairs, he must consult with his comrades, but in execution depend
-upon himself. Each must be self-operating, and must ask help only when imperatively
-necessary.</p>
-
-<p>10. He shall use himself and his subordinates as capital to be used for the work of
-revolution, but no part of which can he dispose of without the consent of the persons involved.</p>
-
-<p>11. If a comrade is in danger, he shall not consider his personal feelings, but the interest
-of the cause.</p>
-
-<p class="pc1"><i>His Duty toward Society.</i></p>
-
-<p class="p1">12. A new candidate can be taken into the company only after proof of his merit, and
-upon unanimous consent.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>13. He lives in a so-called civilized world because he believes in its speedy destruction.
-He clings to nothing as it now is, and does not hesitate to destroy any institution. He is no
-revolutionist if arrested by personal ties.</p>
-
-<p>14. He must obtain entrance everywhere, even in the detective agency and the emperor’s
-palace.</p>
-
-<p>15. The present society should be divided into categories, the first including those sentenced
-to immediate death, the others classifying the delinquents according to their rascality.</p>
-
-<p>16. The lists are not to be influenced by personal considerations, but those are to be
-first destroyed whose death can terrify governments and deprive them of their most intelligent
-agents.</p></div>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-093.jpg" width="300" height="280" id="i93"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">THE RED BANNER OF THE<br />CARPENTERS’ UNION.<br/>
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>17. The second category embraces those who are permitted to live, but whose evil deeds
-will drive the people to
-open revolt.</p>
-
-<p>18. The third category
-embraces the dissolute
-rich whose secrets
-must be discovered
-in order to control
-their resources.</p>
-
-<p>19. The fourth category
-consists of ambitious
-officials and
-liberals whose purposes
-we must discover so as
-to prevent their withdrawing
-from our
-cause.</p>
-
-<p>20. The fifth category
-consists of doctrinaire
-conspirators;
-they must be urged to
-action.</p>
-
-<p>21. The sixth category
-is the women,
-who are divided into
-three classes: First, the brainless and heartless; second, the passionate and qualified;
-and, third, the wholly consecrated, who are to be guarded as the most valuable part of the
-revolutionary treasures.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The <i>Alarm</i> of January 9, 1886, then edited, in the absence of its editor
-and his assistant, by August Spies, contained this suggestive editorial:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“<i>The Right to Bear Arms.</i>”&mdash;After the conspiracy of the workingmen, the working classes,
-in 1877, the breaking up of the meeting on the Haymarket Square, the brutal assault upon a
-gathering of furniture workers in Vorwaerts Turner Hall, the murder of Tessman, and the
-general clubbing and shooting down of peaceably inclined wage-workers, the proletarians
-organized the Lehr und Wehr Verein, which in about a year and a half had grown to a membership
-of one thousand. This was regarded by the capitalists as a menace, and they procured
-the passage of the militia law, under which it became an offense for any body of men,
-other than those authorized by the Governor, to assemble with arms, drill or parade the streets.
-The members of the Lehr und Wehr Verein, mostly Socialists, who believed in the ballot,
-made up a test case to determine the constitutionality of this act, rejecting the counsel of the
-extremists. Judge Barnum held the law to be unconstitutional&mdash;an appeal was taken&mdash;and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
-the Supreme Court upset this decision and held the law constitutional. Thereupon the
-Lehr und Wehr Verein applied to the Supreme Court of the United States, which within
-a few days affirmed the decision of the Supreme Court of the State. Do we need comment
-on this?</p>
-
-<p>That militia law has had its uses. Where there was before a military body publicly
-organized, whose strength could be easily ascertained, now there exists an organization
-whose members cannot be estimated, and a network of destructive agencies of modern military
-character that will defy suppression.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, February 17, editorial:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">In France, during strikes, etc., a new method is lately adopted. The workingmen
-barricade themselves in the factories with provisions, taking possession of the property,
-which the manufacturers desire to preserve, and will only resort to force for their ejection in
-the most extreme case. The conflict between capitalism and workingmen is growing constantly
-sharper, and the indication is that force will bring about decisive results in the battle
-for liberty.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">The <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> of April 30:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">We are advised that the police are ordered to be ready for a conflict upon Saturday of
-next week. The capitalists are thirsting for the blood of workingmen. The workingmen
-refuse longer to be tortured and treated like dogs, and for this opposition the capitalists cry
-for blood. Perhaps they may have it, and lose some of their own. To the workingmen
-we again say: Arm yourselves, but conceal your arms lest they be stolen from you.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">The <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, May 3:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">Courage, courage, is our cry. Don’t forget the words of Herways: “The host of the
-oppressors grow pale when thou, weary of thy burden, in the corner puttest the plow; when
-thou sayest, ‘It is enough.’”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">The <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, May 4:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">Blood has flown. It happened as it had to. The militia have not been drilling in vain.
-It is historical that private property had its origin in violence. The war of classes has
-come. Yesterday, in front of McCormick’s factory, workmen were shot down whose blood
-cries for vengeance. In the past, countless victims have been offered on the altars of the
-golden calf amid the shouts of the capitalistic robbers. One has only to think of East St.
-Louis, Chicago and other places, to recognize the tactics of the extortioners. The white
-terror will be answered with the red, for the workmen are not asleep. They modestly asked
-for eight hours. The answer was to drill the police force and militia, and browbeat those
-advocating the change. And yesterday blood flowed&mdash;the reply of these devils to this modest
-petition of their slaves. Death rather than a life of wretchedness. The capitalistic tiger
-lies ready for the jump, his eyes sparkling, eager for murder, and his clutches drawn tight.
-Self-defense cries, “To arms, to arms!” If you do not defend yourselves, you will be
-ground by the animal’s teeth.</p>
-
-<p>The powers hostile to the workingmen have made common cause, and our differences
-must be subordinated to the common purpose. The statement of the capitalistic press, that
-the workmen yesterday fired first, is a bold, barefaced lie.</p>
-
-<p>In the poor shanty miserably clad women and children are weeping for husband and
-father. In the palace they clink glasses filled with costly wine and drink to the happiness
-of the bloody bandits of law and order. Dry your tears, ye poor and wretched; take
-heart, ye slaves; arise in your might and overthrow the system of robbery.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">These are a few of the many articles emanating from the Socialistic
-propaganda, calling the rabble to murder and destruction. Other declarations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
-printed in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> and pronounced upon the stump are
-in the same virulent spirit, couched in varying language as suggested by the
-events of the moment, but all breathing defiance and death to the so-called
-“capitalistic class.” There are also minute and specific directions for the
-preparation as well as the use of dynamite, Herr Most’s work on that subject
-having been largely drawn upon for the enlightenment of those who believed
-that dynamite is the weapon through the use of which the social revolution
-can be accomplished. Paragraphs, sections and chapters of Bakounine’s
-“Groundwork for the Social Revolution” were likewise read to the Socialists
-and published in their organs.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-095.jpg" width="400" height="431" id="i95"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">ATTEMPT OF DR. NOBILING TO ASSASSINATE<br />THE EMPEROR OF GERMANY.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Another source from which to draw inspiration was Reinsdorf, the
-apostle of Anarchy in Germany. The Chicago Anarchists regarded him as
-a splendid representative of their class, and praised his attempt on the life
-of the Emperor of Germany. His death on the scaffold was regarded as
-martyrdom, and his deeds were frequently extolled. His confederates in
-conspiracy, Hoedel and Nobiling, were referred to in terms of praise by
-George A. Schilling at a meeting in West Twelfth Street Turner Hall.
-Louis Lingg had been personally acquainted with Reinsdorf, and gloried
-in the man’s work and courage. The extreme section of the Chicago
-Socialists always
-sought to inculcate his
-ideas, and that the
-reader may gain some
-notion of Reinsdorf’s
-character, I reproduce
-the following translation
-from a German
-Socialistic paper, showing
-his career:</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-096.jpg" width="300" height="349" id="i96"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">AUGUST REINSDORF.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">He was the principal
-leader of all the Anarchists
-in Germany. The people
-looked upon him as the
-savior of their great cause.
-He was admired not only by
-men, but also by women.
-Wherever he went he was
-given great receptions, and
-he had many pupils.</p>
-
-<p>Reinsdorf was born in
-Prussia. When he became
-of age, he joined the party,
-and, by his good and rapid
-work, became in a short
-time the father of the Anarchistic
-agitation. But the law pursued him, and he wandered from state to state. In
-the year 1876 we find him in Switzerland, where he had many followers. One of his
-pupils and admirers was Max Hoedel, who with Reinsdorf conceived a plot to murder
-King William of Prussia. The attack upon his life was made by Hoedel on the 11th day of
-May, 1878. He fired several shots at the aged warrior, but failed, as none of them took
-effect. They missed their mark. Not satisfied with this, another man, Dr. Nobiling, also a
-pupil of Reinsdorf, made another attempt three weeks later, by firing a shot-gun filled
-with buck-shot at the old King; but again without effect. Nobiling’s deed was the
-consequence of Hoedel’s attempt, and Reinsdorf was the agitator. Failing in this, they
-concluded to wait some time until their party should get stronger and could secure
-better material. Among others Louis Lingg joined the Anarchists in Zurich. Louis was
-then very young, but he became as radical as their chief leader. The Socialists were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
-to have held a Congress there in May, 1880, but the gathering did not take place,
-as the police had notice, and Reinsdorf and his followers were compelled to leave
-Zurich and go to Freiburg (Baden), where they held secret meetings and where Reinsdorf
-declared that he himself would go to Berlin and kill the miserable mahdi by stabbing
-him to the heart. He went to Berlin to carry out this plan, but was arrested by the
-police. They could not make out a case of conspiracy against him, but he was sent to prison
-for several months on the charge of carrying a dagger. After his discharge Reinsdorf traveled
-to and from Switzerland to Germany, France and Belgium, speaking in all places where he
-stopped, and gaining many followers. His only desire was to put old Emperor William (commonly
-called “old Lehmann”) out of the way&mdash;to do something great so that all the people
-would look up to him. His only targets were royal palaces and the palaces of diplomates. He
-and others then formed a plan to murder the King, and Bismarck, and all the princes and others
-who were to participate in the dedication of the Germania monument at Ruedesheim on the
-28th day of September, 1883. But Reinsdorf met with an accident while crossing a railroad
-track, and was severely injured. This was a very painful situation for Reinsdorf. The day
-for action drew near, but he was confined to his bed. Should this beautiful plan be given
-up on that account? Never! Could not other people accomplish what he had thought out?
-Certainly. But was it sure that they would have the necessary courage at the critical moment?
-Could he trust them? Tormented by such thoughts, Reinsdorf finally submitted to the
-inevitable and confided his mission to two of his comrades. He called these people to his
-bedside and told them what he wanted done. He presented his plan in detail. Rupsch and
-Kuechler&mdash;these are their names&mdash;pledged themselves to do what he desired. They started
-on the journey with the necessary material, reached Ruedesheim safely, and on the night of
-the 27th they proceeded to a spot not far from the monument, where the railroad runs near
-the edge of the forest. They filled a culvert with a large quantity of dynamite, put a fulminating
-cap into it and drew the fuse into the forest. It was raining at the time, and they
-covered the fuse with moist ground and tied the end of it to a tree, which they marked by
-cutting into it. They then returned to Ruedesheim. The next morning they returned to the
-place. The royal train came. Kuechler gave the signal; Rupsch held his burning cigar to
-the fuse. One moment of breathless expectation! The train passed, and the explosion&mdash;failed.
-Kuechler asked Rupsch about the failure. The latter showed that the end of the
-fuse had been lighted, but did not burn because it was damp. They did not give up hope, as
-the train had to return the same way after the ceremonies were over. A new fuse was
-attached. Again the royal party passed over the critical ground, where death had been prepared
-for them. Rupsch lit the fuse again, but it did not burn. An investigation afterwards
-showed that the fuse only burned a short length and then went out. They had followed all
-Reinsdorf’s instructions but one&mdash;instead of water-proof fuse they had supplied themselves
-with the common kind. With mutual recriminations, Kuechler and Rupsch took the
-dynamite from under the culvert and went back to Ruedesheim, where they got gloriously
-drunk. After they had sobered up, they returned to Elberfeld and reported to Reinsdorf,
-who already knew that his beautiful plan had miscarried. With great wrath he listened to
-them and said: “No such thing could have happened to me.” He thought there would be
-another chance. Then he would not be in the hospital, but could carry it out himself. His
-hopes were in vain. After his discharge from the hospital in Elberfeld, he proceeded to
-Frankfort-on-the-Main, where he was arrested. The police found out that he was an
-accomplice in the conspiracy, but, putting him through the sieve, they failed to get anything
-out of him, as he would not answer a single question. He said: “You may ask me as much
-as you wish, I shall not answer.” Bachman, one of his companions and an accomplice,
-escaped to Luxemburg, where he thought he would be safe from the law, but he also was
-arrested and extradited and sent to Elberfeld to keep Reinsdorf company, together with
-Rupsch and Kuechler.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Reinsdorf and his accomplices were tried before the courts of Leipsic, and the trial
-lasted seven days. Bachman and two others were sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary.
-Rupsch got a life sentence, while Reinsdorf was sentenced to be beheaded. At his trial
-Reinsdorf was as stubborn as ever. He denied everything. When he was asked who he was
-he answered:</p>
-
-<p>“I am an Anarchist.”</p>
-
-<p>“What is Anarchy?” he was asked.</p>
-
-<p>“A company in which every sensible man can develop his ability. To permit this no one
-should be burdened with excessive labor; want and misery should be banished; every force
-should cease; every stupidity, every superstition should be banished from the world.”</p>
-
-<p>The presiding judge asked him if he was guilty or not, and to answer with “yes”
-or “no.”</p>
-
-<p>Reinsdorf answered with a steady voice: “I look upon this whole thing as a question of
-power. If we German Anarchists had a couple of army corps at our disposition, then I
-would not have to talk to this court. I for my part have nothing to say. Do with me as
-you please.”</p>
-
-<p>After the court had finished, Reinsdorf resumed his remarks and said: “The attempt at
-Niederwald failed because ‘the hand of Providence appeared,’ as the prosecution terms it. I
-tell you the awkward hand of Rupsch did it. I am sorry to say I had no one else at my
-disposal. I have nothing to repent, only that the attempt failed. At the factories the
-people are going to ruin merely for the benefit of the stockholders. These honest Christians
-swindle the working people of half of their living. My lawyer wanted to save my head, but
-for such a hounded proletarian as I am the quickest death is the best. If I had ten heads I
-would offer them with joy and lay them on the block for the good cause.”</p>
-
-<p>Before going to the scaffold, Reinsdorf ate a hearty meal, smoked a cigar, and sang a
-song. He walked steadily into the court-yard, where the scaffold was standing, guarded by
-a squad of soldiers, besides about a hundred other persons.</p>
-
-<p>“Are you August Reinsdorf?” asked the sheriff.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, that I am.”</p>
-
-<p>The death warrant was then read and the royal signature shown to him. The executioner
-then bore him to the scaffold. Reinsdorf’s last words were: “Down with barbarism;
-hurrah for Anarchy!” The axe fell and the head was severed from his body.</p>
-
-<p>The atonement for the decapitation of Reinsdorf followed quickly. The sentence had
-hardly been carried into execution when, on the 13th of January, 1885, “the miserable
-Rumpff,” as they called him, was stabbed and killed by the hand of an Anarchist at Frankfort-on-the-Main.
-<i>Sic semper tyrannis.</i></p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">With such an example of courage before them, and the revenge his
-execution invited, it is almost needless to remark that the bloodthirsty
-Anarchists of Chicago read with eager avidity anything pertaining to their
-hero. Accordingly, in the <i>Vorbote</i> of December 16, 1885, the following is
-to be found:</p>
-
-<p class="pc1">REINSDORF’S INHERITANCE.</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">In the pamphlet about Reinsdorf there is a letter published which our great martyr wrote
-the day previous to his decapitation. We are able now to publish two other letters which
-Reinsdorf wrote at the same time, to his parents and to his second brother.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">One letter reads as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="pr4">
-<span class="smcap">Halle</span>, February 6, 1885.</p>
-
-<p><i>My Dear Brother</i>: To-day is my last day, and I could not let it pass without writing to
-you to show you that I always remembered you with brotherly love. When you have read<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
-this letter I shall be one of the fortunates who are past and one of whom they can speak
-nothing but good. Now, my deeds, specially alleged against me before the courts, lie open
-before the world, and, although I am sentenced to death, I have the feeling that I did my
-duty; and this feeling it is which makes my last walk easy, to receive joyfully the everlasting
-sleep as something well earned.</p>
-
-<p>Dear August, you have often had trouble and sorrow, although you are in the blossom of
-life. People usually heed the words of one deceased more than the speeches of philosophers.
-I want to tell you a few words. Bear with strength, endurance and friendly submission the
-burden which you have laden upon yourself, and try to have satisfaction in it, so you can
-raise your children that they may be useful to you and an adornment to you. What would
-you gain by it, if you should participate in the good-for-nothing diversions of the people?
-Think, I could have done it, but I preferred the wandering existence of an Anarchist.</p>
-
-<p>When you, therefore, in years to come, look back upon the days of honest, peaceable labor
-done, and of hard duty fulfilled, then you will be filled with a joyful certainty and a quiet
-happiness that will repay you for all your sufferings. We still live, unfortunately, in a world
-of egotism and incompleteness, and only a few are in position to swim against the stream&mdash;even
-at the risk of their lives. You never did it. Good. So do your duty as the father of
-your family. Good-by. Accept a greeting from my heart for your wife and family, from</p>
-
-<p class="pr4">Your brother,<span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</span>
-<span class="smcap">August</span>.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The second letter is directed to his parents:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="pr4"><span class="smcap">Halle</span>, February 6, 1885.</p>
-
-<p><i>My Dear Parents</i>: Take in silence what cannot be helped! Who would sacrifice their children,
-if not you, who have so many? Or should the wealthy do it, when it is the cause of
-the poor for which we fight? Or should we lay our hands in our laps and wait until others
-have sacrificed themselves for us? And is it such a great sacrifice I bring? Sick as I am,
-and with a prospect of long suffering, it should be looked upon as a blessing when such an
-existence is put to a quick death. And what an end is it? Whoever they are, progressive
-or reactionary, liberal or conservative, they all hate the Anarchist Reinsdorf. As they have
-condemned his doings, they cheer his death, the crown of a faithful, self-sacrificing man.
-But his steadfastness, in defiance of thousands of obstacles, no one can deny. And this shall
-be your consolation.</p>
-
-<p>How many have had to die for smaller causes? How many have lost their lives in
-dynamite conquests? Take all this in consideration and don’t let your hearts be made heavy
-through the babble of paltry and narrow-minded people. My last thoughts are of you
-and of brothers and sisters, and of the great cause for which I die. Deep-felt wishes fill
-my heart for the prosperity of every one of you. Greetings to my brothers and sisters,
-especially Carl, Emilie, Emma and Anna, to whom I could not write personally. Shake
-once more their hands for me. You and I embrace with all the love of childhood, and I greet
-you a thousand times. Good-by, all.</p>
-
-<p class="pr4">Yours,<span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</span>
-<span class="smcap">August</span>.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">What Herr Johann Most, the present American leader of the irreconcilables,
-thought of Reinsdorf, may be judged by the following extracts from
-Most’s biography:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">From the 15th to the 22nd of December, 1884, eight workingmen, who had been captured
-in the war of the poor against the rich, were sitting in the dock, not to have justice passed
-upon them, but to await the sentence of might which the judges, acting as mouth-pieces for
-the ruling powers, had in preparation for them. The most prominent figure among these
-victims of a barbaric order of society was August Reinsdorf. To this man my little book is
-to be a tribute of esteem.</p>
-
-<p>I am well aware of the difficulty of my otherwise quite modest undertaking, to write a
-biography of the father of the Anarchistic movement within the territory of the German<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
-language, yet I hope to do the brothers near and far a service, for the time being at least, by
-sketching for them a likeness of a true hero of the Social Revolution....</p>
-
-<p>Indeed Reinsdorf was not an agitator of the common sort. Speeches delivered occasionally
-or written articles were to him only means to a higher purpose&mdash;incentives to <i>action</i>.</p>
-
-<p>Since he had recognized his ideal in Anarchism; ... since the necessity of the
-“<i>tactics of terror</i>” had dawned upon him in contradistinction to the tactics of petitioning,
-voting, “parliamenting,” bargaining, and of the peaceable and legitimate hide-and-seek practice&mdash;all
-his thinking and planning was directed to but <i>one thing</i>, he knew of but <i>one</i>
-endeavor, he gave his entire being to
-but one motive power of the Social Revolution&mdash;that
-was the propaganda of
-action.</p></div>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-100.jpg" width="250" height="346" id="i100"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">JOHANN MOST.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>In this regard he may be put beside
-the most noble conspirators of ancient
-and modern times....</p>
-
-<p>To be a revolutionist indeed, one
-must possess the faculty of thinking with
-the most acute clearness. But religious
-“fog” is the opposite of clearness of
-intellect. Yea, where religious nonsense
-has once taken a deep root, there
-every mental development is actually
-excluded, and a kind of idiocy formally
-takes its place....</p>
-
-<p>Quite different does the matter stand
-in the case of a “proletarian.” If he
-once recognize the old Lord God with
-his thunderbolt as an invented scarecrow
-which a shrewd gang of rascals
-have placed before paradise,&mdash;that man
-should not eat of the tree of knowledge,
-but that he should rather wait in
-patience for the roasted birds which,
-after his death, come flying into his
-mouth from a heavenly kitchen,&mdash;if the
-poor devil has learned to see that his
-namesake, too, wherewith they had tried to scare him previously, is also an invention
-of malicious swindlers,&mdash;then he soon applies the rule of the critic to the “high” and “highest”
-idols of earth. He loses respect for the so-called “Governments” and more and more
-learns to see in them a horde of brutal tormentors. These custodians of existing treasures
-attract his eye also to the possessors of the riches of the earth, and soon the question dawns
-upon him, Who has created all these things? The answer comes of itself. He and his like
-have done that. <i>To them</i>, therefore, belongs the whole world. They only need to take.</p>
-
-<p><i>Thus</i> the man, having cut loose from God, becomes the revolutionist <i>par excellence</i>.</p>
-
-<p>After Reinsdorf had succeeded in finding people who he thought were fit to take part in
-revolutionary actions and even risk their lives, he was also fortunate enough to discover a source
-from which dynamite, that <i>glorious stuff</i> which will literally make a road for liberty, could be
-procured.</p>
-
-<p>And how did he die? Shortly before the moment of death, and while in the hands of the
-hangman, he cried out: “Down with barbarism! Let Anarchy live!”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>These are admonishing words, which no one should leave unheeded who marches under
-the flag of the Revolution.</p>
-
-<p>Well, then! Let us act accordingly! Away with all sentimental hesitation when it comes
-to strike a blow against State, Church and Society and their representatives, as well as against
-all that exists.</p>
-
-<p>Let us never forget that the revolutionists of modern times can enter into the society
-of free and equal men only over ruins and ashes, over blood and dead bodies.</p>
-
-<p>Let us rise to the height of an August Reinsdorf! Let us complete the work which he so
-boldly began! Only thus can we avenge ourselves; only thus can we show ourselves worthy
-of him; only thus can we conquer.</p>
-
-<p>Workingmen! Look down into the freshly dug pit. There lies your best friend and
-adviser, an advance champion of your cause, a martyred witness to the greatness of the
-Anarchistic idea. Live, strive and act as he! Anarchists, in your name I lay the well-earned
-laurel-wreath upon his grave....</p>
-
-<p>The retribution for the annihilation of Reinsdorf came rapidly. Scarcely had the sentence
-been spoken, and before it had been executed, the dagger of a Nemesis had already
-taken revenge. On January 13, 1885, the head of the German detective forces, the miserable
-Rumpff, was stabbed to death by the hand of an Anarchist.</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Sic semper tyrannis</i>&mdash;So be it to all tyrants!” was heard everywhere. With great satisfaction
-every honorable man, especially every man of work, experienced that Rumpff had to
-die because he was the cause of Reinsdorf’s death....</p>
-
-<p>The combustibles are heaped up. Proletarians, throw the igniting spark amongst
-them.</p>
-
-<p>Up with force! Let the Social Resolution live!</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The revolutionists of Chicago appear more careful about exposing
-themselves to danger than their foreign co-conspirators, and, while counseling
-bloodshed, suggest ways of bringing about destruction with a minimum
-of danger. In the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> of March 16, 1885, there appeared the
-following editorial, suggesting the most effective way of using dynamite:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">In all revolutionary action three different epochs of time are to be distinguished: First
-the portion of preparation for an action, then the moment of the action itself, and finally
-that portion of time which follows the deed. All these portions of time are to be considered
-one after another.</p>
-
-<p>In the first place, a revolutionary action should succeed. Then as little as possible ought
-to be sacrificed,&mdash;that is, in other words, the danger of discovery ought to be weakened as much
-as possible, and, if it can be, should be reduced to naught. This calls for one of the most
-important tactical principles, which briefly might be formulated in the words: Saving of the
-combatants. All this constrains us to further explain the measures of organization and
-tactics which must be taken into consideration in such an action.</p>
-
-<p>Mention was made of the danger of discovery. That is, in fact, present in all three of
-the periods of conflict. This danger is imminent in the preparation of the action itself, and
-finally, after the completion thereof. The question is now, How can it be met?</p>
-
-<p>If we view the different phases of the development of a deed, we have, first, the time of
-preparation.</p>
-
-<p>It is easily comprehensible for everybody that the danger of discovery is the greater the
-more numerous the mass of people or the group is which contemplates a deed, and <i>vice versa</i>.
-On the other hand, the threatening danger approaches the closer the better the acting
-persons are known to the authorities of the place of action, and <i>vice versa</i>. Holding fast to
-this, the following results:</p>
-
-<p>In the commission of a deed, a comrade who does not live at the place of action&mdash;that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
-is, a comrade of some other place&mdash;ought, if possibility admits, to participate in the action;
-or, formulated differently, a revolutionary deed ought to be enacted where one is not
-known.</p>
-
-<p>A further conclusion which may be drawn from what was mentioned is this:</p>
-
-<p>Whoever is willing to execute a deed has, in the first place, to put the question to himself,
-whether he is able, or not, to carry out the action by himself. If the former is the case, let
-him absolutely initiate no one into the matter and let him act alone; but if that is not the
-case, then let him look, with the greatest care, for just so many fellows as he must have,
-absolutely&mdash;not one more nor less; with these let him unite himself into a fighting
-group.</p>
-
-<p>The founding of special groups of action or of war is an absolute necessity. If it were
-attempted to make use of an existing group to effect an action, discovery of the deed would
-follow upon its heels, if it came to a revolutionary action at all, which would be very
-doubtful. It is especially true in America, where reaction has velvet paws, and where
-asinine confidence is, from a certain direction, directly without bounds. In the preparation,
-even, endless debates would develop; the thing would be hung upon the big bell; it would
-be at first a public secret, and then, after the thing was known to everybody, it would also
-reach the long ears of the holy Hermandad (the sacred precinct of the watchman over the
-public safety), which, as is known to every man, woman and child, hear the grass grow and
-the fleas cough.</p>
-
-<p>In the formation of a group of action, the greatest care must be exercised. Men must
-be selected who have head and heart in the right spot.</p>
-
-<p>Has the formation of a fighting group been effected, has the intention been developed,
-does each one see perfectly clear the manner of the execution, then action must follow with
-the greatest possible swiftness, without delay, for now they move within the scope of the
-greatest danger, simply from the very adjacent reason, because the select allies might yet
-commit treason without exposing themselves in so doing.</p>
-
-<p>In the action itself, one must be personally at the place, to select personally that point of
-the place of action, and that part of the action, which are the most important and are
-coupled with the greatest danger, upon which depend chiefly the success or failure of the
-whole affair.</p>
-
-<p>Has the deed been completed, then the group of action dissolves at once, without further
-parley, according to an understanding which must be had beforehand, leaves the place of
-action, and scatters in all directions.</p>
-
-<p>If this theory is acted upon, then the danger of discovery is extremely small&mdash;yea,
-reduced to almost nothing, and from this point of view the author ventures to say, thus, and
-not otherwise, must be acted, if the advance is to be proper.</p>
-
-<p>It would be an easy matter to furnish the proof, by the different revolutionary acts in
-which the history of the immediate past is so rich, that the executors sinned against the one
-or the other of the aforementioned principles, and that in this fact lies the cause of the discovery,
-and the loss to us of very important fellow-champions connected therewith; but we
-will be brief, and leave that to the individual reflection of the reader. But one fact is established&mdash;that
-is this: That all the rules mentioned can be observed without great difficulty;
-further, that the blood of our best comrades can be spared thereby; finally, as a consequence
-of the last-mentioned, that light actions can be increased materially, for the complete
-success of an action is the best impulse to a new deed, and the things must always succeed
-when the rules of wisdom are followed.</p>
-
-<p>A further question which might probably be raised would be this: In case a special or
-conditional group must be formed for the purpose of action, what is the duty, in that case,
-of the public groups, or the entire public organization, in view of the aforesaid action? The
-answer is very near at hand. In the first place, they have to serve as a covering&mdash;as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>
-shield behind which one of the most effective weapons of revolution is bared; then these
-permanent groups are to be the source from which the necessary pecuniary means are drawn
-and fellow-combatants are recruited; finally, the accomplished deeds are to furnish to permanent
-groups the material for critical illustration. These discussions are to wake the
-spirit of rebellion,&mdash;that important lever of the advancing course of the development of our
-race,&mdash;without which we would be forever nailed down to the state of development of a
-gorilla or an orang-outang. This right spirit is to be inflamed, the revolutionary instinct is to
-be roused which still sleeps in the breast of man, although these monsters, which, by an
-oversight of nature, were covered with human skin, are earnestly endeavoring to cripple the
-truly noble and elevated form of man by the pressure of a thousand and again a thousand
-years&mdash;to morally castrate the human race. Finally, the means and form of conquest are
-to be found by untiring search and comparison, which enhance the strength of each proletarian
-a thousandfold, and make him the giant Briareus, alone able to crush the ogres
-of Capital.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">I have thus shown the manner and methods by which Socialism seeks
-to gain a foothold in America. In their declarations of principles and
-encouragements to violence, these agitators have proved themselves traitors
-to their country or the country of their adoption, and ingrates to society.
-They have sought, and are seeking, to establish “Anarchy in the midst of
-the state, war in times of peace, and conspiracy in open day.” They are
-the “Huns and Vandals of modern civilization.”</p>
-
-<p>As De Tocqueville says: “Democracy and Socialism are the antipodes
-of each other. While Democracy extends the sphere of individual independence,
-Socialism contracts it. Democracy develops a man’s whole
-manhood; Socialism makes him an agent, an instrument, a cipher. Democracy
-and Socialism harmonize on one point only&mdash;the equality which
-they introduce. But mark the difference: Democracy seeks equality in
-liberty, while Socialism seeks it in servitude and constraint.”</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER V.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">The Socialistic Programme&mdash;Fighting a Compromise&mdash;Opposition to the
-Eight-hour Movement&mdash;The Memorial to Congress&mdash;Eight Hours’ Work Enough&mdash;The
-Anarchist Position&mdash;An <i>Alarm</i> Editorial&mdash;“Capitalists and Wage Slaves”&mdash;Parsons’
-Ideas&mdash;The Anarchists and the Knights of Labor&mdash;Powderly’s Warning&mdash;Working
-up a Riot&mdash;The Effect of Labor-saving Machinery&mdash;Views of Edison and
-Wells&mdash;The Socialistic Demonstration&mdash;The Procession of April 25, 1886&mdash;How the
-<i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> Helped on the Crisis&mdash;The Secret Circular of 1886.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">WHILE the Socialists are bent on a revolution in the economic condition
-of the working class, or, as they choose to term it, the
-proletariat, they have conclusively shown that they do not desire to
-further that movement by pacific means. Imbued with the doctrines of
-violence and intent on the complete destruction of government, they do not
-seek their end by orderly, legitimate methods. This fact has been most
-thoroughly established by the extracts from their public declarations which
-I have already given.</p>
-
-<p>But if any doubts still exist with reference thereto, they are completely
-dissipated by an examination into the attitude assumed by the Socialists
-toward the labor problem as it exists at the present day. It is not my purpose
-to enter into a detailed review of the whole field. I will simply call
-attention to one fact, and in that fact one sweeps the labor horizon, viewed
-from the Socialistic standpoint, as the astronomer sweeps the heavens with
-his telescope, striking the most prominent objects within the range of observation.
-This one fact is the position of the Socialists toward the eight-hour
-movement.</p>
-
-<p>It is generally known that many economists and agitators, with neither
-affiliations nor sympathy for Socialism, have been contending for years that
-with the rapid increase in labor-saving machinery and the consequent displacement
-of labor, reduction in the hours of service has become an absolute
-necessity. The points made in support of this position are numerous, and
-as the most salient ones appear in a memorial on the part of a National
-Labor Convention to the Committee on Depression in Labor and Business
-of the Forty-sixth Congress, drafted November 10, 1879, I may briefly quote
-a few. The memorial asked a reduction:</p>
-
-<p>1. In the name of political economy. “All political economists are
-agreed,” they said, “that the standard of wages is determined by the cost
-of subsistence rather than by the number of hours employed. Wages are
-recognized as resulting from the necessary cost of living in any given community.
-The cost of subsistence for an average family determines the rate,
-and it is for this reason that single men can save more if they will.”</p>
-
-<p>2. In the interest of civilization. “The battle for a reduction of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
-hours of labor is a struggle for a wider civilization.” With less hours, more
-leisure is afforded for mental and social improvement. In proof the memorialists
-appealed to the past and to the fact that one day of rest in seven has
-raised the social condition of the people. Besides, they urged, the “history
-of the short-hour movement in England proved conclusively that every
-reduction of time in the United Kingdom had invariably been followed by
-an increase of wages,” and the consequent improvement of workingmen.</p>
-
-<p>3. The changed relations between production and consumption demand
-remedial legislation. A reduction of hours would give more men employment.
-Under existing conditions, capital and production have increased
-while the number of persons employed has fallen off.</p>
-
-<p>These are doctrines one would think the Socialist, pretending to have
-the interests of labor at heart, would unquestionably and heartily indorse.
-Far from it. True to his nature as a social disturber, disorganizer and
-malcontent, he sees in it a possible solution of many labor troubles and
-the approach to a rearrangement of existing conditions on a basis different
-from his own theories. When this question arose in Chicago in the winter
-of 1885-86, the <i>Alarm</i> entered its most emphatic protest. In its issue of
-December 12, 1885, it had this to say, under the heading, “No Compromise”:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">We of the Internationale are frequently asked why we do not give our active support to
-the proposed eight-hour movement. Let us take what we can get, say our eight-hour friends,
-else by asking too much we may get nothing.</p>
-
-<p>We answer: Because we will not compromise. Either our position that capitalists have
-no right to the exclusive ownership of the means of life is a true one, or it is not. If we are
-correct, then to concede the point that capitalists have the right to eight hours of our labor, is
-more than a compromise; it is a virtual concession that the wage system is right. If capitalists
-have the right to own labor or to control the results of labor, then clearly we have no
-business dictating the terms upon which we may be employed. We cannot say to our
-employers, “Yes, we acknowledge your right to employ us; we are satisfied that the wage
-system is all right, but we, your slaves, propose to dictate the terms upon which we will
-work.” How inconsistent! And yet that is exactly the position of our eight-hour friends.
-They presume to dictate to capital, while they maintain the justness of the capitalistic system;
-they would regulate wages while defending the claims of the capitalists to the absolute
-control of industry.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">These sentiments were frequently reiterated by A. R. Parsons, who was
-the editor of the <i>Alarm</i>; and in August Spies he found an energetic ally.
-Among other things Spies said concerning the movement:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">We do not antagonize the eight-hour movement. Viewing it from the standpoint that
-it is a social struggle, we simply predict that it is a lost battle, and we will prove that, even
-though the eight-hour system should be established at this late day, the wage-workers would
-gain nothing. They would still remain the slaves of their masters.</p>
-
-<p>Suppose the hours of labor should be shortened to eight, our productive capacity would
-thereby not be diminished. The shortening of the hours of labor in England was immediately
-followed by a general increase of labor-saving machines, with a subsequent discharge
-of a proportionate number of employés. The reverse of what had been sought took place.
-The exploitation of those at work was intensified. They now performed more labor, and
-produced more than before.</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="p1">The movement, however, took a firm hold of the laboring classes. They
-saw in it a chance to secure more leisure, and, inspired by their anti-Socialistic
-leaders, did all in their power to further it. There were then in Chicago
-a great many unemployed, and under the plea that a reduction in the
-hours of toil would not only give more time for self-improvement, but
-necessitate the employment of many of the idle throng, the leaders advocated
-its speedy introduction. At this time the general sentiment prevailed
-that it was simply a movement for a reduction in working-time, the question
-of wages not being involved. Some few irresponsible talkers of the
-Socialistic stamp, it is true, held out that it was to be a contention for wages
-as well, but the most influential and conservative representatives of labor
-insisted that they only wanted eight hours’ work for eight-hours’ pay. Grand
-Master Workman Powderly held to the latter view and repeatedly urged the
-members of the Knights of Labor not to go beyond that demand. He
-even intimated a doubt if it were the part of wisdom and policy to undertake
-at the time a strike of the kind, in view of the complications then
-growing out of the Missouri Pacific Railway&mdash;known as the Gould system&mdash;“tie-up.”
-Traffic and industry had been seriously affected throughout
-the West by Martin Irons’ stubbornness, and it is evident that Powderly
-had his misgivings about the outcome of an eight-hour strike. However,
-the leaders continued their agitation, and it was decided that the resolution
-adopted in 1884 by a number of trades organizations in national session
-for an eight-hour strike on May 1, 1886, should be carried out in Chicago,
-as in other large manufacturing and trade centers. Had this simple proposition
-not been “loaded,” the result of the movement might have been
-different, but, as the time drew near, it became quite apparent that, despite
-Powderly’s warnings, the question of wages was to cut a leading figure. It
-was developed that the demand for a reduction of hours was to be accompanied
-with a demand for the same wages as under the old ten-hour system.
-This was the rock upon which they subsequently foundered. Had they been
-content to accept decreased wages and relied upon increased efficiency and
-skill and the logic of events to secure increased pay in the future, they
-might have scored many victories, if not a complete success.</p>
-
-<p>But they were alike unmindful of Powderly’s advice and the teachings
-of history. They seemingly forgot that the employers would naturally
-resist any such sweeping concession, and that, as in other instances, the
-unemployed would at once be installed, whenever possible, in their places,
-and that in industries where there did not exist an over-production, the
-capacity of machines would be more heavily taxed and new machines would
-be introduced to do work hitherto done by hand. A London publication
-has shown how, in recent years, in the extremity of bitter strikes, manufactories
-have increased their labor-saving machinery to offset the absence
-of their workmen and how invention in the line of new machines has been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
-greatly stimulated by a stubborn conflict between employer and employé.
-Hon. David A. Wells has also pointed out a similar result in this country.
-Identically the same thing happened in several establishments in Chicago.
-The unemployed and new machines were called into requisition whenever
-possible.</p>
-
-<p>But labor-saving machinery need not necessarily be regarded as an
-enemy of labor. That doctrine, which had its origin at the time when a
-riot in Spain followed the introduction of a machine to make woolens, and
-which continued until the invention of the sewing-machine, has in this day
-come to be regarded by all enlightened economists as a nightmare of the
-musty past. The fact is labor has been aided and benefited by machinery.</p>
-
-<p>Prof. Edison, the great inventor, is authority for the statement that the
-increase in machinery and inventions during the last fifty years has doubled
-the wages of workingmen and reduced the cost of the necessaries of life 50
-per cent. “For the first time in the world’s history,” he says, “a skilled
-mechanic can buy a barrel of flour with a single day’s work.” Hon. David
-A. Wells, in an article in the <i>Popular Science Monthly</i> for October, 1887,
-treating of the depression of prices since 1873, also demonstrates the fact
-that the reductions, which he states to be 30 per cent., during the time
-under his review, are due to inventions. Edison goes still further in
-his statement with reference to the enhancement of wages. He predicts,
-rather too glowingly perhaps, that in another generation even “the unskilled
-laborer, if sober and industrious, will have a house of his own, a library, a
-piano and a horse and carriage,” with all the comforts that these imply.</p>
-
-<p>Anarchist Spies evidently took no stock in such a condition as the result
-of new and improved mechanical appliances, for in his early opposition to
-the inauguration of the eight-hour movement he declared that “for a man
-who desires to remain a wage slave, the introduction of every new improvement
-and machine is a threatening competitor.”</p>
-
-<p>I have thus pointed to some facts bearing on strikes and wages because
-it has since transpired that the Anarchists or Socialists, intent on precipitating
-the “social revolution,” were the principal instigators of the demand
-for ten hours’ pay for eight hours’ work, thereby hoping to irritate the employers
-to determined resistance and the workingmen of non-Socialistic
-ideas to the point of violence. Past experience was cast aside under their
-clandestine guidance. While the movement was in its infancy the Socialists,
-as such, held aloof, but, the moment they saw that it was gaining strength
-and was likely to involve all the wage-workers in the city, and that eight
-hours on a basis of reduced pay might be secured, they perceived their
-opportunity to complicate matters by the introduction of a demand for the
-old wages with reduced time. This at once threw down the gauntlet.
-While before they had opposed the movement, they now became active
-agitators in its behalf and appeared more solicitous about its certain inauguration<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
-than they were about its successful ending. Their organs bristled
-with incendiary language. Their speakers could hardly find words strong
-enough to fire their auditors in the demand for eight hours. They even got
-up a procession under the auspices of the Central Labor Union, and, on
-Sunday, April 25, 1886, paraded the streets with red flags and red badges.</p>
-
-<p>Among some of the mottoes displayed were: “The Social Revolution,”
-“Workingmen, Arm Yourselves,” “Down with Throne, Altar and Moneybags,”
-and “Might makes Right, and You are the Strongest.”</p>
-
-<p>The procession massed on the Lake Front. There the leading speakers
-were loud in encouraging the strike for eight hours. Parsons maintained that
-“if the demands of workingmen were met by a universal lock-out, the signal
-would be taken as one of ‘war, and war to the knife.’” Spies declared
-that “the eight-hour day had been argued for twenty years. We at last
-can hope to realize it.” Schwab and Fielden were alike emphatic.</p>
-
-<p>The <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> likewise heartily indorsed the movement. In its
-issue of April 26, 1886, appeared an editorial of which the following is
-the concluding paragraph:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">What a modest demand, the introduction of the eight-hour day! And yet a corps of
-madmen could not demean themselves worse than the capitalistic extortioners. They continually
-threaten with their disciplined police and their strong militia,&mdash;and these are not
-empty threats. This is proved by the history of the last few years. It is a nice thing, this
-patience, and the laborer, alas! has too much of this article; but one must not indulge in a
-too frivolous play with it. If you go further, his patience will cease; then it will be no
-longer a question of the eight-hour day, but a question of emancipation from wage slavery.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">In the same paper two days later the editor said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">What will the first of May bring? The workingmen bold and determined. The decisive
-day has arrived. The workingman, inspired by the justice of his cause, demands an alleviation
-of his lot, a lessening of his burden. The answer, as always, is: “Insolent rabble!
-Do you mean to dictate to us? That you will do to your sorrow. Hunger will soon rid
-you of your desire for any notions of liberty. Police, executioners and militia will give
-their aid.”</p>
-
-<p>Men of labor, so long as you acknowledge the gracious kicks of your oppressors with
-words of gratitude, so long you are faithful dogs. Have your skulls been penetrated by a
-ray of light, or does hunger drive you to shake off your servile nature, that you offend your
-extortioners? They are enraged, and will attempt, through hired murderers, to do away
-with you like mad dogs.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">When the eventful day&mdash;May 1&mdash;arrived, the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> became
-more menacing than ever, and the following appeared:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">Bravely forward! The conflict has begun. An army of wage-laborers are idle. Capitalism
-conceals its tiger claws behind the ramparts of order. Workmen, let your watchword
-be: No compromise! Cowards to the rear! Men to the front!</p>
-
-<p>The die is cast. The first of May has come. For twenty years the working people have
-been begging extortioners to introduce the eight-hour system, but have been put off with
-promises. Two years ago they resolved that the eight-hour system should be introduced in
-the United States on the first day of May, 1886. The reasonableness of this demand was
-conceded on all hands. Everybody, apparently, was in favor of shortening the hours; but, as
-the time approached, a change became apparent. That which was in theory modest and
-reasonable, became insolent and unreasonable. It became apparent at last that the eight-hour
-hymn had only been struck up to keep the labor dunces from Socialism.</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-109.jpg" width="400" height="619" id="i109"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">BANNERS OF THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION&mdash;IV.<br /><span class="smcap wn">From Photographs.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>That the laborers might energetically insist upon the eight-hour movement, never occurred
-to the employer. And it is proposed again to put them off with promises. We are not
-afraid of the masses of laborers, but of their pretended leaders. Workmen, insist upon the
-eight-hour movement. “To all appearances it will not pass off smoothly.” The extortioners
-are determined to bring their laborers back to servitude by starvation. It is a
-question whether the workmen will submit, or will impart to their would-be murderers an
-appreciation of modern views. We hope the latter.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">In the same issue of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> also appeared the following, in
-a conspicuous place:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">It is said that on the person of one of the arrested comrades in New York a list of
-membership has been found, and that all the comrades compromised have been arrested.
-<i>Therefore, away with all rolls of membership, and minute-books, where such are kept. Clean your
-guns, complete your ammunition. The hired murderers of the capitalists, the police and militia,
-are ready to murder. No workingman should leave his house in these days with empty pockets.</i></p>
-
-<p class="p1">The consummate inconsistency of the Socialists is thus no better illustrated
-in what has already been shown than in their record in Chicago.
-They have always been eager to jump on top of the band wagon, to paraphrase
-a famous expression of Emery A. Storrs, when they thought that it
-gave them a chance to join in the lead of the procession; and, the moment
-they had a voice in directing the music, they led it beyond the mere sentiments
-of a Marseillaise. Take each formidable strike in the city, and
-invariably they have instigated the rabble to deeds of disorder and violence.
-What care they for labor reforms accomplished through peaceable agitation?
-It is only when a pretext is presented for widening the breach
-between capital and labor, and hastening the time for revolution, that the
-Socialists join in any movement looking to the real benefit of labor. It is
-true, they have figured in labor reforms, such as the agitation for national
-and State bureaus of labor statistics, the abolition of convict labor in competition
-with outside industries, the prevention of child labor in factories
-and work-shops, the sanitary inspection of tenement-houses and factories;
-but all these have been merely side issues to their one and controlling purpose&mdash;Revolution.
-For appearance’ sake they have boasted of their achievements
-in the lines indicated, but it is a fact of history that, without the
-efforts of non-Socialistic labor, none of the reforms so far accomplished
-would ever have been secured. The fact is that Socialists and Anarchists
-are radically opposed to the whole wage system and only join in the
-demands of law-observing and peace-loving labor as a means to one end&mdash;opportunity
-for disturbance. For this purpose alone they have become
-members of the Knights of Labor, and, once in, they have proved an element
-of disorder and contention. So pronounced had they become in
-fomenting trouble during the eight-hour agitation that Mr. Powderly
-finally found it necessary to issue a secret circular to the order in the spring
-of 1886. In that circular, among other things, he said:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-111.jpg" width="400" height="326" id="i111"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">INTERIOR VIEW OF NEFF’S HALL.&mdash;<span class="wn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">Men who own capital are not our enemies. If that theory held good, the workman of to-day
-would be the enemy of his fellow-toiler on the morrow, for, after all, it is how to acquire
-capital and how to use it properly that we are endeavoring to learn. No! The man of capital
-is not necessarily the enemy of the laborer; on the contrary, they must be brought closer
-together. I am well aware that some extremists will say I am advocating a weak plan and
-will say that bloodshed and destruction of property alone will solve the problem. If a man
-speaks such sentiments in an assembly read for him the charge which the Master Workman
-repeats to the newly initiated who join our “army of peace.” If he repeats such nonsense
-put him out.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Wise words and well spoken.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER VI.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">The Eight-hour Movement&mdash;Anarchist Activity&mdash;The Lock-out at McCormick’s&mdash;Distorting
-the Facts&mdash;A Socialist Lie&mdash;The True Facts about McCormick’s&mdash;Who
-Shall Run the Shops?&mdash;Abusing the “Scabs”&mdash;High Wages for
-Cheap Work&mdash;The Union Loses $3,000 a Day&mdash;Preparing for Trouble&mdash;Arming the
-Anarchists&mdash;Ammunition Depots&mdash;Pistols and Dynamite&mdash;Threatening the Police&mdash;The
-Conspirators Show the White Feather&mdash;Capt. O’Donnell’s Magnificent Police
-Work&mdash;The Revolution Blocked&mdash;A Foreign Reservation&mdash;An Attempt to Mob the
-Police&mdash;The History of the First Secret Meeting&mdash;Lingg’s First Appearance in the
-Conspiracy&mdash;The Captured Documents&mdash;Bloodshed at McCormick’s&mdash;“The Battle
-Was Lost”&mdash;Officer Casey’s Narrow Escape.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">THE events immediately preceding the inauguration of the eight-hour
-strike were remarkable in the opportunities they afforded Anarchists
-for arousing workingmen against capital and stirring up their worst
-passions. The leaders had already intensified the clamor for reduced
-working-time, and only the occasion was needed to fully arouse the true
-ruffianism behind the Socialistic rabble. This occasion was presented in
-the troubles that grew out of the “lock-out” at McCormick’s Harvester
-Works, and, as the facts in connection therewith are necessary to a clear
-and comprehensive understanding of the situation, I shall briefly review
-them. Before doing so, however, it may be well to premise by saying that
-the real state of affairs in that trouble was greatly exaggerated, and that,
-instead of dividing responsibility, the Socialistic orators sought to throw the
-sole burden upon the owners and managers of that establishment, charging
-them, in the heat and excitement of the times, with gross violation of pledged
-faith to the men employed, and instigating even violent resistance to the
-installation of new men, or “scabs,” as they were opprobriously termed,
-into the vacated places.</p>
-
-<p>This so-called “lock-out” occurred on February 16, 1886, and through
-it some twelve hundred men became idle. The Anarchists proceeded at
-once to distort every fact in connection with it. The view they presented
-of the affair may be best shown by the following extract from a history of
-the Chicago Anarchists published by the Socialistic Publishing Society:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">The employés of that establishment had been for some time perfecting their organization,
-and at last had presented a petition for the redress of certain grievances and a general advance
-of wages. The dispute arose over an additional demand that a guarantee be given that no
-man in the factory should be discharged for having acted as a representative of his comrades.
-This was absolutely refused. A strike in the factory in the preceding April had been adjusted
-on the basis that none of the men who served on committees, etc., and made themselves conspicuous
-in behalf of their fellow workmen, would be discharged for so doing. This agreement
-has been wantonly violated, and every man who had incurred the displeasure of Mr. McCormick
-was not only discharged, but black-listed, in many cases being unable to obtain employment
-in other shops.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="p1">It thus appears that the Socialist leaders not only hoped to utilize the
-strike to precipitate their revolution, but, by purposely misstating the grievances
-of McCormick’s men, to engender a bitter and violent feeling against
-that establishment. Now, what were the true facts in the case? Along in
-February the employés in the works asked for a uniformity of wages, the
-re-employment, as occasion demanded, of all old hands, who had been out
-of work since the strike in April preceding, and the discharge of five non-union
-men employed in the foundry. Mr. Cyrus McCormick generously
-conceded the first two demands, but firmly declined to discharge the non-union
-men, as he regarded this as an interference with the company’s right
-of employing whom they pleased. Thereupon the employés held a meeting
-and formulated an <i>ultimatum</i>, in which they insisted upon the discharge as
-requested, “not because,” as they said, “they wanted to abridge the privilege
-of hiring and discharging, but because Foreman Ward threatened to
-pursue old hands with such vindictiveness that he would drive them over
-the ‘Black Road,’ or else they would have to walk in their nakedness,” and in
-justice to the old employés the non-union workmen ought to be “thrown
-out.” Mr. McCormick took the position that this was an attempt to dictate
-that only union men should be employed in the works, and he finally
-declared that the company had always decided and always would decide
-who were best suited to do its work, and whom or how many men it would
-employ or discharge. If the concessions already made were not satisfactory,
-he would close the works.</p>
-
-<p>During the strike of the preceding spring, McCormick had done just
-what other manufacturers had done in similar cases&mdash;introduced new machinery
-to perform work hitherto done by hand. He had put in new molding
-apparatus and had found that the new machines in the hands of ordinary
-laborers, as soon as they learned to handle them, turned out daily far more
-molds and more reliable ones than the old hand process. On the outbreak
-of the trouble in February there were fifteen men employed in the foundry,&mdash;ten
-old hands and five non-union men. The services of all of them
-might thus have been dispensed with, since skilled labor was not necessary,
-and, with the addition of more machines and a few raw hands, just as much
-and just as good work, he claimed, might have been produced. But the
-owners desired to favor the employés, and, having granted a uniformity of
-wages even to the extent of advancing the pay of ordinary labor to $1.50
-per day, a sum greater than that paid by similar industries elsewhere, and
-having promised to give preference to old employés when additional hands
-were needed, they resolved not to be dictated to by outside malcontents nor
-to discharge men who had done efficient work for the company.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-114.jpg" width="400" height="247" id="i114"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">A STRIKE.<br /><span class="smcap">The Walking Delegate Sowing the Seed of Discontent.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The grant of such a request would, they held, be virtually placing the management of
-the concern in the hands of outsiders. When, therefore, the employés,
-instigated by the Anarchists, resolved to strike for their demand, McCormick
-took time by the forelock and ordered the works closed on and after nine
-o’clock on the morning of February 16, to remain closed until the strikers
-decided to return.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-115.jpg" width="300" height="471" id="i115"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">GREIF’S HALL.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>By this “lock-out” the employés were deprived of
-$3,000 a day in the shape of wages, that amount representing the daily payroll
-of the concern. Meanwhile, pending the lock-out, the company canvassed
-the possibility of
-an early resumption of
-business and quietly perfected
-arrangements for
-that step, which they concluded
-to take on March 1.
-Of course, this contemplated
-move enraged all
-the groups in the city.
-The strikers in the vicinity
-of the factory were especially
-excited. Ever since
-the establishment had
-closed its doors the neighborhood
-had been infested
-with idlers and vicious-looking
-men. They had
-all felt confident that the
-firm would be finally
-forced to submit, but when
-it gradually dawned upon
-their minds that arrangements
-had actually been
-made for a resumption of
-work without reference
-to the wishes of the “outs,”
-they determined to prevent
-it by force. They
-were the first to decide on
-violent measures, and they
-presented their purpose to the members of Carpenters’ Union No. 1.
-The result was that two secret meetings of the armed men of both
-unions were held between February 27 and March 3 at Greif’s Hall.
-The first meeting called out nearly all the “armed men” of the Metal-workers’
-Union and about one hundred and forty men belonging to International
-Carpenters’ Union No. 1, some with rifles, revolvers and dynamite
-bombs. They then and there formulated a plan to prevent the “scabs”
-from going to work. The plan was that the metal-workers should gather<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>
-in the vicinity of the factory at about five o’clock on the morning the works
-were to be reopened, well equipped with bombs, rifles and revolvers.
-Those who did not possess rifles were to secure revolvers and bombs,
-which could be obtained, they were told, on Blue Island Avenue, between
-Twenty-second Street and McCormick’s. At that place, on giving the
-pass-word and number of the place, every member would be supplied. In
-the event of their running short of ammunition, they were to repair to that
-place, and they would find some one there always to wait on them. It was
-given out that the place was run by the metal-workers, who would see to
-it that all necessary bombs were on hand. Members having friends living
-in the vicinity of the factory were to stay with them over night so as to be
-up bright and early in the morning, and those living at a distance were to
-make it a point to get up early enough to be on hand at the time indicated.
-A point of <i>rendezvous</i> was designated, and, when all had arrived, they were
-to surround the factory and permit no one to enter except on peril of being
-shot. This situation of affairs, they said, would necessarily bring out the
-police, but the moment these should arrive the “armed men” were to open
-fire. The first volley was to be over the heads of the “blue-coats,” and if
-that did not put them to flight, they were to be shot down without mercy.
-When they began to throw bombs the “reds” were all to be in line, so that
-none of their own number would be hurt by the explosions, and wherever
-the police formed a company a solid front was to be presented and a
-rattling fire maintained. They would also form different lines along the
-“Black Road,” and when patrol wagons came to the rescue of the officers,
-they were to hurl bombs at them.</p>
-
-<p>It was to be a fight to the death. Every one agreed, as I was told, “to
-die game, give no quarter, and see to it that the green grass around
-McCormick’s factory was nourished with human blood.” In accordance
-with the plan, the members of the Carpenters’ Union were to assemble with
-rifles and ammunition at Greif’s Hall at an hour not later than six o’clock
-in the morning, and to remain there until orders for their services were
-sent. The carpenters carried out their part of the programme, and at the
-appointed hour there were no less than two hundred of them at the hall,
-fully armed and apparently ready for any emergency. They scattered
-throughout the hall building so as not to attract attention, and impatiently
-awaited orders or information indicating the progress of affairs at the
-factory. But no orders were received. They heard nothing for some
-time, but when they did they were a happier lot of men. The clamor and
-excitement of the hour had stimulated them with a false courage, but
-each had nevertheless entertained a secret hope that there would be no call
-for a display of their valor. And there was none.</p>
-
-<p>It appears that, on the morning they were to have created such dire
-destruction, the brave metal-workers overslept themselves! “There was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
-snow on the ground,” and probably they did not care to defile it with the
-blood of their enemies. None of them appeared at the <i>rendezvous</i> on time,
-and when they straggled around at a later hour they were full of excuses,
-the one on which they principally relied being that their faithful spouses
-had neglected to wake them in time. No one for a moment charged the
-others with cowardice, and yet that was the whole secret of their failure.
-Each had expected others to be at the appointed place ready for the fray,
-but the unanimity with which all had prolonged their slumbers prevented
-what all had expected to see&mdash;a brilliant victory with themselves beyond
-all danger.</p>
-
-<p>But about the time these braves should have been around according to
-programme, another party occupied the field. It was the brave and fearless
-Capt. Simon O’Donnell, of the Second Precinct, with two lieutenants
-and three companies of well disciplined officers. They took charge of the
-“Black Road” and the vicinity of McCormick’s factory as early as six
-o’clock, and the so-called “scabs” passed into the works, “with none to
-molest them or make them afraid.” When those who had overslept
-sneaked around, one after another, they were perfectly amazed. Where
-they had hoped to see the ground strewn with the dead bodies of policemen,
-they found order and serenity.</p>
-
-<p>In the expectation of seeing some disturbance, the vicinity became
-crowded during the forenoon with idlers and curious people drawn from all
-parts of the city. Seeing this throng and relying on the presence of many
-Anarchists, the daring metal-workers revived their spirits and hoped yet to
-precipitate a conflict by egging it on at a safe distance in the rear. They
-accordingly began to utter loud threats and urge the excited rabble to an
-attack on the “blanked bloodhounds,” the police.</p>
-
-<p>There were in the crowd a lot of half-drunken Polanders and Bohemians
-who, living in the neighborhood, claimed that the presence of the
-police was a menace to their personal rights and privileges. The police
-were on what these misguided people considered their own reservation,
-and, with a view to driving them away, some began throwing stones and
-clubs at the officers in the patrol wagons. Others picked out officers apart
-from their companions and made them the targets for their missiles.
-Captain O’Donnell learned, while this disconcerted attack was going on,
-that many of the crowd had revolvers and dynamite in their pockets. He
-speedily resolved on a plan for arresting and disarming such men and gave
-orders to his lieutenants to surround the crowd and search all suspected
-persons. The result was that the following were found to have arms, and
-they were placed under arrest: Stephen Reiski, Adolph Heuman, Charles
-Kosh, Henry Clasen, John Hermann, George Hermann, Ernest Haker, Otto
-Sievert, Emil Kernser, Frank Trokinski and Stanifon Geiner. Detectives<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
-from the Central Station assisted in the search, and the offenders were
-taken to the Police Court, where they were fined $10 each.</p>
-
-<p>It was thought that this procedure would quiet the mob, but later in the
-day the Anarchists again gathered around McCormick’s. The crowd was
-again surrounded, and the following were arrested for carrying concealed
-weapons: Louis Hartman, William Brecker, Julius Vimert, Peter Pech,
-William Holden, Louis Lingg, Carl Jagush, Samuel Barn, William Meyer,
-Rudolph Miller, John Hoben and John Otto. These were also fined.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-118.jpg" width="300" height="233" id="i118"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">A “ROUND-UP.”</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>During this trouble at the factory a gang of Anarchists had gathered
-at the Workingmen’s Hall on West Twelfth Street, and they had just
-formed a procession to march out in a body to McCormick’s, when they
-were surrounded and searched. In this “round-up” the great “Little
-August” Krueger was arrested with a full uniform of the Lehr und Wehr
-Verein under an
-overcoat, and a
-number of his
-comrades were
-taken in charge at
-the same time.
-Many of them had
-dynamite bombs,
-and some one
-shouted that “all
-brothers who had
-‘stuff’ should get
-away and the
-others should assist
-them.”</p>
-
-<p>But the police
-were not to be
-trifled with, and
-some of the most daring officers rushed into the thickest of the crowd, and
-succeeded in gathering in several bombs. There were a number of women
-in the mob, and some of these hid bombs under their petticoats. The
-officers were of course too gallant to molest them. But the search and
-arrests served to break up the procession and prevent further outbreaks at
-the factory that day.</p>
-
-<p>Such were the results of the plots of the first secret meeting. The
-second secret gathering, a few days later, was held, as the former had been,
-at Greif’s Hall. It was called by the metal-workers and carpenters jointly.
-They were more demonstrative than ever. Gustav Belz was accorded the
-distinction of presiding over the turbulent members of the Carpenters’
-Union. All of the carpenters belonging to the Lehr und Wehr Verein,
-numbering one hundred and eighty men, were present with their rifles, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>
-they were loud for war. At the same time the metal-workers had a gathering
-by themselves, and when a delegation from them called on the carpenters
-and announced that they were prepared to engage in battle that
-day, the carpenters’ assemblage became delirious with excitement. They
-shouted and jumped about in such a lively manner that some of the more
-conservative members were obliged to warn them to quiet down or they
-would attract the attention of the police. The hot-heads, enraged at this
-caution, retorted by accusing the conservatives of cowardice. They refused
-to be quieted, and, like Comanche Indians about to take to the war-path,
-they examined their revolvers and brandished their guns. They even
-inspected the fuse on their bombs, and insisted that they would be ready
-the moment the command was given. In anticipation of blood, they screwed
-up their courage by frequent libations; and the more they drank the happier
-they grew over the prospect of speedy acquisition of wealth when once their
-revolution was started.</p>
-
-<p>It was an uncomfortable place meanwhile for the conservative members,
-and these had frequent occasion during the stormy proceedings to regret
-that they had uttered a word of remonstrance. But there was one who did
-not allow his feelings to get the better of his judgment. It was Balthasar
-Rau. He took the floor and said that, however much he desired to fight
-and sweep McCormick and all other capitalists from the face of the earth,
-yet he could plainly see that the time had not yet arrived for commencing
-the revolution. It would be folly, he insisted, to go out on the streets with
-rifles in hand while all the surroundings were against them and while they
-were not generally prepared to cope with the police and militia. To commence
-a general upheaval now would be to destroy their prospects in the
-immediate future.</p>
-
-<p>“Before you make war,” said Rau, “you must have something to fall
-back on; but now we have nothing. We ought to have a treasury well
-filled. If we inaugurate a fight we must expect that some of us will be
-killed, others wounded, and others again arrested. Where is the money to
-help those in distress? What will your families do if you are killed? You
-must take all these things into consideration. It is very easy for us to go
-out, shoot and kill somebody, but what can we expect to gain by all that?
-We must be ready and prepared and protected.”</p>
-
-<p>This speech had a soothing effect upon some, but Belz wanted blood,
-and that immediately. He despised the capitalists, and the sooner their
-blood was spilled the better it would suit him. The majority of the meeting
-expressed a concurrence in Rau’s ideas, and one member emphasized Rau’s
-remarks by saying that it would be like a man going out on the streets,
-pounding another and then running away&mdash;nothing was gained.</p>
-
-<p>Belz, seeing the drift of sentiment, grew very angry, and he suggested
-that some one move an adjournment to some other day, when they might<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>
-hope to get together a braver lot of men. Such a motion was made, and
-the gathering separated, those that were not too drunk posting off at once
-for home.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-120.jpg" width="400" height="234" id="i120"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc"><span class="wn"><span class="smcap">Hynek Djenek.</span><span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</span><span class="smcap">Anton Seveski.</span></span><br />
-SPECIMEN RIOTERS&mdash;I. <span class="wn">From Photographs taken by the Police Department.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Belz grew quite demonstrative over the lack of results at this meeting,
-and avowed that he would have nothing more to do with such a crowd of
-cowards. A few days thereafter, however, another meeting was held; but,
-in view of the many arrests Captain O’Donnell had made among their members,
-they were unable to decide upon any business. Some of the hot-heads
-threw all the blame on Rau and some of his friends for having prevented
-decisive action when they might have hoped to come out victorious.
-But all this sort of talk was simply braggadocio, and had any of these loud-mouthed
-fellows been actually tried, they would have been found skulking
-in the rear of an attacking party. Prior and subsequent events proved
-them all trembling cowards when their own personal safety was at stake.</p>
-
-<p>Perhaps the most dangerous, because the most secret, figure in the
-cabal at this time was Louis Lingg. He seems to have been chosen
-especially to direct the revolutionary design in the southwest part of the
-city, and his counsels permeated every Socialistic circle in that section. In
-his trunk, after his arrest, the following letter was found in his own handwriting,
-evidently a copy or the original of one sent:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1"><i>Dear Brother Union</i>: On the occasion of the last general meeting in Zepf’s Hall the
-International Carpenters’ Union passed a resolution asking the Furniture Makers’ Union if
-they were satisfied with the doings of their delegates, especially with Mr. Hausch and Mr.
-Mende, who had agreed to take the leadership of the revolution.... It is natural that
-the governing class would take these&mdash;their means&mdash;as soon as the workingmen would try<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>
-to take their rights. In consequence of these facts we feel it our duty to call the attention of
-indifferent workingmen to these facts and suggest the adoption of force, power against power,
-and urge all to arm yourselves. Therefore, stand with all your energy against the system of
-profit without regard to the way they prepare themselves. We request our brother union to
-acquaint us with their point of view, so we can form our plans accordingly.</p>
-
-<p class="pi8">With greeting and the shaking of the hand.</p>
-<p class="pr4"><span class="smcap">International Carpenters’ Union No. 1.</span></p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Lingg likewise issued a personal address, a copy of which was also found
-in the trunk, urging the laborers of the Southwest Side to practice in the
-handling of arms. Among other things found written over his signature, is
-the following:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">Our authorized demands are replied to with clubs, powder and lead. In consequence of
-these experiences it is no more than right that we adopt force and arm ourselves. The
-opportunity to arm yourselves cheaply can be ascertained from all well-known comrades, as
-well as armed organization, where you can find good places to drill. Don’t let this opportunity
-pass. The medicine dynamite, in leaden bomb, is more powerful than the rifle. Don’t
-forget the opportunity.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Lingg also sent another circular to his comrades in that section, of
-which the following is a copy:</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-121.jpg" width="400" height="236" id="i121"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc"><span class="wn"><span class="smcap">John Pototski.</span><span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</span><span class="smcap">Frank Novak.</span></span><br />
-SPECIMEN RIOTERS.&mdash;II. <span class="wn">From Photographs taken by the Police Department.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1"><i>Brothers</i>: As you have noticed for a long time past that the police are more than ready
-to break your heads with their murderous clubs and do not care whether they make you
-cripples for the balance of your miserable days, and do not care whether your wives and
-children have to go begging for you after you become useless; neither do they care for the
-loving young son that supports his old parents, whether they kill him or not: therefore, taking
-all these things into consideration,&mdash;that these policemen are ready, under the instruction
-of the capitalists, to commit murder on the working people,&mdash;I say we must resist these
-monsters, and the way we must do this is to get ready and be all like one man. We must
-fight them with as good weapons, even better than they possess, and, therefore, I call you
-all to arms! As we are no capitalists, we can make arrangements in a gun-factory outside<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
-of this State. Have this matter treated very confidentially. Have only a committee of
-three members to buy arms as cheaply as possible, and see if there can be anything secured
-on half credit, so that you can also give time to the buyer. In this way you can get all new
-and good arms and better than the police have. Then I call your attention again and impress
-on your minds that it is not alone enough that you have the arms; you must also understand
-how to use them so that you can be equally well drilled with them as your opponents. Then
-you can give them successful resistance. And now, to make this matter very easy and a
-success for all, the workingmen of this city, with the third company of the Lehr und Wehr
-Verein and some members of the International Carpenters’ Union, held a meeting yesterday,
-and they all agreed to give lessons in drill to any one that wanted to learn how to use arms.
-All the people so desiring should call every Thursday evening at 8 o’clock at Turner Hall
-“Vorwaerts,” on West Twelfth Street, and there they will receive instructions free of charge.</p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-122.jpg" width="400" height="261" id="i122"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc"><span class="wn"><span class="smcap">Vaclav Djenek.</span><span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</span><span class="smcap">Anton Stimak.</span></span><br />
-SPECIMEN RIOTERS&mdash;III. <span class="wn">From Photographs taken by the Police Department.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>I want you Southwest Side people to be as useful with arms as the people on the North
-and Northwest sides. We have everything about as complete as we wish it to be. On the
-North Side we have Neff’s or Thuringia Hall, No. 58 Clybourn Avenue, and you can come
-and visit us there and see the boys drill. We have a man named Hermann, and he is a soldier
-from the old home and a first-class drillmaster, and always pleased to see new recruits. Now,
-workingmen of the Southwest Side, I beg of you to make use of this opportunity. Do not
-let this go by like a dream. Remember, we are all one. It does not matter whether you are
-on the South, North or West Side; we must all fight for a purpose. Do not stay at home
-and let your brothers be killed when you can help them and make your cause a victory.
-Come in large masses, come often, come promptly. If you do this, everything will be an easy
-matter for us to undertake. Our labor will be rewarded.... The first of May is coming
-near. We will have to kill the monster. We must be ready to meet him. This is our
-only chance now. Probably we will not have this opportunity to meet the monster so that
-we can fight him with our weapons. You must kill the pirates. You must kill the bloodsuckers;
-and for the first time in ages the poor workingmen will be made happy. Our work
-is short; we do not want a thirty years’ war. Be determined. Do not let your near relation,
-if he is an enemy, stand in your way. Doing all this, then, the victory is ours.</p>
-
-<p class="pr4"><span class="smcap">Louis Lingg.</span></p></div>
-
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>
-
-<p class="p1">In the work of stirring up bad blood, Lingg seems to have neglected no
-point likely to count with the dissatisfied laborers. He knew that among the
-strikers were a great many German Knights of Labor, and, with an ingenuity
-worthy of a better cause, he took occasion particularly to point out an article
-published in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> of April 22, 1886, giving Governor
-Oglesby’s views on boycotting. This paper was afterwards found in his
-trunk, somewhat soiled from frequent usage, and the article in question, for
-convenience of reference, had been heavily marked with a lead-pencil.
-Lingg no doubt figured that those who believed in the boycott would thereafter
-array themselves solidly on the side of those who favored force. A
-translation of the Governor’s remarks, as given in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, is as
-follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">The system of boycotting is the most damnable proposal which was ever fabricated. It
-repudiates the Constitution, the law and everything. It is the devil’s invention. Yes (speaking
-to John V. Farwell), when it has so far progressed that the militia is obliged to interfere,
-you will find that these d&mdash;d boycotters will come to them (the merchants and business men)
-and say, “You must prohibit your employés joining the militia, and those who persist in
-belonging must be discharged from employment, or you will be boycotted.” This is a fine
-arrangement. It is true that, meeting with opposition all over, it will die out, but I tell you
-it is the most damnable transgression which was ever concocted.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-123.jpg" width="400" height="226" id="i123"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc"><span class="wn"><span class="smcap">Ignatz Urban.</span><span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</span><span class="smcap">Joseph Sugar.</span></span><br />
-SPECIMEN RIOTERS&mdash;IV. <span class="wn">From Photographs taken by the Police Department.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Parsons and Schwab also took a hand in the McCormick “lock-out,”
-but they used the platform to arouse the people to force. On the 2d of
-March a mass-meeting of Anarchists and hot-headed strikers was held at
-the West Twelfth Street Turner Hall. Parsons and Schwab were the chief
-speakers. They were particularly abusive of the owners and the superintendent
-of the works, and advised the use of violence against the police.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
-So incendiary were the speeches that E. E. Sanderson, a member of the
-strikers’ standing committee, took occasion to denounce the proceedings.</p>
-
-<p>“Such speakers,” he declared, “cause every spark of sympathy to disappear
-and bring us into disrepute.” If he had had the power, he said, he
-would have stopped the gathering. He belonged to the true laboring class,
-and to properly voice its sentiments he hired another hall for the next day.</p>
-
-<p>The continued presence of the police at the works finally restored order
-in the vicinity, and it seemed as if the Anarchists had abandoned any further
-intention of violence. But they were secretly at work, biding their time
-and watching their opportunity. It came on the afternoon of May 3. At
-this time between 40,000 and 50,000 men in Chicago were out of employment
-by reason of the eight-hour strike. Excitement ran high throughout
-the city. The reaper works were now almost in full operation, and, led by
-the Anarchists, some of the hot-headed strikers, grown impatient over the
-apparent failure of their plan, made an assault upon the “scabs” at work
-in the shops. The instigators of this attack and the principal assailants
-were Anarchists, who exerted themselves to the utmost to bring on a deadly
-conflict between the police and the unemployed.</p>
-
-<p>For the day in question a meeting of the Lumber-shovers’ Union had
-been called in the vicinity to receive the report of a committee who had
-waited on their employers with reference to the eight-hour question. The
-Socialists, learning of this, determined to make use of the opportunity.
-The union was composed of over six thousand lumber workingmen, three
-thousand Bohemians and over three thousand Germans, and had no connection
-with the McCormick strike, but it occurred to the Central Labor Union
-that, inasmuch as many of them were adherents of Socialism, it would be no
-difficult matter to incite them to riotous demonstrations. On the day preceding,
-Spies had been delegated by his union to address the gathering.
-The president of the Lumber Union, Frank Haraster, had become cognizant
-of the Anarchists’ intentions, and had taken occasion to warn the men
-against either listening to Socialistic orators or participating in a riot. But
-there were mutterings of discontent, and the crowd was in a revengeful
-mood. There were no less than 8,000 people at the gathering&mdash;some estimated
-the number as high as 15,000. Some were intent on revolution, and
-others had been drawn to the scene through idle curiosity.</p>
-
-<p>It only needed a spark to create a tremendous conflagration. Anarchists
-were busy among the various groups that had collected. For several
-days they had labored early and late in the locality to stimulate revolutionary
-action. Their plans had been carefully concocted, and their network
-of conspiracy extended in every direction. They had opened channels of
-subterranean communication, and so arranged their mines of Socialistic
-powder that at the appointed time they hoped to produce an explosion that
-would reverberate throughout the globe. That appointed time, they figured,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>
-had arrived with the inauguration of the eight-hour movement, and in the
-lock-out at McCormick’s the first opportunity was presented for a general
-upheaval. This was their hope and the burden of their care.</p>
-
-<p>When, therefore, a coterie of trained Anarchists appeared on the scene
-of trouble,&mdash;evidently by a preconcerted arrangement,&mdash;with the Nation’s
-flag reversed and trailing in mud and muck, the wildest excitement was
-aroused, and only a leader was necessary to connect the electric currents
-of suppressed hostility to start an outburst of violent deeds.</p>
-
-<p>The occasion brought forth that leader in the person of the impulsive
-and impetuous Spies. He, with some trusted lieutenants, mounted a box-car
-in the vicinity of the meeting of the lumber-shovers and the McCormick
-works. He gathered about him an immense crowd, and, speaking in
-German, called the attention of his auditors to the “brutalities of capital,
-its selfishness and its grinding oppression” of wage-workers, rendering
-their condition worse than that of slaves. With fiery invective he wrought
-up the feelings of the mob to a pitch of reckless frenzy. In the climaxes
-of his envenomed utterances, he held the multitude with a charmed spell,
-and he evoked their highest plaudits when he counseled violence as a
-means to redress their grievances.</p>
-
-<p>Before the termination of this lurid speech, many hitherto apparently
-apathetic had caught the infection, and when some of the non-union men
-emerged from the gate at the McCormick foundry, on the conclusion of
-their day’s labor,&mdash;the hour being three o’clock,&mdash;many of the mob rushed
-to the establishment, bent on wreaking vengeance. They had hardly
-begun to move when some one on the box-car shouted: “Go up and kill
-the d&mdash;&mdash;d scabs!” The identity of this person has never been disclosed,
-but it is no rash conclusion to suppose that it was a confidant of Spies, as
-well as of Lingg, who had secret charge of fomenting disturbances in that
-district. Lingg was present at this gathering, and, as he subsequently
-claimed that he had been clubbed by the police in the riot that followed,
-he may possibly have raised the cry himself.</p>
-
-<p>The mob reached the works in short order, hurling stones and firing
-shots into the windows of the guard-house, which they finally demolished.
-The non-union men, seeing the approaching mob, took to flight, some
-seeking shelter in the works and others scampering across the prairie
-beyond reach. There were at this time only two policemen on duty. One
-of them, J. A. West, endeavored to pacify the crowd, but received in
-response bricks and mud. The other for awhile, as well as he could, held
-the mob at bay at the gate. West finally worked his way through the
-crowd to a patrol box, and turned in an alarm for reinforcements. Meanwhile
-the mob disported itself in throwing stones and firing revolvers, and
-finally forced an entrance through the gate to the yards.</p>
-
-<p>Presently a patrol wagon loaded with officers plowed through the turbulent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
-mass, and, securing the ground between the mob and the buildings,
-began driving out and dispersing the rioters. This only served to infuriate
-the Anarchists, who fired in the direction of the police and hurled a shower
-of stones. The officers remonstrated in vain, warning the mob to keep
-back, and finally made a rush upon the rioters with revolvers drawn, shooting
-right and left.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-126.jpg" width="400" height="348" id="i126"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">CHARGING THE MOB.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The crowd swayed to and fro, retreated slightly, then rallied again, and,
-diverging to either side in a jumbled but compact body, seemed bent on
-holding their ground and fighting for every inch of it. But the dashing and
-aggressive movements of the police, backed by courage and discipline, soon
-demonstrated to the howling rabble the hopelessness of the struggle. The
-very air seemed charged with bullets, clubs and missiles. Revolvers clicked
-furiously, the exigencies of the moment necessitating their use on
-the part of the police, and several revolutionists bit the dust, maimed and
-wounded. What seems strange is that none were killed in this furious
-onslaught.</p>
-
-<p>The mob, which numbered fully 8,000, was soon put to precipitate flight.
-Some of the most vicious leaders, however, kept up a rattling fire of guns,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>
-revolvers, brickbats and sticks so long as their retreat was measurably
-covered by the fleeing mob surrounding them. Several of these leaders,
-with their weapons still smoking, were subsequently overtaken, disarmed
-and locked up.</p>
-
-<p>During all this short affray, Spies was nowhere to be seen, but, the
-moment all danger seemed past, he emerged from his seclusion, breathing
-courage and vengeance. He bounded into the field like one ready to
-sacrifice himself for his cause, but cautiously kept himself where no stray
-bullets might reach him. Another singular feature in connection with the
-part he played in the affair was his attempt to parade his own heroic virtues,
-by implication, in the denunciations and upbraidings he heaped upon his
-comrades in the account published of the riot on the very afternoon after
-its occurrence. This
-is what he said in
-the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>:</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-127.jpg" width="300" height="234" id="i127"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">OFFICER CASEY’S PERIL.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">The writer of this
-hastened to the factory
-as soon as the first shots
-were fired, and a comrade
-urged the assembly
-to hasten to the rescue
-of their brothers, who
-were being murdered,
-but none stirred....
-The writer ran back. He
-implored the people to
-come along,&mdash;those who
-had revolvers in their
-pockets,&mdash;but it was in
-vain. With an exasperating
-indifference they
-put their hands in their
-pockets and marched home, babbling as if the whole affair did not concern them in the
-least. The revolvers were still cracking, and fresh detachments of police, here and there
-bombarded with stones, were hastening to the battle-ground. The battle was lost!</p>
-
-<p class="p1">A riot on a smaller scale occurred shortly after this in another locality,
-instigated by the Anarchists who had been so severely repulsed in the
-afternoon. After the McCormick outbreak one of the wounded strikers
-was taken in a patrol wagon to the Twelfth Street Station, and thence to his
-home on Seventeenth Street. Officer Casey was one of the men in charge
-of the wagon, and remained behind at the house to take a report of the
-man’s name, his residence and the nature of his injuries. When the
-officer came out of the wounded man’s home, he was set upon by a mob,
-shouting:</p>
-
-<p>“Hang him! Hang the blue-coat!”</p>
-
-<p>A Bohemian, named Vaclav Djenek, cried out:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Help me; help me to hang the <i>canaille</i>!”</p>
-
-<p>Two or three came to his side and endeavored to execute the threat.
-Casey by a great effort managed to get away, and started on a run. Pistol
-shots were fired after him by the mob, but fortunately he escaped without
-injury.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-128.jpg" width="250" height="354" id="i128"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">FRANZ MIKOLANDA,<br />A POLISH CONSPIRATOR.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>A patrol wagon from the West Chicago Avenue Station had meanwhile
-been telephoned for by some peace-loving citizens, and it rapidly
-dashed up to the scene of disturbance.
-The officers saw the whole situation,
-dispersed the mob, and set about
-arresting the parties who had so
-nearly succeeded in hanging the officer.
-They found that it had been a
-very close call for Casey, that the rope
-was ready, and that, had it not been
-for his own Herculean efforts, he
-would have dangled from a lamp-post
-in a very few seconds.</p>
-
-<p>Djenek, who was afterwards recognized
-as the principal actor in
-this episode, was run down and
-placed under arrest. He was tried
-and sentenced to one year in the
-penitentiary. During the trial two
-officers of the West Chicago Avenue
-Station happened to be in the State’s
-Attorney’s office when a lot of Bohemian
-literature and Anarchist utensils
-were being exhibited. Among
-other things, they noticed a photograph of Franz Mikolanda, and they
-at once exclaimed:</p>
-
-<p>“This is the other man who helped Djenek to hang Casey!”</p>
-
-<p>Mikolanda appeared at the trial for the purpose of swearing to an alibi
-for Djenek, and was promptly recognized. He had no sooner left the
-witness-stand than he was arrested on a warrant and subsequently prosecuted.
-He was found guilty and sentenced to six months in the Bridewell.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER VII.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">The <i>Coup d’État</i> a Miscarriage&mdash;Effect of the Anarchist Failure at
-McCormick’s&mdash;“Revenge”&mdash;Text of the Famous Circular&mdash;The German Version&mdash;An
-Incitement to Murder&mdash;Bringing on a Conflict&mdash;Engel’s Diabolical Plan&mdash;The
-Rôle of the Lehr und Wehr Verein&mdash;The Gathering of the Armed Groups&mdash;Fischer’s
-Sanguinary Talk&mdash;The Signal for Murder&mdash;“Ruhe” and its Meaning&mdash;Keeping
-Clear of the Mouse-Trap&mdash;The Haymarket Selected&mdash;Its Advantages for Revolutionary
-War&mdash;The Call for the Murder Meeting&mdash;“Workingmen, Arm Yourselves”&mdash;Preparing
-the Dynamite&mdash;The <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> Arsenal&mdash;The Assassins’ Roost at
-58 Clybourn Avenue&mdash;The Projected Attack on the Police Stations&mdash;Bombs for All
-who Wished Them&mdash;Waiting for the Word of Command&mdash;Why it was not Given&mdash;The
-Leaders’ Courage Fails.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">NEVER was that old saying, “Whom the gods wish to destroy they
-first make mad,” better illustrated than in the actions of the Anarchist
-leaders after their desperate exploits at McCormick’s Works. That
-riot was to have been the pivotal point in their social revolution. It
-turned out a humiliating fiasco. They had hoped to make a <i>coup d’état</i> for
-the scarlet banner and had counted upon such a victory as would terrorize
-Capital, appal the people and paralyze the arm of constituted authority.
-When they discovered that the police had escaped with only slight bruises,
-that some of their own comrades had been seriously wounded and that
-even the so-called “scabs” had passed through the onslaught with nothing
-worse than fright, their rage knew no bounds. They saw that “the
-battle had been lost,” and prompt, energetic action seemed necessary to
-retrieve the situation.</p>
-
-<p>Spies, their recognized leader, while the perspiration still dripped from
-his face, and his blood still fired by his speech to the strikers and his
-“heroic efforts” to rally the routed and fleeing Socialists, seized a pen,
-and, dipping it into the gall of his indignation, wrote what subsequently
-became famous as the “Revenge Circular.” It was printed in German
-and English, and an exact <i>fac-simile</i> is presented herewith. The German
-version is somewhat different from the English, being addressed to the
-adherents of Anarchy and Socialism, the English version seeming to have
-been intended for Americans in general. Several thousand copies were
-scattered throughout the city.</p>
-
-<p>The wording of the English portion of the circular may be seen in the
-illustration. The German portion, translated, reads as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-130.jpg" width="250" height="400" id="i130"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">THE FAMOUS “REVENGE” CIRCULAR.<br />
-<span class="wnn">Engraved from the Original<br />by direct Photographic Process.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">Revenge! Revenge! Workmen to arms!</p>
-
-<p>Men of labor, this afternoon the bloodhounds of your oppressors murdered six of your
-brothers at McCormick’s. Why did they murder them? Because they dared to be dissatisfied
-with the lot which your oppressors have assigned to them.
-They demanded bread, and
-they gave them lead for an answer, mindful of the fact that thus people are most effectually
-silenced. You have for many years endured every humiliation without protest, have drudged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
-from early in the morning until late at night, have suffered all sorts of privation, have even
-sacrificed your children. You have done everything to fill the coffers of your masters&mdash;everything
-for them!And now, when you approach
-them and implore
-them to make your
-burden a little lighter, as
-a reward for your sacrifices,
-they send their
-bloodhounds, the police,
-at you, in order to cure
-you with bullets of your
-dissatisfaction. Slaves,
-we ask and conjure you,
-by all that is sacred and
-dear to you, avenge the
-atrocious murder that
-has been committed
-upon your brothers to-day
-and which will likely
-be committed upon you
-to-morrow. Laboring
-men, Hercules, you have
-arrived at the cross-way.
-Which way will you decide?
-For slavery and
-hunger or for freedom
-and bread? If you decide
-for the latter, then
-do not delay a moment;
-then, people, to
-arms! Annihilation to
-the beasts in human form
-who call themselves rulers!
-Uncompromising
-annihilation to them!
-This must be your motto.
-Think of the heroes
-whose blood has fertilized
-the road to progress,
-liberty and humanity,
-and strive to
-become worthy of them!</p>
-
-<p class="pr4"><span class="smcap">Your Brothers.</span></p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Not content with this, Spies also wrote and published, in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-of May 4, the following:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="pch2 p1"><i>BLOOD!&mdash;Lead and Powder as a Cure for Dissatisfied Workingmen.&mdash;About Six Laborers
-Mortally, and Four Times that Number Slightly, Wounded.&mdash;Thus are the Eight-hour
-Men Intimidated!&mdash;This is Law and Order.&mdash;Brave Girls Parading the City!&mdash;The
-Law and Order Beasts Frighten Hungry Children away with Clubs.</i></p>
-
-<p class="p1">Six months ago, when the eight-hour movement began, representatives of the I. A. A.
-called upon workmen to arm if they would enforce their demand. Would the occurrence of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
-yesterday have been possible had that advice been followed? Yesterday, at McCormick’s
-factory, so far as can now be ascertained, four workmen were killed and twenty-five more or
-less seriously wounded. If members who defended themselves with stones (a few of them
-had little snappers in the shape of revolvers) had been provided with good weapons and one
-single dynamite bomb, not one of the murderers would have escaped his well-merited fate.
-This massacre was to fill the workmen of this city with fear. Will it succeed?</p>
-
-<p>A meeting of the lumber employés was held yesterday at the Black Road to appoint a
-committee to wait on the committee of the owners and present the demands agreed upon.
-It was an immense meeting. Several speeches were made in English, German and Polish.
-Finally Mr. Spies was introduced, when a Pole cried, “That is a Socialist,” and great disapprobation
-was expressed, but the speaker continued, telling them that they must realize
-their strength, and must not recede from their demands; that the issue lay in their hands,
-and needed only resolution on their part.</p>
-
-<p>At this point some one cried, “On to McCormick’s! Let us drive off the scabs,” and
-about two hundred ran toward McCormick’s. The speaker, not knowing what occurred,
-continued his speech, and was appointed afterwards a member of the committee to notify
-the bosses of the action.</p>
-
-<p>Then a Pole spoke, when a patrol wagon rushed up to McCormick’s, and the crowd began
-to break up. Shortly shots were heard near McCormick’s factory, and about seventy-five
-well-fed, large and strong murderers, under command of a fat police lieutenant, marched by
-followed by three more patrol wagons full of law and order beasts. Two hundred police
-were there in less than ten minutes, firing on fleeing workingmen and women. The writer
-hastened to the factory, while a comrade urged the assembly to rescue their brothers,
-unavailingly. A young Irishman said to the writer: “What miserable (&mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash;) are those
-who will not turn a hand while their brothers are being shot down in cold blood! We have
-dragged away two. I think they are dead. If you have any influence with the people,
-for Heaven’s sake, run back and urge them to follow you.” The writer did so in vain.
-The revolvers were still cracking; fresh policemen arriving; and the battle was lost. It
-was about half-past three that the little crowd from the meeting reached McCormick’s
-factory. Policeman West tried to hold them back with his revolver, but was put to
-flight with a shower of stones and roughly handled. The crowd bombarded the factory
-windows with stones and demolished the guard-house. The scabs were in mortal terror,
-when the Hinman Street patrol wagon arrived. They were about to attack the crowd with
-their clubs, when a shower of stones was thrown, followed the next minute by the firing by
-the police upon the strikers. It was pretended subsequently that they fired over their heads.
-The strikers had a few revolvers and returned the fire. Meantime, more police arrived, and
-then the whole band opened fire on the people. The people fought with stones, and are said
-to have disabled four policemen. The gang, as always, fired upon the fleeing, while women
-and men carried away the severely wounded. How many were injured cannot be told. A
-dying boy, Joseph Doebick, was brought home on an express wagon by two policemen. The
-crowd threatened to lynch the officer, but were prevented by a patrol wagon. Various
-strikers were arrested. McCormick said that “August Spies made a speech to a few thousand
-Anarchists and then put himself at the head of a crowd and attacked our works. Our
-workmen fled, and meantime the police came and sent a lot of Anarchists away with bleeding
-heads.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Mark well the language,&mdash;seeking to inflame the minds of the Socialists
-by maliciously stating that four men had been killed, when in fact not one
-was fatally injured,&mdash;its bitter invective, its cunning phraseology, its rude
-eloquence and its passionate appeal. All were well calculated to stir up
-revengeful feelings at a time when public sentiment ran high throughout the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
-city. The events following close upon the heels of the eight-hour strike
-were critical in the extreme, and none knew the exact situation better than
-the Anarchist leaders. Their course had been shaped with special reference
-to it.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-132.jpg" width="300" height="481" id="i132"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">THE CALL FOR THE HAYMARKET MEETING.&mdash;I.<br />
-<span class="wnn">Photographic Engraving, direct from the Original.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Their secret plottings were directed by the events of the hour. The
-time had come, they felt, when the Commune should be proclaimed. It
-would not do, they urged,
-to let the opportunity pass.
-The failure of the McCormick
-riot at once suggested
-retaliation in a manner best
-known to themselves, and
-the circular was fulminated
-with a clear knowledge that
-its import would be readily
-understood by all in the
-dark secret of their conspiracy.</p>
-
-<p>But that there might be
-no misdirected effort, and
-that all might be properly
-instructed for the emergency,
-it was deemed best
-to hold a secret conference.
-The hour seemed to have
-arrived when their armed
-sections, the various groups
-of the order trained in the
-use of guns and explosives,
-should be brought into
-requisition, and the police
-in particular and the public
-in general be made to feel
-their power. How best to
-accomplish this purpose had
-been uppermost in their
-minds from the moment of their disaster at the reaper works. A conflict
-between the police and the strikers had been counted upon as a certainty
-under their inspiration, and plans looking to the best means of taking
-advantage of this strike as well as the eight-hour strike had been discussed
-even before the McCormick riot.</p>
-
-<p>Only so short a time as the day before that event, the members of the
-second company of the Lehr und Wehr Verein and of the Northwest Side
-groups had met in joint session at Bohemian Hall, on Emma Street, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
-considered the probabilities in view of the eight-hour movement. They
-clearly foresaw a conflict, and, among other things, discussed a plan to
-meet that contingency. This plan, proposed by Engel and indorsed by
-Fischer, and subsequently confessed by one of the conspirators present at
-that meeting, was that whenever it came to a conflict between the police
-and the Northwest groups, bombs should be thrown into the police stations.
-The riflemen of the Lehr und Wehr Verein should post themselves in line
-at a certain distance, and whoever came out of the stations should be shot
-down. They would then come into the heart of the city, where the fight
-would commence in earnest. The members of the Northwest Side groups
-were counseled to mutually assist each other in making the attack upon
-the police, and “if any one had anything with him, he should use it.” “As
-the police would endeavor to subdue the workingmen by sending all their
-available force to the place of attack, the Anarchists could easily blow up
-the stations, and such officers as might effect an escape from the buildings
-could be killed by their riflemen. Then they would cut the telegraph
-wires so as to prevent communication with other stations, after which they
-would proceed to the nearest station and destroy that. On their way they
-would throw fire bombs at some of the buildings, and this would call out the
-Fire Department and prevent the firemen from being called upon to quell
-the riot. While proceeding thus they would secure reinforcements, and, in
-the intense excitement following, the police as well as militia would become
-confused and divided in counsel as to the points where they could do the
-most effective service. The attacks should be almost simultaneous in different
-parts of the city at a given signal. When they all finally reached
-the center of the city, they would set fire to the most prominent buildings
-and attack the jail, open the doors and set free the inmates to join them in
-future movements.”</p>
-
-<p>This plan, it is almost needless to remark, was unanimously adopted.
-But concerted action was necessary among all the groups, and in view of
-the “skull-cracking,” to use their own phrase, on the afternoon of May 3, a
-secret conference of all groups was determined upon as a supplement to
-Spies’ pronunciamento and as an incitement to future revolutionary movements.
-A notice understood by all in the armed sections&mdash;“Y, come
-Monday evening”&mdash;was inserted in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. The commander
-of the Lehr und Wehr Verein rented a beer basement at No. 54 West
-Lake Street, known to the followers of Socialism as Greif’s Hall, and along
-towards eight o’clock representatives of all the armed sections of the
-Internationale gathered there. In order that the utmost privacy might be
-maintained, guards were posted both at the front and rear entrances with
-instructions to permit no one to stand on the outside and to admit only
-trusted adherents.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>When the session opened there were between seventy and eighty members
-of the various sections present. Their deliberations were presided
-over by Gottfried Waller, who subsequently became an important witness
-for the State.</p>
-
-<p>Spies’ “Revenge circular,” written late that afternoon, was distributed
-in the meeting, and its sentiments were heartily seconded by all present.
-Engel finally submitted the plan already given, and some discussion followed,
-participated in by various members. Fischer considered the plan admirable,
-and, lest there might be evidence of weakness, he stated that if any man
-acted the part of a coward, his own dagger or a bullet from his rifle should
-pierce that man’s heart. Inquiries being made with reference to a supply
-of bombs, he suggested that the members manufacture them on their own
-account. The best thing, he said, was to procure a tin coffee-bottle, fill it
-with benzine, attach a cap and fuse, and they would have a most effective
-bomb.</p>
-
-<p>Engel’s plan went through with a rush. Having now agreed upon a
-definite course, it was necessary to adopt a signal to warn the sections of
-danger and summon them to action. Fischer was equal to the occasion.
-He proposed the German word “Ruhe,”&mdash;signifying “rest” or “peace,”&mdash;and
-added that whenever it should appear in the “Letter-box” column of
-the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, all would know that the moment for decisive action
-had been reached, and that all were expected to repair promptly to their
-appointed meeting-places, fully armed and ready for duty. The suggestion
-was adopted.</p>
-
-<p>But what are plans without being fortified by enthusiasm on the part of
-the mob expected to carry them out? The Socialistic heart must be fired
-to a proper pitch of frenzy. Every soul must be made to feel that the
-cause of Socialism is his own. A mass-meeting was just the thing, and a
-mass-meeting it was decided by this august band of conspirators to call.
-The time was the only point in controversy. The chairman insisted on
-holding it the following morning on Market Square, which is a widening of
-Market Street between Madison and Randolph Streets, but Fischer protested,
-because, as he said, it was a “mouse trap,” and insisted that the
-meeting be held in the evening, when they could bring out a crowd of no
-less than 25,000 people, and that the Haymarket be the place. There, he
-said, they would have greater security in case of disturbance, and more and
-better means of escape. His counsel finally prevailed, and after a call had
-been suitably drafted, Fischer was intrusted with its printing.</p>
-
-<p>Remembering that “what is everybody’s business is nobody’s business,”
-the meeting decided to appoint a committee, consisting of one or two
-members from each group. This committee was to keep a close watch on all
-movements that might be made at Haymarket Square and in different parts
-of the city, and, in the event of a conflict, to promptly report it to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
-members of the various armed sections by the insertion in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-of the word “Ruhe” if there was trouble during the day, or illuminating
-the sky with a red light at night. If either signal could not be
-conveniently used, then they were to notify the members individually.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-135.jpg" width="300" height="456" id="i135"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">THE CALL FOR THE<br />HAYMARKET MEETING.&mdash;II.<br />
-<span class="wnn">Photographic Engraving, direct from the Original.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Before the conclusion of this secret conclave, every one present was
-directed to notify absent
-members of what had been
-done, and Rudolph Schnaubelt,
-who has since been
-proven the thrower of the
-bomb which scattered death
-and devastation on the
-following evening, wished
-to go even further and have
-Socialists in other cities notified
-so that the proposed revolution
-might become general.
-The instigators of the
-meeting just described were
-Spies, Parsons, Fielden and
-Neebe, but for some reason
-they failed to put in an appearance.</p>
-
-<p>In accordance with arrangements,
-the call for the
-mass-meeting was printed
-the next morning. There
-were two versions of this
-call. <i>Fac-similes</i> of both are
-given.</p>
-
-<p>In the afternoon of May
-4 the signal word “Ruhe”
-appeared in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>,
-and all the armed
-men proceeded to place
-themselves in readiness for the conflict. They also devoted themselves
-energetically to cultivating revengeful sentiments. While making their preparations
-for the projected riot, they communicated the plan decided upon
-to every member of the order, and all were urged to come fully armed with
-such weapons as they might possess.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-136.jpg" width="300" height="334" id="i136"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">NEFF’S HALL.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>But their greatest reliance was placed in the use of dynamite. This
-highly explosive material was regarded as the chief arm of their cause.
-For many weeks, the leaders had experimented with it. Some six weeks<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
-before the disastrous Haymarket riot, Louis Lingg had brought a bomb to
-the house of William Seliger, No. 442 Sedgwick Street, where he boarded,
-and announced his intention of making other bombs like it. Before this
-he had provided himself with dynamite, the money for its purchase having
-been realized at a ball given some time previously and turned over to him
-to use in experiments. Being out of employment at the time, he devoted
-himself energetically to experiments with that material, and produced
-large gas-pipe bombs. One of these he took out to a grove north of the
-city, and, placing
-it in the crotch of
-a tree, exploded
-it, splitting the
-tree to pieces. The
-result of the test
-appears to have
-been satisfactory,
-and he next gave
-his attention to the
-manufacture of
-globular shells. In
-the casting of
-these he used the
-kitchen stove to
-melt his metal,
-and often received
-the assistance
-of Seliger, Thielen
-and Hermann. All
-day Tuesday, May
-4, he worked most
-persistently and
-seemed in a great
-hurry to make as
-many bombs as possible. He was helped on that day by the parties named
-and two others, Hueber and Munzenberger. Before the close of the day
-they had finished over a hundred bombs. While they were at work Lehman
-visited them and carried home a satchel of dynamite, which he subsequently,
-after the Haymarket riot, buried out on the prairie, and which
-was afterwards disinterred by the police. Not alone did he and his friends
-experiment with dynamite, but it appears that Spies, Parsons, Fischer,
-Fielden and Schwab also tried their hands at it and handled the deadly
-stuff at the office of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. They had several bombs there
-and made no secret of the purpose for which they intended them. The office
-was afterwards discovered to be an arsenal of revolvers and dynamite.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>After the bombs had been completed by Lingg and his assistants, Lingg
-and Seliger put them in a trunk or satchel and carried them over towards
-Neff’s Hall, at No. 58 Clybourn Avenue. On the way they were met by
-Munzenberger, who took the trunk, and, placing it on his shoulder, carried it
-the rest of the distance. At this time&mdash;it being evening&mdash;there was a meeting
-of painters in a hall at the rear of Neff’s saloon, and the package was
-placed at the entrance for a moment’s exhibition. Lingg asked the proprietor
-if any one had called and inquired for him, and, on being answered
-in the negative, proceeded with Seliger and Munzenberger into the hallway
-connecting the saloon and the assembly-room. Placing the trunk on
-the floor, he opened it for inspection. Several parties examined the
-bombs and took some of them away. Seliger helped himself to two and
-kept them until after the Haymarket explosion, when he hid them under a
-sidewalk on Sigel Street. Lingg, Seliger and Munzenberger then left the
-premises. The direction the last-named took is a matter in doubt. Neff
-had never seen him before, Lehman did not know him, and Seliger had not
-even learned his name.</p>
-
-<p>It is clear that all this work was part of the conspiracy concocted at
-Greif’s Hall the previous evening. It is also well settled that Munzenberger
-was the chosen agent to secure the bombs and see that they were
-placed in the hands of trusted Anarchists for use at the proper moment.
-The secrecy surrounding the latter’s identity was in complete accord with
-the method of procedure outlined in the instructions given to Socialists:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">In the commission of a deed, a comrade who does not live at the place of action, that is,
-a comrade of some other place, ought, if possibility admits, to participate in the action, or,
-formulated difficulty, a revolutionary deed ought to be enacted where one is not known.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Still further steps were taken to precipitate the revolution. In conformity
-with the Monday night plan, armed men were to be stationed, on
-the evening of Tuesday, in the vicinity of the police stations. We find
-that Lingg, Seliger, Lehman, Smidke, Thielen and two large unknown men
-were in the vicinity of the North Avenue Station. They skulked about the
-corners of the streets leading to that station, between eight and ten o’clock,
-fully armed with bombs and ready for desperate deeds. Others, who had
-secured bombs at Neff’s Hall, went further northward and hovered around
-the police station near the corner of Webster and Lincoln Avenues.
-Seliger and Lingg also paid that vicinity a visit. There were also armed
-men at Deering, where a meeting of striking workingmen was held, and
-which was addressed by Schwab after he had left the Haymarket. Anarchists
-also posted themselves in the vicinity of the Chicago Avenue Station.
-Men were also near the North Avenue Station, and some twenty-five posted
-themselves at the corner of Halsted and Randolph Streets, two blocks
-from the Desplaines Street Station. Spies and Schwab entered this group<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
-and held some secret consultation with the leaders. Fischer and Waller
-were also close to that station.</p>
-
-<p>It furthermore appears that several men called on Tuesday evening at
-Waller’s residence while he was eating his supper and desired him to
-accompany them to Wicker Park, saying that they “wanted to be at their
-post.” Two of these men were Krueger and Kraemer, belonging to the
-“armed sections.” Some men also called at Engel’s store, and one of them
-exhibited a revolver. Another, a stranger, explained to a comrade that he
-was waiting for some “pills.” He waited only five minutes, when a young
-girl about ten or twelve years of age came in, carrying a mysterious package.
-This she handed to the stranger, who stepped behind a screen and then
-hastened out.</p>
-
-<p>It is thus manifest that the various parties were bent on a carnival of
-riot and destruction and only awaited the proper signal from the committee.
-The men intrusted with the secrets of pillage, murder and general
-destruction belonged to what was known in the order as the “Revolutionary
-Group.” The plan was not communicated to any one else. The utmost
-secrecy had to be maintained for its successful accomplishment, and the
-conspiracy was only communicated to such as had proved themselves in
-the past, by word and deed, in full accord with revolutionary methods.
-The “revolutionary party” consisted of the Lehr und Wehr Verein, commanded
-by Breitenfeld; the Northwest Side group, under command of
-Engel, Fischer and Grumm; the North Side group, commanded by Neebe,
-Lingg and Hermann; the American group, commanded by Spies, Parsons
-and Fielden; the Karl Marx group, directed by Schilling; the Freiheit
-group and the armed sections of the International Carpenters’ Union and
-Metal-workers’ Union. These various sections, or groups, were under the
-management of a general committee which included among its leading
-spirits Spies, Schwab, Parsons, Neebe, Rau, Hirschberger, Deusch and Bélz.
-This committee met at stated periods at the office of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-and formulated orders for the guidance of the groups. Its expenses were
-met by monthly contributions from all the Socialistic societies. It was
-under the inspiration of this committee that the Monday night meeting
-was held. Why the signal for a concerted raid on the police stations, the
-burning of buildings and the slaughter of capitalists was not given on the
-fateful night of the Haymarket riot,&mdash;or, if given, as seems to be believed in
-many quarters, in Fielden’s declaration, “We are peaceable,” why it was
-not carried out completely,&mdash;is not explicable upon any other hypothesis
-than that the courage of the trusted leaders failed them at the critical
-moment.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">The Air Full of Rumors&mdash;A Riot Feared&mdash;Police Preparations&mdash;Bonfield
-in Command&mdash;The Haymarket&mdash;Strategic Value of the Anarchists’ Position&mdash;Crane’s
-Alley&mdash;The Theory of Street Warfare&mdash;Inflaming the Mob&mdash;Schnaubelt and
-his Bomb&mdash;“Throttle the Law”&mdash;The Limit of Patience Reached&mdash;“In the Name of
-the People, Disperse”&mdash;The Signal Given&mdash;The Crash of Dynamite First Heard on
-an American Street&mdash;Murder in the Air&mdash;A Rally and a Charge&mdash;The Anarchists
-Swept Away&mdash;A Battle Worthy of Veterans.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">WITH such active work among the conspirators as I have shown, it
-was only a question of time when some terrible catastrophe would
-ensue through the instrumentality of the powerful bombs they had manufactured.
-The public mind was in a state of fear and suspense, not
-knowing the direction whence threatened devastation and destruction might
-appear. The incendiary speeches were enough to excite trepidation, and
-the appearance of the “Revenge circular” fanned the excitement into
-general alarm and indignation. The McCormick attack proved conclusively
-that the Anarchists meant to practice what they preached. After their
-rout and defeat, they were heard to express regret that they had not
-taken forcible possession of the works before the arrival of the police and
-then received the officers with a volley of fire-arms, as had once been contemplated
-in a star-chamber session of one of their “revolutionary groups.”
-The air was full of rumors, and the general public was convinced that some
-great disaster would occur unless the police promptly forbade the holding
-of further revolutionary meetings. The Mayor’s attention had been called
-to the possible results if such meetings were permitted to continue, and
-he, in turn, directed the Police Department to keep close watch of the
-gathering called for the Haymarket Square and disperse it in case the
-speakers used inflammatory language. During the day many of the Spies
-circulars had been distributed in the vicinity of the McCormick establishment,
-and it was expected that many of the enraged strikers from that
-locality would attend the meeting. It was clear that, in view of the temper
-of the Socialists, only slight encouragement would be required to produce
-a disturbance, and it was of the utmost importance that prompt action
-should be taken at the first sign of trouble. It subsequently transpired
-that the leaders had intended to make the speeches threatening in order to
-invite a charge upon the crowd by the police, and then, during the confusion,
-to carry out the Monday night programme.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-140.jpg" width="400" height="251" id="i140"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">THE HAYMARKET MEETING.<br />“<span class="smcap">In the Name of the People, I Command You to Disperse.</span>”</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The city authorities fully comprehended the situation, but concluded
-not to interfere with the meeting unless the discussion should be attended
-with violent threats. In order to be prepared for any emergency, however,
-it was deemed best to concentrate a large force in the vicinity of the meeting&mdash;at
-the Desplaines Street Station. One hundred men from Capt.
-Ward’s district, the Third Precinct, under command of Lieuts. Bowler,
-Stanton, Penzen and Beard, twenty-six men from the Central Detail under
-command of Lieut. Hubbard and Sergt. Fitzpatrick, and fifty men from
-the Fourth Precinct, under Lieuts. Steele and Quinn, were accordingly
-assigned for special service that evening. Inspector John Bonfield was
-ordered to assume command of the whole force, and his instructions were
-to direct the detectives to mingle with the crowd, and, if anything of an
-incendiary nature was advised by the speakers, to direct the officers to disperse
-the gathering.</p>
-
-<p>The meeting had been called for 7:30 o’clock, and at that hour quite a
-number had assembled in the vicinity of Haymarket Square. This square
-is simply a widening of Randolph Street between Desplaines and Halsted
-Streets; and in years past was used by farmers for the sale of hay and
-produce. It was for this place that the call had been issued, but for certain
-reasons the meeting was held ninety feet north of Randolph, on Desplaines
-Street, near the intersection of an alley which has since passed into public
-fame as “Crane’s alley.” In sight almost of this alley was Zepf’s Hall, on
-the northeast corner of Lake and Desplaines Streets, and about two blocks
-further east on Lake Street were Florus’ Hall and Greif’s Hall&mdash;all notorious
-resorts and headquarters for Anarchists. On the evening in question
-these places and surrounding streets leading to the meeting-place were
-crowded with strikers and Socialist sympathizers, some within the saloons
-regaling themselves with beer and some jostling each other on the thoroughfares,
-either going for liquids or returning to the meeting after having for the
-moment satisfied the “inner man.” Here was a condition of things that
-would permit an easy mingling in, and ready escape through, the crowd, in
-the event of inauguration of the revolutionary plan adopted the evening
-previous. The throngs would serve as a cover for apparently safe operations.
-Another advantage gained by holding the meeting at the point
-indicated was that the street was dimly lighted, and, as the building in front
-of which the speaking took place was a manufacturing establishment,&mdash;that
-of Crane Bros.,&mdash;not used or lighted at night, and as the alley contiguous
-to the speaker’s stand formed an L with another alley leading to
-Randolph Street, there were points of seeming safety for a conflict with the
-police. Besides, the point was about 350 feet north of the Desplaines
-Street Police Station, and it was evidently calculated that when the police
-should attack the crowd, that part of the Monday night programme about
-blowing up the stations could easily be carried into effect.</p>
-
-<p>These were the undoubted reasons for effecting the change. The reader
-will remember that one of the objections urged by Fischer against holding
-the meeting on Market Square was that it was a “mouse trap,” and one of
-his potential arguments for the Haymarket was that it was a safer place
-for the execution of their plot. There was thus a “method in their madness.”
-All the contingencies had evidently been very carefully considered.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-142.jpg" width="400" height="260" id="i142"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">THE HAYMARKET RIOT.<br /><span class="smcap">The Explosion and the Conflict.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>But, as I have already stated, the hour had arrived for calling the
-meeting to order, and as there appeared no one to assume prompt charge,
-the crowd exhibited some manifestations of impatience. About eight
-o’clock there were perhaps 3,000 people in the vicinity of the chosen place,
-and some fifteen or twenty minutes later Spies put in an appearance. He
-mounted the truck wagon improvised as a speaker’s stand and inquired for
-Parsons. Receiving no response, he got down, and, meeting Schwab, the
-two entered the alley, where there was quite a crowd, and where they were
-overheard using the words “pistols”
-and “police,” and Schwab
-was heard to ask, “Is one enough
-or had we better go and get
-more?” Both then disappeared
-up the street, and it is a fair
-presumption&mdash;borne out by the
-fact that they had entered a
-group of Anarchists on the corner
-of Halsted and Randolph
-Streets, as noted in the preceding
-chapter, and other circumstances&mdash;that
-they went to secure
-bombs. Spies shortly returned,
-and, meeting Schnaubelt,
-held a short conversation with
-him, at the same time handing
-him something, which Schnaubelt
-put carefully in a side-pocket.
-Spies again mounted
-the wagon (the hour being about
-8:40&mdash;Schnaubelt standing near him), and began a speech in English. It
-is needless, at this point, to reproduce the speech, as its substance appears
-later on, both as given by the reporters and as written out subsequently
-by Spies. But both reports fail to give a proper conception of its insidious
-effect on the audience. It bore mainly on the grievances of labor,
-the treatment of the strikers by McCormick, and an explanation of his
-(Spies’) connection with the disturbances of the day previous. The lesson
-he drew from the occurrence at McCormick’s was “that workingmen must
-arm themselves for defense, so that they may be able to cope with the
-Government hirelings of their masters.”</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-143.jpg" width="250" height="320" id="i143"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">INSPECTOR JOHN BONFIELD.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Parsons had meanwhile been sent for, and on the conclusion of Spies’
-harangue was introduced. He reviewed the labor discontent in the country,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
-the troubles growing out of it, touched on monopoly, criticised the so-called
-“capitalistic press,” scored the banks, explained Socialism, excoriated
-the system of elections, and terminated his remarks by appealing
-to his hearers to defend themselves and asserting that, if the demands of
-the working classes were refused, it meant war. His speech, like that of
-Spies, was mild as compared with what would be expected on such an
-occasion. Perhaps this is accounted for by the fact that during their
-harangues Mayor Harrison mingled in the throng and paid close attention
-to the sentiments of the speakers. He afterwards characterized Parsons’
-effort as “a good political speech,” and, being apparently satisfied that
-there would be no trouble, left for the Desplaines Street Police Station,
-giving his impressions of the gathering to the Captain in charge and telling
-Bonfield that there seemed to be no further use for holding the force in
-reserve.</p>
-
-<p>No sooner had Harrison left for the station and thence for his own
-house, than the next speaker, Fielden, grew bolder in his remarks and sent
-the words rolling hot and fast over an oily, voluble and vindictive tongue.
-He opened with a reference to the insecurity of the working classes under
-the present social system, drifted to the McCormick strike, in which men,
-he said, were “shot down by the law in cold blood, in the city of Chicago,
-in the protection of property,” and held that the strikers had “nothing
-more to do with the law except to lay hands on it, and throttle it until it
-makes its last kick. Throttle it! Kill it! Stab it! Can we do anything,”
-he asked, “except by the strong arm of resistance? The skirmish
-lines have met. The people have
-been shot. Men, women and children
-have not been spared by the capitalists
-and the minions of private
-capital. It had no mercy&mdash;neither
-ought you. You are called upon to
-defend yourselves, your lives, your
-future. I have some resistance in
-me. I know that you have, too.”</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-144.jpg" width="250" height="321" id="i144"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">CAPT. WILLIAM WARD.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>At this juncture the police made
-their appearance. During the remarks
-of Spies and Parsons, detectives
-had frequently reported to the
-station that only moderate, temperate
-sentiments were being uttered, but
-after Fielden had got fairly worked
-up to his subject, this was changed.
-The crowd was being wrought up to
-a high point of excitement, and there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
-were frequent interjections of approval and shouts of indignation. Fielden’s
-was just such a speech as they had expected to hear. Very little was
-required to incite them to the perpetration of desperate deeds. Like a
-sculptor with his plastic model, Fielden had molded his audience to suit
-the purpose of the occasion. With his rough and ready eloquence he
-stirred up their innermost passions.
-His biting allusions to
-capitalists caught the hearts of
-the uncouth mob as with grappling-hooks,
-and his appeals for
-the destruction of existing laws
-shook them as a whirlwind.</p>
-
-<p>It would be as well, he said,
-for workmen to die fighting as
-to starve to death. “Exterminate
-the capitalists, and do it
-to-night!” The officers detailed
-to watch the proceedings saw
-that the speech portended no
-good, and they communicated
-the facts to Inspector Bonfield.
-Even then the Inspector hesitated.
-To use his own language,
-in the report he sent to Superintendent
-Ebersold: “Wanting
-to be clearly within the law, and
-wishing to leave no room for doubt as to the propriety of our actions, I did
-not act on the first reports, but sent the officers back to make further observations.
-A few minutes after ten o’clock, the officers returned and reported
-that the crowd were getting excited and the speaker growing more incendiary
-in his language. I then felt that to hesitate any longer would be
-criminal, and gave the order to fall in and move our force forward on Waldo
-Place,”&mdash;a short street south of the Desplaines Street Station.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-145.jpg" width="250" height="307" id="i145"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">LIEUT. (NOW CHIEF) G. W. HUBBARD.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The force formed into four divisions. The companies of Lieuts. Steele
-and Quinn formed the first; those of Lieuts. Stanton and Bowler, the second;
-those of Lieut. Hubbard and Sergt. Fitzpatrick, the third; and two
-companies commanded by Lieuts. Beard and Penzen constituted the
-fourth, forming the rear guard, which had orders to form right and left on
-Randolph Street, to guard the rear from any attack from the Haymarket.
-These various divisions thus covered the street from curb to curb.
-Inspector Bonfield and Capt. Ward led the forces, in front of the first division.
-On seeing them advancing in the distance, Fielden exclaimed:</p>
-
-<p>“Here come the bloodhounds. You do your duty, and I’ll do mine!”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Arriving on the ground, they found the agitator right in the midst of his
-incendiary exhortations, that point where he was telling his Anarchist zealots
-that he had some resistance in him, and assuring them that he knew
-they had too. At that moment the police were ordered to halt within a
-few feet of the truck wagon, and Capt. Ward, advancing to within three feet
-of the speaker, said:</p>
-
-<p>“I command you, in the name of the people of the State, to immediately
-and peaceably disperse.”</p>
-
-<p>Turning to the crowd, he continued: “I command you and you to
-assist.”</p>
-
-<p>Fielden had meanwhile jumped off the wagon, and, as he reached the
-sidewalk, declared in a clear, loud tone of voice:</p>
-
-<p>“We are peaceable.”</p>
-
-<p>This must have been the secret signal,&mdash;it has about it suggestions of
-the word “Ruhe,”&mdash;and no sooner had it been uttered than a spark flashed
-through the air. It looked like the lighted remnant of a cigar, but hissed
-like a miniature skyrocket. It fell in the ranks of the second division and
-near the dividing-line between the companies of Lieuts. Stanton and Bowler,
-just south of where the speaking had taken place.</p>
-
-<p>A terrific explosion followed&mdash;the detonation was heard for blocks
-around. The direction in which the bomb&mdash;for such it was&mdash;had been
-thrown was by way of the east sidewalk from the alley. It had been hurled
-by a person in the shadow of that narrow yet crowded passageway on the
-same side of, and only a few feet from, the speaker’s stand.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-146.jpg" width="250" height="311" id="i146"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">SERGT. (NOW CAPT.)<br />J. E. FITZPATRICK.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The explosion created frightful havoc and terrible dismay. It was
-instantly followed by a volley of small fire-arms from the mob on the sidewalk
-and in the street in front of the
-police force, all directed against the officers.
-They were for the moment stunned
-and terror-stricken. In the immediate
-vicinity of the explosion, the entire column
-under Stanton and Bowler and
-many of the first and third divisions were
-hurled to the ground, some killed, and
-many in the agonies of death.</p>
-
-<p>As soon as the first flash of the tragic
-shock had passed, and even on the instant
-the mob began firing, Inspector
-Bonfield rallied the policemen who remained
-unscathed, and ordered a running
-fire of revolvers on the desperate
-Anarchists. Lieuts. Steele and Quinn
-charged the crowd on the street from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>
-curb to curb, and Lieuts. Hubbard and Fitzpatrick, with such men as
-were left them of the Special Detail, swept both sidewalks with a brisk
-and rattling fire.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-147a.jpg" width="250" height="300" id="i147a"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">LIEUT. JAMES P. STANTON.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The rush of the officers was like that of a mighty torrent in a narrow
-channel&mdash;they carried everything before
-them and swept down all hapless enough
-to fall under their fire or batons. The
-masterly courage and brilliant dash of
-the men soon sent the Anarchists flying
-in every direction, and a more desperate
-scramble for life and safety was never
-witnessed. Even the most defiant conspirators
-lost their wits and hunted nooks
-and recesses of buildings to seclude themselves
-till they could effect an escape
-without imminent danger of bullets or of
-being crushed by the precipitate mob.</p>
-
-<p>Fielden, so brave and fearless on the
-appearance of the police, pulled a revolver
-while crouching beneath the protection
-of the truck wheels, fired at the
-officers, and then took to his heels and disappeared. Spies had friendly
-assistance in getting off the truck, and hastened pell-mell through the
-crowd in a frantic endeavor to get under cover. He finally reached safety,
-while his brother, who was with him on the wagon, got away with a slight
-wound. Parsons seems to have taken time by the forelock and nervously
-awaited developments in the bar-room of
-Zepf’s Hall.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-147b.jpg" width="250" height="317" id="i147b"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">LIEUT. BOWLER.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Fischer had been among the
-crowd while Spies and Parsons spoke, but
-he was in the company of Parsons at Zepf’s
-when the explosion occurred. Schnaubelt,
-who had sat on the wagon with his hands
-in his pockets until Fielden began his
-speech, hurried through the mob, after
-sending the missile on its deadly mission,
-and got away without a scratch. Other
-lesser yet influential lights in the Anarchist
-combination found friendly refuge, and, as
-subsequently developed, lost no time in
-reaching home as soon as possible. How
-any of these leaders who were in the midst
-of the awful carnage managed to escape,
-while other of their comrades suffered, is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
-not clear, unless they dodged from one secluded spot to another, while the
-storm raged at its height&mdash;and there are many circumstances showing that
-this was the case. At any rate the point is immaterial: the fact remains
-that they were all found lacking in courage at the critical moment, and
-each seemed more concerned about his own safety than that of his fellow
-revolutionists.</p>
-
-<p>Owing to the masterly charge of the police, the conflict was of short
-duration, but, while it lasted, it produced a scene of confusion, death and
-bloodshed not equaled in the annals of American riots in its extent and far-reaching
-results. The hissing of bullets, the groans of the dying, the cries
-of the wounded and the imprecations of the fleeing made a combination
-of horrors which those present will never forget.</p>
-
-<p>No sooner had the field been cleared of the mob than Inspector Bonfield
-set to work caring for the dead and wounded. They were found scattered
-in every direction. Many of the officers lay prostrate where they
-had fallen, and to the north, where the mob had disputed the ground with
-the police, lay many an Anarchist. On door-steps and in the recesses of
-buildings were found wounded and maimed. The police looked after all
-and rendered assistance alike to friend and foe. The dead, dying and
-wounded were conveyed to the Desplaines Street Station, where numerous
-physicians were called into service.</p>
-
-<p>In subsequently speaking of the bravery of his men on this occasion, in
-his report to the Chief of Police, Inspector Bonfield very truly said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">It has been asserted that regular troops have become panic-stricken from less cause. I
-see no way to account for it except this. The soldier acts as part of a machine. Rarely, if
-ever, when on duty, is he allowed to act as an individual or to use his personal judgment. A
-police officer’s training teaches him to be self-reliant. Day after day and night after night
-he goes on duty alone, and, when in conflict with the thief and burglar, he has to depend
-upon his own individual exertions. The soldier being a part of a machine, it follows that,
-when a part of it gives out, the rest is useless until the injury is repaired. The policeman,
-being a machine in himself, rarely, if ever, gives up until he is laid on the ground and unable
-to rise again. In conclusion, I beg leave to report that the conduct of the men and officers,
-with few exceptions, was admirable&mdash;as a military man said to me the next day, “worthy
-the heroes of a hundred battles.”</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER IX.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">The Dead and the Wounded&mdash;Moans of Anguish in the Police Station&mdash;Caring
-for Friend and Foe&mdash;Counting the Cost&mdash;A City’s Sympathy&mdash;The Death
-List&mdash;Sketches of the Men&mdash;The Doctors’ Work&mdash;Dynamite Havoc&mdash;Veterans of
-the Haymarket&mdash;A Roll of Honor&mdash;The Anarchist Loss&mdash;Guesses at their Dead&mdash;Concealing
-Wounded Rioters&mdash;The Explosion a Failure&mdash;Disappointment of the
-Terrorists.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">THE scene at the Desplaines Street Station was one which would appal
-the stoutest heart. Every available place in the building was utilized,
-and one could scarcely move about the various rooms without fear of accidentally
-touching a wound or jarring a fractured limb. In many instances
-mangled Anarchists were placed side by side with injured officers. The
-floors literally ran with blood dripping and flowing from the lacerated bodies
-of the victims of the riot. The air was filled with moans from the dying
-and groans of anguish from the wounded. As the news had spread throughout
-the city of the terrible slaughter, wives, daughters, relatives and friends
-of officers as well as of Anarchists, who had failed to report at home or to
-send tidings of their whereabouts, hastened to the station and sought
-admission. Being refused, these set up wailing and lamentations about the
-doors of the station, and the doleful sounds made the situation all the more
-sorrowful within.</p>
-
-<p>Everything in the power of man was done to alleviate the suffering and to
-make the patients as comfortable as possible. Drs. Murphy, Lee and Henrotin,
-department physicians, were energetically at work, and, with every
-appliance possible, administered comparative relief and ease from the
-excruciating pains of the suffering. The more seriously wounded, when
-possible, were taken to the Cook County Hospital. Throughout the night
-following the riot, the early morning and the day succeeding, the utmost
-care was given the patients, and throughout the city for days and weeks
-the one inquiry, the one great sympathy, was with reference to the wounded
-officers and their condition. The whole heart of the city was centered in
-their recovery. Everywhere the living as well as the dead heroes were
-accorded the highest praise. The culprits who had sought to subvert law
-and order in murder and pillage were execrated on all hands. For days
-and weeks, the city never for a moment relaxed its interest. From the time
-the men had been brought into the station, it was long a question as to how
-many would succumb to their wounds. Care and attention without
-ceasing served to rescue many from an untimely grave; but even those
-who were finally restored to their families and friends, crippled and maimed
-as they were, hovered between life and death on a very slender thread
-through many a restless night and weary day and through long weeks and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
-agonizing months. The devotion of friends and the skill of physicians
-nerved the men to strength and patience. That only eight should have
-died out of so great a number as were mangled, lacerated and shattered by
-the powerful bomb and pierced by bullets, attests the merits of the treatment.</p>
-
-<p>The only one who was almost instantly killed was Officer Mathias J.
-Degan. The following list will serve to show the names of the officers
-killed and wounded, the stations they belonged to, their residences, the
-nature of their wounds, their condition and other circumstances:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Mathias J. Degan</span>&mdash;Third Precinct, West Lake Street Station; residence, No. 626
-South Canal Street. Almost instantly killed. He was born October 29, 1851, and joined the
-police force December 15, 1884. He was a widower, having lost his wife just before joining
-the force, and left a young son. He was a brave officer, efficient in all his duties, and highly
-esteemed.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Michael Sheehan</span>&mdash;Third Precinct; residence, No. 163 Barber Street. Wounded in
-the back just below the ninth rib. The bullet lay in the abdomen, and, after its removal by
-the surgeon, he collapsed and died on the 9th of May. He was twenty-nine years of age,
-born in Ireland, and came to America in 1879. He joined the force December 15, 1884, and
-had only one relative in America, a brother, his parents still living in the old country. He
-was a very bright, prompt and efficient officer, and had excellent prospects before him. He
-was unmarried.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">George Muller</span>&mdash;Third Precinct; residence, No. 836 West Madison Street; was shot in
-the left side, the bullet passing down through the body and lodging on the right side above
-the hip bone. He suffered more than any of the others and was in terrible agony. He
-would not consent to an operation, and finally his right lung collapsed, making his breathing
-very difficult. He expired on the 6th of May. He was twenty-eight years of age. Born in
-Oswego, N. Y., where his parents lived, and to which place his remains were sent. Muller,
-on coming to Chicago, began as a teamster, and became connected with the Police Department
-December 15, 1884, being assigned for duty at the Desplaines Street Station. He was
-a finely built, muscular young man, and became quite a favorite with his associates because
-of his quiet habits and genial manners. At the time of his death he was engaged to Miss
-Mary McAvoy.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">John J. Barrett</span>&mdash;Third Precinct; residence, No. 99 East Erie Street; was shot in the
-liver, from which a piece of shell was removed, and he had a bad fracture of the elbow.
-The heel bone of one leg was carried away. With so many serious wounds, he lay in the
-hospital almost unconscious until the day of his death, May 6. He was born in Waukegan,
-Ill., in 1860, and came to Chicago with his parents when only four years of age. Here he
-attended the public schools, and then learned the molder’s trade, which he abandoned on
-January 15, 1885, to join the police force, being assigned to duty at the Desplaines Street
-Station. He was a brave and efficient officer and always ready to do his part in any emergency.
-He had been married only a few months preceding his death, and left a wife, a
-widowed mother, three sisters and a younger brother.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Thomas Redden</span>&mdash;Third Precinct; residence, No. 109 Walnut Street; received a bad
-fracture of the left leg three inches below the knee, from which a large portion of the bone was
-entirely carried away. He also had bullet wounds in the left cheek and right elbow, and
-some wounds in the back. Pieces of shell were found in the leg and elbow. He died May
-16. He was fifty years of age, and had been connected with the police force for twelve
-years, joining it on April 1, 1874. He was attached to the West Lake Street Station, and was
-looked upon as an exemplary and trusted officer. He left a wife and two young children.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Timothy Flavin</span>&mdash;Fourth Precinct; residence, No. 504 North Ashland Avenue; was
-struck with a piece of shell four inches above the ankle joint, tearing away a portion of the
-large bone and fracturing the small bone. He also had two wounds just below the shoulder
-joint in the right arm, caused by a shell, and there were two shell wounds in the back, one
-passing into the abdomen and the other into the lung. His leg was amputated above the
-knee, the second day after the explosion, and he had besides a large piece torn out of his
-right hip. He died on May 8. He was born in Listowel, Ireland, and came to America in
-1880 with a young wife, whom he had married on the day of his departure. He had worked
-as a teamster, and joined the police force on December 15, 1884, being assigned to duty at
-the Rawson Street Station. He left a wife and three small children.</p></div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-151.jpg" width="400" height="280" id="i151"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">THE DESPLAINES STREET STATION.<br />
-<span class="wn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Nels Hansen</span>&mdash;Fourth Precinct; residence, No. 28 Fowler Street; received shell wounds
-in body, arms and legs, and one of his limbs had to be amputated. He lost considerable
-blood, but lingered along in intense agony until May 14, when he died. He was a native of
-Sweden, having came to Chicago a great number of years ago, joining the force December
-15, 1884, and was about fifty years of age. He left a wife and two children.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Timothy Sullivan</span>, of the Third Precinct, was the last to die from the effects of the
-Haymarket riot; this brave officer lingered until June 13, 1888. He resided at No. 123
-Hickory Street, and was a widower, four children mourning his loss. The illness from
-which he died was the direct result of a bullet wound just above the left knee.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The following is a list of the wounded officers belonging to the Third
-Precinct:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">August C. Keller; residence, No. 36 Greenwich Street; shell wound in right side and ball
-wound in left side; wife and five children.</p>
-
-<p>Thomas McHenry; residence, 376 W. Polk Street; shell wound in left knee and three shell
-wounds in left hip; single; had a sister and blind mother to support.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>John E. Doyle, 142½ W. Jackson Street; bullet wounds in back and calf of each leg;
-serious; wife and one child.</p>
-
-<p>John A. King, 1411 Wabash Avenue; jaw-bone fractured by shell and two bullet wounds
-in right leg below the knee; serious; single.</p>
-
-<p>Nicholas Shannon, Jr., No. 24 Miller Street; thirteen shell wounds on right side and five
-shell wounds on left side; serious; wife and three children.</p>
-
-<p>James Conway, No. 185 Morgan Street; bullet wound in right leg; single.</p>
-
-<p>Patrick Hartford, No. 228 Noble Street; shell wound in right ankle, two toes on left foot
-amputated, bullet wound in left side; wife and four children.</p>
-
-<p>Patrick Nash, Desplaines Street Station; bruises on left shoulder, inflicted by a stick;
-single.</p>
-
-<p>Arthur Connolly, No. 318 West Huron Street; two shell wounds in left leg; bone slightly
-fractured; wife.</p>
-
-<p>Louis Johnson, No. 40 West Erie Street; shell wound in left leg; wife and four children.</p>
-
-<p>M. M. Cardin, No. 18 North Peoria Street; bullet wound in calf of each leg; wife and
-two children.</p>
-
-<p>Adam Barber, No. 321 West Jackson Street; shell wound left leg, bullet wound in right
-breast; bullet not extracted; wife and one child.</p>
-
-<p>Henry F. Smith, bullet wound in right shoulder; quite serious, wife and two children in
-California.</p>
-
-<p>Frank Tyrell, No. 228 Lincoln Street; bullet in right hip near spine; wife and two children;
-wife sick in County Hospital at the time of the riot.</p>
-
-<p>James A. Brady, No. 146 West Van Buren Street; shell wound in left leg, slight injury to
-toes of left foot and shell wound in left thigh; single.</p>
-
-<p>John Reed, No. 237 South Halsted Street; shell wound in left leg and bullet wound in
-right knee; bullet not removed; single.</p>
-
-<p>Patrick McLaughlin, No. 965 Thirty-seventh Court; bruised on right side, leg and hip,
-injuries slight; wife and two children.</p>
-
-<p>Frank Murphy, No. 980 Walnut Street; trampled on, three ribs broken; wife and three
-children.</p>
-
-<p>Lawrence Murphy, No. 317½ Fulton Street; shell wounds on left side of neck and left
-knee, part of left foot amputated; wife.</p>
-
-<p>Michael Madden, No. 119 South Green Street; shot in left lung on May 5th, after which
-he shot and killed his Anarchist assailant; wife and seven children.</p></div>
-
-<p>The following belonged to the West Lake Street Station of the Third
-Precinct:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">Lieut. James P. Stanton, residence No. 584 Carroll Avenue; shell wound in right side,
-bullet wound in right hip, bullet wound in calf of leg; wife and three children.</p>
-
-<p>Thomas Brophy, No. 25 Nixon Street; slight injury to left leg; reported for duty; wife.</p>
-
-<p>Bernard Murphy, No. 325 East Twenty-second Street; bullet wound in left thigh, shell
-wound on right side of head and chin; not dangerous; wife.</p>
-
-<p>Charles H. Fink, No. 154 South Sangamon Street; three shell wounds in left leg and two
-wounds in right leg; not dangerous; wife.</p>
-
-<p>Joseph Norman, No. 612 Walnut Street; bullet passed through right foot and slight
-injury to finger on left hand; wife and two children.</p>
-
-<p>Peter Butterly, No. 436 West Twelfth Street; bullet wound in right arm and small wound
-on each leg near knee; wife and one child.</p>
-
-<p>Alexander Jamison, No. 129 Gurley Street; bullet wound in left leg; serious; wife and
-seven children.</p>
-
-<p>Michael Horan, bullet wound in left thigh, not removed; slight shell wound on left arm;
-single.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Thomas Hennessy, No. 287 Fulton Street; shell wound on left thigh, slight; has mother,
-who is crippled, and two sisters to support.</p>
-
-<p>William Burns, No. 602 West Van Buren Street; slight shell wound on left ankle; single.</p>
-
-<p>James Plunkett, No. 15½ Depuyster Street; struck with club and trampled upon; wife.</p>
-
-<p>Charles W. Whitney, No. 453 South Robey Street; shell wound in left breast; shell not
-removed; single.</p>
-
-<p>Jacob Hansen, No. 137 North Morgan Street; right leg amputated over the knee, three
-shell wounds in left leg; wife and one child.</p>
-
-<p>Martin Cullen, No. 236 Washtenaw Avenue; right collar bone fractured and slight injury
-to left knee; wife and five children.</p>
-
-<p>Simon Klidzis, No. 158 Carroll Street; shot in calf of left leg; serious; wife and three
-children.</p>
-
-<p>Julius L. Simonson, No. 241 West Huron Street; shot in arm near shoulder; very serious;
-wife and two children.</p>
-
-<p>John K. McMahon, No. 118 North Green Street; shell wound in calf of left leg, shell not
-found; ball wound left leg near knee, very serious; wife and two children.</p>
-
-<p>Simon McMahon, No. 913 North Ashland Avenue; shot in right arm and two wounds in
-right leg; wife and five children.</p>
-
-<p>Edward W. Ruel, No. 136 North Peoria Street; shot in right ankle, bullet not removed;
-serious; single.</p>
-
-<p>Alexander Halvorson, No. 850 North Oakley Avenue; shot in both legs, ball not extracted;
-single.</p>
-
-<p>Carl E. Johnson, No. 339 West Erie Street; shot in left elbow; wife and two children.</p>
-
-<p>Peter McCormick, No. 473 West Erie Street; slight shot wound in left arm; wife.</p>
-
-<p>Christopher Gaynor, No. 45 Fay Street; slight bruise on left arm; wife.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The following belonged to the Fourth Precinct:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">S. J. Werneke, No. 73 West Division Street; shot in left side of head, ball not found;
-serious; wife and two children.</p>
-
-<p>Patrick McNulty, No. 691 North Leavitt Street; shot in right leg and both hips; dangerous;
-wife and three children.</p>
-
-<p>Samuel Hilgo, No. 452 Milwaukee Avenue; shot in right leg; not serious; single.</p>
-
-<p>Herman Krueger, No. 184 Ramsey Street; shot in right knee; not serious; wife and two
-children.</p>
-
-<p>Joseph A. Gilso, No. 8 Emma Street; slightly injured in back and leg; not serious; wife
-and six children.</p>
-
-<p>Edward Barrell, No. 297 West Ohio Street; shot in right leg; quite serious; wife and six
-children.</p>
-
-<p>Freeman Steele, No. 30 Rice Street; slightly wounded in back; not serious; single.</p>
-
-<p>James P. Johnson, No. 740 Dixon Street; right knee sprained; not serious; wife and three
-children.</p>
-
-<p>Benjamin F. Snell, No. 138 Mozart Street; shot in right leg; not serious; single.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The following belonged to the Central Detail:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">James H. Wilson, No. 810 Austin Avenue; seriously injured in abdomen by shell; wife
-and five children.</p>
-
-<p>Daniel Hogan, No. 526 Austin Avenue; shot in calf of right leg and hand; very serious;
-wife and daughter.</p>
-
-<p>M. O’Brien, No. 495 Fifth Avenue; shell wound in left thigh; very serious; wife and two
-children.</p>
-
-<p>Fred A. Andrew, No. 1018 North Halsted Street; wounded in leg, not serious; wife.</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-154.jpg" width="400" height="507" id="i154"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">THE HAYMARKET MARTYRS.</p>
-<p class="pi16 wn">1. John J. Barrett.<br />
-2. Michael Sheehan.<br />
-3. Timothy Flavin.<br />
-4. Timothy Sullivan.<br />
-5. Thomas Redden.<br />
-6. Mathias J. Degan.<br />
-7. Nels Hansen.<br />
-8. George Muller.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>Jacob Ebinger, No. 235 Thirty-seventh Street; shell wound in back of left hand; not
-serious; wife and three children.</p>
-
-<p>John J. Kelley, No. 194 Sheffield Avenue; shell wound on left hand; not serious; wife
-and three children.</p>
-
-<p>Patrick Lavin, No. 42 Sholto Street; finger hurt by shell; married.</p>
-
-
-<p>Officer Terrehll had a shell wound in the right thigh.</p>
-
-<p>Patrick Hartford had an opening in the ankle joint. The shell was removed. A portion
-of his left foot, with the toes, was carried away.</p>
-
-<p>Arthur Conelly had a compound fracture of the tibia. The shell struck him about two
-inches below the knee, tore away a piece of bone of the fibula, perforated the tibia and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
-lodged about the middle of the large bone of the leg, a short distance below the knee. A
-piece of shell was removed.</p>
-
-<p>Lawrence Murphy had fifteen shell wounds, one in the neck, three or four in the arms,
-and one in his left foot; the last, weighing almost an ounce and a half, lodged at the base of
-the great toe and left his foot hanging by a piece of skin. The foot had to be amputated
-about two inches farther back. He had a piece two inches square taken out of the
-anterior surface of his leg. He had two perforating wounds in the left thigh and a number
-in the right.</p>
-
-<p>Edward Barrett had two shell wounds in the neighborhood of the knee joint, turning out
-large pieces of flesh and leaving ragged wounds on the surface.</p>
-
-<p>J. H. King was struck in the chin by a piece of shell which went through his upper lip;
-another piece carried away about an inch of his lower jaw-bone.</p>
-
-<p>J. H. Grady had severe flesh wounds, both in the thigh and legs. Some pieces of shell
-were taken out of them.</p>
-
-<p>John Doyle had several wounds about the legs, in the neighborhood of the knee joint.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The list shows the character of the wounds and the condition of the
-officers just after the eventful night. Some of those who died lingered along
-for some time after, but the name of Timothy Sullivan was the last to add to
-the death-list. Some of the sixty-eight wounded men have since returned
-to active duty, but many are maimed for life and incapacitated for work.</p>
-
-<p>It is impossible to say how many of the Anarchists were killed or
-wounded. As soon as they were in a condition to be moved, those in the
-Desplaines Street Station were turned over to their relatives and friends.
-The Anarchists have never attempted to give a correct list, or even an
-approximate estimate, of the men wounded or killed on their side. The
-number, however, was largely in excess of that on the side of the police.
-After the moment’s bewilderment, the officers dashed on the enemy and fired
-round after round. Being good marksmen, they fired to kill, and many
-revolutionists must have gone home, either assisted by comrades or unassisted,
-with wounds that resulted fatally or maimed them for life. Some of
-those in the station had dangerous wounds, and they were for the most part
-men who had become separated, in the confusion, from their companions, or
-trampled upon so that they could not get up and limp to a safe place. It is
-known that many secret funerals were held from Anarchist localities in the
-dead hour of night. For many months previous to the Haymarket explosion
-the Anarchists had descanted loudly on the destructive potency of dynamite.
-One bomb, they maintained, was equivalent to a regiment of militia. A
-little dynamite, properly put up, could be carried in a vest pocket and used
-to destroy a large body of police. They probably reasoned that if it was
-known that many more of their number had fallen than on the side of the
-police, it would not only tend to diminish the faith of their adherents in the
-real virtues of dynamite, but would prove that the police were more than
-able to cope with the Social Revolution, even though the revolutionists
-depended on that powerful agency. The public is not, therefore, likely ever
-to know how many of their number suffered.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER X.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">The Core of the Conspiracy&mdash;Search of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> Office&mdash;The
-Captured Manuscript&mdash;Jealousies in the Police Department&mdash;The Case Threatened
-with Failure&mdash;Stupidity at the Central Office&mdash;Fischer Brought In&mdash;Rotten Detective
-Work&mdash;The Arrest of Spies&mdash;His Egregious Vanity&mdash;An Anarchist “Ladies’ Man”&mdash;Wine
-Suppers with the Actresses&mdash;Nina Van Zandt’s Antecedents&mdash;Her Romantic
-Connection with the Case&mdash;Fashionable Toilets&mdash;Did Spies Really Love Her?&mdash;His
-Curious Conduct&mdash;The Proxy Marriage&mdash;The End of the Romance&mdash;The Other Conspirators&mdash;Mrs.
-Parsons’ Origin&mdash;The Bomb-Thrower in Custody&mdash;The Assassin
-Kicked Out of the Chief’s Office&mdash;Schnaubelt and the Detectives&mdash;Suspicious Conduct
-at Headquarters&mdash;Schnaubelt Ordered to Keep Away From the City Hall&mdash;An
-Amazing Incident&mdash;A Friendly Tip to a Murderer&mdash;My Impressions of the Schnaubelt
-Episode&mdash;Balthasar Rau and Mr. Furthmann&mdash;Phantom Shackles in a Pullman&mdash;Experiments
-with Dynamite&mdash;An Explosive Dangerous to Friend and Foe&mdash;Testing
-the Bombs&mdash;Fielden and the Chief.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">IT was not difficult to locate the moral responsibility for the bold and bloody
-attack on law and authority. The seditious utterances of such men as
-Spies, Parsons, Fielden, Schwab and other leaders at public gatherings
-for weeks and months preceding the eight-hour strike, and the defiant declarations
-of such papers as the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> and the <i>Alarm</i>, clearly
-pointed to the sources from which came the inspiration for the crowning
-crime of Anarchy. It was likewise a strongly settled conviction that the
-thrower of the bomb was not simply a Guiteau-like crank, but that there
-must have been a deliberate, organized conspiracy, of which he was a duly
-constituted agent. In the work, therefore, of getting at the inside facts,
-the points sought were: What was the exact nature of that conspiracy, and
-who constituted the chief conspirators? The possession of every detail in
-connection with these two points was absolutely necessary in order to fix
-the criminal responsibility, and to the solution of this problem the officers
-bent all their energies.</p>
-
-<p>The detectives were well aware that the office of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> had
-been the headquarters for the central, controlling body of the Anarchist
-organizations in Chicago, and on the morning following the explosion
-Inspector Bonfield determined to raid the establishment and bring in such
-of the leaders as might be found there. Several detectives were assigned
-to this duty, and they soon returned, having under arrest August Spies, his
-brother Chris, Michael Schwab and Adolph Fischer. These were locked
-up at the Central Station. Shortly thereafter fifteen or sixteen compositors
-of the paper were arrested and brought to the same place. They were a
-meek-looking set, and were visibly moved with fear.</p>
-
-<p>Immediately after 12 o’clock, State’s Attorney Grinnell, Assistant State’s
-Attorney Furthmann, Lieut. Joseph Kipley, Lieut. John D. Shea, Detectives<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
-James Bonfield, Slayton, Baer, Palmer, Thehorn and several other officers
-repaired to the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> building and made a most thorough
-search of every room in the premises. A lot of manuscript was found on
-hooks attached to the printers’ cases, and this was carefully wrapped up and
-taken away. The files of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> and <i>Alarm</i> were also piled
-into a wagon and carted to the Central Station.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-157.jpg" width="250" height="292" id="i157"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">ADOLPH FISCHER.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph taken by the Police.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Subsequent investigation by Mr. Furthmann of all the scraps of paper
-brought over by the police revealed Spies’ manuscript with the signal word
-“Ruhe,” the manuscript of the “Revenge Circular,” issued on the afternoon
-of May 4, the manuscript for the “Y, come Monday night” notice, Spies’
-copy of the article headed
-“Blood,” published in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-of May 4, and a
-number of other documents
-damaging in their character.
-This discovery was regarded
-as highly important, and in the
-trial it proved extremely serviceable
-to the State. It likewise
-served, as will be shown,
-in furnishing a point by which,
-when I came to take up the case
-I was enabled to finally lay bare
-the whole conspiracy from its
-inception to its conclusion.</p>
-
-<p>With the clues obtained
-from the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office,
-the officers were enabled to put
-some pointed questions to the
-prisoners, but they failed to
-properly utilize even the meager
-information they had managed to extract. At this time the Police Department,
-from the Chief to the detective branch, was rent with rivalries,
-dissensions and jealousies, and it did not require much frowning or many
-innuendoes from the one to destroy in the other any special interest in
-pursuing a clue to its legitimate results. At the start all the officers were
-on a keen scent, and while outwardly all seemed working like Trojans in
-order to meet public expectations, which was keyed up to its highest pitch,
-not alone in Chicago but throughout the country, still the fear that one might
-get the credit for the work done by another operated to destroy discipline
-and deaden personal enthusiasm. Outside events alone prevented a complete
-failure in the prosecution.</p>
-
-<p>The arrested Anarchists, however, knew nothing of these dissensions.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
-All they knew was that public indignation was strong against them, and
-they realized that they were in a very embarrassing situation.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-158.jpg" width="400" height="473" id="i158"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">THE FISCHER FAMILY.
-<span class="wn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Fischer</span> seemed to feel his position at the station more keenly than the
-others. On his arrest he was found to have in his possession a 44-caliber
-revolver, a file sharpened so as to make it serviceable as a dagger, and a
-detonation cap, and, as he was the foreman of the compositors in the office,
-his trepidation may have been caused by a suspicion that possibly the officers
-took him to be the leader of an armed gang among them. Before the raid
-on the office it appears that he had endeavored to hide these weapons, but
-he had been unable to unload himself, as the others in the office would not
-consent to concealment in their vicinity, lest discovery in the event of an
-investigation might criminate them in the conspiracy. Fischer was on his
-way down stairs to find a hiding-place for his weapons at the very moment
-when he was overtaken by the police and relieved of all further trouble.
-The dagger was a peculiar instrument, and it was the general opinion of
-those who examined it that it had been dipped in some deadly poison from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>
-which, through a slight scratch or through a deep plunge of the weapon,
-death would be speedy.</p>
-
-<p>Fischer always seemed thoroughly unscrupulous as to the means to be
-used to bring about the death of capitalists, and he never tired of uttering
-dire threats against the foes of Socialism. He was a tall, lithe and muscular-looking
-man, and, with a resolute purpose, he impressed his comrades as one
-who would not easily be balked. It is difficult to determine just how Fischer
-came to imbibe his bloodthirsty principles, as little is known of his antecedents.
-At the time of his arrest he was twenty-seven years old and married.
-He had been in the United States thirteen or fourteen years. He had
-learned the printer’s trade in Nashville, Tenn., working for a brother who
-conducted there a German paper. Subsequently he acquired an interest in
-a German publication at Little Rock, Ark., and in 1881 he moved to St.
-Louis, where he worked at the case and where he became known for his
-extreme ideas on Socialism. He soon found his way to Chicago, where he
-felt satisfied he would find more congenial spirits in the work upon which he
-had set his heart. Here he became associated with Engel and Fehling in
-the publication of a German paper, the <i>Anarchist</i>, but as this did not live long,
-he became a compositor on the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. Wherever he was, he
-always talked Anarchy and showed a most implacable hatred of existing
-society.</p>
-
-<p>When brought to the station, Fischer weakened perceptibly, but afterwards
-braced up and yielded no information except as to his whereabouts
-for several days prior to the Haymarket meeting. He had no love for the
-police, and he did everything in his power to trip us up in our subsequent
-investigations. From the moment of his arrest to the day of his execution
-he adopted a most secretive policy.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-159.jpg" width="250" height="197" id="i159"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">FISCHER’S BELT<br />AND POISONED DAGGERS.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Spies</span> also weakened at first when brought into the
-station, almost trembling with fear, but, after the first
-flush of excitement had passed, he took on an air of bravado,
-and exhibited a bold front in spite of the documentary
-disclosures against him. He became glib of
-tongue, but stoutly denied any knowledge of a conspiracy
-to precipitate a riot at the Haymarket. He was
-savagely denounced by Superintendent Ebersold, but
-he stood his ground and
-resolved to act the part of
-the innocent victim. His
-active participation in all
-large demonstrations, notably
-those at the McCormick
-factory and the Haymarket,
-made him a splendid mark<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>
-for critical examination, but every effort to extract definite information
-proved futile.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-160.jpg" width="250" height="366" id="i160"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">AUGUST SPIES.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph taken by the Police.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Spies was a young man of considerable ability, having enjoyed more
-than a common school education in Germany, and in all his talks he
-demonstrated that he had been a diligent reader of history and an enthusiastic
-student of Socialism and Anarchy. With all his reading, however, it
-was apparent that he had not carefully digested his information. He
-always acted as if self-conscious of great knowledge. He was a strong
-and effective speaker, but in all
-his harangues there seemed to be
-lacking the element of sincerity.
-For a long time some of his associates
-doubted if he really meant
-what he said, and there are Anarchists
-to-day who do not believe
-that he was at any time really in
-earnest in his public utterances.
-They think that he exerted himself
-simply for the purpose of being
-looked upon as a popular leader
-and hero, and that he worked for
-the cause only as a means of obtaining
-an easy living. He was
-exceedingly vain and pompous,
-and courted public notoriety.</p>
-
-<p>Spies had received a very good
-salary as editor of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-and enjoyed nothing better
-than to write a fiery editorial or
-deliver an incendiary speech. It
-all served to rivet attention on himself.
-The more attention, the more
-it pleased his vanity. His constant desire was to place himself on dress
-parade, so to speak, and he generally sought out, when he lunched down
-town at noon, some fashionable or crowded restaurant. He would strut to
-a table which could only be reached by passing other crowded tables, and
-enjoy the <i>sotto voce</i> remarks as he passed or as he sat at the table he
-had selected&mdash;“There is Spies, the noted Anarchist.” No common Anarchist,
-lager-beer-and-pretzel lunch-houses suited him.</p>
-
-<p>It was at a large restaurant, on the 3d of May, at noon, that he met a
-well-known attorney, to whom he was introduced and with whom he had
-some conversation of a joking, bantering nature. The attorney testified
-before the grand jury subsequently as to this conversation, and the substance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
-of it will be found in the chapter devoted to a review of its proceedings.
-But it transpires that there was some further conversation that does
-not appear in the report of the grand jury investigation, but which has
-since been brought out through the recollection of another party, and,
-which, while it was given in an off-hand way, fully showed that Spies desired
-to make a great impression on the mind of his casual acquaintance as well
-as to intimate the existence of some secret understanding for bringing on
-bloodshed. On that occasion Spies, after being assured that the attorney
-was not an Anarchist, remarked:</p>
-
-<p>“You had better be one, for in less than twenty-four hours a Socialist, well
-armed, with a market on his shoulder, will appear out of every door, and
-whoever has not got the sign or pass-word will be shot down in his tracks.
-I am about going out now to McCormick’s factory, west of here, for the
-purpose of addressing a multitude of workingmen, and I will raise h&mdash;&mdash;l
-before I get through.”</p>
-
-<p>Besides his fancy for popular restaurants, there was another peculiarity
-about Spies. He frequently attended the German theaters, ostensibly
-for the recreation he might find in the plays, but the principal motive
-was the cultivation of the actresses’ acquaintance. Introductions, which he
-sought eagerly, were followed by invitations to wine suppers. He was good
-company, and his lady acquaintances were not averse to accepting his invitations
-even though he was an Anarchist. Possibly they doubted the sincerity
-of his convictions&mdash;although they entertained no question about the
-reality of his cash. None of them, however, seem to have visited him during
-his incarceration, save one, a tall woman who now lives on Wells Street
-near Chicago Avenue.</p>
-
-<p>During his troubles Spies made the acquaintance of a woman in another
-station of life. It was during his trial that Miss Nina Van Zandt became
-interested in him and espoused his cause. She had read of his case, and
-there seemed to be a charm about his conduct as described in the newspapers
-that prompted her to seek his acquaintance. She was a young girl
-of rare beauty and considerable mental endowment, and she had moved in
-the best society, but, notwithstanding her social position and culture, she
-sought an introduction and soon fell desperately in love with the Anarchist.
-She was an only child and the petted daughter of parents of high social connections,
-and her immediate relatives were wealthy people in Pittsburg.
-Her parents threw no obstacles in the way of her attachment, and she
-espoused Spies’ cause with her whole impetuous nature, and cast her lot
-with the conspirator and his rabble of low-browed followers. It may have
-been love, but it was love which could only have been the product of a
-disordered mind.</p>
-
-<p>During the later stages of Spies’ trial she was a constant visitor at the
-County Jail, frequently accompanied by her mother and sometimes by her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
-father, and on each occasion she would bring him some delicacy or token of
-her esteem. Rare flowers and bouquets she either brought or sent daily,
-and the affection she evinced seemed a growth of months instead of days.
-She had great confidence in the jury and implicitly believed that acquittal
-would result at their hands. Her presence invariably graced the court-room,
-whenever possible, and the defendants themselves could not have been more
-eager listeners to the proceedings. When her love for Spies became publicly
-known, she attracted great attention, but her demeanor would have led
-one to believe that she was entirely unconscious of the notoriety she had
-achieved. This was not the case.
-It rather pleased her, and, to
-still further intensify public attention
-and curiosity, she made
-it a point to display a most varied
-wardrobe during the progress of
-the trial. At the forenoon session
-she would appear in court
-with one fashionable outfit, and
-this she would change for an
-equally stunning attire in the
-afternoon. She had a striking
-figure, was stately in appearance,
-dignified in manner, and
-with a fine, handsome face, it
-was no wonder that she became
-an object of marked attention, in
-the Court-house as well as upon
-the streets.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-162.jpg" width="250" height="296" id="i162"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">MISS NINA VAN ZANDT.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>But withal she never lost
-sight of her lover nor of the court
-proceedings. Spies was in her mind constantly, and every movement in
-the trial excited her closest attention. It was indeed a strange infatuation
-she displayed for the Anarchist, and it was the more strange since Spies
-seemed indifferent to her attentions. The public gradually began to learn
-of this state of affairs through rumors and newspaper reports, but the general
-opinion was that, if such was the case, Spies had accepted her attentions
-simply as a matter either of expediency or from an innate desire
-for notoriety on his part. The public was right. Spies was playing for
-points, as billiardists would say. To be sure, he received her kindly and
-very courteously, and indulged in the expressions which lovers are wont
-to exchange, but those who watched him closely and long could never
-discover that his love came from the heart. He simply saw in her
-devotion and in her standing in society a possible chance for favorably<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
-influencing the minds of the jury, and thus, through her, he hoped
-to secure a release from the troubles surrounding him. When this
-failed and death stared him in the face, he still figured that she could
-prove serviceable to him in influencing her wealthy relatives to aid him
-financially in further conducting his case, or help him in some manner
-in effecting a change in public sentiment. Such were undoubtedly his
-motives&mdash;at least close observers of his actions hold that theory. When,
-later on, things did not move exactly in the line he had hoped for, he
-willingly assented to a marriage, and entered into the arrangements for its
-celebration with apparent eagerness.</p>
-
-<p>This course, Spies no doubt supposed, would demonstrate to the unfeeling
-world that there existed a devout mutual attachment, and his claims for
-interested consideration at the hands of her relatives would become greatly
-strengthened. But it only proved his desperate situation. His love had
-been questioned by the public, and marriage
-was calculated to settle the doubt.
-The public did not take kindly to the proposed
-ceremony. The moment the newspapers
-had announced such a contemplated
-step, the utmost indignation was aroused,
-and protest upon protest poured in upon
-Sheriff Matson. Mr. Matson promptly declared
-that no marriage should take place
-between the two while Spies was in his
-custody, and thereafter Miss Van Zandt
-was placed under the strictest surveillance
-whenever she visited her affianced.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-163.jpg" width="250" height="273" id="i163"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">CHRIS SPIES.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph taken by the Police.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>But all this unexpected interference
-in what he regarded as his own business
-only tended to make Spies desperate, and, spurred on by his outside Anarchist
-friends, who had likewise become indignant over a public intermeddling
-in a love affair, he dropped his diplomacy and resolved that the
-wishes of his ardent lady love should not be baffled either by officials or by
-the public. Miss Nina in her unreasoning infatuation readily acquiesced in
-the suggestion of a proxy marriage, and Justice Engelhardt was consulted.
-This gentleman claimed that under the statutes such a marriage would be
-valid, and he consented to a performance of the ceremony. Accordingly,
-on the 29th of January, 1887, a proxy marriage was performed between
-Miss Nina and Chris Spies, a brother of the doomed man. The attorneys
-of Chicago regarded the ceremony as illegal, but the Anarchists considered
-it as binding as if directly contracted.</p>
-
-<p>Miss Nina continued her visits to the jail after this mock proceeding,
-but lynx-eyed officials saw to it that there was no one present during her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
-interviews with Spies to secretly and legally splice them together. She was
-devoted to him at all times and all the time, and whenever she was not well
-enough to visit him for some days or was kept away by other circumstances,
-she would write him tender missives of love and encouragement. She clung
-to him to the last, and in their final interview, two days preceding
-his execution, she wept most bitterly.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-164.jpg" width="250" height="339" id="i164"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">MISS GRETCHEN SPIES.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Her love was remarkable, but throughout it all Spies proved himself
-wholly unworthy. He was a reprobate cunningly playing upon her feelings,
-caring very little for her, and he must have known that her station in life at
-that time made her an unsuitable
-companion. For him, however,
-she renounced friends and all.
-After his death she went into deep
-mourning, hung a cabinet photograph
-of him in the parlor window
-of her father’s fashionable residence
-on Huron Street, and locked
-herself in against the outer world
-for a number of days. She still
-cherishes Spies’ memory and keeps
-in her parlor a marble bust of the
-executed Anarchist. Recently she
-has been extending her acquaintanceship
-among Anarchists outside
-of Chicago, and she has lately
-visited some of the most rabid and
-demonstrative Socialists at Ottawa,
-Illinois.</p>
-
-<p>Spies was born in Friedewald,
-in the province of Hesse, Germany,
-in 1855. He came to America
-in 1872, and one year later
-arrived in Chicago, where he engaged in various occupations until he
-relieved Paul Grottkau as editor of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> in 1876. His
-identification with Socialism began in Chicago in 1875. He was unmarried
-and supported his mother and a sister, Miss Gretchen Spies. He has two
-brothers in Chicago, Chris and Henry.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-165.jpg" width="250" height="304" id="i165"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">MICHAEL SCHWAB.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph taken by the Police.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Michael Schwab</span>, when confronted by the officers, looked like an exclamation
-point, and had his long, bushy hairs been porcupine quills, each would
-have stood straight on end. He was bewildered, dumbfounded, and there
-was a distant, far-off expression in his eye. He realized that he was in
-trouble, and to the many questions put to him by the officers he stammered
-apologetic but non-committal answers. It was clearly to be seen that he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
-had been like clay in the potter’s hand, a mere dupe of his associates. He
-was far less talented and less active than the other leaders, but still in his
-own way he had played quite a conspicuous part in the Anarchist drama.
-He had seen something of the world as a peripatetic book-binder. Through
-his varied experience, his nature had grown irritable and crusty, and Anarchy
-seemed the only thing suited to right the wrongs of mankind. He fell in
-with the ideas of the cranks in Chicago, and soon wormed himself into an
-assistant editorial position of $18 a week on the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. In
-appearance Schwab was ungainly and ferocious, but when put to the test he
-was calm and mild as a lamb. The only thing really vicious about him was in
-his incendiary writings and
-speeches. He aimed with his
-limited capacity to be a great
-leader, but the moment he got
-into the clutches of the law and
-found himself in peril of his life
-he retracted everything which
-he had so persistently and stubbornly
-advocated. His new troubles
-brought out the fact that
-he had written and spoken simply
-for the money that was in the
-business, and not because he sincerely
-believed in the theories he
-preached. He was at all times
-a supple tool in the hands of
-Spies and Parsons, and during
-the remainder of his days in
-the penitentiary he will have
-ample opportunities to repent of
-his past misdeeds.</p>
-
-<p>Schwab was born in the village of Kibringen-on-the-Main, near Mannheim,
-in Bavaria, in 1853, and emigrated to the United States in 1879,
-reaching Chicago in the year following. He afterwards traveled from point
-to point in the West, roughed it a little, and three or four years later
-drifted back to Chicago. He is a brother of the notorious Anarchist of New
-York, Justus Schwab, and has a wife and two children, who are now being
-supported by friends.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Albert R. Parsons</span> was another leader wanted by the police, and the
-search for him was immediately instituted. Officers went to his house
-only to discover that he had escaped, and for some time it was believed that
-he was in hiding among his friends in the city. Every effort, however, to
-find him failed, and there were all sorts of speculations as to his whereabouts.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
-It was found out afterwards that he had become alarmed over
-the aspect of affairs resulting from the Haymarket meeting, and, thinking
-“discretion the better part of valor,” he had gathered a few dollars together,
-boarded an outgoing train, and landed at Geneva, Ill., thoroughly disguised.
-He sought out the home of a friend named Holmes, who cherished
-Anarchist sentiments, and remained with him three or four days in concealment.
-With a dilapidated outfit, he concluded to shift his abiding-place,
-and accordingly he went to Elgin, Ill., where he was taken care of. From
-this point, in the course of a few days, he went to Waukesha, Wis., and
-there hunted around for work as a tramp carpenter. Waukesha is a great
-resort for Chicago people, but no
-one recognized him in his changed
-appearance. He succeeded in finding
-employment, and for some
-time worked as a carpenter, unknown
-and undetected. The labor
-proving too arduous for his undeveloped
-muscles and contrary to
-his principles as an Anarchist, he
-began to look out for easier work,
-and this he managed to secure as
-a painter. For seven weeks he
-remained at Waukesha, communicating
-with his wife under an
-assumed name and through a third
-party living out of Chicago.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-166.jpg" width="250" height="299" id="i166"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">ALBERT R. PARSONS.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>When the trial opened, the
-counsel for the Anarchists were
-confident that the State had not
-sufficient evidence to convict, and
-upon assurances from Capt. Black
-that an acquittal was certain, Parsons decided to surrender himself to
-the authorities. He boarded a train, reached the city, and, securing a
-hack, drove to his home, on Milwaukee Avenue, where he met his wife.
-After remaining there for three or four hours, he got into a hack, in
-company with Mrs. Parsons, and drove down to the Criminal Court building.
-It was on the 21st of June, after Judge Gary had overruled a
-motion for separate trials, that Parsons reached the building. He alighted,
-tripped up the stairs, and entered the court-room. If a bomb had exploded
-on the outside, it would scarcely have created a greater surprise than the
-appearance of Parsons as he stalked in and took his seat with the prisoners.</p>
-
-<p>Parsons was born in Montgomery, Ala., June 20, 1848, and after he had
-reached the age of five, his brother, Gen. W. H. Parsons, of the Confederate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>
-army, took his education in charge at the latter’s home in Tyler, Texas.
-When young Parsons was eleven years of age, he learned the printer’s
-trade, and finally drifted into the service of the Confederate army. After
-the “unpleasantness,” he branched out as editor of a paper at Waco, Texas,
-and then connected himself with the Houston <i>Telegraph</i>. He identified
-himself about this time with the Republican party, and, taking an active
-part in politics, he became Secretary of the State Senate under the Federal
-Government.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-167.jpg" width="250" height="333" id="i167"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">MRS. LUCY PARSONS.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>In 1872 he married a mulatto at Houston, and, being discarded
-by his brother and
-friends, he emigrated with
-her to Chicago in 1873. No
-sooner had he reached Chicago
-than he joined the Socialists.
-He worked for a
-time as a newspaper compositor,
-but his radical ideas
-and obtrusive arguments prevented
-him from holding any
-position permanently. He
-eventually became editor of
-the <i>Alarm</i> and depended on
-his Anarchist friends for a
-livelihood. He was always
-active at their meetings, both
-secret and public, and paraded
-himself as a labor agitator.
-He managed to become a
-member of the Knights of
-Labor, but that body as a
-whole, after seeing how extremely
-radical were his theories,
-repudiated him.</p>
-
-<p>When his troubles overtook
-him in connection with the trial, Parsons’ brother came to his
-defense and took a keen interest in his case, working for him until
-the very last. Mrs. Parsons had early identified herself with her husband’s
-views, and was one among several others to organize a women’s branch
-of the Anarchists. She can make an effective address, and she always
-took a leading part in extending the membership of her union. On the
-question of her birth, she maintains that she is of Mexican extraction,
-with no negro blood in her veins, but her swarthy complexion and distinctively
-negro features do not bear out her assertions. Since her husband’s
-execution she has appeared on the stump in various parts of the United
-States, and she is now even more violent than ever.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-168.jpg" width="250" height="376" id="i168"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">OSCAR W. NEEBE.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Oscar W. Neebe</span> was fortunate in the failure of the prosecution to
-show his direct complicity in the Haymarket murder. There was no doubt
-as to his active participation in all the plots of the Anarchist leaders, and,
-had it not been for the loss of some important papers, he would now be
-serving a life sentence instead of a fifteen years’ term in the penitentiary.
-He took an active part in stirring up the members of the Brewers’ Union
-after the McCormick riot, and he contributed no little towards sending
-many of those members to the Haymarket meeting, ready for violence and
-desperate deeds. Immediately following the Haymarket slaughter, he was
-placed under arrest and taken to the
-Central Station at the City Hall. He
-was there questioned in a general way,
-but the near-sighted officials then in
-charge of that important department
-were unable to see any reason for his
-detention and permitted him to depart
-with his friend Schnaubelt, who had
-been gathered in about the same time.
-This led him to believe that he had
-friends at the Central Headquarters.
-His belief in his “influence” was somewhat
-shaken, however, when I ordered
-a search of his house on the 8th of
-May. The officers on that occasion
-found one Springfield rifle, one Colt’s
-38-caliber revolver, one sword and belt
-of the Lehr und Wehr Verein, a red
-flag, a transparency, a lot of circulars
-calling different meetings, including
-the one calling for “revenge,” and
-several cards of Anarchist groups, and
-with all these and other evidence of his connection with the great conspiracy,
-I went before the grand jury and had him indicted for conspiracy
-to murder. On the 27th of May, about 6 o’clock, Deputy Sheriff
-Alexander Reed called at the Chicago Avenue Station and asked me for
-assistance to arrest Neebe under the indictment. I detailed Officer Whalen
-for this duty, and the two called at the man’s house, No. 307 Sedgwick
-Street. The deputy sheriff informed Neebe that he was under arrest, and
-the officer explained the nature of the charge against him. They told him
-that they would be obliged to take him to the County Jail.</p>
-
-<p>Neebe smiled when notified of the charge, and remarked in a most careless
-manner:</p>
-
-<p>“Is that all? That’s nothing. I will get out on bail right away.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>But he did not; he had to linger for a long time.</p>
-
-<p>Neebe was born in the State of New York, in 1850, of German parents,
-and since his location in Chicago he had succeeded in establishing a prosperous
-business in the sale of yeast to grocers and traders. He was ambitious
-to distinguish himself in other directions, however, and he chose
-Anarchy as a basis for building up a reputation as a leader among men.
-He achieved considerable notoriety, as he was active, energetic and pushing,
-and at the time of the Board of Trade demonstration he acted as chief
-marshal of the procession.</p>
-
-<p>Neebe was in the habit of taking members of the North Side group to
-Sheffield, Ind., for the purpose of practicing and experimenting with
-dynamite bombs. It was on one of these experimenting excursions that he
-lost the joints of all the fingers of his right hand by a premature explosion.
-When questioned about it, he told all his friends and even his own family
-that he had lost his fingers in assisting a friend to lift a sharp building-stone
-on the South Side. His family physician was asked with reference to the
-matter, and, after some hesitation, finally stated that Neebe had admitted
-that he had lost his fingers through the explosion of a bomb. In the explanation
-Neebe gave to his friends he overlooked the fact that if a sharp
-building-stone had taken off his fingers it would not have taken his thumb,
-because that member of the hand is never in a position to be crushed when
-one lifts a heavy stone.</p>
-
-<p>After his trial and conviction, Neebe’s wife and little children often visited
-him at the jail, and Mrs. Neebe sought as well as she could to raise his
-drooping spirits. But she subsequently took sick, and after a short illness
-died. A most demonstrative funeral was arranged by the Anarchists. The
-hall in which the ceremonies were conducted was profusely decorated with
-flowers and emblems of mourning. Under most binding pledges on the part
-of the Anarchists, Sheriff Matson permitted Neebe, under proper official
-escort, to take a last look at the remains of his wife at the residence, and
-the scene was a most impressive one. Mrs. Neebe had been a firm believer
-in the doctrines advocated by her husband, but his friends claimed that the
-unexpected troubles of the family had precipitated sickness and brought on
-death. At one time it was thought that some serious disturbance might grow
-out of the demonstration, and that, with Neebe back at his home, an attempt
-at his rescue from the hands of the county officials might be made. But the
-police were present to see that order was maintained. The only thing bordering
-on disorder was the fiery speeches of the orators at the hall to which
-the remains were first taken, and from which an immense procession started
-to the place of burial.</p>
-
-<p>The death of his wife was a severe blow to Neebe. Verily, the way of
-the transgressor is hard. He was subsequently removed to the penitentiary,
-and possibly by the time his sentence expires he may be able to see life in a
-different light than through Anarchist spectacles.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-170.jpg" width="300" height="385" id="i170"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">RUDOLPH SCHNAUBELT,<br /><span class="smcap">the Bomb-Thrower</span>.<br />
-<span class="wn">From a photograph</span>.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Rudolph Schnaubelt</span> is indeed a fortunate man, and, wherever he is at
-present, he must be felicitating himself on his escape from a felon’s death.
-On the morning of May 5, after all the help in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> had been
-arrested, Schnaubelt was gathered in and taken to the Central Station. He
-was suspected of complicity in the conspiracy, but there seemed to be so
-“little against the young man,” that he was promptly released without the
-slightest pains being taken to inquire into his antecedents. Under the free
-and easy system then
-prevailing in the department,
-there seemed to
-be no idea that officers
-were employed for other
-purposes than simply
-drawing salaries. I looked
-carefully into the release
-of Schnaubelt, and
-the more I saw of it, the
-more I was convinced
-that the examination of
-this most important prisoner
-was the same kind
-of investigation as those
-one could have seen at
-some of the primaries
-three or four years ago,
-when, if a man happened
-to be of a certain political
-faith, he would be
-passed along with the
-remark, “He’s all right,”
-and permitted to vote.
-Schnaubelt was simply
-asked two or three questions
-and then allowed to go. The stupid detectives knew he was a close
-friend of Spies and Fielden, who were already locked up, and to prove that
-friendship now that they were in trouble, Schnaubelt frequently dropped
-in at the City Hall to inquire after them. He continued to hang around
-under the tolerance of the officials, and I have always believed that the
-only thing that saved him from being locked up was the fortunate circumstance
-that no one put a sign on his back reading that he was the bomb-thrower.</p>
-
-<p>Officers Palmer and Cosgrove had managed to get a slight clue against
-this man, and they arrested him again on the 6th of May. They stated their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>
-case to Lieut. John D. Shea, and by him the arrest was reported to his superior
-officer. What was the result? Shea did not care to be bothered with the
-case. The head of the department likewise did not care to be troubled.
-They accordingly saved themselves all further annoyance by telling Schnaubelt
-to go away. The prisoner, with singular stolidity, did not seem to care
-particularly, and had to be told again that he was at liberty to go where he
-pleased. It is a wonder that the officials did not offer him a cigar in
-acknowledgment of their kindly feelings. When Schnaubelt was released,
-Officer Palmer remonstrated with the Lieutenant, but he was told to let the
-man alone and not bring him there any more. That ended the matter with
-the officer. Several other detectives had meanwhile learned of Schnaubelt’s
-close friendship with Spies and other Anarchists, but when they learned of
-the instructions Officers Palmer and Cosgrove had received they likewise
-dropped all investigations when they reached Schnaubelt. The man naturally
-felt pleased at such friendly favor and remained in the city until about
-the 13th of May.</p>
-
-<p>It was on the 14th of May that I first received information about the
-part Schnaubelt had played in all the Anarchist meetings and that I learned
-something of his special intimacy with Fischer and Balthasar Rau.</p>
-
-<p>“You get him,” said my informant, “and I will tell you something interesting
-that will surprise everybody.”</p>
-
-<p>At this time the man was called Schnabel, and the information was that
-he was working in a store on the South Side. I at once sent Officers Whalen
-and Stift to hunt him up. While engaged in the search they met Officers
-Palmer and Cosgrove. Whalen explained their mission, and then Palmer
-asked:</p>
-
-<p>“Are you not afraid to arrest him?”</p>
-
-<p>Whalen wanted to know why there should be any fear in the case,
-and Palmer remarked:</p>
-
-<p>“Well, you are running a chance of getting yourselves in trouble. We
-wanted to arrest Schnaubelt in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office, and we were not
-allowed to do so. We found him, Neebe, Fischer, Mrs. Parsons, Mrs.
-Schwab and Mrs. Holmes in the editor’s room. Shea told us not to arrest
-him, that he was a ‘big stiff,’ and then and there he told Schnaubelt to get
-away from there or he would kick him out. All the others were arrested,
-but he was let go. I was detailed to remain around the building. Schnaubelt
-came around there again afterwards, and I arrested him and took him to
-the Central Station. There the man was told to go and get out. On the
-next day he came around there again. I had in the meantime obtained a
-little information about him, and I arrested him and took him to the Central
-Station. I was again asked if I had not been told to let him alone and was
-curtly informed that I was altogether too officious. Schnaubelt was again
-released. I explained that he was a partner of Fischer, that he had the big
-revolver and dagger; but it was no use&mdash;he was permitted to leave.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Officer Whalen replied: “We work for a different man, and I would
-like to see Schnaubelt if he is in the city.”</p>
-
-<p>Officer Gosgrove remarked that he knew where the man was working,
-and the two officers proffered their services to pilot Whalen and Stift to the
-place. They went to No. 224 Washington Street, third floor, but on reaching
-there they learned that “the bird had flown.” He had not even drawn
-the wages due him, having sent his sister after the money. It subsequently
-transpired that Schnaubelt was the very man who had thrown the bomb at
-the Haymarket, but he had “taken time by the forelock” and skipped for
-parts unknown. Possibly he had got tired of being kicked out of the office
-of the Chief of Police and left Chicago in disgust, or possibly his friends at
-the Central Station may have given him a “tip” to save himself from serious
-trouble.</p>
-
-<p>Some two weeks thereafter I received information as to where Schnaubelt
-could be found.</p>
-
-<p>I told Mr. Grinnell what I had learned, and he asked me to send a few men
-at once and get him. I informed Mr. Grinnell that I could not detail officers
-outside of the city limits without the consent of the Chief. Mr. Grinnell
-thought I had better do so anyway. I insisted that I must see the Chief
-first, and Mr. Grinnell remarked:</p>
-
-<p>“If you do, that will be the end of that matter.”</p>
-
-<p>I went, however, to the Chief’s office, and stated my business. I was
-there told that they would get the man. The Chief said that he would go
-out to California and thus head him off. I reported back to Mr. Grinnell the
-result of my interview, and he remarked:</p>
-
-<p>“Well, that is just what I expected&mdash;jealousy, and that is all.”</p>
-
-<p>Schnaubelt thus had a good friend at the City Hall, and he cannot thank
-the officers there too much for having saved him the painful necessity of
-going down to death on the 11th of November, 1887, with the other conspirators.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Balthasar Rau</span> was another man who did not tarry in Chicago. He had
-been a faithful lieutenant of Spies and had earned a living as solicitor for
-the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. He took a keen interest in all of Spies’ plans, and on
-Saturday afternoon preceding the day of the riot visited the vicinity of
-McCormick’s factory to secure points about the strike for his friend’s information.
-He reported that ten thousand striking lumber-shovers had met
-on that day and had appointed a committee to wait upon the lumber bosses
-to induce them to inaugurate the eight-hour system in the various yards.
-Rau had seen the gathering, and, as the committee appointed by it were to
-report to another meeting the following Monday, he knew that it would
-bring together just such a throng, if not a larger one than the previous
-assemblage. He so posted Spies, and in turn was advised by his friend to
-insert in the <i>Fackel</i> of Sunday, May 2, the notice “Y, come Monday night,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>”
-which was the signal for the armed groups to meet that night at No. 54
-West Lake Street. The bandits did meet, and matured the conspiracy
-which was carried out the following night at the Haymarket. On Monday
-Rau went with Spies to McCormick’s factory, aided in inciting the people to
-a riot, and then accompanied his friend to the strikers’ headquarters on Lake
-Street, where they informed the people that ten or twelve of their brother
-workmen had been brutally shot down by the “bloodhounds”&mdash;the police&mdash;that
-afternoon.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-173.jpg" width="250" height="334" id="i173"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">BALTHASAR RAU.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph taken by the Police.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>In consequence of his intimacy with Spies, Rau was at once&mdash;and the
-only one at first&mdash;suspected of
-being the thrower of the fatal bomb.
-He seemed to realize that he was
-under suspicion, for he speedily
-left the city after the explosion.
-Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann
-learned that he had fled to
-Omaha and promptly repaired to
-that city. By instructions, James
-Bonfield was to secure the necessary
-requisition papers for Rau’s
-extradition from the State of Nebraska
-and was to follow Furthmann
-to Omaha. The Assistant
-State’s Attorney found Rau willing
-to talk, and asked him to write as
-he had been dictated, to the text
-of the signal, “Y, come Monday
-night.” Rau promptly discovered
-that Furthmann knew some of the
-inside facts in the conspiracy, and
-tremblingly asked what he could
-do to save his neck from the rope.
-He was informed that nothing short of “unconditional surrender” would
-help him out of his scrape, and that he must not keep back any information.
-He then unbosomed himself and told everything he knew.</p>
-
-<p>While these things were taking place the leaders of the Anarchist group
-in Omaha were collecting money to take Rau away from Mr. Furthmann by
-<i>habeas corpus</i> proceedings. Rau had meanwhile been locked up in a cell
-where he could not easily be reached by his friends, and, as he did not like
-his surroundings, he was anxious to return to Chicago even without extradition
-papers. It was on a Monday before daylight that he agreed to go,
-and Mr. Furthmann promptly took him across the river to Council Bluffs,
-in the State of Iowa, to avoid litigation, as he had learned that the Omaha<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
-judge was ready and willing to assist the Anarchists of that section in effecting
-Rau’s release. At this time the extradition papers had not arrived. On
-taking up the trip to Chicago Rau became more communicative than ever
-and entered into details quite interestingly.</p>
-
-<p>Some one in the parlor car which conveyed them to Chicago recognized
-Mr. Furthmann, and it was whispered around:</p>
-
-<p>“There’s Furthmann with the bomb-thrower!”</p>
-
-<p>A flutter of excitement speedily developed, and soon a demand was made
-on Furthmann that unless he handcuffed Rau the passengers would object
-to his sitting in the parlor car, and they certainly would not allow Rau to
-sleep in the same car unless shackles were placed about his limbs. A
-great deal of parleying ensued. Finally Mr. Furthmann consented to
-appease the now thoroughly frightened passengers. Only one condition
-was imposed by Mr. Furthmann, and that was that the handcuffs and
-shackles should be furnished, as he had none in his possession. The
-implements were immediately telegraphed for, and were on hand when
-Cedar Rapids was reached. But the idea of handcuffing and shackling a
-man who was willingly returning without extradition papers was repulsive
-to Mr. Furthmann.</p>
-
-<p>A novel thought flashed through the Assistant State’s Attorney’s mind.
-He informed Rau of everything that had transpired, and told him that he
-did not desire to shackle him in any way. But for the purpose of quieting
-the passengers he would rattle the iron bracelets around in good shape if
-Rau would give up his coat, vest, pantaloons, shirt, drawers, stockings and
-shoes and hat during the night. This was done, and the passengers, hearing
-the rattling of the chains at intervals during the night, rested in the
-sweet confidence that a violent outburst on the part of a wild Anarchist had
-been averted.</p>
-
-<p>The prisoner was safely landed in Chicago, and not a handcuff or
-shackle had been placed about him. He was taken to the Chicago Avenue
-Station, and there put through an examination by State’s Attorney Grinnell.</p>
-
-<p>In the statement he made to Mr. Grinnell and myself Rau gave his age
-as thirty, his occupation as that of a printer, and his residence as No. 418
-Larrabee Street.</p>
-
-<p>“We had,” he said, “an excursion to Sheffield, Indiana, and there were
-present August Spies, Schwab, Neebe, Engel and Schnaubelt. Those are
-the only ones I can now remember. Engel and Schnaubelt were the ones
-to set dynamite bombs for experiments.”</p>
-
-<p>“Why do you good people use dynamite bombs, and what do you intend
-to do with them?” asked Mr. Grinnell.</p>
-
-<p>Rau hesitated, but finally replied: “The time we shot off the dynamite
-bombs at Sheffield, at the time of the explosion there were only a few of us<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>
-present. They were the parties whose names I have given and a man who
-came with Engel. We exploded only two bombs, and they were made of
-iron and were round.”</p>
-
-<p>“What is the meaning and for what purpose does that letter ‘Y’ appear
-in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>?” asked Mr. Furthmann.</p>
-
-<p>“The last time I saw it was on Sunday, May 2, 1886. The Sunday issue
-of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> is called the <i>Fackel</i>. Lorenz Hermann was requested
-to have the letter ‘Y’ inserted in the paper, and it was printed in the issue
-mentioned. He brought the notice to the office. We did not charge anything
-for notices brought in by the members of the armed section. And
-that letter ‘Y’ was intended to signify that there would be a meeting at No.
-54 West Lake Street, May 3, for the armed men. I was at Zepf’s Hall at
-a meeting held Monday, May 3. I had with me a lot of ‘Revenge’ circulars,
-calling people to arms. I gave the circulars to the boys who were
-present at the meeting. It was after nine o’clock. One meeting had been
-called by the carpenters for that night. August Belz is the man who told
-me the meaning of the word. He asked me at Greif’s Hall if I knew the
-meaning of the word ‘Ruhe,’ and if I knew what effect its publication
-would have. He then told me that they had agreed that the word ‘Ruhe’
-should apply to a meeting at the Haymarket. If it appeared in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>,
-he said, then there would be trouble. The trouble would be fighting
-the police, storming buildings and throwing dynamite bombs. When I
-saw that word in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, I was working in the office of that
-paper. I remarked to August Spies that that would make trouble in the
-city, and his answer was that Fischer did it, meaning that Fischer was
-responsible for it. Spies, after I had told him what trouble it would make,
-got excited and called Schnaubelt. Spies asked him, ‘How is this?’ referring
-to the word ‘Ruhe.’ Schnaubelt replied, ‘Well, they want to throw
-dynamite bombs.’ He also said that if the police interfered, then there
-would be trouble at the Haymarket. He further said that the people
-stationed on the outskirts of the city, east, west, south and north, should be
-informed as to when the riot commenced and when their time had arrived
-for storming the city. When Fischer was asked about this word ‘Ruhe’
-he was close-mouthed. He would not say anything to us. I heard Spies
-say in his office, ‘If that word “Ruhe” is in the paper, there will be trouble,
-and I don’t want that. That will break up our organization.’ Spies said:
-‘I will print hand-bills to stop the meeting at the Haymarket May 4.’ He
-said he would attend to that himself. I said that we had better put up signs
-on the corners to notify the people that there would be no meeting at the
-Haymarket that night. Spies said that if there was a meeting, then there
-would be trouble. Schnaubelt was to go to the North Side that afternoon,
-May 4, and tell the people that there would be no meeting at the Haymarket
-that night. On May 4, in the evening, some one called at the office and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
-wanted Spies to speak at the meeting at Deering Station; but he could not
-be found, and consequently we sent Schwab. Afterwards I went over to
-the West Side meeting at the Haymarket. I saw Spies standing on a wagon,
-making a speech to the people present. When he saw me he called me and
-asked me to go and find Parsons. Spies said, ‘I want help here, and he
-must help me out.’ I went to look for Parsons, and I found him. Parsons
-and Fielden were together. I told them what Spies had said and I asked
-them to go and help him. They did go&mdash;I went along. We got there
-speedily. I asked Fischer for an explanation as to the publication in our
-paper of the notice calling the people to arms, but he would give me no
-satisfaction.”</p>
-
-<p>“Why did you not give me this statement first when I asked you for this
-information?” asked Mr. Grinnell.</p>
-
-<p>“Because I was afraid it would hurt myself, or it might convict me.
-That is the reason why I did not tell you at first. I saw dynamite in the
-<i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> building. I saw dynamite lying on a shelf in the back room
-from the office. I know George Engel and Fehling. They printed the
-<i>Anarchist</i>. It was a small paper. They only published six numbers.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Edmund Deuss</span> was also sought for with some interest. He had been
-city editor of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> under Spies. The first week after the
-bomb had been thrown the authorities at police headquarters were informed
-that Paul Grottkau and Deuss, both ex-employés of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>,
-were then living in Milwaukee. Mr. Furthmann thought some points might
-be gathered from them, and accordingly went to that city. He found them
-both. Grottkau, who has since tasted the bitterness of prison life for his
-preachments of violence in the “Cream City,” expressed himself as pleased
-that Spies had been placed under arrest and charged with responsibility for
-the murder at the Haymarket.</p>
-
-<p>“I knew long ago,” said Grottkau, “that August Spies would thus end
-his crazy and ambitious career.”</p>
-
-<p>Grottkau and Spies had not been on very friendly terms since the latter
-had succeeded in displacing the former from the editorship of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>.
-But, however strong his enmity, Grottkau would not give us any
-information regarding Spies, or dynamite practices, or anything else that
-would tend to put a rope around Spies’ neck or hurt any of his companions.
-He referred Mr. Furthmann to Deuss, who was then depending upon
-Grottkau for a livelihood and who received a dollar now and then for writing
-a firebrand article for a paper Grottkau was editing in Milwaukee.</p>
-
-<p>Deuss was found in a neighboring saloon without a cent in his pocket.
-He stood wistfully eyeing the saloon patrons, hoping to fall in with some one
-willing to buy him a glass of beer or a cigar. Mr. Furthmann at once opened
-a conversation about the Chicago Anarchists. Deuss promised to tell everything
-he knew in regard to the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, the dynamite brought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
-there, the men in the building of that paper and the nefarious things practiced
-by them, on condition that Mr. Furthmann would first buy him a
-good cigar, several sandwiches and the necessary beer. The conditions
-were complied with, and Deuss rattled away a long story. He proved to
-be the first man to inform Mr. Furthmann as to when the dynamite that
-was afterwards found in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> had been brought there, and
-where it had been placed. A grease-spot caused by dynamite was afterwards
-found exactly where Deuss said the explosive material had been
-placed, which was right next to the desk used by Malkoff, a reporter for the
-paper and an exiled Russian Anarchist. Rau at that time, it appears, did
-not know the properties of dynamite, for on one occasion a stray match was
-thrown upon the dynamite sack in the office and he was nearly frightened
-out of his wits.</p>
-
-<p>“Don’t you know what you are doing?” he exclaimed.</p>
-
-<p>“You greenhorn,” was the answer, “Malkoff has handled this stuff for
-years and knows by this time, as you ought to know, that dynamite cannot
-be exploded by contact with fire in such a form.”</p>
-
-<p>This information, though unimportant on its face, assisted Mr. Furthmann
-greatly in making Deuss talk, and served also as a straw showing that
-the man had given up all the information he possessed.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-177.jpg" width="150" height="230" id="i177"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">LINGG’S CANDLESTICK.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="p2"><span class="smcap">So far</span> Mr. Furthmann had managed to secure many valuable clues, and
-we studied at once the best method of following
-them up. In running down the pointers, one day
-Mr. Furthmann sought Dr. Newman, one of the
-surgeons who had rendered heroic service in attending
-the wounded on the night after the explosion.
-The doctor was asked with reference to the metal
-and pieces of lead which he had taken from the
-bodies of some of the men wounded at the Haymarket.
-He informed Mr. Furthmann that a young
-man named Hahn, a shoemaker on the West Side,
-had come to the hospital wounded by the explosion,
-and that upon examination a wound had been found
-in the fleshy part of his thigh, from which a piece of
-iron had been removed. This piece was nothing
-less than the nut which had been used to assist in
-holding together the two halves of the composition bomb which had been
-exploded at the Haymarket. This discovery was a most important one.
-It proved at the trial the best piece of evidence used, by the prosecution,
-as it demonstrated that the bomb exploded at the Haymarket was one of
-the bombs manufactured by Louis Lingg, since fifty bolts and nuts of the
-same size and description were subsequently found in Lingg’s possession.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The metal removed from the person of the wounded officers was placed
-in the hands of Professors Haines and Delafontaine, expert chemists, for
-analysis, and they found that it contained the same quantity of lead, zinc,
-tin and other ingredients, and the same proportion of impurities as the bombs
-found in Lingg’s possession. Even a trace of the copper discovered in the
-bomb exploded at the Haymarket was shown to have come from the candlestick
-used by Lingg. A small fragment was missing from the candlestick,
-and it was clearly shown that it had found its way into that deadly bomb.</p>
-
-<p>During this period I also learned that Lingg had not been the first and
-only one to experiment with dynamite in Chicago. I learned that as far
-back as 1881 there had been some desperate men among the Socialists, but
-by keeping their secrets to themselves they had managed to keep the
-general body of the party and the public at large in ignorance of their
-clandestine operations. They had even experimented with dynamite, hoping
-to perfect it so that it could be handled with safety; but somehow they
-had failed to discover means for making its use practicable. They had
-adopted various expedients to test its strength when confined in a small
-implement, and in their labors several had received serious injuries. Four
-or five men are living to-day who were crippled by the rash and ineffectual
-experiments. One Communist was particularly active in studying the properties
-of the explosive and devising a plan to make it serviceable in a combat
-with the police. This man had fled from France after the downfall of
-the Paris Commune, and thought himself quite capable of getting dynamite
-down to such a fine point that when his new-found brethren in Anarchy
-started their revolution they would be more successful than his French associates
-had been. He finally succeeded in making an explosive similar to
-dynamite, but which was found very unsafe to handle. After some of the
-Anarchists had tried it and got hurt, they refrained from further meddling,
-and dropped both the Frenchman and his explosive. For along time thereafter
-dynamite was not heard of.</p>
-
-<p>A man living on West Lake Street, however, still entertained hopes, and
-finally supplied some of the Anarchists with a dynamite prescription by
-which they could use it with great effect. In imparting his knowledge he
-told them to keep the “stuff” hermetically sealed, for if the air reached it
-an explosion would surely follow. Some found this true, to their sorrow.</p>
-
-<p>Then a man residing on West Twelfth Street stepped to the front and
-supplied what he claimed could be successfully used. One Sunday some
-half dozen Anarchists went out to Riverside to test the new compound by
-putting some of it under a lot of stone near the Desplaines River, but, to
-their surprise and mortification, they found that it was so weak that it
-scarcely made a noise.</p>
-
-<p>Subsequently the Southwest Side group took up the dynamite problem
-and experimented with the “stuff.” The members of this group, known at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
-the time familiarly as “the Bridgeport group,” were the craziest lot of Anarchists
-in the city, and, judging from their talk, were always ready to participate
-in a riot or a revolution. They were great readers of books on
-Socialism, Communism, Anarchy and Nihilism, and they had drilled themselves
-thoroughly in arms for the coming uprising. But they wanted something
-more potent and effective than simple guns and revolvers, and, as they
-possessed a work on “The Wonders of Chemistry,” they saw no reason
-why they could not carry out its instructions with reference to dynamite and
-find some means for putting them to practical use. They accordingly experimented.
-They had a friend in a drug-store on State Street, near Van
-Buren, and from him they obtained their supplies by paying a good round
-price. This store finally became known to all the Socialists in the city, but,
-as the owner became frightened at the publicity obtained, he declined to
-furnish any more material for experiments. The Anarchists, however, had
-met with some small success, and they were not discouraged. They found
-another friend on West Twelfth Street, and this party sold them dynamite
-cartridges such as are used by miners.</p>
-
-<p>There were in the city at the time the Bridgeport group, the Town of
-Lake group, the South Side group, the Southwest Side group, the Freiheit
-group, the Northwest Side group, the North Side group, the Karl
-Marx group, the English group, the Lake View group (near Clybourn
-Avenue), and another group which existed only a short time, all together
-having a membership list of about 1,500 men, who hailed with great delight
-the report that with some further experiments the dynamite cartridges could
-be made serviceable not only for blowing up buildings, but also for use in
-a hand-to-hand conflict in a crowd.</p>
-
-<p>The members of the Lehr und Wehr Verein were not then interested
-in this branch of Socialism. They drilled with arms and believed in meeting
-the enemy with guns. It was about this time&mdash;October, 1883&mdash;that the
-national convention of Socialists was held at Pittsburg to formulate plans and
-principles, and there was a division of sentiment on the use of dynamite.
-The radical delegates from Chicago, as stated in a preceding chapter, were
-numerous, and insisted on employing the most effective weapon they could
-find to exterminate capitalists. The result of the conflict was that on their
-return home they made it a point to bring over the members of the Lehr
-und Wehr Verein, some of whom had opposed them at Pittsburg, to their
-ideas, and some time thereafter they succeeded in having the superiority of
-dynamite over guns almost generally conceded. Not only that, but some of
-the members became enthusiastic in the experiments being made. One
-member had even reached a point beyond his competitors in making round
-cast-iron bombs, and succeeded in turning out fifty pieces. A few were
-tried, with what success is not known, but one night two friends of the man
-went to him, told him that they had heard of his having bombs and that his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
-arrest would be made the next day. In fact, they assured him that
-he had been spotted for some time by detectives. This frightened the man,
-and he begged his friends to assist him in carrying the bombs away and thus
-help him out of his troubles. The three then went to work, removed the
-bombs, and, to effectually destroy all evidence, threw them into the lake.</p>
-
-<p>This procedure gave the great man of the Lehr und Wehr Verein a
-chance to breathe a little easier, the air seemed to be more bracing, and he
-could look into the eye of a policeman, when he passed one, with more
-assurance and confidence. But one of those bombs got astray while being
-removed, just before the others were submerged, and it afterwards came
-into the possession of the police. It has had its picture taken and looks
-quite innocent on paper.</p>
-
-<p>An engraving of it is herewith presented. This sort of iron bomb was
-afterwards adopted as a model, and became quite popular with the brave
-dynamite experimenters until some one manufactured a smaller one that
-could be carried handily in a coat pocket.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-180.jpg" width="150" height="141" id="i180"
- alt=""
- title="" />
-</div>
-
-<p>They next adopted the long iron gas-pipe bomb, six inches in length,
-which could be carried in the inside vest pocket.
-Every one fell in love with the new invention, especially
-Fischer, and he kept a large soap-box full of
-the bombs at his home, carefully concealed under his
-bed.</p>
-
-<p>But the Anarchists were bent on still greater
-improvements. They continued their experiments,
-and the next new invention was the round lead
-bomb, called by them the “Czar bomb.” This was the kind brought
-to August Spies’ office by “the man from Cleveland,” or rather by
-Louis Lingg. One of these bombs is shown in a full-page engraving presented
-elsewhere. They had been designated as the “Czar bomb” until
-bombs began to fill my office, and then they were referred to as “the
-round lead bombs.” The police knew them as Lingg’s bombs.</p>
-
-<p>Some of Fischer’s bombs were scattered among trusted Anarchists in
-the Board of Trade procession, and their effectiveness would have been
-tried on that occasion had it not been for police interference. The character
-and explosiveness of the “Lingg bomb” are described in the testimony
-of the officers and expert chemists during the trial.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Samuel Fielden</span> was found at his home during the day of May 5th, and
-placed under arrest. He accepted the situation calmly, and, without a
-remonstrance, accompanied the officers to the Central Station. Officer
-Slayton, who had him in care, introduced him to the Lieutenant in charge of
-the detective department, and, in view of the conspicuous part the prisoner
-had played at the Haymarket, one would suppose that he would have been
-subjected to a very rigorous examination as to his movements for several<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
-days preceding the evening of May 4. But nothing of the kind occurred.
-The Lieutenant proceeded to denounce him in English more vigorous than
-elegant, and delivered himself of an opinion about the man and the work
-of the Anarchists at the Haymarket. Fielden stood it all without a murmur,
-and probably would have said nothing had not the Lieutenant called him
-a Dutchman. That allusion was the “last straw.” Fielden remonstrated
-and emphatically declared that he was an Englishman. He was subsequently
-turned over to Superintendent Ebersold, and, while exhibiting his
-wound, caused by a shot during the Haymarket riot, he was informed by
-that officer that it ought to have gone through his head. The observation
-was a pertinent one at the moment,
-and possibly the felicity
-of its expression may have satisfied
-the official that with it
-his duty had ended in the case.
-At any rate, Fielden was not
-catechized to any material extent
-by the Chief, and that official, as
-well as the head of the detective
-department, was no wiser than
-before the man’s arrest.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-181.jpg" width="250" height="301" id="i181"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">SAMUEL FIELDEN.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph taken by the Police.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The prisoner, who had been
-shown to have declared at the
-Haymarket, “Here come the
-bloodhounds, the police; you do
-your duty and I’ll do mine,”
-and to have fired a shot in the
-direction of the police after dismounting
-from the speakers’
-wagon, was then passed into a
-cell. His house was searched,
-but nothing of a criminating
-character was discovered. He undoubtedly possessed a great deal of information
-respecting the revolutionary plot. Had it not been for work done
-outside of the Central Station, Fielden would have been speedily released,
-and possibly some apology might have been offered him for the inconvenience
-occasioned by his arrest and the unintentional reflection cast upon
-the English and German nationalities.</p>
-
-<p>Fielden was kept locked up, indicted, and finally convicted on discoveries
-made independently of the Chief’s office or the detective department. The
-education, demeanor and independence of the man were well calculated to
-deceive the most expert readers of human nature, and his emphatic assertions
-regarding the want of any knowledge of a conspiracy would have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
-made him a free man to-day had his case rested on the efforts of the Central
-Station. Fielden was a sort of diamond in the rough. He possessed much
-native ability, a ruggedness of character which commanded admiration, and
-a force and volubility of speech which swayed the unlettered masses. Had
-he passed through either an academic or collegiate training, there is no telling
-what eminence he might have achieved in the higher walks of life. His
-rough, uncouth appearance greatly heightened the effect of his utterances,
-as few looked for eloquence from such a man. He was born in Dodmorden,
-Lancashire, England, in 1847, and spent a number of his earlier
-years in a cotton mill. While thus engaged he became a Sunday-school
-teacher at the age of eighteen, and some time later branched out as an
-itinerant Methodist exhorter. Some time after (1868) he came to America,
-settling in New York, and the next year he found his way to Chicago. He
-went to work at Summit, a hamlet a few miles southwest of town, on the
-farm of ex-Mayor John Wentworth, but he did not remain there long before
-he migrated to Arkansas and Louisiana to engage in railroad construction
-work. In 1871 he returned to Chicago and engaged in manual labor, principally
-as teamster in handling stone. In 1880 he became a member of the
-Liberal League, and under the training and guidance of George Schilling
-he soon became a rabid Socialist. From that the step was only a short one
-to unbridled Anarchy, and the pupil finally became a teacher to Schilling in
-advanced theories on the state of society they all sought to inaugurate.
-Fielden finally became a boon companion of Spies and Parsons, and all the
-rugged eloquence he could command was given to the cause. He was a
-more forcible speaker than either of the two just named, and whenever he
-preached force, as he always did after becoming an Anarchist, his language
-commanded wider attention and made a deeper impression. Had it not
-been for his own sincere penitence for his past misdeeds and the intervention
-of influential friends because of that penitence, he would have died on
-the gallows. But he recanted at the last moment of hope for clemency, and
-the Governor commuted his sentence to imprisonment for life. He is a
-married man with two small children, and the misery he wrought upon
-them has been beyond expression. Such is the fruit of Anarchy.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XI.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">My Connection with the Anarchist Cases&mdash;A Scene at the Central Office&mdash;Mr.
-Hanssen’s Discovery&mdash;Politics and Detective Work&mdash;Jealousy against Inspector
-Bonfield&mdash;Dynamiters on Exhibition&mdash;Courtesies to the Prize-fighters&mdash;A Friendly
-Tip&mdash;My First Light on the Case&mdash;A Promise of Confidence&mdash;One Night’s Work&mdash;The
-Chief Agrees to my Taking up the Case&mdash;Laying Our Plans&mdash;“We Have
-Found the Bomb Factory!”&mdash;Is it a Trap?&mdash;A Patrol-wagon Full of Dynamite&mdash;No
-Help Hoped for from Headquarters&mdash;Conference with State’s Attorney Grinnell&mdash;Furthmann’s
-Work&mdash;Opening up the Plot&mdash;Trouble with the Newspaper Men&mdash;Unexpected
-Advantage of Hostile Criticism&mdash;Information from Unexpected Quarters&mdash;Queer
-Episodes of the Hunt&mdash;Clues Good, Bad and Indifferent&mdash;A Mysterious Lady
-with a Veil&mdash;A Conference in my Back Yard&mdash;The Anarchists Alarmed&mdash;A Breezy
-Conference with Ebersold&mdash;Threatening Letters&mdash;Menaces Sent to the Wives of the
-Men Working on the Case&mdash;How the Ladies Behaved&mdash;The Judge and Mrs. Gary&mdash;Detectives
-on Each Other’s Trail&mdash;The Humors of the Case&mdash;Amusing Incidents.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap00"><span class="smcap">I have</span> often been asked how it was that I came to have charge of the
-detective work which was done in bringing the Anarchists to justice, and
-I think that the time has now come for the whole story to be told. I think
-it would be a false delicacy for me, in this book, which I mean to make, as
-nearly as I can, a fair and truthful record of the Anarchist case, to pass over
-the notorious incompetency which prevailed at Police Headquarters at that
-time. It cannot be denied that, had the case been left in the hands of the
-men of the Central Office, the prosecution would have come to naught, and
-these red-handed murderers would have gone unwhipped of justice. This
-was something which every good citizen would have been bound to prevent,
-and more than others a police officer, for into our hands is intrusted the
-care of the lives and property of the community and the preservation of law
-and order. I knew as well as my questioners that the case belonged to the
-Central Office. There was the Chief; there were the two heads of the detective
-department; there was the detective corps, supposed to contain the
-keenest and the best officers on the force.</p>
-
-<p>From the first I was satisfied that the men at headquarters neither
-appreciated the gravity of the occasion, nor were they able to cope with the
-conspirators&mdash;a set of wily, secret and able men, who had made a special
-study of the art and mystery of baffling the law and avoiding the police.
-There was neither order, discipline nor brains at headquarters. Every
-officer did as he liked, and the department was rent and paralyzed with the
-feuds and jealousies between the chiefs and the subordinates. This, too,
-was at a time when the people of Chicago were in a condition of mind
-almost bordering upon panic. They were looking to us for protection. The
-red flag was flaunted in the streets, demagogues were shouting dynamite in
-a dozen parts of the city, riotous mobs had already met the police&mdash;and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
-police were in charge of a man who&mdash;it is a charity to say no more&mdash;had
-neither a proper conception of his duties nor the ability to perform them.</p>
-
-<p>For instance, on the evening of May 3 all the captains of the city were
-ordered to meet at the Chief’s office, and, together with Inspector Bonfield,
-they responded promptly. While the situation was being discussed, there
-was a rap at the door. I was nearest the entrance, and I opened it. Mr.
-Hanssen, one of the editors of the <i>Freie Presse</i>, was there. He handed in a
-paper, saying that it was of most serious import&mdash;so serious that, as soon as
-he had seen it, he had felt it his duty to bring it to police headquarters. It
-was the “Revenge” circular, of which so much is said elsewhere in this
-book, and which afterwards became so notorious. I handed it to Chief
-Ebersold, who glanced at it and said it was all nonsense. “Why,” said he,
-“we are prepared for them.” Bonfield looked it over, and thought it serious.
-I was sure that it meant mischief and murder,
-but the rest treated it as a farce. Now, what
-was to be expected from men who had no clearer
-idea of the gravity of the crisis that was upon
-us than the story of this incident conveys.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-184.jpg" width="200" height="246" id="i184"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">DETECTIVE JAMES BONFIELD.<br />
-<span class="wn">From a Photograph</span>.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>On the next evening the crash of dynamite
-was for the first time heard on the streets of an
-American city. The Red Terror was upon us.</p>
-
-<p>What was done?</p>
-
-<p>Every citizen of Chicago demanded justice
-for the brave men who had fallen&mdash;justice on
-the miscreants who had done them to death.
-Knowing what I did of the manner in which the
-detective work was apt to be done, it will not be
-wondered that I at once made up my mind to do
-what lay in my power to hunt these murderers down. Even had I not so
-concluded, the events of that day, the 5th of May, would have fastened the
-determination in my mind. At ten o’clock in the morning I was ordered by
-telephone to report at the Central Station at once with two companies&mdash;trouble
-was momentarily expected on the Black Road. When I had disposed
-my men at the City Hall, and arranged for the patrol wagons we were to
-occupy if a call should come, there was nothing to do but wait in the Chief’s
-office till we were summoned. No one ever had a better opportunity of
-seeing how the police business of the city was transacted.</p>
-
-<p>It was a time of acute excitement, the day after the Haymarket. The
-Chief was in a state of alarm that would have been ridiculous if it had not
-been pitiable. Whenever the telephone rang, he would start nervously and
-demand, “Is that on the prairie, or the Black Road?” and when assured
-that there was no trouble, his relief was absurdly manifest. Among the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>
-detectives the topic was whether they would be called on to work in the
-Anarchist case and how many they would be expected to arrest.</p>
-
-<p>Another question that bothered them was: What would the old man
-(Mayor Harrison) say if they went to work arresting Anarchists, and how
-would he like it?</p>
-
-<p>The officers who did their duty after such a stupendous crime as the
-slaughter of the police officers would never have lost anything in the end,
-even if they should have lost their positions. The question, “How would
-Harrison like it?” as asked by one of the detectives, should, therefore, have
-cut no figure, and possibly it did not. Probably the officer fell back upon it
-as an excuse for his own laziness and incompetence. But one thing is certain,
-and that is that the department did
-nothing to speak of in the case.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-185.jpg" width="250" height="326" id="i185"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">OFFICER HENRY PALMER.<br />
-<span class="wn">From a Photograph</span>.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>I saw some of those red-handed murderers
-come out of that office smiling
-and laughing instead of being made to
-feel that they were about to have a rope
-around their necks.</p>
-
-<p>In fact, the Central Office was run so
-that no one could tell who was officer,
-waiter or janitor. Everybody had a full
-sweep in and out of the office, and if a
-prisoner happened to be brought in by
-some well-meaning officer, everybody
-was allowed to hear the investigation.
-It was a sort of town meeting, and it
-was free to all.</p>
-
-<p>At that time Inspector Bonfield had
-been receiving a great deal of favorable
-mention in the newspapers, in connection
-with the labor troubles, and this aroused the jealousy of Chief Ebersold.
-The Chief accordingly concluded to attend to all the business himself,
-assisted by his pet gang of ignorant detectives, and they made a fine mess
-of it. But forces were at work, in spite of the internal difficulties, which
-rescued the case from utter failure.</p>
-
-<p>On the morning of May 5, at an early hour, Inspector Bonfield had a
-short interview with State’s Attorney Grinnell; but exactly what transpired
-no one but themselves knew. Before noon of that day, however, the result
-could be plainly seen. Officers James Bonfield, Palmer, Slayton and a few
-others had by that time succeeded in arresting August Spies, Chris Spies,
-Schwab, Fischer and Fielden. Of course, this step only served to create
-more jealousy in the Central Station.</p>
-
-<p>After the prisoners had been brought in, some of the newspaper reporters<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>
-endeavored to obtain interviews with them, but they were not permitted
-to get anywhere near the Anarchists.</p>
-
-<p>In the meantime, and while the working officers were out hunting for
-more of the chief conspirators, the lieutenants in command of the detective
-department concluded that they would enjoy a little breathing-spell.
-Accordingly they took a stroll among the fashionable saloons on Clark
-Street. There they met their friends, and while sampling the various decoctions
-compounded by the cocktail dispensers, they fell in with a party of
-professional prize-fighters, heavy-weight and light-weight, and match-makers
-for man and beast. They found there was more sport in that party than in
-taking risks by going out into the suburbs through tough streets and dirty
-alleyways looking for Anarchists.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-186.jpg" width="250" height="321" id="i186"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">OFFICER (NOW LIEUT.) BAER.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>At any rate, after a lot of wine had been consumed and good cigars
-tested, round after round, one of the pug-faced
-sluggers made the remark to one of the lieutenants
-that he would like to see the Anarchists
-who had been arrested, and the officer
-addressed responded: “Of course you can
-see them&mdash;all you gentlemen can see them.
-Come right along with us.”</p>
-
-<p>They all fell into line, went over to the
-Central Station, were taken down stairs to the
-lock-up, and there told to go around and look
-for themselves. This was some time after
-nine o’clock in the evening, and after the
-party had satisfied their curiosity, they returned
-to the saloon which they had left. The vigilant
-reporters had noticed this proceeding,
-and, holding a short conference, they resolved to insist on seeing the prisoners
-also. They told the officials that the public had as much right to
-know about the parties arrested as a gang of prize-fighters, whether Sullivans
-or lesser lights in the prize-ring firmament, and the lieutenants at once
-recognized the force of the argument. Between eleven and twelve that
-night one reporter from each paper in the city was allowed to see the
-Anarchists, and interviews were secured for publication the next morning.</p>
-
-<p>When I understood how the whole affair was being managed during that
-day, I came to the conclusion that the case would never be worked up by
-that department, and I was more resolved than ever that if the opportunity
-came I would not rest until the criminals were brought to justice.</p>
-
-<p>Inspector Bonfield had likewise become disgusted with the nervous
-actions of the Chief and the heads of the detective department, and he
-decided to confine his operations to the West Side. He went over there
-that day,&mdash;May 5,&mdash;and as a result he cleaned out all Lake Street from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
-the river to Halsted Street. He broke up all the Anarchist <i>rendezvous</i>,
-captured their guns, confiscated their flags, and created general dismay
-among the reds. Some sought safety by fleeing to the roofs, others escaped
-through back alleys, and still others got into the dark recesses of basements.
-When they learned that “Black” Bonfield, as they called him, was on their
-track, consternation took possession of them all. The Inspector had no
-easy task. He looked up all their halls and meeting-places, hunted for
-“Revenge” circulars at every place he visited, and in every instance he
-found plenty of them as evidence of the extensive circulation given that
-document among Anarchists. He gathered them all together, and in the
-trial they proved of great service to the State as showing that all had
-notice to come to the Haymarket meeting with arms and be prepared for a
-deadly conflict. After that day Inspector Bonfield turned all his attention to
-the sick and wounded officers and their families, and, as a consequence, the
-Central Station was left without a competent head. But the Central considered
-itself capable of handling the case, and Bonfield never asked any
-questions. Ebersold and the dual-headed monstrosities in charge of the
-detective department struggled along, and, with a great deal of bluster,
-endeavored to show to the outside world that they were moving along finely.
-But they accomplished absolutely nothing. Insults in various ways were
-heaped upon Bonfield, so that every one about the City Hall noticed them.
-Even on the 5th of May, the slights cast upon the Inspector were commented
-upon by some of the officers in the Central. Some of the officers
-friendly to the incompetents would declare that Bonfield did not know his
-business and that he was to blame for the killing of the officers, but there
-were others who took a different view and regretted that he was not kept continually
-at work on the case. In fact, the only ones about the building,
-after the incompetent heads took charge, who showed a willingness to work
-and who tried to do their duty, were Officers James Bonfield, Palmer and
-Slayton. All the rest looked scared, absent-minded and indifferent.</p>
-
-<p>On the next morning&mdash;May 6&mdash;I was again at the Central Headquarters.
-I learned then how deep and wide-spread was the spirit that pervaded
-the department. Nothing was done, and nothing was proposed to
-be done. I also learned of the treatment accorded Officer Palmer by the
-lieutenants in charge of the department.</p>
-
-<p>The whole trouble appeared to be that no one cared about doing anything,
-and that if any one had the temerity to bring information in, he would
-be kicked out. While such was the stupidity or the lethargy of the head
-officials, I was powerless to act. I could not take the case away from my
-superior officer on information rejected and spurned by those in authority
-about police headquarters, and I almost despaired of ever seeing the culprits
-brought to punishment.</p>
-
-<p>An incident occurred, however, which changed the whole course of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
-events. On my way home to supper that evening, about six o’clock&mdash;May
-6&mdash;I met a man near my house. He acted as though greatly frightened,
-but he had some information he wished to impart to me. He was afraid to
-speak, as he said it was life or death to him.</p>
-
-<p>“If I speak,” he said, “and these people [the Anarchists] find it out,
-they will kill me sure. On the other hand, when I think of how many
-were killed, it drives me nearly crazy. I can probably help to bring the
-murderers to justice, and I cannot forgive myself unless I try to assist.”</p>
-
-<p>I told the man that as a good citizen it was his duty to tell everything
-he knew about the affair, and that I should consider everything he said
-strictly confidential. My personal pledge being given to him that I would
-not get him into trouble by exposing him to the reds, he began his statement.
-The man did not tell very much, but after I had gathered together all
-the little threads carefully, the whole proved of considerable service. After
-supper I went to a great many places and remained out till four o’clock the
-next morning. The following day I instructed some of my people how to
-get information respecting the throwing of the Haymarket bomb, and I told
-them where they might leave their information if they obtained any. I got
-back to the station at 9 <span class="smcap">A.M.</span>, and found in my closed letter-box a slip of
-paper containing about five lines of important news. I scanned the paper
-closely, and those who stood around told me afterwards that they noticed
-that my face brightened up considerably.</p>
-
-<p>I knew then that I had a very light starter in the case, but a good one.
-I could readily see also that everything had to be handled with the greatest
-care, and by preserving the utmost confidence with the informers. I knew,
-too, that nothing must be told even in the Chief’s office or in the detective
-department.</p>
-
-<p>I had previously discovered that there was not a man among the three
-heads of the Central that knew how to listen to information, how to put
-questions or remember conversation, or, in fact, to have anything in shape,
-or to keep secrets, and I therefore decided to keep my own counsel.</p>
-
-<p>On the morning of the 7th of May, at nine o’clock, I arrived at the Chief’s
-office and asked him if he had any good news. He replied that it was hard
-to get at the bottom of the affair. I then asked him if he would give me
-the privilege of working up the case. He looked at me a moment and then
-said, “Yes.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, Captain,” he added, after a brief pause, “I will&mdash;sure. If you
-can do anything, do it. I hope you will do it. I shall be pleased if you
-can only do it.”</p>
-
-<p>I then said: “With your permission I will work this case and all there
-is in the case. You will hear from me soon, but if you should not hear from
-me in three months, do not ask for me. I am going to work night and day
-until this case is cleared up. Good day.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-189.jpg" width="400" height="352" id="i189"
- alt=""
- title="" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Then I started for the North Side. Arriving at the station, Lieut.
-Larsen handed me a little note which had been left for me. It was small,
-but full of information, and was the first fruit of one night’s work. I immediately
-turned over the command of the station and all the details to Lieut.
-Larsen, and at once called in my old reliable officers, those whom I knew to
-be honest and true, strong and vigilant, intelligent and brave. They began
-earnestly and were with me through all the investigations up to November
-11, 1887. They were Michael Whalen, John Stift, Michael Hoffman,
-Hermann Schuettler, Jacob Loewenstein and Charles Rehm, and they
-reported to me promptly at the office, where they received their first instructions.
-I told them that this must be like all the other cases we had worked,
-secret and only known among ourselves. All information and reports must
-come to me as soon as possible, and all details must be attended to strictly.
-I further told them that they must expect a forty-eight hours’ stretch of work
-frequently before we got to the end; that they must keep in mind that
-their lives would often be in danger, but they should only kill in dire necessity.
-Insults or abuses they must not take from any one. I knew that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
-they would get into many of those h&mdash;l-holes, where the women were a
-great deal worse than the men, and I proposed that the officers should show
-that they were not to be trifled with in the discharge of their duties.</p>
-
-<p>The field chosen for work was the vicinity of Clybourn Avenue, Sedgwick
-Street and North Avenue. The officers were provided with chisels,
-jimmies and keys and one or two dark lanterns, and after these preliminary
-arrangements they mounted a patrol wagon and started for the scene of
-their operations. This detail was in charge of Officer Whalen, and the first
-objective point was Sedgwick Street, near the residence of Seliger. They
-began searching all the houses, barns and wood-sheds belonging to Anarchists,
-and created quite a consternation in the locality.</p>
-
-<p>While they were thus engaged, I was temporarily called away from my
-office, and on my return I was soon called up by a telephone message from
-the Larrabee Street Station. Answering the call, I recognized the voice
-of Officer Whalen, and some important news was at once communicated.</p>
-
-<p>“We have found the bomb factory,” said Officer Whalen. “It is in the
-rear of No. 442 Sedgwick Street. The house is full of bombs and all kinds
-of material. My men are all there, and I am almost afraid to touch any
-of the stuff. There are some very queer-looking things, besides round lead
-bombs and very long iron bombs, about the house, and probably some trap
-may have been set to blow us all up the moment the articles are disturbed.”</p>
-
-<p>I questioned him as to whether there was any one about the house, and,
-being answered in the negative, I instructed the officer to handle everything
-himself and exercise great caution. Everything that looked suspicious was
-to be packed in a box and sent to the Chicago Avenue Station. I further
-instructed the officer to hunt up the parties who lived there, place them
-under arrest and send them also to the same station.</p>
-
-<p>Whalen then returned to the house, packed up all the “stuff” and
-hunted for the occupants, who were nowhere to be found. He ascertained
-their names, however, and learned from the neighbors that the head of the
-house worked in Meyer’s Mill, a sash and door factory on the North Pier.
-This information was telephoned to me, and I instructed Lieut. Larsen just
-what I desired in the way of securing the man’s arrest. The Lieutenant
-called up the Larrabee Street Station patrol wagon, and, with a number
-of officers, he repaired to the mill. He there found his man, William
-Seliger, and brought him to the Chicago Avenue Station.</p>
-
-<p>Meanwhile Officer Whalen and his men were busy getting their load of
-deadly missiles, and, still unsatisfied, they got some shovels and picks and
-went to mining in the back yard of the bomb factory. They found a lot of
-lead and gas pipes buried in the ground, and after they had collected about
-all the suspicious-looking articles they could find, they brought it all to the
-station. This was the first of a series of searches kept up night and day
-for two weeks, and no house or place where an Anarchist or Socialist<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
-resided escaped police attention. The houses were examined from top
-to bottom, and when the officers had finished their labors in this direction
-the Chicago Avenue Station was filled with all kinds of arms, some
-old and some new, nearly every nation on the globe being represented in
-the collection.</p>
-
-<p>On the evening of May 7, about eight o’clock, a gentleman called at my
-house, and in a most confidential manner desired to post me about an arrest
-that ought to be made.</p>
-
-<p>“You had a fellow taken from Meyer’s Mill,” said he, “but you left a
-man worse than the one you arrested.” He gave the name of the party and
-then silently took his departure.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-191.jpg" width="250" height="312" id="i191"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">EDMUND FURTHMANN.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>On the next day Officer
-Whalen was detailed to bring
-the man to the station, but when
-the officers arrived at the mill
-the bird had flown. This man’s
-name was Mueller, No. 2. He
-has never returned to the factory,
-although his tool chest is
-still there, and $27 still stands
-due to him on the books of the
-concern to this date.</p>
-
-<p>With the information so far
-secured I became confident that
-I had an opening to the case,
-but, knowing that no aid could
-be had from the Central Headquarters,
-I refrained, I think
-wisely, from asking for assistance.
-In Mr. Grinnell and his
-staff, however, I had every confidence,
-and I went to his office. I told him what discoveries had been
-made, giving him all the details, and said to him that in working up the
-case I should frequently need his advice. He promptly said: “Schaack,
-you can command my services and those of every man in my office at any
-time.” I thanked him, and felt greatly strengthened in the task I had
-before me.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Furthmann was directed to go with me and assist in the same
-way that he had assisted in working up the evidence in the Mulkowsky
-murder case.</p>
-
-<p>I then felt highly gratified, and stronger and more resolute than
-ever, because of my new partner in the case. When we were about to go,
-Mr. Grinnell said, “I will be up to-night and see you.” He called, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
-promised. We then told him what progress we had made during the day,
-and he expressed himself as greatly pleased. He urged us to keep everything
-as secret as possible and not to take any more people into our confidence
-than was absolutely necessary. Having given us this advice, he left
-us, but we continued our work until three o’clock the next morning. We
-met again&mdash;Furthmann and myself&mdash;the next day at nine o’clock, and that
-day we worked with great success. The boys brought us in good news
-every hour. Good citizens would leave letters at my house, and these would
-be immediately sent to me by my wife. Before eight o’clock that night we
-had gained an entrance to the conspiracy plot. Mr. Grinnell was sent for,
-and he called on us at once. He was informed of all the facts and said:</p>
-
-<p>“You boys have done well. You have found the missing link, and you
-have it right.”</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Grinnell became enthusiastic over the work accomplished and recognized
-the fact that the right parties were under arrest, and that what had
-been morally certain before as to a conspiracy had now been made a legal
-certainty susceptible of the strongest proof. In reaching this point, a great
-deal of work had been done, and in its performance talent, tact and
-ingenuity of a very high order seemed essential. Mr. Grinnell inspired us
-with confidence, however, and was kind enough to say, just before going
-home that night:</p>
-
-<p>“Schaack, I want to say that you are one of the greatest detectives in
-America.”</p>
-
-<p>When the case had been worked up to the discovery of the leading facts
-at this time, the reporters for the various papers in Chicago began to gather
-at the Chicago Avenue Station, and they plied me with all sorts of questions.
-They desired all the information I possessed, but their laudable ambition
-was not gratified. Nothing respecting the merits of the case was furnished
-them. This provoked quite a number of the newspaper craft, and they
-sought to even up things by scoring me and my assistants in the columns of
-their papers. They continued their attacks, evidently expecting that I would
-weaken and tell all I knew, but in this they were mistaken, as their shafts
-fell harmless at my feet.</p>
-
-<p>The more the papers blamed us, the better we liked it. It made our
-work much easier, because we received a great deal of good information
-from persons who would not have told us anything without positive assurance
-of secrecy.</p>
-
-<p>This was in fact a potent factor in our success, and the newspaper-reading
-public really lost nothing by it. The latest news respecting the
-Anarchist conspiracy was always presented by the dailies, and, while there
-may have been wanting many of the essential and interesting facts, the
-public demand was measurably satisfied. At any rate, the interests of
-justice could not be permitted to be overshadowed by those of the newspapers,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>
-and I held unflinchingly to the course mapped out until the day of
-the trial. The result proved the wisdom of the plan, and the encomiums
-bestowed on me by the press on the evidence I finally accumulated more
-than offset the former bitter attacks.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-193.jpg" width="300" height="391" id="i193"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">THE EAST CHICAGO AVENUE STATION.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Had it not been for the caution and secrecy which we made our rule all
-through the investigation, the plot would not have been successfully unraveled.
-Recognizing this trait in my management of the case, men close to
-the Anarchists
-gave points they
-otherwise would
-not have dared to
-give, and there
-was scarcely an
-hour during the
-investigation
-that I did not
-find some trails
-leading up to
-the arch-conspirators.
-I even
-received private
-letters on my
-way home to
-meals. Persons
-would meet me
-on the street,
-hand me letters
-and pass right
-on. Some of
-these letters
-were purposely
-misleading,
-while others contained
-good
-points; but by
-putting one
-thing with another,
-and working up everything, something tangible was generally produced.
-In many of the notes a few words would signify a great deal, and the clues
-would be run down to the last point. Of course, sometimes the detectives
-made long and weary walks with no results. But whenever the boys met with
-disappointments in not getting just what they expected, and even when they
-were kept up all night, they never grumbled or expressed dissatisfaction.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>On the morning of May 8, at eight o’clock, we all met for general consultation
-behind locked doors in an inner room, and, while thus occupied with
-the case, I was notified that a lady desired to see me on important business.
-I immediately responded, and as I entered the main office I was confronted
-by a woman very heavily veiled. She briefly stated her mission and said
-that she desired an interview in private. I took her into another office, and,
-after the door had been locked, she said:</p>
-
-<p>“You must excuse me. I will not uncover my face. Don’t ask me anything
-about myself, and I will tell you something.”</p>
-
-<p>She was a German lady, well educated, and she spoke in an earnest,
-truthful manner. Being assured that no questions would be asked to
-establish her identity, she then told me where to send and what would be
-found at the indicated place. Before making her exit she remarked:</p>
-
-<p>“You will have to attend to this matter this very day and before four
-o’clock.”</p>
-
-<p>Her information proved highly interesting and valuable, and I thanked
-her for it. In less than half an hour one of the detectives was set to work
-on her “pointers,” and before two o’clock he returned to the station with “a
-good fat bird” and a lot of new evidence. Who the lady was is a mystery.
-She left the station as mysteriously as she had entered.</p>
-
-<p>In the evening of the same day we met again and put together the
-results of each one’s investigations. The work accomplished was surprising
-to all. Mr. Grinnell called, and, seeing what had been done, was more
-than pleased. At this time we had some of the Anarchists already behind
-the bars. That night we worked until two o’clock the next morning, and it
-was half an hour later when I directed my steps homeward. As I neared
-my house, I saw the indistinct outlines of a man standing close to a large
-bill-board about ten feet north of my residence. The figure proved to be
-a tall man, and, as I came to a halt, the stranger spoke up in German:</p>
-
-<p>“Is this Mr. Schaack?”</p>
-
-<p>“I am,” I replied, “and what are you doing standing there?”</p>
-
-<p>The stranger asked me to wait for a moment, and I complied, hardly
-knowing what to make out of the man’s intentions toward me at such an
-unseemly hour in the morning; but at the same time I kept my eye steadily
-upon him for any hostile demonstrations. The strange individual hurriedly
-placed a cloth of some sort over his face, and I began to think some Anarchist
-had been commissioned to murder me. Still, the coolness and self-possession
-of the man and the seeming absence of the usual bluster
-incident to the commission of a foul crime reassured me. Noticing all
-this, by way of making the man understand that I was prepared for him if
-he had any murderous intentions, I said: “If you make any attack upon
-me I will kill you dead!”</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Mein Gott, nein.</i> I only want to tell you something,” was the reply.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>I told him that that was all right and asked him into the back yard,
-when he said he would talk to me. I made the stranger go ahead of me,
-and when we reached the yard the man gave me a long story.</p>
-
-<p>“I dare not,” said he, “write to you. I dare not come near you during
-the daytime. I don’t want you to know me, but I think you are the
-right man to talk to. I would not talk to anyone else.”</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-195.jpg" width="250" height="365" id="i195"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">A BACK-YARD INTERVIEW.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>During the whole conversation the man kept his improvised mask on,
-and made it clear that his motive in so doing was to prevent the possibility
-of his being made to appear
-in court to verify the statements
-he desired to communicate.
-He gave information
-mainly bearing on the conspiracy
-meeting which had
-been held on the evening of
-May 3, at No. 54 West Lake
-Street, and the interview
-lasted until about three
-o’clock.</p>
-
-<p>When we parted I was no
-wiser as to his identity than
-I had been before, and to this
-day I don’t know with whom
-I talked there in my back
-yard that early morning.</p>
-
-<p>In the forenoon of the 9th
-of May my trusted assistants
-again met in the office to compare
-notes. At this meeting I
-told Mr. Furthmann what a
-ghost I had seen that night,
-and in our deliberations that
-ghost aided us a great deal.</p>
-
-<p>As a result the detectives
-started out with new instructions,
-and they were ordered to be back at the office at one o’clock in the afternoon.
-All reported promptly except a few who had struck a good trail and
-who kept out until six o’clock. The reports of those present showed good
-results. They started out again at two o’clock with new instructions and
-were ordered to report as soon as they had completed their work. Between
-three and five o’clock that afternoon things became exceedingly lively. The
-Anarchists began to move about like hornets disturbed in their nest, and
-some jumped around as if charged with electricity. Towards six o’clock the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>
-detectives reported back to the office, and an exchange of notes showed
-that it had been a day more fruitful of results than the day preceding. I
-found that a strong chain had been wrought connecting all the leading
-Anarchists in Chicago with the Haymarket murder, and I knew that no
-mistakes had been made in the arrest of those who had already been
-locked up.</p>
-
-<p>During the same evening Mr. Grinnell and Mr. George Ingham gave
-me a call, and anxiously inquired about the progress made in the case.
-Mr. Grinnell assured Mr. Furthmann and myself that Mr. Ingham was all
-right, being with them, and with this statement all the facts were laid
-before them.</p>
-
-<p>When the whole situation had been explained, Mr. Ingham said:</p>
-
-<p>“Mr. Grinnell, now you have a case.”</p>
-
-<p>“George,” replied Mr. Grinnell, “up to the time when Capt. Schaack
-began his work I had no case whatsoever. I would have been laughed out
-of court, but now I say we have a good, strong case, and it will be in
-excellent shape. The boys are making it stronger every day. They have
-got things down fine, and they are going to bring out everything there is
-in it.”</p>
-
-<p>We worked that night until one o’clock, and met again the next morning
-at eight, vigorous and keen for further developments. At this time we
-had our hands full, with an abundance of material on which to work. During
-the night several letters were dropped in my letter-box, and they all
-contained good news. Some of the letters were somewhat obscure, their
-import having to be guessed at from suggestive circumstances, but they
-nevertheless helped. With fresh instructions the detectives started out
-for the day and reported back at one o’clock as per orders. Everything
-was discovered to have worked well. About two o’clock a man was noticed
-standing across the street from the station. His actions were somewhat
-strange, and one of the officers remarked that the fellow appeared to be
-watching the building very closely. I told the officer to keep watch of him,
-and in the event of his walking away to follow him. The man did not
-move, and as he remained there for nearly half an hour I ordered the officer
-to go across the street and ascertain what the stranger was watching. The
-man declined to speak at first, but, after the officer had threatened to lock
-him up, he stated that he desired to see me, but did not want to go into the
-building. He then requested the officer to tell me that he would meet me
-at the corner of La Salle and Chicago Avenues, and I was so notified.</p>
-
-<p>I started at once to see the man, but as soon as he saw me he started
-off. When he got to the corner he turned north on La Salle Avenue, and
-I followed. When I got within twenty feet of him he looked around, and
-then dropped a letter, pointing his fingers to it as he passed on, without
-stopping. I picked up the letter and went back to the station. This letter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
-contained very important matter and kept us busy for two days. This man
-was a stranger to me. I had never seen him before to my knowledge, and I
-have never seen him since.</p>
-
-<p>After this day the office had all it could do and all the information it
-needed. After six days and nights of hard and exacting labor, the real
-troubles of all engaged in the case began. The newspapers now appreciated
-the work accomplished, and they were not slow to bestow great praise upon
-all connected with the case. This did not please Mr. Ebersold, the Chief,
-and on the 11th of May he sent for me to report at once.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-197.jpg" width="300" height="295" id="i197"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">A FRIENDLY COMMUNICATION.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The moment I entered the office at the Central Station I saw that there
-was “fire in the eye” of the
-Superintendent, and the
-atmosphere was somewhat
-above the boiling-point.</p>
-
-<p>“Are you Chief of Police
-or am I?” broke in Mr.
-Ebersold, in a gruff, blustering
-manner, the moment
-I had set my foot inside of
-the private office.</p>
-
-<p>“You are,” said I, “or
-at least you are supposed
-to be. I certainly don’t
-desire to be.”</p>
-
-<p>This shot did not contribute
-anything to the
-comfort of the Chief, and
-he grew hotter than ever,
-and desired me to understand
-that he was the Chief, and no one else. Mr. Ebersold then proceeded
-to unburden his mind. He said that his friends had told him that
-they had thought he was Chief, but since they had not seen his name published
-in connection with the case, they had reached a different conclusion.
-He further stated that ministers even, and professors, too, and other people,
-had come to him and said that “Capt. Schaack was getting too much
-notoriety.” He declared that he wanted me to stop the newspapers writing
-anything more about me and to let the credit be given to the head of the
-department.</p>
-
-<p>“I want this thing stopped!” declared the Chief, as he struck the desk
-vigorously with his fist and glowered savagely at me.</p>
-
-<p>I told him that I had not asked any newspaper to write me up and I
-would not tell any of them to stop, simply because it was not my business.</p>
-
-<p>I had progressed too far to think of allowing all the work already done<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
-to be set at naught by the incompetents then at the head of what was
-facetiously called the defective department. I therefore took occasion to
-say, just before leaving the Chief’s presence, that, now that I had opened up
-the case, I proposed to finish it, even if I did not remain on the force one
-day after my work had been fully accomplished. A day or two after this
-interview I met Mr. Grinnell and related the circumstances. The State’s
-Attorney said:</p>
-
-<p>“Captain, you are doing well; you keep on and work just as you have
-been doing.”</p>
-
-<p>During the afternoon of May 10, the detectives of the Chicago Avenue
-Station discovered a lot of bombs, guns and revolvers, which they brought
-to the station. They also arrested a few Anarchists, who pretended to be
-as harmless and spotless as little lambs, but who, before they went to sleep
-that night in our hotel, discovered that they had a great many black spots
-on them. The force continued at work till three o’clock the next morning.
-The following day they met again at eight o’clock in the morning, and several
-arrests were made that day.</p>
-
-<p>At about this time the mail was burdened with a great many letters,
-some very encouraging in the cheering and complimentary sentiments they
-conveyed, and others very threatening in their character. The latter class
-were full of most dire menaces, suggesting all sorts of torture in the event
-that I did not stop prosecuting the Anarchists, and the whole formed a very
-interesting collection. It was evident that many of them had been written
-by cranks, and that some bore marks of having been inspired by religious
-enthusiasts. One wrote that enough men had already been killed without
-hunting for innocent men as a sacrifice for the Haymarket murder, and
-another wrote urging that the whole lot of the Anarchist brood be hung as
-fast as they could be arrested. Several drew on their imaginations and
-volunteered “pointers” which bore on their face evidences of falsehood.
-Others would say that their prayers were constantly with the police in their
-efforts, and expressed a hope that out of it all might come the extirpation
-of Anarchy from American soil. These communications poured in upon
-me in such numbers that I had no time to read them through, and even the
-most savage and bloodthirsty hardly gave me a moment’s thought.
-As a matter of fact I was never for a moment alarmed about my own personal
-safety. All of the letters I received I filed away, and some day, when
-I do not know what else to do to amuse myself, I purpose to run them over
-again and enjoy another hearty laugh. Meanwhile Anarchist after Anarchist
-was overhauled, and after one clue had been worked out another was
-undertaken with the utmost secrecy. The detectives continued persistently
-at work, and for two months they carefully kept their own counsel, never
-permitting themselves to be drawn into conversation by outsiders respecting
-the case.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Their experience was highly exciting at all times, and the various haunts
-of the Anarchists were kept in a lively commotion. The social miscreants
-never knew when the investigations would end, and they were in constant
-dread. Finding that threats upon the lives of State’s Attorney Grinnell,
-Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann, myself, and the officers engaged in
-the case, had failed to have the desired effect, they turned their attention to
-writing letters to our wives. These letters were written in a most vindictive
-and fiendish spirit. They threatened not only bodily harm to these ladies,
-but promised to inflict death by horrible tortures upon their husbands and
-children, if the prosecution was not dropped; and they vowed vengeance
-also upon property by the use of explosives that would leave to each house
-only a vestige of its former location. Some of these letters were general
-in their character, and others particularized the kind of death in store for
-all engaged in the case. One said that on some unexpected day we would
-be blown to atoms by a bomb; another pictured how a husband would be
-brought home in a mangled, unrecognizable mass. Still another would
-suggest that, if a husband proved missing, his remains might be looked for
-fifty feet under the water, firmly tied to a rock or a piece of iron. Another,
-again, stated that on the first opportunity the husband would be gagged,
-bound hand and foot, and placed across some railroad track to horribly contemplate
-death under the wheels of a fast approaching train. Still another
-would say: “When your husband is brought home be sure and pull the
-poisoned dagger out of his body.” One writer penned a tender epistle and
-closed by urging the mother to be sure to “kiss your children good-by
-when you leave them out on the street.” One letter was written with red
-ink and stated that “this blood is out of the veins of a determined man
-that would die for Anarchy.” One man expressed sorrow for the woman
-and then concluded: “But we cannot help this. If you have any property
-you had better have a will made by your liege lord to yourself, because he
-is going to die so quick that he will not know that he ever was alive.”
-Another said: “Take a good description of your husband’s clothes. He
-will be missing before long, and probably after some years you will hear
-that in some wild forest a lot of clothes have been found tied to some tree,
-and these clothes will be stuffed with bones.”</p>
-
-<p>Epistolary threats of this kind were sent almost daily to the wives of
-the officers and officials, and, if published, the collection would form a
-volume in itself. The threats I have given are only a tithe of the whole,
-but I have given enough to illustrate the general trend of the letters. We
-paid no attention to them, but the women, of more delicate and sensitive
-disposition, took them more to heart. The constant receipt of such letters
-naturally made a deep impression on their minds, and some of the ladies
-had dark forebodings. But the officers always took a cheerful view, and
-urged that it was only cowards who resorted to threats. They still continued<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
-their work, undaunted by these denunciations and menaces, and
-frequently remained out all night in their work in some of the most desperate
-districts of the city, sometimes keeping up forty-eight hours at a stretch.</p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Schaack, a generally strong and courageous woman and deeply
-interested in all my work, did not bear up as well as some of the others
-under the pressure. She had been sick for over eight months, and, when these
-letters began to reach her, she had just reached a convalescent state. Having
-thus passed through a long siege of illness, her system was in a highly
-nervous condition, and it was, therefore, quite natural that sometimes she
-should become greatly solicitous for my personal safety whenever a very
-savage and gory letter accidentally reached her eye. When the trial finally
-began, I begged her to take the three children and visit for two months a
-place six hundred miles away from Chicago, where she could not only
-enjoy a comparative serenity of mind, but build up her shattered constitution,
-under more favorable circumstances and climatic conditions. She
-acted on my advice. While away, she was in constant receipt of such
-letters as were calculated to make her reassured as to my comfort, and she
-rapidly gained in health and strength.</p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Grinnell bore up remarkably well under the severe strain. She
-had come in for a goodly share of these murder-threatening letters, but,
-being blessed with good health and strong nerves, she never displayed
-signs of weakness.</p>
-
-<p>She was a brave lady. Whenever I saw her with Mr. Grinnell, she
-would always say: “Captain, I want you and Mr. Grinnell and all the boys
-to keep on with your noble work.” She at all times appeared very pleasant
-and not the least disturbed.</p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Furthmann was not overlooked by the letter-writers, but her
-husband arranged matters so that their epistles did not fall into her hands.
-He would gather them in, and, with what the mail brought him every day
-for his own individual benefit, he had plenty of hair-raising literature.
-But he paid no attention to the threats and never for a moment relaxed
-his efforts on account of them. These letters became so numerous and frequent
-that after a time the officers would jestingly allude to them as their
-“love letters.”</p>
-
-<p>But the Anarchists did not stop with writing letters. One night they
-held a small meeting in the rear room of a saloon on North Avenue, and
-there was a great deal of talk and bluster about what they ought to do to
-“bring the officials to their senses.” One suggested that they should blow
-up the house of Officer Michael Hoffman, but that officer appears to have
-had a friend there. That friend opposed the plan and said:</p>
-
-<p>“Cowards, if you want to do anything, why don’t you meet the man
-himself and attack him? Why do you seek to hurt his wife and innocent
-children?”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>This appealed to their sense of humanity, and they at once decided to
-abandon the scheme. Finally one cut-throat arose, and, in a braggadocio
-style, broke out, in a loud, coarse and beer-laden voice:</p>
-
-<p>“Well, we will drop that plan, but you all know where he lives and we
-all have bombs yet. Any one that does not care for a screeching woman
-or squealing young ones, let him go and see the shingles fly off the
-roof.”</p>
-
-<p>On a subsequent night about two o’clock in the morning a carriage
-drove up to the officer’s house, and one of the occupants shouted out,
-“Mike!” The officer drew to the window, and his wife opened it. At
-first, mistaking her for the officer, they halloaed, “We only want to see you
-for a moment.” When the woman asked what was wanted they said, “We
-don’t want to see you. Where is Mike?” Being informed that he was
-not at home, one of the burly fellows said, just as the carriage started away,
-“A d&mdash;&mdash;d good thing for him that he is not at home.”</p>
-
-<p>This band of intimidators and cowards did not overlook me. On two
-occasions they sought to burn my house, but each time they were foiled in
-their attempt. They sneaked, true to their nature, into the back yard, and
-started a fire by means of a kerosene-saturated torch or by the use of an
-explosive. The fires, however, failed to do any damage.</p>
-
-<p>When the trial of the arch-conspirators began, these same unpunished
-red-handed cranks began to give their attention to Judge Gary and his
-wife. They fairly overwhelmed them with letters of a most threatening
-character, and whenever there was any ruling of the court which they regarded
-as inimical to their friends’ interests, they were particularly vituperative.
-But throughout the whole trial neither the Judge nor his wife
-was at all intimidated. They paid no attention to them, and nearly every
-day Mrs. Gary sat by the side of her husband on the bench, giving the
-strictest attention to the proceedings. She was there in the forenoon and
-in the afternoon. When the two went out to lunch together, a detective
-would always follow them, without their request or knowledge, and the
-same course would be pursued when they went home at night or came
-down in the morning. I had this done as a precautionary measure, as
-there was no telling at that time but what some demented Anarchist might
-seek vengeance upon the Judge for some fancied wrong to the defendants.
-Sometimes, after lunch, Mrs. Gary would return in the company of some
-lady friends, but she would invariably, after an exchange of pleasantries
-with them, rejoin her husband on the bench, where she would remain until
-the adjournment of court. Once in a while the Judge would find a
-moment’s interval to talk to her, and the devoted appearance of the venerable
-couple formed a most pleasing and picturesque background to the
-crowded and excited court scene throughout the trial. She was there during
-all the arguments, and listened most intently to the reading of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>
-verdict which finally sent the defendants to the gallows. From the beginning
-of the trial to its end she never displayed a sign of weakness or fear.</p>
-
-<p>While the investigations were in progress, and even during the trial, a
-lot of cranks and desperate men flocked into the city from outside points,
-and there was no telling what villainous deeds they might perpetrate and
-then escape undetected. For this reason I thought it prudent to place a
-watchman at the house of every one actively engaged in the case, and both
-night and day the lives as well as property of all were closely watched to
-prevent the execution of any of the numerous threats made against the
-officials by the red-handed fiends. The attempt on my own house was
-made before these guards were placed, but after that there was no trouble.
-The Anarchists, seeing the precautions that had been taken, gave the houses
-no further attention, and thereafter vented their spleen in denunciatory
-letters.</p>
-
-<p>From the very start of the investigations, I engaged the services of private
-men to work under my instructions, and they invariably submitted
-their reports to me at my house. They never called at the house without
-first notifying me, and this notification would be by means of a sign at a
-place near my residence. I would always look at the spot before entering
-the house, and if I found the sign, I would also find my man in the
-vicinity.</p>
-
-<p>I would then go up-stairs, fix the rooms so that no one could see who
-might enter, and leave a sign at the window. In a few minutes my friend
-would appear at the door. Not one of my officers ever knew any of these
-men so employed, but they knew the officers.</p>
-
-<p>Many funny incidents naturally grew out of this situation. It was very
-amusing to listen to the officers. One would tell me: “I saw such and such
-a fellow, a rank Anarchist, on the street to-day in company with a
-stranger,” or: “I saw a couple of them in such and such a saloon together,
-and one of them had a stranger with him, who looked like a wild Anarchist.”
-Then the officers would describe the fellow, and one of them would
-say:</p>
-
-<p>“I know he is an Anarchist. He and the stranger walked around the
-jail building, and the next time I meet that stranger I will bring him in. It
-will do no harm to give him a few days’ entertainment in the station. I
-want to introduce him to you. I bet you will keep him, and you can, no
-doubt, learn something from him. I think he is a stranger in the city, and
-he is here for no good purpose.”</p>
-
-<p>The officer was bound to bring him in, and this placed me in a rather
-awkward position. All I could do, however, was to say, “Don’t be too
-hasty; wait till you find him connected with others.”</p>
-
-<p>This worked well for a while, but after a time some of these men who
-were in my secret service were brought in. One morning I arrived at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
-station and found that they had been locked up in a cell. As they had
-received at the start rigid instructions not to reveal their identity under any
-circumstances, they did not send for me the moment they were arrested,
-and so they had to remain until the next day, when I promptly released
-them.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-203.jpg" width="300" height="344" id="i203"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">THE NOTORIOUS FLORUS’ HALL.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>At one time, one of these privates reported to me that he had seen a
-fellow around with some of the worst Anarchists in the city, that every one
-regarded him as sound in the Anarchist faith, and that he and the others
-were in Chicago to liberate the Anarchists from the jail. The private further
-stated that the stranger had never been seen except in the company of
-old-time revolutionists.
-That was enough for the
-detective to warrant arrest.
-I told him to make
-the fellow’s acquaintance
-and draw him out,
-but be in no haste. A
-few days later, the detective
-reported that he
-had spoken to the
-stranger and that he
-would become well acquainted
-with him
-shortly.</p>
-
-<p>At this time every
-Anarchist resort was
-watched very closely.
-I told the private to ascertain
-where the stranger
-lived, but he must not
-push himself too rapidly
-forward; he must make
-an engagement to meet
-the man in the evening
-and stay with him as late as possible. Just as soon as they parted,
-he was to double back on the stranger and follow him. A few nights
-later the private reported again and said that they had been together
-one evening for three hours, when they parted on the corner of Madison
-and Canal Streets. He told the stranger that he would go back to the
-South Side, and then, by following him after parting, he found that the
-stranger started north. The man turned on Lake Street west and entered
-No. 71 West Lake Street, one of the worst Anarchist resorts in the city.
-This place was kept by a man named Florus, a rank “red.” The private<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>
-waited for his friend to come out, remaining in the vicinity until Florus
-closed his saloon; but no one came. The next day the private reported
-the facts to me, and said that the stranger evidently had a room at Florus’
-house. I told the private to try and get the stranger on the North Side so
-that I could have a look at him. He started out to hunt up his friend.</p>
-
-<p>On the evening of that same day, detective No. 2 reported. He said
-that he had a fellow spotted whom he described as one of a gang that
-had come from St. Paul. He remarked that the fellow was very sharp, but
-not sharp enough for him. He also stated that the stranger appeared to
-like him, but that he did not trust him very much.</p>
-
-<p>No. 2 further said: “I have been around with him
-every evening. He is very good company, and I am sure
-that he is an Anarchist. But I can’t get at his motives.”</p>
-
-<p>I then told him to get the man up here on the North
-Side where I would be able to see him.</p>
-
-<p>“All right, but you want to get a good look at him;
-the fellow changes his clothes often. He is a foxy fellow.”</p>
-
-<p>I said that I would always be at the station from one
-to three o’clock, so as
-to take a look at the
-man when they passed.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-204.jpg" width="300" height="362" id="i204"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">THE “SHADOWED” DETECTIVES.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>On the next day I
-was on the look-out,
-but no one came. The
-second day I again
-watched, and, to my
-great surprise, at two
-o’clock I saw two fellows,
-both in my employ,
-coming east on
-Chicago Avenue from
-Wells Street, and on
-the same side where
-the station is located. They were engaged in conversation, and neither
-looked aside as they passed. I got up on the steps of the front entrance
-and remained there as they came by. They had no sooner got past, when
-the fellow on the inside lifted his hand to the right hip, and after a few
-steps further the other fellow put his left hand behind his back and worked
-his fingers&mdash;thus each man giving the tip on the other. They proceeded
-towards the Water-works.</p>
-
-<p>When all this was over, I almost fell in a fit laughing at the joke. It
-was extremely ludicrous, but I had to keep it all to myself. The privates<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
-kept at work, but I did not tell either the occupation of the other. I had
-promised every man in my employ that I would not give him away, and I
-kept my word. One of these detectives had been assigned for duty north
-of Kinzie Street on the West Side, and the other had been set to work particularly
-along Lake Street. By invitation of some Anarchists on Milwaukee
-Avenue, the detective in the district north had left his field and
-gone with them to the halls of the “reds” on Lake Street, and in this way
-the two detectives had made each other’s acquaintance and got mixed up.</p>
-
-<p>I was now in a predicament to straighten matters out and prevent the men
-from wasting time on each other. I finally told each separately that the
-other was working for Billy Pinkerton, and that he should pay no more
-attention to him. This worked satisfactorily. Now and then I received a
-report stating that my detective had seen that Pinkerton man at such or
-such a place. This will be the first time, however, that either one knows
-the other’s exact identity, and they can now laugh over their mixed-up
-condition and see what a fix I was in at that time.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XII.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">Tracking the Conspirators&mdash;Female Anarchists&mdash;A Bevy of Beauties Beauties&mdash;Petticoated
-Ugliness&mdash;The Breathless Messenger&mdash;A Detective’s Danger&mdash;Turning
-the Tables&mdash;“That Man is a Detective!”&mdash;A Close Call&mdash;Gaining Revolutionists’
-Confidence&mdash;Vouched for by the Conspirators&mdash;Speech-making Extraordinary&mdash;The
-Hiding-place in the Anarchists’ Hall&mdash;Betrayed by a Woman&mdash;The Assassination of
-Detective Brown at Cedar Lake&mdash;Saloon-keepers and the Revolution&mdash;“Anarchists for
-Revenue Only”&mdash;Another Murder Plot&mdash;The Peep-hole Found&mdash;Hunting for Detectives&mdash;Some
-Amusing Ruses of the Revolutionists&mdash;A Collector of “Red” Literature
-and his Dangerous Bonfire&mdash;Ebersold’s Vacation&mdash;Threatening the Jury&mdash;Measures
-Taken for their Protection&mdash;Grinnell’s Danger&mdash;A “Bad Man” in Court&mdash;The Find
-at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> Office&mdash;Schnaubelt’s Impudent Letter&mdash;Captured Correspondence&mdash;The
-Anarchist’s Complete Letter-writer.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">IN the light of all the facts that have developed, I do not believe that it is
-too large a statement, nor too egotistical, to say that, but for the work
-done at the Chicago Avenue Station, the Anarchist leaders would soon
-have been given their liberty, and Anarchy would have been as rampant as
-ever in Chicago&mdash;worse indeed than before; for the conspirators would
-then have despised as well as hated the law. What the work was, the
-reader will better understand after he has gone through this and the succeeding
-chapters.</p>
-
-<p>I did not depend wholly upon police effort, but at once employed a
-number of outside men, choosing especially those who were familiar with
-the Anarchists and their haunts. The funds for this purpose were supplied
-to me by public-spirited citizens who wished the law vindicated and order
-preserved in Chicago. I received reports from the men thus employed
-from the beginning of the case up to November 20, 1887. There are 253 of
-the reports in all, and a most interesting history of Chicago Anarchy do they
-make even in themselves.</p>
-
-<p>They always conveyed important information and gave valuable clues.
-They confined their efforts wholly to Anarchists, and their principal duty
-was to ascertain if the reds intended to organize again for another riot or
-an incendiary attempt upon the city. They were also to learn if steps
-were contemplated to effect the rescue of the Anarchists who were locked
-up in the County Jail, and whether they were getting up any further murder
-plots. At each Anarchist meeting I had at least one man present to note
-the proceedings and learn what plots they were maturing. Generally before
-midnight I would know all that had transpired at meetings of any importance.
-From many meetings I learned that the Anarchists were discussing
-plans to revenge themselves on the police, but in each case, as soon as they
-were about to take some definite action, some one would move an adjournment
-or suggest the appointment of a committee to work out the plan in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
-some better shape. When the next meeting was held the fellows who had
-done the loudest shouting would be absent, and then those who happened
-to be on hand would vent their wrath upon the absentees by calling them
-cowards. In many of the smaller meetings held on Milwaukee Avenue or
-in that vicinity, a lot of crazy women were usually present, and whenever a
-proposition arose to kill some one or to blow up the city with dynamite,
-these “squaws” proved the most bloodthirsty.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-207.jpg" width="400" height="310" id="i207"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">THE “RED” SISTERHOOD.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>In fact, if any man laid
-out a plan to perpetrate mischief, they would show themselves much
-more eager to carry it out than the men, and it always seemed a pleasure to
-the Anarchists to have them present. They were always invited to the
-“war dances.” Judge Gary, Mr. Grinnell, Mr. Bonfield and myself were
-usually remembered at these gatherings, and they fairly went wild whenever
-bloodthirsty sentiments were uttered against us. The reporters and
-the so-called capitalistic press also shared in the general denunciations. At
-one meeting, held on North Halsted Street, there were thirteen of these
-creatures in petticoats present, the most hideous-looking females that could
-possibly be found. If a reward of money had been offered for an uglier set,
-no one could have profited upon the collection. Some of them were pock-marked,
-others freckle-faced and red-haired, and others again held their
-snuff-boxes in their hands while the congress was in session. One female<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
-appeared at one of these meetings with her husband’s boots on, and there
-was another one about six feet tall. She was a beauty! She was raw-boned,
-had a turn-up nose, and looked as though she might have carried
-the red flag in Paris during the reign of the Commune.</p>
-
-<p>This meeting continued all right for about two hours. Then a rap came
-on the locked door. The guard reported that one of their cause desired
-admittance, giving his name at the same time,&mdash;and the new arrival was
-permitted to enter. He was a large man with a black beard and large eyes,
-and very shabbily dressed. He looked as though he had been driving a
-coal cart for a year without washing or combing. He also had the appearance
-of being on the verge of hydrophobia. As soon as he reached the
-interior of the hall he blurted out hastily, in a loud voice:</p>
-
-<p>“Ladies and brothers of our cause! Please stop all proceedings&mdash;I am
-out of breath&mdash;I will sit down for a few minutes.”</p>
-
-<p>All present looked at the man with a great deal of curiosity and patiently
-waited for him to recover his breath. The interval was about five minutes.
-Then the stranger jumped up and said:</p>
-
-<p>“I am from Jefferson. I ran all the way [a distance of five miles]. I
-was informed that you were holding a meeting here this evening, and that
-there is a spy in your midst.”</p>
-
-<p>At this bit of information every one became highly excited, and the
-stranger immediately proceeded to inquire if there was anyone they suspected.
-They all looked at each other, and, becoming satisfied that they were all
-friends of Anarchy, waited for the man to give them more precise information.
-The stranger then continued:</p>
-
-<p>“The man is described to me, and that is all I know.”</p>
-
-<p>He looked around for a moment and finally said, pointing to the man
-addressed:</p>
-
-<p>“If I am not damnably mistaken, you are the man!” At the same time
-he ordered the guard to lock the door and pull out the key.</p>
-
-<p>“Now,” he resumed, addressing the man to whom he had pointed, who
-was none other than a detective in my service, “you will have to give a good
-account of yourself.”</p>
-
-<p>This placed my man in a rather embarrassing position, but he was equal
-to the emergency.</p>
-
-<p>“I am an Anarchist,” he spoke up promptly, in a loud, clear and firm
-tone of voice, “and I have been one for years, and you are simply one of
-those Pinkerton bummers. What business have you here in our meetings,
-I would like to know. The other day I passed Pinkerton’s office. I was
-sitting in a car, and I saw you coming down stairs. I suppose you met some
-fool that gave you a little information so as to get in here. All you want to
-know evidently is how many are present here, and, if possible, learn what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
-we are doing. You get out of here in five seconds, or I will shoot you down
-like a rat.”</p>
-
-<p>The officer then pulled out of his pocket a large revolver, and, brandishing
-it in the air, asked:</p>
-
-<p>“Shall I kill that bloodhound?”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-209.jpg" width="400" height="314" id="i209"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">TURNING THE TABLES.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The women cried out in a chorus: “Yes, yes; kill him!” The men,
-however, did not like the proposition. One of them said: “Don’t kill him
-here; take him out somewhere else and shoot him.” This seemed to meet
-with general approval.</p>
-
-<p>The turn of affairs completely surprised the stranger, and he became so
-frightened that he could not speak. No one in the meeting knew him, and
-he was powerless to speak in his own defense. The officer held his revolver
-directed at the man’s face and kept toying with it in the vicinity of his nose.
-Finally the fellow stammered out:</p>
-
-<p>“I am all right, and you will find me out so.”</p>
-
-<p>At last the women again broke in, with a demand that the intruder be
-immediately ejected, and the men responded promptly by kicking him out
-of the door. He had no sooner reached the outside than he started on a
-keen run, in momentary dread of his life, and he kept up his rapid gait until
-he thought he was at a safe distance.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The officer was then the hero of the moment, but he recognized the fact
-that he himself was not absolutely safe after this episode. It occurred to
-him that possibly the stranger might hunt up some one on Milwaukee
-Avenue who could identify him and assure the meeting that he was
-a true and reliable Anarchist, and thus turn the tables against the
-officer. The moment, therefore, he had regained his seat, he decided to
-resort to strategy, and said:</p>
-
-<p>“We will have to adjourn at once. This fellow will run to the station-house
-and bring the patrol wagon with a lot of officers, and we will all be
-arrested.”</p>
-
-<p>In less than three minutes the meeting adjourned, and then the officer
-advised them all to go home immediately and not to remain a second if they
-did not desire to be arrested. The Anarchists did as he suggested, and
-scattered for home in a hurry.</p>
-
-<p>This detective did not attend any more of the meetings, but was content
-in congratulating himself on having come out of that assembly without
-a bruise or a scratch.</p>
-
-<p>About January, 1887, one of my privates informed me that there was a
-place on Clybourn Avenue where the Anarchists were accustomed to hold
-private meetings. He said that he could not get in as yet, and I told him
-to pick up some one whom he could work handily. He must first form the
-man’s acquaintance, and then hang around the saloons in the neighborhood
-and read the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. I gave him one of John Most’s books and
-made him wear a red necktie. I advised him also to get about half drunk, sing
-the Marseillaise and curse the police. By so doing, I told him, it would not
-be long before he would find a partner. Several times subsequently the
-detective visited the Anarchist resorts, accompanied by a little boy who
-belonged to one of his friends, and in less than two weeks he had wormed
-himself into the confidence of the gang who frequented Clybourn Avenue.
-If any one asked him his name he would say:</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t give my name to people I don’t know. I am against law and
-order, and that is sufficient. I don’t believe in having good men hung to
-satisfy the rich. They will not hang if I can help any.”</p>
-
-<p>For the first couple of weeks, the newly formed friends of this detective
-would not take him to any of their meetings. I advised him not to make
-inquiries. As soon as they thought him all right, they would speak
-themselves. Within three weeks some one took him to a meeting and
-vouched for him as being true to their cause. At the first meeting he
-attended he saw that he was as intelligent as any one of them, and so he
-delivered a short speech. That captured them, and they pronounced him
-a good man. They asked him to call again at their next meeting, and he
-promised that he would be on hand. He then reported to me. I told him
-to find a weak spot around the building, where I could put some one to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
-protect him in case of discovery and danger. A few days after he reported
-again that there was a vacant basement under the house, and that it was
-very low. There was only a common door with an ordinary lock. I
-then promised him that I would put a strong man in there at every meeting,
-and in case he should be attacked by the gang, he should shout, “Police.”
-Then, the moment the door was broken in, he was to cry out, “Brother!”
-so that the man coming to his assistance would know him at once. I also
-told him that at the next meeting he should ascertain the size of the room
-and notice whatever furniture might be there and where it was standing.
-This he did. He made a small diagram.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-211.jpg" width="250" height="247" id="i211"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">UNDERGROUND AUDITORS.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>I then detailed a man to take a
-position in the basement at several meetings, but, running short of men shortly
-afterwards, I was obliged
-to take this man away.
-But this did not cripple
-us. On another occasion
-the private reported
-again, handed me a plat
-of the room and gave me
-some desired information.
-I sent for Officer Schuettler.
-He responded
-promptly, and I told him
-what I wanted done. He
-said that he was ready
-to carry out my instructions.
-I told him to go
-and buy a one-inch auger,
-and next procure a funnel
-with the large end the
-circumference of a saucer,
-and a pipe about four inches long. After an hour’s absence he returned with
-the desired articles. I handed him several keys with which to open the
-door, showed him the plat, and told him where to bore a hole. I also told
-him to secure a cork and plug up the hole after he was through. I then
-instructed him to get into the place about half an hour before the meeting
-opened and have his apparatus in working order. I gave Officer Schuettler
-the dates on which meetings were to be held, and then he started
-out with good hope in his new undertaking. A few days subsequently
-the officer reported back, and his face was wreathed in smiles.</p>
-
-<p>“You must have had success,” I said.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, everything worked like a charm.”</p>
-
-<p>He handed me a good report and remarked that it contained the most
-important part of the business done by the meeting. He suggested that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
-he ought to have some one with him so that he could secure all the details.
-For the next meeting I sent another officer with him, and this man had a
-dark lantern. Schuettler would listen, and as he whispered the words and
-sentiments of the speakers, the other officer, with the aid of the light from
-his lantern, would commit them to paper. The next morning I received a
-full report of all the transactions.</p>
-
-<p>This sort of work was kept up for several months, and during all this
-time I was kept pretty well informed of the secret movements of the old
-North Side groups. At the beginning of all their meetings the speakers
-would declare their wish to see Judge Gary, Mr. Grinnell, all the officers working
-on the case and myself hung. They generally closed with a promise to
-kill all capitalists and blow up all the newspaper buildings.</p>
-
-<p>One private detective, whom I had at work for me for a long time,
-proved very valuable. He belonged to a union and showed very fine
-judgment. He would watch only the most radical leaders and ascertain
-their intentions. He was a rabid Anarchist himself, but he did not believe
-in killing people or precipitating riots so long as it would not help their
-cause. He often used to say to me:</p>
-
-<p>“Captain, I will be true to you. I will help you all I can to prevent
-some of these fools from committing any more murders.”</p>
-
-<p>He said that some of his people had not sense enough to know what
-they were doing, and that, whenever he met a man of family who talked
-about killing somebody, he would remonstrate with him. For this good
-and sensible advice some of the reds called him a coward and a spy. At
-one time, on Lake Street, a big, burly brute called him a coward and a
-creeping thing. My man stepped up to the fellow and said:</p>
-
-<p>“I will make you eat your own words, or you will have to kill me.”</p>
-
-<p>“What do you want me to do?” asked the big ruffian.</p>
-
-<p>“Fight a duel,” retorted the detective. “I will give you twenty minutes’
-time in which to secure a revolver and get ready. I will pay your
-car-fare, and we will go out to Garfield Park. No one shall go with us, and
-if you don’t accept my challenge, I will kill you anyhow.”</p>
-
-<p>“Are you in earnest?” asked the other.</p>
-
-<p>“Never more so in my life,” was the reply.</p>
-
-<p>The boasting coward then begged for more time, which was not granted,
-and, seeing the challenger determined, he winced.</p>
-
-<p>“I believe you are a good man. I am sorry that I have insulted you,
-and I beg your pardon. Let up on this. If you don’t feel like doing so,
-for God’s sake do it for my wife and family.”</p>
-
-<p>The young fellow then struck the braggart in the face and walked away.
-The whimpering coward never raised his hand nor uttered another word.</p>
-
-<p>This man whom I had employed did not like Spies. He termed Spies
-a rattle-head, and disapproved of his arguments in the <i>Fackel</i> that the 1st<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
-of May was the time for the Anarchists to rise. In this view all the more
-sensible conspirators agreed. They knew that they could not accomplish
-anything, and therefore they kept away. My man was one of this latter
-class. He said everything was working nicely in their favor, but Spies
-killed everything. He told me that one night he was in company with
-Spies, and that Spies said:</p>
-
-<p>“I do not care how little I can accomplish. I want revenge on the
-police. They killed my brother&mdash;a d&mdash;&mdash;d policeman killed him at a picnic.
-He shot him dead, and I will never stop until I have more than
-double revenge.”</p>
-
-<p>This statement of Spies’ about the killing was true. The brother killed
-was a young tough, and had been shot by Officer Tamillo.</p>
-
-<p>My man said that from the moment of this interview he had no more
-use for Spies. This detective ceased work for a few months, but he thereafter
-resumed his secret service, as he found that, in view of the strikes and
-laying-off, he could hardly make a living otherwise. I put him to work
-again, and he did well, continuing for two months. One day he came to me
-and wanted $30. I gave it to him, and he started away. He would report
-to me daily through the mail, and whenever he had anything of special
-importance to communicate he always knew just where to find me. I
-missed his reports for five days, and I failed to learn anything of him during
-that time. On the 2nd of August I was severely injured by being thrown
-out of my buggy, and I was obliged to keep to the house for two weeks.
-On the 5th of August I received a communication from the Coroner of
-Lake County, Indiana, asking me if I had a man named Charles Brown
-working for me as a detective. The letter was as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="pr4 p1"><span class="smcap">Hammond, Lake County</span>, Indiana, August 3, 1887.</p>
-
-<p><i>Captain Schaack</i>&mdash;Sir: I enclose a copy of a statement of a witness who identified the
-bodies of two parties drowned in Cedar Lake; also the badge pin found on the man. A Mr.
-Heise stated to me before he saw the body that the man was a detective and wore his police
-badge on his breast. The body had been found by a hard case by the name of Green and
-some pals of his, on the southeast corner of Cedar Lake. When the body was landed, all
-the garments on it were undershirt, drawers and pants. All the rest had disappeared. His
-coat was found later, but nothing in the pockets. The rest was not found. Mr. Heise said
-that he had some money, a watch and chain and a revolver when he left Chicago. Other
-parties say that the man Green changed a $20 note for him some time before he was drowned.
-There are some very mysterious circumstances with regard to his condition as found and
-reported by Green and Scotty, when they found the body, with regard to vest, watch, money
-and revolver. I think a little detective work might show up the matter.</p>
-
-<p class="pr4">Respectfully yours,<span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</span>
-<span class="smcap">G. Van De Walker</span>,</p>
-<p class="pr2">Coroner, Lake Co., Indiana.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Three days after, I learned that this was the same man I had employed,
-and I placed Officer Schuettler on the case to unravel, if possible, the mystery
-surrounding his death. The officer in a few days reported that it was
-exceedingly difficult to obtain a clue, as no one seemed disposed to give<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>
-any information as to foul play; but enough was learned in a general way to
-warrant the conclusion that underhanded methods had been used to accomplish
-the man’s death.</p>
-
-<p>I recalled certain incidents in connection with the man’s work as a
-detective, and, placing them by the side of the seemingly accidental drowning,
-I became convinced that a deliberate
-crime had been committed.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-214.jpg" width="400" height="306" id="i214"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">BETRAYED BY BEAUTY.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>One day this private asked me if I
-would allow him to tell a young lady
-what he was working at. I told him that
-he must do nothing of the kind; that if
-he did so I would have no further use for him. He then begged me to
-permit him to use my name as his friend, and I told him I had no objection
-to that. But I found out later that he had said more to the young lady
-than I had consented to, and I believe his indiscretion in that respect is
-what cost him his life.</p>
-
-<p>From the moment that the girl ascertained his secret occupation he was a
-doomed man. She let other Anarchists into the secret, and they at once set
-about devising means for ending his life.</p>
-
-<p>The information I received later was that it had been decided upon that
-the young woman should inveigle him to Cedar Lake, and then, when he
-was in her power, to do away with him. The two left the city together, and
-were followed by the others in the conspiracy to the place where his body was
-found. Before taking the trip on the water, she was seen talking with some
-mysterious-looking individuals, and they then and there decided upon the
-details of the plan. She was to get him to row out into deep water, and,
-when they had got fairly started, her friends were to follow in another rowboat<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
-at a convenient distance. When they reached the middle of the lake
-she was to keep a close watch on the other boat, and as they neared her
-boat she was to suddenly throw herself on one side and tip the boat over so
-that both occupants would be thrown into the water. Her friends were then to
-be close at hand, pick her up and save her from drowning. The programme
-was carried out so far as related to the capsizing of the boat, but the men
-did not get near enough in time to save her. She went down with her companion
-and was drowned with him.</p>
-
-<p>There is no doubt as to the truth of this plot. It was in entire keeping
-with Anarchistic methods; and parties who were at the lake at the time state
-that they saw the young lady get up in the boat, and that while thus standing
-she swung it over, precipitating herself and her lover into the water.
-I had men engaged on the case for some time, but the investigation always
-ended in the same way&mdash;an undoubted conclusion that the detective’s life
-was taken by reason of a plot, but no evidence to establish the guilt of the
-conspirators. From the information I received, I am satisfied that the
-whole matter was carefully planned and carried out by the woman.</p>
-
-<p>From May 7, 1886, to November 20, 1887, I had a great deal of work,
-there were so many things to look after, but after matters had become
-systematized and the force had been brought down to good working order,
-the burdens of the office became much easier than most people would suppose.</p>
-
-<p>In the first place, I had one hundred and sixty rank Anarchists to look
-after; but as soon as these became known to my men, it was an easy matter
-for the officers to report where they had seen them and with whom they
-associated. Then I had ten small halls to watch where the Anarchists
-met night and day. There were also seventeen saloons where these people
-were accustomed to congregate. Three of these latter had small halls connected
-with them. Twelve of the other saloons had rear rooms where the
-reds would sit at times and hold small meetings. After we had all their
-haunts located, and knowing the kind of men who frequented them, the
-work of keeping track of them was not so hard. Some of these Anarchists
-would enter boldly into these places, while others would almost crawl on
-their stomachs to get into the resorts without being seen. Others again
-would disguise themselves so that their identity could not become known
-to detectives.</p>
-
-<p>The officers made no attempt to close these places, and possibly the
-reader may ask why such notorious and dangerous resorts were permitted
-to continue unmolested.</p>
-
-<p>My reason for not closing them was that the Anarchists were bound to
-meet in some place. We knew their resorts thoroughly, and I had plenty
-of my men among them, who worked ostensibly for the cause of Anarchy,
-but who continually furnished me pointers. Again, we knew just where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
-they would meet and could always have our men present. If I had shut
-them out from these places, they would have been driven into private
-houses, broken up into smaller factions, and our work would have been
-made much broader and harder in keeping track of them and their doings.
-So long as I had the machine, so to speak, in my own hands, and knew all
-that had been done and said, we let them alone. And the results justified
-our course.</p>
-
-<p>Among the saloon-keepers there was one who seemed to have a special
-liking for me. This man, who had a place on Lake Street, on taking his
-first drink in the morning would invariably drink to my health, saying: “I
-hope that that d&mdash;&mdash;d Luxemburger, Schaack, will be killed before I go to
-bed to-night;” and when he was about to close his doggery for the day, he
-would take two drinks and say: “I hope I will find Schaack hanging to a
-lamp-post in the morning when I get up.”</p>
-
-<p>When the saloon-keepers were particularly loaded with beer, they
-shouted louder than any one else for Anarchy, and the louder and more
-vehemently they shouted the more “solid” did they become with their
-Anarchist customers. At every meeting held at these places, collections
-were taken up, and the saloon-keepers could always be counted upon to
-contribute liberally.</p>
-
-<p>The worst of these ignorant fools never did realize why the saloon-keepers
-shouted so lustily for Anarchy until they came home to find their
-wives and little ones crying for bread. Then, perhaps, it faintly dawned
-upon their minds that the saloon-keepers were after their nickels. These
-liquor-sellers were Anarchists for revenue only, and they sought in every way
-to keep on the right side of the rank and file of the party. They always
-looked to it, the first thing in the morning, that plenty of Anarchist literature
-and a dozen or so copies of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> were duly on the tables
-of their places, and in some saloons beer-bloated bums, who could manage
-to read fairly, were engaged to read aloud such articles as were particularly
-calculated to stir up the passions of the benighted patrons. Robber
-and hypocrite are terms too weak to apply to these saloon-keepers. Some
-of them had “walking delegates” by their side, and if an Anarchist
-seemed to them to be “going wrong” by seeking work, the delegate and
-assistant robber would tell him to go back to his headquarters and
-wait, assuring him that they would have all things right in a few
-days.</p>
-
-<p>And this is the way these poor fools and their families were kept in
-continual misery. Many of the dupes have had their eyes opened and
-have quit frequenting these places and the underground caves. What is
-the result? Their families are better looked after, and the difference in
-their comfort is very apparent. They used to call the Chicago Avenue
-Station “Schaack’s Bastile,” but let me say that those saloon-keepers with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>
-their low and contemptible resorts were the real bastile-keepers. Hundreds
-and hundreds of men, heads and fathers of families, have been kept in
-squalid want by spending their very last cent in these holes, and their
-dependents have been left without food, proper clothing or fuel. I believe in
-unions for proper objects, but even these should not be continued for the
-benefit of such saloon-keepers.</p>
-
-<p>All these men were great heroes so long as they could hope to enrich
-themselves, but when the chief conspirators were locked up in jail, and
-liberal contributions were demanded for the defense, their enthusiasm in
-the holy cause of Anarchy was considerably cooled.</p>
-
-<p>While Chicago is regarded as the head center of Anarchy in America,
-people of other cities and States should not imagine that the vicious reds
-are all in this city. There are plenty of them scattered throughout the
-country, and this fact was made quite manifest at the time the Anarchists
-were being arrested. Friends of the imprisoned men came to Chicago from
-all over the United States, and financial assistance poured in on all sides.
-Those who came here were open in their declarations of sympathy and
-never attempted to conceal their actions.</p>
-
-<p>When these same men were at their homes they did not dare to openly
-say a word in favor of Anarchy, because they were few in numbers; but
-should there be enough to make a formidable showing, they will throw off
-their mask and assume a defiant, menacing attitude.</p>
-
-<p>These arrivals, just as soon as they became known, were kept under
-espionage, and every movement they made was looked after, lest they might
-commit some desperate deed. Of course there were a great many whom
-the police did not discover, and it is a wonder that, during the excitement
-incident to the arrest of so many Anarchists and the searches made of
-Anarchistic houses, some diabolical act was not perpetrated. Possibly
-they discovered that the omnipresent police were so thoroughly on the
-inside of their conspiracy that detection was inevitable. It is certain that
-they knew that I had become thoroughly posted as to the inside workings
-of Anarchy, and the sound fear which I was able to inspire by a bold and
-aggressive policy no doubt acted as a restraint upon any violent outburst
-of passion and revenge.</p>
-
-<p>It was constant vigilance alone that averted trouble, and no Anarchist
-of a specially vicious disposition was permitted to feel that his movements
-were overlooked or unwatched. For this purpose I had Anarchists among
-Anarchists to inform on Anarchists, and all the meetings were thus kept
-under strict surveillance. Even private houses were watched. On one
-occasion I desired to secure certain information. One of the private detectives
-was accordingly detailed to watch the rear of a certain building from
-an alley. He was there for two days without being observed by any one,
-but on the third day he was noticed by a police officer. The officer asked
-him what he was doing in that locality, and the private responded:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“I am waiting for a friend of mine who is working in this barn, and I
-expect him around soon.”</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-218.jpg" width="300" height="355" id="i218"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">THALIA HALL.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The officer placed no reliance on the statement, and so he hustled him
-out of the alley. The detective walked on a short distance, and, as soon as
-the officer was out of sight, retraced his steps and returned to the place,
-this time finding a different point for his observations. He had scarcely
-thought himself secure from further interruptions, when the back gate
-of the next yard opened, and in walked the same officer. Both were alike
-surprised. But this
-time there were no
-questions asked and
-no explanations demanded.
-The officer
-promptly seized the
-detective by the collar
-and marched him to
-the Chicago Avenue
-Station. The detective
-kept his identity
-to himself, and of
-course found himself
-speedily assigned to
-a cell over night. On
-the next morning, as
-I sauntered through
-the lock-up, I discovered
-my friend in
-durance vile, and,
-promptly looking up
-the record, found that
-he had been booked
-for disorderly conduct.</p>
-
-<p>I then returned and told him that, when brought into court, he should
-not say anything to the judge, but play the part of a fool and simpleton.
-His case came up; he was fined $5 and sent back to the lock-up. I went
-to him later, handed him the money, and in half an hour he paid his fine
-and left. The detective went back to his post, but the officer was not put
-on that beat again. My man worked for about two weeks and finished
-his job.</p>
-
-<p>Of course, the detectives in the case had varied experiences. On another
-occasion it was desirable to know what was being done at some secret
-meetings held at Thalia Hall, No. 703 Milwaukee Avenue. This was after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
-the trial of the Anarchists had begun. I assigned a few detectives in that
-direction, and shortly afterwards the proceedings might as well have been
-open so far as the police were concerned.</p>
-
-<p>My boys had a great deal of fun. They managed to discover a way by
-which they secured an entrance under the stage, and at the first meeting
-they attended they amused themselves by cutting a hole through that portion
-of the stage facing the audience. When they had done this, they could
-see all present and hear everything that was said. Many a night they held
-to that port-hole and enjoyed the circus on the outside. They heard many
-a speech of a threatening character against Judge Gary, Mr. Grinnell, Mr.
-Bonfield and myself, and sometimes they had to listen to some rampant
-speaker who would depict the pleasure all Anarchists would enjoy at seeing
-the funerals of these officials passing through the streets. Of course, those
-who were the most bitter had the least courage, and so long as the auditors
-only listened to speeches, my boys were perfectly satisfied that no immediate
-danger was to be apprehended.</p>
-
-<p>I finally learned that some of the Anarchists had become suspicious,
-and therefore ordered Officer Schuettler and the others to remain away, as
-they would otherwise be discovered. And they would have been. One
-day the Anarchists made a careful search of the building, and they found the
-hole through which the boys had peeped. They then decided on a plan. It
-was that during the next meeting, which they felt certain some of my boys
-would attend, a great commotion should be made in the hall. This would
-surely bring one of the detectives with his eye very near the hole. Then
-one of the Anarchists should stealthily creep up on the side, suddenly
-plunge a sharp iron through the hole, and kill the man within.</p>
-
-<p>One officer, who proved of great assistance to me, was Charles Nordrum.
-He became engaged in the case shortly after the Haymarket riot, and after
-a time became a regular attaché of the detective department. He was
-born in Norway on the 9th of November, 1858, and had lived in Chicago
-since 1868. He joined the police force in November, 1884, and, possessing
-a great deal of tact and shrewdness, his services were soon enlisted in the
-work of hunting up the red conspirators. He worked at times with Officer
-Schuettler, but reported to Ebersold. Both were known to my officers, but
-they did not know of my private workers. Nordrum was especially detailed
-to look after some meetings at Thalia Hall, at the Emma Street Hall, in
-the rear room of Zepf’s saloon, in the rear room of Greif’s saloon, at No.
-600 Blue Island Avenue, and at the Northwestern Hall, and he did not
-overlook meetings held in the cellars of some of the more prominent Anarchists
-on the Northwest Side and of others who were in sympathy with the
-Anarchists. He wormed himself into the good graces of quite a number of
-the reds, and was always kindly received by them. After a time the police
-stopped the holding of meetings in some of the halls, and then the Anarchist<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
-sympathizers harbored the reds in their cellars, furnishing candles for
-illumination and nail-kegs for seats. On the 5th of July, 1887, Nordrum
-was exposed at No. 599 Milwaukee Avenue, and he was at once surrounded
-by an infuriated mob. The Anarchists with whom he had associated
-attempted to kill him, but the officer, after a desperate fight, succeeded in
-reaching the door before any serious violence had been done him. This, of
-course, destroyed his further usefulness among them, but out of his knowledge
-of the men and their affairs two arrests were effected. He and Officer
-Schuettler brought in Emil Wende and Frederick Kost, members of the
-Terra Cotta Union. These men had been selected to buy each member of
-their group a 42-caliber revolver and one box of cartridges, and the weapons
-so secured were to have been used on the police on the day of the execution.
-The weapons had been purchased, and as soon as the principals had
-been placed under arrest, a descent was made upon the supply. All the
-revolvers were captured and brought to the Central Station.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-220.jpg" width="400" height="328" id="i220"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">UNDERGROUND CONSPIRATORS.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Noticing how successfully they had been circumvented in all their movements,
-the Anarchists naturally came to the conclusion that detectives were
-working in their ranks either in the interest of myself or of Billy Pinkerton,
-and they resolved to discover, if possible, the men so engaged. One<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>
-day a very intelligent fellow called at my office and wanted to know if I
-desired any more men to work for me among the Anarchists. He stated
-that he was well acquainted with all the reds, and, if I would pay him well,
-he would render good service.</p>
-
-<p>I called him into my private office, and I closely questioned him. I
-learned that he knew a great many of them, and I told him that I wanted
-one good man. He then considered himself engaged, and said to me:</p>
-
-<p>“Now you had better tell me all the men that are working for you
-and show them all to me so we can work together.”</p>
-
-<p>I told him that if he could find out any one of my men I would pay
-him $20 a week, and then he might consider himself engaged. He went
-away, but he never came back to claim the $20.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-221.jpg" width="200" height="257" id="i221"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">OFFICER NORDRUM.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>This ruse having failed, the Anarchists devised another. One day early
-in August, 1886, they sent one of my countrymen, a Luxemburger, to me.
-This fellow began to play his cards very nicely,
-and sought to carve a very pretty little path
-into my confidence, but he had not proceeded
-very far before my suspicions were aroused,
-and he got nothing to satisfy either himself
-or those who sent him. While our conversation
-was going on one of the officers came in,
-and, noticing the fellow, called me into another
-room. The officer then stated that he had seen
-the man hanging around West Lake Street,
-had seen him drunk frequently, and had once
-found him in tears, saying that he had come
-from Paris, had seen the downfall of the
-Commune there, and that now that Anarchy
-was suppressed in Chicago all hope for liberty
-was gone, and he would be ready to die at his
-own hands after he should have first killed somebody. I returned to
-the office.</p>
-
-<p>“See here, old fellow,” said I, “I have spies amongst the Anarchists,
-but I do not want spies among my own command.”</p>
-
-<p>The man was then asked if he could do any work, and when he said
-that he had not done any work in a long time, I remarked that I had a job
-for him. He became interested and wanted to know what kind of a job it was.</p>
-
-<p>“It is under Superintendent Felton at the House of Correction, and he
-will assign you to work that will keep the dogs from biting you for six
-months. You are a vagrant, and I will bring you into court to-morrow
-morning and have you fined $100. That will be six months.”</p>
-
-<p>The man begged piteously to be spared that punishment, and I plied
-him with questions. He stated that, inasmuch as he was of the same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
-nationality as myself, the Anarchists thought he could readily get into my
-secrets, and they had forced him to come. I told him that my officers knew
-him and had him spotted, and that unless he left the city by the next day I
-would have him arrested and sent to the work-house. He left the station,
-and I have never seen him since. Since then I have received a letter from
-Michigan, saying that if the writer had me there I would never see Chicago
-again, as he would find work for me for awhile, and I am confident that it
-came from my old friend.</p>
-
-<p>During the progress of the investigations some curious characters were
-encountered. Some sought me, as I have already noted, but in most
-instances I had to hunt them. One eccentric genius was especially noticeable.
-He had started out with the intention of reading himself into the
-Anarchist faith, and for this purpose be became a constant reader of the
-<i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> and its Sunday edition, the <i>Fackel</i>. For some time he
-wavered in his opinion, but the more he read the more he became convinced
-that there was something in Anarchy. At last he became so deeply imbued
-that he almost regarded it a sacrilege to destroy the copies he had purchased
-for his enlightenment. He carefully stowed the papers away in the
-closet in his room, and when he returned from work he would open the
-door and examine his collection much as a miser inspects his hoard.</p>
-
-<p>May 4 finally came, and with it the event he had looked forward to so
-longingly. But the outcome did not suit him. He noticed that the police
-were getting uncomfortably close to his locality, but he did not feel any
-special concern until one evening a patrol wagon pulled up in front of
-No. 105 Wells Street, near his own domicile. He saw the officers
-approaching in the direction of the entrance, and, jumping from his chair
-near the window, shouted to his landlady:</p>
-
-<p>“For heaven’s sake!&mdash;the police are coming to search the house&mdash;what
-will I do? If they come into my room and find my papers, I will be arrested
-and locked up as an Anarchist. Let me burn my papers in your stove.”</p>
-
-<p>The landlady would not permit it, as she feared arrest as an accomplice.
-The young man almost fell on his knees in pleading with her for permission.
-Finding his appeals useless, he hastened to his room, lit a fire in a sheet-iron
-stove there, and began to burn his whole collection. His haste was so
-great that he crammed too many papers in at once, and the stove became
-overheated. The wall paper began to burn, and the Anarchist had to give
-his attention to moving the bed and furniture away from the walls. He did
-not dare to give an alarm of fire, and yet he saw that the whole room would
-be in flames in a few moments. He seized a pitcher of water, emptied its
-contents on the wall, opened the door and called for the landlady to come
-to his assistance. She responded, and when she saw the situation, she
-cried out, “Fire, fire!” He endeavored to make her desist from her cries<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
-and urged her to bring him water. Water was brought and soused all over
-the stove and the walls.</p>
-
-<p>By this time the house was full of smoke, and they opened the window.
-An officer in the wagon noticed the smoke, and shouted to some of his companions
-that there was a fire next door up-stairs. The young man overheard
-this and hastened to tell the officer that it was only smoke and that
-no assistance was required.</p>
-
-<p>The landlady now ran away to escape possible arrest, and the young man
-was left alone. He again assured the officer below that the smoke had all
-cleared away, and he slammed down the window.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-223.jpg" width="300" height="311" id="i223"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">THE SCARED AMATEUR ANARCHIST.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>After thus escaping
-police investigation,
-the
-youthful Anarchist
-felt happy, and he
-had reasons to be,
-as he would certainly
-have been arrested,
-in view of
-his actions, had the
-officers ever entered
-his room.
-Others had been
-arrested under less
-suspicious circumstances,
-and it took
-some of them a long
-time to satisfactorily
-explain their position.
-The young
-man has since become
-connected
-with a newspaper.
-He may deny this in his paper, but I will never “give him away.”</p>
-
-<p>While pursuing the investigations, and never losing hope of finding Parsons,
-I was one day informed by Officer Henry Fechter that a man who knew
-the foxy Anarchist had seen the fugitive at Geneva, Wis., and his arrest
-might be easily effected. The officer was a detail at the time at the Northwestern
-Railroad depot, and his informant was a reliable gentleman. I
-instructed the officer to report his information to Chief Ebersold, as I was
-helpless in the matter, having no authority to send an officer outside of the
-city limits. That was the last I ever heard of it. The information
-was evidently pigeonholed, and Parsons continued to bask in rural sunshine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
-and enjoy himself until the day he came into court of his own free will.
-This was not the only instance of supine neglect in the Chief’s office and
-the detective department. I have already spoken of the case of Schnaubelt,
-the bomb-thrower, but there is still another striking illustration. It
-was shortly after the selection of a jury to try the Anarchists. The Bonfield
-brothers and myself were obliged to be in court nearly all the time, and the
-Anarchists on the outside, observing this, began to concoct plots for taking
-revenge on the city. In this emergency the Chief decided to go to California,
-and, in order that he might have cheerful company, he invited Lieut. Joseph
-Kipley, of the so-called detective department, and Capt. William Buckley,
-of the First Precinct.</p>
-
-<p>When Mr. Grinnell heard of this contemplated trip, at a time when, for
-the sake of public appearance at least, the Chief ought to have remained at
-home, he firmly remonstrated and reminded the official of his duty. But
-Ebersold shook his head.</p>
-
-<p>“I have got my tickets,” said he; “what will I do with them?”</p>
-
-<p>“Throw them into the lake,” replied Mr. Grinnell.</p>
-
-<p>But the Chief was obstinate, and he and his party left for the Pacific
-Coast. The force was then left in command of Inspector John Bonfield,
-who thus had double duty imposed upon him.</p>
-
-<p>The moment the work of impaneling the jury had begun, the outside
-Anarchists began to exert themselves to put some of their own men into
-the jury-box. When they found that the State was too vigilant, however,
-they next set about to secure such witnesses as could be counted upon to
-swear their friends out of jail. Take the evidence of the strongest witnesses
-put on the stand by the defense, and the critical, unbiased examiner will
-readily discover that many of them were simply perjurers.</p>
-
-<p>But the labors of the reds were in vain, and when they began to realize
-that the jury did not seem impressed with the character of their evidence,
-the outside barbarians grew desperate and resolved on a new line of tactics.</p>
-
-<p>One day I received a note from one of my men warning me to protect
-the jury. The Anarchists, he said, were working out a scheme to injure
-some of the jurors, and if they could succeed in that, they were confident
-the case would have to be begun anew. If the case ever came up
-again, no man would care to risk his life in a trial of the conspirators,
-and their brothers would go free. If, however, the State should secure a
-full set of jurors, they would give them a dose of dynamite, and that would
-certainly end the case. Then they could keep on with Anarchy and make
-the capitalists cower before them. This plan, I was informed, had met the
-entire approval of the gang.</p>
-
-<p>I conferred with Mr. Grinnell, and as a result we doubled the watch to
-protect the jury. We made it a point also to know when the jurors went
-out for a walk or a drive, and, without their knowledge, trustworthy men<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
-were always with them or near them until their return. The hotel in which
-they were quartered was only about two hundred feet from the Criminal
-Court building, but whenever they came to the court in the morning, or
-went to their meals during recess, or left the court building after each day’s
-adjournment, twelve detectives along the line kept vigilant watch of all
-suspicious characters. Besides the detectives there were fifteen officers in
-uniform, and during the last three days of the trial we even redoubled our
-vigilance. There were twenty-five officers on the street, twenty-five more
-in the court-room, and twenty-five men about the building. All these men
-were in uniform, so that the “cranks” could see them, and it proved to be a
-very good precaution. During the night, detectives and regular patrolmen
-were watching inside and outside at the jurors’ hotel.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-225.jpg" width="400" height="328" id="i225"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">WATCHING A SUSPECT.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>On the last day of the arguments, when Mr. Grinnell was closing for the
-State, something very suspicious was noticed in the court-room. A man
-with a very mysterious air had been seen around the building for eight
-days preceding, and it was recalled that he came at varying hours of the
-day. On each occasion he held a few moments’ private talk with some of
-those Anarchists who had displayed interest in the proceedings, after which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>
-he always disappeared. The parties he generally talked with were Belz,
-who assisted in conducting the defense, Mrs. Parsons and Mrs. Holmes.
-He was about five feet ten inches tall, about forty years of age, weighed
-about 180 pounds, had a round face, short, stubby, sandy beard and mustache,
-a nose built on the feminine plan, large, gray, piercing eyes, and
-withal he was not a very prepossessing man.</p>
-
-<p>During the last hour, when Mr. Grinnell was making his plea to the
-jury, this man entered the court-room and took a seat in the front, right in
-the midst of the Anarchists’ families. This brought him within seven or
-eight feet behind the State’s Attorney. He crossed his arms over his
-stomach, and leaned pretty well forward, keeping his hands concealed under
-his coat. I was surprised at the fellow’s impudence, because the court-room
-at the time was so still that a whisper could have been distinctly
-heard all over the room. I sat at a table, with Mr. Walker to the left and
-Mr. Ingham to the right, and I called the attention of these two gentlemen
-to the mysterious man and his queer attitude. They watched his nervous
-actions, and became alarmed lest he might be there for some vicious object.
-The man had indeed a desperate look, but it was thought best not to interrupt
-the proceedings just then. Under the strict orders of Judge Gary,
-everybody was obliged to be seated in the court-room, and when the seats
-were full no more were admitted. This was another good precaution at such
-a trial. The police officials had thus a clear view of the whole room.</p>
-
-<p>At times, whenever there happened to be some severe allusions to the
-defendants by Mr. Grinnell, the stranger would twist himself around
-uneasily, all the time, however, maintaining his peculiar attitude. Mr.
-Ingham remarked that he was afraid the stranger might suddenly jump on
-Mr. Grinnell and stab him in the back. Mr. Walker expressed a similar
-opinion. I said that he should get no chance to do that, as I would kill
-him before he could take one step toward Mr. Grinnell, and at the same
-time I got my trusty 38-caliber Colt’s revolver in position where I could
-produce it the instant it was needed. We all agreed that this would be
-the right course to take. At one time the man looked sharply at me, and
-I gave him a savage look right into his eyes. From that time I kept him
-busy looking at me.</p>
-
-<p>As soon as Mr. Grinnell had concluded the man jumped up, drew near
-to Belz and spoke to him. Then he turned to a woman and handed her a
-paper. Meanwhile I had already called a detective to watch him, and as
-soon as the stranger reached the corridor he was searched. Nothing dangerous
-was found about his person, but it was impossible to learn where
-he lived or what was his name. He would give no account of himself, and
-he was taken down stairs and kept there until all the detectives had taken
-a good look at him. He was then told to go and never show himself around
-the building again.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>On the next morning a revolver was found in the building, and the opinion
-among those posted on the affair was that it must have belonged to the
-mysterious visitor. He had evidently come with a desperate determination
-to shoot some one, even at the sacrifice of his own life, but, seeing how slim
-were his chances for getting near his victim after the close watch kept upon
-him, he abandoned his intention and dropped his revolver to destroy any
-evidence against himself.</p>
-
-<p>Possibly he may have been simply engaged in playing a “bluff” on his
-Anarchist friends, his intention being to make them believe that he had
-nerve enough to go right into a court-room and shoot down an official, and
-afterwards to excuse his failure by referring to his friends for proof that he
-was so closely watched that he had no opportunity to get near his victim.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Grinnell was shortly afterwards informed of the incident, and he
-remarked that possibly a “crank” might have been found by the Anarchists
-to make an assault that they themselves had not the courage to undertake.</p>
-
-<p>As I have already indicated, a great many documents and letters, public
-and private, fell into the hands of the police during the searches made,
-and from the collection I give a few for the purpose of showing what kind
-of a dynamite office was being run by Parsons and Spies.</p>
-
-<p>The following was found by Detective James Bonfield on Parsons’ desk
-in the <i>Alarm</i> office, May 5, 1886:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="pch2 p1">Dealers in Marble and Granite Cemetery Work.&mdash;No. 193 Woodland Avenue, <span class="smcap">Cleveland,
-Ohio</span>, April 29, 1886.</p>
-
-<p><i>Comrade Parsons</i>:&mdash;Providing we send you the following dispatch: “Another bouncing
-boy, weight 11 pounds, all are well&mdash;signal Fred Smith,”&mdash;can you send us No. 1 for the
-amount we sent you by telegram. Please give us your lowest estimate. Also state by what
-express company you will send it to us.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Parsons had nothing to do with either handling or selling dynamite, if
-his own statements are to be accepted. Still he and Spies and their crowd
-seem to have had a great many inquiries for the “good stuff” Parsons
-used to refer to in his speeches, and which he urged his followers to carry
-in their vest pockets during the day and keep under their pillows at
-night. Another evidence of their guilt was found on the same day by
-Detective Bonfield in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office, on Spies’ desk:</p>
-
-<table id="t02" summary="t02">
-
- <tr>
- <td class="tch1"><span class="smcap">The Ætna Powder Company</span>,<br />
-<i>Manufacturers and Dealers.</i><br />
-High Explosives and Blasting Supplies.</td>
- <td class="tdl2">Works: Miller, Ind., Lake County.<br />
-Office: No. 98 Lake Street, Chicago.</td>
- </tr>
-
-</table>
-
-<table id="t03" summary="t03">
-
- <tr>
- <td class="tch1"><span class="smcap">Order No.</span> &mdash;&mdash;.</td>
- <td class="tch1"><i>Sold to Cash.</i></td>
- <td class="tch1"><span class="smcap">Chicago</span>, October 24, 1885.</td>
- </tr>
-
-</table>
-
-<p class="pc reduct">10 lbs. No. 1, 1¼, $3.50; 100 T T caps, $1.00; 100 feet double T fuse, 75 cts.&mdash;$5.25.<br />
-Paid&mdash;Ætna Powder Company, I. F.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">In justice to the company it should be explained that they had no
-knowledge of the purposes for which the material was to be used.</p>
-
-<p>I have already referred to the great courtesy shown Schnaubelt at the
-Central Station&mdash;how, when he was brought by Officer Palmer for the third<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>
-time before Lieut. Shea and the Chief, he was promptly ordered released,
-and how he finally and hastily concluded to leave the city in order to save
-the detective department any further trouble on his account. It subsequently
-transpired that the direction he took was for the great and boundless
-West; but in all his wanderings he always seems to have kindly
-remembered his friends in Chicago for permitting him to take so extended
-a journey. He even wrote back to some of them, and one letter, which,
-was put in the possession of Officer Palmer, is especially worthy of publicity.
-It reads as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="pr2 p1"><span class="smcap">Portland, Oregon.</span></p>
-
-<p><i>To the Chief of Police, Chicago</i>&mdash;My Dear Old Jackass: Thanks to your pig-headed
-lieutenant, I am here sound and safe. Before this reaches you I have left here, and the only
-thing I regret is that we did not kill more of your blue-coated hounds.</p>
-
-<p class="pr2"><span class="smcap">Schnaubelt.</span></p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The following, received by Parsons and Spies, are self-explanatory:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="pr2 p1"><span class="smcap">Eufaula</span>, April 13, 1886</p>
-
-<p><i>Dear Comrade Parsons</i>:&mdash;I have received your papers and am very much obliged for
-them. Glad that you like my article. I am writing now for <i>To-Day</i>, of London, and for
-the <i>Alarm</i>, and am going to write for <i>La Tribune du Peuple de Paris</i>. Situated as I am now,
-I can be of no good but by writing, and I intend to avail myself of it. You may be astonished
-if I tell you that I never use the word “Anarchy.” I stick to the old word “Socialism.”
-It can be understood and does not require any knowledge of Greek to make out its
-meaning. If I was to seek in the Greek language for a word to express where I stand, I
-would call myself an Anticrat, opposed to any kind of crazy notions, democracy as well as
-aristocracy. I am for individual responsibility and social action. I am for liberty, but
-within society, not above it, and, first of all, I am for equality of conditions. I want organization
-first, revolution second, social economy reorganization third, and abolition of
-governmental action last of all. If you could confiscate the government to-morrow, I would
-have no objection to use it for a while.</p>
-
-<p>Anarchism has a very dangerous drift toward individualism, as you may perceive by
-reading <i>Liberty</i>, of Boston, and individualism is bound to generate some kind of a crazy
-notion and end in despotism. Beware of individualistic Anarchism and stick to the socialistic.</p>
-
-<p>We are in a state of warfare with all the crazes and must use all the weapons of warfare
-within our reach. Our present weapons&mdash;strikes and boycotting&mdash;are dangerous, and
-expulsive if we were to use the ballot. The workers are the many; the masters the few.
-Before upsetting the government, let us try to use it. Mayors, councilmen, aldermen, governors,
-and so forth, have a good deal to say about how the police and militia shall be used,
-and judges have a good deal to say when workingmen are prosecuted for claiming their
-rights. Could not the workers organize to conquer these offices? What do you think of
-that? What do you think of that?</p>
-
-<p class="pr2">Salute and Fraternity.<span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</span><span class="smcap">Frederic Tafferd.</span></p>
-
-
-<p class="pr2 p2"><span class="smcap">What Cheer, Keokuk County, Iowa</span>, April 18, 1886.</p>
-
-<p><i>A. R. Parsons, Esq.</i>&mdash;Dear Sir: We organized a group of the Lehr und Wehr Verein
-in this town on the above date. The organizer was your comrade John McGinn, of Rock
-Spring, Wyoming. Inclosed you will find the amount for the cards&mdash;names as follows:</p></div>
-
-<table id="t04" summary="t04">
-
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl2">John H. Nicholson,</td>
- <td class="tch1">miner;</td>
- <td class="tch1">age,</td>
- <td class="tdl2">41</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl2">Arthur Cowrey,</td>
- <td class="tch1">”</td>
- <td class="tch1">”</td>
- <td class="tdl2">42</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl2">William Morgan,</td>
- <td class="tch1">”</td>
- <td class="tch1">”</td>
- <td class="tdl2">34</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl2">Isaac Little,</td>
- <td class="tch1">”</td>
- <td class="tch1">”</td>
- <td class="tdl2">39</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl2">Benjamin E. Williams,</td>
- <td class="tch1">”</td>
- <td class="tch1">”</td>
- <td class="tdl2">37</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl2">William Jackson,</td>
- <td class="tch1">”</td>
- <td class="tch1">”</td>
- <td class="tdl2">39</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl2">John McGinn,</td>
- <td class="tch1">”</td>
- <td class="tch1">”</td>
- <td class="tdl2">29</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl2">William H. Osborne,</td>
- <td class="tch1">”</td>
- <td class="tch1">”</td>
- <td class="tdl2">36</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl2">John R. Thomas,</td>
- <td class="tch1">”</td>
- <td class="tch1">”</td>
- <td class="tdl2">33</td>
- </tr>
-
-</table>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">I suppose you will need to know who is chief and secretary of the group. John McGinn
-is chief and John H. Nicholson is the secretary. I remain yours, in the care of John H.
-Nicholson, What Cheer, Keokuk County, Iowa, Box 697.</p>
-
-<p class="pr2 p2"><span class="smcap">St. Louis</span>, March 27, 1886.</p>
-
-<p><i>Mrs. and Mr. Parsons</i>:&mdash;We were quite sorry to learn of your sickness, which prevented
-you to be with us at the Commune Festival, while we were just as glad to see that Mrs. Parsons
-did accept our invitation. My hope and wish that you are well again for the present.
-The Commune Festival was well attended by a large crowd, and it was a great disappointment
-for the J. W. P. A. being forced to announce the absence of the English speaker. I
-am quite aware that it would have been a great lift for our principles if Mrs. Parsons could
-have been present. However, St. Louis is not Chicago, and the movement is not as well
-progressing as in Chicago. No wonder. I have been teached lately a lesson myself, and
-therefore withdraw as a member of the group. We herewith send you a little collection of
-picture cards, which Mary had saved up for your children. We intended to send them
-along with Mrs. Parsons. Mary has already two large scrap-books full of such collections.
-Hail for the revolution.</p>
-
-<p>
-Yours respectfully,<span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</span>
-<span class="smcap">J. M. Mentyer</span>.</p>
-
-<p>P. S.&mdash;If you have any old <i>Alarms</i> to spare, I would make good use of them at present
-during this railroad strike. I shall soon send some money again. I also send you the
-<i>Chronicle</i> so you can see what declaration the Knights of Labor have issued in answer to
-Monster Robber Gould.</p>
-
-<p class="pr2 p2">Personal.<span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</span><span class="smcap">Port Jarvis, N. Y.</span>, October 31, 1885.</p>
-
-<p><i>My Dear Comrade</i>:&mdash;Well, I will stay here, as I wrote you. I started out on a “tramp”
-to look for a job. I stayed nearly a week at New Haven and spoke there, though why Liberty
-should head his letter from there “Unfortunate for Herr Most,” is more than I can
-see. I came here and looked up an old friend, John G. Mills. He proposed starting a small
-job book-bindery. He puts in capital and I the skill. That seems fair; while I will be sure
-of a mere living for the winter, there is no guarantee that capital will gain by it. So the
-timidity of capital must be overcome. Well, the bargain is this: When I pay back the
-advance capital (and until I do so I am not to draw in amount over $5.00 a week), paid it
-all, then I am to own half and we will start equal partners, and he furnishes more capital if
-necessary on half paid back. I have agreed, as I believe it is the best I can do, and it opens
-a good prospect. It is probable that I will not be very active in “the cause” here, as every
-moment will be occupied, but I am willing to go anywhere within reasonable distance this
-winter and give a lecture to any group for mere expenses&mdash;car-fare and board&mdash;and believe
-I could stir up the boys. New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York, all three join
-together here, and any of the three States would be convenient. I should give a lecture
-rather than a speech, but it would be <i>extempore</i>. Can’t you drop a line to Philadelphia, or
-some point near? Buffalo is nearly as near.</p>
-
-<p>When I feel like giving you an article I shall mail it, but, of course, you will use it or lay
-it over as you feel about it. I think I can put a point strongly, but do not want to crowd
-out anything else.</p>
-
-<p>If you can use me on your paper, draw on me for all the copy you like. I like the Alarm
-and think it has improved since last spring. Any points I can get from French papers, I
-will give you the benefit of. I never got that card. Is it contrary to custom?</p>
-
-<p class="pr2">Yours truly,<span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</span>
-<span class="smcap">Lum</span>.</p></div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">The Difficulties of Detection&mdash;Moving on the Enemy&mdash;A Hebrew Anarchist&mdash;Oppenheimer’s
-Story&mdash;Dancing over Dynamite&mdash;Twenty-Five Dollars’ Worth
-of Practical Socialism&mdash;A Woman’s Work&mdash;How Mrs. Seliger Saved the North Side&mdash;A
-Well-merited Tribute&mdash;Seliger Saved by his Wife&mdash;The Shadow of the Hangman’s
-Rope&mdash;A Hunt for a Witness&mdash;Shadowing a Hack&mdash;The Commune Celebration&mdash;Fixing
-Lingg’s Guilt&mdash;Preparing the Infernal Machines&mdash;A Boy Conspirator&mdash;Lingg’s
-Youthful Friend&mdash;Anarchy in the Blood&mdash;How John Thielen was Taken into Camp&mdash;His
-Curious Confession&mdash;Other Arrests.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">THE preceding pages will have given to the reader facts enough to show
-the difficulty of the task assumed, as well as the manner in which we
-went about the work. One of the greatest of the obstacles to be overcome
-arose from the character and habits of thought of the Anarchists themselves.
-They heartily hated all law, and despised its constituted representatives.
-The conspiracy was well disciplined in itself, and it had been
-specially organized with a view to guarding its secrets from the outside
-world and protecting its members from the consequences of their crimes.
-Thus I soon found that it would require peculiar address, patience, secretiveness
-and diligent work to lay bare the great plot to the world.</p>
-
-<p>I can find no better place than this to testify to the help given me
-throughout the case by Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann, whose work
-was a most important feature of the result finally brought before the
-Criminal Court.</p>
-
-<p>The protection of society is an interest so momentous that it would be a
-false modesty in me to refuse, for fear that I should be charged with egotism,
-to analyze the processes by which the conviction of the confederates
-in the Haymarket murder conspiracy was bought about, and accordingly I
-will now say, once for all, that I believe that careful, systematic detective
-inquiry, conducted with some brains and a good deal of grit, can unravel
-any plot which the enemies of law and order and our American institutions
-are apt to hatch. It will require tact. It will require intelligence. It may
-require the hardest and most persistent work that men may do&mdash;but about
-the result there can be no doubt. Our government and our methods are
-strong enough for the protection of the people and the maintenance of law
-and order, no matter how dangerous may seem the forces arrayed against it.</p>
-
-<p>The various steps taken may be gathered best from the memoranda
-made upon the arrest of each Anarchist who had been conspicuous in his
-order and who was supposed to know the secret workings of the “armed
-sections;” and, in reading the particulars, the general conclusion will
-become irresistible that the men who posed as the bloodthirsty bandits of
-Chicago became arrant, cringing cowards when they found themselves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>
-within the clutches of the law. In the galaxy of trembling “cranks” there
-were a few exceptions, notably George Engel and Louis Lingg, but the
-demeanor of the common herd under arrest proved that their vaunted
-bravery had been simply so much talk “full of sound and fury.”</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-231.jpg" width="250" height="327" id="i231"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">JULIUS OPPENHEIMER’S “DOUBLE.”<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>One of the first arrests which I made was that of Julius Oppenheimer,
-<i>alias</i> Julius Frey. This man was a peculiar genius and was possessed by
-an unbounded admiration for Anarchists and all their methods. He had
-come to America five years before and had been brought up an Anarchist.
-He was a Hebrew of a very
-pronounced type, twenty-five
-years of age, a butcher
-by occupation, but an
-Anarchist in and out of
-season. Whenever he succeeded
-in securing employment
-he was sure speedily
-to lose it by his persistent
-teaching of Anarchy, and
-in some places people even
-went so far as to drive him
-out of town. If fortunate
-enough to get work in an
-adjoining town, he would
-tell his fellow workmen of
-his prior experience and
-curse what he termed his
-persecution for conscience’s
-sake. Whenever his Anarchist
-beliefs had been expounded,
-he was promptly
-dismissed, and in one town
-he was politely informed
-that unless he got out in
-short order he was liable
-to find himself hanging to a tree. This sort of thing embittered him still
-more against society, and finally he abandoned all attempts to find work.
-He resolved himself into a tramp, and, in traveling from place to place,
-he sought to convert every other tramp he met to his revolutionary ideas.</p>
-
-<p>He soon learned that Chicago was regarded all over the country as the
-home of Socialism, its stronghold and citadel, and he made haste to reach
-it so that he too could become an agitator, with nothing to do and plenty to
-eat and drink. He had been in the city only a few days when he learned
-of the Socialistic haunt at No. 58 Clybourn Avenue, and there he soon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>
-made the acquaintance of Lingg and other, lesser lights, whose principal
-aim seemed to be to loaf around the saloons, guzzle beer and talk dynamite.
-This pleased Oppenheimer. He had traveled many weary days, but at
-last he had found what he had so long sought. He was received cautiously
-at first, but finally with open arms. One night he attended a meeting at the
-number given above and heard Engel speak about killing all the police in
-Chicago. Oppenheimer was delighted, and on the adjournment of the
-meeting he grew very enthusiastic, threatening to visit dire punishment on
-both the police and the rich. He stepped out on the sidewalk, and, just
-then encountering a policeman, he ejaculated:</p>
-
-<p>“You old loafer, you won’t live much longer!”</p>
-
-<p>The words had hardly been uttered when Oppenheimer found himself
-prostrate in the gutter. The policeman passed on, and not one of Oppenheimer’s
-comrades dared to come to the Anarchist’s assistance or proffer
-sympathy. This was a treatment he had not expected, but he smothered
-his wrath and continued to attend all the meetings of the “revolutionary
-groups.” He grew stronger every day in the good graces of his comrades,
-and at one of their meetings he was asked, along with others, to secure some
-of the “good stuff” and bombs. He responded and secured a substantial
-outfit. When the 4th of May came he happened for some reason to be
-some eighteen miles out of the city, but the moment he heard of the explosion
-he hastened back at once and hunted up his old friends to help them
-destroy the town.</p>
-
-<p>On the evening of May 7 he was encountered by Officer Loewenstein at
-58 Clybourn Avenue, in Neff’s Hall, and taken to the Larrabee Street
-Station. He was put into a cell and kept locked up for about a week.
-Gradually it began to dawn upon his mind that he was in trouble, that possibly
-the police had secured evidence against him, and so at last he sent
-for me.</p>
-
-<p>“I see,” he said, “that it is foolish to fight against law and order, but
-you must excuse me for my actions. I read so much of that Most trash
-and other books that I was really crazy. I lost my reason and did not
-know what I was doing. Now I will tell all I know, but I will not testify
-against any of these people.”</p>
-
-<p>He was given no special assurances, but he unbosomed himself fully
-and became extremely useful in giving needed information. One day he
-said that if I would take him out in a carriage he would show where he
-had a lot of dynamite bombs planted, and added:</p>
-
-<p>“Before going after the stuff, I will show you some of the worst Anarchists
-in the city, but in doing so I will tell you candidly my life is in danger.
-If these men see me they will shoot me on the spot.”</p>
-
-<p>He was assured that he would be fixed in such a disguise that no one
-would recognize him, and, consenting to go under such conditions,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>
-Oppenheimer was rigged out like a veritable darkey. Officers Schuettler
-and Loewenstein were detailed to accompany him, and together they
-visited Sullivan, Connor, Hoyne, Mohawk and Hurlbut Streets, where
-many Anarchists then lived, and where Oppenheimer pointed out the
-houses of many notable conspirators.</p>
-
-<p>Unfortunately, in one of the localities visited, colored people were very
-scarce, and it did not take the boys long to discover the sham, when they
-at once began shouting, “Here is a lost, crazy nigger,” and they followed
-him, throwing bricks and stones. At other times the officers were obliged
-to hustle away with their “Hebrew negro,” as they called him, as soon as
-possible. They got back to the station about eleven o’clock that evening,
-and, entering my office, Oppenheimer was permitted to view his ebony
-countenance in a mirror. He was startled by his make-up and declared
-that it was most artistically done.</p>
-
-<p>“Mein Gott, if I was asleep,” he exclaimed, “and wake up, and looked
-in the glass, I’d think I was a real nigger.”</p>
-
-<p>On the next day he was taken by the officers, in a carriage, to Lake
-View, about three miles from the city limits, to locate the bombs. It was
-a rainy day, and it was no easy matter for Oppenheimer to determine the
-right spot, although he kept a sharp look-out. He had planted them
-during the night, and that added to the difficulty. Finally he directed the
-driver to a grove used as picnic grounds, and they soon reached the spot.
-It now rained hard, and lightning and thunder filled the air with light and
-noise. Oppenheimer hesitated about alighting from the carriage.</p>
-
-<p>“It is dangerous,” he said, “to go near the place. The bombs I have
-planted here are all loaded with dynamite, and charged with poisoned iron,
-and this heavy thunder may explode them and kill us all.”</p>
-
-<p>Officer Schuettler said that he himself was familiar with the properties
-of dynamite, and assured him that there would not be the slightest danger.
-Oppenheimer then became somewhat braver. He jumped out and beckoned
-to his companions to follow. They proceeded to the dancing-platform,
-in the middle of the grove, and Oppenheimer, having removed some short
-boards, making an opening large enough for the admission of a man’s body,
-asked Loewenstein to take hold of his legs, and, when he shouted, to pull
-him out, adding that when he had been there before he had had a hard
-time getting out. Oppenheimer then went in. On giving the signal, he
-was pulled out, with one bomb in each hand. He was thus lowered and
-pulled out until he had produced thirteen bombs. They were of the heavy
-gas-pipe make, loaded with dynamite and rusty nails, with cap attachments,
-and ready for use in four seconds. To show that he had exercised great
-care to preserve the “stuff” properly, he asked to be lowered again, and
-this time he brought to the surface an oil-cloth table-cover, which, he explained,
-he had used for wrapping up the bombs so that “they would not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>
-spoil on him.” He also fished out of the place two large navy revolvers
-fully loaded. Having finished, Oppenheimer gave a sigh of relief and remarked:</p>
-
-<p>“Now I feel relieved. As long as I had these things I always felt that
-I must do some damage with them. I had them once in the city (May 5),
-and my mind was made up to throw some in the North Side Post-office. I
-also had determined to go to the <i>Freie Presse</i> office and blow up that d&mdash;&mdash;d
-Michaelis, the editor of the paper. And then I was going to kill myself.”</p>
-
-<p>At about this time Oppenheimer possessed two large 44-caliber navy
-revolvers and seemed withal a desperate fellow. When the parties returned
-to the station he asked me to keep him there until all trouble was over, and
-for three months he became quite a character about the establishment.
-The defense in the Anarchist trial made several attempts to secure his
-release, but Oppenheimer declined to go. He was taken out frequently for
-regular exercise by one of the officers, but he always went in disguise.</p>
-
-<p>He proved such a valuable aid to the State that State’s Attorney Grinnell
-ordered his release, but as he was nervous lest some one should shoot
-him on regaining his full liberty, he begged me to send him to New York
-City. He was accordingly furnished with money and clothing and sent away.
-While he was at the station he gained twenty-seven pounds and declared he
-had never been so well taken care of in all his life. He bade all the officers
-who were working up the Anarchist cases good-by and was given safe
-escort to the depot by Officer Stift. Some time after his arrival in New
-York he was discovered by an Anarchist, who telegraphed to Capt. Black
-that he was there if wanted, but the Captain did not seem to specially care
-for him.</p>
-
-<p>The information he furnished the State was substantially as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I came to Chicago May 5, 1886, in the morning. I went to Seliger’s
-house, 442 Sedgwick Street. I know Seliger and his wife and Louis Lingg.
-I am an Anarchist. I think the workingmen are not treated right in this
-country. I have always attended Socialistic meetings here. I have attended
-several meetings where the speakers would call us to arms and to all kinds
-of weapons, so that when the time came we could secure our rights. It
-was urged that we should be prepared to fight any one who would obstruct
-us or oppose our ideas. A meeting was held at Neff’s Hall on or about last
-February. A man who lives on the West Side, on Milwaukee Avenue, and
-who keeps a toy store&mdash;I do not know his name&mdash;was there. He was
-accompanied by a young lady. Now that you show me this picture
-[Engel’s] I will say he is the man, and he made a speech at that meeting.
-He told us to prepare ourselves, and if we were too poor and could not
-afford to buy arms, he could tell us about a weapon that was cheaper and
-better in its effect than arms. He then spoke of dynamite, but in his
-speech he always called it ‘stuff.’ He explained how to make dynamite
-bombs. He said: ‘Take a gas-pipe, cut it in the length of six inches,
-put a wooden plug in one end, fill it with dynamite, then plug the other end,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>
-and drill a small hole through one of the plugs. In this hole put a cap and
-fuse.’ Then the bomb was complete. He also told us of a place on the
-West Side, near a bridge, where we could go and steal all the pipe we
-wanted. We could then buy the ‘stuff’ and make the bombs ourselves. I
-bought seven or eight bombs some time ago from a man named Nusser or
-Nuffer, at 54 West Lake Street. The man used to work for Greif. I paid
-him twenty-five cents apiece for them. They were dynamite bombs, and I
-purchased them at night. I had a little book that told all about making
-and using dynamite bombs. I know something about the armed group.
-They are not known by their names. They are known by numbers, so that
-the police cannot find them out in case they have done anything wrong.
-There never would be any more than three in a job&mdash;that is, if there were
-any persons to be killed. Number one would find the second man, and this
-second man would find the third. No questions would be asked. The first
-man and the third man are not supposed to know each other. The first and
-third would know the middle man, but in case of trouble, and should there
-be a ‘squeal,’ only two parties could be given away, leaving one to get
-away and save himself. I have tried some of the dynamite bombs I had,
-and they worked splendidly. I also have a big navy revolver. Everything
-attempted hereafter will be done according to the instructions given in a
-book printed by Herr Most, of New York. Those long gas-pipe shells I see
-before me are like one that was shown me at Neff’s Hall last winter. A
-man named Rau had it there and showed it to the boys. I am five years
-in America, and have always been a Socialist. On Wednesday morning,
-May 5, when I heard that there had been a bad blunder committed by our
-boys at the Haymarket, and read an article in the <i>Freie Presse</i> condemning
-us, I got very mad. I took my five dynamite bombs and started out to get
-revenge. My first intention was to blow up the North Side Post-office.
-The next place I decided to go to was the <i>Freie Presse</i> office to blow them
-up. If I found I was in danger of being captured, I made up my mind to
-kill myself right there and then. Lingg wanted me to cut a hole in the
-wall in his room to put away a lot of dynamite bombs and dynamite, but
-Mrs. Seliger would not let me do so. A man named Bodendick, a good
-Anarchist, was well known by August Spies, and considered a rank conspirator.
-This is the man that went to Justice White’s house and demanded
-$25, threatening that if he did not get it he would blow up his house.
-White had him arrested and locked up in jail, and for this reason Spies did
-not want the man known as an Anarchist, but simply as a crazy man. The
-Socialists or Anarchists do not care much for Spies or Schwab, but we have
-kept them and looked upon them as a necessary evil. I know a man
-named Pollinger, a saloon-keeper. He was an agent here at one time to
-sell arms, but he did not run things right. He was crooked. The understanding
-we had was that, in case of a riot or revolution, every man
-should use his own judgment and do as he pleased, that is to say, commit
-murder, shoot people, burn buildings or do that for which he was best
-fitted, so long as it was in the interest of the Anarchistic society. The
-main idea inculcated in the little paper called the <i>Freiheit</i>, which I have
-read, is that no rights could be secured until capitalists were killed and
-houses were laid in ashes. If we would not take a chance on our lives, we
-would be slaves always. I know positively of fifty men, radical Anarchists,
-who stand ready to commit murder and to destroy the city by fire whenever
-they are called on. I know Lingg well. He is a Socialist and an Anarchist
-and a very radical revolutionist. I heard him speak at 58 Clybourn
-Avenue, and formed my opinion of him. He told me that Seliger was a
-coward.”</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-236a.jpg" width="230" height="322" id="i236"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">WILLIAM SELIGER.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-236b.jpg" width="230" height="321"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">MRS. WILLIAM SELIGER.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>“He called me a coward the morning I helped Mrs. Seliger to get
-the guns out of the house. That morning I was in Lingg’s room when
-Mrs. Seliger brought in a lot of lead and said to Lingg: ‘Here is your
-lead.’ Lingg then got mad at her and said: ‘You are crazy.’ He became
-very much excited, wrapped up his gun, got ready to move, and wanted me
-to conceal his dynamite bombs in the hall. Mrs. Seliger would not let him
-do so. Then Lingg was going to carry his bombs out of the house. He
-finally got into quite a quarrel with her and started out to get a wagon to
-carry away all his things. I told him to hurry up and get all his dynamite
-stuff away, also the printed literature he had, as there was danger that the
-police would be around to search the house. He looked at me and called
-me ‘a d&mdash;&mdash;d fool and coward.’ Then Lingg asked me to go to the West
-Side with him, as there was to be a meeting at 71 West Lake Street.
-Lingg saw my dynamite bombs. I had told him of them. I saw two
-round lead bombs in his room. I had them in my hands. Lingg told me
-to be careful and not let them drop, as they were loaded and might go off.
-They were dangerous, he said. I also saw four gas-pipe bombs in his room.
-Some of them were not finished. I remember now that Seliger, the Hermanns
-and Hubner were at the meeting in Neff’s Hall last winter when
-Engel urged all men who had revolutionary ideas to pay attention and he
-would explain how to make dynamite bombs. I am glad I am arrested. I
-now can realize how near I was to ruin through those d&mdash;&mdash;d fellows making
-revolutionary speeches and exciting the people to commit murder. The
-books given out by Herr Most are doing more harm among those men than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>
-any one can imagine. I have given you facts, and they are true, every one
-of them. I will swear to them.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The next arrest was that of William Seliger. When the police had
-learned that Seliger’s residence had been used as a bomb factory, we
-wanted him. He was a man about forty-five years of age, a carpenter by occupation,
-a good mechanic, very quiet and sober, but one of the most rabid
-of Anarchists. He had filled various positions in the “groups,” and
-always manifested a deep interest in their meetings. He was popular with
-his comrades and trusted with all their secrets. He lived at No. 442 Sedgwick
-Street, in a rear building up-stairs. This was a two-story frame
-dwelling, and a great resort for Socialists and Anarchists. Officer Whalen
-had searched the house, finding it a regular dynamite magazine, and, locating
-his man, telephoned to me that Seliger was working at Meyer’s mill on
-the North Pier. Officer Stift and Lieut. Larsen were at once detailed, in
-charge of a patrol wagon, to effect the arrest, and soon the man was produced
-at the station&mdash;May 7. When I confronted him he stubbornly
-refused, according to the instructions in Most’s book, to answer questions,
-but when he discovered the evidence I had against him, he broke
-down and said:</p>
-
-<p>“Captain, I will tell you all, but for Heaven’s sake do not arrest my
-poor wife. I am to blame for all you found in my house, because I kept
-that man Lingg in my house against her will&mdash;the poor woman! Hang
-me, but do not trouble her, for she is innocent, and God is her witness.”</p>
-
-<p>Seliger then unbosomed himself, telling of all his connection with the
-Anarchists since his location in Chicago, and giving valuable information
-on all the “groups,” their leaders, their places of meeting, their purposes,
-their mode of operations, the character of the speeches made at meetings,
-and the manufacture of bombs at his house, giving the names of all calling
-or taking part in their manufacture. He gave the most important points
-the State had to work on, and every detail he furnished was fully corroborated
-by other parties subsequently arrested. He was in the confidence of
-Lingg, and was also a <i>particeps criminis</i> in the manufacture of the bombs,
-and gave, therefore, no hearsay statements. What was found in his
-house and the character of his information are fully shown in his testimony,
-given in a later chapter, as well as that of the officers during the
-memorable trial.</p>
-
-<p>After telling what he knew, Seliger was released, on the 28th of May,
-with instructions to report every day at the Chicago Avenue Station.</p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Seliger was also arrested. She was a small woman about 38 years
-of age. She was found at No. 32 Sigel Street on the morning of May 10.
-She readily consented to accompany Officer Schuettler to the station. Mrs.
-Seliger showed plainly that she had not been in sympathy with her husband
-in his revolutionary ideas, and proved a prompt and willing witness, demonstrating<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>
-before she got through that she had done incalculable service to the
-people of the city.</p>
-
-<p>It was in her house that Lingg made his bombs, and when I questioned
-her she gave me a great deal of information concerning the man and his
-methods. All the statements she made and her testimony in court did not
-vary in the slightest details, even under the most rigid cross-examination.
-She was found to be a very industrious woman, a neat housekeeper, and she
-was highly esteemed by all her neighbors. She related how she had lived
-in misery ever since her husband began to take an active part in the Anarchist
-meetings, and she stated that after Lingg came to live in the house
-she had not seen a pleasant hour. She had often remonstrated with her
-husband and pleaded with him not to attend the meetings, or read any of
-the Anarchist papers, but to remain at home with her.</p>
-
-<p>Seliger was so completely carried away by the doctrines of Johann Most,
-Spies and the others that he refused to listen to his wife. The moment he
-got into trouble, however, he became very penitent and readily accepted her
-advice in everything.</p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Seliger’s experience on the 4th day of May, when she witnessed
-the preparation of the bombs, she described as terrible. There she was
-forced to remain all day, she said, seeing eight men working on the murderous
-weapons, some making one kind of bombs, some another, others
-fitting them and loading them with dynamite, and others again putting on
-the caps and fuse. Throughout the whole operation she was obliged to
-listen to their bloodthirsty conversation, how they would blow up the police
-stations, patrol wagons and fire-engine houses, kill all the militia, hurl
-bombs into private residences, and murder every one who opposed them.</p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Seliger viewed affairs differently and told the conspirators that
-there were more chains than mad dogs. Another thing they overlooked, she
-said, was their own families, and should they carry all their threats into execution
-their families would be made to suffer to the end of their days in misery
-and want. Remonstrances, however, were useless.</p>
-
-<p>They worked until dark, and then they separated to meet in the evening
-at No. 58 Clybourn Avenue. Her husband and Lingg ate supper, and then
-the two put a lot of the bombs into a satchel and started for the designated
-place. Lingg carried the satchel down stairs and was followed by Seliger.</p>
-
-<p>This was a trying moment, but Mrs. Seliger proved equal to the emergency.
-Just as Seliger reached the third step, she grasped his arm, threw
-her arms about his neck, and, like a loving, devoted wife, asked him for God’s
-sake not to become a murderer.</p>
-
-<p>“If you ever loved me and ever listened to me when I spoke,” she
-whispered fervently into his ear, “I want you to listen to me now. I don’t
-ask you to stay at home, but I want you to go with that villain and see that
-he does not hurt any one. Restrain him from carrying out his murderous
-ideas. If you do this, I will creep on my knees after you and will be your
-slave all my life.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-239.jpg" width="400" height="620" id="i239"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">A NOBLE WOMAN’S INFLUENCE. <span class="smcap wn">A Kiss that Prevented Bloodshed.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>These tender words touched a sympathetic chord in the heart of Seliger,
-and he promised to do as she had requested, while she sealed the promise
-with a loving kiss. As subsequent events and his testimony in court proved,
-he faithfully carried out that promise, and by that injunction of his wife and
-that fervid kiss of a true woman, hundreds of lives and millions of property
-were saved.</p>
-
-<p>From the time they left the house until their return, Seliger never left for
-a moment the side of Lingg. During the evening Lingg was continually
-prompted by his own treacherous heart to throw bombs, now at a passing
-patrol wagon, then at some residence or into a police station, and invariably
-Seliger had some handy reason to proffer why such an attempt would be inopportune
-at the moment. Lingg finally became suspicious and upbraided
-Seliger for being a coward. The night passed, and the only harm Lingg
-did was indirectly in the explosion of one of his bombs at the Haymarket,
-to the prospective happening of which he frequently alluded during
-the evening.</p>
-
-<p>It is my deliberate opinion that, had it not been for this intervention of
-Mrs. Seliger, hundreds of people would have been killed, and probably one-half
-of the North Side destroyed, that eventful night.</p>
-
-<p>After giving considerable information to the police Mrs. Seliger was released,
-but kept under strict surveillance.</p>
-
-<p>Seliger faithfully carried out his instructions to report at the station
-daily for two weeks, and then he suddenly disappeared. Officer Schuettler
-was detailed to visit his home to ascertain the cause, and was there informed
-that Seliger had mysteriously left.</p>
-
-<p>“Why,” inquired Mrs. Seliger, “don’t you know where he is; did you
-not arrest him again?”</p>
-
-<p>On being answered in the negative, she stated that it had been her intention
-to call on me that afternoon with a view to finding out something
-about her husband.</p>
-
-<p>It looked like a case of concealment, and Mrs. Seliger was therefore
-taken to the Larrabee Street Station. She immediately desired to see me,
-and, when I called, she informed me that three days before her husband
-had said: “I am going away. Don’t ask me any questions. You will
-hear from me later,” and then bade her good-by.</p>
-
-<p>She was under the impression that since leaving her he had been at the
-Chicago Avenue Station. I thought it a ruse and subjected her to a severe
-examination. I asked her who had been to see them and whether they had
-not received money from certain lawyers or others. But Mrs. Seliger could
-tell no different story from that she had already given, and she finally volunteered
-the guess that possibly her husband had been frightened away.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“If you will only allow me to go,” she earnestly pleaded, “I will neither
-eat, drink nor sleep until I find him.”</p>
-
-<p>I was now satisfied that she was in earnest, and, having confidence in
-her, I ordered her release. But from that moment she was watched night
-and day, more closely than ever. It was found that she visited many houses
-in various parts of the city, and when these places were immediately afterwards
-called upon by the detectives it was ascertained that she had invariably
-inquired for her husband and urged those who knew him to tell him to come
-home if they should happen to meet him; that she was weary of life, and if
-he remained away much longer she would not be responsible for any act of
-hers on her own life.</p>
-
-<p>After several days’ ineffective search, Mrs. Seliger received a letter from
-her husband asking her to call and see him. She hastened at once, with a
-throbbing heart and a light tread, to my office. I asked her if she would
-work under my instructions, and she promptly consented to do everything
-in her power to help the police. I had come to the conclusion that it would
-be no easy matter to find the slippery Seliger, but that, if he was not discovered
-that day, we might at least get on his track.</p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Seliger was accordingly told to wait in the office a few minutes.
-Two men were sent for, men whom the woman would not know. I instructed
-them to slip through a side door and get a good view of her while unobserved.
-A carriage was then ordered, and the driver directed to take the woman to
-whatever place she might desire, and remain with her even all day and all
-night, if required. Mrs. Seliger stepped into the carriage, and the horses
-were soon in a sharp trot. But the conveyance was not alone. No sooner
-had it started than the two men I have spoken of jumped into a buggy and
-followed the carriage south, keeping it in good view all the time.</p>
-
-<p>The first stop made was at a place on West Thirteenth Street. There
-Mrs. Seliger had to identify herself first, and thence she was directed to a
-place some four blocks away. Arriving there, she was sent on to Sixteenth
-Street, and again sent to Twelfth Street, near the limits. She was here subjected
-to a great many questions, and after she had fully proven her identity
-she was taken to the next house and led into a dark bed-room, where
-she found her husband. She remained there about three hours, and then,
-under direction of her husband’s friends, was told to drive to several other
-places in order to throw any detectives that might be watching off the scent.
-She did so, but the two men had kept a close watch and were not to be
-baffled.</p>
-
-<p>When the carriage had started for home, one of the officers returned to
-the place where she had tarried so long. He represented to the occupants
-that he was working for Salomon &amp; Zeisler, attorneys for the imprisoned
-conspirators, to whom Seliger had written a letter, and that in accordance
-with the request they had decided to protect him and his friends.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Seliger,” said the officer, “is here, and I want to talk with him.”</p>
-
-<p>The occupants admitted that he had been there and had had a talk with
-his wife, but that he was at the time on his way home with her.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. and Mrs. Seliger called at the station the next afternoon (June 8).
-Both entered smiling, but it was quite apparent that Seliger was very
-nervous.</p>
-
-<p>“Captain,” said Mrs. Seliger, “we are both here.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, madam,” I replied; “I am glad you are both here&mdash;on your own
-account.”</p>
-
-<p>“Captain,” again spoke Mrs. Seliger, “I want my husband to testify in
-court against that villain Lingg. He ruined my home. He is the cause of
-the slaughter of all these people. He is the cause of the sufferings of the
-women and children whose husbands and fathers attended the Anarchist
-meetings. Now, Captain, you see I have been faithful to my promises. I
-have done as I agreed. You have my husband; he is in your power. You
-can do with him as you please, but for God’s sake spare his life.”</p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Seliger had scarcely finished her appeal when she swooned away.
-She had for days been wrought up with intense excitement and haunted
-with terrible forebodings. The climax was reached when she had executed
-her commission, and, trying as had been the situation for nights and days,
-she had courageously borne up in order that she might atone the wrongs
-her husband had committed despite her most earnest entreaties, and to help
-in some way to extricate him, who had so cruelly wronged her, from the
-meshes into which he had madly and ignorantly rushed. Her keen judgment
-and innate sense of right had swept aside every consideration of the
-apparent security his concealment might have given him, and her whole
-soul was centered in his delivery to the authorities that he might not eventually
-be found and sent to an ignominious death on the gallows. That was
-her hope, and, much as she longed for his safety, she had bent her whole
-energies to seeing him brought out of concealment and placed where there
-might at least be a chance for his life. The struggle had been intense, and
-it culminated when she so pathetically asked that her husband’s life might
-be spared. Her emotions then were at their highest tension, and as she
-recognized the fact that he was now at the complete mercy of the law,
-from which he had sought to escape, she could bear up no longer.</p>
-
-<p>A physician was immediately sent for, and after applying restoratives it
-was found she was quite a sick woman. A carriage was summoned, and she
-was sent home.</p>
-
-<p>Seliger was detained at the station until after the trial of the conspirators.
-Mrs. Seliger was a frequent caller after that trying day, and remained
-with him much of the time, cheering him and seeking in every way to
-lighten his burden, like a true, devoted and loving wife. In a subsequent
-conversation the circumstances in connection with her visit to her husband<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>
-at his place of concealment were learned. It appears that at first he emphatically
-declined to accompany her, and then gave his reasons. One day,
-while on his way to report at the station, he was met, he said, by a stranger,
-and threatened that if he ever went near the station again, or sent word verbally
-or by note or letter to me, both he and his wife would be murdered in
-cold blood. The threat made a marked impression on his mind. He
-returned home, but made no mention of it to Mrs. Seliger. He knew, he
-said, that the threat was meant, and, thinking to save his wife, he concluded
-to act on the warning and place himself in concealment without her
-knowledge. He left, as already stated, and decided to keep under cover to
-await results.</p>
-
-<p>He called first at the house of a widow named Bertha Neubarth, No.
-1109 Nelson Street, Lake View. This was a small cottage, with a basement
-used as a tailor-shop, and, thinking it a secure place, he remained
-there a few days. Then he went to the house of a friend, named Gustav
-Belz, who lived near McCormick’s factory, and remained there several
-days. His next move was to a house on West Twelfth Street, near the
-city limits, and there he remained until discovered by his wife. The letter
-he had sent to her was mailed by a trusted friend named Malinwitz, and
-the purpose he had in sending it was to ascertain if matters had changed
-any and if I was angry over his sudden departure. On meeting his wife,
-the first question he asked was as to whether the police had been watching
-their house, and, on being answered in the affirmative, and informed that
-she had even been locked up again, he asked for particulars and the cause
-for her release.</p>
-
-<p>“Capt. Schaack,” she said, “let me out in order to bring you back.”</p>
-
-<p>“I often felt sorry,” answered the husband, “for going away, but I will
-never go back.”</p>
-
-<p>His wife insisted that he must go back, and said:</p>
-
-<p>“I told the Captain that I would come and see you. The Captain said
-that he would give you six hours to return, and that if you did not report to
-his office within that time, he would surely find you and prosecute you for
-murder. Your chances for hanging, he said, were very good, and you need
-look for no mercy at his hands. He also said that he had your picture
-ready, to send out for your arrest on sight, and that it would be useless for
-you to hide or run away. I saw the picture myself, and the Captain intends
-to publish a large reward for your arrest.”</p>
-
-<p>“I believe all you say,” said Seliger, struggling with his feelings, “but
-what would you prefer, seeing me shot or killed by assassins, or hung
-by law?”</p>
-
-<p>“All these cowards making threats,” replied the wife, “will be arrested.
-The station-houses on the North Side are now full of the murderers. I
-know the Captain will take care of us, and, if you are arrested, you will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>
-have no one to help you or do anything for you; then you are sure to hang.
-You had better come with me to Captain Schaack.”</p>
-
-<p>He consented, and she sent word that they would be at the station the
-next day. Seliger gave himself up, and Mrs. Seliger redeemed her promise.
-The sacrifice, in view of the uncertainties of the time, seemed great, but
-had it not been for the honesty and persistency of that true woman, Seliger
-to-day would lie in an unhonored grave. Both proved strong witnesses at
-the trial, and shortly after his release they left the city. Reports from
-them show that he has been cured of Johann Most’s crazy notions. He
-now denounces Anarchy both in America and Germany, in which latter
-country he and his wife were born. He has applied himself to legitimate
-pursuits as a law-abiding citizen, and is prospering.</p>
-
-<p>Seliger, during his interview with me, recounted his connection with the
-Anarchists as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“About three years ago I noticed an article in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> that
-the North Side group would give lessons to all who desired, in the English
-language. I went to Neff’s Hall and I was there told that the school was
-only for members, and that, if I wanted to join, I could do so. I did, and a
-year afterwards I was elected financial secretary. In looking over the
-books, I found that the group had 206 members, the most of them being in
-arrears, but no one ceased to be a member on account of it. I found also
-that there was a great deal of wrangling and trouble among the members.
-One faction claimed to be revolutionary, as they were at war with capital.
-This contention drew the lines pretty sharply, and the Socialistic movement
-commenced to take a sharp character. Stellmacher, I believe, was executed
-in Vienna. It was on Monday, if I am not mistaken, in the month of
-August, 1884. My group decided to commemorate the event and glorify
-the man. They had posters printed, and about twenty men went to work
-to post them, especially in the vicinity of the churches. From that day
-they began talking force and dynamite. At every meeting, Stellmacher’s
-name was mentioned and his deeds glorified. Some held that Stellmacher
-was simply a burglar and murderer, having burglarized the premises of
-Banker Eifert at Vienna and killed one of his children. Rau and Lange
-were always quarreling over this question. Lange maintained that it was
-a shame that any Socialist, Communist or Anarchist should burglarize and
-murder under a pretext of getting money for the cause. Every member, he
-said, could get enough money in an honest way to swell the fund for agitation
-and the destruction of capital. Lange said that he was not opposed to
-the killing of capitalists in the right way, but he did not want to see children
-killed. Rau would uphold a contrary view. He held that it was all
-the same, capitalist or child, and said that the children of the rich would
-grow up only to learn how to enrich themselves at the expense of the working
-people. Schnaubelt favored murder and thought that it would be best
-for the Anarchists to form into groups of four or five with a view to killing
-any one who would work against the laboring people’s agitation. One or
-two suddenly removed would not arouse suspicion.</p>
-
-<p>“A cigar-maker named Hoffman became a member of the North Side
-group, and he was never satisfied with the rules, as he regarded them too
-lenient. He wanted the whole International Working People’s Association<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>
-made an armed body, but Schwab and Hermann opposed it, as they said that
-the Lehr und Wehr Verein filled that part of the bill. Hoffman subsequently
-withdrew from the group and the military organization. He as well
-as Polling and Hermann wanted the Anarchists to give a commemorative
-entertainment on the anniversary of the Paris Commune, in March, 1885,
-and of the clubbing of the working people of Philadelphia by the police.
-His idea was that rifles should be discharged, and then a woman personating
-the goddess of liberty should throw a chain away from her body. In
-this way the three men believed that the agitation for securing arms could
-be greatly helped. The committee for the celebration of the Commune
-opposed this plan, especially Neebe and Rau. Neebe held that the celebration
-of the Commune as generally planned by the committee was for the
-express purpose of making money to help agitation, and the other features
-were not necessary. Hoffman endeavored to carry through his plan, but he
-was knocked out. After some further wrangling he left the group and permanently
-kept away. At another meeting Rau said that he desired to bring
-dynamite into the meetings and show how it was manufactured, but no
-definite action was taken.</p>
-
-<p>“At the beginning of last year [1885], a man named Deters declared
-that he was an Anarchist and was very loud in his declarations, but he was
-afterwards expelled for stealing tickets from the Central Labor Union.
-Poch always claimed to be a Communist, and he became unpopular on
-account of a dereliction. Haker was also a Communist, but he was expelled
-on account of being in arrears $3 as a member of the Southwest group.
-Then Lingg became a member, and from that time served as president of
-that group. He was always in hot words with a man named Hartwig.
-During the beginning of April we got quite a number of new members, and
-they all became strong agitators in the cause. I knew as members of the
-armed sections Schlomeker, a carpenter; Stahlbaum, a carpenter, lieutenant
-of the first company; Petschke, secretary of the same company; Kitgus;
-the Riemer brothers, one a carpenter and the other a painter; Ted, a carpenter;
-Rau, Bak, Hirschberger, the Hermann brothers, all members of the
-Lehr und Wehr Verein; the Hageman brothers; the Lehman brothers;
-Messenbrink, a carpenter; Stak, a tinsmith; Lauke, Feltes and Kraemer,
-all carpenters, and Siebach and Niendorf, carpenters, living in Lake View.
-With these two exceptions and those of Lenhard and Krueger, who belonged
-to the Northwest group, all I have mentioned lived on the North Side.
-There were also Classner and Sisterer, who belonged to the Southwest
-group. I know a great many others who belonged to the armed forces, but
-I don’t recall their names. They all carried revolvers. All I knew about
-bombs at that time was what I heard Lingg say, that the Northwest group
-and the Southwest groups and the Bohemians were well supplied with them.
-Among the Bohemian Socialists I only know Mikolanda and Hrusha and
-three more whose names I can’t remember.</p>
-
-<p>“At a meeting last winter [1885] of the North Side group, Neebe stated
-that it was time that every comrade should supply himself with arms and
-should lay bombs under his pillow at night and sleep over them. Every
-one should practice so as to know how to handle them when necessary.
-Every workingman, he said, who is down on capitalists, should kill every
-one of them, and they should not neglect the police and the militia, because
-they were hired and supported by the capitalists. He said that he himself
-would kill one of these loafers and would not turn an eye on him. One in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>
-the audience, a barber, whose name I don’t know, said that there were some
-among the militia and the police who would join them in case of an uprising
-and cited as an instance that during the riots of 1877 he had spoken to some
-of them and they had told him that they would not shoot at the strikers.
-Neebe declared that it was all the same. ‘A man employed by the capitalists,’
-he said, ‘is my enemy, even though he is my brother.’ In case of
-an uprising, he said, every revolutionist should use force on every corner
-and on the sidewalks, and should throw dynamite wherever these loafers
-stood or walked.</p>
-
-<p>“The casting of one bomb Lingg had was made of sheet-iron, and the
-man who manufactured it was shown to me at the office of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>.
-Then Lingg had another casting made out of iron, which he had
-made at some iron foundry. I saw him have dynamite twice in a cigar-box.
-Before this he said to me that he had seen Spies at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-office, and that Spies had told him that he would give him dynamite. This
-was about two months before the 4th of May. Friday preceding that day
-Lingg received a box, 1 × 2½ feet in dimensions, from the West Side, at the
-hands of a man whom I took to be a Bohemian. Lingg always liked the
-Bohemians. With a view to learning this man’s address I walked over to
-the West Side, and I found that he had moved to No. 661 Blue Island
-Avenue. One evening two others came to see Haker, and Haker told them,
-as I entered, that I was Seliger. One of them I knew, his name being
-Kaiser, a carpenter, and the other was a strongly built man of medium
-height and bow-legged. They were a little embarrassed and said that they
-did not know what to say under the circumstances. I asked them if they
-had bombs, and Haker spoke up and said that he would not say anything
-about it, even to his brother, as he expected a search would be made of his
-house. But he said they would find nothing, and the other two confirmed
-his story. It was stated that every one should buy a book, which could be
-had at cost price, giving directions about the manufacture of dynamite,
-which could also be purchased very cheap. The North Side group bought
-one of these books. I was so informed by Thielen, who had seen it.</p>
-
-<p>“A short time after this I was elected a member of the central committee,
-with four other delegates from the North Side group, who were
-Neebe, Rau, Hermann and Hubner, and as long as I was a member Neebe
-and Rau were continued as delegates to that committee. Spies was at the
-head of it. I attended seven of its meetings, and at one of our sessions,
-during the West Side street-car drivers’ strike, Spies said that we should
-take part in that strike. In case the strikers should resort to force against
-the company and the policemen who protected it, Spies said that he had a
-few bombs on hand, and he would distribute some of them to people whom
-he knew. At the same meeting it was proposed that a meeting should be
-held on the lake front the following Sunday, but there was some opposition
-to it. Spies, however, declared that the meeting should be held and that
-every one should be present, well armed. Then, in case the police should
-interfere to disperse the gathering, they should send them home with bloody
-heads. The meeting was held, but there was no interference. Spies also
-proposed that meetings of the committee should be held every evening at
-the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office during the strike, to hear grievances, and that,
-whenever necessary, special meetings should be held of the various groups.
-The leaders in the committee were Spies, Rau, Neebe, Hermann, a man
-named Walter, of the American group, and a small man from the Northwest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>
-group with an illuminated nose, who was a very intimate friend of Spies.
-This man was the founder of the Freiheit group.</p>
-
-<p>“Just preceding this car strike, Haker, who belonged to Carpenters’
-Union No. 1, was a strong advocate of the use of dynamite. At one meeting
-he told some of the members to wait till after adjournment, as he explained
-that he desired to show them something very interesting. They
-remained, and he produced a ball of clay, having two parts joined together
-and a cavity in the center. He told them that he manufactured them, and
-if any one desired any they could get them from him at a dollar each. I
-then left.</p>
-
-<p>“Subsequently I called upon Secretary Lotz and asked for the book of
-membership of the North Side group. I found that Charles Bock was its
-financial secretary; Hubner, librarian; and Rau, delegate to the central
-committee, which position he held almost continuously. Abraham Hermann
-was also a delegate and agent for the sale of arms to the whole organization.
-The principal speakers at our meetings were Schwab, Feltes or
-Veltes, Neebe, Grottkau and (while living in the city) Kraemer. During
-1885 an Austrian, whose name I don’t remember, spoke very often, but he
-is now at the Jefferson Insane Asylum. Fischer is one of the founders of
-the North Side group and always spoke most strongly in favor of Anarchy.
-Rau, an employé of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, Lingg, Schnaubelt and Emil Hoffman,
-the cigar-maker, also spoke frequently. Hoffman claimed that he was a
-great friend of Most and one of the founders of <i>Freiheit</i> of London. He had
-lived in London several years and was an active member until he left our
-organization, as I have already stated. Hermann would sometimes take the
-places of speakers who might happen to be absent from some of the meetings.
-Hirschberger, of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, and Menz, a carpenter, born
-in America, generally participated in some of the discussions.</p>
-
-<p>“A man named Kiesling was a member, and after my liberation from
-the station I was informed by Haker, Kaiser and another man that he had
-helped a member to escape arrest. Commes, or Commens, had shot and
-wounded two Jews, and Kiesling was delegated to take him in an express
-wagon to Lake View, where he turned him over to some members of the
-Southwest Side group, who then assisted him in effecting his escape.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Seliger then gave a number of names of members who belonged to the
-groups he was most familiar with, as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“<i>North Side Group.</i>&mdash;Asher, a mason; Turban, carpenter; Huber, carpenter;
-Heuman, railroad laborer; Stak, cornice-maker; Reuter; Habitzreiter,
-of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>; Kasbe, shoemaker; Menge, carrier of
-<i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>; Hoelscher, carrier of same paper; Jebolinski, carpenter;
-Behrens, shoemaker. Members no longer with group: Wichman, a saloon-keeper,
-expelled from Berlin, Germany; Ammer, book-binder; the Thiesen
-brothers, one a shoemaker and the other a carpenter, and Polling.</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Northwest Side Group.</i>&mdash;Blume, carpenter; Elias, carpenter; Fischer,
-Engel, Lehnhard, Breitenfeld. Blume and Elias left because they were
-quarreling all the time with Fischer, and they founded the Karl Marx
-group.</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Southwest Side Group.</i>&mdash;Scholz; Fehling, cigar-maker; Kaiser, carpenter;
-Haker, carpenter; Schoening.”</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="p1">The next arrest was that of <span class="smcap">John Thielen</span>. Thielen was a man about
-37 year of age, born near the city of Coblentz, Germany, a carpenter by occupation,
-and a rabid “red,” living in Chicago at No. 509 North Halsted
-Street. He had been an Anarchist in the old country, and there had divided
-his time between talking up the social revolution and running a small
-grocery store, until business had got so dull that he was obliged to sell out.
-He then fell back upon his trade for a living. Much as it went against his
-grain to labor, he had no alternative except to starve. It occurred to him
-that the stronger a Socialist he became the less hard work he would have to
-do, and he accordingly availed himself of every opportunity to talk on his
-pet hobby. At last the officials of Emperor William got after him, and,
-packing up a few things, he emigrated to America, reaching Chicago about
-five years before his arrest. He had been here only a short time when he
-learned that there were a number of men in the city who talked to workingmen
-about the shortest way to get rich without
-work, how to have a good time playing cards,
-drinking beer, attending picnics and balls, wearing
-good clothes, and smoking good cigars. This
-struck Thielen’s fancy, and he concluded that
-at last he had found the place he had longed
-for during many years. He decided to identify
-himself with these men, and accordingly made
-haste to attend all their meetings. It was not
-long before he proved himself as good an Anarchist
-as the rest of the leaders. His wife also
-had become imbued with his doctrines, and had
-grown indeed more positive than her husband.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-248.jpg" width="200" height="253" id="i248"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">JOHN THIELEN.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>They had a son, 15 years of age, a tall, slim
-fellow. Nothing would satisfy the mother except
-his induction into the order. After the stripling had become a member,
-she was still unsatisfied; he must join the Sharpshooters. This the boy
-did, and thus he fell in with the most rabid of the Anarchists&mdash;into the
-very crowd that gathered in secret session at 63 Emma Street on Sunday,
-May 2, at ten o’clock in the morning, to hear Engel unfold his murderous
-plan.</p>
-
-<p>The youth was a close listener and an ardent admirer of the leaders.
-He also attended the Haymarket meeting, and went there for a purpose.
-It appears that the order had established, in furtherance of this conspiracy,
-a line of runners, composed of all the young men who were swift and light
-of foot, the object being to furnish means of rapid communication between
-a “commander” and his men. For instance, in the execution of Engel’s
-plan, a number of Anarchists had gone to Wicker Park, some to Humboldt
-Park, and others to Garfield Park, on the evening of May 4. Their instructions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
-were to stand ready to obey orders, and, on receipt of a signal, to
-advance into the city and shoot down all who opposed them. The “commander”
-attended the Haymarket meeting, accompanied by young Thielen,
-and it was his intention, the moment the proper signal was given, to
-despatch the boy on his mission. The boy was then to start on a keen run
-to a certain place, where he was to meet another runner; the second was to
-take the message to a third, and so on until the men posted at the parks
-were reached.</p>
-
-<p>Fortunately, however, young Thielen missed his “commander” when the
-bomb fell and the shooting commenced at the Haymarket. The boy then
-lost his courage, like his superior, and applied his speed to getting home
-as fast as possible.</p>
-
-<p>Young Thielen had been selected because of his supposed coolness. He
-had been a great favorite of Lingg’s, and had been in that worthy’s room on
-that very afternoon up to 7:30 in the evening. He had even helped to load
-dynamite bombs there. When the work had been completed, Lingg had
-distributed a lot of the dynamite left over to his friends present. Three
-boxes had been given to Thielen and the boy, and the “stuff” was subsequently
-found buried under their house, together with fire-arms and ammunition.</p>
-
-<p>When trouble finally surrounded the Thielen household, the wife and
-mother showed true grit. On being shown the evidence of their complicity
-in a conspiracy, she neither flinched nor quivered.</p>
-
-<p>“Our whole family are Anarchists,” she defiantly remarked, “and what
-of it? Try your best, you can’t scare me!”</p>
-
-<p>The son was ordered by the officers to come with them to the station, and
-as they left the house Mrs. Thielen said to him:</p>
-
-<p>“I want you to brace up and be firm, as you have been taught by your
-comrades. This is for a good cause. Bear it all like a man.”</p>
-
-<p>The boy was taken to the Larrabee Street Station and put under cross-fire.
-He was decidedly firm at first, but after he had become involved in a
-number of false statements and shown that the police knew a good deal
-about him, he looked at every officer in the station and asked:</p>
-
-<p>“If I tell all I know and tell the truth, what will you do with me?”</p>
-
-<p>He was informed that such a course would be the best for him and that
-it might afford him a chance to get out of his troubles. This satisfied the
-youth, and he gave a long and strong statement, which others subsequently
-corroborated. He then explained that he had been misled into reading all
-sorts of nonsense on Anarchy. He had eagerly studied all books on the
-question, and, being encouraged by his parents, had taken a deep interest
-in all the meetings. He worked whenever he could find employment, but
-at all times his mind was centered in the success of the cause.</p>
-
-<p>He was detained at the station only a few days, and then released on a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>
-promise to hold himself subject to the orders of the State and testify when
-called on. But the State did not need his evidence, and soon thereafter I
-secured him employment in a factory. He is still at work and is now proving
-himself an exemplary youth.</p>
-
-<p>The father proved a rather elusive individual after the police began
-searching for him. But at the time of Mrs. Seliger’s arrest he ventured
-too near the Chicago Avenue Station. It was on the morning of May 12
-that a man was noticed in the company of two women. The man remained
-on the outside at a good distance, but the women entered the court-room of
-the station and sat there for some time, watching the prisoners brought
-before the magistrate. The women asked no questions of any one in the
-room, and it was soon discovered that they had no business there. Officer
-Loewenstein approached them and asked if they had come to see Mrs.
-Seliger. One replied that they did not know her.</p>
-
-<p>“But,” interposed the other, with some hesitancy, “is she here?”</p>
-
-<p>“I can’t tell,” remarked the officer. “I was going to make some
-inquiries, but as you do not know her, it will save me the trouble.”</p>
-
-<p>“Say, young man,” said one of the women, who was getting interested
-as well as curious, “what is your business here?”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, madam, I am known here as a ‘straw-bailer.’ I go bail for all
-people who pay me well, and I am all O. K. with the police. If you want
-anything done for Mrs. Seliger, you must be very careful here. Don’t let
-the police know your object. As you are Germans, I will not charge you
-anything for my trouble, if I can do anything for you.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, we will talk to you later,” they said. “Can we remain here for
-awhile?”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, yes; I will take care of you so that no one will disturb you,” replied
-the officer, in a patronizing tone of voice. “By the way, when I came to
-the station this morning, I saw you standing at the corner talking to a gentleman
-with black whiskers, and he is now standing across the street. If he
-is a friend of yours, I will call him in here.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, yes,” responded the women, “he is our friend and a friend of Mr.
-and Mrs. Seliger. He is a good man.”</p>
-
-<p>“What is his name? I will call him in at once.”</p>
-
-<p>“His name is John Thielen. He lives at No. 509 North Halsted Street
-and is all right.”</p>
-
-<p>Officer Stift meantime had kept his eye on the individual across the
-street, with instructions not to arrest him so long as he hovered about the
-station, but, in the event of his going away any distance, to take him in
-charge. The man at no time went far from his post; he was too anxious
-to hear from the women. The moment Officer Loewenstein had secured
-the information about his identity, he posted across the street, and, hailing
-the man, said:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“John, I think you have been ‘ransacking’ around here long enough.
-Come with me; the boys want to see you.”</p>
-
-<p>“Who are the boys?” inquired Thielen.</p>
-
-<p>“Capt. Schaack,” answered the officer.</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t want to see him or have anything to do with him.” Thielen
-was surprised as well as indignant.</p>
-
-<p>“Well,” said the officer, “he would like to make your acquaintance.”</p>
-
-<p>“You tell him that he don’t know me and I don’t know him; so what
-the d&mdash;&mdash;d does he want? Good-day, I am going home.”</p>
-
-<p>“You must come in first and give an account of yourself.”</p>
-
-<p>“I am a good man; I am not afraid.”</p>
-
-<p>He went to the station rather reluctantly, still with an air of innocence
-and bravery. The moment he stepped inside the office, I said to him:</p>
-
-<p>“John, you are an Anarchist. You are one of the rioters. You were at
-the Haymarket meeting. You knew about the bombs. You are under
-arrest.”</p>
-
-<p>“I am no Anarchist,” responded John, rather warmly. “I am a
-carpenter.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes,” said I, “you are both, and you live at 509 North Halsted Street.
-I have no time now to talk to you. Whenever you want to see me send
-word by the turnkey.”</p>
-
-<p>On the second day, John sent word that he wanted to see me. He was
-taken up into the office, and there he asked what benefit it would be to him
-if he told all he knew. He was informed that we would expect him to tell
-only the truth and not lie about any one or shield any one who was guilty
-of wrong-doing. If he did all this honestly and conscientiously the State
-would, no doubt, reward him for his information. Thielen assented to the
-proposition, but he told very little at this interview. He was brought up
-again the next day, and from the questions put he soon discovered that
-some one had been telling the truth about him.</p>
-
-<p>“Now I will tell you all I know,” he said, “and let it fall where it
-belongs. What I say I will swear to. I see every one is trying to get out.
-First I will tell you what I did myself, and then what the others did.”</p>
-
-<p>He accordingly made a long statement, but as substantially the same
-facts were brought out in the trial by other witnesses, he was never called
-on to testify. Since then Thielen has abandoned Anarchy and is a better
-man.</p>
-
-<p>The statement Thielen made runs as follows, and it will be noticed by
-reference to the trial proceedings that, had he been a witness, he would
-have fully corroborated the testimony given by Seliger and his wife. On
-being shown, at the station, some round lead bombs, he said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I saw Louis Lingg have twenty-two pieces like these in his room.
-They were not all finished. I saw them when they were being cast. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
-were in halves and placed in Louis Lingg’s trunk. If that trouble had not
-occurred at McCormick’s factory that Monday, they would not have been
-finished yet, but after that trouble with the officers he completed them.
-That is, he loaded them with dynamite, ready to be used. I never knew of
-any one or heard of anybody who could make these bombs except Lingg.
-I had two of these gas-pipe bombs, loaded with dynamite. I got them from
-Lingg, and I threw them away as soon as I got them. There were only a
-few left of these long ones. There were seventeen pieces loaded at Seliger’s
-house. Bonfield had better look out for himself, as these bombs are
-for the most part made for him, and he will get one yet. He was shooting
-the people during the West Side car strike and at McCormick’s. I promised
-to give you the round bombs that I had, but, as I said, I threw them
-away and out of danger. I will tell you, before all these men, that these
-two iron shells now lying before me at this table I got from Lingg at his
-house, No. 442 Sedgwick Street, on May 4, 1886. He gave them to me,
-and I took them along home. They were loaded, and there was a fuse in
-each of them. This was Tuesday night, May 4, 8 o’clock. The very same
-night he also gave me those two cigar-boxes here now before me, filled
-with dynamite. He wanted me to take them and throw them in the alley.
-He said they were empty, but I saw that they were filled. They were too
-heavy to be empty. I took them home myself, together with my boy. We
-buried them under our house. The last time I saw any bombs was at
-Florus’ place, where a search was made by the police. I would have given
-up those bombs to you to-night if you had not found them. In these boxes
-is finished dynamite ready to be used. I know Seliger had charge of selling
-arms. We paid $7.00 for a revolver and $10.00 for a gun. I saw
-Lingg and Seliger at Seliger’s house, Tuesday, May 4, at about 8 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span>, and
-9:30 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span> I saw them together at Larrabee Street. There were twenty-two
-lead bombs that I saw in Lingg’s room. They were made on a Sunday
-afternoon. Lingg, Seliger and myself made them. They had been cast
-about two weeks before Tuesday, May 4. I saw in a satchel in Lingg’s
-room about fifteen pieces of these long iron shells, on Tuesday, May 4.
-There were also some round lead bombs, and they were all loaded. The
-time I was in Lingg’s room, May 4, I saw one man take along with him,
-when he left, three round lead bombs loaded with dynamite, and Lingg
-gave those bombs to the man himself. I know the man, and I, John Thielen,
-will get them from that man and give them to you this evening. After
-what happened at the Haymarket on that Tuesday evening, May 4, you
-could not hear of any one having bombs in their possession. I should
-judge that two men more received from Lingg six round bombs loaded
-with dynamite. In Greif’s Hall, 54 West Lake Street, on the evening of
-May 3, at the meeting there, Lingg said to the people present that he would
-furnish the dynamite bombs if any one would throw them. I told him to
-throw the bombs himself. Then I said to Lingg that it would cost a man
-his life to throw them. Lingg replied that no man could see any one throw
-one of them. He said if necessary he would throw some. He also
-stated that if any one would come to him he would show him how to
-make bombs with dynamite. I saw Lingg and Seliger together at Thüringer
-Hall&mdash;Neff’s place&mdash;58 Clybourn Avenue, on the evening of May 4.
-Lingg had a satchel. The satchel was placed near a little passageway
-leading to the ‘gents’ closet.’ It was a gray canvas-covered satchel about
-two feet long, one foot wide and one and a half feet high. Seliger, Lingg<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>
-and myself went away together to Clybourn Avenue. We then went up
-on Larrabee Street, at 9:30 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span> I left Lingg and Seliger at the corner
-of Clybourn Avenue and Larrabee Street. The satchel was brought by
-Lingg to Neff’s Hall that night, and any one there could help himself to
-bombs. Lingg said to some people: ‘There are bombs in that satchel, and
-now help yourselves.’ These words were spoken in the saloon of Neff’s
-place to a crowd of armed men.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The above confession was given on the 14th of May. On the next day
-Thielen was brought face to face with Lingg&mdash;with what results the next
-chapter will show. On the 16th of May Thielen supplemented his first
-statement with additional particulars. He said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“On Tuesday, May 4, 1886, about 9:30 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span>, myself and old man Lehman
-were together on the corner of North Avenue and Larrabee Street,
-near the police station, and afterwards we went back to Neff’s Hall. Three
-men came into the saloon and said that there had been a terrible explosion
-on the West Side at the Haymarket meeting and that a great many were
-killed and wounded; that Fielden had made a speech, and a radical one.
-The police came, and a shot was fired. Some one in the crowd said: ‘Now,
-do not spare powder or lead.’ A friend of mine got shot through the cheek.
-The man works for Mr. Christal, corner of Lake and State Streets, in a
-basement&mdash;a carpenter-shop. That man stated that he was there at the
-meeting, standing near the speaker, and about fifteen feet away from where
-the bomb was thrown. The understanding with us when we left Neff’s
-Hall on that Tuesday night, May 4, was to make a racket that would
-call out the police. It was a failure because the West Side police did not
-come out any sooner to interfere with the meeting or the mob. The grudge
-we had was the score of the police shooting our men at McCormick’s factory.
-We wanted revenge. The order came from the International armed
-men or the group. I was at Greif’s Hall, 54 West Lake Street, May 3. I
-there saw a circular calling for revenge. I was at the meeting Monday
-night at Zepf’s Hall, and there an order was given for the armed men to go
-to 54 West Lake Street, in the basement. The pass-word to get into that
-meeting was ‘Y komme.’ I went there to the meeting. I found George
-Engel there, and he made a speech. The whole plan was then unfolded by
-Engel. He said that there would be a meeting held on Tuesday night, May
-4, at the Haymarket, and that the North Siders should stay on the North
-Side, and there they should wait until it had started&mdash;meaning the riot on
-the West Side. Engel said that some of those who had arms should come
-to the meeting, and those who had no arms should stay away from the meeting
-at the Haymarket. At the meeting in the basement a man by the name of
-Waller was chairman. George Engel did the speaking. There were about
-fifty men present belonging to the armed sections. Engel explained that the
-plan would have to be worked in this way: As soon as they had commenced
-on the West Side, then they should commence on the South Side and the
-North Side. Engel stated that the signal would be a fire which would be
-set, and seen at Wicker Park, and by the noise of the shooting. That would
-be the signal for commencing, and they should all attack the police stations;
-should throw dynamite bombs into the stations, to either kill or keep the
-officers in the stations, and should shoot the horses on the patrol wagons to
-prevent the police from helping one another. Engel is the man who proposed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>
-this plan. Engel is the only man that gave us any orders. And
-under the orders Engel gave us that night, May 3, in that basement, 54 West
-Lake Street, we started out May 4 on the North Side to do harm&mdash;that is,
-to shoot and kill anything that opposed us. The word ‘Ruhe’ in the
-‘Briefkasten’ was adopted at our meeting May 3. It was to be used as a
-signal word. If it should appear the next day in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, then
-every man was to be ready with his arms or guns; that then the riot would
-commence, and they should watch for the signal. ‘Right and fest’ were
-passwords for the armed men should there be any fighting at McCormick’s.
-With the signal they should all come out with their bombs and arms, no
-matter whether it happened in the day or in the night. They should attack
-the armed officers of the law and the State militia. All of us armed men
-thought at one time that the police would not fight us, because they were all
-married men, and if they should fight us they would not do it so very hard.
-The plan was to call out a meeting first and have no speakers there. The
-police would then come and drive us away. They then should fire on the
-police. There were a lot of armed people at the meeting, I know. But the
-police did not interfere, so they got speakers at the meeting. Finally the
-police came out, and the mob did what they had agreed to do. Afterwards
-fault was found, and they said the North Siders were cowards. When Spies
-and others were arrested, the armed men all said that, should anything happen
-to those men, there would be a riot. In reference to the report about
-the shooting of six of our men at McCormick’s factory, I will say that what
-I saw and read in that circular calling for revenge made me mad at the officers.
-At that meeting Engel called on us to take revenge on the police
-officers, because they had killed six of our men. There were about seventy-five
-of us, so far as I know, on the North Side, to do the work on Tuesday
-night, May 4, and Lingg was mad because there were no more men coming
-after bombs. At Neff’s Hall Tuesday night, May 4, we all looked to Lingg
-as a leader of the North Siders. I know of no one else who could make
-bombs. Some one found fault with Lingg at Neff’s Hall on Tuesday night
-because he came so late with his bombs. Then Lingg asked why they had
-not come after the bombs. They all knew, he said, where he lived. Lingg
-was very angry. Schablinsky lives near me, and he got bombs from him.
-There were about nineteen men in the vicinity of the Chicago Avenue Station
-on the night of May 4, to attack the station when the police should
-come out on the wagons to answer a call from the West Side Haymarket.
-The men, seeing all this, lost their courage because the police, they said,
-passed them so quick, and then they said to one another, ‘Why should we
-attack and lose our own lives for the sake of others?’ When the wagon
-was gone, they saw lots of officers coming on foot to the station. Then the
-men went away. The North Siders, the armed men, were to meet in Neff’s
-Hall May 4, in the afternoon. I was at Thalia Hall, Northwest Side, where
-the Lehr und Wehr Verein met, on Wednesday, May 5, in the forenoon.
-I saw Fischer, and he said Spies and others had been arrested. I always
-knew that Fischer was one of the leaders in this affair&mdash;the riot. Fischer
-said the riot was a failure. It was botched, and nothing could be done any
-more. On Tuesday afternoon there was a tall young fellow at Lingg’s room
-about six o’clock. He had a smooth face and was about six feet tall. The
-tall man and Lingg were working at the bombs and dynamite. The tall
-man, I think, worked at Brunswick &amp; Balke’s factory.”</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="p1">The foregoing was read to Thielen and its correctness acknowledged
-before Mr. Furthmann, the officers and myself, and his signature is affixed
-to the margin of each sheet of the paper on which it is written. Thielen’s
-stepson, William Schubert, confirmed the statement of his father with reference
-to the dynamite bombs and the cigar-boxes filled with dynamite, and
-added:</p>
-
-<p>“I went under the house and dug a hole in the ground, and father and
-myself put those things in the hole and then covered them up.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">About</span> the time of Thielen’s arrest Officers Hoffman and Schuettler ran
-across <span class="smcap">Franz Lorenz</span> on North Avenue near Sedgwick Street, in the very
-stronghold of Anarchy, and as the man seemed to be suffering from an
-over-dose of Anarchy and liquor, they took him to the station. This was
-on the 10th of May. He was a German, 48 years of age, and lived with a
-man named Jaeger, at No. 31 Burling Street. He did not seem to be
-known much in Socialist circles, and no one seemed specially interested in
-him. He was locked up at the Larrabee Street Station, and for four days
-he was as stupid as an owl. He would eat and drink very little, but
-managed to sleep every day. On the sixth day he was taken to the Chicago
-Avenue Station and remained there two days longer before he recovered his
-normal condition. When brought into the office, he told me that he had
-been drinking very hard, and, being asked for the reason, he said that he
-had attended many Anarchist meetings, had heard all the speeches and had
-learned that soon they would all have plenty of money. Whenever such
-assurances were given, it always, he said, made him feel so good that he
-would go and get one more drink. Between speeches and drinks, he said, he
-had come near dying. He assured me that if he was released he would go
-right to work and give Anarchy and all meetings a wide berth. On being
-questioned as to his acquaintances, he said he knew “all the boys”&mdash;the
-leading Anarchists&mdash;and had admired them warmly.</p>
-
-<p>“I heard Lingg speak,” said he, “and he is a good one. I tell you he
-is a radical.”</p>
-
-<p>“I suppose,” said I, “you took two drinks on his speech?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, I took more than that,” replied Lorenz. “The last time I heard
-Lingg speak in Zepf’s Hall, I went and got drunk. On May 4, I heard all
-the boys speak on the wagon at the Haymarket, but I did not stay there
-until it was over. I went into a saloon a block away from there and got
-drunk in no time, and when I woke up the next morning I was in bed in
-one of the cheap lodging-houses.”</p>
-
-<p>Not knowing anything definite, he was released by the State’s Attorney,
-and he has not since been heard from. He has probably retired to some
-other city to renew his drunks at Anarchist headquarters on the free beer
-usually provided.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">Completing the Case&mdash;Looking for Lingg&mdash;The Bomb-maker’s Birth&mdash;Was
-he of Royal Blood?&mdash;A Romantic Family History&mdash;Lingg and his Mother&mdash;Captured
-Correspondence&mdash;A Desperate and Dangerous Character&mdash;Lingg Disappears&mdash;A
-Faint Trail Found&mdash;Looking for Express Wagon 1999&mdash;The Number that Cost
-the Fugitive his Life&mdash;A Desperado at Bay&mdash;Schuettler’s Death Grapple&mdash;Lingg in
-the Shackles&mdash;His Statement at the Station&mdash;The Transfer to the Jail&mdash;Lingg’s Love
-for Children&mdash;The Identity of his Sweetheart&mdash;An Interview with Hubner&mdash;His
-Confession&mdash;The Meeting at Neff’s Place</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">WITH the information already obtained we had managed to secure a
-pretty clear insight into the diabolical plots of the “revolutionary
-groups.” It was apparent that Chicago had been regarded by Anarchists
-everywhere as the head center of Socialism in America, and that it had been
-decided that here should be the first test of strength in the establishment of
-the new social order. Any reasoning, sentient being ought to have seen the
-utter folly of such an undertaking in the very midst of millions of liberty-loving,
-law-abiding citizens, but these Anarchists, hypnotized as they were
-by the plausible sophisms and the inflammatory writings of unscrupulous
-men bent on notoriety, could view it in no other light than as a grand stride
-towards their goal. As boys are led astray by yellow-covered literature,
-these poor fools were crazed by Anarchistic vaporings. Day or night,
-sleeping or waking, the beauties of the new social order to be inaugurated
-by the revolution were continually before their minds.</p>
-
-<p>It was clear that such people were capable of desperate deeds, and that
-it was not only necessary to bring to justice the instigators of the massacre,
-but to show their deluded followers the inevitable result of carrying out
-ideas repugnant to our free institutions and inconsistent with common sense
-and right.</p>
-
-<p>With so many facts before us, we redoubled our efforts to capture every
-dangerous Anarchist leader in the city, and the next one to fall into the toils
-was no less a personage than the bomb-maker, Louis Lingg.</p>
-
-<p>This notorious Anarchist came to Chicago when about twenty-one years of
-age. He had learned the carpenter’s trade in Germany, and when not engaged
-in spreading Anarchy’s doctrines, he pursued that calling to liquidate his
-board bills and personal expenses. He was a tall, lithe, well-built, handsome
-fellow, and, while not of a nervous disposition, his nature was so
-active and aggressive that he never appeared at rest. Sleeping or waking,
-Anarchy and the most effective methods of establishing it were uppermost
-in his thoughts. By reason of his very restlessness it was not difficult to
-trace him in Socialistic circles when on his tours of agitation, and it was
-noticeable, too, that he never remained at any one point for any regular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>
-length of time. His make-up was a queer combination of nerve, energy
-and push. His mind seemed always weighted with some great burden.
-Perhaps there was a reason for this not alone in his radical beliefs, but in
-his blood and birth.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-257.jpg" width="250" height="272" id="i257"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">LOUIS LINGG, THE BOMB-MAKER.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph taken by the Police.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Louis Lingg was born in Schwetzingen, Germany, on the 9th day of
-September, 1864, and, while his childhood was spent pleasantly enough, a
-cloud gradually gathered which overshadowed his life and embittered him
-against society. His mother, at the age of eighteen or twenty, had worked
-as a servant, and, possessing a very handsome face, a shapely figure and
-attractive manners, had caught the eye of a Hessian soldier in the dragoons.
-This man was young, dashing and handsome, and mutual admiration soon
-ripened into undue intimacy.
-One day the soldier left town
-on short notice&mdash;whether
-because of military orders
-or through his own inclination
-is not known. It is certain,
-however, that she never
-heard of him from that day,
-and that a son was born to
-her out of wedlock. That
-son was Louis Lingg. The
-name of that dragoon has
-never been made public, but
-it is believed with reason
-that Lingg was born of royal
-blood.</p>
-
-<p>Several years after her
-escapade the mother wedded
-a lumber-worker named
-Link. Louis was then four
-years old. When young
-Lingg had arrived at the age of twelve, his foster-father, while engaged in
-his occupation of floating logs down the river Main, contracted heart disease,
-through over-exposure, and died. The widow was left in poor circumstances,
-and she was obliged to do washing and ironing in order to support
-herself and family, a daughter named Elise having been born since her
-marriage.</p>
-
-<p>Louis, in the course of years, grew strong, robust and muscular. He
-had received a fair education, and, desiring to relieve his mother’s burdens
-as much as possible, he learned the carpenter’s trade under the tutelage of
-a man named Louis Wuermell in Mannheim. He remained there until
-May 13, 1879, and then, quitting his apprenticeship, proceeded to Kehl, on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>
-the Rhine. There he found employment with a man named Schmidt until
-the fall of 1882. He next went to Freiburg, in the Grand Duchy of Baden,
-where he worked for several contractors. At this place he began to change
-his employment frequently, and his mother, learning of it, wrote several letters,
-in which she advised him against such a course and admonished him
-to become a good man, to save his money and keep out of bad company, so
-that he might become useful to himself and to society and make her proud
-of him. But the son did not heed this motherly advice. He fell in with
-free-thinkers who were set against religion in particular and against society
-in general, and soon began reading and absorbing Socialistic literature. It
-was not long before he became an avowed Socialist, attending Socialistic
-meetings and eagerly listening to all the speeches.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-258.jpg" width="250" height="188" id="i258"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">LINGG’S TRUNK.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Finally young Lingg grew weary of Baden and wandered to the republic
-of Switzerland. Here he
-spent the fall of 1883 at Luzerne,
-working at his trade
-with a man named Rickley,
-but his roving nature soon
-brought him to Zurich.</p>
-
-<p>It was there that he met
-the famous Anarchist Reinsdorf,
-and for this man he
-speedily formed a warm attachment.
-While in Zurich
-Lingg also affiliated with a
-German Socialistic society
-called “Eintracht,” and
-threw his whole soul into the
-cause. After a time he turned up at Aarau, but here he was unable
-to find employment and had to write home for assistance. The mother
-loved her son dearly, despite his wanderings, and he did not appeal to
-her in vain. She wrote him enclosing a small sum of money to help him
-bridge over his idleness, and at the same time informed him that she had
-again married (August 6, 1884), her second husband’s name being Christian
-Gaddum. This man had been a neighbor of the family at Mannheim
-for years. In writing to her son, Mrs. Link indicated that the marriage
-was not prompted by love or admiration, but came about on account
-of her feeble health and her desire to secure support for herself and her
-daughter. Louis’ mother had frequently expressed a wish that he visit
-home, but, as the boy had now reached the age for military service under
-the German Government, he concluded to remain away, and in casting
-about for a permanent location he decided to emigrate to America. He
-presented the matter to his mother. At first she opposed it, but finally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>
-gave her consent. With what money he secured from his mother and from
-his friends, he proceeded to Havre, France, in June, 1885, and boarded a
-steamer for the United States.</p>
-
-<p>After the wayward boy had left home, he and his mother corresponded
-regularly. She always expressed deep solicitude for his welfare, and when
-he was in financial distress she would write him: “Dear Louis, I will
-share with you as long as I have a bite in the house.” All her letters
-breathed encouragement; she sent money frequently, although at times in
-need herself, and concluded invariably by giving good counsel and urging
-Louis to write her soon and often. When Lingg had arrived in the United
-States the fond mother wrote him that she would soon be able to send him
-money enough to come home on a visit.</p>
-
-<p>That Lingg had great love and affection for his mother is evidenced by
-the fact that he had carefully preserved all her letters from the time of his
-leaving home until he died a suicide’s death. From these letters it appears
-also that Lingg had several lady admirers at home.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-259.jpg" width="400" height="206" id="i259"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">COILS OF FUSE.<br />
-<span class="wn">Found in the secret bottom of Lingg’s Trunk.<br />
-From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>There were many expressions, such as “kindest regards” or “heartiest
-respects,” conveyed to him by his mother on behalf of this or that lady
-friend. Another fact made apparent by the letters was that there was some
-great burden on his mind. It would seem that he had plied his mother with
-many questions respecting his birth. That seemed a dark spot in his life.
-He wanted a solution as well as satisfaction. This worried the mother,
-but she always managed to give him some consolation, saying she “would
-guard against everything” and have “all things set right.” In one of her
-letters occurs the following:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">As regards your birth, it grieves me that you mention it. While you did not know it
-before, I will now say that you were born in Schwetzingen on the 9th day of September,
-1864, at your grandfather’s house, and baptized. Where your father is I don’t know. My<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>
-father did not want me to marry him because he did not desire me to follow him into Hessia, and
-as he had no real estate he could not marry me in Schwetzingen according to our laws. He
-left and went, I do not know where. If you want a certificate of birth you can get it at
-Schwetzingen any time. If you make a proper presentation everything will be all right, but
-don’t hold on six months.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">The original of the above, which is in German and which was found in
-Lingg’s trunk, had no signature. Another letter regarding his paternity
-reads as follows, showing that Lingg’s mind had been sorely distressed over
-the matter:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="pr2 p1"><span class="smcap">Mannheim</span>, June 29, 1884.</p>
-
-<p><i>Dear Louis</i>:&mdash;You must have waited a long time for an answer. John said to Elise
-that I had not yet replied to your last letter. The officials of the court you cannot push.
-For my part I would have been better pleased if they had hurried up, because it would have
-saved you a great deal of time. But now I am glad that it has finally been accomplished.
-After a great deal of toil, I put myself out to go to Schwetzingen and see about the certificate
-of your birth. I know you will be glad and satisfied to learn that you carry the name
-of Lingg. This is better than to have children with two different names. He had you
-entered as a legitimate child before we got married. I think this was the best course, so
-that you will not worry and reproach me. Such a certificate of birth is no disgrace, and you
-can show it. I felt offended that you took no notice of the “confirmation.” Elise had
-everything nice. Her only wish was to receive some small token from Louis, which would
-have pleased her more than anything else. When she came from church, the first thing she
-asked for was as to a letter or card from you, but we had to be contented with the thought
-that perhaps you did not think of us. Now it is all past.... I was very much troubled
-that it has taken so long [to procure certificate], but I could not help it. I have kept my
-promise, and you cannot reproach me. Everything is all right, and we are all well and
-working. I hope to hear the same from you. It would not be so bad if you wrote
-oftener. I have had to do a great many things for you the last eighteen years, but with a
-mother you can do as you please&mdash;neglect her and never answer her letters.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The certificate sent him reads as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pc1">CERTIFICATE OF BIRTH.</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="pn1">No. 9,681.</p>
-
-<p>Ludwig Link, legitimate son of Philipp Friedrich Link and of Regina Von Hoefler, was
-born at Schwetzingen, on the ninth (9th) day of September, 1864. This is certified according
-to the records of the Evangelical Congregation of Schwetzingen.</p>
-
-<p class="pc"><span class="smcap">Schwetzingen</span>, May 24, 1884.
-<span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</span>[<span class="smcap">seal.</span>]
-<span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</span>County Court: <span class="smcap">Cluricht</span>.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">To the letter of Mrs. Link, given above, no signature appears, but
-that is not strange. What seems more singular is that, whenever her letters
-were signed, they closed with simply “Your Mother.” Another thing
-appears from the above, and that is that at home Louis’ name was Link.
-Other documents, some of them legal, also found in his trunk, show that his
-name was formerly written Link. His name must have been changed
-shortly before leaving Europe or just after reaching the United States.</p>
-
-<p>It would seem that, with such a certificate, Lingg would have been
-measurably happy, but the fact of his illegitimacy, despite court records,
-rankled in his blood. The thought of it haunted him continually, and no
-doubt it helped to make him in religion a free-thinker, in theory a free-lover,
-and in practice an implacable enemy of existing society. His mother’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>
-letters showed that she wished him to be a good man, and it was no
-fault of her early training that he subsequently became an Anarchist. She
-still lives at the old place, and when Lieut. Baus, of the Chicago police
-force, was on a visit to Mannheim, some time ago, he called on her and
-found her very pleasant and affable in her manner, with a strong, robust
-constitution, and still a good-looking woman.</p>
-
-<p>No sooner had Lingg reached Chicago than he looked up the haunts of
-Socialists and Anarchists. He made their acquaintance, learned the
-strength of the order in the city as well as in the United States, and was
-highly gratified. At that time the organization was not only strong in
-numbers, but it fairly “smelt to heaven” in its rankness of doctrine.</p>
-
-<p>Lingg was not required to look around very hard for the haunts of Anarchy,
-for a blind man could plainly see, feel and smell the disease in
-the air. Lingg arrived here only eight or nine months before the
-eventful 4th of May, but in that short time he succeeded in
-making himself the most popular man in Anarchist circles. No
-one had created such a <i>furore</i> since 1872, when Socialism had
-its inception in the city.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-261.jpg" width="250" height="346" id="i261"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">COMPOSITION BOMB.<br />
-<span class="wnn">Found in Lingg’s room, ready for use.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The first organization to which Lingg attached himself was
-the International Carpenters’ Union No. 1.
-Every member of this society was a rabid Anarchist.
-All of them had supplied themselves
-with arms, and a majority of them drilled in
-military tactics. Lingg had not been connected
-with the organization long before he became a
-recognized leader and made speeches that enthused
-them all. While young in years, they
-recognized in him a worthy leader, and the
-fact that he had sat at the very feet of
-Reinsdorf as a pupil elevated him in their
-estimation. This distinction, added to his
-personal magnetism, made him the subject
-for praise and comment, which pleased his vanity and spurred his ambition.</p>
-
-<p>Men longer in the service and more familiar with the local and general
-phases of Anarchy at times reluctantly yielded to him where points of
-policy were at stake. No committee was regarded as complete without
-him, and this brought him in contact with August Spies and Albert Parsons.
-He was often at the office of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, which was the
-headquarters of the governing body, with reports and suggestions, and by
-his admirable tact soon won their esteem and good graces. He there also
-made the acquaintance of Fielden, Fischer, Schnaubelt, Rau, Neebe,
-Schwab, and of some of the more noted women in the Anarchist movement.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>
-He was frequently complimented for his work and became quite a favorite
-with the ladies.</p>
-
-<p>When Lingg first became actively identified with the party of assassination
-and annihilation here, he was cautious and secretive. He knew
-that secrecy in the old country was not only essential to success, but absolutely
-requisite for self-preservation. He supposed that the same sort of
-tactics prevailed here, but when he saw how bold, aggressive and open
-were the utterances of the Anarchists in Chicago and elsewhere, he came to
-believe that the government and the municipal administration existed
-simply through their sufferance. At first, whenever Lingg was doubtful on
-any point, he would seek knowledge and inspiration from Spies, and it was
-through Spies that he gained his information of the movement
-in the United States. They became firm friends, and
-Lingg implicitly believed everything Spies told him, and
-looked, as he informed the police officers, upon every line
-published in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> as absolutely true and correct.
-While not able to read English, he regarded all papers
-printed in that language, as well as in the German, not of the
-Socialistic faith, as published for the benefit of capitalists
-and millionaires. They were all, in his estimation, stupendous
-frauds, and existed simply because they printed
-such lies as pleased the rich and those in power. Being a
-man of sincere convictions and
-earnest zeal, Lingg won the
-confidence of his confrères and
-always knew just what was
-going to be done and how it
-was to be accomplished. He
-was a faithful ally and was
-invariably counted upon to
-take a leading part in all the
-movements of the reds. How
-he was regarded by his fellows
-in this respect is shown in the fact that to him was intrusted the task
-of organizing the people of the Southwest Side and directing their plans
-against the McCormick factory.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-262.jpg" width="250" height="253" id="i262"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">CAST-IRON AND LARGE GAS-PIPE BOMBS.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From Photographs.</span></p>
-<p class="pf300">The long bomb in center weighs five lbs., and was thrown
-at a patrol wagon on Blue Island Avenue, but failed to explode.
-The round bombs were lined on the inside with a coating of
-cement saturated with a deadly poison.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>His communications, which I have given in a prior chapter, to the
-Bohemians and others in that locality, show that he was bent on riot and
-destruction, and in that mad and frenzied movement he had the hearty
-coöperation of the colleagues who had with him concocted it at the office
-of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. They alone knew of it, and worked out the details
-at a meeting held near the factory on the 3d of May. Lingg, being braver<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span>
-and more daring than the other leaders, was the chosen instrument to
-inspire the men to an attack upon the works, and he subsequently claimed
-that he had been clubbed by the police during the affray.</p>
-
-<p>During the turbulent and momentous days preceding May 4, Lingg’s
-comrades saddled upon him a great responsibility, but he never flinched.
-On the contrary, he proved the mettle of his make-up, not only volunteering
-to carry out certain ends he himself outlined, but cheerfully assuming
-every task imposed upon him and always willing to take all responsibility
-for the consequences. He was found on the North Side actively
-engaged in calling Anarchists to arms, on the Southwest Side endeavoring
-to form a compact body of fighters in view of the near approach of
-May 1; he was busy at Seliger’s house constructing bombs, and at
-meetings giving instructions how to make infernal machines. His work
-was never finished, and never neglected. At one time he taught his
-followers how to handle the
-bombs so that they would
-not explode in their hands,
-and showed the time and
-distance for throwing the
-missiles with deadly effect;
-at another he drilled those
-who were to do the throwing,
-instructing them how
-to surround themselves with
-friends so that detection by
-an enemy would be impossible.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-263.jpg" width="250" height="198" id="i263"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">GAS-PIPE BOMBS.<br />
-<span class="wnn">Found in Lingg’s Room. From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>All these things kept
-him busy, but his whole
-soul was in the work. He
-was not alone a bomb-maker; he also constituted himself an agent to sell
-arms. He sold a great many large revolvers and rifles. This is shown
-by a note found in his trunk, addressed to Abraham Hermann. It reads as
-follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1"><i>Friend</i>:&mdash;I sold three revolvers during the last two days, and I will sell three more to-day
-(Wednesday). I sell them from $6.00 to $7.80 apiece.</p>
-
-<p class="pr2">Respectfully and best regards,
-<span class="smcap">L. Lingg</span>.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">At this time Hermann was the general agent in this city for buying and
-selling arms to the Anarchists. Engel had been an agent at one time, but
-the men claimed that he had fleeced them, and he was dropped.</p>
-
-<p>Lingg thus proved himself a very useful man to the order. He could
-make an effective speech; he was a good organizer; he could make bombs
-with dynamite whose power had been enhanced manifold through his skill;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>
-he would carry hand-bills, and he would do anything to help along the cause.
-In truth, he was the shiftiest as well as the most dangerous Anarchist in
-all Chicago.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-264.jpg" width="200" height="193" id="i264"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc"><span class="smcap">Gas-Pipe Bombs, Without Fuse.</span><br />
-<span class="wnn">Found in Lingg’s Room.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Having been a pupil of Reinsdorf, Lingg was an opponent of all peaceable
-agitation. He believed in organizing armed forces and conquering
-everything by main force. He had no love at all for those who talked
-peaceable agitation; he called them fools and cranks. Of this class were
-the old-time Socialists, and he looked upon them with haughty disdain.
-He found better material to work on for helping him in the revolution he
-proposed, and, although he molded many an Anarchist out of the softer clay
-of humanity, still he was not satisfied, but complained continually that
-they did not move fast enough, did not take hold with celerity and failed to
-develop such heroic qualities as he wished to see. The restless spirit
-within him, his implacable hatred of society, tinged with the bitterness of
-his doubtful birth, and his strong impulses manifested themselves in all his
-acts and utterances. An illustration of these
-traits is the impatience he exhibited over the
-failure of trusted men to come early to the house
-of Seliger to secure bombs on the evening of
-May 4, and his departure with the bombs to
-Neff’s Hall to have them speedily distributed.
-Another example is found in the bitter reproaches
-he heaped on those who had failed to carry out
-their part after the inauguration of the Haymarket
-riot. His hopes, his ambitions, had been
-set on the successful consummation of that plot.
-It was to have overthrown all government and
-all law, which he declared were good enough for
-old women to prevent them from quarreling, but needless for men of intelligence
-and independence.</p>
-
-<p>For four weeks prior to the 4th of May he was out of work, but he was
-by no means idle. He worked early and late attending meetings and making
-bombs, so that, the moment the signal for the general revolution was
-given, every member of the armed sections might be supplied with the
-destructive agent. He wanted the whole city blown up, every capitalist
-wiped off the face of the earth; and he and his trusted comrades, Sunday
-after Sunday, in anticipation of the uprising, practiced in the suburbs with
-rifles and 44-caliber revolvers. Lingg became the most expert of them all
-and was looked upon by his associates as a crack shot.</p>
-
-<p>Lingg’s money and time were freely given to the purchase of arms and
-to the manufacture of dynamite bombs. His room at Seliger’s became a
-veritable arsenal, and, the more deadly “stuff” he brought into the house,
-the more pleased he became, and the more bitter grew the enmity of Mrs.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>
-Seliger toward him. How careful and elaborate were his preparations for
-the coming day is not only shown by the deadly implements found in his
-room, but is evidenced in the statements of his trusted lieutenants. These
-statements&mdash;made to me by men anxious to save themselves, prostrate
-suppliants for mercy, whose every material revelation was corroborative
-of the others, although given independently and under different circumstances
-and without knowledge of what others had said&mdash;unmistakably
-pointed to a most gigantic conspiracy. Read any of these statements, and
-no doubt can exist that, had it not been for the hand of Providence on the
-night of May 4, thousands of people would have been killed and vast districts
-of the city laid waste. Lingg expected it as certainly as he believed
-in his own existence at the time, and his intimate comrades bent all their
-energy in the direction of carrying out the villainous plot.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-265.jpg" width="250" height="126" id="i265"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">UNFINISHED GAS-PIPE BOMBS.<br />
-<span class="wnn">Found in Lingg’s Dinner-Box. From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>But “the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley,” and the
-Haymarket riot proved a most bitter disappointment. Lingg was fairly
-beside himself with chagrin
-and mortification. The one
-consuming desire of his life
-had utterly and signally
-failed of realization. He
-clearly foresaw dire trouble
-in consequence of the attempt,
-and his mind was
-bewildered with perplexities
-as to his future movements.
-On the night of May
-4, about 11:30 o’clock, when the full truth of the failure of the riot had
-flashed upon him, he stood in front of No. 58 Clybourn Avenue, not knowing
-exactly whither to turn for refuge from possible arrest, and, while in this
-dilemma, he broached the subject to Seliger, finally asking to be permitted
-to remain at the house over night until next morning, when he promised he
-would move away. He was without a cent in his pocket, having squandered
-all his money in the manufacture of bombs, confident of plenty when
-he and his fellows had secured control of the city. Seliger, knowing his
-condition, finally consented.</p>
-
-<p>The next morning came, but Lingg manifested no disposition to carry
-out his promise.</p>
-
-<p>“I would move from here now,” said he, very adroitly, “but if I do so it
-would create suspicion.”</p>
-
-<p>Seliger saw the force of the argument, and, being implicated also in the
-manufacture of bombs, shrewdly concluded to let him remain until matters
-quieted down. Lingg accordingly remained until the 7th of May. On this
-date officers began to appear in the vicinity, looking into the haunts and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>
-resorts of Anarchists. This startled Lingg, and, lest they might pounce
-down upon his room, he decided to speedily vacate the premises. He did
-move, but with such haste that he left his implements of destruction and
-nearly all his personal effects behind him. When the house was finally
-searched the “bird had flown.”</p>
-
-<p>I sent out eight good detectives, and kept them working night and day
-looking for the bomb-maker, but no one could furnish a clue. It was
-learned that Lingg had a sweetheart, and her movements were closely
-watched. The houses of his known friends were also watched, and all his
-acquaintances shadowed. Anarchists who had hopes of saving their own
-necks if he could be found were pressed into the service, and decoy letters
-were sent out. Money was even held out as an inducement to divulge his
-hiding-place, but all to no purpose.</p>
-
-<p>These expedients were kept up until the 13th of May, when I sent for
-Mrs. Seliger to ascertain where Lingg had last been employed and secure
-the addresses of all his friends. Nearly all the places she mentioned had
-been visited, but she spoke of one place that seemed to me to hold out
-some promise of a successful result. Mrs. Seliger stated that there was a
-place near the river, where there was a bridge that she had heard spoken
-of, and that Lingg had said to her husband that he would call on a friend
-of his near that place, on Canal Street. This place I at once recognized
-as being only a few blocks from the shop where Lingg had worked. Mrs.
-Seliger further stated that her husband had told her that this shop was only
-a few blocks from a Catholic church. All this I regarded as a good clue,
-and Officers Loewenstein and Schuettler were promptly detailed to follow it
-up&mdash;first going, however, to a planing-mill on Twelfth and South Clark
-Streets to ascertain if Lingg had ever worked there.</p>
-
-<p>The officers carried out these instructions, and a few hours later they
-returned to the office, their faces wreathed in smiles. They informed me
-that they had secured a clue, that only a few days before Lingg had sent
-there for his tool chest, and that they had learned of a man who had noticed
-the number of the express wagon that had carted it away. But this man,
-they said, they would be unable to see until the next day.</p>
-
-<p>Bright and early the next morning the officers started out with new
-instructions and visited the house of the person who had so singularly taken
-note of the express number. They found him, and he gave them all the
-information he possessed. About eleven o’clock the officers found the residence
-of the expressman, whose name was Charles Keperson and whose
-wagon was numbered 1,999. He lived at No. 1095 Robey Street. The
-officers rapped on the door, and a little girl about ten years of age answered.
-On being asked after her father she informed them that he was not at home.
-They inquired if her father had not brought in a trunk. She replied that
-her father had brought no trunk into their house, but he had hauled a tool<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>
-chest from down town, which he had taken to a house on an adjoining
-street. She pointed out a little cottage at No. 80 Ambrose Street, and on
-being asked if she had seen her father take it there she answered:</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, yes, it was a gray-colored box, and I heard my father say it
-belonged to Louis Lingg.”</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-267.jpg" width="300" height="123" id="i267"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">LINGG’S REVOLVER.<br />
-<span class="wnn">Cocked as found when wrested from<br />
-Lingg’s hands after the struggle with Officer Schuettler.<br />
-From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The officers went over to the cottage and learned that a family named
-Klein lived there. Schuettler knocked on the door, and Mrs. Klein responded.
-He asked if Louis was at home. She replied that he was not and that he
-had gone out with some gentlemen about nine o’clock. She inquired what
-he desired to see Louis for, and Schuettler told her that he owed Louis $3
-and had come to pay him. He further informed her that they were good
-friends, both carpenters, and belonged to the same union. She inquired
-after his name, and Schuettler responded that it was “Franz Lorenz.”
-Lorenz was a well known Anarchist, and it was thought the name would
-prove effective in winning the woman’s confidence. She said that her
-father lived only a short distance from the house, and she would step over
-and ask him if he knew where Louis had gone. This conversation had
-taken place in a rear
-room of the house. The
-woman excused herself,
-and ostensibly started
-for the house of her
-father. She passed into
-the front room and slammed
-the outer door.
-Loewenstein stepped out of the back room to see if she had really gone,
-but he saw no Mrs. Klein. At the same time he noticed Lingg’s chest
-standing on the rear porch, covered with a piece of carpet. Loewenstein
-returned, and he had hardly joined Schuettler when Mrs. Klein stepped in.
-She said she had seen her father, but that he did not know where Louis
-had gone. The officers were suspicious, of course, but they said nothing,
-simply withdrawing with the assurance that they would call again and see
-Lingg some other time.</p>
-
-<p>After leaving, the officers walked for two blocks and talked over the mysterious
-actions of Mrs. Klein. They concluded to go back and search the
-house. They secured entrance from the rear, and, while Loewenstein
-guarded the front door, Schuettler entered the rear room. There he found
-a man smoothly shaven. Lingg had been described as having chin whiskers.
-Schuettler stepped up to the man, however, and asked his name.
-In an instant Lingg&mdash;for it was none other&mdash;whipped out a 44-caliber
-revolver, which he had had concealed in front inside his trousers, and, with
-the glare of a tiger held at bay, he turned on the officer. Schuettler saw the
-movement, and, quick as a flash, sprang on Lingg and seized the weapon.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>
-They clinched, and while the one was struggling to save himself and secure
-his prisoner, the other was bent upon killing the officer and effecting his own
-escape. Both were strong, muscular and active, and the cottage shook
-from foundation to rafters as the bodies of the contestants swayed in the
-equal contest. Lingg quivered with rage and aroused himself to his utmost
-to vanquish the foe. He realized that the result meant life or death. At
-one moment his revolver was pressed close to the officer’s breast, and with
-a superhuman effort the Anarchist tried to send a bullet on its fatal mission.
-But Schuettler had a firm grasp of the cylinder and wrenched the weapon
-aside. In another second, while the mastery was still undecided, Lingg, by
-a quick movement of his hand, brought the revolver square into the officer’s
-face. At that moment, however, Schuettler managed to get Lingg’s thumb
-between his teeth. The Anarchist made a sudden dash to release his thumb
-and succeeded in breaking loose.</p>
-
-<p>All this took place in less time than it takes to tell it. The moment
-Lingg was foot-loose, Schuettler found time to shout for his companion,
-who had stood on the outside in front of the house, all unconscious of the
-short but desperate struggle within. Loewenstein did not stop a moment
-to determine what was wanted, but sprang into the room. He entered just
-at the moment when Schuettler had bounded after Lingg on his release and
-found him holding Lingg tightly by the throat with one hand and the
-revolver with the other. Loewenstein saw the situation at a glance, and,
-raising his loaded cane, brought it down on the Anarchist’s head. This
-stunned Lingg, and he was overpowered. The revolver was wrenched from
-his hand and placed on a table, and the officers adjusted the handcuffs.
-These had no sooner been placed in position than Lingg made a sudden
-dash for his revolver. But the detectives were too quick for him.</p>
-
-<p>Lingg’s teeth gnashed with rage, and his eyes fairly bulged from their
-sockets with savage scorn. The arch-Anarchist looked the picture of desperation.
-He had been vanquished, however, and he saw that further
-resistance was useless.</p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Klein had meanwhile been an excited spectator, but before she
-could collect her thoughts and decide what course to take under the circumstances,
-Lingg was in the power of the law. Seeing this, she hurried out.
-It was not long before the whole neighborhood heard of what had happened,
-and, as the officers started to take their prisoner to the Hinman Street Station,
-a true-hearted Irish-American came up, accosted them and said:</p>
-
-<p>“My dear boys, your lives are in danger here. Nearly every one who
-lives about here is an Anarchist. Wait for a minute, and I will give you
-protection.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-269.jpg" width="400" height="659" id="i269"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">A DESPERATE STRUGGLE. <span class="smcap wn">Louis Lingg’s Arrest.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>He disappeared, but meanwhile the street had become crowded with an
-excited populace. He soon returned with a double-barreled shot-gun, ready
-for action in case of emergency. No sooner had he placed himself at the
-disposal of the officers than a loyal Bohemian-American came running
-across the street, and said:</p>
-
-<p>“Officers, I will also protect you against this mob.”</p>
-
-<p>He had in his hand a large navy revolver, and he showed that he was
-ready to assist the officers, even at the cost of his own life.</p>
-
-<p>Schuettler and Loewenstein, under this volunteer escort, marched Lingg
-to the Hinman Street Station, reaching there about twelve o’clock. Sergeant
-Enwright was in charge of the station that day, and, lest any attempt
-at rescue might be made, he called in all his officers and gave them
-instructions as to what should be done to protect the station. He also
-ordered out the patrol wagon, and detailed five officers to accompany
-Schuettler and Loewenstein to the Klein residence to investigate the premises.
-They made a thorough search, but could discover nothing except a
-lot of cartridges. They also investigated the houses at Nos. 64, 66, 68 and
-70 on the same street, all occupied by Anarchists, but they found nothing.
-The presence of the police, however, speedily cleared the street, and all the
-low-browed, shaggy-haired followers of the red flag hunted their holes.
-Schuettler and Loewenstein then sent for the Chicago Avenue patrol wagon
-and transferred Lingg to new quarters at that station. On the way Lingg continually
-ground his teeth, and, looking savagely at Schuettler and turning
-slightly towards Loewenstein, hissed out:</p>
-
-<p>“If I had only got half a chance at that fellow, he would be a dead man
-now.”</p>
-
-<p>The officers of the Hinman Street Station did not relax their vigilance
-over Ambrose Street, and one day some molds made of clay were found in
-the alley in the rear of the Klein residence, proving that Lingg had not
-abandoned hope, but was getting ready to prepare a new supply of bombs
-for a future attack.</p>
-
-<p>When Lingg had been ushered into the office of the East Chicago Avenue
-Station, the shackles were removed from his wrists, and he was given a
-chair. He became quiet in his new surroundings, and grudgingly answered
-a few simple questions. His thumb giving him considerable pain, some
-liniment was procured from a neighboring drug store, and the wound dressed.
-He was then assigned to an apartment below, and left to his own thoughts.</p>
-
-<p>In the afternoon he was brought up to the office.</p>
-
-<p>“What is your name?” I asked him.</p>
-
-<p>“Lingg,” curtly replied the prisoner.</p>
-
-<p>“Ah, yes; but how do you spell it?”</p>
-
-<p>“L-i-n-gg,” came the spelling.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes; but give us your full name.”</p>
-
-<p>“It is Louis or Ludwig Lingg. I am twenty-one years and eight
-months old.”</p>
-
-<p>He was asked a great many questions. Some he refused to answer, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>
-others he answered promptly and with pleasure, especially when they
-touched on killing capitalists and capitalistic editors, as he called them. He
-had no use, he said, for these people, and thought that if they could be
-taken away suddenly the world would be satisfied and happy. He remarked
-that he did not blame the police very much, because they were workingmen
-themselves, but there was one officer, he said, that he perfectly despised.
-It was John Bonfield. If he could have blown him to atoms, he thought,
-he might become reconciled to a great many things as they then existed.
-He finally gave to me and to Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann, in the
-presence of Officers Stift, Rehm, Loewenstein, Schuettler and Hoffman, a
-brief account of himself and his movements, but he said that he would
-rather die than give information against any one. He did not deny
-what others had stated about him, but further he would not go. He was
-informed by Mr. Furthmann how strict the law was against conspiracies,
-but the only answer he vouchsafed was that the laws would not remain in
-force much longer; that the working people would make laws to suit themselves,
-and they would not allow any higher power to dictate to them. For
-his own part, he could work and was willing to work, he said, but he wanted
-his share of the profits. He thought the police had made fools of themselves
-in the movement the Anarchists had inaugurated. If they had only
-known enough, he said, to have held back, the capitalists would have been
-forced to submit; but now the police had spoiled their own chances for gain
-for years to come. They would be sorry for it, he added. If the Anarchists
-had won in Chicago, he further stated, all the other large cities would have
-fallen into line, and wretchedness and poverty would have been banished
-forever.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-271.jpg" width="400" height="73" id="i271"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">IRON BOLT FOUND IN LINGG’S TRUNK. <span class="smcap wn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-<p class="pf400 reduct">Designed, according to Lingg’s own statement, to connect the halves of a composition bomb weighing
-twelve pounds. “The Haymarket bomb,” said he, “killed six. The one which I was going to make with
-that bolt would kill six dozen.” Four such bolts were found.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>After Lingg had been taken away from the Ambrose Street house, Gustav
-and Kate Klein became anxious about their friend. They traced him
-to the Chicago Avenue Station and called there later in the day, after
-his arrest. When they reached the office I questioned them, although they
-were not under arrest, and they answered without hesitancy. They stated
-that Lingg had come to their house on the 7th of May, and had remained
-indoors nearly all the time up to his arrest that day&mdash;May 14. He had
-only been out twice to secure books from some neighbors, and he had felt
-measurably safe in the locality. This section, it was found, as already<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>
-stated, was a hotbed of Anarchy, and as the neighbors knew the man, they
-were anxious to protect him. It had even been whispered in the locality
-that he was the one who had thrown the bomb at the Haymarket, but,
-knowing that he was a man not to be trifled with, and out of sympathy for
-the cause, none would betray him. He could not have selected a better
-place for concealment. Mr. Klein had known him for some time and had
-noticed a great change in him since the Haymarket bloodshed.</p>
-
-<p>“He was always cheerful,” he said, “up to that time, but since then he
-acted very strangely. He would not converse with any one, but always
-sought to be alone. Whenever any one came near the house he was
-uneasy.”</p>
-
-<p>“I noticed that too,” interposed Mrs. Klein. “He always used to fool
-and play with me before the Haymarket event, and was good company,
-but since then he was a changed man altogether.”</p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Klein described the scene of Lingg’s arrest, and told how at first
-she had regarded it simply as fun between two friends, and how frightened she
-had become when she discovered that it was a serious affair. She also
-described the terrible look which came over Lingg’s face when he found himself
-powerless to fire the revolver.</p>
-
-<p>I subsequently thought it best to bring Lingg face to face with one of
-his former comrades, who had furnished information about him, and this
-was accordingly done. The moment he was brought into the presence of
-the informer his face assumed a terrible scowl, but he remained obstinately
-silent.</p>
-
-<p>One day Lingg was again brought into the office, and I questioned him
-as to the real strength of the Anarchists in the city and country.</p>
-
-<p>He smiled and said:</p>
-
-<p>“Don’t you know that yet? This I cannot answer, but I will tell you
-that you only know the noisy fellows. The real Anarchists in this city or
-country you do not know yet, because they are not ready to take hold, but
-you will be taken by surprise unless you die soon. I only hope that I will
-live long enough to see this hidden power show its strength.”</p>
-
-<p>During the time Lingg remained at the station his hand was regularly
-attended to, he was treated very kindly, had plenty to eat, and was made as
-comfortable as possible. All these attentions somewhat mollified his bitterness
-against us.</p>
-
-<p>Some time after the other interviews, I visited him and asked him if he
-entertained any hostility towards the police. He replied that during the
-McCormick factory riot he had been clubbed by an officer, but he did not
-care so much for that. He could forget it all, but he did not like Bonfield.
-If it had not been for Bonfield, he said, the street-car men, in their strike
-in the summer of 1885, would have had things all their own way, and that
-would have changed everything all over the city in a business way.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“If I could only kill Bonfield,” he vehemently declared, “I would be
-ready to die within five minutes afterwards.”</p>
-
-<p>Lingg was a singular Anarchist. In every act and word he showed no
-care for himself, but he always expressed sympathy for men who had families
-and who were in trouble. He showed that he was a man with a will,
-and that if he set his mind to the accomplishment of an end he would bend
-all his energies to attain it.</p>
-
-<p>There was another peculiarity about Lingg which distinguished him
-from the rest of his associates. Although he drank beer, he never drank to
-excess, and he frowned upon the use of bad or indecent language. He
-was an admirer of the fair sex, and they reciprocated his admiration, his
-manly form, handsome face and pleasing manners captivating all.</p>
-
-<p>On the 27th of May, Lingg and Engel were taken in a patrol wagon to
-the Harrison Street Station, where the “art gallery” of the Police Department
-was kept, to have their photographs taken. On the way, Loewenstein
-remarked to Lingg:</p>
-
-<p>“Louis, you want to look your prettiest, so that you will make a good
-picture.”</p>
-
-<p>“What difference does it make whether a dead man’s picture looks good
-or bad,” was the reply, uttered in a most serious manner and in a strong
-tone of voice.</p>
-
-<p>From the gallery the Anarchists were driven to the County Jail, and
-that was the last time they ever saw the streets of Chicago or breathed the
-air outside of prison walls.</p>
-
-<p>From the day Lingg entered the jail he became surly and ugly to all the
-officers, but he implicitly obeyed all prison rules. He held himself aloof
-from everybody except his fellow Anarchists, and would have nothing to say
-to any one except his friends or his sweetheart.</p>
-
-<p>Lingg was very fond of children, and when those of Neebe, Schwab or
-others called at the jail he would play with them and seemed to extract
-much amusement from their little pranks and antics.</p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Klein often visited him and always brought a baby, in which Lingg
-seemed to take a special interest. Lingg and Mrs. Klein conversed freely
-together, and he seemed to enjoy her visits greatly. Whenever she called
-she brought him fruit of the season and choice edibles with which to vary
-his prison fare.</p>
-
-<p>Lingg and his associates proved quite a drawing card, and Anarchists
-from all parts of the country called at the jail. But while his fellows
-appeared pleased to hold receptions, so to speak, Lingg did not desire the
-company of strangers. He gave his time only to the few ladies who called
-on him and to his nearest friends. He disliked being gaped at by curiosity-seekers,
-and when he had no good friend to keep him company he traveled
-the corridors of the jail beyond the reach of public gaze. He also whiled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span>
-time away by cutting pretty little carvings out of cigar-boxes with his jack-knife,
-and in this he displayed considerable ingenuity. Tiring of this
-diversion, he would pick up a book or a paper; but, however monotonous
-prison life at times became, he never thrust himself before the visitors’ cage
-to pose before the idle throng. Many callers came to sympathize with
-Lingg as well as to admire his handsome physique, and, as he would not
-allow his hair to be cut after his incarceration, his flowing, curly locks added
-to his picturesque appearance.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-274.jpg" width="250" height="316" id="i274"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">LINGG’S SWEETHEART.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>But there was one visitor he always welcomed. It was his sweetheart,
-whose acquaintance he had made before his arrest, and who became a regular
-caller. She invariably wore a pleasant smile, breathed soft, loving
-words into his ears through the wire
-screen that separated the visitors’ cage
-from the jail corridor, and contributed
-much toward keeping him cheerful.
-This girl had lived at one time with
-a family on West Lake Street, in the
-heart of an Anarchist camp, but, for
-some reason, while her lover was at the
-Chicago Avenue Station she never paid
-him a visit. The second day after he
-had been locked up at the County Jail
-she promptly made her appearance,
-however, and became a regular visitor.
-She simply passed with the jail officials
-at first as “Lingg’s girl,” but one day
-some one called her Ida Miller, and
-thereafter she was recognized under
-that name. She was generally accompanied
-by young Miss Engel, the
-daughter of Anarchist Engel, and during the last four months of her lover’s
-incarceration she could be seen every afternoon entering the jail. She was
-always readily admitted until the day the bombs were found in Lingg’s cell.
-After that neither she nor Mr. and Mrs. Klein were admitted. While it has
-never been satisfactorily proven who it was that introduced the bombs into
-the jail, it is likely that they were smuggled into Lingg’s hands by his sweetheart.
-She enjoyed Lingg’s fullest confidence, and regarded his every wish.</p>
-
-<p>It is not known whether Miller is the real name of the girl, but it
-is supposed to be Elise Friedel. She is a German, and was twenty-two
-years of age at the time, her birthplace being Mannheim, which was also
-Lingg’s native town. She was robust in appearance, with fair complexion,
-and dark hair. She had quite a penchant for beer, and could sit in a crowd
-of her Anarchist friends and drink “schnitts” with the proficiency of a veteran.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>
-She always entertained hope of executive clemency, but when Lingg
-died at his own hands she somewhat surprisingly failed to evince great sorrow.
-Perhaps the consciousness of having aided him in escaping the gallows
-had prepared her for the worst.</p>
-
-<p>Lingg’s terrible death did not perceptibly change her demeanor. She
-was seen at several dances shortly afterwards, and seemed to enjoy herself
-as much as anybody. She even danced with detectives, unconscious of
-their calling, and, in jesting with them, her laugh was as hearty and ringing
-as though she were bent on capturing a new beau.</p>
-
-<p>During all the long, weary days Lingg remained in jail his demeanor was
-the same as during the trial&mdash;cool, collected and unconcerned. No special
-trouble apparently burdened his mind. His constant companions&mdash;whenever
-they were permitted to be together&mdash;were Engel and Fischer. They
-appeared to believe that their fellow prisoners and co-conspirators would
-turn on them to save their own lives.</p>
-
-<p>The statement Lingg made, on the 14th of May, omitting the part pertaining
-to his occupation, age and residence, was as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“Whenever I did any work at home [Seliger’s house] I did it as carefully
-as possible, so that no one could see me. I did make dynamite bombs
-out of gas-pipe, and I generally found the gas-pipe on the street. Finding
-them two or three feet long, I would cut them into pieces. After cutting
-them about six inches long I would fill them with dynamite and attach a
-fuse to each. I then would call them bombs.”</p>
-
-<p>“Who showed or taught you how to make those bombs?”</p>
-
-<p>“No one. I learned it from books.”</p>
-
-<p>“What books?”</p>
-
-<p>“I read it in a book published by Herr Most of New York. It explains
-how to make dynamite and other articles used in war. I once had four
-bombs in my dinner-box&mdash;two were loaded and two empty. I bought two
-pounds of the stuff on Lake Street, near Dearborn. I also bought one coil
-of fuse and one box of caps at the same place, and that is all I bought. I
-paid 65 cents for the box of caps, 60 cents for two pounds of dynamite, and
-50 cents for the coil of fuse.”</p>
-
-<p>“Did you work all the material into the bombs?”</p>
-
-<p>“No, there is some of it left in my trunk. I do not deny making bombs.
-I made them for the purpose of being used in a war or a revolution during
-these workingmen’s troubles. The bombs found in my room I intended to
-use myself. I have been at August Spies’ office several times, and I have
-known him for some time. I always received the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, and I
-like to read it. I made some of those round lead bombs. I made the
-molds myself and cast the bombs. The iron bolts I used to connect and
-hold them together I bought in a hardware store. I bought five small ones
-and two big ones. I could only use the molds to cast bombs with a few
-times; then they would be useless. At the time I bought the dynamite I
-was alone. On Tuesday night, May 4, Seliger and I were on Larrabee
-Street, between Clybourn Avenue and the city limits, and we remained
-there until about ten o’clock. We then went home and had several glasses
-of beer. We did not meet any one we knew. We were on Larrabee<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>
-Street all the time. When we came home Mrs. Seliger was abed. I was
-at the meeting held in the hall at No. 71 West Lake Street, Monday night,
-May 3. I saw there the circular which called the workingmen to arms and
-to seek revenge on the police because they had killed six of our brothers
-at McCormick’s factory on that day. I also attended a meeting the same
-night, at No. 54 West Lake Street, which was held by the armed sections.
-I was out to Lake View and tried one of my dynamite bombs to find out
-what strength it had. I put the bomb in a tree between two limbs. I lit
-the fuse; the bomb exploded and split the tree, damaging it considerably. I
-had my hair cut, and mustache and whiskers shaven off, about May 8th or
-9th. I want to say right here to you men that I did make dynamite bombs
-and intended to use them.</p></div>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-276.jpg" width="250" height="224" id="i276"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">CAN OF ENGLISH DYNAMITE AND LADLE.<br />
-<span class="wnn">Used by Lingg in Casting Bombs. From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>I am down on capital and capitalists. I knew
-that if we sought our rights&mdash;I mean the workingmen&mdash;they would turn out
-the police and militia against us with their Gatling guns and cannon. We
-knew that we could not defend ourselves with our revolvers, and therefore
-turned to the adoption of
-dynamite. For one, I was
-not going to get hurt. I
-made bombs of lead and
-bombs of metal, and I made
-them with the two materials
-mixed. I tried both the lead
-and gas-pipe bombs, and I
-found that they could do
-good service. If you cut the
-fuse ten inches long and light
-it you can run away forty
-steps before the explosion
-takes place. The armed men
-of the so-called International
-Group of the North Side
-always met at Greif’s Hall,
-No. 54 West Lake Street.
-We used to go to the Shooting
-Park in Lake View and
-shoot at targets on Sundays.
-I have been there about ten times. I admit that the two Lehmans came
-to see me at my room at No. 442 Sedgwick Street, and I will confess that
-on Tuesday, May 4, six men came to my room to see me.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">At this interview there were present, besides myself, Furthmann, Stift,
-Rehm, Loewenstein, Schuettler and Hoffman. On the 17th of May, Lingg
-again remarked to Officer Schuettler that he regretted that he had not had
-a chance to kill him.</p>
-
-<p>On the 24th of May Lingg and Hubner were brought together, and
-Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann asked the latter if he knew the
-bomb-maker.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, yes, I was at his room on Tuesday afternoon, May 4, helping him
-to make dynamite bombs, and what I stated in my affidavit is true.”</p>
-
-<p>Lingg scowled furiously, and emphatically denied the statement. All<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>
-he could be made to say in explanation of the affair, however, was that he
-“had been a Socialist all his life and ever since he could think.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Ernst Hubner</span> was arrested by Officers Schuettler and Whalen on
-the morning of May 18, at six o’clock, while he was on his way to his
-work. He is a German by birth and a carpenter by trade, and worked
-for a man by the name of Schombel, on the corner of Clybourn Avenue and
-Larrabee Street. He was about forty years of age, married, wore very
-shabby clothes, and lived, at the time of his arrest, at No. 11 Mohawk
-Street, in three small and dirty rooms. His house was searched, and the
-officers found one breech-loading rifle, one large 44-caliber Remington
-revolver and half a pailful of ammunition for both guns. While they
-were searching the house, Mrs. Hubner, a sickly, delicate woman, said to
-Officer Schuettler:</p>
-
-<p>“My dear man, if my husband had gone more to his shop and to work
-instead of running to meetings, you would not find my house in this shape.
-I am all broken up. I am sick, and now he is arrested. I suppose this is
-the last of our family.”</p>
-
-<p>The search still going on, Mrs. Hubner crossed the room to a closet,
-saying to Schuettler:</p>
-
-<p>“Here, officers, take this devil’s print out of my house. This is what
-my husband prayed with night and day, and what got him into trouble. If
-you don’t want to take it, I will throw it into the stove. I don’t want any
-more families made miserable by it.”</p>
-
-<p>The officer opened the bundle, and the first thing he saw was a picture
-of the burly face of John Most. This led to the exchange of a few pleasantries
-between the officers.</p>
-
-<p>“I have got him,” shouted Schuettler.</p>
-
-<p>When Officer Whalen got a glimpse of the portrait, which was printed
-on the cover of a pamphlet, and not knowing what the title on the cover
-had reference to, as it was printed in German, or whom the picture represented,
-he facetiously remarked:</p>
-
-<p>“I see the face of a Scotch terrier.”</p>
-
-<p>“You fool,” replied Schuettler, with a twinkle in his eye, “that is
-Johann Most.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well,” retorted Whalen, “if that is the great Anarchist, he ought to
-have two more legs. He’d make a fine ratter.”</p>
-
-<p>In the bundle were found a number of Communistic, Socialistic and
-Anarchistic documents, and a complete collection of hand-bills of all
-the meetings that had been held for years past. Hubner had been an
-active worker at all times. He would post bills, carry hand-bills and do
-any kind of work for the “good of the cause.” No meetings were ever
-held too far from his home. He was well known in all the “groups” and
-to all the leaders. He attended all the picnics and parades. Nothing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>
-delighted him more than to carry the big banner belonging to the International
-Carpenters’ Union No. 1. How he strutted and flaunted that banner
-as he passed churches, police stations and the residences of the wealthy.
-Next to Most’s book, that banner was his principal source of inspiration.
-He would even neglect his meals for the sake of bearing aloft that crimson
-standard. Whether this was the cause of his emaciated look at the time
-of his arrest is problematical, but certain it is his appearance, when
-brought before me, indicated want and starvation, and his voice was weak
-and husky.</p>
-
-<p>“From what I can hear about you,” I said, “it appears that you are
-one of the ‘boys.’”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, well,” drawled Hubner, “you may hear a great deal.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes,” I replied, “I hear so much it keeps me busy thinking.”</p>
-
-<p>“Have you been thinking any of me?” queried Hubner.</p>
-
-<p>“I have, and I think you are the worst I have heard of yet.”</p>
-
-<p>“Ah, but you have got others far more dangerous than I am.”</p>
-
-<p>“If you want to give credit to any one else, name the parties.”</p>
-
-<p>Hubner finally stated that only on the evening previous, at a meeting of
-the Carpenters’ Union, a member had said that their attorneys, Messrs.
-Salomon &amp; Zeisler, held that there was no law to convict any one, and that
-they would secure the release of the “boys” as fast as the police locked
-them up. They advised all to “keep their mouths shut,” and that, in the
-event of an arrest, the police could not hold them longer than two days.</p>
-
-<p>“Do you want to try that and see how it works?” I asked.</p>
-
-<p>“That’s what I want,” responded Hubner, bent on an experiment.</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I guarantee you,” said I smilingly, “that you will remain here
-with us as long as we like your company. When we get tired of you we
-will send you to the big jail. Officer, take this man and tell the lockup-keeper
-that he will probably stay with us a week.”</p>
-
-<p>Hubner was escorted down stairs, given a good cell and allowed to metaphorically
-wrap “that banner” around him as he lay down to dream of
-Anarchy. Things got monotonous, however. The very next day he sent
-word that he desired to see me. He was brought up and made a long
-statement. He assured me that every word was true, that he would face
-any of those mentioned and defy them to contradict his assertions. He
-told the day and date of almost every transaction. He said he would
-swear to everything he had stated.</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t believe in a God,” he added, “but when I swear, I understand
-that if I should tell a lie or an untruth I can be punished for it. I am disgusted
-with the way things are now. There are no more brave men.”</p>
-
-<p>After a few days he was released by order of the State’s Attorney.
-Before leaving, he promised that he would testify in court in accordance
-with his statement, and afterwards, for a time, he was on hand whenever
-sent for.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The parties arrested were required to report regularly. At the commencement
-of the trial, they were all kept in a large room in the station,
-where ten officers guarded them night and day. They were taken out for
-exercise every evening, but were not allowed to talk to any one. Their
-wives had the privilege of seeing them, but an officer was always present to
-hear what was said.</p>
-
-<p>Hubner after a time showed signs of weakening. He had been seen by
-the attorneys for the defense and changed his mind. He also began talking
-to others, urging them not to testify. He finally said he would not
-take the stand, and, as he was not wanted to testify, he was again released.
-After the trial he went back to his comrades, attended some of their
-meetings and talked for the cause. When the time approached for the
-execution, he suddenly left the city, and subsequently sent for his family.
-He has returned to Chicago, however, and is working on Division and
-Clark Streets, in a little carpenter-shop.</p>
-
-<p>The following is his statement, to the correctness of which he would
-have testified had he not been a poltroon and a simpleton. It fully bears
-out the truth of the witnesses who appeared for the State during the trial
-as to the conspiracy and the parties thereto:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I know Gottfried Waller. I belong to the armed men. I know George
-Engel. At one time he published a paper called the <i>Anarchist</i>. I know
-Louis Lingg. I was at Greif’s Hall, 54 West Lake Street, Monday afternoon
-about five o’clock. I left there at nine o’clock and got home at eleven
-the same night. I read and saw a circular that called for revenge and to
-arm ourselves. I saw August Spies in the hall, and he told us that the police
-had been shooting our workingmen at McCormick’s, and we should be ready
-with our arms. Then Rau came into the meeting, very much excited and
-said that a number of our people had been shot at McCormick’s by the
-police. He called us to arms. Then Rau and Spies left the hall together.
-Both were much excited. The speech and talking of Spies in the hall happened
-in this way. Spies would catch a man alone and talk about the
-shooting, or when he saw a crowd of four or five standing together he would
-talk to them to excite them and urge them on. The effect of his talking to
-us brought our temper to such heat that I and others were ready to take
-revenge on the police officers and the law. And we would have done almost
-anything to get revenge. If Spies and Rau had there and then started out
-and we had had our arms with us, we would have followed them to do harm
-at once.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Such was the confession the brave Hubner first made to the police. On
-the 18th of May he made a second statement, as follows, adding a few
-further details as to the conspiracy:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“On Tuesday, May 4, about 4 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span>, I went to the house of William
-Seliger, at 442 Sedgwick Street, and there I found William Seliger and
-Louis Lingg. I had been in Seliger’s house the day before, and I took
-along with me when I left three bombs&mdash;that is, three empty shells. Lingg
-also gave me the dynamite with which to fill them. Not knowing how, I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>
-was afraid to fill them, and I brought them back to Lingg to fill them for
-me. When I got there, Seliger and Lingg were working, filling bombs or
-shells with dynamite. I went to work and helped them and got the bombs
-ready for use. They had some of them filled when I got there, but in all
-they filled and finished twenty round lead or metal bombs and about fifteen
-or eighteen long ones&mdash;that is, I mean to say, made of gas-pipe, about six
-inches or more long. I saw there a lot more of dynamite and fuse. As I
-went away from there&mdash;Seliger’s house&mdash;that evening, I took along with
-me four long bombs, but before I left we had all the bombs finished, ready
-for use. I saw about six men at 5 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span> in Seliger’s house, and when any
-one came Lingg always went to the door and waited upon them. That
-evening, May 4, at eight o’clock, I went to Neff’s Hall, 58 Clybourn
-Avenue, and when I had been there only a few minutes I saw Lingg,
-Seliger and a little stout man, who carried a heavy satchel with a gray cloth
-cover. They came in together in Neff’s Hall and placed the satchel in a
-little hallway leading to a ‘gents’ closet.’ I was sent to Neff’s Hall to see
-and report if there were many of our armed men in the hall who were waiting
-for bombs. As I had not been there long enough to find out and report
-back, Lingg and Seliger got tired of waiting at 442 Sedgwick Street and
-brought the satchel filled with bombs to Neff’s Hall themselves. When
-Lingg saw me he came up to me and found fault with me for not reporting
-back sooner. He said there might have been lots of people there who
-failed to get bombs or shells. After that I went to supper, since Lingg
-was in the hall to look after things himself. The men I saw there were
-Hageman and Hermann. On Monday night, May 3, I was at Greif’s Hall,
-54 West Lake Street, up to ten o’clock, and afterwards I also went into the
-saloon. There were about forty men sitting and standing around the bar-room.
-Someone called out that the so-called armed sections should go
-down into the basement, as there would be a meeting for them. Then forty
-of us went down, and we decided to hold a meeting there. This was about
-nine o’clock in the evening. Gottfried Waller was chosen president.
-George Engel was one of the speakers and originator of the plan then and
-there given to us to shoot and kill people and destroy property. He told
-us what to do and began in this way. He asked us if we knew about his
-plan. The majority said ‘no.’ Then he began to tell us that his plan was
-to call a meeting for the next evening at the Haymarket, and there draw
-out as many police as possible, so that the outside parts of the city would
-not be strongly protected by the police. The signal for action would be
-given, and they should set fire to buildings in several places and in all parts
-of the city. One building at Wicker Park was mentioned, and as soon as
-they saw it on fire, then they should attack the police stations, throw dynamite
-bombs into the stations, kill the police officers and destroy the stations.
-In case a patrol wagon came, they should throw a bomb among the policemen,
-and if that did not stop them, then they should kill the horses attached
-to the wagons with their revolvers or guns. After that they should destroy
-all the property they could. The circular that called for revenge and to
-arms I saw at the Monday night meeting in the basement, 54 West Lake
-Street, where Engel spoke and gave us the plan of revolution. The lying
-of Engel about the killing of six of our brothers at McCormick’s factory
-started me so that I was ready to do anything desperate. The speech of
-Engel in the basement that evening worked on me so that I went to Seliger’s
-house on Tuesday afternoon, May 4, and helped to finish the bombs,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span>
-as I stated before. George Engel told those that had no arms to stay at
-home away from the Haymarket meeting, and that men who had arms but
-no courage should also stay at home. In that meeting there were present
-Adolph Fischer, Gottfried Waller, George Engel, Breitenfeld, Schnaubelt,
-John Thielen, Abraham Hermann, Herman Hageman, the two Lehmans and
-Hubner. Waller told us to go ahead and do our work, that he would be
-with us. The meeting lasted from nine o’clock to eleven.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-281.jpg" width="400" height="342" id="i281"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">MUNTZENBERG PEDDLING BOMBS AND BOOKS.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Fischer and others agreed to have the circular printed calling the meeting at the Haymarket
-for Tuesday night, May 4. After all the plans had been explained
-to us Fischer said ‘That is the one’&mdash;meaning the murderous plan&mdash;‘that we
-adopted in our group meeting.’ Every division group were to make their
-own arrangements. The North Side armed men should meet Tuesday
-evening, May 4, at the foot of Webster Avenue and Lincoln Park, at the
-Schiller monument. I went there. I could not find enough of our people
-there, as the night was dark and those present were scattered. I got tired
-of waiting for others. The four bombs I had with me that night I took to
-the North Avenue Pier and threw them into the lake. Then I went home
-and went to bed. This was about ten o’clock. I did not hear anything of
-the shooting or the explosion of the bomb or the killing of the policemen at
-the Haymarket until the next morning when I got up. I went home so
-early on that evening because I had a headache from the smell of the dynamite<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span>
-used in filling the bombs. We filled thirty-five in all. The word
-‘Ruhe’ was intended as the signal word. If it should appear in the
-<i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> May 4, in the ‘Briefkasten,’ then that would be a notification
-to be ready for the revolution. We were to watch also for the fire and
-shooting signals as well as the appearance of that word in the paper. We
-were then all to get ready. I only know of Lingg as a manufacturer of
-bombs. The plan was presented to the men to go and blow up the Chicago
-Avenue Station. Also many others were to blow up the Larrabee Street
-Station and the Webster Avenue Station. The work I did on the bombs
-was drilling holes in them. This statement I make of my own free will and
-accord in the presence of the officers named, and it is true and correct.
-And I furthermore will say that I will not take any bribe to change my
-statement or make denials; neither will I leave the city or the State as long
-as this case is pending in court, unless I have the consent of Capt. Schaack;
-that I always will be ready to give testimony for the people, whenever I am
-called on in this case, and that I will never make a second statement, that
-is to say, to a notary public or a justice of the peace, in writing or verbally;
-that I will only make a statement under oath for the grand jury of the Criminal
-Court, or Capt. M. J. Schaack.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Here follow the signature, etc., and the notarial acknowledgment.</p>
-
-<p>On the 24th of May, Hubner, among other things, stated that he knew
-Herman Muntzenberg.</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I met him,” he said, “as I was carrying around hand-bills for the
-meeting called May 4 at the Haymarket. Muntzenberg went with me to
-Seliger’s house that afternoon. We saw Lingg and Seliger making the
-dynamite bombs, and we helped them to make them. Muntzenberg and I
-spent about three hours in Seliger’s house that afternoon. Muntzenberg
-was there when it was stated that the dynamite bombs should be carried
-down to Neff’s Hall, 58 Clybourn Avenue, that night. Muntzenberg and I,
-by order of Lingg, went down to Neff’s Hall to see how things looked there
-and report back to him. That is why Muntzenberg went to meet Lingg
-and Seliger to help them to carry the bombs to Neff’s place.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Since the trial I have learned that Hubner knew a great deal more than
-he divulged in his confession, and that he was one of the parties chosen to
-aid in blowing up the Webster Avenue Station.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XV.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">Engel in the Toils&mdash;His Character and Rough Eloquence&mdash;Facing his
-Accusers&mdash;Waller’s Confession&mdash;The Work of the Lehr und Wehr Verein&mdash;A
-Dangerous Organization&mdash;The Romance of Conspiracy&mdash;Organization of the Armed
-Sections&mdash;Plans and Purposes&mdash;Rifles Bought in St. Louis&mdash;The Picnics at Sheffield&mdash;A
-Dynamite Drill&mdash;The Attack on McCormick’s&mdash;A Frightened Anarchist&mdash;Lehman
-in the Calaboose&mdash;Information from many Quarters&mdash;The Cost of Revolvers&mdash;Lorenz
-Hermann’s Story&mdash;Some Expert Lying.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap06">ENOUGH was at this time known to make George Engel a mark for
-speedy police attention. It had been established beyond a doubt that
-he was one of the central figures in the conspiracy, and it was not long before
-a warrant was secured charging him with murder. I detailed Officers
-Stift and Whalen to serve the document, and they found him at his home,
-No. 286 Milwaukee Avenue. He was a man about fifty years old, stoutly
-built, round-shouldered, weighing about 170 pounds, and about five feet
-eight inches in height. He was married and had a daughter about sixteen
-years of age. He was by trade a painter, but he and his wife conducted a toy-store
-at the place where they lived. In addition to toys, they sold cigars
-and tobacco. The building he lived in was a two-story frame, and his support
-came principally from his business. He always claimed to be a very
-good friend of policemen, many of whom he said he knew, and they all, he
-claimed, liked him. He was very radical in his ideas, however, and at all
-times took an active interest in Anarchist meetings. In fact, he was one of
-the most rabid of them all. He was a successful organizer and a hard, persistent
-worker for the cause. He was one of the most positive, determined
-speakers in the German language in Chicago. He could hold a house all
-night, and his auditors were always charmed with his ingenious argument,
-his powerful invective and his captivating sophistry. He was well read on
-all topics bearing upon Anarchy, had a wonderful memory, and he could
-always promptly give a plausible “reason for the faith that was in him.”
-His speeches were always plain, and, although he talked rapidly, he spoke
-with a directness and force that took complete possession of the illiterate and
-unthinking rabble. He could work up his auditors to the point of desperation,
-and with a word he could have sent them out to pillage and murder.
-It was his brain alone that evolved the gigantic plan of murdering hundreds
-of people and laying waste thousands of dollars’ worth of property in Chicago,
-and the fact that he found so many willing to execute his purpose
-fully proved his power and influence over his Anarchist followers. Like all
-rabid Anarchists, he had no use for clergymen or the church, Sisters of Charity
-or anything else that had a tinge of religion in it. He called them
-all hypocrites and frauds. He was a great admirer of Louise Michel, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span>
-French Anarchist, because of her fearlessness and courage, and he never
-failed to bestow words of praise on Most, whose work he fairly worshiped.
-The organs of the Anarchists in Chicago he did not think radical enough,
-and so he ventured to publish a paper of his own called the <i>Anarchist</i>,
-which, however, did not survive long. He was known as an honest man in
-all his dealings with his fellow-men, earnest in his convictions, but withal a
-most dangerous leader and most unrelenting in his hatred of existing
-society, and thoroughly unscrupulous in the methods to be used to bring
-about a change.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-284.jpg" width="250" height="354" id="i284"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">GEORGE ENGEL.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph taken by the Police.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Engel was always cool and collected, rarely exhibiting signs of excitement.
-This fact was brought out most
-strikingly when the officers found him
-at his home, on the 18th of May, at
-five o’clock, and informed him that
-they had a warrant for his arrest on
-the charge of murder. He was painting
-in his house at the time, and, turning
-to the officers with a smile on his
-face, he nonchalantly remarked:</p>
-
-<p>“Well, this is very strange.”</p>
-
-<p>The officers then told him that I
-desired to see him immediately, and
-he responded that if that was the case
-he supposed he must go with them.</p>
-
-<p>When he arrived at the station he
-was informed again of the nature of
-the charge against him, and the floor,
-so to speak, was accorded him for any
-explanations he might desire to make.</p>
-
-<p>“I am the most innocent man in
-the world,” he began, in a slow, deliberate
-voice. “I could not hurt a child or see any one hurt.”</p>
-
-<p>Engel was then subjected to some close questioning, and all he could
-be made to say was this:</p>
-
-<p>“On Monday, May 3, I was working for a friend of mine named Koch.
-I was doing some painting for him that evening between the hours of eight
-and nine o’clock. I then went to a meeting at Greif’s Hall, 54 West Lake
-Street. The meeting was held in the basement. I don’t know Mr. Waller.
-I do not belong to the Northwest Side group. I don’t belong to any armed
-men. I don’t know of any plan or conspiracy. I did not give any plan at
-that meeting. I was there at the meeting only a little while. I did not
-speak there, nor had I anything to say to any one. I did not, and was not
-authorized by any one to give a plan.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>He thus flatly contradicted every charge and seemed determined to put
-a bold front upon the situation. Confronted by the facts, he never winced,
-but kept up a bold exterior. He was then locked up at the station. Subsequently
-his wife called and met him in my office.</p>
-
-<p>“Papa, see what trouble you have got yourself into,” she sadly
-remarked.</p>
-
-<p>“Mamma,” he responded, “I cannot help it. What is in me must
-come out.”</p>
-
-<p>“Why,” I interposed, “don’t you stop that nonsense?”</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-285.jpg" width="250" height="372" id="i285"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">MISS MARY ENGEL.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>“I know,” replied Engel, “I have promised my wife so many times that
-I would stop it. But I cannot do it.
-I cannot help it that I am possessed of
-some eloquence and enthusiasm. It
-is a curse to some people to be possessed
-of this knowledge. I cannot
-help it that I am gifted in that way. I
-am not the first man that has been
-locked up for this cause, but I will bear
-it like a man. Louise Michel is a great
-woman. She has been locked up and
-suffered for principle. I am willing to
-do the same.”</p>
-
-<p>When Engel was asked where he
-had been on Tuesday evening, May 4,
-he responded: “At home all night,
-lying on a lounge.”</p>
-
-<p>Two days after Engel’s arrest I
-secured a statement&mdash;in addition to
-that of Hubner&mdash;from Gottfried Waller,
-implicating the nervy Anarchist
-in the conspiracy in connection with
-“the plan.”</p>
-
-<p>I therefore thought it best to have Engel face his accuser, Waller, and,
-on the evening of May 24, at 9:30 o’clock, the two men were brought together
-in my office. Mr. Furthmann, who was present, with the officers, asked
-Engel, the moment he was brought in, if he knew the party before him.
-Engel, without the slightest hesitancy or tremor, answered in the negative.
-He was next asked if he had not attended the meeting at No. 54 West
-Lake Street, and Engel stated that he had come in late during the proceedings.</p>
-
-<p>Waller then reiterated his charge, that Engel was not only a speaker on
-that occasion, but the man who had submitted a plan for murder and destruction.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“In fact,” said Waller, “you were the only man who urged a revolution
-and spoke about your plan.”</p>
-
-<p>When questioned as to what he had to say to this, Engel retorted that
-“it was not true,” as he had not been authorized by any one to propose a
-plan. Inasmuch as the accusation of Waller failed to make any perceptible
-impression on Engel’s mind, I decided to see how the presence of another
-accuser would affect his deportment and answers. Accordingly Ernst Hubner
-was asked if he would face Engel, and, an answer being given firmly in
-the affirmative, Engel was again brought back into the office. There were
-present at this, as well as at the former interview, Furthmann, Whalen,
-Stift, Schuettler, Hoffman, Loewenstein and Rehm. The moment Engel
-was brought up by an officer, Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann asked
-Hubner if he was acquainted with Engel. Hubner replied, “Yes, I know
-him.”</p>
-
-<p>Addressing Engel, I said:</p>
-
-<p>“This is Ernst Hubner. He says that he knows you, and he also has
-made a statement against you.”</p>
-
-<p>Engel replied that he did not know the man, whereupon Hubner reiterated
-his acquaintanceship, and added:</p>
-
-<p>“Your name is Engel, and you keep a toy-store on Milwaukee Avenue.
-You made speeches at 58 Clybourn Avenue. I saw and heard you several
-times. I saw you in a meeting May 3, 9 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span>, at 54 West Lake Street.”</p>
-
-<p>“Engel,” I interrupted, “listen, and I will read you what Hubner said
-about you.”</p>
-
-<p>Engel assented, and the statement of Hubner, as already given, was
-read.</p>
-
-<p>“It is false,” replied Engel; “but if that good man says I did say so,
-then you can believe him. I do not care.”</p>
-
-<p>“Where did you see Engel last?” inquired Furthmann of Hubner.</p>
-
-<p>“I saw him at the meeting held at Greif’s Hall, 54 West Lake Street,
-where I heard him speak about the revenge circular and his plan, which he
-said had been adopted by the Northwest Side group. He spoke of the
-plan as I have heretofore explained in my affidavit to the officers.”</p>
-
-<p>“You still say that that affidavit is true in every respect?”</p>
-
-<p>“I do,” emphatically replied Hubner.</p>
-
-<p>“It is not so, and it is not true,” stoutly replied Engel.</p>
-
-<p>“Well,” said I, “there are other people, and we will have more, who
-will prove that you did make a revolutionary speech and submitted a plan
-calling on your people to get ready with their arms and do violence. If
-other witnesses are produced, will you still have the same answer to
-give?”</p>
-
-<p>“It would not be true; it is not so,” reiterated Engel.</p>
-
-<p>“But,” I added, “suppose I produce twenty more men who will accuse<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span>
-you the same as Waller and Hubner have accused you, what then would you
-have to say?”</p>
-
-<p>“My answer,” responded Engel, “would be that I have never spoken as
-charged against me. It is not true.”</p>
-
-<p>Engel had evidently made up his mind to deny everything, and, knowing
-his character for stubbornness, I made no further efforts to secure a statement
-from him. A man who could originate such a cold-blooded scheme as
-he had proposed&mdash;and part of it was actually carried out in bloodshed&mdash;was
-evidently not the kind to yield, and I allowed him to ruminate over his predicament
-in a cell below until the 27th of May, when he was sent to the
-County Jail. As will subsequently appear, he never showed signs of weakness
-during his incarceration from the time he was taken from his house
-that night until he dropped from the
-gallows, dying the hardest of them all.
-A half dozen such men at a critical
-time could upset a whole city, and it
-was fortunate for Chicago that there
-were not more like him during the
-troublous days of 1886.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-287.jpg" width="250" height="325" id="i287"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">GOTTFRIED WALLER.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Some two days before Engel was
-brought in, <span class="smcap">Gottfried Waller</span> was
-arrested by Officer Whalen. It appeared
-that he had been selling revolvers
-to workingmen, and after being
-taken to the station, on the 14th of
-May, he was released on bail. His
-importance then as a conspicuous
-figure in the Monday night meeting,
-when the murderous “plan” was
-adopted, was not clearly apparent,
-but he was kept under surveillance
-and his antecedents carefully inquired
-into. Thielen, in his confession on the very day Waller was arrested,
-referred to him as having presided at that meeting, and, in describing
-a man who called at Lingg’s room on Tuesday afternoon, May 4, said
-he “believed he worked at Brunswick &amp; Balke’s factory.” Hubner, in his
-affidavit on the 18th of May, stated that Waller had presided on the occasion
-referred to, and had even urged them to go ahead and do their work, and he
-would be with them&mdash;meaning their work of destruction. On these and
-other facts a warrant was secured for his arrest for murder, and on the 20th
-of May he was again taken into custody by Officers Whalen and Stift. He
-was a Swiss by birth, a cabinet-maker by occupation, and worked at the
-Brunswick, Balke &amp; Collender billiard factory. His age at the time of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span>
-arrest was thirty-six years, and he was a married man with one child. At
-the time of his first arrest he was living at No. 590 Milwaukee Avenue, and
-at his second arrest he was found at No. 105 North Wells Street. He had
-been only three years in America, and had scarcely settled in Chicago before
-he began attending the Anarchist meetings. He always frequented the
-gatherings where Swiss people assembled, and on a search being made of
-their meeting-place, 105 North Wells Street, on the 7th of May, the police
-found twelve guns. It had been the headquarters for the most dangerous
-element in the order, and on Waller’s visiting the place after the trial of the
-Anarchists a serious attempt was made on his life. He was called a spy,
-and was pursued until he found safety under the shadow of the Chicago
-Avenue Station. Several parties were afterwards arrested for this assault.
-They subsequently threw a piece of iron through the window of the house
-where Waller was stopping, but this was the last futile exhibition of their
-rage.</p>
-
-<p>In view of his testimony, which appears further on in the review of the
-trial, Waller was given an unconditional release, and he has since conducted
-himself as a peaceable citizen.</p>
-
-<p>After his confession bearing directly on the principal parties in the conspiracy,
-Waller wrote out his experience with the Lehr und Wehr Verein
-in particular and his connection with Anarchy in general. His story is as
-follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“On the 25th of January, 1884, I arrived in Chicago from Easton, Pa.
-I lived sixteen months on Grove Avenue, Humboldt. I was never a Socialist
-or Anarchist. I understood very little of the former and nothing at all
-of the latter. After residing for a while at the place mentioned, I moved to
-Milwaukee Avenue, near No. 636, Thalia Hall, on that street. Here I
-noticed people uniformed and armed about twice a week. They would
-enter this hall, and, by making inquiries, I was informed that these people
-belonged to the second company of the Lehr und Wehr Verein and that they
-were a sort of ‘Schuetzen Verein,’ which practiced twice a week in the
-North Chicago Schuetzen Park (Sharpshooters’ Park). Their principles
-were kept secret. As I was an expert sharpshooter and had a passion for
-military exercises, I accepted an invitation from their commander to participate
-in their practices. We met on the following Sunday at Thalia
-Hall, at five o’clock in the morning, and continued for some time. We dispersed
-by each going in different directions toward the park, so as not to
-arouse any suspicion. On account of cold weather only fourteen of us
-came together. It was no fun to walk knee-deep in the snow; still we were
-feeling good since we were going to practice shooting. After several
-rounds of drinks, which were called for in payment of the stand we used on
-such occasions, we erected two targets and commenced practicing. I soon
-noticed that the company consisted of good marksmen, and that day I was
-pronounced the best marksman among them. After that I wanted to
-become a member of the Verein, as I had been asked several times by some
-of them to join.</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-289.jpg" width="400" height="249" id="i289"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">UNDERGROUND RIFLE PRACTICE.<br />
-<span class="wn smcap">A Meeting of the Lehr und Wehr Verein.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>I called at Thalia Hall one Monday evening and was
-taken to the cellar, which I entered through a secret door by means of a
-ladder. Here I saw thirty to thirty-five men practicing shooting at a
-target. The cellar was not well lighted except at the north end, where the
-targets stood. The people and all the surroundings looked quite adventurous
-to me. One of the members then approached me and asked if I was
-a Socialist. I answered, ‘Yes,’ in an off-hand way. The first sergeant of
-the company, August Krueger, told me beforehand to do this. I paid my
-initiation fee, got a red card numbered 19, by which number I was afterwards
-known, and I was then a member. All the members were very
-cautious before me on account of my not being well known to them. We
-practiced every Monday and Wednesday, drilling and shooting. I paid a
-great deal of attention to these exercises. I never missed a meeting, and
-consequently I soon gained the confidence of all the members.</p></div>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-290.jpg" width="200" height="73" id="i290"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">NUMBERED PLATES.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From Lehr und Wehr Verein Rifles.<br />
-From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>“At the first general meeting, which was held every last Tuesday of
-each month, at No. 54 West Lake Street, I was enlightened, and how I
-was enlightened will appear as I proceed with my statement. I now desire
-first to speak of the Lehr und Wehr Verein. This society consists of four
-companies from various parts of the city, and forms a revolutionary military
-organization. The first company belongs to the North Side; second company,
-the Northwest Side; third company, the Southwest Side; and the fourth
-company was formed by the commander at Pullman. The first company
-was the strongest and consisted of about one hundred and twenty members.
-The second consisted of thirty-five members;
-the third about eighty; and the
-fourth, forty members. Consequently the
-battalion consisted of two hundred and
-seventy-five members. You could rely
-upon one hundred and eighty men; the
-others were more or less indifferent and
-passive. All the members were armed
-with Springfield rifles, 48-caliber, and
-with Remington revolvers, 44-caliber. Every member was well supplied with
-ammunition at his house, which was always purchased by the quartermaster
-of the company. The uniform consisted of a blouse, with white buttons, and
-with shoulder-straps for the officers, black leather belts with brass buckles
-inscribed L. W. V., dark pantaloons and black slouch hats. Every company
-had a captain, lieutenant and first sergeant. Besides these the
-company had the following officers: A corresponding secretary, financial
-secretary, treasurer, quartermaster, and a Lehr und Wehr auditor. The
-commander received a monthly salary of $15.00, and the financial secretary
-$4.00. The commander was Gustav Breitenfeld. Captain of the
-first company, Abraham Hermann; second company, Bernhard Schrader;
-third company, H. Betzel, and fourth company, Paul Pull. Under command
-of these people, the companies were drilled and instructed. The
-corresponding secretary attended to all the correspondence, domestic and
-foreign, which was not a very easy job, because we corresponded with the
-Internationale of the whole country. The financial secretary collected the
-dues, and turned them all over to myself as treasurer. The quartermaster,
-A. Hermann, had to supply arms and ammunition. The Lehr und Wehr
-auditor had to investigate all complaints and to impose all fines and collect
-the same. The meeting-place of the first company was at Mueller’s Hall,
-on North Avenue and Sedgwick Street, in basement; of the second company,
-at Thalia Hall, on Milwaukee Avenue; of the third company, at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>
-Vorwaerts Turn Hall, on West Twelfth Street, and of the fourth company,
-at Rosenheim, in Pullman. Another curiously mixed company also
-belonged to the Verein. It was commanded by Captain Betzel, of the
-third company, and it had nothing to do with us in a business way.</p>
-
-<p>“The whole battalion assembled once every month on pleasant days on
-the prairie behind the ice-houses of Schofield &amp; Co., on the West Side, and
-practiced skirmish drills. The commands were given in English, and no
-one knew the members by name&mdash;only by numbers.</p>
-
-<p>“This brings me to the first general meeting of the Verein at No. 54
-West Lake Street that I attended. Before the opening of the meeting,
-every one who entered the hall was examined so that none but members
-might get in. The meetings would be called to order by the secretary, and
-then a chairman and a doorkeeper would be chosen. August Krause, of
-the second company, was generally called upon to officiate as chairman.
-First of all the correspondence would be read, and at one meeting a letter
-was read from Most, of New York, which pertained to arms. In the first
-meeting Commander Breitenfeld was ordered to proceed to Pullman every
-Sunday to work for the cause, and for his services he received a remuneration
-of $3 for each trip. The new company in that town finally reported a
-large increase of fine material with strong Anarchistic doctrines. The
-quartermaster, who then was Lehnert, was ordered to purchase forty rifles
-and four boxes of ammunition, each containing 4,000 rounds. The treasurer
-delivered to him $250, and afterwards we duly received the rifles from
-a firm in St. Louis. After all business had been transacted one of the
-eager members delivered a speech touching the best means of bringing on
-the social revolution. He proved very violent in his sentiments, and all
-present agreed with him that this revolution could only be accomplished
-with fire, powder, lead and dynamite. For a public attack on the streets
-of Chicago the speaker considered us too weak. As to the ‘property beasts,’
-as he called the small owners of buildings, he regarded them as our biggest
-enemies, as they would attack us from their windows and defeat us, and
-consequently our only hope for a victory lay in the torch and dynamite.
-When Chicago would be surrounded by fire and destroyed, these ‘beasts,’
-he said, would be obliged to take refuge on the prairies, and there it would
-be very easy for us to master them by our unmerciful proceedings. If this
-was done, other cities, like New York, St. Louis, Pittsburg, etc., would follow
-our example. Then all eyes would be centered on the Anarchists of Chicago,
-and therefore we would proclaim the Commune.</p>
-
-<p>“All these utterances were accepted with great applause, and every one
-wanted to commence immediately. I thought differently. I remembered
-the revolution of 1848 in Germany and that of 1871 in Paris and its consequences.</p>
-
-<p>“Krause, after this speech, took the floor and spoke in favor of the revolution.
-He stated that they ought to invite the Anarchists of other cities
-to join them here, and then we could commence the work of destruction.
-Then other members gave their views, and the meeting adjourned with an
-injunction that every one should be silent with reference to our proceedings.</p>
-
-<p>“This brings me to the revolutionary party. This organization consists
-of the following sections and groups: The Lehr und Wehr Verein, commander
-Breitenfeld; Northwest Side group, commanders Engel, Fischer
-and Grumm; North Side group, commanders Neebe, Lingg and Hermann;
-American group, commanders Spies, Parsons and Fielden; Karl Marx<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span>
-Group, commander Schilling; the Freiheit group; the armed sections of
-the International Carpenters’ Union and the Metal-workers’ Union. The
-whole party is under the leadership of a general committee. This committee
-is composed of Spies, Schwab, Parsons, Neebe, Rau, Hirschberger,
-Deusch and Belz. The committee held their meetings in one of the rooms
-of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> and received weekly reports from the delegates of
-the various groups. A part of the monthly dues was delivered to the general
-committee, and all expenses for traveling at the instance of the agitation
-committee (Parsons and Schwab) and for arms were paid by the
-quartermaster.</p>
-
-<p>“On one occasion I attended a general meeting of the revolutionary
-party at No. 54 West Lake Street, at which the whole party of armed
-sections were represented. After all precautions had been taken as to
-safety, August Spies took the chair and Neebe acted as secretary. We had
-to produce our cards of membership on entering, and every group was called
-by name, and each representative had to rise in his seat for close inspection.
-The first business was a complaint from the Northwest group and the Lehr
-und Wehr Verein that the funds had been mismanaged and thrown away.
-Both organizations declared that they would withdraw their delegates and,
-after that, act independently. Spies became as furious as a snake when
-trodden upon, and he got up and told them that they might leave immediately.
-This started a war of words. Some retorted that the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-was not radical enough, and it must be made different from that
-moment. The members of the general committee were called impostors
-and loafers. The Lehr und Wehr Verein had paid some $75 for the purchase
-of arms, but they had neither seen the arms nor the money. Engel
-and the Northwest Side group were brought into the wrangle, and he was
-called a traitor. They said that Engel would bring the whole party to ruin,
-likewise the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, but they (Engel and the paper) did not care
-so long as it enriched themselves. Finally the Northwest group withdrew,
-and some of the members of the Lehr und Wehr Verein shortly afterwards
-followed suit. From this time on there were constant disputes.</p>
-
-<p>“Engel and Grunewald collected money for a new paper and started
-the <i>Anarchist</i>, a paper like Most’s <i>Freiheit</i> in New York. Shortly after
-these societies had left the hall, the fight was taken up again by some of the
-females who were present,&mdash;Mrs. Parsons, Mrs. Bolling, Mrs. Schwab and
-Mrs. Holmes,&mdash;and it was continued until Spies was declared out of order.
-Hirschberger then reported the result of the sale of revolutionary literature,
-such as the works of Louise Michel, Most’s ‘Revolutionary Warfare,’ etc.,
-and he stated that it had exceeded his expectations. After this they discussed
-picnics, and a number desired them to be held outside of the city.
-Sheffield was suggested, because by going there they would bring in more
-money, and when there they could speak more freely their Anarchist sentiments.
-It was finally decided to hold a meeting of the workingmen on
-Market Square on Thanksgiving day, and Parsons was ordered to make the
-necessary arrangements. Spies called attention to the importance of every
-one attending that meeting, and urged that they should not come without a
-bomb or a revolver. The bombs, he said, they could purchase at the
-<i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office, four for $1. The time was near, he said, when the
-long-looked-for revolution would take place, and so they should avail themselves
-of every opportunity. He wanted all Anarchists to work against the
-eight-hour movement, because if it should prove successful our movement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span>
-would receive a set-back for several years. Our cause would not be hastened
-by it. He complained about our small gain in numbers and attributed it to
-the poor agitation of some of the members. After this I left the hall.</p>
-
-<p>“On the day before Thanksgiving we drilled in Thalia Hall. At the end
-of the exercise we were all requested to attend the meeting the following
-day, and Lehnert distributed some bombs in the shape of gas-pipe. He
-stated that he could only get four, but that on the next day at one o’clock
-every member could have one by calling at the hall. The next day most of
-the members put in an appearance. Members of the Northwest Side group
-also called. Adolph Fischer was there with a basketful of bombs like the
-one I saw the day before, which was the first time I had ever seen a bomb,
-and he told us distinctly to use them in case the Market Square meeting was
-dispersed. He cut a piece of fuse about the length of one on a bomb, put
-it on the table and lighted it with a cigar. He showed the way it worked
-and posted us as to the time it would have to burn before a bomb to which it
-might be attached should be thrown. He also showed us the way we should
-throw a bomb, and after this exhibition we all proceeded to the meeting.</p>
-
-<p>“On arriving at Market Square, I noticed a stage made out of barrels,
-with a red flag attached to it, and this was our meeting-place. Parsons
-mounted the platform and addressed the assemblage, which consisted of
-about a thousand people. It was a fortunate thing that the crowd was no
-larger, else the bloody bath of May 4 would have taken place that day, in
-view of all the preparations and the hostile feeling among us. The Northwest
-Side group was fully armed, and the preparations were alike complete
-among all the the other sections. Schwab, Fielden and Neebe were present,
-but none of them spoke. After they had waved the red flag the meeting
-adjourned. Bad, cold weather contributed to the small attendance.</p>
-
-<p>“After reading in the newspapers that on a certain Monday some of
-McCormick’s strikers would resume work, the armed groups were called to
-a meeting at Goercke’s Hall, on Twentieth Street and Blue Island Avenue.
-Reinhold Krueger and Tannenberg represented the second company of the
-Lehr und Wehr Verein, and I joined them on the way to the place of meeting.
-Arriving there, I found most of the different sections represented, and
-the meeting opened. Gustav Belz, of the Metal-workers’ Union, and
-employed at McCormick’s, was chairman, and after some discussion we concluded
-to stop the reopening of the factory by force. On account of the
-short time for a proper notification to our members, we decided to have our
-well-known signal, ‘Y, come Monday’ (which would mean that all was ripe
-for action, and our men should came to our regular meeting place, 54 West
-Lake Street), in the ‘Briefkasten’ of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, and it was
-accordingly done. We also at the meeting conferred with respect to having
-some of our men mix up with the ‘scabs’ by going to work with them in the
-factory, and then, when the moment for action arrived, they should set the
-factory on fire in several places. Those who were to do this were not to act,
-however, until they learned the result of the meeting that was to be held
-under the call of our signal, ‘Y.’ During the same day, after the meeting,
-Belz and Tannenberg carried several bombs out to the Black Road. What
-happened the following Monday at the factory everybody knows. Strikers
-and others assembled by thousands. The great bell at the factory rang, and
-the ‘scabs’ went to work. During the day disturbances followed and many
-arrests were made of people who were found to have concealed weapons, and
-who were afterwards fined $10 in the Police Court.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“But a change took place the following Tuesday. In accordance with
-the signal published in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, about 180 of our people gathered
-at No. 54 West Lake Street. Most of them carried their arms and
-some carried bombs. I saw Suess, and some others unknown to me, have
-bombs of the round pattern. These men even had their rifles with them,
-and everyone knew what was up. The several sections formed in platoons.
-Belz was elected chairman, and they consulted as to what should be done.
-First they regretted that the strikers had not reached McCormick’s that
-Monday morning, before the arrival of the police, in time to secure possession
-of the place, and then Betzel of the third company spoke and insisted
-that they should go around there during the night, secure good positions and
-then attack the patrol wagons as they passed on the following morning.
-He said he would give strict instructions to his company to obey his command,
-and then, when the police came to take their positions, they should
-be met with a good reception from well-aimed rifles. About fifty members
-wanted this plan carried out, but I noticed that most of them carried their
-hearts in their pants, and had very little courage. Excuses after excuses
-were made. Suess gave his bomb to a comrade and told him that when he
-thought of his wife and home he had doubts about going into an uncertain
-adventure. Balthasar Rau also protested against the plan. Some one suggested
-that they should stay there, in the hall, all night. Belz declared that
-he was of the same opinion about remaining; but, he said, he had a better
-plan to reach Mr. McCormick. It was very easy, he said, to attack this
-money baron in his own house. He described the house and rooms, and
-the location of the windows, and said that they should throw one of these
-‘play balls’ in through the window of the room where McCormick would
-be sitting, and send him flying to heaven. This course should be taken
-by some one of those present, of his own accord, so that no second or third
-party would know the perpetrator. There seemed to be no response to this,
-and, noticing the want of enthusiasm, he grasped his rifle and made a motion
-to break it in two, calling them all at the same time cowards. He then left
-the hall. I was surprised at this, because among those assembled there
-were some of the worst Anarchists in the city, notably Lingg, Engel,
-Fischer and Grunewald. McCormick, however, is alive to-day. Rau
-notified those present that if any one wanted any bombs they should follow
-him to the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office, and he would supply them. The meeting
-then adjourned.</p>
-
-<p>“After the experience I had thus had with the party, I was sorry that I
-ever joined. I found that what good humor I had formerly possessed had
-been completely wiped out by my associations with the revolutionary party.
-I wanted now to join some good society, and I thought of some good excuse
-for leaving the party. My opportunity came. My comrades wanted
-me to buy a supply of ammunition, as the 1st of May was near at hand, but
-I found that there was not money enough in the treasury. The financial
-secretary had been very slow in delivering to me all the money he had collected,
-and I discovered that his love for the shining dollars was so great
-that he would let some of them fall through his fingers. I found out his
-dishonesty, and I brought it to light. On this account we became enemies,
-and sometimes he would rather have seen me dead than McCormick. One
-evening I stood in front of the bar at Thalia Hall with him just before target
-practice. I was talking about something not in his favor. We finally
-came to hot words and then to blows. I let him have a few right-handers,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span>
-and he drew his revolver and fired one shot, the ball passing close to my
-right ear and striking the wall. The proprietor of the saloon took the
-revolver away from him, and he attacked me again with a rawhide [a billy],
-which he always carried. He struck me over the head, and I grabbed a
-chair and gave it to him savagely. He skipped out. Shortly after this I
-sent the money-box with Schrader to the Verein along with my written
-resignation. In that I explained that I did not want to associate with
-murderers and manslayers. It was accepted, and I was again a free man,
-rejecting every inducement except one to join their ranks again. This exception
-grew out of
-my own foolishness
-and happened when
-I attended the ill-fated
-meeting of
-May 2d.</p></div>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-295.jpg" width="300" height="367" id="i295"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">“LIBERTY HALL,”<br />
-<span class="wnn">No. 63 Emma Street, where the Conspiracy “Plan”<br />was first proposed by
-Engel. From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>“This meeting
-on May 2d was held
-on Emma Street.
-During the day,
-which was a pleasant
-one, I went out
-early for a walk.
-While I was absent
-some one called at
-my house and told
-my wife that I was
-wanted at No. 63
-Emma Street that
-evening at ten
-o’clock. I returned
-home about 10:30
-o’clock the same
-morning, and as I
-did not know the
-hall, nor knew the
-person who had notified
-my wife, I
-proceeded to the
-number given. This
-visit was a most unfortunate
-one for me.
-Entering the hall, I
-noticed the Northwest Side group and the second company of the Lehr und
-Wehr Verein. I was just on the point of leaving, when Schrader called me
-back, and, not liking to act like a coward, I remained. A person named
-Kistner acted as chairman. They wanted to admit a member who had been
-proposed by two members as true and faithful, but Engel objected, and the
-man had to leave the hall. They then proceeded to business, having first
-ascertained that the twenty or twenty-five persons present were in perfect
-security. Engel took the floor and sailed into the capitalists and the police.
-He said that they should, when an opportunity presented itself, imitate the
-Anarchist leaders when, at the Bohemian Turner Hall masquerade ball, they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>
-had thrown pepper in the eyes of policemen who were present to make an
-attack on the turners, and he explained how that assault on their part had
-come very near costing him his life. But he had done it for the good of
-the cause. He then spoke of the labor troubles and said that now was the
-time to produce the revolution. It was unwise to let it pass. Then he
-proceeded to outline a plan for it, saying that, if any one had a better one
-to suggest, to say so.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Waller gives the details of the plan just as he gave it in court, and
-continues:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I could not advise any one to speak against the motion for the adoption
-of the plan, as he would have been dealt with accordingly. Breitenfeld
-stated subsequently at Thalia Hall that he would do everything in his
-power to carry out this plan and that he would not work for the next few
-days, and that on the day given he would be at No. 54 West Lake Street
-to make all the arrangements.</p>
-
-<p>“What happened on Monday at McCormick’s is known. Spies hurried
-to write the ‘Revenge’ circular, stating that six men had been killed, and
-put it into circulation. That day I was at No. 105 Wells Street, where the
-workingmen employed in Brunswick &amp; Balke’s factory held their meetings.
-I got home about six o’clock and had my supper, but I did not know then
-as to the conflict with the police at McCormick’s. I did not feel like going
-to the meeting called for that evening at No. 54 West Lake Street. I had
-hardly been home thirty minutes when Clermont, of the second company,
-entered my room and asked:</p>
-
-<p>“‘Did you hear the news?’</p>
-
-<p>“‘What?’ I asked.</p>
-
-<p>“‘From McCormick’s,’ he replied.</p>
-
-<p>“‘What then?’ I asked.</p>
-
-<p>“‘Ten men were killed by the police, and more than twenty wounded,’
-he said. ‘Now we must commence.’</p>
-
-<p>“I did not believe it at first, but when he showed me the ‘Revenge’
-circular my blood shot up into my head and I went with him to the meeting.
-As we passed Engel’s house we met him and Fischer, and they
-joined us. On the way to the meeting, Engel said that if any one wanted
-to see him they should take the rear door and enter, as he thought the
-detectives were watching his house. Having arrived at the hall, Breitenfeld
-called the revolutionary men down to the cellar, and to my surprise I
-was elected chairman.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Waller then details the business that was there transacted, the story
-being identical with that he gave on the witness-stand, and alludes to his
-visit to Engel’s house on his way to the Haymarket meeting on the evening
-of May 4. He had been previously asked by A. Krueger, Kraemer,
-and two others, who called at his own house while he was eating his
-supper, to go with them to Wicker Park, as they wanted to be at their post
-in response to the signal “Ruhe,” but he declined to go with them. Waller
-continues:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I went to Engel’s. He was not at home, and we waited in a room
-behind the store. There were two others there, one a member of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span>
-Northwest Side group, and the other I did not know. The first one went
-away to get some pepper, as he said, and returned again in a few minutes....
-He said he was only waiting for the pills, meaning the bombs.
-I waited about five minutes, and during the time a young girl about ten or
-twelve years old put in an appearance, carrying a heavy parcel, which she
-handed to the man who had gone out for the pepper and who was waiting
-for ‘pills.’ I took the man to be her father. He disappeared behind a
-screen, and I walked out.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Waller next gives the circumstances in connection with the Haymarket
-meeting precisely as he gave them in court, and reverts back to the meeting
-of Monday night at No. 54 Lake Street, referring to a speech made
-on that occasion by Clermont. That man, Waller says, spoke substantially
-as follows: “I expect to see about 20,000 or 25,000 people at the Haymarket.
-The speeches should be very threatening and fierce so that the
-police will be compelled to disperse the meeting. Then, when the police
-become engaged, we can carry out our purpose.” Before this meeting came
-to order, Greif, the proprietor of the place, was around lighting the lamps,
-and while doing so he remarked, says Waller: “This is just the place for
-you conspirators.”</p>
-
-<p>Among those expecting to do deeds of violence on the night of the Haymarket,
-at Wicker Park, was “Big” Krueger, and Waller mentions the fact
-that he met him the next day at noon.</p>
-
-<p>“Krueger showed me a revolver,” says Waller, “and I told him that he
-had better leave it at home. He replied that he would not do it, as he
-intended to kill every one who came across his path, and he left. A few
-hours after he shot at a policeman and lost his life.”</p>
-
-<p>Officer Madden was the officer thus assailed, and he immediately turned
-around and shot the Anarchist down in his tracks.</p>
-
-<p>In concluding his statement Waller refers to his arrest and says:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“On the way to the station I made up my mind not to say a word.
-Arriving there, Capt. Schaack got to talking to me and put several questions
-to me in the presence of several detectives. I noticed that telling lies
-would not do me any good, and the friendly and courteous treatment of the
-Captain made such an impression on my mind that I told, by and by, everything
-with a throbbing heart. I promised to repeat my statements before
-court, and I did so.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Otto Lehman</span> was well known to the police by reputation through frequent
-mention of his name by fellow Anarchists, but he managed for some
-time to keep himself out of the way of a personal acquaintanceship with
-the force. He never did cherish admiration for policemen, and his dislike
-grew even more intense after he had learned that he was wanted. The
-sight of a blue-coat would drive him fairly wild, and the only way he could
-assuage his wrath was to take to his heels and run until his surcharged
-feelings had oozed out at the ends of his toes. He was a brave, defiant
-man in the presence of his comrades, and with his military bearing he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span>
-seemed the very personification of courage. He had a great penchant for
-lager beer, and, while emptying glass after glass, he talked Anarchy to the
-great delight of his hearers. He was an enthusiastic attendant at all meetings
-of the fraternity, and always wanted the speakers to make their harangues
-strong and incendiary. If one of them failed to threaten capitalists
-with dynamite and guns, he lost interest in the proceedings. In that case
-he would tilt his chair back and take a nap. The moment some one rasped
-the air with stinging words against capitalists and the police, Lehman
-would be on his feet and applaud vociferously. He would then adjourn to
-a saloon, fill himself up with lager and go home to dream of happy days
-when everybody was to be rich without labor. Some nights he would jump
-up in bed half asleep,&mdash;this is the story of his fellow roomers,&mdash;and shout:</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-298.jpg" width="200" height="219" id="i298"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">OTTO LEHMAN.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>“Down with them; shoot them! Don’t give them any quarter! The world now
-is ours.”</p>
-
-<p>His bed-companion, aroused by the
-demonstration, would take him by the
-collar and pull him down, after which he
-would sleep quite contentedly. This sort
-of exhibition was repeated after every
-meeting at which some new infernal
-machine had been spoken of, or some new
-torture for capitalists suggested. Such
-speeches made him strong in the faith, and
-so enthusiastic was he always that he
-managed to become quite a favorite with
-his fellows. In return for their admiration,
-he would spend his last cent in buying
-beer. His boarding-house was at No. 189 Hudson Avenue.</p>
-
-<p>Although this is only a two-story building, there were living in it at the
-time no less than eight families. That there were no more is no fault of
-the house. And such families! Every one of them, from the youngest
-who could talk, to the oldest who could bear arms, was a turbulent Anarchist.
-Lehman was always happy in such surroundings. Had he only had
-his wife and children there, his joy would have been as nearly complete as
-possible until all capitalists had been exterminated. Unfortunately his
-family were in Germany. He had left them there three years before. At
-that time he would have been pleased to bring them along with him had it
-not been for his haste to get out of Emperor William’s dominions to escape
-the law of the land.</p>
-
-<p>In his new surroundings in America Lehman only waited for the day
-when millionaires would either “bite the dust” or capitulate by handing
-over their wealth to the Anarchists. He never for a moment doubted that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span>
-that day was almost at hand. Even after the Haymarket riot he had hope,
-but it vanished completely the moment he was within the grasp of the law.
-Of course, he did everything to save himself for another revolution by
-keeping away from the “hated police.” Had it not been for his standing
-in Germany he would have returned there and waited until the excitement
-in Chicago had died out, and his comrades had fixed up another plan. He
-would have even gone to Canada, but he had never heard of it as a refuge
-for Anarchists. For a time he succeeded remarkably well in dodging us, as
-we had only a meager description of his appearance; but on the 20th of
-May he was seen by Officers Schuettler and Hoffman on the North Side.
-They did not know him at the time. Lehman, however, apèears to have
-been suspicious of their movements, as there had recently been many
-inquiries for him in the locality. The moment Hoffman caught a glimpse
-of the slippery Anarchist, he remarked to his comrade:</p>
-
-<p>“I’ll bet that is one of the cut-throats. We’ll take him in on general
-principles, and we can soon find out where he belongs.”</p>
-
-<p>The officers gradually approached him, but Lehman, suspecting their
-intentions, at once started on the run. He had run only half a block when
-he was captured, put in irons and taken to the station. On his arrival, I
-asked him his name.</p>
-
-<p>“I’ll tell you my name, and that is all,” replied Lehman, in a surly
-mood and with an air of bravado. “I am not ashamed of my name, no
-matter if I am poor. I am as good a man as Grant. Now, don’t trouble me
-any more. I am closed, and you cannot open me with a crow-bar. Look
-at me and tell the newspapers you have seen me. I am ready to be locked
-up.”</p>
-
-<p>“Otto,” said I, “you have a brother named August, and he has a son by
-the name of Paul. That boy is a very good runner, and at the Haymarket,
-May 4, he was going to run and carry the news to outside men. The boy
-did run, but not with news for the waiting men. He kept running until he
-got out of town, and I know where he is. You will have him with you in a
-few days. So good-by, Otto; I will see you about the first of June. Officers,
-lock him up.”</p>
-
-<p>Otto was accordingly escorted down stairs. He had no sooner been
-placed in a cell than the officers learned the location of his boarding-house
-at the number given. They at once repaired to the place and gave it a thorough
-overhauling. They learned that immediately after the Haymarket,
-and especially since officers had been frequently noticed in the locality,
-many of the occupants had disappeared in a great hurry, some even forgetting
-the clean linen that hung in their back yards, and others neglecting to
-square their board bills.</p>
-
-<p>The officers searched the premises and found several loaded dynamite
-bombs, some showing conclusively that they had come from Lingg’s factory.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>
-It was subsequently learned that Lingg had furnished them to Lehman&mdash;one
-on the evening of May 4, at 58 Clybourn Avenue, and another shortly
-after, on the same street, near Larrabee. The bombs were all ready for
-use, and contained Lingg’s extra strong explosive, almost doubly as powerful
-as the ordinary commercial dynamite.</p>
-
-<p>Two days after his arrest, about eleven o’clock, Lehman was not in a
-very happy frame of mind. His dreams had not been pleasant, and the possibility
-of hanging haunted him continually. He told the janitor that he
-wanted to see the Captain. I sent back word that I could not see him until
-the next day. Again in the afternoon he sent the janitor to say that he must
-see me at once, and that he would not speak so defiantly as he had done
-before. Otto was thereupon brought up. As he came in, he took off his
-hat and apologized for his rude behavior. After inviting the Anarchist to
-take a seat, I remarked:</p>
-
-<p>“You know what you are arrested for?”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, yes,” he replied.</p>
-
-<p>“Have you made up your mind, then, as to what you wish to say?”</p>
-
-<p>He answered in the affirmative.</p>
-
-<p>“Will you tell me all you know of the Anarchists ever since you became
-one of them?”</p>
-
-<p>Assent being given, I continued: “Now, you must understand I know a
-great deal of this work myself.”</p>
-
-<p>Otto said he so understood.</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I don’t want you to lie to me, and I don’t want you to lie about
-anybody else to benefit yourself. All you tell me must be true, and if I find
-that you conceal anything, I will consider you a liar and have nothing more
-to do with you.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, yes,” meekly and penitently replied Lehman, “I do agree with
-you on that point, and you will find me right. I will swear to all I say, and
-if I lie you can hang me in this station. But, Captain, I want something for
-telling the truth.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well,” I replied, “I will have the State’s Attorney or his representative
-here, and if he tells you to speak and promises to reward you, you can
-depend upon his word.”</p>
-
-<p>In the presence of Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann, Otto at once
-unburdened his mind and related his knowledge of Anarchy in Chicago.
-He also testified to a fact, made apparent in my interviews with other prisoners,
-that he, like others, had been carried away by “the d&mdash;&mdash;d Anarchist
-literature,” as he expressed it, and that he now fully realized the utter folly
-of his past course. He had been told, he said, just as others had been told,
-by those who had lived in America for a long time, that this was a free country,
-and there was no law to stop them. “You can see for yourself,” they
-used to say to him, “they are all afraid of us. Nobody interferes with us.
-We have everything all our own way.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“That sort of talk,” said Lehman, “made me as bad as the rest of
-them.”</p>
-
-<p>He had fully believed, as his friends had informed him, that it was legal
-to talk dynamite, and that they could form plans for murder with impunity
-and without molestation. Mr. Furthmann read and explained the law to
-him, when he said:</p>
-
-<p>“I am glad now that I have been arrested.”</p>
-
-<p>And he demonstrated the sincerity of his statement by furnishing strong
-evidence against all the Anarchist leaders that he knew. He was kept in
-confinement until after the trial and then released by order of the State’s
-Attorney. He was forty years of age, a carpenter by occupation, and ever
-since his release he has attended to work and means to live until a good
-age to make amends for his past life.</p>
-
-<p>The statement he gave me was as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I belong to the armed section of the International Carpenters’ group.
-Whenever we had a meeting, the armed section remained five minutes
-later. To my group belonged myself, my brother, William Hageman,
-who lives on Rees Street, over Lehman’s grocery store, also Hageman’s
-brother, who was boarding at the same place, Ernst Niendorf, on Groger
-Street, Waller, William Seliger, John Thielen and Louis Lingg, all of the
-North Side group; also Abraham Hermann, Lorenz Hermann, Ernst Hubner,
-Charley Bock and his brother, William Lange, Michael Schwab, Balthasar
-Rau, Rudolph Schnaubelt, Fischer and Huber. I attended a meeting,
-May 3, at 71 West Lake Street, at nine o’clock. I heard Louis Lingg
-speak there, also Schwab. I saw the circular there which called for revenge
-and to arms. Waller, or Zoller, opened the meeting as chairman. Lingg
-said at the meeting that they must arm themselves and attend the meeting
-at the Haymarket to get revenge for those workingmen who were killed at
-McCormick’s factory that day by the police. I also heard Schwab urge them
-to arm themselves and seek revenge on the police. I heard one man call
-out that all armed men present should go to Greif’s Hall, 54 West Lake
-Street, that a meeting would be held there in the basement. I went there,
-as also did my brother Gustav, the two Hagemans, Louis Lingg, Schnaubelt,
-Breitenfeld, John Thielen and Hubner. The meeting occurred at 54
-West Lake Street. I was there during the whole session. My brother was
-on the outside watching. I heard the speaker say that there would be a
-meeting at the Haymarket and that they expected a big crowd there, which
-would give them a chance to use their arms. He also said that the police
-would no doubt come there to disperse them. If they refused to go, the
-police would shoot, and they would have a good chance to shoot at them.
-The speakers at that meeting would be Spies, Fielden and Parsons. The
-North Side armed group would meet at Neff’s Hall, 58 Clybourn Avenue,
-on Tuesday night, and they were to be ready with their arms and wait for
-orders. The Northwest Side group would also be ready and wait for
-orders. As soon as there was trouble at the Haymarket, they would be at
-Wicker Park ready for action. I heard the word ‘Ruhe’ spoken of at that
-meeting in the basement. If that word appeared in the paper&mdash;the
-<i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>&mdash;the next day, it would mean a revolution, and the attack
-on the police would be made that night. ‘Y, komme,’ was a sign published<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span>
-in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, meaning that there would be a meeting of the
-armed men. When I saw that revenge circular at No. 71 West Lake
-Street, it excited me very much and brought me to the meeting at 54 West
-Lake Street. I saw Adolph Fischer at that meeting. He made an address
-to us calling us to arms and urged that we should take revenge on the
-capitalists and the officers who had killed our brother workingmen on that
-day at McCormick’s. This man Fischer, whose picture has just been
-shown me by the Captain, is the person who said he would see that circulars
-were printed for the Haymarket meeting next day. The word ‘Ruhe’ was
-our signal word, adopted by the meeting that night at 54 West Lake Street,
-to attack the police. I heard some one say at the meeting that we should
-also attack the police station-houses and the police who might be within.
-They should make dynamite bombs and have them ready to throw into the
-stations. Lingg said: ‘I will have the dynamite and bombs ready to be
-used when called for.’ I did not hear of any one else saying or offering to
-furnish dynamite bombs. I was about fifteen feet away from Lingg when
-he made the remark. Then I left the meeting and the hall. The unanimous
-understanding among us all was that all who desired bombs must go
-to Lingg and get them. And we did not look to any one else for them. It
-was further stated at the meeting that, in case we should see a patrol wagon
-on the night of the attack, we should destroy the wagon, the horses and the
-officers, so that they could not render assistance to the officers at the Haymarket.
-On Tuesday evening, May 4, at nine o’clock, I went to Neff’s Hall,
-58 Clybourn Avenue, and there I met both Hermanns, Rau, the Hagemans,
-Bock, Seliger and Lingg. Lingg gave me some of those long dynamite
-bombs and said: ‘Here, you take this and use it.’ He then started away.
-I heard that night&mdash;Tuesday&mdash;at eleven o’clock, at Ernst Grau’s saloon, that
-there had been some shooting that night, that a bomb had been thrown and
-that many were killed and wounded at the Haymarket. A tall man came
-into Neff’s Hall that night, May 4, at eleven o’clock, and told us about the
-shooting, the explosion of the bomb and the killing of the people. His clothes
-were all covered with mud, and he appeared greatly excited. He said:
-‘You are having a good time here drinking beer. See how I look. I was
-over to the Haymarket and lost my revolvers.’ His name is August. He
-is the man&mdash;about thirty years of age, five feet ten inches tall, smooth face or
-a slight mustache, and is a bricklayer by occupation. [This was August
-Groge.] The dynamite bomb I had was made with a gas-pipe. My statement
-I will swear to at any time I am called upon.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The bomb he speaks of was among those found by Officer Hoffman at
-No. 189 Hudson Avenue.</p>
-
-<p class="p2"><span class="smcap">Gustav Lehman</span> was arrested on the same day&mdash;May 20&mdash;with his
-brother Otto, only a little earlier in the morning. He was working as a
-carpenter, on a new building at the southwest corner of Sedgwick and
-Starr Streets, when Officers Schuettler and Hoffman accosted him, and his
-home at the time was at No. 41 Fremont Street, in the basement of a small
-building. He had a poor, sickly wife and six children. His wife,&mdash;who
-subsequently died in the County Hospital, in July, 1888,&mdash;when she was
-notified of his arrest, said:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Well, I am very sorry for my dear husband, but now my words are
-coming true. He would take the last cent out of the house and run to
-meetings every night. Instead of leaving the money at home to buy
-clothing with for the children and medicine for myself, he would spend the
-last cent in saloons. At times when I heard him and others talk about
-capitalists, about an equal division of everything, I thought it all very
-foolish, and I would tell my husband so. The only answer he would give
-me was:</p>
-
-<p>“‘Oh, you old women don’t know anything. You come to our meetings,
-and there you will be enlightened and learn how we are going to have
-things before long.’</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-303.jpg" width="200" height="244" id="i303"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">GUSTAV LEHMAN.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>“I often told him, ‘You will have things so that you all will be locked up
-and beg for mercy and be glad to go to work and let other people alone.’
-One day he didn’t work; he wanted to
-go to a meeting on the West Side. I
-reasoned with him and asked him to
-stay at home. I was afraid they would
-all be arrested for their foolish undertakings.
-Gustav got mad at me and
-said:</p>
-
-<p>“‘Now is our time or never. Before
-one month is over we will have things
-our own way. We have already got the
-capitalists, the militia and the police
-trembling in their boots. We are prepared,
-and, as soon as we strike the first
-blow, they will run away. Those that
-don’t run we will kill. We don’t expect
-to give them quarter.’”</p>
-
-<p>The poor woman had clearly foreseen
-the outcome, and with rare judgment
-and fine instinct, in spite of her lowly station in life, she had
-sought early and late to instill into her husband’s mind some practical
-ideas of life. Within the limited lines of her observation she had grasped
-the problem of social existence, its struggles, its sufferings and its rewards,
-and she intuitively knew that such changes as her husband and others of his
-ilk desired could never be brought about by revolution in a free country.
-She loved her husband tenderly, and would have made any sacrifice for him.
-But he, rather than forego attendance at a single meeting, preferred that
-wife and children should suffer want. He kept his family in constant suspense
-and ranted like a madman.</p>
-
-<p>Lehman was a man about forty-five years of age, weighed two hundred
-pounds, and, although he had only the use of one eye, he was a good mechanic.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>When he was brought to the station he was asked his name.</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t give any name,” he answered, somewhat indignantly.</p>
-
-<p>“Why not?” asked I, in a pacific tone of voice.</p>
-
-<p>“Because,” was the gruff answer, “I don’t want anything to do with
-you.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, you don’t. I am pleased to make your acquaintance. We don’t
-find such a great man as you are every day. Officer, take this man to a
-safe place down stairs and leave him there until we want him again.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, you don’t scare me any,” thundered the burly Lehman.</p>
-
-<p>“Well, now, we don’t want to scare you,” retorted I pleasantly, “but I
-thought you needed rest. You won’t feel so tired when you see us again.
-You will find more of your friends down stairs. If you talk to any one,
-you will be taken away from here and sent to the Desplaines Street Station.”</p>
-
-<p>At the last remark Lehman winced perceptibly. The name of the Desplaines
-Street Station grated harshly on his ear, and he evidently felt that I
-had some surprise in store for him. He could have lightly passed by any
-other thrusts, but this nettled him. It was made for a purpose. I knew
-that all Anarchists had an intense hatred for that station, and greater than
-their hatred of the place was their anger against Bonfield, who had charge
-of it. They would rather suffer torments anywhere else than be cast into
-a cell in that place.</p>
-
-<p>But Lehman shortly recovered his equanimity, and, assuming a stolid
-indifference to his surroundings, remarked:</p>
-
-<p>“If you think you can make me ‘squeal,’ you are badly mistaken.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, no; we don’t want you to ‘squeal,’” said I. “We are rather afraid
-you will beg to be allowed to come here and sit on your knees to tell us all
-you know about making bombs and dynamite&mdash;all about your meetings&mdash;how
-often you have presided at meetings and how much dynamite you got from
-Lingg; and to tell us all about your brother, and where your son is hiding
-now, and where you placed the bombs that you carried around in your
-pocket on May 4; how bad a headache you had after filling the bombs with
-dynamite at Seliger’s house. You see, August, we simply want to call your
-attention to all these little things&mdash;that’s all.”</p>
-
-<p>This charge proved a little too strong for the doughty Lehman. He had
-kept up his courage well, but the rapidity of the assault, the dark secrets
-hinted at and the insinuations made had taxed his powers of resistance
-almost beyond endurance. His facial muscles twitched, and for a moment
-he wrestled with himself. He asked for a glass of water, and, quaffing its
-contents to the last drop, he rallied and straightened himself as if determined
-to hold out in spite of his nerves. Recovering his breath and struggling
-with his emotions, he said:</p>
-
-<p>“If you have the power to hang me, do so. I have belonged to the
-cause so long that I will die before I reveal anything.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>That was sufficient. Lehman was taken down stairs and locked up. The
-very next morning he sent the janitor to my office with a request to see me.
-I told the janitor that I was very busy and could not be interrupted unless
-Lehman had something very important to communicate. To this Lehman replied
-that he had discovered that there were other men locked up down
-stairs, and he was satisfied that if they had a chance they would “squeal.”
-Would I accord him an interview? He was brought up, and, in the presence
-of Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann and the officers, proceeded to
-unfold a very remarkable tale. He began very cautiously, evidently following
-the instructions laid down in John Most’s book for Anarchists in trouble,
-but, as the questions were plied upon him, he soon discovered that he was in
-a very “tight box.” He finally asked if there was any prospect of his being
-hung. He was informed that he must tell all he knew, and all must be
-true; that we did not want him to try to lie himself out of his trouble or tell
-a falsehood against an innocent man. Probably he would be called on to
-testify in court, and, of course, if he was a witness for the State, he would
-not be hanged.</p>
-
-<p>“I do trust you men,” he said, and revealed all the secrets that he knew,
-without reserve as to his own deeds and the experiences he had had with the
-other Anarchists. His statement gave the officers important points.</p>
-
-<p>After the trial, Lehman declared he had no more use for Anarchy. He
-became a good husband and a kind father. In 1889 he married again, and,
-strange to say, Officer Nordrum acted as “best man” at the ceremony.
-The nature of Gustav’s testimony appears in the evidence he gave at the
-trial.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Abraham Hermann</span> was a man of different temperament; but, after his
-arrest, he showed a somewhat similar disposition as to secretiveness and
-stubbornness. He was arrested on the evening of May 10 at eight o’clock.
-He lived at No. 25 Clybourn Avenue. He was about thirty-four years of
-age, medium build, and weighed about 185 pounds. He was of dark complexion,
-wore a full black beard, had sharp, piercing eyes, and from thinking
-much on Anarchy, had come to present a sickly appearance. He did
-not look at all vicious, however, and was very quiet in his manner. He was
-a good machinist and fully conversant with the German language. In conversation
-he was slow and deliberate, evidently thinking twice before speaking.</p>
-
-<p>At the time Abraham was taken in charge, his brother Lorenz was also
-arrested. Abraham’s house had been searched a week before, and two
-rifles had been found and taken to the station. When the officers met the
-brothers, they were told to come to the station to identify their property,
-and when they set foot inside my office they were notified that they were
-under arrest. They manifested no surprise. Abraham was asked if he had
-anything to say. He wanted to know what about, and when informed that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span>
-we wanted information about Anarchy, he slowly replied that he “did not
-know any Anarchists.”</p>
-
-<p>“You can probably tell us something about how to drill Anarchists and
-how much profit you made on the rifles, or the 44-caliber Remington
-revolvers; or perhaps tell us how many men you had in your command on
-the night of the 4th of May around this station, and tell us about the
-trouble you had with Lingg in Neff’s Hall at eleven o’clock, May 4th, after
-the explosion of the bomb at the Haymarket.”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-306.jpg" width="400" height="419" id="i306"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">ZEPF’S HALL. <span class="wn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>I could have put a few more queries, but I stopped to watch the effect.
-Abraham’s eyes bulged out for a moment in surprise, but not a word did he
-have to say. He was at once locked up, and for nearly three days betrayed
-no signs of weakening. On the third day he showed a little anxiety and
-expressed a desire to see me. He was brought up, but, getting into a comfortable
-room, where the light of day made all surroundings cheerful, he
-became rather buoyant and seemed loth to depress the spirits of others
-by unfolding harrowing tales of Anarchistic plots. I tried to engage him
-in conversation, but the answers came in monosyllables and with a sort of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span>
-guttural emphasis. The situation was becoming very tiresome. I thought
-Abraham had suddenly been seized with the lockjaw, but determined to
-fathom the man’s mind. I urged him not to be guided by Most’s book,&mdash;we
-understood that,&mdash;but to speak out if he had any information to give.
-If he had nothing to impart, to say so. He promptly saw that the situation
-was growing critical, and that, if he still refrained from speaking,
-possibly his last chance for saving himself might be gone. He relaxed the
-muscles of his face, opened his lips and prepared to talk. It was a great
-effort, but he evidently realized that something must be done.</p>
-
-<p>“Well,” he finally drawled out, “I don’t know what to tell you. It
-seems to me you people know about everything and have things down as
-correctly as I can give them to you. And you know all about me, too. I
-say this for myself: I don’t know anything about the laws of the country.
-I have been told by people that ought to know better, that for what we
-were doing there was no law. I now see my mistake.”</p>
-
-<p>Hermann then gave information on himself and others, and stated that
-he had never liked Lingg. Lingg, he remarked, was the most rabid Anarchist
-he had ever seen, and he almost believed that the man had a dynamite
-bomb in his head. He himself had never had anything to say in
-favor of the use of dynamite. He was a military man, and believed in the
-use of rifles. He had held that all the Anarchists should be well drilled
-and that no man should carry arms unless he knew how to use them. He
-was opposed to throwing stones or fighting in the streets. He believed in
-swords and good riflemen, and he was one of that class. His idea was
-never to undertake anything until fully prepared, and when they were prepared
-to let their work show the result.</p>
-
-<p>During the interview he was very cautious in his statements, but he did
-not spare the leaders. At the same time he would not implicate any one
-of no special consequence in the order. His statement, however, was as
-sweeping as it was surprising. He was implicitly believed by the officers,
-as candor and earnestness were manifest in his disclosures.</p>
-
-<p>Hermann was indicted by the grand jury, but after he had been in custody
-for awhile he was released by order of the State’s Attorney. At the beginning
-of the trial he was brought in again and confined until its termination. He
-was then given his liberty. He has since become an industrious man, and
-has only had two or three relapses by attending some of the open, public
-meetings. He now declares, however, that he is through with Anarchy.</p>
-
-<p>What he had to say to Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann, myself and
-the officers was this:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I have belonged to the North Side armed group since 1883. The
-members of the group are as follows: Schwab, Rau, Huber, Neebe, the
-two Lehmans, Thielen, Lingg, Hubner, Seliger, Lange, Schnaubelt, Lorenz
-Hermann, Abraham Hermann, the two Hagemans, Heyman, Niendorf and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span>
-Charley Bock. We were about forty men strong on the North Side. I do
-not know anything about the word ‘Ruhe.’ On Monday, May 3, at 9 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span>,
-I attended a meeting of the metal-workers at Seamen’s Hall, on Randolph,
-near Jefferson Street. I saw August Spies. He was passing and handing
-out some of the circulars that called for revenge upon the law and the
-police. Spies was at the meeting when I got there, and he had a handful of
-those circulars. I saw Spies busying himself around the meeting talking
-to the people. The secretary of this meeting was a man named Hahneman.
-Lange was president. I belong to the North Side branch of the
-same union. But this was a general meeting. I only knew a few of the
-members present. The president of the meeting works for a firm on
-Wabash Avenue&mdash;a brass-finisher named Andrew or Andre. When I left
-this meeting at ten o’clock I went to 54 West Lake Street. As I came into
-the saloon some one said that there was a meeting down stairs. I went
-down. Waller was president of that meeting. I also saw Fischer there.
-I know Schnaubelt. He was there. When the question came up about
-printing the circulars for the Haymarket meeting, Fischer said that he
-would see to it. Some one suggested that letters should be sent to the
-armed people or members in surrounding cities near Chicago, asking them
-to attend to the police and militia there, so that they could not come to the
-assistance of the officers or police of this city. On my opposition the proposition
-was dropped. I saw Hubner and Lingg at that meeting. As I
-came in some one said, ‘Lingg is going to attend to that.’ I understood
-it to mean furnishing the dynamite bombs. I saw the meeting was intended
-for mischief, and I left the place. At a meeting May 4, at 8:30 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span>, in
-the hall in the rear of Neff’s saloon, 58 Clybourn Avenue, I heard that the
-plan of operation decided upon was the same as given to the armed men at
-54 West Lake Street. So far as I remember the plan, it was something like
-this: Some of the armed men were to go to the police stations, and, if the
-police were called out, to throw dynamite bombs among them, set the houses
-on fire and keep the police on the North Side. As far as I know, the Northwest
-Side group had a similar plan. Lingg was not there at this time.
-All members present were anxious to see him come, waiting for bombs. I
-was in the hall about an hour. I went back again the same evening&mdash;May
-4&mdash;about eleven o’clock. The first I heard of any trouble was about 10:30.
-A man whose name is Anton Hirschberger came into the saloon and told
-us that there had been a riot at the Haymarket. At the same time a tall
-man came in and said he had been at the riot, that a lot of bullets flew
-around them, a bomb had exploded, and that either some one had stolen his
-revolver or he had lost it. Then Neff said he was going to close up his
-place, the hour being eleven o’clock. On Wednesday, May 5, I met Lingg
-and Seliger at that place. I was surprised at meeting Lingg there, because
-I thought then that he ought to have been locked up. Lingg spoke to me
-and said, ‘You are nice cowards.’ I replied that he had better keep his
-mouth shut, as he was the cause of the whole affair. Hubner and I were
-there to attend a meeting of our people to be held on the quiet in Lincoln
-Park. We were to meet at the park because we expected it would not be
-safe to hold it anywhere else. What led me to think that Lingg ought to have
-been locked up was because he was always advocating the use of dynamite
-and bombs. That a bomb had been thrown was a fact, and I thought Lingg
-ought to have been arrested for it.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="p1">On May 31, Hermann made another statement, as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I know August Spies. He is the editor of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> of this
-city. I knew him to write several articles on revolution. I was elected as
-an agent at a general meeting to procure and sell arms. This was in October
-last&mdash;1885. Balthasar Rau was chairman of that meeting. We had
-several men as a committee. They were called the Bureau of Information.
-It was composed of Parsons, from the English section; Charles Bock, German,
-also assistant secretary to Rau; Hirschberger, French, and Mikolanda,
-Bohemian. Every Anarchist looked to that bureau for information.
-I used to get my guns from New York, from a man named Seeger. He lives
-on Third Avenue.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-309.jpg" width="300" height="329" id="i309"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">TIMMERHOF HALL,<br />
-<span class="wnn">No. 703 Milwaukee Avenue. From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="pbq">He was the middleman between me and the factory
-where the arms were
-made. I got twenty-five
-revolvers last
-February. They were
-shipped direct to me
-at No. 25 Clybourn
-Avenue. I sold them
-all at cost price to
-members. That was
-$6.50. The last two
-revolvers I sold May
-3, 1886&mdash;one to a
-man named Asher,
-and the other to
-August, a bricklayer.
-Before that I sold one
-revolver to Schnaubelt,
-one to Lingg
-and one to Seliger.
-It was Schnaubelt
-who proposed at the
-meeting held at 54
-West Lake Street,
-May 3, to notify outside
-cities, but I told
-him it was all nonsense.
-About two
-weeks before this
-meeting I met Breitenfeld
-in a saloon, and said that I had often heard this letter ‘Y,’ and I was
-bound to find out its meaning when it appeared in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>.
-Breitenfeld said that it meant a meeting of the armed men, and told me to
-wait and he would get me into the meeting. I waited for a long time&mdash;about
-an hour. Then he came out, and I was admitted with him. I was
-in the meeting with him for an hour, and then it adjourned. I have known
-Lingg for six months. At the meeting at 54 West Lake Street on the
-evening of May 3, it was supposed then that the police would interfere
-at the Haymarket, and then there would be a chance for a riot. Four
-members of the North Side group were detailed at that meeting as spies.
-If the riot should be a failure and we should get beaten by the police, our
-gathering-places after that would be at Center Park, Humboldt Park, St.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span>
-Michael’s Church, Lincoln Park and Wicker Park. The signal of attack
-after the riot had commenced was to be an illumination of the heavens by
-red fires. Some one asked for dynamite, and he was answered that Lingg
-would furnish the stuff. The different spies detailed at that meeting were
-to hold a meeting the next day, each division for itself, and afterwards in
-a body at Zepf’s Hall, to perfect all arrangements for the riot. I accused
-Lingg of making dynamite bombs, and told him that if any trouble grew
-out of it, it would be on his account. He called me a coward. I knew
-that Lingg was in trouble in Philadelphia shortly before he left there.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Lorenz Hermann</span> was twenty-six years of age, of slim build, with a very
-sallow face, and apparently a consumptive. His occupation was that of a
-brass-molder, and he was a good workman. On his arrival at the station he
-expressed great surprise at the impudence of the officers in compelling him
-to come against his will. He was asked his name, and he gave it. When
-requested to spell it, he said he did not know how; all he knew was that it
-was Lorenz Hermann. Being questioned with reference to Anarchy, he replied
-that he did not know anything about it, and when accused of having
-taken part in the revolutionary plot, he said he had not taken as great a part
-in it as his brother had. He soon discovered that the police had a great
-deal of information about his brother, and then he changed his tactics by
-trying to smooth things over for Abraham.</p>
-
-<p>“My brother,” he said, “is married and has a family. I am single. I
-want to see my brother out of this trouble; no matter about me.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, then,” I interposed, “why not tell us something?”</p>
-
-<p>“Me?” asked Lorenz. “I don’t know anything to tell.”</p>
-
-<p>He had evidently changed his mind on the spur of the moment, and he
-grew exceedingly reticent.</p>
-
-<p>“Well,” said I, “I will tell you something then. I will call your attention
-to May 4, between the hours of 8:30 and 10:30 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span> You were around this
-station with about nineteen other men, and among them was your brother.
-You were to throw bombs into the patrol wagon in case the police were
-called out to go to the West Side to assist the police at the Haymarket, but
-you remained a little too long in a saloon on Clark Street. When you came
-out and reached the corner of Superior Street and La Salle Avenue, you saw
-three patrol wagons loaded with police going south on LaSalle Avenue, but
-you were not near enough to throw a bomb. This made you very angry.
-Then some of you went to Moody’s church and remained there for some
-time. When you finally saw so many policemen coming to the station you
-all got scared and went to the hall at 58 Clybourn Avenue. Oh, by the way,
-which route did you take on leaving the station? Did you go to the Haymarket
-or to Neff’s Hall?”</p>
-
-<p>“I was at the Haymarket,” replied Lorenz.</p>
-
-<p>“Is it not true&mdash;all that I told you about the station?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, that is true,” responded Lorenz. “Some one told me about it.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Who told you?”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t know.”</p>
-
-<p>“You lie,” said I. “You must tell us who; that is the man we are after.”</p>
-
-<p>Seeing that he was gradually being cornered by his evasive replies, he
-put on a bold front to the whole matter and answered:</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I was there myself. I did not stay very long, and from there I
-went to the Haymarket. I think Hageman and I went together.”</p>
-
-<p>Further questioning only brought out sullen responses, with very meager
-information, but, after being allowed to think the matter over, he finally
-concluded to make a clean breast of it. He was kept busy with explanations
-for some time, and he gave me some very pointed information. He
-was indicted by the grand jury and afterwards released by order of the
-State’s Attorney. Lorenz has never been heard of since, but it is supposed
-he is now leading a quiet life and proving himself a better man.</p>
-
-<p>His statement, among other things corroborative of what others had
-divulged, contains the following:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“At a meeting held at 58 Clybourn Avenue, I heard Engel say that
-if they wanted to make bombs they could find plenty of gas-pipe on the
-West Side, in the city yards, near the Chicago Avenue bridge, and then if
-they wanted to learn how to make them they could come to him. All that
-was necessary was to cut the pipes up into lengths of six or eight inches,
-fill them with dynamite and put a wooden plug at each end. He had with
-him at the time his daughter, who was about fifteen or sixteen years of age.
-I saw Hirschberger, Hageman and Charles Bock at eleven o’clock on the
-evening of Tuesday, May 4, in Neff’s place, at 58 Clybourn Avenue. Hirschberger
-told those present about the riot on the West Side. I was at the
-Haymarket meeting in the company of Hageman, the carpenter. Two men
-stood close together near me, and they looked suspicious. I was there at
-the time the police came up. I got frightened and ran away. I ran without
-stopping till I reached Neff’s place, on the North Side. I found my
-brother there, and I told him about the throwing of the bomb, its explosion
-and what happened. I did not want to get mixed up in the affair, and that
-is the reason I declined to speak at first. I belonged to the armed men of
-the North Side. The revolvers and guns my brother sold he got from a
-factory in New York. He sold about twelve guns to the Socialists. He sold
-a box full of revolvers, about twenty in a box, for $6.90 a piece. For seven
-months my brother acted as agent, under appointment, to procure and sell
-guns and revolvers.”</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">Pushing the Anarchists&mdash;A Scene on a Street-car&mdash;How Herman
-Muntzenberg Gave Himself Away&mdash;The Secret Signal&mdash;“D&mdash;&mdash;n the Informers”&mdash;A
-Satchelful of Bombs&mdash;More about Engel’s Murderous Plan&mdash;Drilling the Lehr und
-Wehr Verein&mdash;Breitenfeld’s Cowardice&mdash;An Anarchist Judas&mdash;The Hagemans&mdash;Dynamite
-in Gas-pipe&mdash;An Admirer of Lingg&mdash;A Scheme to Remove the Author&mdash;The
-Hospitalities of the Police Station&mdash;Mr. Jebolinski’s Indignation&mdash;A Bogus Milkman&mdash;An
-Unwilling Visitor&mdash;Mistaken for a Detective&mdash;An Eccentric Prisoner&mdash;Division
-of Labor at the Dynamite Factory&mdash;Clermont’s Dilemma&mdash;The Arrangements for the
-Haymarket.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">THE Anarchists, both in and out of prison, had begun to discover about
-this time that there was a law in the land, and that its majesty would
-be vindicated. They were confronted with stubborn, serious facts, and
-they realized that they were in a world of perplexities. They had been
-circumvented at every step in their efforts at concealment, and their plot
-had been revealed in its most essential parts. Their leaders had been
-gathered in, and their comrades were being arrested every day. Cunning
-and shrewd as they supposed themselves to be, they had discovered that
-society was equal to the task of probing their secrets. At first they had
-assumed an air of bravado and indifference, but, seeing how easily their
-bluff could be called and how closely we had the record of each, they realized
-that evasion or silence was not calculated either to keep their necks
-out of the halter or to save them from the penitentiary. Those arrested
-nearly all turned craven cowards, and this situation of affairs did not contribute
-to the comfort of those still outside, who were in momentary dread
-of apprehension. Arrest followed arrest, and Mr. Furthmann and I were
-kept exceedingly busy in directing the taking of confessions and assimilating
-the material for future use. Still the good work went on.</p>
-
-<p>The first victim, after the Hermann brothers, to fall under police control
-was Herman Muntzenberg. He was arrested on the evening of May 20,
-at eight o’clock, and the circumstances attending his arrest were somewhat
-peculiar. On the evening in question, Officers Schuettler and Hoffman
-were transferring the Hermann brothers from the Larrabee Street Station
-to the Chicago Avenue Station. They boarded an open street-car with
-their prisoners, whom they placed on a rear seat facing front, stationing
-themselves immediately behind on the platform. In the middle of the car,
-facing to the rear, sat a stranger. Presently the officers noticed that the
-man was making signs to the Hermanns. In response, Lorenz Hermann
-placed his right hand over his mouth. This was followed by another sign
-from the stranger. Officer Schuettler recognized the fact that the man
-was a friend of the Hermanns, and he requested the prisoners not to divulge
-the officers’ identity. The stranger seemed to be in doubt about something,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span>
-left his seat, and, placing himself at the side of Abraham Hermann,
-started a conversation. He appeared to be an old acquaintance. This
-was sufficient for the officers. When the car reached the corner of Wells
-Street and Chicago Avenue, the stranger was about to leave. He was
-quietly told by the officers not to trouble himself just then to get off the car,
-but to keep his seat a little while longer. Naturally the man was surprised
-at this request of men whom he did not know, and indignantly declined to
-ride any farther. The officers promptly told him to consider himself under
-arrest and not to move if he valued his life. They had in the meantime recognized
-the man as the little fellow who had carried the satchel filled with
-dynamite bombs to Neff’s Hall, along with
-Lingg. It was Herman Muntzenberg.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-313.jpg" width="200" height="264" id="i313"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">HERMANN MUNTZENBERG.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The three prisoners were taken to the
-station, and Muntzenberg was locked up
-by himself over night. The next day he
-was brought into my office. The density
-of his ignorance respecting Anarchy or
-Anarchists was astonishing. Like the rest,
-he absolutely knew nothing. Some days
-afterwards, however, he took a different
-view of things. A confession was looked
-for, and he was given an opportunity.</p>
-
-<p>“I see everybody is in trouble,” Muntzenberg
-began dolefully. “I am in for it
-myself. I cannot help anybody; nobody
-can help me.”</p>
-
-<p>He hesitated, as if trying to decide
-what he should do, but finally, nerving
-himself, he continued:</p>
-
-<p>“I will bear my own trouble. I will hurt no one else.”</p>
-
-<p>“Ah,” said I, “there is Hermann, for instance; there are other people also
-who have given you away. They have all professed to be your friends in
-times past, and now they are trying to save their own necks and hang you.
-So you want to remain silent under their charges? Have you nothing to tell
-on the others?”</p>
-
-<p>“That would do me no good,” answered Muntzenberg.</p>
-
-<p>“Then,” said I, “what have you to say about yourself?”</p>
-
-<p>“You don’t know the least thing about me,” defiantly remarked the little
-man.</p>
-
-<p>“Probably you had such a bad headache from the smell of dynamite that
-you can’t remember anything.”</p>
-
-<p>“Who told you I had a headache?” broke in Muntzenberg, now intensely
-interested.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Were you not afraid,” I continued, not heeding the interruption, “that
-you would fall into the basement when you sat on the iron railing at the corner
-of North Avenue and Larrabee Street, near the police station, or did you
-feel confident that the bombs you had in your pocket would hold you in your
-place? Another thing&mdash;you are not in the habit of smoking cigars. Did
-they make you sick?”</p>
-
-<p>Muntzenberg had remained somewhat passive up to this last shot, but he
-suddenly showed there was a good deal of vitality in him. His eyes flashed
-with excitement, and he was all attention.</p>
-
-<p>“By the way,” I went on, “how much weight can you carry?”</p>
-
-<p>“What do you mean?” interposed the anxious listener.</p>
-
-<p>“I mean how much did that gray satchel weigh that you carried to 58 Clybourn
-Avenue May 4, about eight o’clock?”</p>
-
-<p>“D&mdash;&mdash;n the informers,” ejaculated the now irate little Anarchist. “Give
-me an hour to think matters over and call me again.”</p>
-
-<p>He was sent back to his cell, and on the expiration of two hours he was
-brought back. He entered the office very meekly, and at once said:</p>
-
-<p>“Captain, I see it is no use for me to be stubborn. Will you treat me like
-the others, if I tell all I have seen and what I have done myself?”</p>
-
-<p>“I promise you the same right and privilege.”</p>
-
-<p>Muntzenberg made his statement and was released by order of the State’s
-Attorney. He was a German, twenty-eight years old, five feet seven inches
-tall, stoutly built, with large head and eyes, and followed the trade of a
-blacksmith. At the time of his arrest he lived at No. 95 North Wells
-Street. On his release he promised to testify whenever wanted, but about
-the middle of the trial he took a leave of absence and has never been seen
-since. Once it was reported that he was dead, but the report could not be
-verified. Muntzenberg was a warm admirer of Lingg, Spies and Engel,
-and a persistent worker for their cause. He often lost several days’ work in
-a week to saunter out into the country, selling Most’s books and telling people
-to arm themselves. He earned good wages when he worked, and spent it
-all for Anarchy. Like others, he acknowledged that he had been led astray
-by incendiary literature. His statement was as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“On May 4, about eight o’clock, I was sent to meet two men who
-carried a satchel filled with dynamite shells or bombs. I met them about
-a block from Thüringer Hall, 58 Clybourn Avenue. I told them that I had
-been asked to meet them and help carry the satchel. They said, ‘All right.’
-I took it from them, put it on my shoulder and carried it to the hall. The
-satchel weighed about thirty pounds. In the afternoon of that day, about
-four o’clock, I came to the North Side and went to Hubner’s house, No. 11
-Mohawk Street. He was not at home. I went out to look for him. I have
-known him for some time. I found him. The second time I wanted to
-see him I went to his house and found him at home in his room making
-transparencies for that night’s meeting at the Haymarket. He took lunch
-then, and after that we went to Seliger’s house, No. 442 Sedgwick Street.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span>
-Reaching there, Hubner told Lingg and Seliger that I was his friend and
-all right. In the room of Lingg I saw two guns and two revolvers. Seliger
-was filling the bombs with dynamite. Lingg was cutting the fuse.
-One of them asked me if I had any sores on my hand. I said no. ‘Then,’
-they said, ‘you can help us.’ My task was to fill in with dynamite the
-long gas-pipe shells. I filled six or eight shells or bombs. My head commenced
-to ache from the smell of the dynamite, so that I could not work
-any longer. Hubner also worked, putting caps on the fuse. I saw three
-or four men in the house at the time. I saw about ten round lead bombs on
-the bed, all empty. After they were finished they were put under the bed. I
-noticed about sixteen of the long gas-pipe shells or bombs about the room.
-At dark Hubner and I went to Neff’s Hall. Before leaving I saw one of
-the two, Lingg or Seliger, bring in a satchel and empty it of dirty clothes.
-As we were approaching the hall, Hubner asked me to see if they were
-coming. I went to see, and met them in the alley near the street. Both
-were carrying the satchel, each having hold of the ends of the handles on
-the satchel. I asked if I should help them. They answered yes. As they
-were tall men, I could not carry it with either one, and so I put it on my
-shoulder and carried it myself. I took it into the rear hall back of the
-saloon. After a little while one of them asked me where I had placed the
-satchel. I told him. He said that was not the right place and asked me
-to bring it back. So I went after it and put it into the narrow hallway.
-The satchel was two feet long, eighteen inches high and sixteen inches
-wide. It was covered with gray canvas. It weighed about thirty pounds.
-When I left Seliger’s house at dark, I took along with me three long bombs.
-I did so because one of the men there told me to do so. I knew they were
-bombs in the satchel when I carried them. Some one passed us on the
-street as we were going to the hall. Lingg said: ‘Those are heavy tools,’
-meaning the contents of the satchel, to throw the party we met off his
-guard. I threw the three bombs I had into the lake on my way to Pullman,
-because I learned they were dangerous and I did not want them any
-longer. I saw at Neff’s Hall that night, May 4, a crowd of men together
-for a while, and then they began to part. They went away in groups of
-five or six. They all went on Clybourn Avenue to Larrabee Street. As
-we got to Larrabee Street, they all separated and spread on Larrabee
-Street. I went up to North Avenue and Larrabee Street to the police
-station with a strange man. I remained there for some time. I saw Seliger
-and Lingg near the station, going north on Larrabee Street. When I
-was at Seliger’s house one of the five men present said to me to throw
-bombs into the police station to kill the police, and if any patrol wagons
-escaped and came out to throw bombs into the wagons among the officers
-and shoot the horses. This was for the purpose of preventing them from
-giving assistance to each other. I smoked a cigar that night so that I
-would have a fire ready to light the bombs with and throw them if necessary.
-I only smoke cigars on Sundays, and, as I am not accustomed to
-smoke much, the cigar made me sick. I sat for some time on an iron railing
-on Larrabee Street, opposite the police station, on the southeast corner.
-I sat there about fifteen minutes. The wagon failed to come out, and, as I
-felt sick and could not do much anyway, I went home. Lingg and Seliger
-walked ahead of me. I saw them last when they crossed North Avenue,
-going north on Larrabee Street. The next evening I went to No. 58 Clybourn
-Avenue. I met Hubner, and he said that on the night of the shooting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span>
-he was at Lincoln Park. I recognize this picture now shown me as
-being that of Seliger. I saw him making dynamite bombs at 442 Sedgwick
-Street on the afternoon of May 4 in company with Lingg. The man I
-have seen locked up in this station I saw working and making dynamite
-bombs in company with Seliger, and his name is Louis Lingg. When I
-was at Seliger’s house, Hubner told me to go to Lincoln Park, and there I
-would get my instructions.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">The next</span> Anarchist brought into the station was <span class="smcap">August Gragge</span>. He
-was a German, twenty-eight years of age, straight and stoutly built, a bricklayer
-by trade, and lived at No. 880 North Halsted Street. He was arrested
-on the 24th of May. I gave him an evening’s audience shortly after. It
-was apparent from his demeanor that he was a young man easily led astray
-by men of force and decision of character; therefore it was no wonder that
-he had become an extreme Anarchist, especially since he had been thrown a
-great deal into the company of some of the rankest leaders in the order and
-had attended meetings where gore and plunder formed the chief topics of
-discussion. When the authorities took him in hand, he soon modified his
-opinions. He stated that, like a great many others, he had been misled to
-believe that Anarchist doctrines were right and that no law existed to
-interfere with them; but after the law had been read to him, he acknowledged
-that he had pursued a wrong course. He had been a man of sober
-habits, and on being questioned he told a very straightforward story. After
-giving such information as he possessed he was released by the State’s
-Attorney, and he promised to mend his ways.</p>
-
-<p>The statement he made to me was as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“A man by the name of Lange and another, August Asher, coaxed me
-into the armed group. Charles Bock was our secretary four or five weeks
-ago. I heard Rau and Lingg speak in Neff’s Hall. Lingg spoke about
-dynamite and called on us to arm ourselves. They also wanted us to buy
-revolvers. I bought one&mdash;a big one&mdash;for $4. I paid $2 down. Asher
-and I went to the meeting at the Haymarket on the evening of May 4. I
-saw the circular that called that meeting. We had our big revolvers with
-us when we went there. When the shooting commenced we ran. I fell
-down, and about forty men ran over me and kept me down. I then lost my
-revolver. We had a meeting on Monday night, May 3, at Neff’s Hall.
-Abraham Hermann had three or four revolvers for sale. Asher always kept
-the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, and at times I would read it. The first man I heard
-speak at the Haymarket was August Spies, then Parsons, and Fielden, next
-I saw Schnaubelt standing on the wagon with Spies. On account of its
-looking like rain it was decided to go to Zepf’s Hall. Parsons, however,
-told the people to remain, as he only had a few more words. The police
-finally came. Some of the people started to go away, but some one in a
-loud voice urged them to remain. Then firing commenced. I heard the
-explosion of the bomb. As I stated, I fell down. As soon as I could get
-up I started to run for the North Side. I went to Neff’s Hall. I found
-there several that I knew. I told them I had lost my revolver and then
-explained what had happened at the Haymarket. I carried my revolver in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span>
-my hip pocket, and it dropped out as I fell. The revolver was loaded. I
-know Lingg. I have heard him speak at least four or five times. He
-would always call on the people to arm themselves. He also said that they
-were too slow in getting arms and that the time would come for their use
-and they ought to be ready.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Gustav Breitenfeld</span> was next arrested. He was a German, aged thirty,
-a brush-maker by trade, and lived in the lower flat of a two-story house at
-No. 18 Samuel Street. On May 4 he was commander of the second company
-of the Lehr und Wehr Verein, and he had previously taken an active
-part at all Anarchist meetings. He was regarded as a star Anarchist on the
-Northwest Side, and frequently visited the house of George Engel.</p>
-
-<p>Gustav was an Anarchist jumping-jack. All that the leaders had to do
-was to pull the strings, and he responded. He served on all committees, and
-whenever in doubt as to any course of procedure he went to Engel for advice.
-He lacked judgment and brains, and he sought to make up the deficiency
-by consulting the leaders. But withal he was a dangerous man. He was
-quick-tempered, but a coward when he thought he was not likely to get the
-best of the situation.</p>
-
-<p>On the night of May 4 he had his company ready near the city limits to
-murder people and set fire to buildings, only awaiting orders to set about
-the work of general destruction. They expected to see the police flee from
-the Haymarket, but as the reds did the running on that occasion, the combination
-failed. Their “signal” committees were scattered and their comrades
-became demoralized at the unexpected charge of the police.</p>
-
-<p>Breitenfeld and his company heard the shooting at their place of <i>rendezvous</i>,
-and, failing to receive the signal to begin the attack, he went to
-Engel’s house to ascertain what was wrong. Learning of the drubbing his
-comrades had received at the Haymarket, he was not anxious to take similar
-“medicine,” and he skulked away like a whipped cur. A house had
-been chosen near the limits for the incendiary torches of his company, and it
-would have been in flames on their first advance if they had received the
-signal. But the company were dismissed, and all hurried home to escape
-danger. For two weeks they were in mortal dread of the police.</p>
-
-<p>If, however, these misguided men had been started that night, with all
-things in their favor, there is no telling what fearful havoc they would have
-created. The company was composed of men desperate enough, under
-proper encouragement, to have murdered people asleep or awake. They
-would have held high carnival if the Haymarket meeting had come out
-according to expectations, and the able-bodied and the helpless would have
-suffered alike at their hands. Their plan was to shoot or stab everybody
-who opposed their onward march into the city, and, crazed with success,
-they would have hesitated at nothing.</p>
-
-<p>Breitenfeld knew all the villainous arrangements, and he was therefore a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span>
-man the police sought after. He was found on the 25th of May, at about
-seven o’clock, by Officers Stift and Schuettler, and brought to the Chicago
-Avenue Station. When I had the honor of meeting him, he at once assumed
-military airs, but he soon found himself reduced to the ranks. As he was
-one of the few who understood English, the law on conspiracies was read
-to him. Then he was informed that he had been indicted, and was told
-what could be proved against him. He became terribly excited, could
-hardly speak, but finally managed to say:</p>
-
-<p>“Gentlemen, you have got the wrong man. You want to get my brother.
-I am not that Breitenfeld. I am a good, peaceable man.”</p>
-
-<p>He was informed that lies were at a discount in the station just then,
-and that if he desired to speak and tell the truth an opportunity would be
-given him. If not, we would tolerate no nonsense. He refrained from
-speaking, and was sent below.</p>
-
-<p>The next day he sent word that he wanted to see me. He was brought
-up, and on being seated before Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann and
-all the officers, he said:</p>
-
-<p>“Gentlemen, I beg your pardon. I told you a lie. I am the man you
-want. I have a wife and family, and I love them. I beg of you now, if you
-let me speak, I will tell the truth and everything I know.”</p>
-
-<p>“Tell all you know,” said I, “and remember that I will know when you
-tell a falsehood.”</p>
-
-<p>“I know you have everything by this time. If I tell you all and become
-a witness against these other fellows, will you let me go?”</p>
-
-<p>“If you tell all and the truth, I will see the State’s Attorney for you and
-ask him to take you as a witness.”</p>
-
-<p>Breitenfeld thereupon made a statement, and a few days later he was
-released. When subsequently called on to testify, he refused to do so. He
-had told others that the State could not convict anybody, and he would not
-help the prosecution. He was, therefore, let alone. He is still under
-indictment. With the lesson he had received it was thought he would reform.
-In this we were mistaken. He has since attended a number of meetings,
-and at the funeral of Mrs. Neebe turned out with his company. He is the
-same unrepentant Anarchist that he was before his trouble, but he is being
-carefully watched wherever he goes.</p>
-
-<p>This is what he swore to at the station in the presence of Mr. Furthmann,
-myself and the officers:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“My name is Gustav Breitenfeld. I am thirty years old. I am married
-and I reside at No. 18 Samuel Street. I am a brush-maker. I am
-captain of the second company of the Lehr und Wehr Verein. We have
-twenty men in our company. I know Fischer and Schrade. Schrade is
-drill-sergeant of my company. On Sunday, May 2, I was at Pullman. I
-heard of the riot plan on Monday afternoon, May 3. I know George
-Engel, Deitz and Fischer. They are the principal leaders in the Northwest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span>
-Side group and of the armed men. Heier is the name of the man
-who keeps Thalia Hall on Milwaukee Avenue. I know Kraemer; he lives
-in the rear of Engel’s house. I think I saw Kraemer at the meeting held
-on the evening of May 3, at 54 West Lake Street. I know Schmidt, the
-carrier of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. At that meeting I saw Krueger, Schrade,
-Gruenwald, Clermont, Kraemer, Deitz, Engel, Fischer, Schnaubelt and
-Waller. Waller was the chairman of the meeting. The first thing I heard
-they were denouncing the police force for killing the workingmen at
-McCormick’s factory. I saw the revenge circular, which called the people
-to arms. I heard Engel say that when the word ‘Ruhe’ should appear in
-the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, every one should go to his meeting-place selected by
-them and be ready for action. I heard some one say that as soon as they
-saw the heavens illuminated with red fires, then was the time to commence
-the revolution. Engel and Fischer volunteered to carry the news from the
-Haymarket to the armed men stationed at Wicker Park. Engel volunteered
-to act as a spy. I know Engel to have sold arms. At the meeting
-of May 3, I heard some one asking for dynamite bombs. I heard Engel
-respond that the dynamite bombs were ready and in good hands. Fischer
-agreed to have the circulars, calling the Haymarket meeting, printed. It
-was said that there would be from 20,000 to 30,000 people at that meeting,
-and that the police would interfere. Then would be a good time to attack
-them and get revenge on them for the killing of six of their comrades. The
-word ‘Ruhe’ would signify that they should get ready and be on the look-out.
-Engel said that they should look for it in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> on
-May 4, and they were all to go to their respective places, as agreed upon,
-with their arms or guns. The Haymarket meeting was decided upon as a
-trap to catch the police. Engel, Kraemer and Krueger went to the meeting
-to see if there was a big crowd there, and when they got back home Engel
-said there were only 250 men present. I went to see Engel on the morning
-of May 4 at his house. He told me he had been at the meeting and
-there were present the number I have given. I attended the meeting of
-the Northwest Side group that decided to call the meeting for the evening
-of May 3, at 54 West Lake Street. I heard, at the last-named place, several
-say that the dynamite bombs were in good hands. I met Waller at
-Thalia Hall on May 4, about eleven o’clock in the evening, and he
-remarked that they had had a very hot time of it at the Haymarket. I saw
-Fischer on Wednesday, May 5, at Thalia Hall, and he then told me that
-Spies had been arrested about four o’clock that morning. Spies is the only
-one I know of the Spies family. I have known him five years.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">William Hageman</span> was the next to inspect our plain and unpretentious
-office. He came in on his dignity and carried an air about him that plainly
-exhibited his complete contempt for the police. He was a German, about
-thirty years old, round-shouldered, a stair-builder by occupation, was married
-and had one child. He lived at the time of his arrest on the lower
-floor of a house at No. 49 Reese Street, and he could always be found whenever
-Anarchist plots were to be executed. His brother was, like himself,
-a rampant Anarchist, but with cunning enough to escape arrest. William
-was found by Officers Schuettler and Hoffman, about seven o’clock on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span>
-morning of May 26. He did not long remain in ignorance of the cause of
-his arrest, and then he wanted me to understand:</p>
-
-<p>“My brother is no Anarchist. If any one does any squealing on him,
-don’t pay any attention to it, because it all means me. I am the fellow.
-The people often get us mixed.”</p>
-
-<p>“You are the worst Anarchist of the two,” I remarked.</p>
-
-<p>Hageman wanted to know how I had come to that conclusion.</p>
-
-<p>“We know all about you,” said I.</p>
-
-<p>“If you know it, be sure and don’t forget it,” was the reply. “I am
-sure you won’t learn anything from me.”</p>
-
-<p>“All right. But just as sure as you are sitting there, I will find out all
-your performances, and every one you associated with during the last two
-years, before you leave this station. And you will tell it to me yourself.”</p>
-
-<p>“Never; I will die first. I will kill myself first. I will stand any torture
-you may inflict on me, but I will never tell on my comrades or any one
-that worked for our cause.”</p>
-
-<p>“You probably don’t remember the job you pledged yourself to undertake
-on the night of May 4. It was not a very small one either, but, of
-course, your nerves not being very strong that evening, you came here to a
-neighboring saloon several times to brace up, and your friends, lying in the
-rear of this station, felt very much the same way as you did. So you
-spelled one another and strengthened your nerves. Say, William, who said
-that the bombs were not good? You remember the third window in the
-station on the east side of the building and the little quarrel about the
-bombs&mdash;whether a round lead bomb should be thrown or a long gas-pipe
-bomb. Do you remember the two policemen that crossed the alley and
-stood still for a moment in the middle of that alley when you fellows thought
-you were discovered&mdash;how you all got into the dark side of the alley and ran?
-Now, remember, when you get ready to talk, I will tell my side of the story,
-and should you get stuck, you see I can help you out a great deal. You
-might recall what little you know of the Haymarket, how you were surprised
-that only one bomb was thrown and how the fellows detailed for that duty
-did not attend to their business. Here, officers, show this gentleman the
-suite of rooms which he is to occupy for the next four weeks. If you desire
-anything extra that is not on our bill of fare, just touch the button, and you
-will be waited on promptly. Any inattention on the part of the waiters
-must be reported to this office. If you should conclude to make a long stay
-with us, you had better provide yourself with a good supply of tobacco.
-You understand that when a man is at sea he finds that there are a good
-many things he needs that would come in handy.”</p>
-
-<p>He did not like his apartments&mdash;singular to relate. There was no
-fire escape, the linen on the bed was not changed every day, and the noise
-of his neighbors kept him awake of nights. He had struck the wrong<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span>
-hotel, but his apartments had been engaged for him and paid for by the taxpayers,
-and he could not gracefully withdraw.</p>
-
-<p>Hageman first got tired, then angry, and finally desperate. He realized
-that he was in trouble and made up his mind to take me into his confidence.
-He reached this conclusion on the afternoon of May 27, and sent the janitor
-to the office with a message that he desired to see me. He was informed
-in return that he could not see me unless he meant to talk business. Hageman
-responded that he was ready to talk on any subject upon which he
-might be questioned, and he was accordingly brought into the office, into
-the presence of Mr. Furthmann, myself and the detectives.</p>
-
-<p>“Well,” said I, “I understand that you want to see me.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, I do,” was the response, “but not in the presence of all these
-fellows.”</p>
-
-<p>“Why not?”</p>
-
-<p>“Because my business is with you alone.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, you see, William, I am only one, and as what you tell here,
-which must be the truth, will have to be given by you in the Criminal Court,
-and as I may probably get killed before that time, there would be no one to
-testify to your statement if given to me alone.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, that is the way you want to catch me!”</p>
-
-<p>“There is no catch about it. If you don’t want to make a statement in
-the presence of all these men, I don’t want to hear anything from you.”</p>
-
-<p>“Will you answer me one question?” asked Hageman, getting a little
-apprehensive that he might lose his only chance. “It is, has any one out of
-the many people locked up here squealed?”</p>
-
-<p>“Well,” I answered, “most of them have already done so, and the others
-are fairly breaking their necks to follow suit.”</p>
-
-<p>“This is a very unpleasant thing to do.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, that is true.”</p>
-
-<p>“Can I get out by telling you all I know, and can you keep me from testifying
-in court? You know this will kill a man forever.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, but a great many policemen were killed, and they simply obeyed
-orders. If you think you are better than a policeman, you had better go
-down stairs again and await your trial in the Criminal Court.”</p>
-
-<p>“Now, see here, Captain, I would never tell on anybody, but I have got
-a wife and little baby at home. It almost sets me crazy thinking of them,
-and for their sake I will tell all.”</p>
-
-<p>Hageman did as he promised, but in the interview that ensued it became
-apparent that he was a double-faced man, and that, when it came to his
-family, he did not care a fig whether he landed the other fellows on the gallows
-or in the penitentiary. He had been a brave, boasting Anarchist.
-He had been accustomed to talk with his associates over foaming “schooners”
-of beer, and the more beer there was the greater his talk about killing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span>
-people and overthrowing capital. He was a great reader of Anarchistic
-papers and literature, and the more fiery and unbridled the sentiment, the
-better he was pleased. He took a hand in every movement, attended all
-the meetings and picnics of the reds, and made himself quite a useful member
-of the order. He continually boasted of the bombs that he had hid
-away for use, and promised to let capitalists hear from him. The bombs
-he had were found to be of the round lead and gas-pipe patterns, and some
-of them he had received from Fischer a long time before May 4. He had
-been posted as to the manufacture of bombs by Lingg, and was a warm
-friend of Engel, whose talk about bombs suited him exactly. Hageman
-could not listen patiently to any discussion from which dynamite was left
-out, and in any peaceful gathering he was sure to become a disturber. If
-there was no dispute, he would start one himself, and, if necessary, back up
-his argument with blows. Whenever a dance or benefit was held to replenish
-the treasury for the purchase of dynamite, he was promptly on hand and
-exerted himself to the utmost to swell the receipts. Being such an active
-member, it was natural that he knew a great deal about his order, and he
-helped the State very materially with the points he furnished.</p>
-
-<p>He was kept in custody until after the trial, and with the experience he
-had in prison one would think that he would cut loose altogether from
-Anarchy. Not so, however. While nearly all the others repented of their
-error, Hageman had no sooner regained his liberty than he became as radical
-as ever. He even threatened several times to kill State’s Attorney
-Grinnell, Judge Gary, myself and others. After the trial, I had a detective
-at every meeting of the Anarchists, and the reports brought me were that
-Hageman and Bernhard Schrade were the most violent and determined men
-in the union.</p>
-
-<p>Hageman would boastingly say, “I never squealed to that man Schaack.
-If they had all done as I did, they would know very little about the Anarchists.”</p>
-
-<p>One night, at 54 West Lake Street, this arrant knave was approached by
-one of his supposed warm friends, who happened, however, to be in my
-confidence, and who said to him:</p>
-
-<p>“You don’t like Schaack, and I don’t like him. He is now here at the
-Desplaines Street Station. We can go into the alley and shoot him in his
-office. I have a revolver here with me now, and I will go into Florus’ and
-get one more. Then we will go and ‘do him.’ We will both go and fire
-together and run. But mind, let there be no arrest in our case; let us die
-before capture.”</p>
-
-<p>“Do you mean this?” asked Hageman.</p>
-
-<p>“Here is my hand. Here is my revolver, and if you play coward on me
-I will kill you standing up. Now, come on.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Did Hageman respond? Not at all. He crawled on his belly with
-excuses.</p>
-
-<p>“That man Schaack,” he said, “knows me so well that it is not safe to go
-around there.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well,” replied his companion, “we can go through a vacant lot.”</p>
-
-<p>“It is too dangerous, my boy,” said Hageman. “I could do all this
-well enough if I never would be found out.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well,” said the companion, “you are a crazy coward, and don’t you
-‘shoot your mouth’ hereafter where I am.”</p>
-
-<p>Hageman subsided for the time, but he is again as rampant as ever.</p>
-
-<p>Here is Hageman’s statement, which he made “for the sake of his own
-family,” but which helped to drive the nails into the coffins of other families:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I was at the meeting held at Neff’s Hall, No. 121 West Lake Street.
-I saw Lingg there and heard him address the people, calling them to arms.
-I also saw Thielen, the two Lehmans and Peter Huber. Niendorf was
-chairman of the meeting, which had been called to consider the eight-hour
-movement. Some one at that meeting called out that there was a meeting
-at No. 54 West Lake Street and said, ‘Let us go there.’ Then a number of
-us went, including Huber, Thielen and myself. I stood at the right hand
-side as one entered the basement after I got there. The meeting lasted
-from half to three quarters of an hour. I saw there Fischer, Engel and
-Waller. Waller was chairman. I heard Engel speak. He told us to
-watch for the red fires, and when we saw them in the heavens, then was the
-time to commence the revolution. The fires were to be the signals for the
-outside posts that the riot at the Haymarket had commenced. It was also
-to be regarded as a signal that the police had made an attack on the meeting
-at the Haymarket, and then we should commence the work of destruction.
-Every one should pick out houses beforehand, so that they could be
-set on fire when the signal was given. Engel also said at this meeting that
-the stuff, meaning dynamite, was cheap, and that any member could buy
-some. He referred to the police and said that if they saw a patrol wagon
-on the street filled with officers they should destroy the wagon and the
-police by throwing bombs into the wagon. He (Engel) urged every man to
-do as much harm as possible, meaning destruction of property and killing
-people. I heard this plan repeated afterwards by a black-whiskered man
-named Waller. Waller said that this plan for the revolution had been
-adopted by the West Side armed group. Hermann and I were at the Haymarket
-meeting, but when the shooting began we ran away.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Albert Jebolinski</span> was another welcome guest on the 26th of May. He
-had been frequently invited to partake of the hospitalities of the station, but
-he appeared to be contented with putting up with dingy quarters in out-of-the-way
-places rather than run the risk of meeting a policeman. But on the
-day in question he received such a pressing invitation from Schuettler and
-Hoffman that he finally yielded. He was a German Pole, thirty-five years
-of age, of slim build, and, with a dark mustache and large goatee, he looked
-like a Frenchman. He lived at the time in a two-story brick building, first
-flat, at No. 11 Penn Street. The officers knew that he was a very suspicious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span>
-man and that he would run blocks to get out of the way of a policeman,
-so great was his hatred of the force. They therefore approached his
-house cautiously, lest he might mistake them for blue-coats. They called
-rather early,&mdash;four o’clock in the morning,&mdash;and Schuettler, giving a regular
-milkman’s rap on the door, brought Mrs. Jebolinski to the front.</p>
-
-<p>“Who is there,” she shouted before venturing to open the door, “and
-what is wanted?”</p>
-
-<p>“I am here&mdash;the milkman,” responded Schuettler. “I want to see
-you, madam.”</p>
-
-<p>With this assurance Mrs. Jebolinski opened the door, but the moment
-she discovered that it was not the milkman, she slammed the door to&mdash;not
-quick enough, however, to close it, for the officer, seeing his chance, had
-thrust his foot between the door and the frame. Hoffman came at once to
-the rescue and informed the woman that I had sent him after her husband.</p>
-
-<p>“We don’t know anything about Capt. Schaack,” she responded, and
-again tried to close the door.</p>
-
-<p>“Well, madam, I am sure the Captain knows something about you
-folks.”</p>
-
-<p>And with this bit of information the officers pushed the door open.
-This was too much for Mrs. Jebolinski. She shouted to her husband:</p>
-
-<p>“O Albert, the <i>spitzel</i>, the police!”</p>
-
-<p>“Don’t open the door for anybody,” came in stentorian tones from
-Albert in an adjoining room. “Keep them out!”</p>
-
-<p>The officers had meantime effected an entrance, and, following up the
-voice, found Albert in bed.</p>
-
-<p>“Good morning, Albert,” said Schuettler, in pleasant, cheerful tones.</p>
-
-<p>“Who told you to come here?” gruffly demanded Albert.</p>
-
-<p>“Capt. Schaack desires to see you on pressing business.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, yes; he must be in love with me, since he sent you so early to see
-me. Has no one killed that d&mdash;&mdash;d bloodhound yet?”</p>
-
-<p>“No, Albert, you will have a chance to see him soon, and then you can
-kill him.”</p>
-
-<p>“You go and tell Schaack that you have seen me, and that will be sufficient.
-I will die first before I go. You cannot take me out of here. I
-want my breakfast, and I will take a sleep before my wife calls me.”</p>
-
-<p>So saying, Albert jumped back into bed. Officer Schuettler remonstrated,
-and was finally obliged to pull him out. Albert then refused to
-dress. Talking to him had no more effect than talking to a stone wall.</p>
-
-<p>Hoffman then opened the door, and Schuettler grabbed Albert under his
-arm and walked out with him despite his kicks and resistance. They got
-him out into the bracing atmosphere of the morning, and, although Albert
-was not dressed for company, they started off with him.</p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Jebolinski rushed out after them, and, wildly gesticulating, shouted:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Bring him back, bring him back, and I will dress him.”</p>
-
-<p>The officers retraced their steps, but not back into the house. They
-took Albert to the wood-shed, and there he was dressed.</p>
-
-<p>At the station he was invited down stairs and told that there were so
-many who wanted to see me that he would probably have a rest for a week.
-He was locked up, and during the first day he would neither eat nor drink.
-He was not coaxed, however, and the next morning he called the janitor,
-saying:</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-325.jpg" width="300" height="283" id="i325"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">A HASTY TOILET.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>“I am sick; will you give me
-a cup of coffee?”</p>
-
-<p>The janitor replied that he
-would have to wait till nine o’clock,
-when the prisoners came down from
-court.</p>
-
-<p>“Well,” said Albert, indignantly,
-“if I don’t get my coffee
-now, you can
-keep your
-breakfast.”</p>
-
-<p>When nine
-o’clock came
-around the janitor
-made the
-round, inviting
-the sleepers to
-wake and get
-their breakfast.</p>
-
-<p>“You can go
-to the d&mdash;&mdash;l; you can’t make me eat,” said Jebolinski, and he settled himself
-for a nap.</p>
-
-<p>But when the dinner hour came Albert made up for lost time and missed
-meals. At four o’clock he sent the janitor to the office to tell me that he
-wanted to see me. He was brought up.</p>
-
-<p>“Well, Albert,” said I, “how much do you weigh now?”</p>
-
-<p>“You had better let me go home. I will never tell you anything.
-It is no use keeping me here.”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t want you to tell me anything. I have secured more evidence
-in the last few days than I want, and now they are all arrested. I am going
-to prosecute you in court for conspiracy and murder; so you need not
-trouble yourself with being stubborn. I don’t want to see you again, not
-till I see you in court. Officer, take him back to the lock-up.”</p>
-
-<p>“So you can do without me?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, I am sure I can.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Albert was escorted down stairs, but inside of two hours he asked for
-Officer Schuettler.</p>
-
-<p>“I can see now,” he said to Schuettler, “that that man Schaack wants
-to hang me.”</p>
-
-<p>“I am sure he is done with you,” replied the officer.</p>
-
-<p>“I beg of you to tell the Captain I want to see him, and say to him that
-I will tell him about the bombs and everything else.”</p>
-
-<p>Officer Schuettler reported the Anarchist’s wishes, and Jebolinski was
-once more brought up. He then confessed that he had four loaded bombs
-planted, which he would show if taken out.</p>
-
-<p>He was accordingly taken in charge by Officers Schuettler and Hoffman,
-whom he led to a place north of Division Street near a planing-mill
-and linseed-oil factory. At that place there was a side-track, and, at a
-point where the locomotives were stopped to be dumped of their cinders,
-he unearthed his bombs. These bombs were covered with about four inches
-of cinders, midway between the rails, and when they were taken out they
-were found fully loaded, with fuse and caps. That there had been no
-explosion is almost a miracle. Had a locomotive been stationed over the
-spot for an hour, as frequently happened, the cinders would have been set
-on fire again. In an instant locomotive and all would have been blown to
-atoms, and no one would have known the precise cause. It was lucky for
-some engineer and fireman, and, in fact, for the locality, that no engine
-stood over the spot after those bombs had been planted.</p>
-
-<p>On returning to the station, Jebolinski furnished the State with much
-valuable information. He was indicted and held as a witness. But he was
-never called, and after the trial he was given his liberty. He has been
-watched since and found to be attending strictly to his own business. In
-his statement he sets forth his attendance at the meeting at 121 West Lake
-Street, where were present Lingg, Rau and others, and his presence at the
-Haymarket meeting, from which he ran the moment the firing commenced.
-He also described the bombs,&mdash;three round lead and one long iron one,&mdash;which
-he had obtained from Hageman, the one-eyed carpenter.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Peter Huber</span> was another distinguished caller, by special invitation.
-He was escorted to the office by Officers Whalen and Stift and took things
-very coolly. He was a lank, lean, consumptive-looking fellow, only twenty-nine
-years of age, and earned his living as a cabinet-maker. He was a
-German, married, and had two children, living in a two-story frame house
-at No. 96 Hudson Avenue. His manner was very quiet, and no one would
-have taken him for an Anarchist. But Peter, nevertheless, was heart and
-soul in the movement, and had regularly attended all the meetings. He
-had never made a speech&mdash;he was too diffident for that; he had never
-advised any one on Anarchy, but he had come to be trusted, and he knew
-all the leaders and all about dynamite bombs. He was so undemonstrative<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span>
-and non-communicative that at first I took him to be a paid detective in
-the ranks of the Socialists. When he was asked a question, he would take
-his own time to answer, and, once interrupted in his talk, he would stop
-and say no more.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-327.jpg" width="250" height="363" id="i327"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">A DANGEROUS STORING-PLACE.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>On the second day after his arrest&mdash;May 25&mdash;Huber offered to answer
-questions, and he did this without any inducement. He thereupon furnished
-the State with several good points, and freely told everything. He
-was indicted, but released by order of the State’s Attorney. He was ready
-to testify at the trial, but was not wanted. He has since kept away from
-Anarchist meetings, and is now a
-useful man to his family.</p>
-
-<p>Huber’s statement ran as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I belonged to the North Side
-armed group. I know Seliger, Hubner,
-Lehman the carpenter, the two
-Hagemans and Lingg. Some time
-in February last, George Engel
-made a great speech in Neff’s Hall,
-No. 58 Clybourn Avenue. I keep
-the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. The Sunday
-edition of that paper is called <i>Die
-Fackel</i>. I saw the letter ‘Y,’ and
-the meaning of it is that, whenever
-we should see it in the paper, then
-there would be a meeting held that
-evening, of the armed men, at No. 54
-West Lake Street. May 3d there
-was one such meeting called for
-that evening. On that evening I
-went to the saloon at No. 71 West
-Lake Street and drank a glass of beer. From there
-I went to No. 54 West Lake Street. While in the
-saloon at No. 54 West Lake Street, I heard some one
-say that a meeting would be held down stairs in the basement. So we
-went down stairs. When I entered I saw about thirty or forty present. I
-sat down on a bench, and we sat there for some time before the meeting
-opened. I heard some one say that it would be an indignation meeting on
-account of our workingmen having been killed at McCormick’s factory by
-the police on that day. I saw at that meeting the circular calling for revenge
-and the people to arms, because of the killing of our brothers. I saw the
-same circular that same evening at the hall No. 71 West Lake Street. Waller
-was chairman of the meeting at No. 54 West Lake Street. I met there Hubner,
-Abraham Hermann, Fischer and Breitenfeld, the captain of the second
-company of the Lehr und Wehr Verein. I heard Engel make a speech, and
-during the whole time Breitenfeld was walking up and down the hall. I also
-saw Schnaubelt and Thielen there. I was at Neff’s Hall, No. 58 Clybourn
-Avenue, early Tuesday evening, May 4th, and saw there Lingg, Seliger and
-Hubner. I heard Engel, at No. 54 West Lake Street, explain his plan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span>
-and the work that should be done under it. A meeting, he said, would be
-held at the Haymarket, and when the police interfered the crowd should
-attack them, and the armed men should be ready for action. Some one
-suggested that they should hold their meeting at the Market Square on the
-South Side, between Randolph and Madison Streets. Some one else
-remarked: ‘No, that is not a good place; it is a mouse trap.’ If they held
-the meeting there and the police interfered, and the crowd resisted them,
-the police would drive them all into the river. Some said, ‘That’s so,’ and
-then the meeting was fixed for the Haymarket, as Engel had suggested.
-We expected from 20,000 to 30,000 people present. We all had the idea
-that the police would interfere. Engel gave his plan about as follows: He
-said, ‘First call the meeting for the Haymarket,’ and then urged that the
-armed men be ready. He advised us to throw dynamite bombs into the
-stations, kill the police, throw dynamite bombs into the patrol wagons and
-shoot down the horses at the wagons. He repeated his plan for those who
-came in later to the meeting. The revenge circular was distributed both
-up stairs and down stairs at No. 54 West Lake Street. In the evening of
-May 3d, I saw Spies and Rau together in Zepf’s saloon. As to the word
-‘Ruhe,’ I heard Engel say that when we saw that word appear in the
-paper, then we might know everything was right and ready. And we
-should watch for that signal. I heard Engel say that a man who could do
-no harm or create no disturbance should stay at home, as he was not wanted.
-When he had finished giving his plan, it was adopted. Schnaubelt said
-that outside cities, where they had comrades, should be notified at once as
-soon as the revolution was a success here. I saw Fischer at this meeting.
-He went to the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> to see if he could print the circular that
-night, calling the Haymarket meeting for the next evening. He came back
-and reported that the office was closed. He said he would attend to it in
-the morning. I saw Lingg, Seliger, Muntzenberg and Hubner in Neff’s
-saloon, No. 58 Clybourn Avenue, about eight o’clock on the evening of
-May 4th.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Bernhard Schrade</span>, a German, was a peculiar combination of eccentricities.
-He was arrested by Officers Whalen and Loewenstein on the
-evening of May 26, at nine o’clock, on Milwaukee Avenue, near Division
-Street. He was twenty-eight years of age, six feet tall, of straight and muscular
-build, nervous and quick-tempered, a carpenter by occupation, and he
-lived at No. 581 Milwaukee Avenue. When he was seated in the station it
-did not take us long to ascertain all he knew about Anarchy. In speaking
-of the Haymarket, he said that the right men had not been in their places,
-or things would have turned out quite differently. They had plenty of arms
-and bombs, he explained, but the leaders did not know their business.
-Early in the evening there was a large crowd, he said, but the great majority
-of them left in disgust because there was not a larger gathering and the
-speeches were not radical enough to suit their ideas. They expected something
-fiery and impetuous. (This was about the time Mayor Harrison was
-at the meeting, and the speeches were accordingly very mild.) Those
-that left the meeting and did not go home, Schrade said, hung around the
-saloons in the neighborhood. If six hundred police, he further said, had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span>
-attacked the crowd an hour earlier, few of them would have been left with
-their lives. He knew the arrangements, and, had the plan been carried out,
-the loss of life would have been appalling.</p>
-
-<p>Schrade was subsequently released by order of Assistant State’s Attorney
-Furthmann, and promised that he would testify in court. He was several
-times sent after to give further information, and he always responded.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-329.jpg" width="400" height="406" id="i329"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">AN OBSTREPEROUS PRISONER.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>About one month after Schrade’s release, he and two others visited a
-saloon on North Avenue one night, and, after drinking a
-great deal of beer, they became exceedingly noisy and
-boisterous. The saloon-keeper attempted to quiet them,
-but was finally obliged to call an officer. Now, none of
-the bibulous individuals had any liking for a policeman.
-The moment they saw him enter they ordered him
-out and threatened that if he did not get out they would
-throw him out through the window. The officer was not
-at all alarmed, and, seeing that he was bent on keeping them quiet, the three
-disturbers pounced down upon him. The officer promptly brought his club
-into play, and soon his opponents measured their length upon the floor.
-The saw-dust was sprinkled with blood, but, before the reds could make a
-second assault, a citizen had brought the patrol wagon to the rescue. They
-were taken in charge and thrown into the wagon in their drunken stupor,
-and carted to the Larrabee Street Station.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>On the way Schrade revived somewhat, and, not quite satisfied with the
-results of his former encounter, attempted to throw one of the officers over
-the side of the wagon. He was clinched by the throat, however, and kept
-quiet for the rest of the journey. The next morning the trio were fined in
-the Police Court and released on payment of the fines. Schrade became
-penitent and remained sober thereafter for some time. As he was out of
-work, I paid his board bill for two weeks, and kept him under surveillance
-to appear at the trial as a witness. When the trial began he was in good
-humor and told the State’s Attorney that he would give the same testimony
-that he had given at the station May 26. He was accordingly produced as
-a witness. On the stand he failed to unfold all the information he had previously
-given, but State’s Attorney Grinnell knew all the points in his former
-testimony, and before he got through with Schrade he made him a good
-witness for the State.</p>
-
-<p>After the trial the police lost sight of Schrade for a long time, and wondered
-whether he had been quietly murdered by his former comrades or had
-left the city for his own good. But one day an officer reported to me that
-Schrade was still in the city. It was supposed, of course, that he would
-never again be found in the haunts of Socialists. It was discovered, however,
-that he was a member in good standing of Carpenters’ Union No. 241,
-formerly No. 1. This is the most rabid Anarchist organization in the city,
-and, were it not for some comparatively conservative members, would have
-long since sought revenge for the conviction and execution of the doomed
-conspirators.</p>
-
-<p>Schrade and Hageman, since their restoration to full membership, were
-found to be as incendiary as ever in their utterances, and seemed to vie
-with each other in their efforts to show that they were better Anarchists
-even than before the time they informed on their companions and helped to
-bring them to the gallows. In fact, they became so demonstrative that some
-of the members threatened them with expulsion. For this they sought
-revenge by working upon weak-minded persons to influence them against
-the leaders in the organization. As long as the conservatives remain at
-the head of the carpenters’ union there is no special danger, but should
-such fanatics as Schrade and Hageman ever secure control, look out for
-blood.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">August Ahlers</span> was known to have been a close friend of Lingg, and
-accordingly I eagerly sought his acquaintance. But Ahlers after the Haymarket
-conceived an aversion to fresh air and kept himself in gloomy,
-unfrequented quarters. The officers knew that he had often visited Lingg’s
-room, sometimes remaining three or four hours, and, as Lingg never tolerated
-any one who could not be made useful, it was believed that Ahlers
-could furnish valuable information if found. Mrs. Seliger had stated that
-a great many visited Lingg, but most of them sought to conceal their faces<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span>
-or disguise themselves in some way, generally sneaking into the house as if
-they were going to steal something or kill somebody. This man Ahlers had
-been one of this kind. Lingg had every man who assisted him do certain
-special lines of work. Some would bring him lead, others gas-pipe, and
-others again charcoal, etc. Ahlers had helped in some way, and, with a
-pretty good description of him, the detectives were continually on the
-watch. Finally Officers Whalen and Loewenstein found him on the 26th
-of May, at No. 148 Chicago Avenue, and took him to the station. He had
-a sneaking demeanor, and when brought before me I asked him to give an
-account of himself between May 3d and May 6th. This he was unable to
-do, but after having been locked up for a while he gave some information
-about outside groups. As to Lingg he pretended to know very little, and
-as the officers could not identify him with any particular person, he was
-released on a promise of better behavior. He acknowledged having been
-a great admirer of the Anarchist leaders and a strong supporter of Anarchy,
-but now, he said, he would no longer affiliate with them. So far as the
-officers have observed, he has kept his promise and is attending strictly to
-his trade, that of a carpenter.</p>
-
-<p>We had these kind of fellows by the hundred in this city on May 4,
-1886, but fortunately God made most of them with big stomachs and no
-heart or courage.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Victor Clermont</span>, a German, was almost dumbfounded when he was
-informed that I wanted to see him. Clermont is a French-sounding name,
-and, when Officers Whalen and Loewenstein took him in charge on suspicion,
-they mistook him for a Frenchman, especially as he looked very much
-like one, having a dark mustache and goatee. Clermont was taken to the
-station, and there gave his age as twenty-seven, occupation a cabinet-maker
-and pool-billiard maker, and his residence No. 116 Cornelia Street. When
-questioned with reference to Anarchy he expressed surprise that he should
-be taken for an Anarchist, but when he was informed as to his having mysteriously
-sneaked into dark basements which were lighted up with candles
-and whose doors were barricaded, he looked aghast.</p>
-
-<p>“There is something wrong,” he said. “Somebody wants to involve
-me in the Haymarket trouble. I am sure I don’t know the least thing
-about Anarchists.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well,” said I, “we will see if you can remember anything. Either you
-or your wife has some relatives living near the city. After the 4th of May
-you sent a lot of guns, rifles, ammunition and some bombs to them for safe-keeping.
-You took them away at night, and you have been so careful as to
-try and disguise yourself. Yet I cannot prosecute you on that. You have
-also been an active member on the Northwest Side in all Anarchist movements.
-You know all the things you have been engaged in, and so do we.
-I have your record right here.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Oh, yes,” said Victor, “I hear that you fellows have things down very
-fine, because you have everything your own way. Well, if I do acknowledge
-all I have done, what are you going to do with me?”</p>
-
-<p>“I will do with you the same as I have done with others. I will hear
-your statement and see if you can tell the truth. If you lie to me or about
-any one else, I will stop you, and that is all. You are indicted, and I will
-send you to jail. If you tell the truth I will send for the State’s Attorney
-and ask him to let you go, but you must appear as a witness whenever we
-want you.”</p>
-
-<p>“I suppose,” remarked Clermont, “that my case is like this&mdash;if I don’t,
-some one else will squeal.”</p>
-
-<p>He then gave an account of himself and his Anarchist comrades. He
-was subsequently released and visited me very often for several weeks.
-He was out of employment and hard-up, and I gave him money with which
-to support himself. One evening he called and said to the officers that he
-had something important to tell me. I was very busy at the time and asked
-him if he wanted some money. Victor replied that he did not desire money.
-I offered him $5, however, and told him to come back the next day. He
-would not take the money at first, but when I told him that I could not
-wait any longer, he took it and left. On reaching Milwaukee and Chicago
-Avenues, he met some of his old cronies and told them that he was going
-away that night. Early next morning I was informed that he had gone.
-Victor remained away for a year, but, thinking things had blown over, he
-returned and set about to disabuse the Anarchists of the impression that he
-had ever “squealed.” While he has taken no active part in meetings since
-the trial, he appears to feel that he stands well with the Anarchists, and
-always tells them that when he was arrested “he never gave anything
-away.”</p>
-
-<p>His statement was as follows. It was given at nine o’clock on the evening
-of May 26:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I belong to the Northwest Side Lehr und Wehr Verein, the second
-company, of which Breitenfeld is captain. Some time ago, at a meeting
-held at 54 West Lake Street, it was stated that the police would break up
-their meetings if they knew when and where they held them, and that therefore
-it was necessary to adopt some secret way of calling their meetings.
-We adopted, ‘Y, komme,’ and when we saw that letter appear in
-the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> on any day we might know a meeting would be held at
-No. 54 West Lake Street. I was at Thalia Hall, May 3, early in the evening.
-We were to have held a meeting to elect new officers of the company,
-but no meeting was held. Some one came into the saloon and said that
-there were four of our workingmen killed at McCormick’s factory that afternoon.
-Then some one said that a call for a meeting that evening at No.
-54 West Lake Street had been published in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, and a lot
-of us went there to learn further particulars about the shooting of our men.
-I there saw those circulars calling for revenge and the people to arms.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span>
-That circular made me very excited. I was one of the first to get to that
-meeting at 54 West Lake Street. At the commencement of the meeting
-we put a man at each door to prevent any one listening or seeing what was
-going on in the inside, and to admit only members. That meeting was only
-called for the armed men. Waller was chairman. I heard Engel make a
-speech, and he presented the plan adopted by the Northwest Side group.”
-(Here follows a detailed account of the “plan,” agreeing in every particular
-with that given by other witnesses as to blowing up police stations, setting
-fire to buildings, killing people, the use of the word “Ruhe,” etc.)
-“We expected that there would be present at the Haymarket meeting from
-30,000 to 40,000 people and that then there would be a good chance for us
-to commence our revolution and attack the police and the government.
-There were also to be spies at the meeting to communicate with the groups
-in the outlying sections (Wicker Park and Lincoln Park). But the spies
-did not do their work, and then after Engel’s speech several got to talking
-about guns, fires and bombs. On the motion of Fischer it was decided to
-have 10,000 circulars calling the Haymarket meeting printed, and he said
-he would attend to it. First Market Square was proposed, but some one
-objected by saying it was a mouse trap in case of trouble, and the Haymarket
-was agreed upon. Before finishing telling about his plan Engel
-said it had been adopted by the Northwest Side group and referred to
-Fischer to answer if that was not so. Fischer replied, ‘Yes, that is the
-plan.’”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">I asked Clermont if that was the first time he had ever heard of the
-“plan,” and he replied:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Yes, it was the first time I had heard of the revolutionary plan. I
-never heard of it before, and only heard of it through Engel that night.
-This was the only plan I heard of to be followed for the revolution. I was
-at the Haymarket and expected to find a big crowd. To my surprise I
-only found about five hundred present.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Clermont is now again in Chicago, and as rabid a red as ever. He
-is a leader on the Northwest Side, and detectives have reported to me
-that he has declared himself in favor of “bullets instead of ballots.” He
-is also a prominent organizer in the Anarchist “Sunday-school” scheme.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">Fluttering the Anarchist Dove-cote&mdash;Confessions by Piecemeal&mdash;Statements
-from the Small Fry&mdash;One of Schnaubelt’s Friends&mdash;“Some One Wants to
-Hang Me”&mdash;Neebe’s Bloodthirsty Threats&mdash;Burrowing in the Dark&mdash;The Starved-out
-Cut-throat&mdash;Torturing a Woman&mdash;Hopes of <i>Habeas Corpus</i>&mdash;“Little” Krueger’s
-Work&mdash;Planning a Rescue&mdash;The Signal “???” and its Meaning&mdash;A Red-haired
-Man’s Story&mdash;Firing the Socialist Heart&mdash;Meetings with Locked Doors&mdash;An Ambush
-for the Police&mdash;The Red Flag Episode&mdash;Beer and Philosophy&mdash;Baum’s Wife and
-Baby&mdash;A Wife-beating Revolutionist&mdash;Brother Eppinger’s Duties</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">THE work of ferreting out and arresting the conspirators might have
-stopped with the number already gathered in, so far as the necessity for
-procuring evidence to be used in court was concerned, but it was continued
-to the end that every conspicuous or minor character in the murderous plot
-might be made to feel the power of the law, which each had so persistently
-defied. I had the names and descriptions of all identified with Engel’s
-plan, their haunts, their traits of character, and their influence in the order,
-and detectives, under instructions, were continually on the search. Anarchist
-localities were overhauled, unfrequented places visited, and convenient
-hiding-places inspected. Every one wanted was finally brought from under
-cover. Not a guilty one escaped, except Schnaubelt. Anarchistic sympathizers
-did everything in their power to conceal their friends, but the police
-proved equal to the emergency.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Rudolph Dannenberg</span>, a German, was one who held himself aloof from
-the rest of humanity. He lived at No. 218 Fulton Street, and on the 27th
-of May Officers Loewenstein and Whalen found him surrounded by his
-family. During the few moments’ conversation I had with him, it became
-apparent that he was like all his associates&mdash;a firm enemy of the existing
-order of society. He stated that, although he was only a tailor, he could
-fire a revolver as unerringly as any one and throw a bomb as far as anybody.
-He declared that he thought himself adapted to something higher,
-something better than being a tailor, and he had joined the Anarchists in
-order to bring himself before the public and achieve distinction. He had
-carefully read the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, had noticed the names of various people,
-and he did not see why he could not become great like them and see his
-name and deeds frequently paraded in the papers. He felt that he had the
-requisite ability, and communicated his ambition and his desires to his
-wife.</p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Dannenberg was a plain, unassuming woman, and did not dare to
-remonstrate with a man who had finally discovered his <i>forte</i>. He strutted
-about the house with the conscious pride that greatness was within his
-grasp, and his changed demeanor really impressed the woman to the extent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span>
-that she believed he was already a great man. Dannenberg lost no time in
-joining the Lehr und Wehr Verein, and eagerly made the acquaintance of
-all the leading men in the order. He secured recognition, and his heart
-swelled with joy when he attended the secret meetings held by the order.</p>
-
-<p>All these little confessions were adroitly extracted by piecemeal. Noticing
-that here was a man who felt himself above the “goose” and the needle, I
-concluded to send him below to discover, if he could, the difference between
-being a tailor and an Anarchist in search of greatness. I treated him with
-perfect indifference, and he seemed to feel the indignity greatly. He was
-put in a cell, and for two days no one went near him except the janitor.</p>
-
-<p>Dannenberg finally got uneasy and sent word that he desired to see me.
-He was informed in return that he would be sent to the County Jail the
-next day. He then wanted to know if he would not be given an opportunity
-to speak, and insisted on having a hearing. He was brought into
-the office and told that he would be given just five minutes to tell what he
-had to say.</p>
-
-<p>“Gentlemen,” he said, in great haste, “you think because I am a tailor
-I am of no account, and consequently you seem disposed to punish me.
-My oath is just as good as the other fellows’.”</p>
-
-<p>“What do you mean?” I inquired. “We have not asked you for your
-oath, and we do not want it.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, I see now,” said Rudolph, beginning to get angry, “you only want
-the small fry. Well, look here, Captain, I don’t give a continental. I will
-tell on the other big fellows, now, for the fun of the thing. They must be
-punished as well as the little fellows. It is evident that the other big fellows
-want to talk themselves out.”</p>
-
-<p>“I think you have got the thing down very fine,” were my consoling
-words.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, I know the people want to hang somebody,” said Rudolph, “and
-if they can only hang a tailor they will be satisfied.”</p>
-
-<p>Time was called on the speaker, the five minutes having been exhausted,
-and Rudolph was about to be escorted down stairs.</p>
-
-<p>“Stop! stop! officer, I have not commenced yet to talk, and I want to
-be heard.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well,” said I, “you want to commence very soon.”</p>
-
-<p>Dannenberg again planted himself firmly in his chair, and then proceeded
-to relieve himself of the burden on his mind. He gave quite an interesting
-statement, and was subsequently released by order of the State’s Attorney.
-He was indicted for murder before his release, and he left after promising
-to report when wanted. Some time after he was re-arrested and put in a
-room with fifteen others.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-336.jpg" width="400" height="248" id="i336"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">THE CONSPIRACY MEETING AT 54 WEST LAKE STREET.<br /><span class="smcap wn">Waller Reading Engel’s “Plan.”</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Every one of these fifteen was morose, sullen and dejected. There was
-not a cheerful word among them. They felt uncertain about their own fate
-and took a gloomy view of life. The presence of Dannenberg was like a
-cheerful fire in a blizzard. He had forgotten all about the misfortune of
-being a tailor and a crushed Anarchist, and he kept the company full of life
-with his wit and drollery.</p>
-
-<p>On his final release, Dannenberg went back to his trade, quit Anarchy,
-and now takes the greatest sort of pride in telling his friends that he is simply
-a “knight of the needle.”</p>
-
-<p>After stating his age to be thirty-two years, Dannenberg swore:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I went to the meeting in the basement at No. 54 West Lake Street. I
-heard Engel speak. I heard Fischer say that he would attend to the printing
-of the circulars for the Haymarket meeting. I used to belong to the
-Lehr und Wehr Verein, but I quit two months ago. I was at Thalia Hall,
-on Milwaukee Avenue, Sunday, May 2d. I used to go there very often. I
-know George Engel. At the meeting at No. 54 West Lake Street, he was
-called on for a speech, and he responded. I heard him speak of his plan&mdash;a
-plan for riots, fires, the destruction of buildings and property, and the
-killing of people and the police. I heard him speak of the meeting to be
-held at the Haymarket, and that, if they started there, then would be the
-time for us to commence the rebellion all over the city. A man named
-Schrade, sitting by my side, remarked to me that Engel had made a very
-destructive speech. This talk made me laugh. Engel continued by saying
-that when we saw the heavens red, then was our time to commence. The
-Northwest Side group, he said, would meet at Wicker Park, and the North
-Side group at Lincoln Park. The moment we saw the fires, as a signal,
-then we should throw bombs, shoot down the policemen and everybody
-who stood in our way, and begin the general destruction of property and
-life. I never heard of this plan before this time. Engel was the only one
-who spoke of the plan. At this meeting I knew Breitenfeld and Waller,
-who was chairman. I heard some one at that meeting ask for dynamite
-bombs and how to get them, and some said: ‘You ought to know it by this
-time.’ Engel also spoke of the word ‘Ruhe.’ It was to be a signal word,
-and when it should appear in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, then was the time to be
-ready for a riot.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Carl Max Emil English</span> registered at the station on the 1st of June.
-He might have been gathered in long before, but he was kept under watch
-in the hopes of bagging a more important Anarchist. It was known that
-English was a particular friend of Schnaubelt’s, and the officers kept their
-eye on him continually, thinking the bomb-thrower might be found through
-his unconscious intervention. But they waited and watched in vain, and
-finally Officers Palmer and Cosgrove arrested English on suspicion. He
-was turned over to me, and then it was ascertained that he knew more of
-the Anarchists in Pullman, where he worked, than he did of those in Chicago.
-When called an Anarchist he objected, and insisted that he was
-simply a Socialist&mdash;a distinction without a difference in his case. He
-stated, however, that all the Anarchists in America “looked upon Chicago
-as the main center of Anarchy,” and in Pullman they got all their inspiration
-from Chicago. He acknowledged an acquaintance with Muntzenberg,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span>
-who, he said, had sold John Most’s books and other Anarchistic literature
-at Pullman. Muntzenberg had been in Pullman after the 4th of May, and
-had carried dynamite bombs with him. The Socialists, said English, had
-become frightened at this exhibition and had refrained from having any
-further dealings with Muntzenberg.</p>
-
-<p>English was allowed to go, with an injunction that he had better stay in
-Pullman, where he belonged. He has since remained at home and is now
-giving more of his time to the study of sound literature on economic subjects.
-He came to America from Germany, in October, 1885, and was led
-astray by Most’s writings. Had he lived in Chicago he would have been
-a very handy man for Lingg. In the old country he had worked in the
-manufacture of torpedoes, etc., for the Government, and he was well posted
-on explosives. He was twenty-four years of age, and just such a man as
-Lingg could have utilized.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">August Kraemer</span>, a German, thought he was sharper than the police.
-He had escaped their attentions, and he was felicitating himself that he
-knew how to elude them successfully. One day, however&mdash;June 1st&mdash;he
-was cheerfully greeted by Officers Whalen and Stift, and when they notified
-him of the pleasure his company would give us at the station, he became
-motionless with surprise. Recovering himself, he declared that it was an
-awful outrage to arrest a man for nothing and assured the officers again
-and again that he had never heard of Socialists or Anarchists, did not know
-a single one of that class and would not be able to recognize one if pointed
-out to him. In fact, he had not even heard that a bomb had been thrown
-at the Haymarket. He played this role of ignorance when brought before
-me, but I soon brought him to his senses.</p>
-
-<p>“You have played the old lady long enough,” I said. “We are men
-here who do not believe a word you say, and don’t want any of your tea-party
-stories. Is not George Engel your friend? Did you not drink beer
-in Engel’s rear room, May 4th, about eleven o’clock? Were you not there
-when a lot of men waited for orders to blow up and burn down houses?
-Were you not at the Haymarket with Engel, and did you not walk around
-with him on the outskirts of the crowd?”</p>
-
-<p>“Who told you this?” came promptly from Kraemer.</p>
-
-<p>“One of those little gods you prayed to at Thalia Hall on Sundays.
-Why, you hypocrite, you and twenty more get together, talk and give your
-opinions about dynamite and how to construct poisoned daggers, and work
-out a plan to fight the police and militia, drink beer and liquor, and call that
-a prayer-meeting. What have you to say to all this? If you can not answer
-I will give it to you plainer.”</p>
-
-<p>“Mein Gott, some one wants to hang me,” exclaimed August. “I know
-Herr Engel; he is a good man.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, in your estimation.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“If you only knew how awfully sorry he felt for the officers that were
-killed.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, yes. Well, do you now think that we know something about you?”</p>
-
-<p>“I admit that you know all about me, but Herr Engel said that night
-that it was wrong to have such a miscarriage. He did not believe in killing
-a few people. All revolutions, Engel believed, ought to come about by
-themselves, and then the police and soldiers would be with them. If the
-people would fight, then the authorities, police and all, would throw their
-guns away and run. Then the victory would be won without spilling any
-blood, but such a foolish thing as the Haymarket affair Engel would have
-nothing to do with.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes; all this Engel said after 10:30 o’clock that night, May 4th.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, he said it in his back room.”</p>
-
-<p>“That is all I want of you. Officers, lock up this dynamitard.”</p>
-
-<p>“Captain, will you not let me make a statement?”</p>
-
-<p>“Of what?”</p>
-
-<p>“I know something. For God’s sake don’t lock me up.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, then, speak, double-quick time, and let there be no lying.”</p>
-
-<p>Kraemer calmed himself and proceeded to unfold his story. He was
-subsequently released on promising to testify in court and that he would
-become a better man. He was indicted by the grand jury for conspiracy to
-murder. He was not asked to testify, and it was supposed that after all his
-troubles he would attend strictly to his own business, that of a carpenter.
-Not so. He was to be found in the company of the worst Anarchists
-between May 4th and the time of the execution, but, when he finally discovered
-that there was a law in the State to hang conspirators and murderers,
-he grew frightened. He now remains at home instead of skulking into
-dark cellars and devising means of revenge. He lived, at the time of his
-arrest, at No. 286 Milwaukee Avenue, in the rear, his friend Engel occupying
-the front part of the building. He was thirty-three years of age, married,
-well built, five feet eight inches in height, and an active man.</p>
-
-<p>His statement was as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I attended the meeting at No. 54 West Lake Street the night of May
-3d. I was there about fifteen minutes when the meeting was called to order.
-Some one suggested that every man of a group should see that every one
-present was one of their members. I was asked what group I belonged to.
-I could not tell. I do not belong to any group. Then I was told to go out
-because I could not give the pass-word. I told them that I belonged to the
-Socialists, but they told me I could not remain. I then went away. I
-have often been at Thalia Hall at the ‘Bible class.’ I met there frequently
-Engel and Fischer. That was in the month of April, 1886. At one meeting,
-when Engel and Fischer were present, some one called on the people
-to be ready with arms; that the time would soon come when they must be
-organized and ready to defend themselves. While I was at 54 West Lake
-Street that evening, May 3, some one complained that there were so few<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span>
-present and said that there had always been a good attendance until that
-night, and that it was very strange. As I could not give the sign I was put
-out. I heard Engel say that no revolution could be a success with only a
-small group; there must be general, united action.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Martin Bechtel</span> was also requested to report at the station for an interview.
-He willingly responded, and conversed quite freely. He was a
-beer-brewer by profession, and on May 4 was foreman in the brewery of
-Bartholomae &amp; Leicht. He was also president of the Brewers’ Union and
-presided at a meeting on the afternoon of May 3. His statement of that
-meeting was as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I had a meeting called of the brewers for that afternoon, and there I
-saw a lot of those ‘Revenge’ circulars. I saw all the men reading them,
-and, while some did not appear to care much, others got greatly excited
-over the way the police had been clubbing the people at McCormick’s factory.
-There was considerable excitement for awhile, and this was kept up
-until I called the meeting to order. I found that I had to be very strict
-before I could do anything. We transacted our business with great difficulty.
-I was interrupted now and then by some one coming in and talking
-excitedly about the police killing people at the factory. I restored order
-once more, when Oscar Neebe came in with a new supply of circulars and
-handed them around to the boys. Then the fire was in the straw again.
-After Neebe had distributed his circulars, he was called on for a speech,
-and whenever he was asked by any one if it was true that the police had
-been killing people in the manner described by the circular, he would
-answer: ‘Oh, yes; I know it is true. I saw it all. We must get ready
-and take revenge. Get ready; you all know what to do. You have all
-been to our meetings; you have all had instructions. Come out like men
-and show the capitalists what you are made of. Show these bloodhounds,
-these hirelings of the capitalists&mdash;I mean the blue-coated police&mdash;that we
-are not afraid of them. We must meet them and teach them a lesson.
-They have no regard for you or your families. You must feel the same to
-them.’ Such was the character of his speech and replies, and that is all I
-can report of the meeting.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Mr. Bechtel was thanked for his information, and left the office.</p>
-
-<p>It came out that during that day, after leaving that meeting, Neebe
-went into a saloon on Clark Street, near Division, and said that “by to-morrow
-or before to-morrow midnight the city of Chicago would swim in
-blood, or perhaps lie in ashes.” There would be a revolution, everything
-was ready, and he said that he would do his share of the work. At one
-time he was so wrought up with excitement that he fairly shouted at the
-top of his voice and made loud threats. In the trial, it was a fortunate
-thing for Neebe that certain documents were not at hand, or he would have
-undoubtedly been hung instead of being let off with the fifteen years’ sentence
-in the penitentiary which he is now working out. The documents
-desired were in some manner lost, and, when some of the material witnesses
-were looked for to appear at the trial, they could not be found.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Neebe knew perfectly well the character of the men he addressed at the
-brewers’ meeting. They were all fire-eaters on the question of Anarchy,
-and the name of the Brewers’ Union was simply adopted as a cloak. The
-brewing companies could greatly contribute to the promotion of law, order
-and decency by replacing every one of them with men who appreciate good
-government and the privileges of citizenship.</p>
-
-<p>In one brewery on the North Side, these “reds” managed to get the
-teamsters and beer-peddlers inoculated with their heresy, and the result was
-that the police were often called upon to quell disturbances growing either
-out of arguments with customers or saloon patrons. The injury thus done
-to the trade of the company must have been large. Is it a fear of these
-men or is there a lack of better material that keeps them in their places?
-It is certain that such men are doing the brewing companies no good.
-They are a bad lot and need watching. They are watched.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Moritz Neff</span> was the owner of what has been called the “Shanty of
-the Communists,” at No. 58 Clybourn Avenue, known also as “Neff’s Hall.”
-He was intimate with the leaders of Anarchy and knew a great deal about
-their movements. On the 1st of June, Schuettler and Stift were sent to
-tell him that I desired to see him. He came, not under arrest, but voluntarily,
-as soon as he had secured some one to run his saloon during his
-absence. He was a German, about thirty-six years of age, unmarried, and
-had kept the Anarchist headquarters for over seven years. He attended
-closely to business, rented his hall in the rear of the saloon to various unions
-and clubs, and made plenty of money. His place was a sort of “go-as-you-please”
-headquarters for the Anarchists, and if all their plottings there had
-been carried into execution the city of Chicago would not now stand as a
-monument of thrift, energy, enterprise and wealth. The hall was rented to
-any one who desired it. No questions were asked, and no publicity was
-ever given to the proceedings through Neff. He could keep secrets, and
-the Anarchists knew it. He also knew them thoroughly. He was a good
-judge of character, and, as most of his patrons were low-browed, ignorant
-and impulsive fellows, he would in the presence of some of the more sensible
-ones call them “fools and cattle.” Neff gave up his money freely to
-these people for the advancement of their cause, but he was never known
-to howl against law and order or make threats against capitalists, like other
-Anarchist saloon-keepers. He always kept on friendly terms with the
-police, and promised Lieutenant Baus to keep him posted whenever anything
-of importance transpired. This promise, however, seems to have
-been shrewdly made with a view to “pulling the wool over the eyes” of
-the Lieutenant. Neff would say, “Don’t trouble yourself. Whenever there
-is anything going on, I will put you on;” but he never found anything worth
-while reporting. The officers managed to gather a good deal of information
-respecting the character of the meetings held, but, as no important or dangerous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span>
-results were ever expected to grow out of them, the Anarchists were
-permitted to remain unmolested.</p>
-
-<p>On the night of May 4, after the Anarchists had been put to rout, those
-of the North Side group hastened from their various posts to meet at Neff’s
-place. They were still inclined to go on with the revolution, and Neff
-reproached them for not continuing it the moment it was started.</p>
-
-<p>“What the d&mdash;&mdash;l,” said he, “did you carry bombs for all night and not
-do anything? Why didn’t you go to the Chicago Avenue Station and blow
-the d&mdash;&mdash;d building to h&mdash;&mdash;l with every one in it?”</p>
-
-<p>This staggered the hot-heads, and not one made a reply.</p>
-
-<p>“Why,” continued Neff, “you are all cowards; not one of you dare go
-with me now.”</p>
-
-<p>No one advanced to accept the challenge. Presently, the hour getting
-near eleven o’clock, Neff said:</p>
-
-<p>“Get out! I am going to close up, and to-morrow we will have different
-music, and we will see who dances.”</p>
-
-<p>Knowing the great resort his place had been for Anarchists, Neff was in
-momentary dread of becoming involved in the Haymarket affair. He was
-very uneasy, and, as described by an acquaintance of his, “his clothes and
-shirt collar did not fit him very well for a number of days.” When he
-entered my office, Neff straightened up and appeared as if his mind was
-made up for the worst and as if he had resolved that the police should be
-no wiser through any information he possessed. It was not long, however,
-before he discovered that we meant business, and that playing the fool in
-the matter would not be tolerated. In the room were Assistant State’s
-Attorney Furthmann, six detectives and myself, and he was kept busy
-framing answers that would not compromise himself. Finally Neff looked
-us all over very carefully and said:</p>
-
-<p>“I know I am called here to answer questions and tell on the Anarchists.
-I will now tell all I know.”</p>
-
-<p>He then gave a straightforward story and appeared as a witness at the
-trial, giving all its substantial points. After that trial he sold out his place
-and left the city. He remained away for a time, but recently came to
-Chicago on a visit. His conduct has been such as to justify the hope that
-he will hereafter hold himself aloof from Anarchists.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">John Weiman</span>, a Suabian, was a peculiar genius. He was only twenty-three
-years of age, and yet he imagined that he could successfully hoodwink
-the police. He had been pointed out as an associate of some of the leaders,
-and it was decided to bring him to see what he had to say for himself. He
-lived at No. 30 Barker Street, and when notified, about the 6th of June, that
-I wished to become acquainted with him, he assumed a highly injured air.
-The moment he set foot inside the office, he threw up both hands and, in a
-loud voice, insisted that a great mistake had been made in arresting him.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-343.jpg" width="400" height="649" id="i343"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">THE “CZAR BOMB.”&mdash;<span class="smcap wn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-<p class="pf400 reduct">This is one of the round bombs made by Lingg, and similar to the infernal machine thrown at the Haymarket.
-It is about three inches in diameter, and consists of two hollow hemispheres of lead, filled with
-dynamite, and secured by means of an iron bolt and nut. It is fitted with fuse and fulminating cap.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“I am no Socialist, no Anarchist, no Nihilist, no Communist,” he
-declared. “I don’t know Spies, Parsons, Schwab, Fischer, Lingg, Engel,
-Neebe or Fielden. I never attended any meetings at No. 54, No. 71 or
-No. 120 West Lake Street, and I have never been in the Communisten-Bude
-[the Shanty of the Communists] at No. 58 Clybourn Avenue;
-never was at Mueller’s Hall basement, or at Thalia Hall, or at No. 63
-Emma Street.”</p>
-
-<p>“That is right, John,” said I. “Keep on and tell me a few more places
-where you have never been, and I shall be much obliged to you. Then I will
-know all the places and all the leaders of the whole Anarchist outfit.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes,” said John, “I have heard of you, and I don’t want to be troubled
-too much. I know that you are acquainted with all those places and know
-all the people who went there, and I heard of a lot of people getting arrested
-every day who knew all the leaders and frequented those meeting-places.
-I thought I would tell you all at first, because I am sick and I can’t stand
-much talking-to.”</p>
-
-<p>“How came you to know so much?” I inquired; “that is to say, how
-do you know the names of the members?”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I have a friend, and he told me all these things, but he ran away
-from the city. I don’t know where he is now.”</p>
-
-<p>“What is his name and where did he live?”</p>
-
-<p>“He is a carpenter. I used to call him Carl. He lived on Randolph
-Street, near Union.”</p>
-
-<p>Further inquiries failed to elicit anything of importance, and he was
-turned loose to wander at his own sweet pleasure.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Emil Mende</span>, a German, was a man thoroughly capable of desperate
-deeds. He lived at No. 51 Meagher Street, and so villainous a disposition
-did he possess that his own sister and his brother-in-law were obliged to
-report him at the station. Even the people in his own neighborhood feared
-him, and those that knew him best shunned him. He was a dangerous man.
-For two months preceding May 4, he boasted how the Anarchists would
-blow up the city and kill every one who was not an Anarchist. He talked
-about it so often and in such an earnest way that his neighbors grew apprehensive
-lest he might set fire to the neighborhood. The children would run
-across the street to avoid meeting him. He was always full of liquor, and
-his chief study was how to get a living without work. He thought he had
-found it in Anarchy, and he stood ready to commit any crime to accomplish
-his purpose. He became a drunken loafer through attending Anarchistic
-meetings, and when his sister remonstrated with him he turned against her
-and threatened to kill her. His conduct finally became so unbearable that
-his brother-in-law, Emil Sauer, gave information against him to the police.
-Mende, he said, belonged to the Lehr und Wehr Verein of the Southwest
-Side group and would assemble with his comrades in lonely, retired places,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span>
-where the police could not see them drill. They would sneak into the buildings
-selected for their meeting-places, and after their drills they would
-quietly sneak out again, like so many thieves who had committed a successful
-burglary. Sauer said he had come to know many of the members, but
-he did not know their names or where they lived. They all had numbers,
-were well armed with rifles and revolvers, and they drilled frequently.</p>
-
-<p>“I remember the night of May 4,” said Sauer, “Mende left the house
-about eight o’clock. He looked wild and desperate. He carried with him
-a huge revolver and a lot of cartridges. About eleven o’clock the same
-evening, after the bomb had exploded, he came sneaking home, and had in
-his possession two rifles and three dynamite bombs. He brought them all
-into the house at first, and, becoming alarmed, he took them all to No. 647
-South Canal Street. There he was seen either going under the house or
-under the sidewalk. When he came out he had nothing with him. Mende,
-when he first began to attend the meetings, had very little to say about
-Anarchy. He kept on, and during the six months preceding the Haymarket
-riot he was perfectly crazy on the subject. After he had become a member
-of the armed group, he would speak of nothing else but killing people and
-destroying the city. On the evening of May 4, before leaving home, he
-said:</p>
-
-<p>“‘This is our night. This night we will show our strength. I would like
-to see any one oppose us. Nothing can stand before us. Before daylight
-to-morrow blood will flow deep in the streets, and the air will be hot. Then
-we will have a new government.’</p>
-
-<p>“After he had been gone about twenty minutes, some one came in and
-asked for him. The man looked like a starved-out cut-throat. He was told
-that Mende had gone. The fellow remarked, ‘Then it is all right. I know
-where to find him.’ He pulled his hat over his eyes, turned up his coat collar
-and disappeared. This man was watched. He went west from our
-house, and about a block away he met five other men. They all went west
-together.</p>
-
-<p>“On the afternoon of May 4, Mende said to me:</p>
-
-<p>“‘I want you to go with us. Everything is very well planned. There
-is no fear that we will not get all the help we want after we have started.
-We are going to move like an army. If we should get whipped at first, or
-if we should have to run, then we all have places to go to. The Southwest
-Side group is going to a church on Eighteenth Street, and we will fortify
-ourselves there until we get help. We will have a lot of dynamite bombs
-to keep everybody away. We have rifles and revolvers, and no one will
-dare come near us. We can hold the fort there for a few days, and no one
-will trouble us. Only throw out a bomb once a day, and that will be sufficient
-to prevent the enemy from coming near. The North Side group is going
-to follow our plan. They are going to take charge of St. Michael’s Church.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span>
-We have things down fine. You had better come along. There is no danger.
-We expect a lot of people here from Michigan and all the mining
-towns. They will all come here as soon as we begin the attack.’</p>
-
-<p>“Mende asked me at one time to go with him,&mdash;this was during the
-McCormick strike,&mdash;and told me they were going to take with them tin
-cans, which would be filled with kerosene. These cans would have strong
-corks in them, and through each a hole had been drilled, for the insertion of
-a cap and fuse. They would simply light the fuse, throw the can into a
-lumber yard, and walk off. No one would discover who did it, and then
-they would see a big fire. ‘In this way we’ll bring these d&mdash;&mdash;d capitalists
-to time.’ I told Mende that I would have nothing to do with him or his
-plans.</p>
-
-<p>“Two days after the bomb had been thrown, he said to me:</p>
-
-<p>“‘I know the man who threw the bomb, and, you bet, he is a good friend
-of mine. He will never be arrested.’</p>
-
-<p>“About eight days after the explosion, he told me that he knew the man
-who made bombs, and that the man was going to leave the city. This man,
-he also said, had changed his clothes, and he (Mende) had got the clothes
-from a man named Sisterer, who lived on Sixteenth Street. I then asked
-him the name of the man who made the bombs, and he said it was Louis
-Lingg.”</p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Sauer next related her grievances against her brother.</p>
-
-<p>“This brute,” she began, “not being satisfied with having all the neighbors
-afraid of him, had to torment the life out of me, telling me that he
-belonged to those fellows who would kill, give no quarter and take none.
-In a fight the result would be victory or death. He would tell me that as
-soon as they had established their government the children of the capitalists
-would be hunted up and killed, and every trace of a capitalist wiped off the
-face of the earth. My brother reads all kinds of Anarchist books and
-papers. I saw him have a big revolver and a lot of cartridges, and he said:</p>
-
-<p>“‘We are going to kill all the police now in a few days. They all must be
-killed. They stand in our way. We cannot get our rights so long as we
-let those bloodhounds live. So we have decided to kill them all. We are
-ready now, and you will not see any more of those fellows hanging around
-the corners.’</p>
-
-<p>“He also said that the Fire Department was a well-organized body, and
-they, too, must be destroyed.</p>
-
-<p>“‘Before the battle commences,’ he said, ‘we are going to fix the
-bridges with dynamite, so that, in case the Fire Department should come
-to the relief of the police or go to work to extinguish the fires that we start,
-we will blow the bridges, firemen, horses and all to h&mdash;l.’</p>
-
-<p>“He further stated that the city would be set on fire in all parts, so that
-the police and firemen would be obliged to stay in their own neighborhoods,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span>
-and it would be impossible for any large bodies of them to get together in
-one place. Then, when everything was in confusion, they had places selected
-where they would meet in a body and come into the center of the city, where
-they would rob and plunder every jewelry store and bank, and places where
-they could get the most valuable things they wanted.</p>
-
-<p>“‘We have,’ he said, ‘all these places picked out already. We have on
-hand all the dynamite we want, and when we make a start we will have our
-tools and materials with us.’</p>
-
-<p>“A few days after the 4th of May, my brother also said that it was too
-bad that their committee had become split up during the charge of the
-police at the Haymarket. They failed to get together again, and the men
-on the outside were expecting every second to receive orders from that
-committee to commence setting fires and killing people. He stated that
-on that night he was at the Hinman Street Station, and that it was surrounded
-by seventy-five men, fifty of them having rifles and the balance
-large revolvers and dynamite bombs. They waited in an alley for orders.
-Everything, he said, was complete; every man had his place and knew what
-work he had to perform. They only needed the signal from the committee.
-The plan was that, as soon as they had received their orders, some of them
-should get near the windows of the station and throw in bombs among the
-policemen. Then others were to be ready with their revolvers and shoot
-down any officer who had not been killed by the explosion and who attempted
-to save himself by jumping out through the window. The fifty men with
-rifles were to have placed themselves in front of the station, and as soon as
-the officers made an attempt to march out, they should kill them in the
-hallway before they could get outside. ‘But,’ said he, ‘the officers at this
-station will be killed yet, because they have interfered with us and injured
-the success of the strikers.’</p>
-
-<p>“He spoke also about their going to barricade themselves in churches
-if they got whipped, until they had secured help. He said that they had a lot
-of bombs buried near the city, and they were there still for future use.
-‘They will not spoil,’ he said. My brother further told me one night that
-he had to run home or he would have been arrested. I saw him come
-home, and he looked very much excited. He went into the back yard&mdash;just
-like the coward&mdash;and remained there for some time. Later he told
-me that a lot of them went together to blow up a freight-house with dynamite
-bombs. This freight-house is on the corner of Meagher and Jefferson
-Streets. He said that he had the place picked out, and everything was
-ready. Then one of their number, who stood guard, gave the signal to run,
-and they all ran away. They had a meeting-place appointed in case they
-should be disturbed, and there they met afterwards. They decided to
-renew the attack, but finally, at the suggestion of a man named Sisterer,
-that they postpone it till another night, they all went home. On his way
-home my brother thought that some detective was following him. He
-became frightened and started on the run, and ran until he arrived home
-safely.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-348.jpg" width="400" height="252" id="i348"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">ANARCHIST AMMUNITION&mdash;1. <span class="smcap wn">From Photographs.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>When a sister would tell such a story, fully corroborated by others, of a
-brother, it can easily be seen that he must have been a desperate man. It
-must be borne in mind that about the time Mrs. Sauer notified me of her
-brother’s acts the city was wrought up to a high pitch of excitement over
-the foul murder at the Haymarket, and there was a general sentiment that
-all the conspirators identified with that plot ought to hang. It required,
-therefore, no little courage on the part of a sister to give up her own
-brother to take his chances on the charges made.</p>
-
-<p>Mende must have reached a very low, or rather a very high standing
-among the bloodthirsty bandits, and the revelations concerning him showed
-that he was not only capable of tormenting a poor woman by his savage
-threats, but willing and anxious to distinguish himself in any wild carnival
-of riot, bloodshed and incendiarism. He was a man the police wanted, and
-he was accordingly arrested by Officers Whalen and Loewenstein on the
-7th of June. At the station he gave his age as twenty-nine years, and his
-occupation as that of a carpenter. He was tall, well-built, wore a heavy
-beard and weighed about 160 pounds. His appearance did not belie the
-statements made about him, and subsequent inquiries showed that he was
-all his sister had represented him to be. What he had told his sister about
-the arrangements around the Hinman Street Station was found to be
-strictly true, and the details about the riot at the Haymarket and the
-signal to the armed men in the outlying sections of the city were borne
-out by the statements of other Anarchists.</p>
-
-<p>While on his way to the station, Mende seemed perfectly indifferent to
-his fate. It came out, however, that much of his stoical air had been
-inspired by statements previously communicated to him by his Anarchist
-associates. The attorneys of the Anarchists, Messrs. Salomon &amp; Zeisler,
-had advised the order that in case of arrest the distressed brother should
-seek to notify some friend they might meet while being taken through the
-streets to the station, and then, the information being brought to them,
-they would at once secure a release on a writ of <i>habeas corpus</i>. Mende
-acted on this advice. He knew probably, like the rest, that, once locked
-up, his chances for communicating with his friends for a day or two would
-be exceedingly doubtful, and so, while he was being marched through the
-streets, he encountered a friend and told him his name; and that friend
-immediately rushed to the office of the attorneys and gave the name of the
-prisoner and the station to which he was being taken.</p>
-
-<p>Mende had scarcely been locked up when the counsel came to the Chicago
-Avenue Station and demanded to see the prisoner. They were
-refused. On the next day they applied for a writ of <i>habeas corpus</i> and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span>
-wanted the prisoner brought into court. The object of this was to put me
-on the stand in the case, and, by various questions, to obtain such information
-as the State might possess with reference to the Anarchists. I was
-not to be caught in such a trap, and State’s Attorney Grinnell decided to
-release the prisoner, have him indicted and subsequently re-arrested.</p>
-
-<p>During the short time Mende was at the station he was plied with questions,
-but he answered them all with denials. He said that he had never
-spoken to his sister about Anarchy and had never belonged to any organization.
-Under cross-fire, however, he admitted that he had attended the
-meetings and owned a big revolver. The revolver, he said, he had sold to
-one Peter Mann about the 1st of June. After his experience at the station
-he was, as might have been expected, at war with his relatives, but he kept
-away from meetings.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Polikarp Sisterer</span>, a German Pole, was an associate of Mende, but,
-unlike that rapscallion, he was not violent or demonstrative. Having a
-family may have done much toward tempering his disposition, but still he
-was an Anarchist in the full sense of the word. He was a quiet, deep-plotting
-fellow, and perhaps on that account might be regarded as really a
-more dangerous man. He was a sober man, not given to beer-drinking
-and wine-guzzling like Mende; and, like Cassius of old, had a “lean and
-hungry look,” bringing him within that class concerning whom the injunction
-“Beware” might well be heeded in any special crisis. He was
-arrested on the 8th of June by Officers Whalen and Loewenstein and taken
-to the station. On the way thither he, like Mende, communicated his
-troubles to friends on the street, and was subsequently released under the
-same conditions. At the station he gave his age as thirty-one years, his
-occupation as that of a carpenter, and his residence as No. 85 West Sixteenth
-Street. He belonged, like Mende, to the Carpenters’ Union, which
-met at Zepf’s Hall, and took an active part in all Anarchistic movements.
-He was at first exceedingly non-communicative to the police, and insisted,
-whenever he did speak, that he had no secrets to divulge. He was shown
-to the “cooler” down stairs, and the next day he was in a talkative mood.
-He willingly took all the officers into his confidence and talked unreservedly.
-He said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I belong to the Carpenters’ Union, and Louis Lingg belongs to the
-same organization. I have known Lingg for about eight months. We
-were good friends, and, after the meetings of the union were over, Lingg
-and I often went home together. I got acquainted with him at those meetings.
-Lingg was a good worker for the carpenters, and they all like him for
-the interest he displayed in their behalf. I saw him at our union meeting
-on Monday evening about eight o’clock in Zepf’s Hall. He made a speech
-there and called all of us to arms and to be ready. He said that the police
-were ready to club us and would only protect the capitalists and work only
-in the interests of the capitalists. ‘You can see for yourselves,’ Lingg said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span>
-‘how the police acted at the McCormick factory; they clubbed our people,
-they killed six of our brothers, and now we will fight them and take
-revenge.’ He worked us all up, and every one was highly excited. He
-said that everything was ready and if we would only stick together we
-would win a certain victory. I saw at this meeting Hageman, Poch,
-Mende, Lehman, Louis Rentz and Kaiser. Rau and Niendorf were there
-and distributed the revenge circulars. That day&mdash;Monday&mdash;was a very
-exciting one among the Anarchists, and it would not have taken much to
-have started very serious trouble. Crowds of excited people were on Lake
-Street, from Union Street to the river, on that afternoon, and all were in
-bad temper. I attended the meeting on the afternoon of May 3d, at about
-three o’clock, at No. 71 West Lake Street, at Florus’ Hall. I never was at
-any meeting held at No. 54 West Lake Street, at Greif’s Hall, but I heard
-from others as to what had been done there. I saw Lingg again on the 5th
-of May, at Florus’ Hall. I spoke to him, but he had very little to say.
-He looked downhearted. While I was there he disappeared, and I never
-saw him again.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">“Did you not give him money and clothes to get out of the city?” I
-asked.</p>
-
-<p>“Well, no one can prove that. If you think I did, you had better find
-your witness.”</p>
-
-<p>“Do you mean to say that you did not help Lingg?”</p>
-
-<p>Sisterer hung his head and would vouchsafe no answer.</p>
-
-<p>He was released, as I have already stated, but since this episode in his
-career, he has taken the lesson to heart and appears to be determined to
-keep away from uncanny places on moonless nights.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">August Krueger</span>, <i>alias</i> “Little Krueger,” was a different sort of a man
-from the rest of his chosen brotherhood. He was quite an intelligent
-fellow, well educated, with genteel manners, well chosen language and
-rather natty dress. He was a draftsman by occupation, and he was highly
-skilled. He was, with all his bloodthirsty professions, a very clever fellow,
-and became quite popular with his low-browed associates. He belonged to
-the Northwest Side company of the Lehr und Wehr Verein and took great
-interest in the drills. His ideas, however, were somewhat different from
-those of the other Anarchists. He did not believe in riots, but thought a
-revolution should be brought about by a general uprising of the people. In
-the old country, he had been a Socialist, but had been obliged to leave
-some seven years before the time of the Haymarket riot. Arriving here, he
-identified himself with the Anarchists, and, taking a deep interest in all
-movements directed against capitalists, he soon became highly esteemed
-by Spies and others. He was at the Haymarket meeting, having come in
-the company of Schnaubelt, the bomb-thrower, and claimed that he also
-left the meeting in his company. While not in perfect accord with his
-associates on isolated riots, and while he did not sanction such methods to
-hurt people, Krueger still entered into their plans and worked hard for their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span>
-cause, and when Spies and others had been condemned to die he originated
-a plot to release them from the jail, which, however, failing to secure
-members enough to carry it out, he finally abandoned.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-352.jpg" width="300" height="325" id="i352"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">A GROUP OF THE LEHR UND WEHR VEREIN.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.<br />
-The figure on the extreme right is that of “Little Krueger.”</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>After the Haymarket riot, Krueger was continually watched by the
-detectives, and on the 13th of June he was arrested. He was found at the
-Terra Cotta Works, on Clybourn and Wrightwood Avenues, and brought
-to the Chicago Avenue Station. Here he showed that he had considerable
-grit. He was the kind of man who would risk his life for a good chance
-in a general revolution, and, although he characterized some of the Anarchists
-as fools, he stubbornly refused to testify against them. He was kept
-for two hours under a
-steady fusillade of questions
-by Assistant State’s
-Attorney Furthmann, but
-he held out doggedly under
-the heavy fire. He
-could not be made to inform.
-He was subsequently
-released by order
-of the State’s Attorney.
-He was, when last heard
-of, still working for
-Messrs. Parkhurst &amp; Co.,
-the proprietors of the
-works, and appears to be
-well liked by them. In
-spite of his warning, he
-still adheres to his old
-ideas.</p>
-
-<p>His answers to the
-questions asked him were
-as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I am twenty-one years of age. I came from Germany seven years ago.
-I reside at No. 72 Kenion Street, near Paulina. I was a member of the Lehr
-und Wehr Verein a year and a half. I know Breitenfeld. He is the commander
-of the second company of the Lehr und Wehr Verein. I am orderly
-sergeant and secretary of that company. Schrade was captain. I heard
-of the letter ‘Y’ about the first of April. We had a different signal. It
-was ‘???.’ This signal invited the armed organizations. I cannot say who
-originated the signal. The signal was then changed to ‘Y.’ We always
-met up-stairs under this signal ‘Y,’ except the last two meetings. I saw
-that letter last on Sunday preceding the riot. I went to that meeting at No.
-54 West Lake Street (May 3) alone. I got to the meeting about 8:30 o’clock.
-I went into the saloon and then went down stairs. There were then only a
-few people present. Seeing that the meeting had not started, I went up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span>
-stairs again. Breitenfeld had charge of the door. I was not asked to show
-my card, but I had it with me. It was a red card&mdash;No. 8. That is my
-number. We all go by numbers. I went down stairs again for a second
-time about a quarter to nine o’clock.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">A picture being shown him of Schnaubelt, he said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I might have seen him. On Tuesday night, May 4, I was at Engel’s
-house from nine o’clock to eleven o’clock. At the meeting I know that
-Fischer volunteered to have circulars printed for the Haymarket meeting.
-I am in favor of a complete revolution&mdash;that is, when a majority of the
-people are in favor of it. I am an Anarchist, and will remain one as long as
-I live. My father was one, and he was warden of a penitentiary in the old
-country. I had to leave there because I was an Anarchist. I am opposed
-to all single attacks, like that at the Haymarket. I am in favor, also, of
-peaceable agitation. I could say more about others, but they are in trouble
-enough now. I don’t want to be put down as a ‘squealer.’ I hope you will
-not insist on my becoming one, as I will not.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Emil Niendorf</span>, a German, was arrested on the 14th of June, by Officers
-Schuettler and Stift, and brought to the station. He had scarcely entered
-the place when he demanded to see me at once. On being brought into the
-office, he was asked what he wanted to say.</p>
-
-<p>“Well,” opened up Niendorf, “I don’t want to be locked up here six
-weeks. Neither do I want you folks to believe that I am a stubborn man.
-I want to talk. I want to tell you who I am, what I have done, and I don’t
-want to be looked upon as a murderer. I am an eight-hour man. I want
-to get eight hours in a peaceable way. I do not want to kill people. I have
-no use for those rattle-heads.”</p>
-
-<p>Niendorf was informed that all the officers connected with the station
-were too busy to attend to his case then, and that he would have to remain
-until the next day, when he would have an opportunity to tell all his troubles.
-He was locked up, but during the night, it appears, some prisoner or some
-one from the outside “put a flea in his ear,” telling him not to open his
-mouth, to be a brave man, and he would come out all right. The next morning
-at ten o’clock he was brought into my office, but he was not at all communicative.
-He sat down and said nothing.</p>
-
-<p>“Well, Niendorf, how do you feel?” asked Mr. Furthmann. “How did
-you sleep?”</p>
-
-<p>Not an answer.</p>
-
-<p>“Are you sick?” interestedly inquired Furthmann.</p>
-
-<p>No answer.</p>
-
-<p>“Did any one insult you or hurt you?” continued Furthmann.</p>
-
-<p>Still no response.</p>
-
-<p>“Who has changed your mind since you were here?” I inquired.</p>
-
-<p>Not a syllable of reply.</p>
-
-<p>“See here,” said I, “you cannot make us feel bad. I will give you just
-two minutes by the watch to get over your lockjaw.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>This aroused Niendorf, and, looking around at all the officers present, he
-said:</p>
-
-<p>“Gentlemen, I have been warned not to speak. I did not see the party,
-but some one called out my name and asked if I had been to the office yet.
-I answered no. The voice then said: ‘When you go there, don’t open
-your mouth, be motionless, and they will soon fire you out. Don’t forget.’”</p>
-
-<p>“That is just what I expected,” I remarked. “Now you can do as you
-please&mdash;talk or not talk. That party is not a friend of yours, and he wants
-to see you go to jail. Officer, take him down stairs.”</p>
-
-<p>“Are you not going to let me speak?” nervously inquired the prisoner.</p>
-
-<p>“How long will it take you to find your speech?” exclaimed Furthmann.</p>
-
-<p>“Have I got to swear to what I tell you?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes; you will have to do that whenever we send for you, and you must
-not leave the city without permission,” said I.</p>
-
-<p>Niendorf then gave a statement of his knowledge of Anarchy. He
-appeared very ignorant, but, when spoken to, he showed that he was quite
-intelligent. He was twenty-six years of age, lived at No. 29 Croker Street,
-and, with fiery red hair, was a rather homely-looking man.</p>
-
-<p>He was released, and after his departure the officers determined to
-ascertain whether it was an “Anarchist ghost” or a man in flesh and bones
-that had hovered about the station warning Niendorf not to squeal. A
-close watch was accordingly put in the cell department to fathom the mystery.
-About ten o’clock that night a young fellow called at the station for
-a night’s lodging. He was told to sit down and wait. He did so, and his
-wish was reported to me. Officer Loewenstein was sent back to look him
-over, and that officer presently returned and reported that the man did not
-look like a tramp. He looked more like an Israelite who had means, and
-the fellow was at once called into the office. There the officers unbuttoned
-his coat and discovered a clean young fellow, with a nice suit of clothes and
-a gold watch and chain.</p>
-
-<p>“What is your name?” I asked sternly. “And don’t forget to give it
-right.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, please,&mdash;I&mdash;I did not mean anything bad.”</p>
-
-<p>“Are you not baptized; have you no name? Officer, lock him up until
-I find a name for him.”</p>
-
-<p>“Let me go, and I will never come here again.”</p>
-
-<p>“Who sent you here?” I demanded.</p>
-
-<p>“I cannot tell&mdash;do let me go. I will never, I promise you, come back
-again.”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t think you will. When you leave here you will go through the
-‘sewer.’”</p>
-
-<p>With exclamations of great grief and remorse, he looked appealingly to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span>
-all the officers in the room, and, recognizing Officer Loewenstein as one of
-his race, he fell on his knees and begged the officer not to have him put
-through the “sewer.”</p>
-
-<p>“Were you not here last night?” asked the Captain.</p>
-
-<p>“No, sir; it was another fellow.”</p>
-
-<p>The turnkey of the station was sent for and confirmed the stranger’s
-denial. The now thoroughly frightened young man was then asked as to
-who the lodger of the night before was, but all he knew was that he himself
-had been hired by an unknown man that evening for one dollar to come and
-seek lodgings at the station to warn Anarchists. When the stranger had
-measurably recovered from his trepidation, he gave his name as Moses
-Wulf, and, his information being of no value, he was released with a severe
-lecture.</p>
-
-<p>Niendorf’s statement ran as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I was at a meeting held May 3 at 8 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span>, at No. 122 West Lake Street.
-I was chairman. I heard some one state that the police had killed a dozen
-workingmen at McCormick’s factory. That created a great deal of excitement
-for some time at the meeting. Then some one shouted: ‘Better be
-quiet and let us attend to our own affairs.’ We were only looking after the
-eight-hour movement. I saw the revenge circular at that meeting, which
-called the people to arms. Louis Lingg was present to report some meeting
-and some business transactions as a committeeman. William Seliger
-was there as recording secretary of the meeting. Rau was there, and some
-one said to me that he had brought the circular. A man named Soenek
-made a speech and advised us to use force. It was decided, on motion, that
-we should act in sympathy with the people at McCormick’s factory. I have
-been a member of the North Side group for about a year. I was at a
-meeting at Zepf’s Hall May 3, which lasted till eleven o’clock <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> About
-nine o’clock a man at the back door called out that all the men who
-belonged to the armed sections should go to 54 West Lake Street in the
-basement, where a meeting was to be held, and I saw a lot of members get
-up and leave the hall. I know Lingg belonged to the armed section. At
-one time he offered me some of his dynamite bombs. I told him I did not
-want any of them. He told me on another occasion that I had better take
-some and try some of his stuff. I told him that I was afraid to handle his
-stuff and I did not want it. Our meeting May 3 at Zepf’s Hall was known
-as that of the Central Labor Union. A little fellow named Lutz was financial
-secretary at that meeting. Rau was there only ten minutes. At a
-meeting held some time ago in Lake View, I was chairman. Lingg was one
-of the speakers, and also a man named Poch. Seliger called the meeting to
-order. I know Gruenwald; he is thirty-five years old, a carpenter by trade,
-five feet eight or nine inches tall, and has red whiskers. I heard Lingg say
-at several meetings that if any members wanted any of his ‘chocolate,’
-meaning dynamite or dynamite bombs, he would supply them.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Johannes Grueneberg</span>, a German, had the distinction conferred on him
-of being one of the last of the more conspicuous Anarchists to be arrested.
-He had been known to the police for some time, in a general way, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span>
-inquiries about him brought out the fact that he was a prominent figure in
-Anarchistic circles. He knew where all the leaders lived, frequently visited
-them, and tramped around so often that he became quite a well-known
-character. Even the dogs that infested the localities through which he
-passed wagged their tails in cheerful recognition, and Grueneberg always
-had a kind word for both the brutes and his Anarchist friends. He was
-forty-five years of age, a married man with a family, and lived at No. 750
-West Superior Street. He was a carpenter by trade. On the 17th of
-June he was working on a new building at No. 340 Dearborn Avenue, and,
-while right in the midst of an exhortation to the other workingmen on the
-beauties of Anarchy, he was interrupted by Officers Hoffman and Schuettler,
-who notified him that he was under arrest.</p>
-
-<p>“That is just what I have been waiting for,” he exclaimed, not in the
-least disconcerted. “Is it that d&mdash;&mdash;d Schaack that wants to see me? I
-will tell that fellow who I am. I will surprise him.”</p>
-
-<p>“Johannes,” said Schuettler, “you can save yourself all of that trouble.
-Schaack knows all about you. I saw your name in the book.”</p>
-
-<p>“Come on quick,” said Johannes, “I will show you a gamy man.
-Whenever I leave home I always bid my wife good-by, because I have
-expected to be arrested at any time, and did not know when I would see
-her again, for I will not squeal. I knew of these squealers, and I told my
-wife I would kill myself first before I would squeal.”</p>
-
-<p>Officers and prisoner started for the station. Johannes opened up on a
-half run, and the officers could hardly keep up with him, so anxious did he
-appear. He entered the office with hair disordered and on end, and his
-eyes bulged out with excitement as he hurriedly surveyed some six officers
-who were in the office at the time.</p>
-
-<p>“Which one of you fellows,” he wildly asked, “is Schaack? Show him
-to me quick.”</p>
-
-<p>“Grueneberg,” said I, for I recognized him at once from the descriptions
-I had had of the man, “what is the matter?”</p>
-
-<p>“Are you Schaack?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, I am Schaack.”</p>
-
-<p>“You sent for me to squeal, did you?”</p>
-
-<p>He instantly pulled out a big jack-knife, and, handing it out towards
-me, he continued:</p>
-
-<p>“Take this and cut my head off.”</p>
-
-<p>He twice repeated the request, and, still holding out his extended hand,
-said:</p>
-
-<p>“I will never squeal; you can kill me first.”</p>
-
-<p>“I heard that you were crazy,” said I, “but I never thought you were
-quite so bad as this. You must suffer terribly. The weather is too warm<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span>
-for you. I think you had better go down stairs and have a glass of ice
-water.”</p>
-
-<p>“No,” vehemently responded Johannes, “we had better settle this
-matter right now. I want to go out a free man, or else you will have to
-carry me out of here a dead man. I would thank you, however, for a glass
-of water, but don’t put me down stairs. I have heard too much of that
-place already.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh,” said I, “it is not a bad place. Just go down and see for yourself.
-You will like the place; it is nice and cool.”</p>
-
-<p>“Please, Captain, let me sit in the next room,” said Johannes, cooling
-down considerably, and modulating his voice to a gentler key; “I will
-behave myself.”</p>
-
-<p>His austerity of manner had completely vanished, and his ferocious
-mien and language had gradually disappeared. He saw in me a different
-man from what he had expected, and the courteous treatment accorded him
-had melted his heart and vanquished his anger. I granted his request and
-told an officer to sit with him in an adjoining room.</p>
-
-<p>The moment the officer and prisoner were in the room, Johannes
-remarked:</p>
-
-<p>“Schaack is not a bad fellow. Is he not going to stop arresting
-people?”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, no,” said the officer, “he has a long list yet.”</p>
-
-<p>“Are you with him all the time?”</p>
-
-<p>“I am.”</p>
-
-<p>“Do you hear and see all?”</p>
-
-<p>“I do.”</p>
-
-<p>“Do the fellows all squeal?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, every one of them. If they don’t squeal right away, they squeal
-the first chance they get.”</p>
-
-<p>“I am too much of a man, and it would be very small in me to do so.”</p>
-
-<p>“There have been as brave men as you in this office, and every one has
-squealed.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, when a man has a family, that cuts a big figure,” said Johannes,
-hesitatingly.</p>
-
-<p>“If you are going to talk to Captain Schaack,” said the officer, reading
-the man’s mind, “you must understand that he does not want any fooling.
-You either tell him all or nothing, because some one has already told on
-you.”</p>
-
-<p>This settled the matter with Grueneberg. He wanted to see me, and he
-was brought back into the office.</p>
-
-<p>“I was a little excited,” began Johannes, apologetically.</p>
-
-<p>“All right,” I assuringly replied; “sit down and tell on yourself first. I
-am going to give you a trial.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Grueneberg then went on to say:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“Well, I am an Anarchist. I always worked hard for the working people.
-I am proud of it. I did good as long as I could, but now it is all up. I am
-a member of the Northwest Side group and always attended our meetings.
-I never missed one.</p>
-
-<p>“On Monday night, May 3, I attended a meeting at Zepf’s Hall. I
-remained there until about 9:15 o’clock. From there I went to Greif’s
-Hall. This was a secret meeting of the armed men. While the meeting
-continued all the doors were kept locked, and guards stood on the outside
-of each door, and also on the inside, and extra guards on the sidewalk. If
-any one stopped on the sidewalk, he would be told to move on. I heard
-Engel speak of his plan; that it was a good one. If only every one would
-do his work, then the matter would be a very easy one of accomplishment.
-He stated that the plan had been made up last Sunday at 63 Emma Street,
-and had already been adopted by the Lehr und Wehr Verein and the
-groups. All who had heard of the plan, he said, were very much in favor
-of it, and all understood by this time how to act. ‘We are,’ he continued,
-‘going to do this right, because all the boys look to us as the leaders, and we
-are going to call a meeting for to-morrow night at the Haymarket. Since
-all the people are excited, we will have a large crowd, and we will have things
-so shaped that the police will interfere. Then will be the chance to give it
-to them! I could notice by the acts of all present at this meeting that
-there was a great deal of bad blood among them against the police on
-account of the killing of so many people at McCormick’s.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">“Do you now believe that a single person was killed at McCormick’s?”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course I do. You killed six men.”</p>
-
-<p>“Not one was killed,” said I, “and you ought to know that by this time.”</p>
-
-<p>“All I know,” said Johannes, “is what August Spies said. I was a
-carrier of the <i>Anarchist</i>, Engel’s paper. My route was on Madison Street,
-and on the Southwest Side,” he continued, dropping the 54 West Lake
-Street meeting.</p>
-
-<p>“And what did you think of that paper?” I inquired.</p>
-
-<p>“That was the best paper we ever had.”</p>
-
-<p>“It was too bad,” added I, “that the sweet little paper died so young.
-Where was it printed?”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t know, because the papers were sent to my house by the Southwest
-Side group.”</p>
-
-<p>“Who else carried that paper?”</p>
-
-<p>“Messerschmidt, Schneider, Schoenfeld, Geimer and Kirbach. We
-each carried about fifty papers at a time.”</p>
-
-<p>“Do you know anything more about the secret meeting at No. 54 West
-Lake Street, May 3d?”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I don’t know all. I went out twice.”</p>
-
-<p>“And how did you get in every time?”</p>
-
-<p>“I had a card, and I had to show that every time. That is all, and,
-besides, the boys all knew me.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“What do you know about Louis Lingg?”</p>
-
-<p>“He is a good man. I like him. He speaks to the point.”</p>
-
-<p>“On dynamite,” I suggested.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, and on other things.”</p>
-
-<p>“He only likes Anarchists,” I interrupted.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, that is so.”</p>
-
-<p>“What do you know about the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>?”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, it is a very good paper, but it is too mild.”</p>
-
-<p>“Do you mean to tell me that a paper which advises people to murder
-and kill is too mild?” I asked.</p>
-
-<p>“They don’t put force enough into it. They don’t keep up things as
-they ought to. I know all who visit there. I am a friend of all the Spieses.”</p>
-
-<p>After being “roasted” for three hours, Johannes was permitted to go
-back to his work, and he left under the impression that, after all, he had
-not said anything criminally implicating any of his comrades. He was not
-asked to report when wanted, as he was too noisy a fellow to have around
-the station, and the officers were as well pleased to see him go as they had
-been pleased to arrest him. He inaugurated no reform on his release. On the
-contrary, he was again as rabid as ever and ran around night and day trying
-to gather a mob to go to the jail and liberate the Anarchists. He made no
-secret of his work. He loved the red flag, he said, and he would die for it
-if necessary. One night he came to me in company with two other fellows
-and demanded the return of a large red flag which at one time belonged to
-International Carpenters’ Union No. 1. This flag had been taken by the
-police with many others some time before. Grueneberg said that he had
-marched behind it many times and he was proud of it. He wanted to see
-the “dear old flag” once more and secure possession of it. I had the flag
-at the station, but, knowing that Anarchists had an “undying love” for
-Inspector Bonfield, I remarked:</p>
-
-<p>“If you want the flag, all you have to do is to see the Inspector, and I
-am quite sure he will give it to you.”</p>
-
-<p>An expression of intense disgust came over the faces of the three Anarchists,
-and Grueneberg excitedly exclaimed:</p>
-
-<p>“Bonfield! Bonfield! Ah, the d&mdash;&mdash;d black Bonfield! I see <i>him</i>?
-Oh, no! he is not gentleman enough for me to see.”</p>
-
-<p>“Bonfield is a very clever fellow,” said I; “he likes such men as you.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, yes; he would like my head in a bag. Good night, Mr. Schaack;
-I don’t want the flag.”</p>
-
-<p>Grueneberg belonged at this time to Carpenters’ Union No. 241, and, on
-account of his peculiar and ridiculous actions, the members gradually grew
-suspicious of him and finally believed that he was a paid spy in the employ
-of some detective agency. They harbored their mistrust for a time, and
-then accused him of being a traitor. He demanded that charges be preferred<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span>
-against him, and it was done. Grueneberg failing to answer these
-charges, he was expelled from the union. A few weeks thereafter he
-reformed, and one day, meeting me, he said:</p>
-
-<p>“I am done with these people. They are all cranks. No person can do
-enough for them. I worked with them night and day. They put me on
-all the committees. I had to do all the running, and for all my trouble and
-as a reward they call me a spy. I am working steady now and they can all go
-to the d&mdash;&mdash;l. I am only sorry for my poor children&mdash;the way they suffered
-while I was giving my time to Anarchy. I have now worked four weeks
-and made full time. This I have not done before for the last two years.”</p>
-
-<p>About two months after the above incident, Grueneberg and his family
-passed the Desplaines Street Station. Meeting me, Grueneberg spoke up,
-saying:</p>
-
-<p>“Well, Captain, what do you think of my family now?”</p>
-
-<p>“I must give you a great deal of credit,” said I pleasantly. “You are
-all looking remarkably well. A man that has gone as far as you in Anarchy
-deserves credit for such a great change, and if all the rest were kicked
-out of their unions, I think it would be a blessing to their poor wives and
-children.”</p>
-
-<p>After bidding me good-by, Grueneberg and his family walked away
-proud and happy in their new condition, and I went to my office and drew
-this moral from the example of reform I had just seen: Here was a man
-who had belonged to the Anarchists for three or four years, and had been at
-one time one of the “rankest” kind. For two years his family had suffered
-want, and now, after having left the desperate band for two months only,
-his wife and children were once more made happy. Anarchy keeps men in
-poverty and families in trouble, distress and suffering.</p>
-
-<p>Grueneberg up to the present time has kept away from his former
-associates, and his change appears permanent and sincere.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Otto Baum</span> was one of the desperate Anarchists who made the air blue
-with imprecations against capital. He would have been gathered in with the
-others had it not been for his special care to keep out of the reach of the
-police. He lived at No. 137 Cleveland Avenue, was married and had three
-children, and, when he worked, which he rarely did, it was at the carpenter’s
-trade. He was a strong, robust man, nearly six feet high, and with black
-hair, full, black beard, and piercing black eyes, he presented a rather vicious
-appearance. When he first came to Chicago, some four years preceding
-the Haymarket meeting, he joined the Socialists, and he soon became a full-fledged
-Anarchist. He belonged to the notorious International Carpenters’
-Union No. 1. This union had then a thousand members, and Baum’s number
-was 100. About two years ago the union changed its number to 241, and a
-worse set of Anarchists could not be found in the United States than the
-members of this organization just before the 4th of May, 1886. They were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span>
-provided with all kinds of arms&mdash;revolvers, daggers, rifles, dynamite and
-fire-cans. Lingg was one of the leading spirits in this revolutionary gang.
-After the Haymarket explosion, when the police took up a hot pursuit of
-the conspirators, Baum changed his residence with his family and carefully
-kept off the streets during the daytime. On the conclusion of the trial of
-the leading conspirators, he became emboldened over the immunity he had
-enjoyed from arrest, and crawled out of his hole, like a coon does in the
-spring-time.</p>
-
-<p>So great was Baum’s interest in Anarchy that he wholly neglected his
-family. He never troubled himself about wife or children, but hung around
-saloons guzzling beer and breathing vengeance against the police and society.
-He went lower and lower from day to day, and frequently reeled home in a
-drunken stupor, only to abuse his family. About a year and a half ago,
-when his last child was born, his neglect had left not a mouthful in the
-house, and, had it not been for the kindly assistance of friends and neighbors,
-the family would have been in a most deplorable condition. When
-the child was a week old, the wife, poor and sickly as she was, had to leave
-the house and seek work to supply the family with the necessaries of life.
-With food thus obtained, almost at the sacrifice of the poor woman’s life, the
-burly brute of a husband was always first at the table, and eagerly devoured
-what she had provided. Did he seek to obtain employment? Not at
-all. He preferred loafing and talking about Anarchy. The poor wife’s
-uncomplaining toil he rewarded with abuse and cruelty, calling her the vilest
-of names, and even kicking her about as if she were made of rubber. She
-was a delicate, sickly woman, but she bore his fiendish treatment, hoping
-that a change would come over him after the law had made an example of
-other Anarchists. But the change did not come, and finally she determined
-to seek the protection of the courts. Accordingly she went to the Chicago
-Avenue Police Court on the 6th of February, 1888, with her infant in her
-arms, and swore out a warrant against her husband.</p>
-
-<p>The lazy giant was at once arrested, and on the next morning the poor
-woman appeared to testify against him. Being unable to speak English, an
-interpreter was called, and during the recital of her grievances and the many
-indignities imposed upon her by her liege lord, the court-room was as quiet
-almost as a death-chamber. All eagerly listened to her troubles, and, her
-statements being given in such a simple, convincing manner, many eyes were
-moist with tears. Justice Kersten, who presides over this court, has no
-regard for wife-beaters, and he promptly fined Baum $50.</p>
-
-<p>“That,” said he, in an emphatic manner, “will keep you locked up for
-one hundred and three days.”</p>
-
-<p>The brute was then locked up where so many of his former associates
-had been incarcerated two years previously, and in the afternoon he was
-sent to the House of Correction by Bailiff Scanlan.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>During this episode it came out that Baum had been quite active in
-Anarchist circles, and at the time the Anarchists were confined in the
-County Jail he was engaged in an attempt to gather a mob to effect their
-liberation. One night he went about saying that he was determined to kill
-somebody before the next morning. The more he talked, the more frenzied
-he became, and with his frenzy grew his thirst for liquor, the need of
-which he felt to get up his courage to the required pitch. A few hours
-afterwards he was found in the yard fronting his house, asleep and “dead
-drunk.” The only courage he ever displayed was in lording it over his
-wife and beating her almost to death. He was a type of a very
-large class of Anarchists. He would call the better class of people
-tyrants, because they did not fill his pockets with plenty of money so that
-he could get drunk as often as he desired, but in his own household he was
-the meanest of tyrants.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-362.jpg" width="400" height="326" id="i362"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">THE WIFE-BEATER’S TRIAL.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Had Mrs. Baum been a little shrewder, she would not have had to
-endure his brutalities as long as she did. There are many other wives of
-Anarchists who are ill-treated by their husbands, but some of these
-managed to bring their lords to their senses by a neat ruse. While the
-investigations into the deeds of the Anarchists were going on the bandits<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span>
-would almost crawl into a sewer to get out of the way of the police, and,
-noticing the timely fright that overcame the “reds” whenever an officer or
-detective appeared in their midst, many shrewd wives quieted wrathful
-husbands by threatening to go out and see me. This ruse, I learn, was often
-resorted to to avert a beating from a drunken Anarchist.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Gustav Poch</span> was a conspicuous figure in Anarchist plots, and never
-tired of working for the cause. But Anarchists are an anxious, jealous and
-thankless lot of people, and because Gustav was achieving a little more
-prominence than some of his immediate associates, they found fault with
-him and sought to degrade him. They might have secretly given him
-away to the police, and thus got him out of the way of their own advancement,
-but a fear for their own safety prevented such a course, and so they
-began calling him hard names. But I shall let Gustav state his own grievance.
-Here is a letter he wrote to his union:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="pr2 p1"><span class="smcap">Chicago</span>, September 10, 1884.</p>
-
-<p>At a meeting held on the 3rd of September, instant, of Branch No. 2, of Union No. 21,
-Carpenters and Joiners, the Secretary read a letter in which I, the undersigned, was insulted
-in a shameful manner. In this letter they called me a swindler simply for the purpose of
-breaking up the Union, and at the end of the letter they stated that I would be expelled from
-the Union on account of it. The letter was signed by Fr. Ebert and Dom. All these insults
-and injuries to my reputation I can’t let pass. My honor, my reputation and my future prosperity
-are damaged and at stake. I would, therefore, move that an investigation be made
-into the matter and that the instigators of the complaint be punished. What was their
-motive? For the last few weeks complaints have been made against me by the Secretary to
-the effect that I, as Acting Secretary, had made false entries on the books. As he could not
-exonerate himself in the eyes of my brothers, he drew up the letter, which was published at
-the meeting of September 3rd, and which was signed by Fritz Ebert and Dom, to put me in
-a bad light before the Union. The evidence: Fritz Ebert told me in the presence of John
-Zwirlein that the main object out of which this accusation originated was the following: I
-was selected by President Blair on the 3rd of May to the Main Committee in place of
-Brother Eppinger, who could not serve on account of having too much other work while the
-strike lasted. After that I held this position nineteen days. I got paid for twelve days, and
-they withheld seven days from me and said I was discharged from the Main Committee. Is
-there anything to show that I was expelled? Of course I put in my claim for $21 in writing,
-and no one ever told me what became of this claim. I was the only German-speaking representative
-on the Strike Committee, and I had to do more labor than any one else. Any one
-who participated in the strike during the last seven days can confirm this assertion. Now,
-how can Mr. Printer put up such a letter and show me up as a swindler?</p>
-
-<p>In consequence of the insults inflicted on me, I beg for an investigation and for his
-punishment according to the rules and regulations of the Brotherhood.</p>
-
-<p class="pr2"><span class="smcap">Gustav Poch.</span></p></div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">The Plot against the Police&mdash;Anarchist Banners and Emblems&mdash;Stealing
-a Captured Flag&mdash;A Mystery at a Station-house&mdash;Finding the Fire-cans&mdash;Their
-Construction and Use&mdash;Imitating the Parisian Petroleuses&mdash;Glass Bombs&mdash;Putting
-the Women Forward&mdash;Cans and Bombs Still Hidden Among the Bohemians&mdash;Testing
-the Infernal Machines&mdash;The Effects of Anarchy&mdash;The Moral to be Drawn&mdash;Looking
-for Labor Sympathy&mdash;A Crazy Scheme&mdash;Gatling Gun <i>vs.</i> Dynamite&mdash;The
-Threatened Attack on the Station-houses&mdash;Watching the Third Window&mdash;Selecting a
-Weapon&mdash;Planning Murder&mdash;The Test of Would-be Assassins&mdash;The Meeting at Lincoln
-Park&mdash;Peril of the Hinman Street Station-house&mdash;A Fortunate Escape.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">IN the numerous arrests and raids made, the police became thoroughly
-acquainted with the most notorious Anarchists in the city, the ins and
-outs of their resorts, and even the interior arrangement of their dwelling-places.
-Not only were suspects arrested, but search was made for contraband
-articles. A varied collection of arms, bombs, etc., and a large assortment
-of red bunting thus found their way to the Chicago Avenue Station.
-In all the public demonstrations made by the Anarchists in the city they had
-carried many flags, banners and transparencies as emblems of defiance, and
-whenever such were found they were carefully taken in charge. When the investigations
-were concluded, the inner room of my private office was well filled
-with a most curious display of these time-worn and weather-beaten ensigns,
-and the collection is very interesting as a reminder of a critical period in the
-history of Chicago. There are flags of a very primitive and cheap description,
-and flags more or less elaborate and expensive. They varied in size
-and differed in the degree of their crimson colors. Those belonging to
-groups were large and plain, showing frequent handling by dirt-begrimed
-hands, and were mounted on plain pine staffs. Those carried by the Lehr
-und Wehr Verein were of finer texture and larger in size, its principal
-standard, of silk, being a present from the female revolutionists and gorgeous
-in the amplitude of its folds. This silken standard was the pride and
-joy of the whole fraternity, and at one time it served to relieve the motley
-collection with its bright vermilion, but in some unaccountable manner it
-disappeared one day from a West Side police station. The reds had evidently
-set their hearts on recapturing it, and by some sort of legerdemain
-they succeeded. Who it was that accomplished the deed has never been
-disclosed, and in whose custody it is now is a profound secret, carefully
-kept by the Anarchists.</p>
-
-<p>The men who were always relied upon to carry these flags in the processions
-of the reds were Ernst Hubner, Appelman, Paul Otto, Stohlbaum,
-W. Hageman, Seliger, Lutz, Gustav Lehman, Paul Lehman, and Mrs.
-Parsons, Mrs. Holmes and some other women, and possibly some of these
-may know something of the mysterious disappearance of the Anarchists’
-chief standard.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-365.jpg" width="400" height="654" id="i365"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">AN INCENDIARY CAN.&mdash;<span class="smcap wn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-<p class="pf400 reduct">This is a tin can filled with petroleum, and provided with a small powder flask, secured in the center by
-means of a screw-top, which also serves to hold the fuse in position. Numbers of these cans were found.
-They were intended for setting fire to buildings and other property.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>During the searches by the department for other suspicious and inflammatory
-articles, several fire-cans were found in the northwest part of the
-city, on the 3d of June, by Officer Whalen. In exterior appearance these
-looked very harmless, but an examination of their contents showed them
-capable of doing a great deal of mischief. They each had a capacity of a
-quart, and were made of medium heavy tin, with a round hole in the center
-of the top, about an inch in diameter. This opening was provided with a
-threaded neck of tin about an inch high, with a cover to fit. Underneath
-the cover was a sort of clasp, into which fitted the neck of a small vial,
-and through the cover a small hole was bored, for the admission of a fuse
-into the vial. When ready for use the can would be filled with an explosive
-or with coal-oil, and the flask would contain powder. All that then remained
-would be to light the fuse, throw the can either into a lumber-yard or under
-the stairway of some residence or business block, and no one would know
-the perpetrator of a possibly disastrous fire. The cans found by Officer
-Whalen were loaded and had evidently been intended for use on the night
-of May 4. Fortunately the owner must have become frightened and hid
-them to escape arrest.</p>
-
-<p>The suggestion for the manufacture of these cans came from across the
-water. A short time preceding May 4, at a meeting held in Thalia Hall, a
-few Frenchmen and several Germans, who had passed through the reign of
-the Commune in Paris in 1871, gave a general idea of the important part
-such cans had played in that city and added that women at that time did
-as good work with them as the men. Such fire-cans, together with glass
-balls filled with nitro-glycerine, were carried in baskets, and if the reds
-wanted to destroy a building they would throw a can through the window, or
-if they desired to annihilate a guard of soldiers they would hurl into their
-midst one of the glass balls, which would explode by concussion and tear
-the men to pieces.</p>
-
-<p>These missiles had created great havoc in Paris, and the members of
-the Thalia Hall gathering were urged to adopt them for use in Chicago.
-At that time there were enough desperate Anarchists in the city to have
-used all that could have been manufactured, but some of the men at the
-meeting insisted that the women should be asked to assist in disposing of
-them to the destruction of the town. One big, loud-mouthed fellow, evidently
-a coward, shouted:</p>
-
-<p>“My wife will do that. She is an Anarchist as good as any one
-of us.”</p>
-
-<p>No doubt she was an Anarchist, as the city had a great many of these
-poor, deluded creatures at the time, who were willing to do almost anything
-their husbands might ask, but many of whom have since had occasion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span>
-to feel the poverty into which they were finally forced by men who neglected
-work, family and all for the sake of talking revolution.</p>
-
-<p>Many of these men were just cowardly enough to thrust their wives forward
-where danger lurked, and while they themselves enjoyed the safety of
-a groggery, they would have been pleased, “for principle’s sake,” to see
-their poor helpmeets go around and set fire to houses and other property,
-so that the dauntless husbands could brag of the brave achievements of
-“the family.”</p>
-
-<p>The meeting in question must have set the Anarchists to thinking; and
-it is a matter of record that Parsons had fallen into the same idea when he
-addressed a secret meeting on the North Side, to which I shall subsequently
-refer. It is certain that many of these fire-cans were manufactured.</p>
-
-<p>Besides the petroleum-cans discovered by Officer Whalen, a lot of the
-same kind were taken out of the city by way of West Lake Street on May
-7, when the Anarchists were hurrying their ammunition out of town to prevent
-detection. According to the statements of some reformed reds, there
-are a great many of these cans and bombs still concealed in the Bohemian
-settlement in the southwest part of the city.</p>
-
-<p>On the 8th of June, 1886, I decided to have the cans tested, and for this
-purpose detailed Officers Rehm and Coughlin. The latter had at one time
-been a miner, and was therefore experienced in the use of explosives. The
-two officers took one of the cans to the lake shore. The can was placed on
-a plot of grass and the fuse lighted. In eight seconds an explosion followed.
-The grass burned within a circumference of five feet. The flame
-extended four feet in height and continued for about three minutes. The
-officers gave it as their opinion that any one of the cans was sufficient to
-set a building on fire.</p>
-
-<p>What a blessing it was for our citizens that this devilish invention did
-not spread its destructive work before May 4, 1886.</p>
-
-<p>As stated at the outset, the police were brought, in all these raids, into
-close acquaintanceship with the malcontents, and often came in close contact
-with their families. Some of the sights they saw were shocking in the
-extreme, and they had many opportunities to sound the depths of misery
-and want entailed upon families by husbands gone daft on Anarchy. The
-tales of woe and domestic infelicity poured into their ears would fill many
-pages, but the general tenor of all can be judged by what has been revealed
-in the statements given in the preceding chapters.</p>
-
-<p>Anarchy may look extremely inviting when depicted by a plausible
-speaker, but its practical side is strikingly brought out in the home life of
-its devotees. Any one visiting the homes of Anarchists, and carefully contrasting
-the surroundings with those of true laboring men not affected by
-the taint of revolution, would give Anarchy a wide berth. But unfortunately
-men get their brains turned over sophistical arguments against<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span>
-capital and madly rush to ruin without thinking of consequences until it is
-too late. Read the reports made to me at the time, and they all tell the
-same story of want and degradation.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-368.jpg" width="250" height="361" id="i368"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">HENRY SPIES.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>There always has been and always will be a fascination about any
-scheme that promises ease without labor. So long as men can be found
-with impressionable minds that can be swayed by demagogues into a belief
-that Anarchy has in it the elements of comfort, splendor and luxury with
-very little toil, so long, no doubt, will dupes be found ready to sacrifice
-energy, thrift and independence for the life-degrading scarlet banner. But
-such ease can never be attained through blood in the United States. That
-fact has been established in Chicago, and the precedent ought to serve as
-a terrible warning to all malcontents. If
-the abject want of those who constitute
-the bulk of the revolutionists, whose
-very squalor has been the result of their
-zeal for Anarchy, is not sufficient to deter
-men from becoming Anarchists, the fate
-of the eight conspirators who were
-brought to trial in Chicago ought at least
-to prevent men from plotting murder,
-incendiarism and pillage.</p>
-
-<p>With the tremendous odds against
-them, it is surprising that men could be
-found willing to take up arms for the
-destruction of life and property, and
-the action of the reds in Chicago can be
-explained only on the theory that they
-felt they had only to strike one severe
-blow to bring thousands of secret sympathizers
-into line, and cause capitalists
-to humble themselves in the dust before
-the Social Revolution. This theory
-is borne out by the statements of the many repentant Anarchists who came
-under the displeasure of the police. In their excited gatherings they had
-each propped up the hopes and spirits of the others, and all reason was sunk
-in the one frenzied, consuming desire to wreak vengeance upon those who
-had accumulated more wealth than themselves. They were bent on
-wresting away the wealth of others, and no mercy was to be shown to
-those who stood between them and that end.</p>
-
-<p>The police, as protectors of wealth in property and property in wealth,
-were the immediate objects of their enmity and wrath, and throughout the
-Anarchistic conspiracy, as has been shown by the disclosures made, we
-were to receive their first and special attention before the grand onslaught<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span>
-upon capitalists. Crazed by their speakers and dazed with the glittering
-prospect held out to them, the human fiends proposed to exterminate us
-with dynamite and then vanquish the rich and abolish all forms of property.</p>
-
-<p>Could anything be more absurd? And yet that is what they sought to
-accomplish on the eventful night of May 4th.</p>
-
-<p>It would seem that the scheme to blow up the police stations could only
-originate in a lunatic asylum, but the confessions of those arrested show
-that men with apparently sound minds&mdash;minds at least sane enough to
-keep them out of such institutions&mdash;actually contemplated it and had
-made all the necessary arrangements to execute the plot. Strange must
-have been their conceptions of public sentiment when they believed that the
-execution of their bloody plan would result in the establishment of wider
-and freer social conditions, and strange, indeed, must have been their
-hallucinations when they thought that the devastation they proposed would
-be seconded and aided by the laboring men whom they counted upon as
-secret sympathizers ready to reveal their true feelings the moment the revolution
-was generally inaugurated.</p>
-
-<p>The danger of the scheme to themselves did not strike them until the
-last moment, when their courage was to be put to a practical test, but,
-fortunately for themselves, they went no further than the Haymarket riot.</p>
-
-<p>That they seriously contemplated more than they perpetrated is beyond
-dispute. They saw the intense excitement consequent on the eight-hour
-strike and the troubles at McCormick’s factory, and knew that the police
-stations would be filled with officers in readiness for emergencies. They
-had called the Haymarket meeting for the express purpose of provoking
-hostilities, and they regarded it as an opportune time to strike a terrible
-blow against the police all over the city. Their calculations in that respect
-were eminently correct.</p>
-
-<p>The moment the reds began to incite a vicious mob to deeds of bloodshed,
-hostilities were provoked, and they got a dose of their own medicine.
-Had it not been for their precipitate flight they would have fared far worse.
-All the police stations were full of men, all the reserves having been called
-out for duty on the first sign of violent demonstrations, and these stood
-ready to make short work of all who might stand up against them in a conflict.
-It was fortunate for the conspirators that they considered “discretion
-the better part of valor” at the Haymarket, and doubly fortunate that they
-received no signal to commence their bloody operations at the stations.</p>
-
-<p>The loss of life no doubt would have been appalling on both sides, but
-the outcome, as far as the triumph of law and order is concerned, would
-have been the same. The bomb would have done deadly work at the start,
-but the Gatling gun would have come to the rescue had the police been
-seriously crippled.</p>
-
-<p>Missiles of dynamite hurled into the stations on that eventful night of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span>
-May 4 would indeed have created terrible havoc. In fact, the reds could
-not have chosen a time more favorable for their bloody plans. The East
-Chicago Avenue Station that night contained a very large force. I had in
-reserve and waiting orders one hundred and twenty-five officers. They
-were all over the building, up and down stairs, in the court-room, in the
-reception-room and in every other available place. Many were in the office,
-which is used as a roll-call room, and in which all details of officers are
-made. This office is in the center of the building and overlooks an alley on
-the east. The officers were organized into five companies, and all duly
-numbered. Any company could be called at any time, and in less than five
-minutes it would be in marching order.</p>
-
-<p>This precaution was taken in expectation of a call to the Haymarket,
-and the Anarchists, in the damnable conspiracies of that evening, had anticipated
-such preparations. They were accordingly on the ground. Fifteen
-members of the North Side group, as appears plainly from the
-confessions of some of the Anarchists, loitered around the station, waiting
-for orders or signal, or to abide their own pleasure as soon as they could
-see for themselves that the riot had begun on the West Side. When
-that time arrived, they were to watch the windows of the roll-call room from
-the alley and throw their infernal machines into the midst of the officers the
-moment the room was full.</p>
-
-<p>The cut-throats skulked around the station like so many Indians around
-the cabin of a helpless settler, constantly dodging around in the darkness,
-fearful that they might be discovered. True to their instincts, however,
-these Chicago reds could not do without their beer while awake, and they
-made frequent trips to neighboring beer-saloons. About 9:30 o’clock Lieut.
-Baus and Lieut. Lloyd, each with a company of officers, returned from the
-Central Station, where I had sent them as a reserve during the Haymarket
-meeting, and when the Anarchists saw them in the roll-call room of my
-station, they sneaked around on the dark side of the alley and selected the
-third and fourth windows as those through which their deadly bombs should
-crash on their destructive mission. These windows are in the center of the
-large room. They had with them a number of bombs, both of the round
-lead and the long gas-pipe variety. While they stood underneath those
-windows, they got into a whispered quarrel about the kind of bomb that
-should be used.</p>
-
-<p>Bock had a round lead bomb, and he said:</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t think this will go off. Let one of you throw a larger bomb.”</p>
-
-<p>Then Abraham Hermann became angry and said:</p>
-
-<p>“You d&mdash;&mdash;d fool, what the d&mdash;&mdash;l are you here for, if your d&mdash;&mdash;d
-bombs are no good? You are too much of a coward to throw them.”</p>
-
-<p>Just at this point two officers left the station to visit a cigar-store, and
-stopped for a moment at the entrance of the alley to finish their conversation.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The Anarchists saw them, and, thinking that they had been discovered,
-they hurriedly made their exit in an opposite direction, running to the rear
-of the building on its dark side and then emerging on Superior Street.
-Some of them went over to the West Side, to the Haymarket meeting, and
-others sought different saloons on Clark Street.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-371.jpg" width="300" height="337" id="i371"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">THE LARRABEE STREET STATION.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>After frequent libations, some met again on Superior Street in the
-vicinity of a wagon-manufacturing establishment, and, under the cover of
-numerous wagons standing on the street between Clark Street and La Salle
-Avenue, they decided that the men who then had
-bombs should proceed to the call-room windows,
-and the others, with revolvers, should take position
-in the alley diagonally across from the entrance of
-the station. Then,
-at the proper
-signal, the bombs
-were to be hurled
-into the room, and
-the men across
-the way were to
-fire a volley into
-such officers as
-might come out.</p>
-
-<p>While this plan
-was being formed,
-I received an
-order from Inspector
-Bonfield
-to send all my
-men to the West
-Side double-quick,
-ready for
-action, with a
-hurried explanation
-of the riot
-and the killing of
-officers, and in less than four minutes I had seventy-five men on the way to
-the Haymarket. The Anarchists were still standing among the wagons, and,
-to their great surprise and dismay, they saw three patrol wagons passing with
-a tremendous speed. Their hearts at once fell into their boots, and they
-knew that the trouble had commenced. They repaired to Moody’s church
-and remained there a few moments deliberating what should be done. One
-of them tried to brace up the flagging spirits of his comrades by saying
-that “now the time had arrived when something must be done, but they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span>
-must never tell of their being there.” Not one, however, seemed willing to
-execute the plot they had agreed upon. On the contrary, they turned up
-La Salle Avenue and ran to Neff’s Hall as fast as their legs could carry
-them. What occurred at that hall that night I have already shown in a
-preceding chapter.</p>
-
-<p>The plan to throw bombs into the roll-call room was afterwards unfolded
-to me by one of those in the plot, and, had it not been for the two officers
-accidentally stopping at the entrance of the alley, many of the boys of the
-Fifth Precinct would have been murdered even before the commencement
-of the riot at the Haymarket. The ruffians who hung around that station
-were Abraham Hermann, Lorenz Hermann, the two Hageman brothers,
-Habizreiter, Heineman, Charles Bock, Heumann, and others from the
-North Side group and Lake View.</p>
-
-<p>Another station in great danger that night was that on Larrabee Street,
-in charge of Lieut. John Baus, with forty-eight officers. It is located on
-the northwest corner of Larrabee Street and North Avenue, and is a two-story
-brick building with a basement. This basement contains a cell-room
-located in the center of the building, with windows on the North Avenue
-side, and that side was chosen for the scene of operations. The men
-especially relied upon to blow up this building were Lingg, Seliger, Muntzenberg,
-Huber, Thielen and Hirschberger, and they, together with other
-members of the North Side group, lingered in the vicinity, loaded with
-bombs, and waiting only to see “the heavens illuminated” or to receive a
-message from one of the runners. But before they knew what had transpired
-at the Haymarket a patrol wagon dashed out of the station and
-whizzed by with a load of officers. This dazed them, and they hurried to
-Neff’s Hall to learn particulars and receive new instructions. When they
-got there Neff told them that they were all a set of cowards and advised
-them to go home. They took his advice and were glad to crawl back into
-their holes.</p>
-
-<p>Webster Avenue Station, in charge of Lieut. Elias E. Lloyd, with forty-four
-officers, also received attention. The building is a two-story frame
-located on the north side of the street, near Lincoln Avenue, and its principal
-apartment, the roll-call room, is on the first floor facing the street.
-The men especially assigned to the destruction of this station were Ernst
-Hubner, Gustav Lehman, Otto Lehman, Jebolinski and Lange, backed by
-several other frowsy and low-skulled sneaks, and these hovered around the
-station, hiding in dark recesses whenever some one casually passed along
-the sidewalk, or dodging into an alley whenever an officer was discovered
-approaching them. They all waited for “the signal which never came,”
-and, getting tired of stimulating each other with a courage they did not
-possess, they finally concluded to adjourn to Neff’s Hall. Whenever, on
-the way to that place, one upbraided the other for not throwing a bomb,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span>
-each would point to the fact that the area in front of the building was
-always occupied by officers sitting in easy chairs and sniffing the evening
-breeze, and there was no chance to get near the cell-room; but they all
-promised one another that they would go back and blow the building into
-smithereens and the officers into shreds of flesh, regardless of personal
-consequences, if they should hear “good news” at Neff’s. But they did
-not go back. Lieut. Lloyd was not called on for assistance at the Haymarket
-until about eleven o’clock, and by that time the cowards had got
-their information at Neff’s and were glad for an excuse to make a “bee line”
-for home, if the hovels they lived in can be dignified by that designation.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-373.jpg" width="250" height="280" id="i373"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">THE SCHILLER MONUMENT.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>There is no doubt that these wretches would have blown up the station
-if the police had dispersed the
-Haymarket meeting earlier in
-the evening, but by waiting so
-long they lost what little courage
-they had. There was no patrol
-wagon attached to this station
-at that time, but, as one of them
-told me afterwards, the Anarchists
-stood ready to hurl a bomb
-into a street-car had the officers
-come out earlier to take the cars
-in order to hasten to the assistance
-of the force at the Haymarket.
-They intended to make
-their work complete, and they
-were all well provided with
-bombs, even though they were
-rather short on courage. This
-was a part of the gang which
-had an appointment at Lincoln
-Park, only five blocks from the station, and some of them sought there
-early in the evening for a large number of recruits who failed to materialize
-when danger was in sight.</p>
-
-<p>The spot chosen for the meeting-place in Lincoln Park was at “Schiller’s
-Denkmal” (monument). Here it was that a few gathered, but, not finding
-as many present as they expected, they separated to the several localities
-assigned them for the execution of their plot.</p>
-
-<p>It will be recalled that, at the Monday night meeting preceding the Haymarket
-riot, those living on the North Side were ordered to report at Lincoln
-Park for definite instructions, and those on the West Side at Wicker
-Park, and the order seems to have been obeyed by a few of the more courageous
-Anarchists.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The vicinity of the Schiller monument was the place also where those
-who had been arrested and had made confessions met, along with other
-Anarchists, on the night preceding the taking of testimony in the trial of
-the prisoners, and on this occasion, Mr. Furthmann tells me, they agreed,
-with one exception, to inform the prosecution that they would not take the
-witness-stand to testify to the matters they had revealed to the State. If
-they were put on as witnesses, they agreed, they could swear that all they
-had told me and Mr. Furthmann with reference to the conspiracy was pure
-and unadulterated falsehood.
-Mr. Waller refused
-to be a party to such an
-agreement, and by his
-stubborn stand he caused
-several of the other witnesses
-for the State to
-change their minds and
-stick to the truth. Others,
-however, held out, and,
-when asked by the State
-to appear, refused. Waller
-proved a very strong witness,
-and, as Mr. Furthmann
-says, not one of the
-witnesses for the defense
-dared to contradict his
-testimony.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-374.jpg" width="300" height="419" id="i374"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">THE HINMAN STREET STATION.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>But to return to the
-contemplated attacks on
-the police stations. The
-Hinman Street house was
-the fourth one in the list
-marked for destruction.
-This station was in charge
-of Lieut. Richard Sheppard,
-and contained on
-the night in question
-thirty-four officers. It is a two-story brick building with basement, and
-is situated at the northwest corner of Hinman and Paulina Streets.
-The basement is used as a lock-up for the detention of prisoners, and
-all the offices are located on the first floor, facing Paulina Street. The
-patrol-wagon barn is situated in the rear of the station, contiguous to an
-alley, through which the street is reached. Around this locality between
-eighty and a hundred Anarchists gathered for work and to await the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span>
-signal. Mende and Sisterer were at the head of this murderous gang.
-Some were to exploit with rifles from the alley north of the station and
-on the east side of the street; others, with dynamite bombs, were to
-look after the officers in the rooms where they might happen to be most
-numerous, and those with revolvers were to station themselves in the alley
-directly behind the station to shoot down any of the officers who might come
-out in the patrol wagon, and also to kill the horses. Others, again, with
-revolvers, were to post themselves in front of the station to kill those who
-might escape the deadly bombs and seek safety by rushing into the street.
-The riflemen were to come as a reserve force to shoot down any who might
-have escaped both the revolvers and bombs. They were a desperate set
-and appeared determined on the execution of the plot. The men who composed
-the gang were Germans, Bohemians and Poles, all members of the
-West Side group, and some outsiders who worked in freight-houses and
-lumber-yards, and not one of them had any love for a policeman. This
-district had been for several years the scene of numerous strikes, and, as the
-officers had always suppressed the rioters, the latter were viciously disposed
-towards the guardians of the peace. Some of these reds were very
-anxious to see the work of annihilation commence, and they loitered around
-in small squads so as not to arouse suspicion until they could learn whether
-the revolution had been inaugurated at the Haymarket meeting. There
-was no call on this station for assistance at the time of the explosion, as
-Inspector Bonfield thought it possible that trouble might arise at McCormick’s,
-and the officers in that locality might thus be required in that direction;
-and as the diabolical conspirators saw no officers or patrol wagon
-move out, they became anxious to know how the Haymarket affair had terminated,
-and one by one they sneaked away from their hiding-places. When
-they finally learned particulars about the shooting, they ran home, and, like
-the cowards they were, kept under cover for several days. Later in the
-evening one company was ordered from this station to guard Desplaines
-Street, after the wounded officers had all been brought from the Haymarket.
-When the wagon had reached Halsted and Harrison Streets, however,
-Capt. O’Donnell halted it and ordered the officers back to the station, as
-it had been ascertained that all the Anarchists had sought their homes for
-the night.</p>
-
-<p>It was very fortunate that the officers were not called out earlier in the
-evening. If Inspector Bonfield had ordered them to report a few moments
-after the riot, very few of the men would have escaped alive. I have since
-learned that the brigands who were sneaking around that station that
-night numbered nearly one hundred, and as one-half of them were under
-the influence of liquor, it is very likely that they would have committed
-desperate deeds had the occasion offered.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">The Legal Battle&mdash;The Beginning of Proceedings in Court&mdash;Work in
-the Grand Jury Room&mdash;The Circulation of Anarchistic Literature&mdash;A Witness who was
-not Positive&mdash;Side Lights on the Testimony&mdash;The Indictments Returned&mdash;Selecting
-a Jury&mdash;Sketches of the Jurymen&mdash;Ready for the Struggle.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">THE case was now in condition to be turned over to the courts. The
-detective work was done, and, as I flatter myself, and as the result
-proved, well done. A deliberate and fiendish conspiracy to bring about
-riot, destruction and death had been proven. The Haymarket gathering
-was projected to invite a police attack, and this attack was to be the pretext
-for dynamite, murder and the social revolution. Of course much of
-the information given in the preceding pages was not used either in the
-grand jury room or at the trial. It was not necessary. State’s Attorney
-Grinnell, with his usual wisdom and tact, selected only the best, strongest
-and most reliable witnesses, and left out the minor ones. The statements
-of all those who “squealed” were conclusive, criminative and corroborative,
-but their presentation in court would have simply lumbered up the case.</p>
-
-<p>As a result of the energetic work of Coroner Hertz the principal conspirators
-had been bound over, without bail, at the inquest.</p>
-
-<p>The grand jury was impaneled on the 17th of May, 1886, and was composed
-of the following named persons: John N. Hills (foreman), George
-Watts, Peter Clinton, George Adams, Charles Schultz, Thomas Broderick,
-William Bartels, Fred. Wilkinson, P. J. Maloney, John Held, A. J. Grover,
-Frank N. Seavert, E. A. Jessel, Theodore Schultze, Alfred Thorp, N. J.
-Webber, Adolph Wilke, Fred Gall, Edward S. Dreyer, John M. Clark,
-John C. Neemes, N. J. Quan and T. W. Hall.</p>
-
-<p>Judge John G. Rogers delivered a long, able and forcible charge to the
-members of this grand jury. He first called attention to the necessity of
-their not being influenced in their acts by fear, favor or affection, and then
-dwelt upon what constitutes freedom of speech. He said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“We hear a good deal these days about what is called the freedom of
-speech. Now, there is a good deal of misconception of the Constitution of
-the United States and of the Constitution of the State of Illinois, and I may
-say of all States in the Union, upon this question of freedom of speech. I
-have copied the provisions upon which persons rely who continually say
-that in this free country men have a right to assemble&mdash;men have a right
-to speak and say what they please. There is no such right. There is no
-such constitutional right. The constitutional rights as expressed in the
-Constitution are: ‘That Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom
-of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble
-and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.’ The same
-principle is carried along into the State Constitutions; and in the Constitution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span>
-of the State of Illinois, and in its Bill of Rights, there is a provision
-that ‘every person may freely speak, write and publish on all subjects,
-being responsible for the use of that liberty.’ And in another provision the
-people have a right ‘to assemble in peaceable manner, to consult for the
-common good, to make known their opinions to their representatives, and
-to apply for a redress of grievances.’</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-377.jpg" width="100" height="515" id="i377"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">NEEBE’S SWORD<br />AND BELT.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="pbq">You will perceive in a moment that
-the construction of the United States constitutional right has
-been interpreted, if I may so express myself, in the Constitution
-of the State of Illinois, and that interpretation is the
-one that the courts have always recognized, and that, while a
-man may speak freely and write and publish upon all subjects,
-he is responsible for the abuse of the liberty of speech.
-I refer to these constitutional rights because some men are
-so inconsistent as to say there shall be no law for any such
-rights, yet claim the protection of these rights in the broadest
-sense, and, with an interpretation satisfactory to their own
-minds, that a man may get up, and, in a public speech to
-a public crowd, advise murder and arson, the destruction of
-property and the injury of people. That is a wild license which
-the Constitution of this country has never recognized any
-more than it has been recognized in the worst despotisms of
-old and of monarchical Europe. I hope and you hope it
-will never be recognized.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">The eminent jurist then illustrated the point of responsibility.
-If, said he, he should get up and there advise members
-of the jury that the foreman ought to be hanged for some
-assumed offense, he would be advising the commission of a
-crime; and if his advice was followed he himself who incited
-the hanging would be just as guilty of murder as the ones
-who did it. He next referred to the Haymarket riot and
-counseled the jury to look not only to the man who actually
-committed the crime, but to those who stood behind him,
-who actually advised it. He held that the men who so advised
-were equally guilty and should be held responsible for it.
-“What,” he said “is an incendiary speech but inciting men
-to commit wild acts?” He spoke of the red flag in Chicago
-and said: “What is a red flag in a procession, or a black
-flag, but a menace, a threat? It is understood to be emblematic
-of blood, and that no quarter will be given. Flags of
-that sort ought not to be permitted to be borne in processions
-in this city.” He referred to the labor troubles of the Knights of
-Labor, which, he acknowledged, happily had no connection with the Haymarket
-or with Anarchy, and then, for the guidance of the jury in reaching
-conclusions on the Anarchistic conspiracy, he quoted the statutes on what
-constituted conspiracy and the penalty for riots. In closing Judge Rogers
-counseled the jury to consider all evidence submitted with fairness and
-impartiality.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The next day the grand jury entered upon its work. A great many witnesses
-appeared before it, but many of them were not required at the trial, as
-their testimony would neither add to nor detract from the strength of the
-case. Facts were brought out under the latitude allowed in a grand jury room
-that could not, under court procedure, be brought into a cause on trial
-because of their not bearing directly on the charges, or not tending to supply
-some material connecting link in the chain of evidence. Some of this
-testimony, while not serving to throw any special light upon the conspiracy,
-may yet illustrate some phases of Anarchy growing out of the propagation
-of Anarchistic ideas and features incidental to the <i>cause celebre</i>; and for
-that purpose I have carefully scanned over the official grand jury reports
-and selected such omitted points as will serve to give a better general idea
-of the whole subject.</p>
-
-<p>The sale and circulation of Anarchistic literature in Chicago was one of
-the matters into which inquiry was made. Anton Laufermann, a Division
-Street bookseller, testified that Most had written “The Solution of the
-Socialistic Question,” “The Movement in Old Rome, or Cæsarism,” “The
-Bastile at Platzensee,” and other works, including “The Science of War.”
-It appeared that these Anarchistic books were not, as a rule, handled by
-booksellers.</p>
-
-<p>Edward Deuss, city editor of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, told the grand jury
-that the dynamite book&mdash;Most’s “Science of War”&mdash;was usually sold by
-men at picnics and similar gatherings, and that a book-store would be the
-last place to look for it. The men who peddled this literature were volunteers
-who made no money out of the sales.</p>
-
-<p>This evidence was corroborated by other persons. The plan seemed to
-be to scatter Most’s works quietly among the people, thus avoiding any of
-the difficulties or dangers which might follow from open and undisguised
-sale. The main source of supply was manifestly the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-office. The books were easy to get: nearly all the arrested Anarchists had
-copies of the dynamite book in their possession. One of the most persistent
-<i>colporteurs</i> was Muntzenberg. The hundreds of copies of incendiary books
-and pamphlets were passed around from one man to another, and it is out
-of the question to attempt to estimate the amount of injury they have done.
-The evidence upon this point&mdash;so much, at least, as came from the office of
-the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>&mdash;was unsatisfactory. This, however, was to have been
-expected when the character and peculiar beliefs of the witnesses is considered.
-For instance, Gerhardt Lizius, an editorial writer on this paper,
-after being questioned, without satisfactory results, about the interior
-arrangements of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> and various articles about the
-premises, was asked to define Anarchy and Socialism.</p>
-
-<p>“A Socialist,” he said, “wants the State to regulate everything, while
-we don’t want any authority whatever. We want the people to associate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span>
-themselves for production and consummation (of the highest good), according
-to their own desires.”</p>
-
-<p>“How does it happen that capital is in your way?” asked Mr. Grinnell.</p>
-
-<p>“Because the capitalist has taken something from us that is not his,
-that we have created.”</p>
-
-<p>“What is the manner the Anarchists have adopted in reaching that
-which they have not got now?”</p>
-
-<p>“We want to get it any way we can&mdash;peaceably if we can, and forcibly
-if we must.”</p>
-
-<p>“Even to the extent of a capitalist’s life?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes.”</p>
-
-<p>“Do you believe in the use of dynamite?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes.”</p>
-
-<p>“You say that you should not divide your property with your neighbor.
-Why should the capitalist?”</p>
-
-<p>“We don’t want him to divide anything. We want him to make it
-public property. He has got as much right to it as we have. Everybody,
-according to our view, should have the right of life, liberty and the pursuit
-of happiness. That means that I should have the right to the means of
-life, and that means, of course, that we should have the right to everything
-that nature gives us, so that every man, if he wants, can work, and everybody
-make a living. If he don’t want to work, then of course he should
-not make a living.”</p>
-
-<p>“The <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> was an Anarchistic paper?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes.”</p>
-
-<p>“Did the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> divide its things?”</p>
-
-<p>“There was nothing to divide there. We didn’t make any money.”</p>
-
-<p>“Supposing that you and I should want the same thing&mdash;how would
-you settle that question?”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I guess there can be more than one of these things made.”</p>
-
-<p>“I might want a cow that you would want, or a horse; you might want
-the same thing&mdash;how would you settle that matter?”</p>
-
-<p>“I work for it and get it.”</p>
-
-<p>“I thought you did not believe in that?” continued Mr. Grinnell.</p>
-
-<p>“You did not hear me say anything of the kind. I said that we should
-have the right to work so that we could make a living. We didn’t want
-anything without work.”</p>
-
-<p>“Now, you figure that a man who has got a hundred thousand dollars
-by reason of having worked hard, stands in your way; isn’t that your idea?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes.”</p>
-
-<p>“Suppose I have got ten cows and you don’t get any; you have been
-lazy and haven’t earned your ten cows. Now, how do you get half of my
-cows?”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“You are looking at this thing from the standpoint of the present system
-of society. It is impossible for any of you gentleman, if you are not Socialists
-and don’t understand what Socialism is, to get at the idea at all as to
-how things are run. You have to look at it from the standpoint of
-Socialism.”</p>
-
-<p>“Your idea is to have society without any law?”</p>
-
-<p>“The Government is only for the oppression of people. We would
-have to organize for some purposes.”</p>
-
-<p>“Supposing this Government should get something in its mails that you
-would happen to want, should you have a right to take it?”</p>
-
-<p>“No, sir.”</p>
-
-<p>“Suppose you did take it, what would be done with you?”</p>
-
-<p>“No man is supposed to take anything that does not belong to him.”</p>
-
-<p>“You would have law to punish people, wouldn’t you?”</p>
-
-<p>“No, sir.”</p>
-
-<p>Being asked if he had seen about the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office any implements
-of warfare, Lizius answered in the negative&mdash;not even pistols or
-anything of that kind.</p>
-
-<p>“Do you believe that the man who threw the bomb over there [meaning
-the Haymarket] did right?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, sir.”</p>
-
-<p>“And that it was a righteous act in shooting down the policemen?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, sir.”</p>
-
-<p>The reason he advanced for his belief was that it was an act of self-defense;
-that the police, according to his knowledge, had attacked the
-crowd with clubs before the bomb was thrown. This sort of misinformation
-seems to have been spread among the ignorant Anarchists, and Lizius,
-when he said he believed it, knew better and simply adopted it as an
-excuse for their acts.</p>
-
-<p>“Do you believe in the existence of a God?” asked one of the jurymen.</p>
-
-<p>“No, sir.”</p>
-
-<p>“Have you any regard for law at all?”</p>
-
-<p>“No, sir.”</p>
-
-<p>“Have you any regard for the obligation of an oath taken before the
-grand jury?”</p>
-
-<p>“No, sir.”</p>
-
-<p>“You have been sworn here ‘by the ever-living God.’ You have no
-regard for that oath, have you?”</p>
-
-<p>“No, sir.”</p>
-
-<p>“Have you told the truth?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, sir.”</p>
-
-<p>“How did you come to tell the truth?”</p>
-
-<p>“I am not in the habit of lying. There is no cause for it.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span></p>
-
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-381.jpg" width="400" height="623" id="i381"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">ANARCHIST AMMUNITION&mdash;II. <span class="smcap wn">From Photographs.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“If you had a good cause, would you lie? Would you lie to save a life?”</p>
-
-<p>“If it hung upon such a slender thread as that, I would.”</p>
-
-<p>“Would you, if you thought it would help the cause of Anarchy?”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t see how it could.”</p>
-
-<p>Among the many witnesses examined in the grand jury room was
-Ernst Legner. It will be remembered that the defense, at the trial,
-claimed that this man had been spirited away by the prosecution. This
-was done, of course, with a view to damaging the case of the State before
-the jury. Now, the facts are these: Legner’s name was placed on the
-back of the indictment somehow&mdash;I do not know why. Certainly neither
-the State nor the defense could have used him, and he would have been
-even less valuable for the prisoners than for the prosecution. Legner was
-a man who was sure of nothing. His testimony before the grand jury was
-continually and invariably qualified by the statement that he “could not be
-positive;” that he “was not sure.” For instance, here is some of his
-testimony:</p>
-
-<p>Did he meet Chris Spies at that meeting? He could not say. “I saw
-him that night, but I couldn’t say whether I saw him there. I don’t recollect.
-I couldn’t say positive. I couldn’t say anything positive about that.”</p>
-
-<p>This answer prompted Mr. Grinnell to ask: “Since when have you
-grown so unpositive?”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, in that way, I guess ever since,” was his lucid reply.</p>
-
-<p>“You remember me, don’t you, down at the Central Station, talking
-with you?”</p>
-
-<p>“No, sir.”</p>
-
-<p>“Don’t you remember coming in, seeing me and your brother
-come in?”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, that was in the City Hall.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, that is what we call Central Station. You saw me there, did
-you?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, sir.”</p>
-
-<p>“You remember your brother told you he had advised you to keep
-away from those people, and advised you to tell the truth about this transaction?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, sir.”</p>
-
-<p>“And you then and there told me that you saw Chris Spies right near
-that wagon that night?”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I might have seen him, but I won’t say anything positive on
-that.”</p>
-
-<p>“Have you seen him since then?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, sir, I did.”</p>
-
-<p>“When?”</p>
-
-<p>“I saw him yesterday.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“And he talked&mdash;you spoke to him about this case then, didn’t you?”</p>
-
-<p>“I only spoke to him&mdash;I told him that he looked pale, and that was all
-the speaking, and he went off. I was going west, and he was going east.”</p>
-
-<p>“Now, why should there be any confusion in your mind to-day where
-you saw him that night?”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I saw him that night, but I could not say positive whether I
-saw him there or not, at the meeting.”</p>
-
-<p>“You said a moment ago that you looked around, and you thought you
-saw him right there?”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, yes. That is where I said; I could not say positive; I saw him,
-but I could not say positive.”</p>
-
-<p>This sort of fire was kept up for some time, but the witness always
-dodged behind “I could not say positive.” He was asked how long it was
-after August Spies got through speaking when he (Spies) left, but the only
-answer was: “Well, that is something I don’t know certain.”</p>
-
-<p>Now, why should the State want such a witness, or what interest could it
-have in spiriting him away? He certainly developed a remarkable want
-of memory, and with his testimony before the grand jury the defendants,
-if they had put him on the stand, could not have utilized him
-on their side. If he knew anything, as would seem to be the case, judging
-from his brother’s advice to tell everything and some statements he had
-previously made to the State’s Attorney, it all must have been in favor of
-the State. It is a justifiable conclusion that Chris Spies, on meeting him
-the day preceding his appearance before the grand jury, must have
-influenced him to testify the way he did. The truth about the whole
-matter is that the defendants would not have touched Legner had he been
-procurable, and if he went out of the city it must have been at their
-instigation. The above samples of his testimony show that his appearance
-on the stand would have made him dead timber to either side.</p>
-
-<p>A good deal was also said about the absence of Mr. Brazleton, an
-<i>Inter-Ocean</i> reporter, from the witness-stand. He was not produced by the
-State because many of his statements were not of a positive character.</p>
-
-<p>As there were so many other witnesses who had paid special attention
-to the incendiary character of the speeches, and remembered distinctly the
-various details in connection with the Haymarket meeting, there was no
-occasion to use Brazleton as a witness. All the others who were put on the
-stand gave fuller particulars and corroborated each other in all essential
-points. Had the general information of the others been of the same nature
-as that of Brazleton, it might have been well to have used him as a witness,
-but, with so much direct testimony as the State possessed, his evidence was
-not necessary. The defense simply sought to make a point on his absence&mdash;that
-is all.</p>
-
-<p>A great deal has been said with reference to Schnaubelt. There is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span>
-no doubt that he threw the fatal bomb. The defense at the trial of Spies
-and the others sought, however, to discredit such a belief. They asserted
-that there was not an iota of evidence to sustain such an opinion, and for
-their part they did not believe it. <i>Per contra</i>, it may be said that if he was
-innocent he took the wrong course to show it. Schnaubelt was arrested by
-Officers Palmer and Boyd, of the Central Station. Before the grand jury
-Palmer testified as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-384.jpg" width="250" height="347" id="i384"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">HON. JOSEPH E. GARY.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>“I was told that he was working at 224 Washington Street, rooms 5 and
-6. I went up there and found
-him and brought him to the
-Central Station. That was
-on the 6th of this month.”</p>
-
-<p>“Did he have whiskers,
-or not?”</p>
-
-<p>“His face was shaved
-clean, except a mustache.”</p>
-
-<p>“You had been looking
-for a man with whiskers?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. I was told by his
-employer that he shaved his
-whiskers off the morning
-after the riot.”</p>
-
-<p>“Did he say anything to
-you about having shaved
-himself?”</p>
-
-<p>“I asked him why he
-shaved, and he said he always
-did it in the summer
-time.”</p>
-
-<p>“Do you know what the
-size of his whiskers was?”</p>
-
-<p>“About six or eight
-inches long.”</p>
-
-<p>“Did you have any talk
-with him when you brought him to the Central Station?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. I asked him if he was at the scene of the riot on the Tuesday
-night previous, and he said he was. I asked him where he was. He said
-he was up on the wagon. I asked him where he was when the bomb was
-thrown. He said he was on the wagon half a minute before the bomb was
-thrown, but he had got off, and when it exploded he supposed he was about
-fifty feet from the wagon.”</p>
-
-<p>“He was let go that morning?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span>”
-“Tell us about his place of work and what you found out yesterday?”</p>
-
-<p>“Captain Schaack sent a couple of men to me yesterday to find out if
-we could get this man again. I took them over to where I had found him
-previously. His employer told me that after he got away from me on the
-6th of this month [May] he came back and finished the day’s work, and he
-had not shown up from that time to this. His tools were there, and he did
-not call for his money. His sister had called for the money several days
-after he quit, but he did not give it to her.”</p>
-
-<p>“He had a good job, didn’t he?”</p>
-
-<p>“He was a machinist, working at a turning-lathe.”</p>
-
-<p>Schnaubelt was described as having sandy whiskers, about six feet
-tall, weighing about 190 pounds, large and bony, not very fleshy, and about
-twenty-four years of age.</p>
-
-<p>Lieut. John Shea, then in charge of the Central Station, testified to the
-same facts and that the police had been unable to find the man in the city.</p>
-
-<p>At the time there were no strong circumstances connecting Schnaubelt
-with the massacre, but suspicious evidence ought to have held him in custody
-for a day or two until all his antecedents could have been inquired
-into. His release was a sad mistake, and the fact that he hastened out of
-the city shows the fear he had of being directly connected with the throwing
-of the bomb. The evidence of various parties points to him as the
-guilty party, and it was fortunate for him that he escaped.</p>
-
-<p>C. M. Hardy, a leading attorney of Chicago, testified to a conversation
-which he had had with Spies the day before the Haymarket tragedy.</p>
-
-<p>During this conversation, which occurred accidentally in a restaurant,
-“Spies,” to use the words of the witness, “turned and said to me laughingly,
-‘Are you with us?’ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘If you mean that I am in favor
-of the laborer getting well paid for his labor, I am with you, but no further
-than that.’ ‘Well,’ he said, still laughing, ‘you had better be, for we are
-going to raise h&mdash;&mdash;l,’ and then went on.”</p>
-
-<p>On the 28th of May the grand jury concluded its labors and returned
-into court fifteen indictments for murder, conspiracy and riot, against Spies,
-Parsons, Fischer, Engel, Lingg, Fielden, Schwab, Neebe, Schnaubelt and
-some lesser lights in the Anarchistic circle.</p>
-
-<p>The trial began on the 19th of June. No case ever brought before the
-Chicago courts excited so much interest or brought out a greater crowd.
-Not one tithe of the throng of people who were eager to see the notorious
-defendants were able to find place in the court-room.</p>
-
-<p>Judge Joseph E. Gary presided, and with his suave, dignified bearing
-and his prompt manner of handling legal details and technicalities, he impressed
-all with the conviction that, while the Anarchists would have a full
-and fair trial, no trifling with the law would be permitted. The case was
-one which not alone interested Chicago, but touched the stability and welfare<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span>
-of every city of any considerable size in the United States. The eyes
-of the whole country were riveted on Chicago, and the outside world was
-eagerly watching the results of a case, the first in America, to determine
-whether dynamite was to be considered a legal weapon in the settlement of
-socio-political problems in a free republic.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-386.jpg" width="400" height="370" id="i386"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">PORTRAITS OF THE JURY.&mdash;I.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Time was when our system of
-government was looked upon abroad as an experiment of doubtful nature,
-but when it had passed the experimental period it was pointed to by foreign
-friends as furnishing no pretext for Socialistic or Anarchistic outbursts of
-violence, and as supplying no favorable conditions for the growth even of
-Anarchistic doctrines. In a speech before the French Legislative Assembly,
-De Tocqueville once said, pointing to America: “There shall you see
-a people among whom all conditions of men are more on an equality even
-than among us; where the social state, the manners, the laws, everything is
-democratic; where all emanates from the people and returns to the people,
-and where, at the same time, every individual enjoys a greater amount of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span>
-liberty, a more entire independence, than in any other part of the world, at
-any period of time; a country, I repeat it, essentially democratic&mdash;the only
-democracy in the wide world at this day, and the only republic truly
-democratic which we know of in history. And in this republic you will
-look in vain for Socialism.”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-387.jpg" width="400" height="373" id="i387"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">PORTRAITS OF THE JURY.&mdash;II.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Still, Anarchy found lodgment in America through men exiled under the
-rigorous baiting of their own country&mdash;men whose early education had
-been set against all government and whose prejudices operated against the
-study of our institutions. In the violent culmination of their doctrines
-at the Haymarket the point was reached where it became necessary to
-demonstrate that it is a rank growth and has no excuse in a republic in
-which the utmost liberty is allowed consistent with the rights of life and
-property.</p>
-
-<p>When, therefore, this trial opened, both the Judge and the State’s Attorney
-felt that a great responsibility had been laid upon their shoulders,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span>
-and that the whole civilized world would sit in judgment upon the manner
-in which they performed their duty. They entered into the case with no
-revengeful feelings, but held firmly to their course, mindful of the rights of
-the defendants, but determined to maintain law and justice. The case was
-called on the day indicated, in the main court-room of the Criminal Court
-building, and the moment the State’s Attorney had announced his readiness
-to commence proceedings, the defendants’ counsel entered a motion for a
-separate trial of each of the prisoners. This was argued and overruled.</p>
-
-<p>On the morning of June 21, at ten o’clock, everything was in readiness
-for the trial proper, and the work of selecting the jury was entered upon.
-Within the bar of the court sat the eminent counsel of both sides. On the
-left, in front of the bench, there was State’s Attorney Grinnell, surrounded
-by his assistants, Francis W. Walker and Edmund Furthmann, and Special
-State’s Counsel George C. Ingham, and on the right of the bench sat the
-defendants’ attorneys, Capt. W. P. Black, W. A. Foster, Sigismund Zeisler
-and Moses Salomon, flanked by the prisoners and their relatives. The
-remaining space within the bar was occupied by attorneys of the city as
-spectators, and the rest of the court-room was filled with a motley throng,
-including here and there representatives of the fair sex drawn by personal
-interest or moved by morbid curiosity. The prisoners were dressed in their
-best, each with a button-hole bouquet.</p>
-
-<p>During the preliminary proceedings, as we have noted elsewhere, Parsons
-had joined his associates, and his bronzed appearance, from out-door
-exposure, was in marked contrast with that of his pale-looking companions.</p>
-
-<p>The task of selecting a jury proceeded, but it was not an easy thing to
-find men unbiased and unprejudiced. Four weeks were consumed in this
-work, but finally twelve “good men and true” were chosen, as follows:
-F. S. Osborne, Major James H. Cole, S. G. Randall, A. H. Reed, J. H.
-Brayton, A. Hamilton, G. W. Adams, J. B. Greiner, C. B. Todd, C. H.
-Ludwig, T. E. Denker and H. T. Sandford.</p>
-
-<p>So notable was the trial, and so tremendous the interests involved, that
-the reader will naturally want to know something of the <i>personnel</i> of the
-jury whose verdict vindicated and guaranteed law and order in America:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Frank S. Osborne</span>, a resident at No. 134 Dearborn Avenue, the foreman of the jury,
-was born in Columbus, Ohio, and at the time of the trial was thirty-nine years of age. He
-filled the position of chief salesman in the retail department of Marshall Field &amp; Co., and
-was a man of liberal ideas and good education. He possessed keen judgment, and proved
-a critical examiner of all the evidence submitted. He readily grasped all the strong and
-weak points in the defense, and showed himself a thorough master of the evidence.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Maj. James H. Cole</span>, a resident at No. 987 Lawndale Avenue, was born in Utica, New
-York, and was fifty-three years of age. During the war he was a Captain, and subsequently
-rose to the rank of Major in the Forty-first Ohio Infantry. After the close of the Rebellion,
-he engaged in the railroad business as contractor and constructor, residing at different
-times in Vermont, Ohio, Tennessee, Illinois and Iowa. He came to Chicago in 1879, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span>
-was book-keeper for the Continental Insurance Company until shortly before serving on
-the jury.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Charles B. Todd</span>, a resident at No. 1013 West Polk Street, was born in Elmira, New
-York, and was forty-seven years of age. He had served in the Sixth New York Heavy
-Artillery, and since his arrival in Chicago, four years preceding, had been a salesman in the
-Putnam Clothing House.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Alanson H. Reed</span>, a resident at No. 3442 Groveland Park, was born in Boston, Mass.,
-and was forty-nine years of age. He was a member of the firm of Reed &amp; Sons, at No. 136
-State Street, and during the trial proved a close listener to all the evidence.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">James H. Brayton</span>, a resident of Englewood, and Principal of the Webster School, on
-Wentworth Avenue, in Chicago, was born in Lyons, New York, and was forty years of age.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Theodore E. Denker</span>, a resident of Woodlawn Park, in the town of Hyde Park, was
-born in Wisconsin and was twenty-seven years of age. He was shipping clerk for H. H.
-King &amp; Co.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">George W. Adams</span>, a resident of Evanston, was born in Indiana, and was twenty-seven
-years of age. He traveled in Michigan as commercial agent of Geo. W. Pitkin &amp; Co., dealers
-in liquid paints, on Clinton Street, Chicago.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Charles H. Ludwig</span>, a resident at 4101 State Street, was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
-and was twenty-seven years of age. He was a book-keeper in the mantel manufactory of C.
-L. Page &amp; Co.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">John B. Greiner</span>, residing at No. 70 North California Avenue, was born in Columbus,
-Ohio, and was twenty-five years of age. He was a stenographer in the freight department of
-the Chicago and Northwestern Railway. Mr. Greiner’s mother was, after the trial, the recipient
-of so many threatening letters from the reds that she almost lost her mind.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Andrew Hamilton</span>, a resident at 1521 Forty-first Street, was a hardware merchant at No.
-3913 Cottage Grove Avenue. He had resided in Chicago twenty years.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Harry T. Sandford</span>, a resident of Oak Park, was born in New York City, and was
-twenty-five years of age. He was a son of Attorney Sandford, compiler of the Supreme
-Court Reports of New York, and since his arrival in Chicago had been voucher clerk in the
-auditor’s office of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Scott G. Randall</span>, a resident at No. 42 La Salle Street, was born in Erie County, Pennsylvania
-and was twenty-three years of age. He had lived in Chicago for three years, and
-was a salesman in the employ of J. C. Vaughn, seedsman, at No. 45 La Salle Street.</p></div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XX.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">Judge Grinnell’s Opening&mdash;Statement of the Case&mdash;The Light of the 4th
-of May&mdash;The Dynamite Argument&mdash;Spies’ Fatal Prophecy&mdash;The Eight-hour Strike&mdash;The
-Growth of the Conspiracy&mdash;Spies’ Cowardice at McCormick’s&mdash;The “Revenge”
-Circular&mdash;Work of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> and the <i>Alarm</i>&mdash;The Secret Signal&mdash;A Frightful
-Plan&mdash;“Ruhe”&mdash;Lingg, the Bomb-maker&mdash;The Haymarket Conspiracy&mdash;The
-Meeting&mdash;“We are Peaceable”&mdash;After the Murder&mdash;The Complete Case Presented.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">IT was on Thursday, the 15th of July, that the preliminary work was finally
-ended and the court was ready for a formal statement of the case.
-This statement was made by State’s Attorney Grinnell, and his arraignment
-of the defendants was such a clear, convincing and masterful argument&mdash;giving,
-as it did, the whole history of the Anarchist conspiracy, and
-foreshadowing eloquently and in detail all the proof which was to be got
-before the jury&mdash;that I will print here a verbatim copy of his speech,
-believing that the reader will find nowhere else so business-like a statement
-of what these prisoners did and how they did it.</p>
-
-<p>During the delivery of Mr. Grinnell’s remarks the crowded court-room,
-prisoners and sympathizing Anarchists, wounded policemen, judge, jurors
-and representatives of the press hung upon his words with a keen interest
-which has seldom been duplicated in the annals of American jurisprudence.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Grinnell said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“<span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>:&mdash;For the first time in the history of our country are
-people on trial for their lives for endeavoring to make Anarchy the rule,
-and in that attempt for ruthlessly and awfully destroying life. I hope that
-while the youngest of us lives this in his memory will be the last and
-only time in our country when such a trial shall take place. It will or will
-not take place as this case is determined.</p>
-
-<p>“The State now and at no time hereafter will say aught to arouse your
-prejudices or your indignation, having confidence in the case that we present;
-and I hope I shall not at any time during this trial say anything to
-you which will in any way or manner excite your passions. I want your
-reason. I want your careful analysis. I want your careful attention. We&mdash;my
-associates and myself&mdash;ask the conviction of no man from malice,
-from prejudice, from anything except the facts and the law. I am here,
-gentlemen, to maintain the law, not to break it; and, however you may believe
-that any of these men have broken the law through their notions of
-Anarchy, try them on the facts. We believe, gentlemen, that we have a
-case that shall command your respect, and demonstrate to you the truthfulness
-of all the declarations in it, and, further, that by careful attention and
-close analysis you can determine who are guilty and the nature of the crime.</p>
-
-<p>“On the 4th of May, 1886, a few short weeks ago, there occurred, at
-what is called Haymarket Square, the most fearful massacre ever witnessed
-or heard of in this country. The crime culminated there&mdash;you are to find
-the perpetrators. The charge against the defendants is that they are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span>
-responsible for that act. The testimony that shall be presented to you will
-be the testimony which will show their innocence or their guilty complicity
-in that crime.</p></div>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-391.jpg" width="250" height="353" id="i391"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">HON. JULIUS S. GRINNELL.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>“We have been in this city inclined to believe, as we have all through
-the country, that, however extravagantly men may talk about our laws and
-our country, however severely they may criticise our Constitution and our
-institutions; that as we are all in favor of full liberty, of free speech, the
-great good sense of our people would never permit acts based upon sentiments
-which meant the overthrow of law. We have believed it for years;
-we were taught it at our schools in our infancy, we were taught it in our
-maturer years in school, and all our walks in life thereafter have taught us
-that our institutions, founded on our Constitution, the Declaration of Independence,
-and our universal freedom,
-were above and beyond all
-Anarchy. The 4th of May demonstrated
-that we were wrong, that
-we had too much confidence, that a
-certain class of individuals, some
-of them recently come here, as the
-testimony will show, believe that
-here in this country our Constitution
-is a lie. Insults are offered to
-the Declaration of Independence,
-the name of Washington is reviled
-and traduced, and we are taught by
-these men, as the testimony will
-show, that freedom in this country
-means lawlessness and absolute
-licence to do as we please, no
-matter whether it hurts others or
-not. In the light of the 4th of May
-we now know that the preachings
-of Anarchy, the suggestions of these
-defendants hourly and daily for
-years, have been sapping our institutions,
-and that where they have
-cried murder, bloodshed, Anarchy
-and dynamite, they have meant
-what they said, and proposed to do
-what they threatened.</p>
-
-<p>“We will prove, gentlemen, in this case, that Spies no longer ago than
-last February said that they were armed in this city for bloodshed and riot.
-We will prove that he said then that they were ready in the city of Chicago
-for Anarchy, and when told, by a gentleman to whom he made the declaration,
-that they ‘would be hung like snakes,’ said&mdash;and there was the insult
-to the Father of our Country&mdash;then he said George Washington was no
-better than a rebel, as if there was any possible comparison between those
-declarations, between that sentiment of Washington’s and his noble deeds,
-and the Anarchy of this man. He has said in public meetings&mdash;and the
-details of them I will not now worry you with&mdash;he has said in public meetings
-for the last year and a half, to go back no further&mdash;he and Neebe and
-Schwab and Parsons and Fielden have said in public meetings here in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span>
-city of Chicago that the only way to adjust the wrongs of any man was by
-bloodshed, by dynamite, by the pistol, by the Winchester rifle. They have
-advised, as will appear in proof here, that dynamite was cheap, and ‘you
-had better forego some luxuries, buy dynamite, kill capitalists, down with
-the police, murder them, dispose of the militia, and then demand your
-rights.’ That is Anarchy.</p>
-
-<p>“On the 11th day of October, 1885, in a prominent public hall upon
-the West Side, August Spies, the defendant in this case, and his confrères
-there, introduced a resolution at a public meeting, in which he said that he
-did not believe that the eight-hour movement would do the laboring man
-any good. We will prove in this case that he has always been opposed to
-the eight-hour law. That is not what he wants. He wants Anarchy.
-These defendants that I mentioned passed a resolution, which we shall offer
-in evidence here, and it shall be read to you later&mdash;to the effect that the
-laboring men must arm, must prepare themselves with rifles and dynamite.
-When? By the 1st of May, 1886, because then would come the contest.</p>
-
-<p>“I will prove to you that Parsons&mdash;be it said to the shame of our
-country, because I understand that he was born on our soil&mdash;that Parsons,
-in an infamous paper published by him, called the <i>Alarm</i>, has defined the
-use of dynamite, told how it should be used, how capitalists could be
-destroyed by it, how policemen could be absolutely wiped from the face of
-the earth by one bomb; and further has published a plan in his paper of
-street-warfare by dynamite against militia and the authorities.</p>
-
-<p>“Gentlemen, leaders of any great cause are either heroes or cowards.
-The testimony in this case will show that August Spies, Parsons, Schwab
-and Neebe are the biggest cowards that I have ever seen in the course of
-my life. They have advised the use of dynamite and have advised the
-destruction of property for months and years in the city of Chicago, and
-now pitifully smile at our institutions, as they have through their lives&mdash;and,
-like cowards contemplating crime, they sought to establish an <i>alibi</i> for the
-4th of May, of which I will speak directly.</p>
-
-<p>“I will prove to you further that in January last August Spies told a
-newspaper reporter of integrity, honesty and fidelity that they were going
-to precipitate the matter on or about the 1st of May; that he told this man
-how they could dispose of the police, and in that connection he told that
-reporter that they would arrange it so that their meeting should be at or
-near the intersection of two streets. Having this as Randolph Street and
-Desplaines (pointing on map), not calling it any particular name, and that
-he would have a meeting in which there should be assembled large bodies
-of laboring men, of which he falsely claims to be the exponent; that they
-would be located just above the intersection of the streets; that he and his
-dynamiters would be there; that they would be provided with dynamite
-bombs at the place of meeting; that they would hold a meeting there; that
-the police or the militia would walk up towards them; that when they got
-up there their dynamite-throwers would be situated on different sides of the
-street near the walks; that when they proceeded up here they would throw
-the dynamite into their ranks, clean them out and take possession of the
-town. ‘But,’ said the reporter to him, ‘Mr. Spies, that sounds to me like
-braggadocio and vaporing nonsense.’ That is, gentlemen, what it has
-sounded to us for years. Let it sound no longer like that to us. Spies said
-to him, red in the face and excited: ‘I tell you I am telling the truth, and
-mark my words, that it will happen on or about the 1st of May, 1886.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span>’
-And the reason he was so ready to say so was because he believes our Constitution
-is a lie, our institutions are not worthy of respect, and he desires
-to pose as a leader, although in fact a coward.</p>
-
-<p>“That is not all, gentlemen. Mr. Spies at that interview at that time
-handed that gentlemanly reporter&mdash;and I will commend him to you now,
-whatever may be your notion of newspaper men. Look at that man when
-he goes upon the stand and judge him by his words and by his appearance.
-He, Spies, did more than what I have said. At that time he handed to the
-newspaper reporter a dynamite bomb, empty&mdash;almost the exact duplicate
-of the bomb Lingg made which killed the officers; handed it to this witness
-and said to him: ‘These are the bombs that our men are making in the
-city of Chicago, and they are distributed from the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office,
-because the men who make them have not the facilities for distributing
-them, and we distribute them here.’</p>
-
-<p>“Those are facts that will be proven here.</p>
-
-<p>“I want to suggest to you now, gentlemen, this is a vastly more important
-case than perhaps any of you have a conception of. Perhaps I have been
-with it so long, have investigated it so much, come in contact with such
-fearful and terrible things so often, that my notions may be somewhat exaggerated;
-but I think not. I think they are worse even than my conception
-has pictured. The firing upon Fort Sumter was a terrible thing to our
-country, but it was open warfare. I think it was nothing compared with
-this insidious, infamous plot to ruin our laws and our country secretly and
-in this cowardly way; the strength of our institutions may depend upon this
-case, because there is only one step beyond republicanism&mdash;that is Anarchy.
-See that we never take that step, and let us stand to-day as we have
-stood for years, firmly planted on the laws of our country.</p>
-
-<p>“After teaching Anarchy, bombs, the manufacture of them and everything
-of that character for months, and I may say for years, here in town,
-having put the ball in motion, having done everything toward the end they
-declared should be accomplished&mdash;towards the end they sought&mdash;then
-began the numerous conspiracies. The beginning of the whole matter was
-among the nest of snakes in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office, and the foundation
-of the conspiracy, published, notorious and open, was at West Twelfth
-Street Turner Hall, on the 11th of October last. At that time, on the introduction
-of that resolution by Spies, it was opposed by one man in the
-audience, who is a labor agitator, but not an Anarchist&mdash;opposed by one
-man in that audience, and he was denounced; he was told to take a back
-seat, and in support of the resolution it was there said by Spies&mdash;and a man,
-as I understand, by the name of Belz was chairman&mdash;that the time for
-argument has passed; the only argument by which to meet these things
-was dynamite and the rifle&mdash;by force.</p>
-
-<p>“As is well known, requiring no proof, for a long time before, it was
-arranged by a universal arrangement or consent among all the laboring
-classes in town that there should be a universal strike for eight hours, to
-take place on or about the 1st day of May. On the 1st day of May began
-those strikes. On the 2nd&mdash;on the 3d&mdash;the 2nd was Sunday&mdash;on the
-3d day of May, on Monday, you will remember from your reading, as it
-will appear in proof here, there was difficulty at McCormick’s factory
-down on what they called the Black Road. The fact about that meeting
-was this: A large number of lumber-shovers, or men who work in the
-lumber-yards, had a meeting appointed to wait on the lumber-dealers,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span>
-There were a great many of them Bohemians, some Germans, and some of
-other nationalities&mdash;mostly embraced in those two nationalities that I first
-spoke of, but all nationalities represented there. The chief officers and the
-chief men in the movement were Bohemians. Some of them will be presented
-to you by us. The committee that was to wait upon the lumber-dealers
-was to report there in an open place called the Black Road, or in
-that locality, to the meeting, what the lumber-dealers proposed. In other
-words, a peaceful proposition was made by that committee to the lumbermen
-to accede to eight hours, and a meeting was held there; the committee
-were to come back from the lumber-dealers and report to that meeting.
-Spies and a man by the name of Fehling&mdash;who ought also to have been in
-this indictment, and I will say just a word later about that&mdash;one other man
-whose identity we have not fully established&mdash;went down there uninvited
-by any of that committee, or by the chairman of it&mdash;went down there and
-made an inflammatory speech for the purpose of precipitating that riot.
-That is the truth. It was precipitated. I am rather inclined to think that
-some other of these men were there. I am not going to state anything to
-you here, at any time, in this case, that I do not believe I can prove. I
-know Spies was there, and spoke from the top of a car. He wrote up the
-speech later on, which I will speak of directly. The president of that organization
-down there, the laborers, opposed his speaking and informed the
-people that this man was not one of them, but that he was a Socialist, and
-they did not want to hear him. He insisted upon speaking, and the friend
-that was with him has fled the city and does not dare return. That will be
-in proof. Spies did the unmanly thing that he always does. He exasperated
-other people to rush on McCormick’s regardless of the president of that
-committee, who desired quiet and peace and desired it honestly, although
-he was in favor of eight hours. But Spies is not anxious for eight hours.
-We will prove that in this case. He does not want eight hours. If the
-laboring men&mdash;if the bosses and employers in the city of Chicago on the
-1st day of May had universally acceded to the eight-hour project, Spies was
-a dead duck; they would have had no further use for him, and he didn’t
-want it. Therefore he went down there and exasperated the people, and
-he made a speech. The police didn’t come on the ground until after McCormick’s
-was attacked, and until after stones and bombs were used, or
-pistols and lead against McCormick’s factory. What does Spies do, this
-redoubtable knight? He runs away and gets home just as soon as he can. He
-takes a car and comes north. I will say nothing more about that meeting
-for the present. Let us follow Spies. Now, mind you, he saw trouble. He
-had exasperated this crowd to attack McCormick’s; they did attack
-McCormick’s, and stones were thrown by the mob at McCormick’s men&mdash;some
-of them&mdash;they are called scabs; they didn’t happen to belong to any
-union. Of course my opinion about that may be different from some of
-yours; I will not criticise. I believe one man is just as good as another,
-whether he belongs to a union or not. If he is an honest man and desires
-to work, I think he ought to be permitted to work. But those fellows didn’t
-belong to the union. They swam across the river, got away the best they
-could, saved their lives. But what does Spies do? He rushes away as
-soon as he can, when he sees the starting of the difficulty; when he has
-got everybody inflamed into frenzy and madness he quietly gets out to save
-his august person; he quietly gets out and goes away. That is not all. He
-lands that afternoon at the corner of Desplaines and Lake, where there was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span>
-crowd of other men, laborers meeting there, and pronounces a lie by telling
-them that ‘twelve or fourteen of your brothers have been killed at
-McCormick’s, and by the bloodhounds, the police.’ Spies knew as well
-as anything that he ever knew in his life that he was uttering a falsehood.
-He knew, if he knew anything, that, so far as his observation was concerned,
-not a man had been killed&mdash;not a single man had been killed&mdash;and he
-inflamed the people there by his suggestion, heated as he was and showing
-excitement, coming in there at Desplaines and Lake at that meeting, inflaming
-those people so that they were then ready to go with the torch and the
-sword and level everything before them.</p>
-
-<p>“That is not all. He left there about four o’clock in the afternoon,
-perhaps between four and five, and went to this nest of treason and Anarchy,
-No. 107 Fifth Avenue, and there about five o’clock arrived, heated,
-excited, and told his men not to stop work, that he wanted to use them.
-What did he do? He then and there wrote what is called the ‘Revenge’
-circular. It is written in English and in German. The English part is
-tame, more tame than the German&mdash;and he knew what he was doing then;
-there was a plan in that. We have the circular as printed, which will be
-presented to you. We have in addition to that the type from which it was
-printed; we have in addition to that the manuscript from which the type
-was set. The manuscript is in Spies’ handwriting! That ‘Revenge’ circular,
-gentlemen, perpetrated another lie. It said that ‘six of your brothers
-have been killed at McCormick’s.’ He decreased it a little. That ‘Revenge’
-circular was hurriedly passed out to all the German settlements of
-the town and everywhere, by every possible means. Neebe distributed
-them; others distributed them. They were ‘revenge;’ revenge for what?
-Revenge for the declared murder of the brothers of the laboring men at
-McCormick’s Monday afternoon&mdash;when he had no knowledge that a single
-man was killed. I have since learned and shall prove that one man did
-die days or weeks afterwards from wounds he did receive there, and only
-one.</p>
-
-<p>“I want to suggest another thing to you here. It will appear in proof&mdash;because
-we have had the German part of that circular translated&mdash;that
-the German part of that circular is the most infamous thing that ever was
-in print. The translation of the German part of that circular is not like
-the English part. A man picking up the circular who was an English
-scholar&mdash;as I remember, the English part of the circular comes first, and following
-that is the German part&mdash;and any man, even some of these German
-newspaper men, would pick that up, and the first thing they would read
-would be the English part, not the German. They would read the English
-hastily through and they would say, ‘That’s some of Spies’ vaporing nonsense
-again; nothing very serious about it, but bad&mdash;bad taste&mdash;bad
-judgment in inflamed times.’ But the revenge circular as printed in German
-is altogether a different thing. It is not only treason and Anarchy,
-but a bid to bloodshed, and a bid to war. Anybody reading the English
-part of that circular would drop it&mdash;even the Germans. And the German
-newspapers until afterwards did not perceive the dissimilarity between the
-two, the English and the German. Now, where is this matter read? It is
-fortunate for the English-speaking people that defendants embrace only
-two of that class; one of them was born in this country, the other in England.
-That circular was read among the Germans. That circular was
-spread throughout the western part and the northern part of the city of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span>
-Chicago and in other places, at the instance of Spies, who had it circulated
-himself. ‘Revenge on the bloodhounds, the police.’ For his life, in regard
-to those who were killed, he could not have known whether anybody
-was killed or not, because he took care of his royal person so speedily after
-the difficulty at McCormick’s that he had no chance to know whether anybody
-was killed, and he took good care to see that he was not hurt. So
-much for the ‘Revenge’ circular.</p>
-
-<p>“Now, gentlemen, we are getting down to the 4th of May. There is more
-in it than this. Monday was the 3d day of May; Tuesday was the 4th, the
-day the bomb was thrown. Everything was ripe with the Anarchists for
-ruining the town. Bombs were to be thrown in all parts of the city of
-Chicago. Everything was to be done that could be done to ruin law and
-order. I wish to say right here, gentlemen, that the proof in this case will
-develop a strange state of facts in regard to the complicity of others in this
-matter, and in that particular perhaps there ought to be some apology for
-myself. The conspiracy was so large, the number of criminals interested
-in that conspiracy so appalling, that I distrusted my own judgment, and,
-whereas in my soul I believed that at least thirty men and perhaps more
-should have been indicted for murder, the developments in the case were of
-that kind, when the grand jury was in session, that the facts could not all
-clearly be known. And further, there was that feeling and inspiration in
-the matter, if you please, that the leaders, the men who have incited these
-things, the men who have caused this anarchy and bloodshed here, and
-who seek for more&mdash;that they should be picked out and, if possible, punished
-and blotted out.</p>
-
-<p>“The <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, the paper itself&mdash;we shall attempt to show you in
-proof here its circulation, or its sworn issue for a year. We will have them
-translated for you. We will also attempt to show to you from the <i>Alarm</i>, the
-English organ of the Anarchists&mdash;that is what it is called, just think of it&mdash;the
-English organ of the Anarchists, published by the redoubtable and
-courageous Parsons. We will show you in proof its writings and its sentiments,
-its invitations to Anarchy, to bloodshed, to the throwing of bombs,
-and his advice to people how to make bombs.</p>
-
-<p>“If I prove only this that I have stated to you, it seems to me that from
-every principle of law and evidence, from every principle of justice, the
-men whose names I have mentioned should be punished.</p>
-
-<p>“But one step more. This was Monday night, remember, that Spies
-wrote the ‘Revenge’ circular. That was not all he wrote. He himself
-wrote the account of his speech, wrote the account of the McCormick riot,
-wrote his notions about it, and that is in his handwriting. We have the
-manuscript. And in that he said this, gentlemen&mdash;that ‘so far as the
-McCormick matter was concerned it was a failure, and if there only had
-been one bomb the result might have been different.’ The one bomb at
-least was supplied by his inflammatory utterances the next night.</p>
-
-<p>“On Monday evening, after Spies had inflamed these people up there&mdash;on
-Monday in the daytime, rather, appeared in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, a newspaper
-published at 107 Fifth Avenue&mdash;it is a four-page paper, it has been
-constantly and carefully read in the progress of this trial by the gentlemen
-seated over there in a row&mdash;in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> appeared on Monday,
-in a column devoted to editorial notices, a secret word for the meeting of
-the armed men. That was in German&mdash;the letter ‘Y,’ called ypsilon in
-German&mdash;“Ypsilon, come Monday night.” Ypsilon was the secret word<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span>
-agreed on by the armed men to meet in secret session, when they saw
-printed in this treasonable sheet that secret word. As I am informed and
-believe from the proof, Balthasar Rau wrote that secret word. The armed
-men of the Anarchists, to be brief, are those of the Anarchists who are willing
-to throw bombs and fire pistols behind people’s backs. It is divided
-into groups. Why, all their literature from Pittsburg to San Francisco,
-including the pen of Neebe, Spies, Schwab and Parsons&mdash;all of them have
-advised how to make up groups, based upon the Anarchistic notions. On
-that page appears this secret word. Balthasar Rau is the confidential
-friend of Spies, works in their office; he is not an editorial writer, he is not
-a writer at all, unless he occasionally essays to say something in print. I
-do not know, but I believe that that is his writing, the letter ‘Y’ in German&mdash;‘Come
-Monday night.’ That is all there was of it. What does it
-mean? Pursuant to that secret word, on Monday night&mdash;that is the same
-night that Spies got back from McCormick’s&mdash;on that night the armed
-men did assemble pursuant to ‘Ypsilon, come Monday night,’ and they
-knew where to go to. They went to Greif’s Hall. Greif’s Hall is on Lake
-Street, just east of Clinton.” Mr. Grinnell indicated the points on a map.
-“This is Zepf’s Hall (indicating); the name will be mentioned to you.
-Here is Desplaines Street Station, so that you can keep in your mind from
-this map the idea. Here is Desplaines Street Station; north up here to
-Lake, Zepf’s Hall; east, Greif’s Hall. They met. Greif’s Hall is a four-story
-building, as I remember; a family lives in it, there is a saloon, and
-down in the basement is a place for truck and one thing and another, and
-also a rough-and-ready place for meetings. The armed men were there;
-Fischer was there; Lingg was there; Engel was there. The armed men
-met there with others&mdash;other armed men than those that I have mentioned.
-They pass into Greif’s Hall; they say to Mr. Greif: ‘Have you a hall we
-can take?’ He said: ‘No, my halls are all occupied;’ one kind of labor
-association was meeting in one hall, and another in another; but he said,
-‘If you want the basement’&mdash;and I have a plan and map of the basement&mdash;‘if
-you want the basement, go down stairs and hold your meeting.’ So
-these men, the numbers of them variously estimated from thirty to sixty,
-meet in that place. Among them were Fischer, Lingg, Engel and Schnaubelt.
-Schnaubelt is in this indictment, and not here. He has run away.
-These men met in this hall underneath the saloon, a dingy and dark basement&mdash;the
-only proper place for conspirators&mdash;by the light of a dingy lamp&mdash;and
-they held an organized meeting. The plan of warfare was devised&mdash;not
-for the next night. I will explain that. But for some night. Engel, a
-man who is gray, has been in this country some years and talks some English&mdash;he
-understands me, and laughs and smiles at every word I utter&mdash;Engel
-was at that meeting that night, and told the plan. I am going to be
-brief about the recitation of that plan. That was the most fearfully declared
-plan that I ever heard in my life. It meant destruction to this town absolutely
-if this programme had been carried out. Engel said: ‘When you
-see printed in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, under the Letter-box, the word ‘Ruhe,’
-that night prepare for war.’ ‘Ruhe’ means ‘rest,’ ‘peace.’ The
-manuscript for that is in our possession and is in the handwriting of Spies.
-That word on Tuesday morning appeared in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> and in a
-double lead, with an emphasis under it, before it and behind it. It meant
-‘war.’ They understood it; and Engel refers to Fischer in the meeting
-and he says: ‘Is not this the order of the Northwest group?’ That is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span>
-another group for conspiracy and treason. Fischer said ‘Yes.’ As I am
-informed, Fischer undertook to carry the word back to the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-office and have it inserted. Fischer was the foreman of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-office at that time. He carried the word back, I assume. Spies wrote it
-out, double-leaded it, made it emphatic, and they were ready for war.</p>
-
-<p>“But that was not all. Somebody had to make the bombs. Lingg was
-there, and he said that he would make the bombs. He was the bomb-maker
-of the Anarchists, and we have found and traced to him at least twenty-two
-of these infernal machines, one of which passed from his hands to the man
-who threw it at the Haymarket Square. I will prove to your absolute
-satisfaction that Lingg made the bomb that killed the officers, and will show
-to you that it was his bomb, and his manufacture alone. Lingg lived at
-No. 442 Sedgwick Street, occupied a room in Seliger’s house. Seliger is
-in this indictment for murder also. He is not on trial. I am not yet prepared
-to say whether the State will use him as a witness or not. I will
-have a suggestion to make on that subject directly.</p>
-
-<p>“Lingg was to make the bombs. Engel devised the plan and deliberately
-told him over and over so that there would be no mistake. Now, what
-was the plan? That these conspirators should proceed to Lingg’s house
-that next night, or before night, and obtain from Lingg the bombs. He
-had already sixteen halves, or eight whole bombs. But he wanted more,
-and they were to be filled with dynamite on Tuesday afternoon.</p>
-
-<p>“And what next? Then these people were informed where they could
-obtain them, and he was to go, as he did, in the evening, or between seven
-and eight o’clock, to Neff’s Hall, at No. 58 Clybourn Avenue. They went
-to work. There Seliger helped fill the bombs that afternoon. Lingg was
-there. Lingg left in the afternoon. He didn’t stay there through it all,
-but came back again. I do not think that Lingg was at the Haymarket
-that night; he may have been; I don’t think he was. His part on the programme&mdash;part
-of it had been performed&mdash;was to furnish the bombs and
-do the work elsewhere.</p>
-
-<p>“Now, gentlemen, just look at this plan, and this is the plan that Engel
-told them should be performed. They were to get these bombs; certain of
-them were to be at the Haymarket Square, where this meeting was; and in
-this meeting, mind you, in this conspiracy meeting the programme was that
-there should be at least twenty-five thousand laboring men present; that
-they would not hold the meeting down on the square, but that they would
-get up in the street, because they were out in a great open place there, the
-police could come down on them and clean them all out; but they must
-get back where the alleys were, instead of holding the meeting down here
-where it was advertised. You see there are two blocks here. Instead of
-holding the meeting on this broad spot here (indicating on the map), they
-were to hold it up here; and that very thing was discussed down there that
-night in the conspiracy meeting, as to the feasibility of holding it here
-where the police could corner them. Then these individuals with the
-bombs were to distribute themselves in different parts of the city. They
-were to destroy the station-houses; they were to throw bombs at every
-patrol wagon that they saw going toward the Haymarket Square with
-police officers. They expected there would be a row down there at the
-Haymarket Square, of course. There was going to be one bomb thrown
-there at least, and perhaps more, and that would call the police down; but
-the police must be taken care of and must not be permitted to go, and they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span>
-were to be destroyed, absolutely wiped off from the earth by bombs in
-other parts of the city. And Lingg went around with bombs in his pocket
-that night and desired to throw them at a patrol wagon and was only
-restrained by his friends. And they were to build a fire up toward Wicker
-Park&mdash;some building was to be set on fire for the purpose of attracting the
-police in that direction and scattering them about. Others were to take
-other parts of the city and burn them so that they would be destroyed.</p>
-
-<p>“Now, this sounds as if it was a large story. But that is what Spies
-had been talking for years; that is what Parsons had been talking for
-years; that is what he came back here so courageously, on the arm of the
-learned counsel on the other side, to hear again in court.</p>
-
-<p>“That meeting that night was fruitful of great results. A bomb was
-thrown at the Haymarket, and seven killed and many others injured. It is
-not necessary for me to go into any more of the details of that conspiracy.
-It was carried out to the letter.</p>
-
-<p>“Now, there is one other little step in this case, gentlemen, that I wish
-to bring to your attention. When that ‘Revenge’ circular was circulated,
-Fischer, immediately thereafter, and at the conspiracy meeting&mdash;Fischer
-is the foreman printer of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, and the immediate friend of
-Spies and all these people&mdash;Fischer was to advertise, to see that the
-proper number of people came to that meeting, and he got up an advertisement,
-and it was printed. He ordered twenty thousand. That advertisement
-will be presented to you in the proof. That advertisement called for
-‘Revenge’ and ‘A big meeting of the workingmen at the Haymarket
-Square on Tuesday night.’ Now, you see, the ‘Ruhe’ had appeared. The
-conspiracy was all complete; everything was arranged; there was only one
-step more to make&mdash;to get the laboring men there&mdash;because, thank God,
-all the laboring men were not in this conspiracy. A very few were in it.
-It is to their credit, gentlemen; and in my investigation in this case I have
-more respect for the laboring man than I had before. The laboring man
-as a class is an honest man, and when he saw the ‘Revenge’ circular and
-the call ‘to arms’ he stayed away. Fischer had the advertisement printed,
-and the last sentence is this: ‘Workingmen, come armed.’ But that was
-a little too much for Spies; that was too close home. After about five
-thousand of these circulars were printed, Spies orders that sentence
-stricken out; but the whole twenty thousand were distributed, and with
-Spies’ knowledge. Spies was preparing the alibi.</p>
-
-<p>“On the evening of Tuesday, at 107 Fifth Avenue, there was a meeting
-of these conspirators, of these Anarchists, of what is called the American
-group, that Parsons and Fielden and, I suppose, Spies belong to, and
-some others. That was held at 107 Fifth Avenue. That is at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-office. They were there on Tuesday night. Parsons was on Halsted
-Street, to be sure, but yet seemed anxious to get away and go down to
-this other meeting on the South Side. He went down there. The meeting
-was advertised for a large number of laboring men. The laboring men
-did not materialize to any large extent. Between Halsted and Desplaines
-there were hundreds of people walking backwards and forwards, wondering
-why the meeting did not take place. It was advertised for half past seven;
-they expected to precipitate the matter at half past seven, because, pursuant
-to ‘Ruhe’ and the other declarations, and pursuant to Engel and
-Lingg and Fischer’s arrangement at the conspiracy meeting, they were to
-begin their work in the other parts of the city about eight o’clock, as they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span>
-expected the police would precipitate the difficulty&mdash;they would precipitate
-the difficulty by the police coming about eight, or between half past
-seven and eight. Good speakers were advertised, yet no names given.
-Spies went over there that night himself, wandered around, seemed careless,
-walked over here with his friend Schnaubelt, up to the other street&mdash;with
-Schwab, too. Schwab went away finally and went up to Deering.
-They marched backwards and forwards there, and finally Spies comes back
-to the corner here and opens the meeting, and says, when he opens it:
-‘We will not obstruct that road on Randolph Street, but will go up here.’
-So he got where he had always said they would get, just above the intersection
-of the streets. They got up there on the wagon, and Spies
-opened the meeting.</p>
-
-<p>“Now, gentlemen, we have got down to the meeting. I have endeavored
-to give you, in a kind of historical way, how this thing leads up to,
-without saying specifically, the proof. I have told you that we would prove
-declarations of these men, time out of number, about dynamite and
-bombs, and the destruction of property and the destruction of the
-police. That we will attempt to do. There is no need of my specifying or
-saying what each individual witness will say.</p>
-
-<p>“Neebe has upheld bloodshed and riot time and again, although from
-all the inquiries put to you it would seem as if he was known as one of
-these peaceable, peaceful, quiet labor organizers.</p>
-
-<p>“The laboring men did not come to any large extent. There probably
-were not two thousand men there at any time, even early in the evening.
-There were not enough there to get up a riot. They could not get up a
-riot with such a small number as that, and they were compelled to have
-somebody speak to keep what they had; they were dissolving&mdash;going
-away. Now, Spies was there. He is the man, I think, that knew of
-‘Ruhe;’ I think that he himself will state&mdash;I think others will state&mdash;that
-they knew of all the circumstances about the ‘Ruhe,’ and about what they
-were going to do. I think the proof will show that he knew of the whole
-conspiracy. He did not stop it. They will undertake to show that he
-tried to. Now, I want you to watch that carefully. We will have something
-to say on that subject as the basis of all this. There never was a great
-criminal in the world, especially if he was a coward, but what, if he undertook
-to commit a great crime and wanted to conceal himself, he prepared
-an alibi. Parsons, Fielden, Schwab, Neebe and Spies prepared that alibi.
-They were going to let these three other men suffer, let the man that threw
-the bomb suffer; but they, who had been teaching dynamite for years,
-asking people to throw bombs for years&mdash;they, after the bomb had been
-thrown, were going to say that they were not liable at all.</p>
-
-<p>“Now, at that meeting, Spies got back up here and opened the meeting.
-There was some significance in the very way he opened it. We will have
-it all here. Fortunately, one of the newspaper reporters&mdash;Mr. English, of
-the <i>Tribune</i>&mdash;stood there with his overcoat on, with his hands in his pocket,
-not daring to take his paper out, and took a minute of everything that was
-said&mdash;wrote in shorthand, with his hand in his pocket, what they said, as
-long as he could. Spies opened the meeting up here near the alley. A
-wagon was standing there upon which they stood and from which they
-spoke. Spies found that the meeting was going to dissolve; there wasn’t
-going to be any interference by the police to any extent unless they could
-keep that crowd there. So he sends Balthasar Rau over to the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span>
-office, where the American group were. Now, how did he know that
-they were over there? They went over to the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office to get
-Parsons, Fielden and the rest of them to come over and address the meeting,
-and they came over, and we will have what they said&mdash;where speeches
-were inflammatory, denunciatory, crying for bloodshed&mdash;everything of that
-character.</p>
-
-<p>“Gentlemen, I have called several of these men cowards. The testimony
-will show that they are. I am rather inclined to think that Fielden,
-although he is an Anarchist, is the only man in the whole crowd that stood
-his ground that night.</p>
-
-<p>“The history of the throwing of that bomb shows that the police did not
-interfere any too soon. Gentlemen, it is our humble opinion, from looking
-this case all over, that Inspector Bonfield, although it is sad to think that
-life is destroyed&mdash;I think Inspector Bonfield did the wisest thing that he
-possibly could have done, to have called the police there that night as he
-did. If he had not, the next night it would have had to be done, or the next,
-and whereas seven poor men are dead, there would have been instead hundreds,
-perhaps thousands. I say again, to the credit of Bonfield and the
-police, I wish it understood that at that meeting it was the wisest thing that
-ever happened to this town, although cruel as it may seem in the light of the
-fact that seven died. Hundreds and perhaps thousands were saved.
-Anarchy had been taught and cried for months; it had almost come with
-its demoralization, and the strength and courage of the police saved the
-town.</p>
-
-<p>“About ten o’clock, from the reports coming to Bonfield, as will appear
-in proof, the inflammatory utterances of these American citizens, of these
-people, had decided Bonfield that the meeting must be broken up. He was
-wise. He passed down there with his force of police, and, gentlemen, not a
-policeman except the commanding officer in front had a weapon in his hand.
-They marched down there shoulder to shoulder, covering the whole street,
-and came to the wagon. Fielden was shouting to the police, talking about
-the bloodhounds as they advanced, because he was facing them as he spoke.
-He probably saw them as they turned the corner. They formed here
-(indicating on the map), in this court back here, and marched into the
-street at Desplaines, occupying almost the entire width of the street, facing
-down&mdash;what we may call up Desplaines Street, north towards where this
-meeting was. The meeting was held about the vicinity of that alley. This
-property here, all through there, is Crane’s factory&mdash;R. T. Crane &amp; Co.
-Here is an alley that runs in through here. Eagle Street is here, and of
-course here is Lake, and here is Randolph. Fielden was speaking; the
-police came up to the wagon; Captain Ward stepped up to the crowd and
-told them that he commanded them, in the name of the people of the State
-of Illinois, to depart, to leave, to disperse. He made the ordinary statutory
-declaration. Fielden stepped from the wagon and said: ‘We are peaceable,’
-so that it could be heard a long distance around him. At that moment
-a man, who a moment before had been on the wagon, stepped to the corner
-of that alley, lighted the bomb and threw it into the police. Fielden stepped
-from the wagon and began firing. He is the only one, I told you, of the
-crowd, that has got any of the elements of the hero in him; he was willing
-to stand his ground. The others fled. Parsons never did a manly thing
-in his life, and neither did the others. They are not for law; they are
-against the law. Although Fielden is against the law, he did have the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span>
-English stubbornness to stand up there and shoot, and he fired from over
-the wagon until finally he disappeared.</p>
-
-<p>“I have given you in detail a good deal of the proof. I have told you
-the reason that I did it was, not only for your own edification, but so that
-these gentlemen could know what we expect to prove. We have nothing
-to conceal, we have nothing to hide. We expect as fair a statement from
-them as to their case.</p>
-
-<p>“I have only a word or two more to you, gentlemen. Remember,
-gentlemen, that this meeting was called for half-past seven. The police
-did not appear until half-past ten. There are nearly three long hours&mdash;about
-half-past ten, between ten and half-past ten. The bomb-throwers had
-become discouraged. Those individuals that were situated in different
-parts of the town had not received the communication, because the conspiracy
-embraced the fact that spies were to be located there to scatter the
-word, and then was to continue this destruction. The police came so late,
-and so many went away, that it was absolutely coming very near to being a
-fiasco. They had been arranging for it for months. The conspiracy had
-been clearly declared and established. The only thing they needed was
-the crowd. The crowd failed to come. The police failed to interfere, and
-finally, at the last moment, having interfered, most of those that were there
-had gone. And there was another thing. These men that were interested
-in the throwing of the bomb were paralyzed, notwithstanding their firing
-and the shooting, by the attitude of the police who stood up there; and in
-all my examination of these men, asking each and every one of them as far
-as I could what they did there that night, I have failed to find a man that
-ran. They stood up there and fired at these wretches who were pouring into
-them, from both sides of the street, a volley of shots from pistols. One
-bomb was fired and thrown, and just the moment that happened, not a
-policeman with his club&mdash;scarcely one&mdash;not a policeman with a pistol in
-his hand, but every one standing there waiting for orders. The bomb was
-thrown, and the firing began from both sides of the policemen and from the
-crowd, and them alone. The police never fired a shot until after many of
-their men had already bit the dust.</p>
-
-<p>“I will attempt to show to you, gentlemen, who threw the bomb, from
-this locality (indicating on map). I have said to you that the bomb that
-was thrown was made by Lingg. I will prove that.</p>
-
-<p>“I have one other suggestion to make to you. There never was a conspiracy
-in the world, either small or great&mdash;not a conspiracy ever established
-in the world, but what there was needed some conspirator to give the
-first information of its existence and its purposes. I want you to be cautious,
-gentlemen, about an unjust criticism of any member of that conspiracy
-who first gave us the ideas about it and its ends. Seliger gave us the
-information, the first information, which led to the knowledge of this terrible
-conspiracy, led to the knowledge of the facts relating to it. I said to you, we
-may not use Seliger; but I say to you this, gentlemen, that not a single
-conspirator placed upon the witness-stand by the State shall be so placed
-there without we can do something to corroborate his statements; and even
-if we do not, I have yet to learn of a man that dare say that that conspiracy
-did not exist. And so far as that is concerned as a question of law, when a
-conspirator or a co-conspirator gives his testimony in court, you have a right
-to reject it if you desire. But, gentlemen, before you reject it the court
-will simply instruct you in regard to a conspirator’s testimony that his testimony<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span>
-is to be considered like any other witness, and that you have a right
-to consider his credibility in view of the fact that he is a co-conspirator.</p>
-
-<p>“This indictment is for murder, a serious charge. Under our statute
-the jury fixes the penalty. If murder, the penalty is not less than fourteen
-years; it may be for life; it may be the death penalty. For manslaughter,
-the lower degree under murder, under our statute, which is somewhat different
-from statutes in other States, the penalty is any number of years’ imprisonment
-and may be for life. The indictment in this case is for murder.
-There are a great many counts here, but the chief thing is the count against
-these men for murder. Now, it is not necessary in a case of this kind, nor
-in any case of murder, or any other kind, that the individual who commits
-the exact and particular offense&mdash;for instance, the man who threw the bomb&mdash;should
-be in court at all. He need not even be indicted. The question for
-you to determine is, having ascertained that a murder was committed, not
-only who did it, but who is responsible for it, who abetted it, assisted it, or
-encouraged it? There is no question of law in the case.</p>
-
-<p>“We will show to you, I think to your entire satisfaction, that, although
-perhaps none of these men personally threw that bomb, they each and all
-abetted, encouraged and advised the throwing of it, and therefore are as
-guilty as the individual who in fact threw it. They are accessories.</p>
-
-<p>“I have talked to you, gentlemen, longer than I expected to, and chiefly
-so that you would know something about this case, know something about
-the facts. I have given you not, perhaps, all the details, but I have given
-you, as a whole, the facts. I want you to patiently listen to the evidence in
-this case from both sides, and be careful in your analysis. You have, most
-of you, been here some time, and you have been admirably patient. Only
-continue that way, and be patient in the matter, and make up your minds
-when the testimony is all presented, and not before. It may take some
-days to get at the proof and to place it all before you, so that you can
-clearly understand it. A great deal of the proof has to come from the
-mouths of witnesses whose language will have to be interpreted to you. That
-will take more time. But the whole case will finally be presented to you
-substantially, I think, as I have stated it. I will now leave the matter
-with you.”</p></div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">The Great Trial Opens&mdash;Bonfield’s History of the Massacre&mdash;How the
-Bomb Exploded&mdash;Dynamite in the Air&mdash;A Thrilling Story&mdash;Gottfried Waller’s Testimony&mdash;An
-Anarchist’s “Squeal”&mdash;The Murder Conspiracy Made Manifest by Many
-Witnesses.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap08">ON Friday, July 16, the day following the delivery of the State’s Attorney’s
-argument, the first witness was called. The defendants appeared
-flushed with excitement, and the throng in the court-room was eager in
-expectancy of the State’s evidence. Some of the officers disabled at the
-Haymarket were among the interested spectators. All were in a flutter of
-suppressed excitement.</p>
-
-<p>“Felix D. Buschick,” called the State’s Attorney.</p>
-
-<p>The sound re-echoed through the room and floated out through the open
-windows. Buschick advanced with trepidation and took the witness-stand.
-Every neck was craned to catch a glimpse of him as he arose. He was a
-draughtsman, and his testimony had reference simply to maps and plans
-showing the location of the Haymarket Square, the surrounding streets and
-alleys, the spot where the bomb was thrown, and the location of the Desplaines
-Street Station.</p>
-
-<p>Inspector <span class="smcap">John Bonfield</span> followed next. He stated that he was
-Inspector of Police, had been on the force ten years, and had been in command
-of the men ordered to rendezvous at Desplaines Station on the night
-of May 4. His testimony then proceeded as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I got there about six o’clock. There were present Capt. Ward, Lieuts.
-Bowler, Penzen, Stanton, Hubbard, Beard, Steele and Quinn, each in charge
-of a company. During that day our attention was called to a circular calling
-a meeting at the Haymarket that evening. I saw the Mayor that afternoon,
-then went to Desplaines Street Station and took command of the forces
-there, all told about one hundred and eighty men. We stayed in the station
-until between ten and half-past ten. The men then formed on Waldo Place.
-We marched down north on Desplaines Street. Capt. Ward and myself
-were at the head, Lieut. Steele with his company on the right, and Lieut.
-Quinn on the left; the next two companies that formed in division front,
-double line, were Lieut. Bowler on the right, Stanton on the left; next company
-in single line was Lieut. Hubbard. Lieuts. Beard and Penzen’s orders
-were to stop at Randolph Street and face to the right and left. We marched
-until we came about to the mouth of Crane Brothers’ alley. There was a
-truck wagon standing a little north of that alley and against the east sidewalk
-of Desplaines Street, from which they were speaking. There were
-orders issued in regard to the arms of the men and officers.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Being asked what those orders were, defendants’ counsel objected, but
-the objection was overruled. Bonfield continued:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“The orders were, that no man should draw a weapon or fire or strike
-anybody until he received positive orders from his commanding officer.
-Each officer was dressed in full uniform, with his coat buttoned up to the
-throat and his club and belt on, and the club in the holder on the side.
-Capt. Ward and myself had our weapons in our hand; pistols in pockets.
-As we approached the truck, there was a person speaking from the truck.
-Capt. Ward turned slightly to the right and gave the statutory order to disperse:
-‘I command you, in the name of the people of the State of Illinois,
-to immediately and peaceably disperse.’ As he repeated that, he said, ‘I
-command you and you to assist.’ Almost instantly, Mr. Fielden, who was
-speaking, turned so as to face the Captain and myself, stepped off from the
-end of the truck toward the sidewalk and said in a loud tone of voice, ‘We
-are peaceable.’ Almost instantly after that I heard from behind me a
-hissing sound, followed, in a second or two, by a terrific explosion. In
-coming up the street, part of the crowd ran on Desplaines toward Lake, but
-a great portion fell back to the sidewalks on the right and left, partly lapping
-back onto our flanks. Almost instantly after the explosion, firing from
-the front and both sides poured in on us. There were from seventy-five to
-a hundred pistol shots fired before a shot was fired by any officer. There was
-an interval of a few seconds between that and the return fire by the police.
-On hearing the explosion I turned around quickly, saw almost all the men
-of the second two lines shrink to the ground, and gave the order to close
-up. The men immediately re-formed. Lieuts. Steele and Quinn with their
-companies charged down the street; the others formed and took both sides.
-In a few moments the crowd was scattered in every direction. I gave the
-order to cease firing and went to pick up our wounded. Mathias J. Degan
-was almost instantly killed. The wounded, about sixty in number, were
-carried to the Desplaines Street Station. Seven died from the effects of
-wounds.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">After identifying circulars calling the Haymarket meeting and demanding
-revenge, he continued:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“As we approached there were about five or six on the truck. Did not
-see the direction of the bomb; it came from my rear. I was about ten feet
-from the wagon. The rear rank of the first company and the second company
-suffered the most. During the evening or during the continuance of
-the meeting I received reports as to what was going on, from officers
-detailed for that purpose.”</p>
-
-<p>On cross-examination, his testimony was as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I was the highest officer on the ground that night. The whole force
-was under my special charge and direction. As we marched down, the
-divisions of police occupied the full width of the street from curb to curb.
-Around the corner of Desplaines and Randolph there were a few persons
-scattered, apparently paying no attention to the meeting; the crowd attending
-the speaking was apparently north of that alley. The speakers’ wagon
-was not more than five or six feet north of that alley. Fielden, when speaking,
-was facing to the north and west, was facing us when my attention
-was especially called to him; there were about one thousand people there;
-don’t remember whether it was moonlight; there were no street lamps lit;
-there was a clear sky. As we marched along, the crowd shifted its position;
-the speaking went right on. My experience is, if the police were marching<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span>
-in parade, the crowd would get to the sidewalk to look on; if to disperse a
-crowd or mob, the natural thing would be for them to run away. I saw
-Fielden that night for the first time. As Capt. Ward turned to the wagon
-to give the order to disperse, I saw the men were still advancing, and I
-turned to the left, gave the command to halt, and then came up alongside of
-Capt. Ward. Capt. Ward stood within a few feet of the south end of that
-truck, which stood lengthwise of the sidewalk, the tongue end north. The
-front rank of the first division was near up to the north line of the alley,
-probably not more than ten or fifteen feet from the wagon. Before Capt.
-Ward had finished his command I was beside him. Capt. Ward spoke as
-loud as he could speak. Between my calling the halt and the explosion of
-the bomb, I don’t think it was a minute. As the Captain finished, Fielden
-stepped from the truck and faced us, and, stepping on the street, he turned
-to the sidewalk or curb, which is perhaps ten inches above the street, and
-said: ‘We are peaceable.’ Within two or three seconds the explosion followed.
-I did not hear anything said by Fielden from the truck. When he
-stepped on the street I could have reached out and touched him. He did
-not say: ‘This is a peaceable meeting.’ When I heard the hissing sound
-Fielden was in the act of getting to the sidewalk.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Gottfried Waller</span>, a former associate of the defendants, testified through
-an interpreter. He stated his occupation, residence, etc., and proceeded as
-follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“On the evening of the 3d of May I was at Greif’s Hall, 54 West Lake
-Street; got there at eight o’clock; went there pursuant to an advertisement
-in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>: ‘Y&mdash;Come Monday night.’ Before that notice there
-is the word ‘Briefkasten,’ which means letter-box. This notice was a sign
-for a meeting of the armed section at Greif’s Hall. I had been there once
-before, pursuant to a similar notice. There was no other reason for my
-going there. I had seen no printed document before. I spent no time in
-the saloon at Greif’s place. I attended a meeting there in the basement
-which extends throughout the length of the building. The ceiling of basement
-is about seven or eight feet above the floor. I called the meeting to
-order at half-past eight. There were about seventy or eighty men. I was
-chairman. I don’t know of any precautions taken about who should come
-into the meeting. Of the defendants there were present Engel and Fischer&mdash;none
-of the other defendants.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">On a question as to what was said at that meeting after it had been
-called to order, objections were raised on behalf of six of the defendants
-other than Engel and Fischer, and overruled. Waller then resumed:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“First there was some talk about the six men who had been killed at
-McCormick’s. There were circulars there headed ‘Revenge,’ speaking
-about that; then Mr. Engel stated a resolution of a prior meeting as to
-what should be done, to the effect that if, on account of the eight-hour strike,
-there should be an encounter with the police, we should aid the men against
-them. He stated that the Northwest Side group had resolved that in such
-case we should gather at certain meeting-places, and the word ‘Ruhe’ published
-in the Letter-box of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> should be the signal for us
-to meet. The Northwest Side group should then assemble in Wicker Park,
-armed. A committee should observe the movement in the city, and if a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span>
-conflict should occur the committee should report, and we should first storm
-the police stations by throwing a bomb and should shoot down everything
-that came out, and whatever came in our way we should strike down. The
-police station on North Avenue was referred to first. Nothing was said
-about the second station&mdash;just as it happened. I then proposed a meeting
-of workingmen for Tuesday morning on Market Square. Then Fischer
-said that was a mouse trap; the meeting should be on the Haymarket and
-in the evening, because there would be more workingmen. Then it was
-resolved the meeting should be held at 8 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span> at the Haymarket; it was
-stated that the purpose of the meeting was to cheer up the workingmen so
-they should be prepared, in case a conflict would happen. Fischer was
-commissioned to call the meeting through hand-bills; he went away to order
-them, but came back after half an hour and said the printing establishment
-was closed. It was said that we ourselves should not participate in the
-meeting on the Haymarket; only a committee should be present at the
-Haymarket and report in case something happened, as stated before.
-Nothing was said as to what should be done in case the police interfered
-with the Haymarket meeting. We discussed about why the police stations
-should be attacked. Several persons said, ‘We have seen how the capitalists
-and the police oppressed the workingmen, and we should commence to
-take the rights in our own hands; by attacking the stations we would prevent
-the police from coming to aid.’ The plan stated by Engel was adopted
-by us with the understanding that every group ought to act independently,
-according to the general plan. The persons present were from all the
-groups, from the West, South and North sides.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">A question being raised as to what was said about attacking the police
-in case they should attempt to disperse the Haymarket meeting, he replied:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“There was nothing said about the Haymarket. There was no one who
-expected that the police would get as far as the Haymarket; only, if strikers
-were attacked, we should strike down the police, however we best could,
-with bombs or whatever would be at our disposition. The committee
-which was to be sent to the Haymarket was to be composed of one or two
-from each group. They should observe the movement, not only on the
-Haymarket Square, but in the different parts of the city. If a conflict happened
-in the daytime they should cause the publication of the word ‘Ruhe.’
-If at night, they should report to the members personally at their homes.
-On the 4th of May we did not understand ourselves why the word ‘Ruhe’
-was published. It should be inserted in the paper only if a downright
-revolution had occurred. Fischer first mentioned the word ‘Ruhe.’ I only
-knew one of the members of the committee, Kraemer. Engel moved that
-the plan be adopted. The motion was seconded, and I put it to a vote.</p>
-
-<p>“During the discussion was anything said about where dynamite or
-bombs or arms could be obtained, that you remember of?” “Not on that
-evening,” answered the witness. “I left the meeting about half-past ten.
-I went home. I was present at the Haymarket meeting on Tuesday evening
-for some time. I did not go there on account of the meeting, but
-because I had to go to Zepf’s Hall, to a meeting of the Furniture Workers’
-Union. I saw the word ‘Ruhe’ in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> about 6 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span>, on
-Tuesday, at Thalia Hall, a saloon on Milwaukee Avenue, where the second
-company of the Lehr und Wehr Verein and the Northwest Side group used
-to meet. I went to the Haymarket and stayed there about a quarter of an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span>
-hour, while Mr. Spies spoke. Mr. Spies spoke English; I didn’t understand
-it, and I went to the meeting of the furniture workers. On my way
-to the Haymarket I had stopped at Engel’s. There were some people of
-the Northwest Side group there. Engel was not at home. Breitenfeld was
-not there. I was at Zepf’s Hall when the bomb exploded. There was
-some disturbance, and the door was closed. After the door was opened
-again we went home. I went alone. On my way home I stopped at
-Engel’s and told him what had happened at the Haymarket. They had
-assembled in the back part of their dwelling-place around a jovial glass of
-beer, and I told them that a bomb was thrown at the Haymarket, and that
-about a hundred people had been killed there, and they had better go home.
-Engel said yes, they should go home, and nothing else.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">“Mr. Waller,” asked the State, “did you ever have any bombs?”</p>
-
-<p>This was objected to by the defense, but after a full argument the objection
-was overruled. Waller resumed:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Formerly, about half a year ago, I had one. It was made out of an
-eight-inch gas or water pipe. I did not investigate what it was filled with.
-Got it from Fischer, the defendant, on Thanksgiving day of last year, at
-Thalia Hall.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">“What did he say to you, if anything, when he gave it to you?”</p>
-
-<p>Another objection was raised, but it was overruled. Waller continued:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I should use it. There were present members of the Northwest Side
-group and several men of the Lehr und Wehr Verein when he gave me
-that bomb.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Asked as to a public meeting on Thanksgiving day, Waller answered in
-the affirmative, stating that the meeting was held at Market Square. After
-explaining that the members of the Lehr und Wehr Verein were known not
-by names, but by numbers, he said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“Everybody had to know his own number; my number was 19. The
-numbers of the different men were not exactly secret, but we did not pay
-particular attention to it. Of those who were present at the meeting at 54
-West Lake Street, on Monday night, I knew Fischer, Engel, Breitenfeld,
-Reinhold Krueger and another Krueger, Gruenwald, Schrade, Weber,
-Huber, Lehman, Hermann.”</p>
-
-<p>“What became of the bomb which you had?”</p>
-
-<p>“I gave it to a member of the Lehr und Wehr Verein; he had it
-exploded in a hollow tree. I had a revolver with me when I went to the
-Haymarket; had no bomb. Schnaubelt was present at the Lake Street
-meeting. (Witness identified photograph of Schnaubelt.) Schnaubelt at
-that meeting said we should inform our members in other places of the
-revolution so that it should commence in other places also. On Sunday,
-before that meeting at Lake Street, I was present at a meeting at Bohemian
-Hall, at No. 63 Emma Street. August Krueger invited me; he is also
-called the little Krueger, while Reinhold is known as the large Krueger.
-I got to the meeting at Emma Street at 10 <span class="smcap">A.M.</span> There were present Engel
-and Fischer, the defendants, besides Gruenwald, the two Kruegers, Schrade,
-myself.”</p>
-
-<p>“What was said at the meeting?”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“The same that I stated&mdash;Engel’s plan. Engel proposed the plan.
-Somebody opposed this plan, as there were too few of us, and it would be
-better if we would place ourselves among the people and fight right in the
-midst of them. There was some opposition to this suggestion to be in the
-midst of the crowd, as we could not know who would be our neighbors;
-there might be a detective right near us, or some one else. Engel’s plan
-was finally accepted.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">An effort was made to have Waller’s testimony all stricken out, but the
-motion was overruled. He was subjected to a rigid cross-examination, but
-he did not waver in any of his statements. He proceeded as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“Before I ceased to be a member of the Lehr und Wehr Verein, I
-belonged to it for four or five months. I learned that the objects of the
-Lehr und Wehr Verein are the physical and intellectual advancement of its
-members. None of the defendants were members of that society about the
-4th of May. I had seen a call by the letter ‘Y’ in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-once before, one or one and a half months before. On the 3d of May a
-member of the Lehr und Wehr Verein, by the name of Clermont, called
-for me. I spoke with Engel before I went to Greif’s Hall, but had no conversation
-with him about the purpose of the meeting. We did not know
-for what purpose it was called. When more people arrived, I requested
-Engel to lay his plan again before the meeting. Engel stated both at the
-meeting on Sunday and at the Monday night meeting that the plan proposed
-by him was to be followed only if the police should attack us. Any
-time when we should be attacked by the police, we should defend ourselves.</p>
-
-<p>“Nothing was said with reference to any action to be taken by us at the
-Haymarket. We were not to do anything at the Haymarket Square. The
-plan was, we should not be present there at all. We did not think that the
-police would come to the Haymarket. For this reason no preparations
-were made for meeting any police attack there. When I saw the word
-‘Ruhe’ in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> on Tuesday, May 4, about 6 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span>, I knew
-the meaning, but I didn’t know why it was in the paper. On the Haymarket,
-on my way to the meeting of the Furniture Workers’ Union, I met
-Fischer. We were walking about some time. I don’t think he said anything
-to me about why I was not at Wicker Park. We once walked over
-to Desplaines Street Station. The police were mounting five or six patrol
-wagons, and I made the remark: ‘I suppose they are getting ready to
-drive out to McCormick’s, so that they might be out there early in the
-morning.’ Fischer assented to my remark. That was all that was said
-about the police between us. At that time there were about three hundred
-and fifty or four hundred people assembled at the Haymarket. The principal
-purpose of the Haymarket meeting was to protest against the action
-of the police at the riot at McCormick’s factory. While I was with Fischer
-at the Haymarket, nothing was said between us about preparations to meet
-an attack by the police. When I came to Engel’s, at about half-past ten,
-there were in his house Breitenfeld, the little Krueger, Kraemer, and a few
-others. Kraemer, I think, lived in the rear of the house.</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-410.jpg" width="400" height="243" id="i410"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">THE GREAT TRIAL. <span class="smcap wn">Scene in the Criminal Court.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>“I know that I am indicted for conspiracy. I was arrested about two
-weeks after the 4th of May by two detectives, Stift and Whalen, and taken
-to East Chicago Avenue Station. I saw there Capt. Schaack, and, in the
-evening, Mr. Furthmann. I was released about half-past eight of the same
-day. No warrant was shown to me. I was never arrested since my indictment.
-I was ordered to come to the station four or five times. At every
-occasion I had conversations with Furthmann about the statements made
-here in court. I live now at 130 Sedgwick Street, since one month. Capt.
-Schaack gave me $6.50 for the rent. Whenever I used my time sitting in
-the station, I was paid for it. Once we had to sit all day, and we were paid
-two dollars for that day. I was out on a strike, and Capt. Schaack gave
-my wife three times three dollars. He gave me, twice before, five dollars
-each time. I have been at work for the last two weeks for Peterson. When
-I went there to commence work I was told that I was on the black list, and
-could not work, and Capt. Schaack helped me to get the job. By the black
-list I mean that the bosses put all those upon a list who were in any way
-connected with the strike to obtain eight hours’ work, and they were not to
-be employed any further.</p>
-
-<p>“I know Spies by sight. I never had any conversation with him. I
-spoke to Mr. Neebe once a few words, at a meeting of the basket-makers.
-I have no acquaintance whatever with Schwab, Parsons, Fielden or Lingg.
-I saw Lingg once make a speech.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Bernhard Schrade</span>, another confidant of the Anarchists, stated that he
-had resided in this country nearly five years and had been a member of the
-Lehr und Wehr Verein. He was present at the meeting in the basement
-of Greif’s Hall, on the evening of May 3, and found the meeting in order
-when he got there. His testimony was as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“Waller was presiding. There were about thirty or thirty-five people&mdash;Waller,
-Engel, Fischer, Thielen, the Lehmans, Donafeldt. Lingg was
-not there. When I entered, the chairman explained what had been spoken
-about until then. He stated the objects of the meeting; that so many
-men at the McCormick factory had been shot by the police; that a mass-meeting
-was to be held at Haymarket Square, and that we should be prepared,
-in case the police went beyond their bounds&mdash;attacked us. Afterwards
-we talked among ourselves, and the meeting adjourned. I heard
-nothing about assembling in other parts of the city. That same evening I
-had been to the carpenters’ meeting, and it was said there that the members
-of the L. u. W. V. should go around to the meeting on Lake Street. I
-stayed there from eight until half-past nine. Circulars headed ‘Revenge’
-were distributed there by one Balthasar Rau. That carpenters’ meeting
-was held at Zepf’s Hall. At the meeting at 54 West Lake Street I stayed
-from half-past nine until about a quarter after ten. On the preceding Sunday
-I was at a meeting at the Bohemian Hall, on Emma Street. We got
-there about half-past nine in the forenoon. The big Krueger called for me.
-There were, besides me, Waller, Krueger, Fischer, Engel and Grueneberg.
-I don’t know the others.</p>
-
-<p>“Those present belonged to the second company of the L. u. W. V., and
-the Northwestern group. We talked there about the condition of the
-workingmen after the 1st of May, and the remark was made that it might
-not go off so easy after the 1st of May, and if it should not, that they would
-help themselves and each other. It was said that if we were to get into a
-conflict with the police, we should mutually assist one another, and the members
-of the Northwestern group should meet at Wicker Park, in case it
-should get so far that the police would make an attack, and should defend<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span>
-themselves as much as possible, as well as any one could. Nothing was said
-about dynamite; the word ‘stuff’ was not used. Nothing was said about
-telegraph wires. The revolutionary movement was talked about; it was
-mentioned that the firemen could easily disperse large masses of the people
-standing upon the street, and in such a case it would be the best thing to
-cut through their hose, annihilate them. I was at the Haymarket on the
-night when the bomb was thrown. Went there with a man named Thielen.
-Got there about half-past eight. I walked up and down on Randolph Street,
-and at the corner of Desplaines I heard all the speakers. When the bomb
-was thrown I was at a saloon at 173 West Randolph Street. I had left the
-meeting because a rain and a shower came up. I know all the defendants.
-I saw Engel and Fischer, about an hour previous to the meeting, upon the
-corner of Desplaines and Randolph. After the bomb was thrown I went
-to my home, 581 Milwaukee Avenue. I met the little Krueger in the
-saloon. He was there; also the big Krueger. The L. u. W. V. used to
-meet at Thalia Hall, Milwaukee Avenue. We had our exercise, marched
-in the hall&mdash;drilled. We had Springfield rifles, which we kept at home.</p>
-
-<p>“We had our military drills for pleasure. Most of the members had been
-soldiers in the old country, and we were drilling here for fun&mdash;pleasure.
-We drilled once a week, at times. The members knew each other, but on
-the list each one had his number. My number was 32. There were four
-companies of the L. u. W. V. in this city. I don’t know the number of
-members.</p>
-
-<p>“I saw ‘Revenge’ circulars at the meeting at 54 West Lake Street. I know
-Schnaubelt by sight. Don’t remember whether he was at 54 West Lake.
-(Witness was shown the signal “Y,” in <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>.) I saw this in the
-paper when I read it at Thalia Hall. It is a sign for the armed section to
-meet at 54 West Lake Street. The armed section means certain members
-of certain societies&mdash;trades-unions who had bought weapons with which
-they practiced continually.” (Witness is shown paper containing the word
-“Ruhe.”) “I never saw that before. Did not hear anything said about
-‘Ruhe’ in the meeting at 54 West Lake Street.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Schrade was shown a book of Most’s and stated that he had seen it
-sold at meetings of workingmen. On cross-examination he testified:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I know Spies, Parsons, Fielden, Neebe and Schwab only by sight;
-never had any business or conversation with any of them. Lingg and I
-belonged to the same Carpenters’ Union, but we were not on terms of
-friendship. None of the defendants are members of the L. u. W. V., to my
-knowledge. I paid attention to all that was done while I was at the 54
-West Lake Street meeting. I was at the Sunday meeting from half-past
-nine until half-past eleven. The discussion was, that if the police made an
-attack upon workingmen we would help the workingmen to resist it, and if
-the firemen helped, we would cut the hose. Nothing was said about dynamite
-or bombs at any of the meetings. Nothing was said about a meeting
-at any particular night to throw bombs. It was not agreed to throw bombs
-at the Haymarket meeting. While at the Haymarket I had no bomb; I
-don’t know dynamite. I knew of no one who was going to take a bomb to that
-meeting. When I left the Haymarket meeting everything was quiet; I did
-not anticipate any trouble. I had seen the signal ‘Y’ before. It was understood
-that the meetings were to be called by that kind of notice. I left the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span>
-Haymarket meeting only on account of the approach of the storm. There
-were about two hundred people there when I left.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Edward J. Steele</span>, Lieutenant of Police at the West Chicago Avenue
-Station on May 4th, gave some details as to marching to the Haymarket,
-and stated that he had been in command of a company of twenty-eight
-men. He further testified:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Two or three seconds after that&mdash;Captain Ward’s command to the
-meeting to disperse&mdash;the shell was thrown in the rear. It exploded on the
-left of my company. There was then also a smaller report in the rear of
-me, like a large pistol shot, and at that time the crowd in front of us and
-on the sidewalks fired into us immediately; by immediately I mean two
-or three seconds after. The crowd fired before the police did. Mine and
-Quinn’s were the front companies. My men had their arms in their pockets
-and their clubs in their belts; their hands by their side. I was six or
-eight feet from the speakers’ wagon when the command to halt was given.
-Prior to that I could hear speaking going on in front of us. I heard somebody
-say, ‘Here come the bloodhounds. You do your duty and we will do
-ours.’ I could not say who made the remark. The sound came from in
-front of us as we were marching. Ward spoke in a loud tone of voice to
-the speakers on the wagon when he commanded them to disperse. There
-were three or four men on the wagon. I saw Mr. Fielden there. I did not
-hear him make any response to Ward’s declaration. After the pistol shots
-from the crowd we returned the fire. Fielden stepped off the wagon,
-turned to the sidewalk, and I lost sight of him. When we got some few
-feet north of Randolph Street, the crowd in front of us separated to the
-right and left. I heard nothing said by the crowd. The bomb lit in the
-rear of the left of my company, and the right of Lieut. Quinn’s, between
-that and the next company behind us. When I heard the explosion I was
-facing north. The word ‘fire’ was not given by anybody, but we began
-firing when they fired on us. The explosion of the bomb affected about
-twenty-one of our men in the two companies, and the firing commenced at
-once.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination, Lieut. Steele stated:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“My experience is that where the police make a descent upon a riotous
-gathering, a mob, the latter scatter to all sides, so as to get out of the way.
-But when we pass through a peaceful, quiet body of men, they separate
-to the sides instead of rushing down the alleys and out the other way. I
-do not mean to say that the remark about the bloodhounds coming was
-made by the speaker from the wagon. Mr. Fielden was on the sidewalk
-when the bomb exploded. Capt. Ward was just a step or two in front of
-me when he gave the order to disperse. Any loud exclamation made by
-Mr. Fielden, either in the wagon, or getting out of the wagon, or immediately
-after he got out, I would have heard. I did not hear him make any.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Martin Quinn</span>, Lieutenant of Police, had a company of twenty-five men
-on the left of Lieut. Steele, and when they marched to the Haymarket they
-had their clubs in their belts and their pistols in their pockets. He heard
-the remark: “Here they come now, the bloodhounds. Do your duty, men,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span>
-and I’ll do mine.” The man who was speaking at the time they came up
-was Fielden. Quinn’s testimony then runs as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Just as he was going down, he said: ‘We are peaceable.’ Some person
-had hold of his left leg. He reached back, and just as he was going down
-he fired right where the Inspector was, Capt. Ward and Lieut. Steele.
-After that I dropped my club, took my pistol and commenced firing in
-front. The crowd formed a line across the street in our front, and immediately
-when that bomb was fired, and almost instantaneously with it that
-shot from the wagon, they commenced firing into our front and from the
-side, and then from the alley. I fired myself. Fourteen men of my company
-were injured. I lost sight of Fielden as he got on the sidewalk. I
-could not distinguish which was first, the explosion of the bomb or the shot
-fired by Fielden. There was another very loud report immediately after
-this first explosion. I did not know what it was. The bomb exploded
-about the same instant that the remark, ‘We are peaceable,’ was made.
-And at the same time he fired that shot. Ward at that time had not quite
-finished his expression. The pistol was aimed in a downward direction,
-towards where Ward, Steele and Bonfield stood. After I was looking to
-the front, and had discharged my weapon, I looked back and saw the explosion
-of the bomb&mdash;it was just the same as you would take a bunch of firecrackers
-and throw it around, just shooting up in all directions, in the rear.
-Some of the men were lying down, some of them lying dead, some crippled
-around. All along on Desplaines Street the lamps were dark. Where the
-speaker was there was a torch on the wagon, and also the lamp was lit
-there. I had emptied my pistol. Then I turned around to look at the
-result of the explosion. Then I went over in under the wagon, and where
-the speaker was, and I found a pistol there that was loaded. I picked it up
-and emptied it myself afterwards. It was a thirty-eight Smith &amp; Wesson.
-I saw Fielden fire only that one shot. It was not aimed at the man who
-had hold of his leg. There were Ward, Bonfield and Steele there right in
-a bunch, close by together, and it should have hit some one of them.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">The cross-examination did not change the testimony; he only added to
-its force, and with reference to Fielden only modified it so far as to say:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I would not swear that it was or was not Fielden who fired the pistol,
-but it was a speaker, that I know, that fired at the instant he finished saying,
-‘We are peaceable.’ While standing in the wagon, in the presence of
-the police force and all the audience, he fired a revolver right where Lieut.
-Steele was and Capt. Ward, and the right of Lieut. Steele’s company; fired
-right into them. The torch was still on the wagon at that time, and the
-street lamp near by was lighted.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">James P. Stanton</span>, Lieutenant of Police, had charge of eighteen men and
-saw the shell coming through the air. He shouted to his men: “Look out,
-there is a shell,” and just then it exploded. It fell just four feet from where
-he stood, and his men were scattered upon the street. All but one or two
-of his command were wounded. He himself was injured, his body being
-hit in eleven different places with pieces of the shell, and he was confined
-to a bed at the hospital for two weeks and a half, after which he was taken
-home.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“After that I commenced to limp around. I had to suffer from a
-nervous shock. The holes in my clothing are larger than the holes in my
-limbs. My company was on the west side of the street, Bowler on the
-east. When I first saw the shell it was in the air, very near over my head.
-It came from the east, I think, a little north of the alley. It was about
-three inches in diameter. The fuse was about two inches long when I saw
-it. When we advanced I heard speaking from the north. I saw some
-parties standing on the wagon. Don’t know anything about what transpired
-after the officers came to a halt. No shot was fired to my knowledge
-before the explosion of the bomb. Immediately after that shots were
-fired. I turned myself and drew my revolver and immediately commenced
-to fire. I cannot swear from whom the firing began first. My men were
-supposed to be armed; they had their clubs in their belts.”</p>
-
-<p>The cross-examination brought out no new points.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">H. F. Krueger</span>, a police officer, heard the cry, “Here they are now,
-the bloodhounds!” from the wagon at the Haymarket, and thought it was
-Fielden who uttered it. “I saw Fielden,” said he, “pistol in hand, take
-cover behind the wagon and fire at the police. I returned his fire and was
-myself immediately shot in the knee-cap. I saw Fielden in the crowd and
-shot at him again. He staggered, but did not fall, and I lost him. There
-were no pistol-shots fired before the bomb exploded.” This testimony was
-in every detail corroborated by John Wessler, another police officer, the
-next witness, and by Peter Foley, an officer.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Luther Moulton</span>, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, an officer of the Knights
-of Labor, testified to a conversation which he had had with August Spies
-when the latter went to Grand Rapids to deliver a lecture, on February
-22, 1885. Spies told the witness that the only manner in which the laborers
-could get a fair division of the product of their labor was by force and
-arms. He said they had three thousand men organized in Chicago, with
-superior weapons of warfare. There might be bloodshed, Spies said to
-him, for that happened frequently in revolutions. If they failed, it would
-be a punishable crime. If they succeeded, it would be a revolution.
-George Washington would have been punished had he failed. “I am
-quite certain,” Moulton said, “that the term ‘explosives’ was used in connection
-with arms.” On cross-examination Moulton stated that the Grand
-Rapids police had furnished him the means to come to Chicago. All of
-Moulton’s material statements were repeated on the stand by Geo. W.
-Shook, who had been present at the conversation referred to.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">James Bowler</span>, Lieutenant of Police, in command of twenty-seven men,
-testified that he did not recognize any one firing.</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“After the explosion I said to my men: ‘Fire and kill all you can.’ I
-drew my own revolver; I had it in my breast coat side pocket. In marching,
-I heard the words: ‘Here come the bloodhounds,’ said by somebody
-close to the wagon. I fired nine shots myself. I reloaded. While marching,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span>
-the men had their arms in their pockets. I noticed the lamp at Crane’s
-alley was out.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination he stated that he heard the remark about bloodhounds,
-but did not know who uttered it. He continued:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“There was a kind of light on the wagon, a kind of a torch. I saw
-firing close by the wagon after the explosion, but not from in the wagon. I
-saw no one either in the wagon or getting out of the wagon do any firing.
-I saw Mr. Fielden coming off of the wagon very plainly.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Several officers testified to the scene about the wagon, and Thomas
-Greif, the occupant of the premises 54 West Lake Street, described the
-basement where the “Ypsilon” meeting was held. Following him was
-proffered more direct evidence that Fielden had fired the shot, and then
-<span class="smcap">James Bonfield</span> took the stand, and described the search that was made in
-the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office. Said he:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“In Mr. Spies’ office I found a small piece of fuse, a fulminating cap,
-and a large double-action revolver; about five inches of fuse. I found the
-revolver under a wash-stand in the office; that dirk file was along with them
-(indicating), with a paper doubled over them loosely. The fuse is an
-ordinary fuse; the fulminate is in the end of the cap. The fuse is inserted
-that way (indicating), and the cap is pinched, and that is inserted in dynamite
-and the hole closed. I never saw the cap used for anything except
-dynamite and nitro-glycerine. I have used it in mines for that purpose.
-The power of the cap itself don’t amount to anything. I found that
-‘Revenge’ circular, as it is called, in Spies’ office, where I arrested him.
-This box (indicating) contains a great many empty shells, evidently for the
-Winchester improved rifle; there are also some empty and some loaded
-sporting cartridges. The pistol is a 44-caliber, I think. On the 5th, after
-the arrest of Spies, that night I took down some reporters. I had a conversation
-with Spies that night, and I think with Fielden. The reporter
-carried on the major part of the conversation. Mr. Spies stated there had
-been a meeting of the Central Labor Union that evening previous to the
-Haymarket meeting. He mentioned a man by the name of Brown, and a
-man by the name of Ducey that attended that meeting, and when they
-adjourned there they went down to the Haymarket. He spoke of the
-gathering of the crowd, how it threatened to rain, how they went on the side
-street, and about Fielden speaking at the time the police came. He said
-he was on the wagon at that time, and a young Turner was there who had
-told him the police were coming, told him to come down, took him by the
-hand and helped him down. He afterwards gave his name as Legner; he
-claimed the police had opened fire on them. He said when he got off the
-wagon he went in the east alley and came out on Randolph Street. He
-approved of the method, but thought it was a little premature; that the
-time had hardly arrived to start the revolution or warfare. After that I took
-the reporters around to Fielden.</p>
-
-<p>“Fielden said he was there when the police came up; he got wounded
-in this alley. Then he got a car, and, I think, went around to the corner of
-Twelfth and Halsted, or Van Buren and Halsted, and then he got
-another car and went down to the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office to see if any of
-his friends had got back there; that from there he went over to the Haymarket<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span>
-again to see if any more of his comrades were hurt. I know
-Fischer. I was at his house. He was arrested at the same time, or a few
-minutes after Spies and Schwab were arrested. His house is 170 or 176
-North Wood Street. I went there with Mr. Furthmann and, I think,
-Officer Doane. It was about nine or ten o’clock. I made a search of the
-house. In a closet, under the porch at the front door, I found a piece of
-gas-pipe about three and a half feet long. There was no gas connection in
-the house. The gas-pipe was an inch or an inch and a quarter in diameter.
-I laid it down again. I searched around and went back again, and
-couldn’t find it in a day after. I remember a conversation with Fischer
-afterwards, in the office. He was asked to explain how he came by a
-fulminating cap which was found in his pocket at the time of the arrest.
-He said he got it from a Socialist who used to visit Spies’ office about
-four months previous. He claimed he didn’t know what it was, and
-had carried it in his pocket for four months. After some conversation
-he acknowledged that he knew what it was, and had read an account of it
-and the use of it in Herr Most’s ‘Science of War.’ That conversation was
-at a detective’s office. The fulminating cap looked to be perfectly new,
-and the fulminate was fresh and bright in the inside. There was no fuse
-attached to it. He told of being at the Haymarket meeting until a few
-minutes before the explosion of the bomb, and he went from there to Zepf’s
-Hall, and was there at the time of the explosion. He acknowledged that
-he had gotten up the circular headed ‘Attention, Workingmen,’ and that
-it was printed at Wehrer &amp; Klein’s. I think their own office was closed, and
-he went over to Wehrer &amp; Klein’s and got it printed over there; I think 2,500
-copies&mdash;25,000 or 2,500.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination witness testified as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I am in the detective branch of the police force. I arrested Spies and
-Schwab in the neighborhood of nine o’clock. I found Spies in the front
-office. He was to the left of the door as I entered. My recollection is, he
-was talking to somebody. Schwab was over to the right, and was sitting
-down. That was on the second floor. I think I went up two flights of
-stairs. There were three or four men in the office besides those two.
-There was no resistance by either of the gentlemen. Had no warrant for
-their arrest. I don’t know of any complaint having been made against them
-before any magistrate. While I was talking to Spies and Schwab Spies’
-brother came in. I placed him under arrest too. I took them with me.
-I took them to police headquarters. We went on foot. It was in the back
-part of the room that I found that revolver. The main part of the room
-in which I arrested them was perhaps twelve feet deep, and then there was
-a wing that ran back further. The box I mentioned was on the floor, and
-against the south wall. One could see it readily on entering the room. I
-found that box on my third visit. I don’t remember having seen it on my
-first visit. That third visit was some time in the afternoon, perhaps two
-or three o’clock. On my second visit I went over to the printer, to pick
-out the type similar to the one in the ‘Revenge’ circular. I went to the
-composing room. The printer’s name is John Conway. That was near
-twelve o’clock. On my fourth visit I took away a lot of red flags and such
-stuff as that. When I made the arrest of Spies and Schwab that
-morning Mrs. Schwab was present. I should think, by the looks of
-things, they were transacting business, or ready for it. When I was in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span>
-composing-room there were several men there. I found the red flags
-principally in what they termed the library in that building. It was, I
-think, in the rear part, on the second floor. Twenty or twenty-one compositors
-of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> were arrested during that day. I was not
-present at the time. I found that copy of the ‘Revenge’ circular on one of
-the desks in the front room. I was there when the form and the type of
-the circular were found. We had no search warrant at the time any of
-them were taken. I do not know to whom that revolver belongs. I took
-Spies and Schwab into the front room of the Central Station. Lieutenant
-Shea sent out for the key. In the meantime we searched Spies
-and took the personal effects away from him. I took Mr. Spies’
-keys out of his pocket&mdash;everything I found, little slips of paper
-and the like. I literally went through him. I had no warrant for
-anything of that kind. I took those reporters to see Spies down to the
-cell-house in the basement of the Central Station. The cell-house is very
-near the center of the building, and fronts on the inside court between the
-county and city building. I went down with the reporters about eight or
-nine o’clock. Spies, Schwab and Fielden were in separate cells. Spies
-said the action taken at the Haymarket was premature. It was done by a
-hot-head that could not wait long enough. I cannot use the words. That
-is the sentiment, and perhaps the words. Fielden said the police came up
-there to disperse them, and they had no business to. He claimed that they
-had a right to talk and say what they pleased, under the Constitution, and
-they should not be interfered with. I don’t think it was ever questioned
-whether the meeting was a peaceable and quiet meeting. I don’t think that
-he ever claimed that it was either quiet or disorderly. The fulminating cap
-which I found in that box did not look fresh and bright. It looked as though
-it might have lain there a good while. When Chief Ebersold came into the
-office at Central Station he was quite excited, and talked to Spies and
-Schwab in German and made motions, and I got between them, and I told
-him this was not the time or place to act that way. I took the liberty to
-quiet him down a little. He used a word which I understood to compare a
-man to a dog or something lower.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">The incendiary speeches that were made by some of the defendants at
-the riot at McCormick’s were testified to by different newspaper men, and
-the scenes at the riot described by officers and others, the whole showing
-very distinctly the direct connection of Spies with the outrage, and the manner
-in which he incited the mob to violence.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">“We are Peaceable”&mdash;Capt. Ward’s Memories of the Massacre&mdash;A Nest
-of Anarchists&mdash;Scenes in the Court&mdash;Seliger’s Revelations&mdash;Lingg, the Bomb-maker&mdash;How
-he cast his Shells&mdash;A Dynamite Romance&mdash;Inside History of the Conspiracy&mdash;The
-Shadow of the Gallows&mdash;Mrs. Seliger and the Anarchists&mdash;Tightening the
-Coils&mdash;An Explosive Arsenal&mdash;The Schnaubelt Blunder&mdash;Harry Wilkinson and Spies&mdash;A
-Threat in Toothpicks&mdash;The Bomb Factory&mdash;The Board of Trade Demonstration.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap08">DURING the progress of the trial the court-room was thronged daily.
-The prisoners sat radiantly throughout the whole proceedings as if
-supremely certain of acquittal, and they manifested great pride in the
-boutonnieres which were handed in every morning by admiring friends.
-As the testimony of the State’s witnesses proceeded, the defense raised
-innumerable objections to the admission of parts particularly criminative,
-and at times hours were consumed in arguments on the points involved.
-The objections were almost invariably overruled, and exceptions taken.
-Having finished the evidence then at hand with reference to the McCormick
-riot, the State resumed the Haymarket massacre.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">William Ward</span>, Captain of Police at the Desplaines Street Station, a
-member of the force since 1870, a resident of Chicago for thirty-six years
-and a veteran of the Rebellion, was subjected to a long and interesting
-examination. He first stated the facts with reference to marching to the
-Haymarket and his order to the meeting to disperse, corroborating the testimony
-of Inspector Bonfield in every particular, and then concluded as
-follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“As the speaker was getting from the wagon he said, ‘We are peaceable.’
-That was this gentleman (indicating Fielden). I heard some utterances of
-the speaker before I addressed him, but could not understand them&mdash;quite
-a noise there. Our men had their clubs in their belts, pistols in their
-pockets. A few seconds after Fielden said, ‘We are peaceable,’ I heard the
-explosion in my rear. I turned to look and see, and pistol-firing began
-from the front and both sides of the street by the crowd. I did not recognize
-anybody firing. Then the police began firing, and we charged into the
-alley, Crane’s alley, and north on Desplaines Street. Seven policemen died
-from the effects of wounds; one was brought dead into the station&mdash;Mathias
-J. Degan. There were in all killed and wounded sixty-six or sixty-seven&mdash;about
-twenty-one or twenty-two out of Desplaines Street Station; forty-two
-in all out of my precinct. It was only several seconds from the time that
-Fielden said, ‘We are peaceable,’ and the time the police charged down the
-alley and up Desplaines Street.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The cross-examination resulted as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I had a detail there that night from the Central Police Station under
-command of Lieut. Hubbard. At the time I gave the command to disperse<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span>
-I was right close to the rear part of the wagon, close to the outside wheel,
-southwest of the wheel. I could almost touch it; could have touched it
-with my club. Some of the men carried their pistols in the breast pocket of
-the coat, some the hip pocket. At the time I gave the command, Inspector
-Bonfield stood at my left; Lieut. Steele was in the rear of me, might have
-been a little to the right. There were four to six persons on the wagon.
-Fielden was standing on the south end of the truck, facing southwest,
-facing me, when I commenced to speak, until I was through. Then he got
-off the truck, on the southeast end of it, on the corner toward the sidewalk.
-All I could understand of what Mr. Fielden said was: ‘We are peaceable.’
-I did not see Fielden after that. There was no pistol-firing of any
-kind by anybody before the explosion of the bomb. I was several feet in
-advance of the front rank of the police in marching down, sometimes eight
-or ten feet in advance; sometimes not so far. The only utterance from any
-source that I can recall that was heard by me, before the bomb exploded,
-was that of Fielden, ‘We are peaceable,’ that he spoke to me, or looking right
-at me when he spoke. It was a little louder than ordinary, than if he was
-addressing me. I think the accent was on the last word, ‘We are <i>peaceable</i>.’
-I don’t remember whether I related this utterance of Fielden on the
-occasion of the Coroner’s inquest when I testified there. I think Steele’s
-line was about on a line with the center of the alley. Quinn’s line had
-swung a little further forward. A block and a half south of there, there
-were eight or ten electric lights on the front of the Lyceum Theater, and
-they lit up the street considerably. I don’t remember whether there was
-a torch-light or any other light on the truck.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Michael Hahn</span>, a tailor working on Halsted Street, stated that he was
-at the Haymarket and received an injury in his back, one in his thigh, and
-one in the leg:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I went to the hospital that same night. Dr. Newman removed something
-from my person that night; that is what he said; he showed it to me.
-It was some kind of a nut. (Witness is handed an ordinary iron-threaded
-nut.) I guess that was about the size. I left the hospital two weeks after.
-I think that is the same nut.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Reuben Slayton</span>, a policeman on the force fourteen years, testified that
-he arrested Fischer:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I searched him and found that gun (producing and exhibiting a revolver).
-It is a 44-caliber; was loaded when I found it; self-acting,
-I found this file ground sharp on three edges (producing it), and that belt
-and sheath (producing same). The belt and sheath were buckled on him;
-the file in the sheath, revolver stuck into the slit in the belt, and he had ten
-cartridges in his pocket. He also had this fulminating cap in his pocket.
-It was brighter when I found it. He said he carried that revolver because
-he carried money, and going home nights to protect himself. I took him
-to the Central Station. He said he had worked at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> as
-a compositor for two years. When I arrested him he was coming down the
-stairs. I was going up into the building. I felt this revolver and took him
-back up, and searched him and took these things from him. The belt was
-under his coat. You could not see the pistol and this stuff. I also arrested
-Fielden at his house the same day, May 5th, in the morning, at No. 110<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span>
-West Polk Street. When I locked him up at the Central Station, he took
-the bandage off his knee and put it on. I asked him where he got it
-dressed. He told me when he got shot he came down the alley and took
-a car and went to, I think he said, Twelfth and Canal Streets&mdash;had his
-knee dressed there that night.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination, Officer Slayton stated that he met with no resistance
-from Fischer or Fielden and that he found no munitions of war at
-the latter’s house. He had no warrant, he said, for their arrest.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Theodore Fricke</span>, business superintendent of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, once
-its book-keeper, testified to Spies’ handwriting on the manuscript containing
-the word “Ruhe,” and identified several other documents as in Spies’
-handwriting. He continued:</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-421.jpg" width="300" height="168" id="i421"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">SPIES’ MANUSCRIPT OF<br />THE FAMOUS “RUHE” SIGNAL.<br />
-<span class="wnn">Engraved direct from the Original.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“The <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> is the property of a corporation. Fischer was a
-stockholder, so was I, so is Spies and Schwab. I was employed by this
-corporation. Parsons is not a stockholder. Neebe belongs to this corporation.
-I have
-known Neebe
-about two
-years; I saw
-him at picnics
-and in our office.
-There
-was a library
-in the building
-belonging
-to the International
-Working People’s
-Association&mdash;a
-Socialistic
-association
-composed
-of
-groups, known by names. I belonged to the group ‘Karl Marx,’ which
-met at No. 63 Emma Street. Before that I belonged to the Northwest
-Side group, which met at Thalia Hall, No. 633 Milwaukee Avenue. Hirschberger
-was the librarian. I know Fischer; he belonged to the Northwest
-Side group. Engel belonged to the same. Spies formerly belonged to the
-Northwest Side group, later to the American group. Parsons belonged
-to the American group. Schwab, I guess, to the North Side group, I don’t
-know for sure. I don’t know about Lingg. I guess Neebe belonged to the
-North Side group. These groups, except the Northwest Side group, had a
-central committee, which met at No. 107 Fifth Avenue. The Northwest
-Side group was not represented. They had strong Anarchistic principles.
-Fielden, I guess, belonged to the American group. This book here
-(Johann Most’s book) I saw at the library in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> building.
-I have seen that book sold at picnics by Hirschberger, at Socialistic picnics
-and mass-meetings. At some of those meetings Spies, Parsons and Fielden
-were present; sometimes Neebe, sometimes Schwab, maybe Fischer.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="p1">Counsel for defendants objected to this line of inquiry, because, as they
-said, it is not shown that any of the defendants knew or participated in the
-selling, or that they had anything to do with, or that they saw the selling.
-This led to some words between court and counsel:</p>
-
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1"><i>The Court</i>&mdash;“If men are teaching the public how to commit murder,
-it is admissible to prove it if it can be proved by items.”</p>
-
-<p><i>Mr. Black</i>&mdash;“Well, does your Honor know what this teaches?”</p>
-
-<p><i>The Court</i>&mdash;“I do not know what the contents of the book are. I
-asked what the book was and I was told that it was Herr Most’s ‘Science
-of Revolutionary Warfare,’ and taught the preparing of deadly weapons and
-missiles, and that was accepted by the other side.”</p>
-
-<p><i>Mr. Black</i>&mdash;“Does that justify your Honor in the construction that it
-teaches how to commit murder, or of stating that in the presence of the
-jury?”</p></div>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-422.jpg" width="300" height="125" id="i422"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">“Y&mdash;COME MONDAY EVENING.”<br />
-<span class="wnn">Reduced <i>Fac-simile</i>, engraved direct<br />from the Original Manuscript.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p><i>The Court</i>&mdash;“.... I inquired what sort of book it was, and it was
-stated by the other side what sort of book it was, and you said nothing
-about it, so that in ruling upon the question whether it may be shown
-where it was to
-be found, where
-it had been seen,
-I must take the
-character of the
-book into consideration
-in determining
-whether it
-is admissible;
-whether it is of
-that character or
-not we will see
-when it is translated,
-I suppose. I suppose the book is not in the English language.”</p>
-
-<p>“Where were the picnics at which you have seen this book sold?”
-asked the State’s Attorney.</p>
-
-<p>“I saw this book sold at a picnic at Ogden’s Grove, on Willow Street,
-on the North Side, in July of last year. There were present Spies, Neebe,
-Parsons and Fielden. Also at a picnic at Sheffield, Indiana, last September,
-where were present Spies, Neebe, Parsons and, I guess, Fischer.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Fricke then identified copies of the <i>Alarm</i>, Parsons’ paper, the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>,
-the <i>Fackel</i>, the Sunday edition of that paper, and the <i>Vorbote</i>, its
-weekly edition, of various dates from May 1st to May 5th.</p>
-
-<p>On cross-examination, he testified that he had never seen any of the
-defendants sell Most’s books anywhere, not even at the Sheffield, Indiana,
-picnic, where there were 2,000 people, and that all communications to the
-<i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> went through the hands of the editor, Spies.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Edmund Furthmann</span> testified as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I am assistant in the State’s Attorney’s office. I was in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-office between eleven and twelve o’clock on the 5th of May. All
-the matter shown to Mr. Fricke was obtained by me in the typesetting-room<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[423]</a></span>
-of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, and has been in my possession since then. The
-typesetting-room was full of desks and cases of type, and there were several
-tables covered with stone, and at every case there was a hook containing a
-lot of manuscript, which I took away. I found the doors locked. I found
-some twenty or twenty-five of the ‘Revenge’ circulars there.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination he said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“A locksmith opened the door. We had no search warrant. We also
-carried away two mail-bags from there. We placed all this manuscript
-into them. Mr. Grinnell, the State’s Attorney, Officer Haas, Lieut. Kipley
-and myself were in the party.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Eugene Seeger</span> translated a paragraph in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> of March
-15 and testified that it read as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“‘Revolutionary Warfare has arrived, and is to be had through the
-librarian, 107 Fifth Avenue, at the price of 10 cents.’</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-423.jpg" width="400" height="109" id="i423"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">REDUCED FAC-SIMILE OF HEADING OF THE FACKEL.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>“This appears among what I would call, as a newspaper man, editorial
-notices in the local column. These translations here (holding typewriter
-copy, purporting to be the translation of certain articles), are correct translations.
-There is an editorial here in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> of May 4 headed
-‘Editorial.’ ‘Blood has flowed’ is the first phrase of it. There is another
-article on the fourth page of May 3, headed ‘A Hot Conflict.’ In the local
-column of May 4 a report headed, ‘Lead and Powder is a Cure for Dissatisfied
-Workingmen.’ All these articles were also translated by Professor
-Olson, of the Chicago University. We compared notes and found
-the translations correct.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann then read the translation of
-Most’s volume.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">William Seliger</span> testified:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I am a carpenter. Have lived in Chicago three years and a half.
-Before that I lived at Charlottenburg, Germany. I was born at Eilau,
-near Reichenbach, in Silesia. On May 4th last I lived at 442 Sedgwick
-Street, in the rear of the lot. I occupied the second floor. Louis Lingg,
-the defendant, boarded with me. On Monday, May 3, I worked for Mr.
-Meyer. Quit work at half-past 4 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span> In the evening of that day I was at
-Zepf’s Hall, at a meeting of the Carpenters’ Union. I was recording secretary
-of the union. I stayed there until half-past eleven. I was not at the
-meeting at 54 West Lake Street that night. I heard somebody call upon
-us, that all that knew should come to 54 West Lake Street. This here<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span>
-(holding paper), ‘Y&mdash;Komme Montag Abend,’ means that all the armed
-men should come to the meeting at 54 West Lake Street. The armed men
-were divers ones&mdash;all the Socialistic organizations. There were several
-organizations in existence which were drilled in the use of arms. After I
-left Zepf’s Hall I took a glass of beer in the saloon and then went to 71
-West Lake Street and took another glass of beer. Then I went home with
-several other parties. I saw a copy of the ‘Revenge’ circular at Zepf’s Hall.
-Balthasar Rau brought it to the meeting about nine o’clock.</p>
-
-<p>“On Tuesday I did not work at my trade. I got up at half-past seven,
-and after I got up Lingg came. I had previously told him that I wanted
-those things removed from my dwelling. He told me to work diligently at
-these bombs, and they would be taken away that day. I took some coffee,
-and after a time I worked at some shells, at some loaded shells. I drilled
-holes through which the bolt went. A shell like this (indicating shell introduced
-in evidence). I worked on the shells half an hour. Lingg went to
-the West Side to a meeting. Got back probably after one o’clock. He said:
-‘I didn’t do much. I ought to have worked more diligently.’ I said I hadn’t
-any pleasure at the work.”</p>
-
-<p>“What did Lingg reply?”</p>
-
-<p>“Lingg said, ‘Well, we will have to work very diligently this afternoon.’
-During the afternoon I did different work at the shells. In the morning I
-had a conversation about the bolts. He told me he had not enough of
-them. He gave me one and told me to go to Clybourn Avenue and get
-some that he had already spoken to the man about. I got about fifty. I
-worked at the bombs during the whole of the afternoon at different times.
-Hubner, Muntzenberg, Heuman, were helping. I worked in the front
-room, also in Lingg’s room and the rear room. Lingg first worked at gas
-or water pipes, such as these (indicating). There were probably thirty or
-forty or fifty bombs made that afternoon. The round bombs had been cast
-once before by Lingg, in the rear room, on my stove, probably six weeks
-previous to the 4th of May. The first bomb I ever saw was in Lingg’s
-room. That was still before that. At that time he told me he was going
-to make bombs. I saw dynamite for the first time in Lingg’s room, about
-five or six weeks previous to the 4th of May. Lingg said every workingman
-should get some dynamite; that there should be considerable agitation;
-that every workingman would learn to handle these things. During
-that Tuesday afternoon Lingg said those bombs were going to be good
-fodder for the capitalists and the police, when they came to protect the
-capitalists. Nothing was said about when they wanted the bombs completed
-or ready. I only told him that I wanted those things out of my
-room. There was only a remark that they were to be used that evening,
-but nothing positive as to time. I left the house at half-past eight that
-evening. Hubner was at the house probably from four to six o’clock. I
-did not see what he did. He worked in the front room with Lingg. I was
-in Lingg’s room. Muntzenberg was there as long as Hubner. Thielen
-was there half an hour&mdash;quite that. I did not see what he was doing.</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-425.jpg" width="400" height="231" id="i425"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">PLAN OF THE SELIGER RESIDENCE, USED IN EVIDENCE.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>“The Lehmans were at the house for a little while. I did not see what
-they were doing. They were in the front room. Heuman also worked at
-the bombs. I left the house in the evening with Lingg. We had a little
-trunk with bombs in. The trunk was probably two feet long, one foot high
-and one foot wide. It was covered with coarse linen. There were round
-and pipe bombs in it. They were loaded with dynamite and caps fixed to
-them. I don’t know how many there were. The trunk might have weighed
-from thirty to fifty pounds. We pulled a stick, which Lingg had broken,
-through the handle. That is the way we carried the trunk, which was
-taken to Neff’s Hall, 58 Clybourn Avenue. On the way to Neff’s Hall,
-Muntzenberg met us. He took the package into the building through the
-saloon on the side into the hallway that led to the rear. After the bombs
-were put down into that passageway, there were different ones there, three
-or four, who took bombs out for themselves. I took two pipe bombs myself;
-carried them in my pocket. We went away from Neff’s Hall and left
-the package in that passage. The back of Neff’s Hall is known under the
-name of the Communisten-Bude. Different Socialistic and Anarchistic
-organizations met there. The North Side group met there. I heard that
-the Saxon Bund met there. I don’t know any others that met there. When
-I left Neff’s Hall, Thielen and Gustav Lehman were with me. Later two
-large men of the L. u. W. V. came to us. I believe they all had bombs.
-We went on Clybourn Avenue north towards Lincoln Avenue, to the Larrabee
-Street Station, where we halted. Lingg and myself halted there. I
-don’t know what had become of the others. Some went ahead of us.
-Lingg and I had a conversation, that there should be made a disturbance
-everywhere on the North Side to keep the police from going over to the
-West Side. In front of the Larrabee Street Station Lingg said it might be
-a beautiful thing if we would walk over and throw one or two bombs into
-the station. There were two policemen sitting in front of the station, and
-Lingg said if the others came out these two couldn’t do much. We would
-shoot these two down. Then we went further north to Lincoln Avenue and
-Larrabee Street, where we took a glass of beer. Webster Avenue Station is
-near there. After we left the saloon we went a few blocks north, then
-turned about and came back to North Avenue and Larrabee Street. While
-we stood there a patrol wagon passed. We were standing south of North
-Avenue and Larrabee Street. Lingg said that he was going to throw a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span>
-bomb&mdash;that was the best opportunity to throw the bomb&mdash;and I said it
-would not have any purpose. Then he became quite wild, excited; said
-I should give him a light. I was smoking a cigar, and I jumped into a
-front opening before a store and lighted a match, as if I intended to light
-a cigar, so I could not give him a light. When I had lighted my cigar the
-patrol wagon was just passing. Lingg said he was going to go after the
-wagon to see what had happened, saying that something had certainly happened
-on the West Side&mdash;some trouble. The patrol wagon was completely
-manned, going south on Larrabee Street. We were four or five
-houses distant from the station. Then I went into a boarding-house between
-Mohawk and Larrabee Streets and lighted a cigar; then we went
-towards home. First Lingg wanted to wait until the patrol wagon would
-come back, but I importuned him to go home with me. We got home
-probably shortly before eleven; I cannot tell exactly. On the way home
-Lingg asked me whether I had seen a notice that a meeting of the armed
-men should be held on the West Side. I said I had seen nothing. Lingg
-wanted to go out. I took the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>; tore it into two parts. He
-took one, and I one. Thereupon he said, ‘Here it is,’ and called my attention
-to the word ‘Ruhe.’ This here is the same that I saw in my house.
-I did not know the meaning of the word ‘Ruhe’ until the time I saw it.
-Lingg said there was to have been a meeting on the West Side that night,
-and he was going to go at once to it. ‘Ruhe’ meant that everything was
-to go topsy-turvy; that there was to be trouble. He said that a meeting
-had been held at which it was determined that the word ‘Ruhe’ should
-go into the paper, when all armed men should appear at 54 West Lake
-Street; that there should be trouble. After that talk we went away.
-Lingg wanted to go to the West Side, and I talked with him to go with me
-to 58 Clybourn Avenue. Lingg and I went there. There were several
-persons present at Neff’s Hall. I did not speak with Lingg at Neff’s
-Hall. A certain Hermann said to him, in an energetic tone of voice, ‘You
-are the fault of it all.’ I did not hear what Lingg said to that. They
-spoke in a subdued tone. Somebody said a bomb had fallen, which had
-killed many and wounded many. I did not hear what Lingg said to that.
-On the way home Lingg said that he was even now scolded, chided for the
-work he had done. He got home shortly after twelve. We laid the bombs
-off on our way on Sigel Street, between Sedgwick and Hurlbut, under an
-elevated sidewalk. I laid two pipe bombs there. I saw Lingg put some
-bombs there. I don’t know what kind. The next morning I got up about
-six o’clock. I don’t know when Lingg got up. On Wednesday evening,
-when Lingg got home, we spoke about the Haymarket meeting. He said
-if the workingmen only had had the advantage of it they would have
-gained the victory. Then we went together to a meeting on Fifth Avenue,
-at Seamen’s Hall.</p>
-
-<p>‘On Friday, I believe, before that Tuesday, the 4th of May, Lingg
-brought some dynamite to the house in a wooden box about three feet in
-length, about sixteen to eighteen inches in height, and about the same
-width. Inside this box there was another box. The dynamite with which
-we filled the bombs on Tuesday was in that large wooden box. We
-handled the dynamite with our hands and with a flat piece of wood which
-Lingg had made for more convenience. This here (indicating) is the pan
-to cast those shells in. (Same offered in evidence.) Lingg used to cast
-shells in them. Lingg once told me he had made eighty to one hundred<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span>
-bombs in all. The bolts which I got on that Tuesday were something like
-this (referring to bolt about two and one-half inches long).</p>
-
-<p>“I am a member of the North Side group of the International Workingmen’s
-Association. During the last year I was financial secretary. My
-number was, at last, 72. Two years ago the members began to be given
-numbers. I heard Engel make a speech to the North Side group last
-winter at Neff’s Hall. He said that every one could manufacture those
-bombs for themselves; that these pipes could be found everywhere without
-cost; that they were to be closed up with wooden plugs fore and aft,
-and that in one of the plugs was to be drilled a hole for the fuse and cap.
-He said they were the best means against the police and capitalists. I
-never heard him make any other speech.</p>
-
-<p>“I saw two bombs at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> last year at the time of the
-car-drivers’ strike. Rau showed them to some one. I don’t know precisely
-who were present. Spies was there. It was in the evening. There was
-one round bomb and one long one&mdash;not very long. I was at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-as a delegate from the North Side group to the meeting of the
-general committee of all the groups of Chicago.</p>
-
-<p>“I know Schwab and Neebe. They were members of the North Side
-group of the Internationale. I know Fischer. He is a member of some
-group, but I don’t know positively. Lingg belonged to the North Side
-group. Engel belonged to a group, I cannot tell to which one. The North
-Side group met every Monday evening. There were speeches made, or a
-review of what had happened during the week. On Sundays some members
-exercised with rifles. I don’t know how many members had rifles. Every
-one took his own rifle home with him. I had a rifle. I kept it at my dwelling.
-This book here (Herr Most’s book) I saw at public meetings of the
-North Side group. Hubner had charge of them latterly. The North Side
-group bought them and sold them. Hubner was the librarian. This here
-(indicating photograph) is Rudolph Schnaubelt.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination he gave the following testimony:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I was arrested after the 4th of May. I was kept at the Chicago Avenue
-Station. The first time fully a week. Then I was on the West Side three
-weeks and one day; then I went back to the station of my own accord and
-stayed there voluntarily. Was locked up there ever since. When first
-arrested I made a statement, but not of all that I have testified to-day. I
-made a full statement of all that I testified to here, at the Chicago Avenue
-Station. Capt. Schaack, Mr. Furthmann and some detectives were present.
-That was after I had been in prison seven days. The day after and the
-second day after. I have made statements in writing, signed by me, three
-times. In the first statement I had not said much. I have done no work,
-earned no money, during the time I have been in jail. I received money
-from Capt. Schaack; once a dollar and a half, at another time five dollars.
-While I was at liberty I read in the paper that I was indicted for the murder
-of Degan. I did not know before this case was begun that I was not to be
-tried. I did not know whether I was going to be tried for the murder of
-Degan along with Mr. Spies and the other defendants. When the trial was
-commenced I did not inquire of any of the officers why I was not brought
-out for trial. I did not know I was to be used as a witness instead of being
-a defendant at this trial. Capt. Schaack did not tell me anything about my
-trial. If I would come in and tell the story which was in the written statement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span>
-that I have signed&mdash;he only told me that it would be the best if I
-would tell the truth, and asked me whether I would tell the truth before the
-court, and I said yes.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Seliger was then given a breathing-spell, and Mr. Buschick was recalled.
-Buschick testified with regard to a map of the rear building of No. 442
-Sedgwick Street, and was excused.</p>
-
-<p>Seliger, continuing on cross-examination, said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Lingg, I think, is twenty-one or twenty-two years old. He is not a man
-of family. He has boarded with me since Christmas last. My house where
-I lived on May 4th is about three-quarters of a mile distant from the Haymarket.
-When Lingg and I, on Tuesday night at eleven o’clock, after we
-had seen the word ‘Ruhe’ in the paper, spoke about going over to the West
-Side, we meant Zepf’s Hall, or Greif’s Hall, or Florus’ Hall. One of those
-halls was certainly meant, for there is no other place. It was not understood
-or agreed between me and any other men who had the bombs that
-night at Clybourn Avenue, that any one of us was to go to the Haymarket
-meeting. I know that Capt. Schaack paid my wife money at different
-times since my arrest. I don’t know how much. I think $20 or $25.
-Lingg had made the same remark about bombs being the best food for
-capitalists and police before that Tuesday afternoon. When he brought
-the first bomb into the house he said they were to be applied on occasions
-of strikes, and where there were meetings of workingmen and were disturbed
-by the police. On that Tuesday afternoon we agreed to go to Clybourn
-Avenue that night, before the bombs were done. It was said that the
-bombs were to be taken to Clybourn Avenue that evening. I don’t believe
-it was agreed that the bombs were to be taken anywhere else than
-Clybourn Avenue. When they were taken to Clybourn Avenue, I don’t
-know whether they were to remain there, or were to be taken to further
-places. There was no agreement as to where the bombs should be taken
-after they got to Clybourn Avenue. I did not hear anything about an
-agreement that any of the bombs manufactured on the afternoon of May 4th
-were to be taken by anybody to the Haymarket; we were not making
-bombs to take to the Haymarket and destroy the police. They were to be
-taken to Clybourn Avenue for use on that evening. I can not say that one
-single bomb was made for use at the Haymarket meeting. They were
-made everywhere to be used against capitalists and the police. I cannot
-say who had the bomb at the Haymarket on the night of May 4th. I don’t
-know anybody who was expected to be at the Haymarket. I became acquainted
-with Lingg in August of last year. I saw Engel once last year in
-the office of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, and again at the meeting of the North
-Side group. I did not see whether the bombs which I saw last summer at
-the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> building were loaded. The room where I saw them
-was the library-room that belonged to the International Workingmen’s
-Association. The bombs were below the counter. I never saw any bombs
-in the office of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, neither in the editorial room nor the
-printing-room, nor in the office of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. The office is the
-front room. This library-room is in the rear. I saw those bombs in the
-rear room. I don’t know precisely whether that library-room is a part of
-the office, or whether it is rented as a library-room. I believe that it
-belonged to the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. Those drills on Sunday, of which I spoke,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span>
-were in the daytime. We kept our guns at home, in broad daylight, and
-in the presence of our neighbors, or any one who might be on the streets,
-walked to the hall on Sunday and drilled. We had a shooting society.
-We went to the Sharpshooters’ Park or to the prairie to exercise. We
-used to meet and march publicly on the streets with our guns exposed. We
-didn’t try to keep it away from the police force that we had arms and
-drilled and marched. I knew that I was indicted for conspiracy and for
-murder. I did not employ the services of any lawyer. The only lawyers
-that I talked with were Mr. Grinnell and Mr. Furthmann.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">On re-direct examination witness stated:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“During the time I was at liberty I went to the West Side to the house
-of Mr. Gloom, on Twenty-second Street. I stayed with him two weeks
-and one day. He is not a Socialist. I went there from fear of revenge by
-the Socialists.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bertha Seliger</span> testified as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I have lived in this country two years. Am the wife of William Seliger.
-We lived at 442 Sedgwick Street from the 12th of October to the 19th of
-May. I have known Louis Lingg since two weeks before Christmas. He
-came to us to board with us. He boarded with us until May. He took his
-meals with us and slept in the house. We occupied the middle floor of
-that house. His room was next to the front room, and there was a door
-opening into a clothes closet. Shortly before May 1st I saw some bombs
-as Lingg was about to hide them&mdash;about half a dozen lying on the bed.
-They were round bombs and long ones. After Lingg had left the house I
-did not see any more of them; they were all gone. On the Tuesday on
-which the bomb was thrown at the Haymarket there were several men at
-our house. About six or eight. Perhaps more. Those I knew were
-Hubner, Heuman, Thielen, Lingg and my husband. I think they were
-there until past seven o’clock. They were going and coming during most
-of the afternoon. They were in the front room and in Lingg’s room,
-working at bombs. I saw Heuman working and filling at them. What the
-others were doing I don’t know. I was in the kitchen, and when supper
-was ready I went into the bed-room. I was so mad I could have thrown
-them all out. I frequently saw Lingg make bombs. I always saw him
-cast. I did not pay any particular attention. I simply saw him melt lead
-on the cooking-stove in my house&mdash;twice with Heuman, once with my
-husband and Thielen, and frequently he worked by himself. He said to
-us: ‘Don’t act so foolishly. You might do something too.’ On Monday,
-the day before the bomb was thrown, Lingg was away. In the morning
-some young fellows had come and had their names entered on the list of
-the union, and then he was writing pretty much all day.</p>
-
-<p>“On Wednesday, the day after the bomb was thrown, Lingg was at
-home in the forenoon. That was the day on which he wanted to hide those
-bombs in the clothes closet, and Lehman was with him. I heard some
-knocking, and I went in, and I said to him: ‘Mr. Lingg, what are you
-doing there? I will not suffer that,’&mdash;and he was tearing everything
-loose below, and he sent that man Lehman after wall-paper, and he
-wanted to cover up everything afterwards&mdash;nail up everything afterwards.
-He had the wall-paper already there, and he said to me: ‘I suppose you
-are crazy. You ought to have said before you wouldn’t suffer that, that I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span>
-would have looked for a place where I am allowed to do that.’ He was
-tearing up things all around about in the closet, and he had loosened the
-baseboards and taken out the mortar. He said if he needed something he
-couldn’t first go to the West Side to get it. On the Friday following, on
-the 7th of May, he left my house. Lingg had a trunk which he kept in his
-bed-room. This instrument (referring to ladle identified by William Seliger)
-Lingg was always casting with.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Mrs. Seliger stated:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I have been locked up on account of this bomb business&mdash;on account
-of Lingg&mdash;by Capt. Schaack. The first time I was there from Saturday to
-Tuesday. Of course it was Lingg’s fault that I got locked up. I talked
-with Capt. Schaack about this matter several times. I was locked up
-twice. Capt. Schaack paid my rent. I made no memoranda of the
-money I received from Capt. Schaack. He gave me money at different
-times, from the time I made my statement down to the present time. He
-paid my rent and gave me so much money with which to live. When I
-said to Lingg that I wouldn’t allow that wall-paper to be put into the
-closet, and ‘what would the landlord say when he comes,’ Lingg said,
-‘Well, then, I will say to him that I will not dirty my clothes.’ Those
-boards were about a foot high from the floor. The closet did not reach up
-as far as the ceiling. He intended to put those things in the wall. There
-was nothing in at that time. I stopped him at that juncture. I don’t like
-Mr. Lingg very well, because he always had wrong things in his head. I
-blame him for me and my husband having been locked up. My husband
-and myself talked this thing over together. I said to my husband, ‘I
-will tell the truth, and you tell it also.’ Capt. Schaack told us we had
-better tell it. I am forty years old.</p>
-
-<p>“I was locked up in the Larrabee Street Station, and my husband was
-in the Chicago Avenue Station. I never occupied the same cell with my
-husband while under arrest. I only heard after I came out again that my
-husband was arrested in another station. While I was arrested I didn’t
-see my husband. No one came to see me. I told that story, and then they
-turned me out. When arrested the second time they kept me from Monday
-until Friday. I made the same statement as at first and signed it, and
-then they turned me out again. The second time I was arrested they
-brought a statement, which they said my husband had made, and asked
-me to sign it, and I put my name below that of my husband’s, and then
-they turned me out. My husband was a Socialist before he got acquainted
-with Lingg.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Marshall H. Williamson</span>, reporter for the <i>Daily News</i>, witnessed the
-procession of the Socialists in 1885 at the time of the opening of the Board
-of Trade building, and was also present at No. 107 Fifth Avenue, from
-which place they started, and where they finally separated. He heard
-Parsons and Fielden speak from the windows of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office.
-Said the witness:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Parsons spoke of the police interfering with them in marching on the
-Board of Trade that night. He called the police bloodhounds and called
-on the mob to follow him in an assault on Marshall Field’s dry goods house
-and various clothing-houses, and take from there what he called the necessities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span>
-of life. They spoke from the second floor. There were about 1,000
-people in front of the building. Fielden in his speech also called upon the
-mob to follow them, and he agreed to lead them to rob these places or go
-into them and take from them what they needed in the way of clothing and
-dry goods. They both said that the new Board of Trade was built out of
-money of which they had been robbed; that all the men who transacted
-business there were robbers and thieves, and that they ought to be killed.
-Nothing was said in the speeches as to the means or mode of killing. Later
-I went up-stairs. I saw Fielden and Parsons and some others whose names
-I didn’t know. I didn’t know Spies at that time, but remember of seeing him
-there. I asked Parsons why they didn’t march upon the Board of Trade
-and blow it up. He said because the police had interfered, and they had
-not expected that and were not prepared for them. I told him I had seen
-revolvers exhibited by some in the procession. He told me when they met
-the police they would be prepared with bombs and dynamite. Mr. Fielden
-was standing at his elbow at the time. He said the next time the police
-attempted to interfere with them, they would be prepared for them. That
-would be in the course of a year or so. Spies was in the room. It was the
-front room of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office. Spies was not standing immediately
-with the party. I was shown what they told me was a dynamite cartridge.
-The package was about six or seven inches long, and an inch and a
-half or two inches in diameter. It was wrapped in a piece of paper. The
-paper was broken. After I had conversed with Mr. Parsons a while, he
-took out of the broken place a small portion of the contents. It was of a
-slightly reddish color, and he again said it was dynamite, and that was what
-they would use when they went against the police; he also said he had
-enough of that where he could put his hands on it to blow up the business
-center of the city. I was shown a coil of fuse about fifteen or twenty feet;
-also a fulminating cap by which they said dynamite bombs were exploded.
-The cap was exploded in the room while I was there. It made quite a
-noise and filled the room with smoke. It was copper and about an inch
-long and perhaps one-eighth of an inch in diameter&mdash;about the size of a No.
-22 cartridge cap. Mr. Parsons called for these articles. They were in a
-drawer in a desk, and Mr. Spies handed them to him to be shown to me.
-Parsons told me they were preparing for a fight for their rights; that they
-believed they were being robbed every day by capitalists and the thieving
-Board of Trade men. He said it must stop. He told me that they had
-bombs, dynamite and plenty of rifles and revolvers, and he said their manner
-of warfare would be to throw their bombs from the tops of houses and
-stores, and in that way they could annihilate any force of militia or police
-brought against them without any harm to themselves. After this conversation
-I went down-stairs, where I met Detectives Trehorn and Sullivan. I
-was acquainted with them. I took them up-stairs and renewed the conversation
-with Mr. Parsons, and left him talking with the police officers. The
-conversation I had had with Mr. Parsons was in effect repeated with the
-police officers in my presence. The officers were in citizens’ clothes. The
-red flags in that procession were carried by some women. I was at 54 West
-Lake Street, in some of the halls there, on several occasions, within a year
-before the opening of the Board of Trade. That is where I got acquainted
-with Parsons and Fielden. I heard them speak there. That was during
-the winter months of 1884 and 1885. Mr. Fielden, on one occasion, wanted
-them to follow him to those clothing stores and grocery stores and some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span>
-other places and get what they needed to support their families. He told
-them to purchase dynamite. He said that five cents’ worth of dynamite
-carried around in the vest pocket would do more good than all the revolvers
-and pistols in the world. Mr. Parsons also told them they were being
-robbed, and offered to lead them to the grocery stores and other places to
-get what they wanted. That is all I remember of those speeches. I heard
-them some eight or ten times. There were never over between ten and
-twenty-five people present.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination witness stated:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“The first of these meetings I attended was about two years ago. I wrote
-reports of those meetings, which I think were published in the <i>Daily News</i>
-in each instance the day following, in the morning edition. The circulation
-of the <i>Daily News</i>, about a year and a half and two years ago, was, I think,
-121,000 per day, as claimed by the paper.</p>
-
-<p>“When I went to the meetings at 54 West Lake Street I had no trouble
-to get in. The meetings were held in the front rooms on the top floor.
-There were no guards at the door. I simply went in and sat down and took
-my notes publicly. Fielden and Parsons learned very soon that I was a
-reporter on the <i>Daily News</i>. Those speeches of Parsons and Fielden which
-I related were made at the first meeting I attended. When Fielden suggested
-the five cents’ worth of dynamite carried in the vest pocket, he gave
-no instructions whatever on the subject of how to carry or use it. The proposal
-to go out to Marshall Field’s and some clothing store was a proposal
-for immediate action. He did not start, however. After he got through
-with his talk and proposal, he sat down until the meeting was over. The
-meeting quietly dispersed and went home. I did not see that army of less
-than twenty-five men start for Field’s that night, or upon any subsequent
-occasion. I heard that same proposal at every single meeting I attended
-at 54 West Lake Street and 700 and something West Indiana Street, and
-various other places. I do not think there was ever over twenty-five present
-at their meetings in halls. I have seen larger numbers of people at open-air
-meetings. Sometimes the attendance did not exceed about ten men.
-The same proposition was made when there were only ten persons present.</p>
-
-<p>“In that procession on the night of the opening of the Board of Trade I
-marched at the head. After Mr. Parsons had finished his speech from the
-window of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office that night, in which he proposed to
-lead the multitude against those stores, he quietly went back into the room,
-and I entered into a conversation with him. Mr. Fielden, after he had got
-through proposing, joined in the conversation with Mr. Parsons and myself.
-He didn’t go down to the street and lead anybody anywhere, either. The
-proposals that night, both by Fielden and Parsons, were proposals for immediate
-action, but they simply proposed to, and then gracefully retired
-from the window. There were about twenty people in the room. Among
-them, I think, was Mr. Spies. There were two reporters besides myself
-there. I think both Fielden and Parsons knew me as a reporter at the time.
-I presume they knew I was connected with the <i>Daily News</i>. Parsons never
-manifested any reluctance in detailing to me what he did; but in one conversation
-he refused to reveal the remainder of their plans. I saw some
-three or four revolvers in that procession. I don’t know who had them.
-There were not to exceed five hundred people in the procession. I saw two
-revolvers in the right-hand side coat pocket, and two more in the hip pocket,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span>
-carried by four persons. I have informed various police officers of what I
-have seen and heard regarding these people. I had frequent conversations
-with police officers of Chicago. I think there were about four women in
-that procession carrying banners. There were about half a dozen women
-in the room while they spoke from the windows. I think some women
-spoke from the same windows to the same mob. I think the meetings
-which I attended were regularly advertised in the <i>Daily News</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On re-direct examination, Williamson was asked by the State’s Attorney:
-“You were about to say something about some interview that you had with
-Parsons in regard to the plans, also in regard to leaders and privates in
-their army. Will you please state what that was?”</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Parsons told me there were some 3,000 armed Socialists in the city of
-Chicago, well armed with rifles and revolvers, and would have dynamite
-and bombs when they got ready to use them; that they were meeting and
-drilling at various halls in the city. He refused to give me a list of those
-halls. He refused to tell me where they bought rifles. He said the society
-was divided into groups, and that they knew each other by twos and threes.
-He showed me an article in the <i>Alarm</i>, I think, about street warfare. In
-that connection I think he told me it was their intention to occupy the Market
-Place and the Washington Street tunnel, and in that position they could
-successfully encounter any force that could be brought against them.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">On re-cross-examination witness related:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“There was nobody present when I had that conversation with Mr.
-Parsons. I think it was after New Year’s day of 1885, in the winter. I did
-not ask him how they managed to drill if they only knew each other by
-twos and threes. He said that in that organization of 3,000 no man knew
-more than two or three others.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">John Shea</span>, Lieutenant of Police, and at the head of the detective force,
-testified about the search of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office and proceeded:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I know a man that is called Rudolph Schnaubelt. He was in the station
-a couple of days after the arrest of those other gentlemen. This here
-(indicating photograph) I recognize as Schnaubelt’s picture. When I saw
-him he had a mustache. I had a conversation with Mr. Spies at police
-headquarters, in my office, after he was arrested. We had a conversation
-about that manuscript referred to by me. I asked Spies if he was at the
-meeting at the Haymarket. He said he was; that he opened the meeting;
-that Schwab was there, but that he understood he went to Deering.
-He said Parsons was there, and Fielden; that both spoke there&mdash;Fielden
-at the time the police came. He said he spoke at a meeting on May 3, near
-McCormick’s factory, and some of the parties there in the rear had commenced
-to halloa, and said, ‘Let’s go to McCormick’s,’ and they had
-started, and most of the crowd had started with them. Spies said he had
-heard later what had happened at McCormick’s; that he had got on a street
-car and come down town. I asked him if he knew anything about that circular
-that was circulated on the street. I don’t remember that I had present
-with me the circular which I referred to during that conversation. He
-said he did not know anything about the circular, but heard that it had been
-circulated. I asked him if he wrote this manuscript (indicating manuscript<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[434]</a></span>
-previously produced). Mr. Grinnell was sitting in the office at the time.
-Spies said, ‘I refuse to answer.’ Then Mr. Spies said he was the editor there.
-I said, ‘Now, would not anything of that kind be likely to go through your
-hands before it would go to print?’ He said, ‘I refuse to answer.’</p>
-
-<p>“I had a conversation with Fischer the next day. He said that on the night
-of May 4 he and several others, Schwab, Fielden, were at a meeting in the
-<i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office; that Rau brought word to the meeting that there
-was a large crowd at the Haymarket, that Spies was there and very few
-speakers; and they immediately started to the Haymarket. He said he
-didn’t hear Spies, but heard Fielden and Parsons. That pistol and dagger
-he had had to protect himself. He had not had it with him that night. It
-was in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office. On Wednesday morning he had put it
-on because he didn’t intend to stay. He was going away. That fulminating
-cap he had got from a man in front of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office some
-three months before that. He had never paid any attention to it. He had
-made the sharpened dagger himself for his own protection.</p>
-
-<p>“In the conversation with Spies, my recollection is that he said he got
-on the wagon, and said something to Parsons or Fielden about its going to
-rain, and left the wagon. I don’t recollect where he said he went to.
-Fischer said he was at Zepf’s Hall at the time of the explosion.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Fred. L. Buck</span> was called to testify with reference to some experiments
-he had made with dynamite which he had received from the detectives’
-office. He had gone to the lake front with Officer McKeough and another
-officer and a newspaper reporter and there made several tests, all of which
-demonstrated the immense force of the dynamite.</p>
-
-<p>Lieut. <span class="smcap">George W. Hubbard</span>, now Superintendent of the force, had
-charge of the company that composed the third division at the Haymarket.
-Being a large company, it was divided into two, he himself commanding
-one wing and Sergt. (now Capt.) Fitzpatrick, who was drill master, being
-in command of the other.</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I was about four feet behind Stanton’s and Bowler’s companies. My
-company was about six feet behind me. I could hear the sound of the
-voices at the wagon, but couldn’t hear exactly what was said. I saw the
-bomb when it was about six feet from the ground&mdash;a little tail of fire
-quivering as it fell not more than six feet in front of me. The bomb immediately
-exploded, and as far as I could see the entire division in front of
-me disappeared, except the two ends; but a great many of them got up
-again in a kind of disorder, and then I flanked the left of the division.
-There was no firing before the explosion of that bomb. The firing began
-almost immediately on both sides of the street and north of me. I, being
-on the left, rushed my division of the company right around toward the
-sidewalk, and commenced answering the charge from that quarter, and
-Fitzpatrick went the other way, to the east, and he commenced shooting
-right into the crowd on the sidewalk, faced them right and left. In our company
-we had our regular revolvers in our pockets, and we had a larger
-revolver in the sockets attached to our belts, on the outside. The club in
-the socket and the revolver in the socket were both hanging to the left side
-of each officer. Pistols and clubs were all in the pockets until the explosion
-of the bomb.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[435]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">S. J. Werneke</span>, police officer, who was hit with a bullet in the head at
-the Haymarket, testified that he heard Engel at 703 Milwaukee Avenue in
-February, 1886, “advise every man in the audience to join them, and urged
-the people to save up three or four dollars to buy a revolver that was good
-enough to shoot these policemen down. I was at the Haymarket in Lieut.
-Steele’s company. Got hit with a bullet in the head.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">John J. Ryan</span> next took the witness-stand. He testified:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I am a retired officer of the United States navy. Live at 274 North
-Clark Street. Lived in Chicago for three years. Have seen the defendants
-Spies, Neebe, Parsons, Fielden and Schwab on the occasion of their Sunday
-afternoon meetings during the summer of last year and the year
-previous. I heard some of them speak there, namely, Spies, Parsons and
-Fielden, in the English language. I can only designate particularly two
-meetings, one previous to the picnic they had last year, and one on the
-Sunday directly after it. That was in July of last year, I think. I cannot
-say that I saw Mr. Spies at either of those meetings. Mr. Parsons I remember
-at one of them.”</p>
-
-<p>“State what he said,” put in the State’s Attorney.</p>
-
-<p>“He was speaking in a general way,” said the witness, “about trouble
-with the workingmen and the people, what he called the proletariat class,
-and spoke about their enemies, the police and the constituted authorities;
-that the authorities would use the police and militia and they would have
-to use force against them. He advised them to purchase rifles. If they
-had not money enough for that, then to buy pistols, and if they couldn’t
-buy pistols they could buy sufficient dynamite for twenty-five cents to blow
-up a building the size of the Pullman building?”</p>
-
-<p>“What, if anything, did you hear Fielden say at that meeting?”</p>
-
-<p>“The speeches were very nearly alike; they spoke about dynamite and
-fire-arms to be used against the police, and any one who opposed them in
-their designs; they wanted things their way and to regulate society. The
-speeches were alike Sunday after Sunday. I heard Spies speak on the lake
-front before and after the meetings I mention; he represented, as he said,
-the oppressed class, the workingmen, as opposed to the capitalists and
-property-owners; the latter were the enemy of the workingmen; if they
-couldn’t get their rights in a peaceable manner they must get them in a
-forcible way. I heard that talk about ten or fifteen times; the meetings
-were held there every Sunday until late in the fall. After the picnic, Mr.
-Parsons, I think&mdash;I won’t be sure of that&mdash;spoke about the young German
-experimenting with dynamite at this picnic; that this young German had a
-small quantity of dynamite in a tomato-can; it was thrown into a pond or
-lake, and he spoke of the force this amount of dynamite exerted, and what
-could be done with it in destroying buildings and property in the city.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Mr. Ryan stated:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Those lake front meetings were held publicly in plain view to everybody
-in every instance. The largest number of persons I ever saw attend one
-of these meetings was not more than 150. The meetings that I attended
-usually lasted two or three hours. I heard two or three other persons speak
-on the lake front at those meetings&mdash;Mr. Henry, Mrs. Parsons, Mrs. Holmes,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span>
-and, one Sunday, a young Englishman whose name I did not hear; also an
-Irishman whose name I never heard. The meetings were held about half
-past two. The speeches were made in a loud, clear tone, sometimes very
-loud when they would get excited. A policeman who evidently had charge of
-the park was usually around there. It was a general propagation of ideas
-and doctrines, down there on the lake front. Once I heard Mr. Parsons say
-that now was the time to do it. I heard the opinion expressed there that
-the workingmen would have to secure their rights by force, and therefore
-should be prepared for it.”</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-436.jpg" width="150" height="195" id="i436"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">Fig. 1.<span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</span>Fig. 2.</p>
-<p class="pf150 p1">1. Package left at Judge Tree’s house.</p>
-<p class="pf150">2. Package left at C. B. &amp; Q. offices.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Harry Wilkinson</span>, a reporter for the <i>Daily News</i>, testified as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“On Thanksgiving Day, last year, I heard Mr. Parsons speak on the
-Market Square. He advised the workingmen who were present (there were
-several hundred there), to stand together, and to use force in procuring
-their rights. He told them that they were slaves; that out of a certain sum
-of money the per cent. they got was too small; it ought to be more evenly
-divided with the man who employed them. I don’t
-recollect that he said at that time anything as to the
-means or manner of force to be used, or against whom.</p>
-
-<p>“Last January I had several conversations with
-Mr. Spies, probably half a dozen. I first saw Mr.
-Spies a few days after the 1st of January of this year
-in regard to the matter published in this paper (indicating
-copy of Chicago <i>Daily News</i> of January 13,
-1886). I wrote up the result of my talk with Mr. Spies
-for that paper; it was not all published. I inquired
-of Spies about an explosive which had been placed on
-Judge Lambert Tree’s steps, and one that was placed
-in the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad offices,
-and he emphatically denied that those machines were
-either made or placed by Socialists or Anarchists,
-and proved it by showing me that they were entirely
-different in character to those used by the Socialists.
-He showed me this bomb (indicating), which he described as the Czar; I
-took it with me. He spoke of the wonderful destructive power of the Czar
-bomb; said it was the same kind that had been used by Nihilists in destroying
-the Czar. I told him that I thought it was a pretty tall story, and he became
-somewhat excited and produced this, and said that there were others, larger
-than that, run by mechanical power&mdash;clock-work bombs&mdash;and he gave me
-that in a small room adjoining the counting-room office of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>.
-He denied that those things were made at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-office; he said they were made by other persons and that there were several
-thousand of them in Chicago distributed, and that at some times they were
-distributed through the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office; that those who could make
-bombs made more than they could use, and those that could make them
-gave them to those that could not; that that one was one of the samples. I
-asked Mr. Spies if I could take that (the bomb) and show it to Mr. Stone,
-and I took it over there and didn’t bring it back. On another occasion,
-Mr. Spies and Mr. Gruenhut and myself went to dinner together, and he
-told us there about the organization of their people in a rather boastful
-manner; how they had gone out on excursions on nice summer mornings,
-some miles out of the city, and practiced throwing these bombs; the manner
-of exploding them; that they had demonstrated that bombs made of
-compound metal were much better than the other kind, and that a fuse
-bomb with a detonating cap inside was by far the best; and how at one
-attempt made in his presence one of their machines had been exploded in
-the midst of a little grove, and that it had entirely demolished the scenery;
-blown down four or five trees.</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[437]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-437.jpg" width="300" height="354" id="i437"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">SOCIALISTIC BOMBS,<br />
-<span class="wnn">As illustrated in <i>Daily News</i> of Jan. 14, 1886,<br />from specimens shown and
-description given by August Spies.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>He further described to me some very
-tall and very strong men, who could throw a large-size bomb weighing five
-pounds, fifty paces; and stated how, in case of a conflict with the police or
-militia, when the latter would come marching up a street, they would be
-received by the throwers formed in the shape of the letter V in the mouth
-of the street just crossing the intersection, illustrating this by taking some
-little toothpicks out
-of a vase on the
-table, laying them
-down and making a
-street intersection.
-He stated the militia
-would probably not
-stay to see a second
-or a third bomb go
-off. If the conflict
-should occur at any
-of the principal street
-intersections in the
-city, some of those
-organized men
-would be on the
-tops of houses ready
-to throw bombs
-overboard among
-the advancing troops
-or police. All these
-matters had been investigated;
-the men
-were all thoroughly
-trained and organized.
-The means of
-access to the house-tops
-of street intersections
-was a matter
-of common information
-among
-their adherents. He
-said they had no leaders; one was instructed as well as another, and when
-the great day came each one would know his duty and do it. I tried to find
-out when this would probably occur, and he did not fix the date precisely
-or approximately at that time. At another of those interviews he said it
-would probably occur in the first conflict between the police and the strikers;
-that if there would be a universal strike for this eight-hour system there
-would probably be a conflict of some sort brought about in some way
-between the First and Second Regiment of the Illinois National Guards
-and the police, and the dynamite upon the other hand. In trying to get at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[438]</a></span>
-the probable number of them, I understood him that there were probably
-eight or ten thousand.</p>
-
-<p>“He spoke of other larger bombs, as large as a cigar-box, to be exploded
-by electricity, which would be placed under a street in case they decided to
-barricade any section of the city, that they had experimented with. That
-certain members of the organization had in their possession a complete
-detail, maps and plans of the underground system of the city. That these
-machines would either destroy everybody that was above them when they
-went off, or so tear up the street as to make it impassable. He told me
-that the ordinary dynamite of commerce was about a 60 or 66 per cent.
-dynamite; that they made a finer quality by importing infusorial earth
-and mixing it themselves; that was about a 90 per cent. quality. He
-showed me no dynamite. I don’t think he gave me any information about
-Herr Most’s ‘Science of Revolutionary Warfare.’ I understood that the
-object of all this was the bettering of the workingmen’s condition by the
-demolition of their oppressors. He vaguely spoke of a list of prominent
-citizens who might suddenly be blown up
-one at a time or all at once. I frequently
-said that I didn’t believe much in the story
-he told me. He simply uttered the renewed
-declarations.</p></div>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-438.jpg" width="200" height="172" id="i438"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">CHART OF STREET WARFARE.<br />
-<span class="wnn">As published in <i>Daily News</i>, Jan. 14, 1886.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>“I had this conversation with Spies in
-the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> at his own desk, on the
-left-hand side as you entered the door in the
-editorial room. Mr. Schwab was there once
-or twice when I was in. I was not acquainted
-with him personally. The conversations
-which I have chiefly detailed here
-took place in the Chicago Oyster House and
-in a little room detached from the counting-room
-down-stairs where he kept those specimen bombs. He got this bomb
-from one of those little pigeonholes in that room.</p>
-
-<p>“He particularly mentioned the Market Square, and that it would take a
-very few men to fortify that street against all the police and militia in
-Chicago, and that they would have the tunnel at their back for a convenient
-place of retreat for those who were not engaged in throwing the shells, or
-for women and children whom they might care to take there. They were
-to receive the police or militia with their line formed in the shape of a letter
-V, the open end of the letter V facing toward the street intersection.
-Then there were to be others to reinforce them, as it were, on the tops of
-houses, at those corners. The plan here in this copy of the <i>Daily News</i> of
-January 14th, I drew from one that he made right on the table cloth as we
-sat at dinner together, except that he did not put in these little squares, but
-explained to me where these would be, and laid toothpicks to make these
-lines. Those dotted lines and the other dotted lines are to represent the
-dynamiters on tops of houses.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Mr. Wilkinson testified:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I got leave of Mr. Spies to carry the bomb off and show it to Mr.
-Stone. I am now twenty-six years old. Have been in the newspaper business
-about four years. I came to Chicago in September of last year. I
-was assigned to this work with Mr. Spies by Mr. Stone personally. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[439]</a></span>
-advised Mr. Spies of that fact. The circulation of the <i>Daily News</i>, according
-to its official statistics, was about 165,000. After that conversation in
-the presence of Joe Gruenhut, I had also an interview with Gruenhut. Mr.
-Gruenhut said that the conflict to which our conversation referred at the
-table would occur probably on the 1st of May, or within a few days thereafter,
-and that it might extend all over the country. He spoke of the
-conflict between the workingmen who were to strike for eight hours and
-their natural enemies, the police and militia. I don’t remember that anything
-was said about the capitalists. The Haymarket was not mentioned.</p>
-
-<p>“I did not take any notes while the conversation with Mr. Spies was
-going on. I wrote them up the first opportunity I afterwards had. Spies
-said, as near as I could calculate, that they had about 9,000 bombs. As
-to those tall men who could throw a five-pound bomb fifty paces, my recollection
-is that it was a company referred to, without number. There were
-four or five only of that company, as I understood, who could throw a five-pound
-bomb&mdash;that is a large-sized shell&mdash;and fifty yards is a long distance
-to throw a shell. He described the character of the organizations; that if
-there were three the first would know the second and the second the third,
-but not the third the first; that it was Nihilistic in its character, and that
-they were known by other means than names. I don’t think I asked Spies
-about how many men were interested in this project that were drilling and
-getting ready. I don’t recollect his saying anything about that, but I concluded
-that there were as many men as there were bombs, or more. There
-was some delay of about three or four days in the publication of my article
-after it was prepared.</p>
-
-<p>“I did not believe all Spies said. I believed about half of it. The
-article written by me is wound up by the suggestion that when dressed to
-cold facts it was like a scarecrow flapping in the corn-field. I did not write
-that. That was edited by some one who told me he didn’t believe as much
-of the matter as I did. I remember a communication from Mr. Spies in the
-<i>Daily News</i>, after this article. I think I helped ‘fix it up,’ put a head-line
-on it. The original was then used as copy. I never saw it afterwards. Joe
-Gruenhut is a Socialist.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Gustav Lehman</span> gave his testimony as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I am a carpenter. On May 4th I lived at 41 Freeman Street. I lived
-there six months. Have been in this country and in this city four years. I
-was born in Prussia. I attended a meeting at 54 West Lake Street on the
-evening of May 3d. Got there a quarter of nine. I went there from my
-home by myself. I was about to go to a carpenters’ meeting at Zepf’s Hall,
-but I met several persons who were going to 54 West Lake Street. I saw
-a copy of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> containing the notice ‘Y&mdash;Komme Montag
-Abend.’ It meant that the armed ones should attend the meeting at 54
-West Lake Street. When I got there the meeting was in session. Somebody
-made a motion to post somebody at the door, and then I went out to
-the sidewalk, by the door, that no one who was going to the water-closet
-could remain there and listen. I was stationed on the sidewalk, where the
-steps were leading down, maybe a good half hour. I went into the meeting
-twice. I heard that large man, with the blonde mustache, say he was
-going to have hand-bills printed and distributed. There were present at the
-meeting Seliger, Thielen, myself, my brother, Fischer, Breitenfeld and the
-Hermanns. That is about all I remember. I don’t know how Engel looks.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[440]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-440.jpg" width="300" height="419" id="i440"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">INTERIOR PLAN OF GREIF’S HALL.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>“I cannot tell whether Lingg was in the basement, but he went home
-with me. We had a little quarrel. Lingg came up to us from behind, on
-the sidewalk, and said to us, ‘You are all oxen, fools.’ I asked him what had
-taken place at the meeting, where we were just coming from. Lingg told
-me that if I wanted to know something I should come to 58 Clybourn Avenue
-the next evening. There were present Seliger, my brother, and one
-other man. The next day I worked on Sedgwick Street. After I quit work, at
-three o’clock, I
-met a gentleman,
-Schneideke, and
-we went to
-Lingg’s. Got
-there about five
-o’clock. I saw
-there Lingg, Seliger,
-and a blacksmith,
-whose
-name I don’t
-know, and Hubner.
-I stayed
-there about ten
-minutes. They
-did some work in
-the bed-room. I
-couldn’t understand
-what they
-were doing. I did
-not work at anything.
-Lingg and
-Huebner had a
-cloth tied around
-their faces. I had
-gone there because
-my countryman
-wanted to
-buy a revolver.
-After I left I went
-home with my
-countryman. At
-about seven
-o’clock I went
-back to Lingg’s,
-and stayed there
-perhaps ten minutes.
-They were
-still busy in the bed-room. Hubner was cutting a fuse, or a coil of
-fuse, into pieces. I saw something like that fuse (indicating a coil of fuse)
-and caps. I didn’t do anything there. They were making these fuse and
-caps in the front room. That afternoon Lingg gave me a small hand
-satchel, with a tin box in it, and three round bombs, and two coils of fuse
-and some caps. This here (indicating) is the box which he gave me. It
-was said that dynamite was in it. It was nearly full. This box of caps<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[441]</a></span>
-(indicating) I found afterwards in the satchel. Lingg said to me he wanted
-me to keep these things so that no one could find them. I took them home
-with me, to the wood-shed; got up at three o’clock that night and carried
-them away to the prairie, about Clybourn Avenue, behind Ogden’s Grove.</p>
-
-<p>“After supper on that Tuesday evening I was about to go to Uhlich’s
-Hall, but there was no carpenters’ meeting there. Then I was about to go
-home, but we went to 58 Clybourn Avenue, Neff’s Hall, because of what
-Lingg had told us Monday night. Schneideke was with me. We stayed
-at Neff’s Hall about ten minutes. We got there about half past nine. I
-did not see anybody there whom I knew but the barkeeper. After leaving
-Neff’s Hall we went up Clybourn Avenue to Larrabee Street. We had no
-special place in view. I got home about eleven o’clock. We met Seliger and
-Lingg standing together on the sidewalk on Larrabee Street, near Clybourn
-Avenue. We stood there with them, but one&mdash;I don’t know whether it
-was Seliger or Lingg&mdash;remarked: ‘We four should not keep together.’
-Then we went towards North Avenue, along Larrabee Street. Near North
-Avenue we met Thielen. I afterwards went to the prairie with a detective,
-about May 19th or 20th, to find the things that Lingg had given me. The
-bombs and the dynamite, the fuse and the caps were still there.”</p>
-
-<p>“Have you ever been a member of any Socialistic organization?”</p>
-
-<p>“I have been a member of the North Side Group of the International
-Workingmen’s Association. I belonged to the group about three months
-prior to the 4th of May. The group met at 58 Clybourn Avenue, regularly,
-every Monday evening. We talked together there, advised together, and
-reviewed what had happened among the workingmen during the week.
-We had hunting-guns and shot-guns with which we drilled. I kept my
-gun at my house.”</p>
-
-<p>“Did you ever attend a dance at Florus’ Hall?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, about March of this year. It was a ball of the Carpenters’
-Union. Lingg was present there. There was about ten or ten and a half
-dollars’ profit on the beer. The money, according to a resolution passed at
-the next meeting of the Carpenters’ Union, at 71 West Lake Street, was
-handed over to Lingg, with the instruction to buy dynamite with it, and
-experiment with it to find out how it was used. I heard Engel make a
-speech at 58 Clybourn Avenue, about January or February of this year,
-before the assembled workingmen of the North Side. He said those who
-could not buy revolvers should buy dynamite. It was cheap and easily
-handled. A gas-pipe was to be taken and a wooden plug put into the ends,
-and it was to be filled with dynamite. Then the other end is also closed up
-with a wooden plug, and old nails are tied around the pipe by means of
-wire. Then a hole is bored into one end of it, and a fuse with a cap is put
-into that hole. I was chairman at that meeting. Engel said some gas-pipe
-was to be found on the West Side, near the river, near the bridge.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Lehman stated:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“The meeting at which Engel spoke was a public, open-door meeting.
-A notice under the signal ‘Y,’ which was understood to be the call for a
-meeting at 54 West Lake Street, I have seen once before. I belonged to
-the armed section for about three or four months. The meetings of the
-armed section at 54 West Lake Street were irregular, governed by such a
-notice in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. I did not see Lingg at 54 West Lake Street
-that Monday night. I don’t know that he was there. As we went home<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[442]</a></span>
-he came up to us from behind on the sidewalk. Whether he was there or
-not I cannot say. When I went to Clybourn Avenue Tuesday night, Lingg
-was not there. Seliger went down in the basement at the meeting at
-54 Lake Street Monday night. He was there for some time, but I cannot
-tell how long. I am sure about that. We went there together from where
-the carpenters’ meeting was to have taken place. I, my brother, he and
-several others went down together. I am as sure of Seliger’s having been
-down there in the basement that night as of any fact that I have testified to.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Jeremiah Sullivan</span>, a detective, testified:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I was on the Market Square on the night of the inauguration of the
-Board of Trade with Officer Trehorn. When we got down there, there was
-quite a large crowd. One or two people were talking in German and trying
-to hold the crowd until the speakers came. Mr. Schwab came there
-first, and Parsons and Fielden came, and I believe this man (indicating
-Lingg). Parsons spoke about the Board of Trade, and showed some
-figures how the poor man was robbed. Then he denounced the police as
-bloodhounds, the militia as servants of the capitalists, robbing the laboring
-classes, and invited them all in a body to go there and partake of some of
-those twenty-dollar dishes that they had up at the Board of Trade building.
-They were to get there by force. Mr. Fielden spoke after him. He denounced
-the police and militia as bloodhounds. At that time there was
-a company of militia on Market Square for the purpose of drilling. Mr.
-Schwab was there at the time, and called the attention of the crowd to the
-militia, and they all started off toward the militia. Schwab spoke in German.
-Officer Trehorn and I went over there and asked the militia to disperse,
-and they marched up Water Street. Then I came back and listened
-to Mr. Fielden, who urged the crowd to force themselves in a body and
-partake of those dishes. Then they all marched in a body, some carrying
-red flags. I saw in the procession Schwab, Parsons, Fielden, and I am not
-positive as to that young fellow (Lingg). There was no United States flag
-in the procession. There was a platoon of police at every crossing. The
-procession stopped at 107 Fifth Avenue. Parsons went in and spoke from
-the window. He denounced the policemen as bloodhounds, and the militia
-also, and stated how they stopped them from going in there and partaking
-of the food; that a good many of his audience did not have clothes and
-could not afford to pay twenty cents for a meal, let alone twenty dollars,
-and wanted them to go and follow him, and he would make a raid on those
-different places, mentioning Marshall Field’s and one or two other places.
-After him Fielden spoke, and wanted them all to go down with him in a
-body and he would lead them. I met Williamson, the reporter, just as he
-was coming down-stairs, that evening. We went up-stairs with him. I
-shook hands with Mr. Fielden and spoke to him. They did not know me
-as a policeman. Fielden, Parsons and Schwab were there. Spies was at the
-desk. Parsons asked Spies for this dynamite. He brought it over, and Parsons
-told how it could be used; that if it was thrown into a line of police
-or militia it would take the whole platoon. He also exhibited a coil of fuse.
-I said: ‘You can get that in any quarry. They use that in blasting powder.’
-He said: ‘It comes in good to load these with&mdash;to touch these off with,’
-referring to dynamite shells. I saw some caps there about the size of a 22-caliber
-cartridge. The substance which he showed was dynamite. It
-looked like red sand. It was shaped about a foot long, and about an inch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[443]</a></span>
-and a half in diameter. I asked one of them why they didn’t go into the
-Board of Trade building. They said that they were not prepared that night;
-that there were too many of the bloodhounds before them on the street,
-but the next time they would turn out they would meet them with their own
-weapons and worse.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Moritz Neff</span> testified:</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-443.jpg" width="200" height="628" id="i443"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">INTERIOR PLAN OF NEFF’S HALL.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I live at 58 Clybourn Avenue, known as Thüringer Hall, also as
-Neff’s Hall, since seven years. I keep a saloon
-there. Back of the saloon is a hall. The
-North Side group used to meet there. I know
-all the defendants. On the night when the
-bomb was thrown I was at my saloon. Louis
-Lingg came in, in company with Seliger and
-another man whom I had not seen before.
-This stranger carried the satchel. It was a
-common bag, probably about a foot and a half
-long and six inches wide. He put it on the
-counter, after that on the floor. Lingg and
-Seliger were standing by, and Lingg asked me
-if some one had asked for him. That stranger,
-whose name I afterwards found out to be
-Muntzenberg, carried the satchel on his
-shoulder; that was ten or fifteen minutes after
-eight. I told Lingg that nobody had inquired
-for him. Then Muntzenberg picked up the bag
-and went out the side door, in the rear of the
-room, followed by Lingg and Seliger. I have
-not seen the bag since. There was a large
-meeting of painters, probably two hundred, in
-the hall that evening. For this reason I opened
-this door in the rear of the saloon, so that people
-going to that meeting would not be compelled
-to go through the saloon. I saw Lingg and
-Seliger again that night about eleven o’clock.
-Nobody had inquired in the meantime for
-Lingg. I saw Hubner there before Lingg
-came. I saw Thielen on the sidewalk in front
-of the saloon, but not inside. The two Lehmans
-were there after Lingg had left. They
-were out on the sidewalk, not inside. The
-first time Lingg stayed about five or ten
-minutes. He went out through the saloon. I
-did not see Seliger and Muntzenberg go out
-through the saloon. Before Lingg and Seliger
-came back, at about eleven o’clock, several individuals
-had come into the saloon, among
-them the Hermanns, the two Lehmans, the
-two Hagemans and Hirschberger. Lingg and Seliger dropped in a little
-later. They were all talking together. I didn’t pay much attention to it.
-I heard one of them halloa out very loud, ‘That is all your fault.’ I heard
-them also say that the bomb had been thrown among the police and some
-of them had been killed. They came from the meeting.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[444]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Engel addressed the North Side group in my hall in February last
-winter. It was a public agitation meeting of the North Side group, advertised
-in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>.”</p>
-
-<p>“What did Engel say?”</p>
-
-<p>“He wanted money for a new paper, the <i>Anarchist</i>, started by the
-Northwest Side group and two of the South Side groups. He said the
-<i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> was not outspoken enough in those Anarchistic principles;
-therefore they started this paper. They distributed some of these papers.
-Later on he gave a kind of history of revolutions in the old country, stated
-that the nobility of France were only forced to give up their privileges by
-brute force; that the slaveholders in the South were compelled by force to
-liberate their slaves, and the present wage-slavery would be done away
-with only by force also. And he advised them to arm themselves, and if
-guns were too dear for them they should use cheaper weapons&mdash;dynamite
-or anything they could get hold of to fight the enemy. To make bombs,
-anything that was hollow in the shape of gas-pipes would do. That is all
-I heard him say. I wasn’t present all the time. I bought a copy of the
-<i>Anarchist</i> that night for five cents. This here (indicating) is one of the
-copies, dated January 1, 1886. This is one of the copies distributed that
-night. Engel did not distribute it himself. Two other gentlemen who
-were there did that.”</p></div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[445]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">A Pinkerton Operative’s Adventures&mdash;How the Leading Anarchists
-Vouched for a Detective&mdash;An Interesting Scene&mdash;An Enemy in the Camp&mdash;Getting
-into the Armed Group&mdash;No. 16’s Experience&mdash;Paul Hull and the Dynamite Bomb&mdash;A
-Safe Corner Where the Bullets were Thick&mdash;A Revolver Tattoo&mdash;“Shoot the
-Devils”&mdash;A Reformed Internationalist.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">THE examination of witnesses continued from day to day before a
-crowded court-room. At times tilts between the attorneys and long
-arguments on knotty legal points varied the proceedings. Every coigne of
-vantage occupied by the State was stubbornly contested by counsel for the
-defendants. But the prosecution maintained its position and brought out
-all the material evidence it had accumulated. The theory of the State with
-reference to conspiracy, murder and “accessory before the fact” was gradually
-being developed with force and effect. Newspaper reporters proved
-important witnesses and rendered the State great service.</p>
-
-<p>The greatest interest at this stage of the trial was taken in the testimony
-of <span class="smcap">Andrew C. Johnson</span>, a Pinkerton detective, who became a member
-of the International Workingmen’s Association February 22, 1885, or rather
-on March 1, 1885, a few days later, for it was on that day that he got his
-red card of membership, bearing his number, and began his series of
-reports to the agency.</p>
-
-<p>Among a number of minor particulars, Johnson told how the blowing up
-of the Board of Trade was proposed on March 29 by Fielden, and indorsed
-by others. The most interesting part of his story, however, is the description
-of his admission into the armed group. This took place on August 24,
-at Greif’s Hall. Said Johnson:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“There were twenty or twenty-three men and two women present. It
-was Monday night. Among them Parsons, Fielden, besides Walters,
-Bodendick, Boyd and Larson, Parker, Franklin and Snyder. After having
-been there a short time, a man armed with a long cavalry sword, dressed in
-a blue blouse, wearing a slouch hat, came into the room. He ordered all
-those present to fall in. He then called off certain names, and all those
-present answered to their names. He then inquired whether there were
-any new members who wished to join the military company. Those who
-did should step to the front. Myself and two others did so. We were
-asked separately to give our names. My name was put down in a book,
-and I was told my number was 16. Previous to my name being put down
-the man asked whether any one present could vouch for me as a true man.
-Parsons and Bodendick vouched for me. The same process was gone
-through in regard to the other two. The man then inquired of two other
-men in the room, whether they were members of the American group, and
-asked to see their cards, and as they were unable to produce their cards he
-told them to leave the room. Two others were expelled. The doors were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[446]</a></span>
-closed and the remainder were asked to fall in line. For about half an
-hour or three-quarters we were put through the regular manual drill,
-marching, counter-marching, turning, forming fours, wheeling, etc. That
-man with a sword drilled us. He was evidently a German. After that he
-stated he would now introduce some of the members of the first company
-of the German organization. He went out and in a few minutes returned
-with ten other men dressed like himself, each one armed with a Springfield
-rifle. He placed them in line in front of us and introduced them as members
-of the first company of the L. u. W. V., and proceeded to drill them
-about ten minutes. After that a man whose name I do not know&mdash;he was
-employed by the proprietor of the saloon at 54 West Lake Street&mdash;came
-into the room with two tin boxes, which he placed on a table. The drill
-instructor asked us to examine them, as they were the latest improved
-dynamite bomb. They had the appearance of ordinary preserve fruit cans,
-the top part unscrewed. The inside of the cans was filled with a light
-brown mixture. There was also a small glass tube inserted in the center
-of the can. The tube was in connection with a screw, and it was explained
-that when the can was thrown against any hard substance it would explode.
-Inside of the glass tube was a liquid. Around the glass tube was a
-brownish mixture which looked like fine saw-dust. The drill instructor told
-us we ought to be very careful in the selection of new members of the company,
-otherwise there was no telling who might get into our midst. After
-that a man named Walters was chosen as captain, and defendant Parsons
-for lieutenant. We decided to call ourselves the International Rifles. The
-drill instructor then suggested that we ought to choose some other hall, as
-we were not quite safe there, and added, ‘We have a fine place at 636
-Milwaukee Avenue. We have a short range in the basement, where we
-practice shooting regularly.’ Parsons inquired whether we couldn’t rent
-the same place, and the drill instructor said he didn’t know. Then the
-time for the next meeting of the armed section was fixed for the following
-Monday. Parsons and Fielden drilled with us that evening. They were
-present also with a number of others at the next meeting, on August 31, at
-54 West Lake Street. Capt. Walters drilled us for about an hour and a
-half. Then we had a discussion as to the best way of procuring arms.
-Some one suggested that each member pay a weekly amount until he had
-enough to purchase a rifle for each member of the company. Parsons suggested:
-‘Look here, boys; why can’t we make a raid some night on the
-militia armory? There are only two or three men on guard there, and it is
-easily done.’ This suggestion was favored by some members, but after
-some more discussion the matter of the raid on the armory was put off until
-the nights got a little bit longer.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">The witness, whose testimony was very lengthy, refreshed his memory
-from copies of reports which he had made at the time. On cross-examination
-he was asked why the reports were countersigned by L. J.
-Gage. He replied that he did not know why they were so countersigned,
-but he found that they were. The history he had to tell bore chiefly upon
-the facts leading up to the riot at the Haymarket.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Joseph Gruenhut</span>, a factory and tenement-house inspector of the Health
-Department of the city, had known Spies for six years, Parsons about
-ten years, Fielden and Schwab about two years, more or less.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[447]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I have known Neebe perhaps fifteen or twenty years. I was in the
-habit of meeting some of them daily, at labor meetings or at the office of the
-<i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. I am myself interested in labor movements, formerly
-the Labor Party of the United States. It changed its name into the
-Socialistic Labor Party. I am a Socialist. I don’t consider myself an
-Anarchist. I am not a member of any group of the Internationals in the
-city, nor of the Lehr und Wehr Verein. I was present at interviews
-between the reporter Wilkinson and Mr. Spies. I introduced Mr. Wilkinson
-to Mr. Spies at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office in the forenoon, and on
-the evening of the same day, I believe, I was present at a conversation
-between them at a restaurant on Madison Street. We took supper there
-together.”</p>
-
-<p>“State the conversation which took place there between Spies and the
-reporter.”</p>
-
-<p>“Mr. Wilkinson asked him how many members belonged to the military
-societies of organized trade and labor unions. Spies said that there
-were many thousand; that these organizations were open to everybody,
-and at meetings people were asked to become members, but their names
-would not be known, because they would be numbered, and they didn’t
-keep any record of names. Mr. Spies laid some toothpicks on the table
-so as to show the position of armed men on tops of houses, on street
-corners, and how they could keep a company of militia or police in check
-by the use of dynamite bombs. The conversation was carried on in a
-conversational tone, half joking, etc., and it lasted perhaps a quarter of an
-hour, while we were taking our supper.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Mr. Gruenhut stated that he had heard no
-reference to any attack to be made on the first of May, and in the re-direct
-examination he said, with reference to Spies’ attitude on the eight-hour
-movement:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“At the start he said he did not believe they would get it, and then it
-would not amount to anything anyhow; it was only a palliative measure&mdash;not
-radical enough. As I recollect, I brought him a list of the different organizations
-in Chicago, and we were trying to pick out those which needed
-organization, and the packers and a great many others were directly organized
-by these men for the eight-hour movement. We were in constant consultation
-about organizing those trades which had not been organized before.
-I don’t suppose he ever said that he was in favor of the eight-hour movement.
-I don’t know that he was ever enthusiastically in favor of the eight-hour
-movement, but he was enthusiastically in favor of the eight-hour
-movement that we had talked about on Monday. There never had been a
-general eight-hour mass-meeting. There had been a mass-meeting representing
-the great assemblies, at the Armory, but not the Central Labor
-Union. It was a Socialistic organization; was not represented there. In
-October, 1885, there had been a mass-meeting of the Socialistic organizations
-in favor of the eight-hour movement at West Twelfth Street Turner
-Hall. I was not there. At the time I had that conversation with Mr. Spies
-and the others present about a mass-meeting to be held, we did not know
-where the meeting was to be held at all. We only considered the advisability
-of holding a mass-meeting on the question of the eight-hour movement
-in the open air. There are only three or four places where you can hold<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[448]</a></span>
-such a meeting; either the lake front or Market Square or the Haymarket.
-At that time I am sure I saw Spies, Rau and Neebe almost every day, but
-I could not tell whether the meeting was agreed upon on Saturday or Monday,
-night or day; but there was a general agreement upon having one general
-mass-meeting in the open air. It was not sure whether the meeting
-was to be in the forenoon, afternoon or night, but at last we came to the
-conclusion it ought to be at night. My recollection is that Spies said to
-Wilkinson, at the time of that conversation, that the military associations
-were open and free to everybody; that they meet, advertise their meetings,
-have picnics and advertise them, and meet in halls, even in open ground, at
-Sheffield, or out on the prairie. That proposed mass-meeting was to be an
-eight-hour meeting and an indignation meeting over the killing of men at
-McCormick’s at the same time. Parsons and Spies, during conversations
-within the twelve months before the bomb was thrown, said that arming
-meant the use of dynamite bombs by individuals; all men should individually
-self-help, as against a squad of policeman or company of militia, so
-that they need not be an army.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">F. H. Newman</span>, a physician, attended some of the officers wounded at
-the Haymarket, and identified an iron nut extracted from Hahn. He had
-also examined some ten or twelve officers, and had found some bullets and
-fragments of a combination of metals much lighter than lead. “The
-fragments were also much lighter,” he said, “than the bullets, varying
-very much in size, from perhaps what we would call 22-caliber up to
-45-caliber. The bullets also varied in size. This piece of metal I
-took from the heel of Officer Barber. It made a ragged wound and was
-buried in the bone; crushed the bone considerably, fractured it in several
-places. I examined the wounds of one officer who had a large ragged
-wound in the liver. He died within a few hours. It could have been a
-wound produced by a bullet, if the bullet was very ragged, spread out considerably,
-as they do sometimes.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Maxwell E. Dickson</span>, a newspaper reporter, had had several interviews
-with Parsons. He said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“The last time I met Mr. Parsons, either the latter part of last year or
-the commencement of this year, he gave me two or three papers, and one of
-them contained one or two diagrams, a plan of warfare. Parsons stated
-that the social revolution would be brought about in the way that paper
-would describe. In November of last year, some time after that demonstration
-on the Market Square, I remarked to Parsons, in a sort of joking
-way, ‘You are not going to blow up anybody, are you?’ He said: ‘I don’t say
-that we won’t, I don’t know that we won’t, but you will see the revolution
-brought about, and sooner than you think for.’ I attended a number of
-meetings at which some of the defendants spoke.</p>
-
-<p>“The Twelfth Street Turner Hall meeting was a meeting called for the
-purpose of discussing the Socialistic platform. A circular had been issued,
-in which public men, clergy, employers and others who were interested in
-the social question were invited to be present to discuss the question of the
-social movement. The hall was crowded. During the meeting Mr. Parsons
-made a speech, during which he said that the degradation of labor was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[449]</a></span>
-brought about by what was known as the rights of private property; he
-quoted a long line of statistics, showing that an average man with a capital
-of five thousand dollars was enabled to make four thousand dollars a year,
-and thus get rich, while his employé, who made the money for him, obtained
-but $340, and there were upwards of two million heads of families who were
-in want, or bordering on want, making their living either by theft, robbery
-or any such occupation as they could get work in; and he said that, while
-they were the champions of free speech and social order, it would be hard
-for the man who stood in the way of liberty, fraternity and equality to all.
-Later on Fielden spoke and said that the majority of men were starving
-because of over-production, and went on to show that overcoats were being
-sent to Africa, to the Congo states, which were needed at home, and he
-could not understand how that was. As a Socialist, he believed in the
-equal rights of every man to live. The present condition of the laboring
-man was due to the domination of capital,
-and they could expect no remedy from
-legislatures, and there were enough present
-in the hall to take Chicago from the
-grasp of the capitalists; that capital must
-divide with labor; that the time was
-coming when a contest would arise between
-capital and labor. He was no
-alarmist, but the Socialist should be prepared
-for the victory when it did come.
-Several other persons spoke after that.
-Then Spies spoke in German, advising
-the workingmen to organize in order to
-obtain their rights, and that they might
-be prepared for the emergency. Then
-there were resolutions adopted denouncing
-the capitalists, the editors and clergymen,
-and those who had refused to come
-to hear the truth spoken and discuss the
-question, whereupon the meeting adjourned.</p></div>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-449.jpg" width="250" height="289" id="i449"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">ADOLPH LIESKE.</p>
-<p class="pi250"><span class="smcap">Beheaded Nov. 17, 1885.</span>&mdash;From Photograph
-found in the possession of Anarchist Bodendick,
-on back of which was written: “Revenge
-is Sweet.”</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>“At the meeting at Mueller’s Hall
-Fielden presided and Mr.
-Griffin spoke first, advocating the use of force to
-right social wrongs. A young man named Lichtner said he was in favor
-of Socialistic ideas, but opposed to the use of force. Schwab, in German,
-said that the gap between the rich and the poor was growing wider; that,
-although despotism in Russia had endeavored to suppress Nihilism by
-executing some and sending others to Siberia, Nihilism was still growing.
-And he praised Reinsdorf, who had then been recently executed in Europe,
-but stated that his death had been avenged by the killing of Rumpf, the
-Chief of Police of Frankfort, who had been industrious in endeavoring to
-crush out Socialism; that murder was forced on many a man through the
-misery brought on him by capital; that freedom in the United States was
-a farce, and in Illinois was literally unknown; that both of the political
-parties were corrupt, and what was needed here was a bloody revolution
-which would right their wrongs.</p>
-
-<p>“A young man named Gorsuch was against all government, which was
-made for slaves. The only way the workingmen could get their rights was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[450]</a></span>
-by the Gatling gun, by absolute brute force. Then Mr. Fielden called upon
-the capitalists to answer these arguments and to save their property, for
-when the Socialists decided to appropriate the property of the capitalists it
-would be too late for the capitalists to save anything.</p>
-
-<p>“Then Spies said in German that the workingmen should revolt at
-once. He had been accused of giving this advice before, it was true, and
-he was proud of it. That wage slavery could only be abolished through
-powder and ball. The ballot was a sort of skin game. He compared it to
-a deck of cards in which there was a marked deck put in the place of the
-genuine, and in which the poor man got all of the skin cards, so that, when
-the dealer laid down the cards, his money was taken from him. Then Spies
-offered these resolutions, which were adopted:</p>
-
-<p>“‘Whereas, our comrades in Germany have slain one of the dirtiest dogs
-of his Majesty Lehmann, the greatest disgrace of the present time&mdash;namely,
-the spy Rumpf.</p>
-
-<p>“‘<i>Resolved</i>, That we rejoice over and applaud the noble and heroic act.’</p>
-
-<p>“Then Parsons offered some resolutions favoring the abolition of the
-present social system, and the formation of a new social coöperative system
-that would bring about an equality between capital and labor.</p>
-
-<p>“The next meeting I attended was on the Market Square, on Thanksgiving
-day. Mr. Parsons asked what they had to be thankful for, whether
-it was for their poverty, their lack of sufficient food and clothing, etc., and
-argued that the capitalists on the avenue spent more money for wine at
-one meal than some of them received pay in a month. Fielden said they
-would be justified in going over to Marshall Field’s and taking out from
-there that which belonged to them. A series of resolutions were adopted,
-offered, I believe, by Parsons, denouncing the President for having set apart
-Thanksgiving day&mdash;that it was a fallacy and a fraud; that the workingmen
-had nothing to be thankful for; that only a few obtained the riches
-that were produced, while the many had to starve.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Mr. Dickson said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Parsons said to me that when the social revolution came, it would be
-better for all men; it would place every man on an equality. He pictured
-me personally as a wage slave, referring to my position as a newspaper
-reporter, and that all reforms had to be brought about through revolution,
-and bloodshed could not be avoided. I frequently heard him give expression
-to such ideas in friendly conversation, in which the social outlook of
-the country was talked over, and Parsons frequently insisted that any
-method would be justifiable to accomplish the object which he advocated
-as the intended result of a social revolution. Parsons once stated to me
-that if it became necessary they would use dynamite, and it might become
-necessary. Parsons never expressed any distinct proposal to inaugurate
-the revolution at any particular time, or by the use of any particular force.
-He simply spoke of the social revolution as the inevitable future. I am not
-certain as to whether the paper which Parsons gave me, which contained
-those diagrams, was a copy of the <i>Alarm</i> or of some other paper. This
-article here in the <i>Alarm</i> of July 25, 1885 (indicating), under the title,
-‘Street Fighting&mdash;How to Meet the Enemy,’ is, to the best of my recollection,
-the article to which my attention was called by Mr. Parsons at the
-time. I am positive these diagrams here (indicating) are the same as in
-the article given me by Parsons.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[451]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="pbq">“The position of these parties in meetings that I have attended, since
-January 18, 1885, when they spoke of the industrial condition, was that they
-predicted a social revolution, and they also advised the workingmen to
-bring about that revolution. It was Mr. Fielden on the lake front&mdash;I cannot
-fix the date&mdash;who used language of that import, advised the men to go
-forward and get that which did belong to them by force.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Paul C. Hull</span>, a reporter of the <i>Daily News</i>, attended the Haymarket
-meeting and heard Fielden speak. He testified as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-451.jpg" width="300" height="160" id="i451"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">PARSONS’ HANDWRITING.<br />
-<span class="wnn">The Manuscript of an Advertisement calling<br />a Meeting of the “American Group.”</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“When the bomb exploded I was on the iron stairway, about four steps
-from the top landing. After the bomb exploded the firing began from the
-crowd before the police fired. I saw the bomb in the air. My head was
-probably within twelve or fifteen feet above the crowd. It was quite dark.
-Directly opposite me was a pile of boxes on the sidewalk, and an area-way
-surrounded by an iron railing. My eyes were directed toward the
-speakers’ wagon. As the words were in his mouth, I saw arching through
-the air the
-sparks of the
-burning fuse.
-According to
-my recollection
-it seemed to
-come from
-about fifteen or
-twenty feet
-south of
-Crane’s alley,
-flying over the
-third division
-of police and
-falling between
-the second and
-third. It
-seemed to throw to the ground the second and third divisions of police.
-At almost the same instant there was a rattling of shots that came from
-both sides of the street and not from the police. The meeting was noisy
-and turbulent. When the speaking began there were about eight hundred
-to one thousand people in the crowd. At the time the police came it
-had dwindled away a third from what it was at its largest number. About
-a quarter of the crowd, that part which clustered about the wagon, were
-enthusiasts, loudly applauded the speakers and cheered them on by
-remarks. The outskirts of the crowd seemed to regard the speakers with
-indifference, often laughed at them and hooted them.</p>
-
-<p>“Spies told his version of the McCormick riot. He had been charged
-with being responsible for the riot and the death of those men, by Mr.
-McCormick. He said Mr. McCormick was a liar and was himself responsible
-for the death of the six men which he claimed were killed at that
-time; that he had addressed a meeting on the prairie, and when the
-factory bell rang a body of the meeting which he was addressing detached
-themselves and went toward the factory, and that there the riot occurred.
-He then touched upon the dominating question of labor and capital and
-their relations very briefly, and asked what meant this array of Gatling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[452]</a></span>
-guns, infantry ready to arms, patrol wagons and policemen, and deduced
-from that that it was the Government or capitalists preparing to crush
-them, should they try to right their wrongs. I don’t remember that he
-said anything in his speech about the means to be employed against that
-capitalistic force.</p>
-
-<p>“Parsons dealt considerably in labor statistics. He drew the conclusion
-that the capitalists got eighty-five cents out of the dollar, and the laboring
-man fifteen cents, and that the eight-hour agitation and the agitation of the
-social question was a still hunt after the other eighty-five cents. He
-advised the using of violent means by the workingmen to right their
-wrongs. Said that law and government was the tool of the wealthy to
-oppress the poor; that the ballot was no way in which to right their
-wrongs. That could only be done by physical force.</p>
-
-<p>“I only heard a part of Fielden’s speech. He said Martin Foran had
-been sent to Congress to represent the Labor Party, and he did not do it
-satisfactorily. When McCormick’s name was mentioned during the
-speeches there were exclamations like ‘Hang him,’ or ‘Throw him into
-the lake.’ Some such a remark would be made when any prominent
-Chicago capitalist’s name was used. When some one in the crowd cried
-‘Let’s hang him now,’ when some man’s name was mentioned, one of the
-speakers, either Spies or Parsons, said, ‘No, we are not ready yet.’”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Mr. Hull said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“The firing of the revolvers startled me. I considered my position
-dangerous and tried to get around the corner. A few moments before the
-explosion of the bomb a threatening cloud came up, and Mr. Spies said the
-meeting would adjourn to 54 West Lake Street, I believe. At no time
-during the meeting was I as near as eight or ten feet from the speaker. I
-don’t believe I heard Fielden say, in a loud voice, ‘There come the bloodhounds!
-Now you do your duty and I’ll do mine,’ when the police were
-coming up. I remember that Mr. Fielden said ‘in conclusion,’ after I got
-my position on the stairs again, and when the police were forming and
-marching below. I was confused at the time I wrote my reports. (After
-examining his report in a copy of <i>Daily News</i> of May 5th, 1886:) I have
-said nowhere in this report that the crowd fired upon the police. I did say
-that the police required no orders before firing upon the crowd. I wrote
-this up about an hour after the occurrence. After describing the explosion
-of the bomb, I used this language in my report: ‘For an instant after the
-explosion the crowd seemed paralyzed, but, with the revolver shots cracking
-like a tattoo on a mighty drum, and the bullets flying in the air, the
-mob plunged away into the darkness with a yell of rage and fear.’ My
-recollection is that the bomb struck the ground about on a line with the
-south line of the alley. The bomb apparently fell north from the point
-where I first saw it in the air. I judge it came from the south, going west-northwest.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[453]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-453.jpg" width="400" height="596" id="i453"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">A PICNIC OF THE “REDS” AT SHEFFIELD.<br />
-<span class="wn">1. Experimenting with Dynamite. 2. Getting Inspiration. 3. Engel on the Stump.<br />4. “Hoch die Anarchie!”
-5. Mrs. Parsons addressing the Crowd.<br />6. Children peddling Most’s Literature. 7. A Family Feast.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[454]</a></span></p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Whiting Allen</span>, another reporter, was present at the Haymarket meeting
-in company with Mr. Tuttle, another newspaper man, and heard some
-of the speeches. Said the witness:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Parsons was speaking when we got there. About the only thing that
-I could quote from his speech is this: ‘What good are these strikes going
-to do? Do you think that anything will be accomplished by them? Do
-you think the workingmen are going to gain their point? No, no; they
-will not. The result of them will be that you will have to go back to work
-for less money than you are getting.’ That is his language in effect. At
-one time he mentioned the name of Jay Gould. There were cries from the
-crowd, ‘Hang Jay Gould!’ ‘Throw him into the lake!’ and so on. He
-said, ‘No, no; that would not do any good. If you would hang Jay Gould
-now, there would be another, and perhaps a hundred, up to-morrow. It
-don’t do any good to hang one man; you have to kill them all, or get rid
-of them all.’ Then he went on to say that it was not the individual, but
-the system; that the government should be destroyed. It was the wrong
-government, and these people who supported it had to be destroyed. I
-heard him cry, ‘To arms!’ I cannot tell in what connection. The crowd
-was extremely turbulent. It seemed to be thoroughly in sympathy with
-the speakers; was extremely excited, and applauded almost every utterance.
-I staid there some ten or fifteen minutes. I then left and went to
-Zepf’s Hall. Later I came back again, when Fielden was speaking.
-When the bomb was thrown I was in the saloon of Zepf’s Hall, standing
-about the middle of the room at the time. I did not see any of the defendants
-there. They were not there to my knowledge. When I was down at
-the meeting, I pointed out to Mr. Tuttle Mr. Parsons, Fielden, Spies, and
-a man that I presume was Mr. Schwab, but was not certain. The general
-outline was that of Mr. Schwab. I could not get a full view of his face.
-That must have been half past nine.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Charles R. Tuttle</span> said he did not remember much of what Parsons
-spoke:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Parsons made a series of references to existing strikes&mdash;one was the
-Southwestern strike&mdash;and to Jay Gould, the head of that system of railways,
-and the winding up of the peroration in connection with that created
-a great deal of excitement and many responses from the audience. He
-then spoke of the strike at McCormick’s, and detailed the suffering of the
-people who had wives and children, and who were being robbed by one
-whom I took to be Mr. McCormick, although I cannot say that was the
-idea; who were being robbed, anyway, by capitalists. And he said it was
-no wonder that these persons were struggling for their rights, and then said
-that the police had been called on by the capitalists to suppress the first
-indications of any movement on the part of the working people to stand up
-for rights, and he asked what they are going to do. One man&mdash;I believe
-the same one who had spoken when he referred to Gould&mdash;stuck up his
-hand with a revolver in it, and said, ‘We will shoot the devils,’ or some
-such expression, and I saw two others sticking up their hands, near to him,
-who made similar expressions, and had what I took to be at the time
-revolvers.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Edward Cosgrove</span>, a detective connected with the Central Station, was
-on duty at the Haymarket. He gave the substance of some of the speeches,
-and, referring to Spies, said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Then he talked about the police, the bloodhounds of the law, shooting
-down six of their brothers, and he said: ‘When you are ready to do
-something, do it, and don’t tell anybody you are going to.’ A great number
-of the crowd cheered him loudly. The enthusiastic part of the crowd<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[455]</a></span>
-was close to the wagon. Sometimes there would be some on the outskirts.
-I did not hear all of Spies’ speech and only part of Parsons’. Parsons
-talked of statistics&mdash;about the price laboring men received. He said they
-got fifteen cents out of a dollar, and they were still on the hunt for the
-other eighty-five. He talked of the police and capitalists and Pinkertons.
-He said he was down in the Hocking Valley region, and they were only
-getting twenty-four cents a day, and that was less than Chinamen got.
-And he said his hearers would be worse than Chinamen if they didn’t arm
-themselves, and they would be held responsible for blood that would flow
-in the near future. There was a great deal of cheering close to the wagon
-during his speech. I was in Capt. Ward’s office when the police were
-called out. I came down the street at the time the police did. When the
-police came to a halt, I was on the northwest corner of Randolph and Desplaines.
-I heard no firing of any kind before the explosion of the bomb,
-but immediately after that. I can’t tell from what source the pistol shots
-came, whether the police fired first or the other side. I reported at the
-station from time to time what was going on at the meeting.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Cosgrove said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I was twice at the station reporting. My second report was that Mr.
-Parsons said they would be held responsible for the blood that would flow
-in the streets of America in the near future. The police remained at the
-station after this report. I didn’t hear any part of Fielden’s speech. When
-I came out before the police quite a number of the crowd had gone away.
-When I saw Schwab he was about forty feet south of the south sidewalk of
-Randolph Street, on Desplaines. I saw Schwab about half past eight, or a
-little later, at the wagon. My impression is that I saw Mr. Schwab near
-the close of Parsons’ speech, but I am not sure. When I saw him at the
-wagon it was about the time Mr. Spies came back the second time to
-speak.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Timothy McKeough</span>, a detective, was present when the meeting opened.</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Spies got on the wagon and called out twice: ‘Is Mr. Parsons here?’
-He received no answer, and said: ‘Never mind, I will go and find him myself.’
-Somebody said: ‘Let us pull the wagon around on Randolph Street
-and hold the meeting there.’ Mr. Spies said: ‘No, that might stop the
-street-cars.’ He started away then, and Officer Myers and myself followed
-him as far as the corner. There was a man with him who, I think, was
-Schwab, but I am not very sure about that, and in about fifteen minutes he
-returned, and when I got back he was addressing the meeting, talking
-about what happened to their brethren the day before at McCormick’s.
-He had been down to McCormick’s and addressed a meeting, and they
-wanted to stop him; tried to pull him off the car because he was a Socialist;
-that while he was talking a portion of the crowd started toward
-McCormick’s and commenced to throw stones, the most harmless amusement
-they could have; how wagons loaded with police came down the
-Black Road and commenced firing into the crowd. Somebody halloaed out:
-‘Let us hang him,’ and he said: ‘My friends, when you get ready to do
-anything, go and do it, and say nothing about it.’ About that time Parsons
-arrived and Spies introduced him, saying Parsons could talk better English
-than he, and would probably entertain them better. The crowd in the
-neighborhood of the wagon appeared very much excited when Spies spoke<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[456]</a></span>
-about the shooting down of workingmen at McCormick’s. Parsons quoted
-from some book on labor statistics, which he thought his hearers probably
-had not read, because they didn’t have the money to buy it or leisure to
-read it, as they had to work too much. He said out of every dollar the
-laboring man makes for capitalists he only gets fifteen cents, and they are
-on a still hunt for the other eighty-five. He had been down to the coal
-mines, and, according to labor statistics, they received 24½ cents for their
-daily labor on the average during a year. That was just half as much as
-the Chinaman would get, and he said: ‘If we keep on we will be a great
-deal worse than Chinamen. I am a tenant and I pay rent to a landlord.’
-Somebody asked, ‘What does the landlord do with it?’ Parsons said the landlord
-pays taxes, the taxes pay the sheriff, the police, the Pinkertonites and
-the militia, who are ready to shoot them down when they are looking for
-their rights. He said: ‘I am a Socialist from the top of my head to the
-soles of my feet, and I will express my sentiments if I die before morning.’
-The crowd near the wagon loudly cheered him. Later I heard Mr. Parsons
-say, taking off his hat in one hand: ‘To arms! to arms! to arms!’ Then
-I went over to Desplaines Street Station and reported to Inspector Bonfield.
-When I came back Fielden was speaking. He criticised Martin
-Foran, the Congressman that was elected by the working people. Speaking
-about the law, he said the law was for the capitalists. ‘Yesterday,
-when their brothers demanded their rights at McCormick’s, the law came
-out and shot them down. When Mr. McCormick closed his door against
-them for demanding their rights, the law did not protect them.’ If they
-loved their wives, their children, they should take the law, kill it, stab it,
-throttle it, or it would throttle them. That appeared to make the crowd
-near the wagon more excited, and I made another report to Inspector Bonfield.
-I saw Spies, Parsons and Fielden on the wagon. I saw Schwab on
-the wagon in the early part of the evening, and a man named Schnaubelt.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Henry E. O. Heineman</span>, a reporter of the Chicago <i>Tribune</i>, testified:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I saw the bomb, that is the burning fuse, rise out of the crowd and
-fall among the police. It rose from very nearly the southeast corner of the
-alley. I didn’t hear any shots before the bomb exploded. Almost instantly
-after it shots were heard. I could not say whether the first shots came
-from the police or the crowd. It seems to me as if I heard some bullets
-close to myself, whizzing from the north as I was going south.</p>
-
-<p>“Spies started out by saying that the meeting was intended to be a
-peaceable one&mdash;it was not called to raise a disturbance&mdash;and then gave his
-version of the affair at McCormick’s, the day before. The crowd near the
-speaker’s wagon was in sympathy with the speakers. There was occasionally
-applause. I heard a few Germans talk with one another. I heard
-Parsons call out toward the close of his speech, ‘To arms! to arms! to
-arms!’ Fielden, towards the end of his speech, told the crowd to kill the
-law, to stab it, to throttle it, or else it would throttle them. I was formerly
-an Internationalist. I ceased my connection with them about two years
-ago. At that time the defendant Neebe belonged to the same group I
-belonged to. It is not in existence now. I met Spies and Schwab occasionally
-in the groups. I ceased my connection with the Internationale
-immediately after, and on account of the lectures Herr Most delivered in
-this city. I saw on the wagon at the Haymarket meeting Spies, Parsons,
-Fielden, and at one time Rudolph Schnaubelt.”</p></div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[457]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">Reporting under Difficulties&mdash;Shorthand in an Overcoat Pocket&mdash;An
-Incriminating Conversation&mdash;Spies and Schwab in Danger&mdash;Gilmer’s Story&mdash;The Man
-in the Alley&mdash;Schnaubelt the Bomb-thrower&mdash;Fixing the Guilt&mdash;Spies Lit the Fuse&mdash;A
-Searching Cross-Examination&mdash;The Anarchists Alarmed&mdash;Engel and the Shell
-Machine&mdash;The Find at Lingg’s House&mdash;The Author on the Witness-stand&mdash;Talks
-with the Prisoners&mdash;Dynamite Experiments&mdash;The False Bottom of Lingg’s Trunk&mdash;The
-Material in the Shells&mdash;Expert Testimony&mdash;Incendiary Banners&mdash;The Prosecution
-Rests&mdash;A Fruitless Attempt to have Neebe Discharged.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">WHEN the public began to see the character of the evidence against the
-Anarchists, sentiment crystalized into a feeling that no fair-minded
-juror could be led astray by specious pleas or sophistical arguments into
-voting for an acquittal of any one of the defendants. The facts of the conspiracy
-had been brought out with startling boldness, and with every witness
-the points against the prisoners were fortified with added effect. One
-of the strongest witnesses as to the incendiary utterances of the speakers at
-the Haymarket meeting was G. P. English, then a reporter for the Chicago
-<i>Tribune</i>, but at present private secretary of Mayor Roche. Another was
-M. M. Thompson, who testified as to a conversation between Spies and
-Schwab.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Mr. English</span> testified as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I am a reporter for the <i>Tribune</i>, and have been for seventeen years. I
-am also a shorthand reporter. I got to the Haymarket meeting, on the 4th
-of May, about half-past seven. I went all around the Haymarket Square
-from Desplaines to Halsted, saw a few people on the street, but no meeting.
-Later on I saw some people going north on Desplaines beyond Randolph.
-I went over there, and in a little while Mr. Spies got up on the wagon and
-said Mr. Fielden and Mr. Parsons were to make a speech, but they hadn’t
-come. Spies got down off the wagon and went toward Randolph Street.
-He was gone perhaps five or ten minutes. As he passed me in coming back,
-I asked him if Parsons was going to speak. I understood him to say yes.
-Then he got up on the wagon and said: ‘Gentlemen, please come to order.’
-I took shorthand notes of his speech, as much as I could. I had a notebook
-and a short pencil in my overcoat pocket and made notes in the
-pocket. My notes are correct. Some of them I can read, some I can’t. I
-don’t recollect what he or the others said without my notes.</p>
-
-<p>“Before Spies commenced to speak somebody in the crowd suggested
-that the meeting should go over to the Haymarket, but Spies said no, that
-the crowd would interfere with the street-cars. Here is what I have of Spies’
-speech:</p>
-
-<p>“‘Gentlemen and fellow workmen: Mr. Parsons and Mr. Fielden will
-be here in a very short time to address you. I will say, however, first, this
-meeting was called for the purpose of discussing the general situation of the
-eight-hour strike, and the events which have taken place during the last
-forty-eight hours. It seems to have been the opinion of the authorities that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[458]</a></span>
-this meeting has been called for the purpose of raising a little row and disturbance.
-This, however, was not the intention of the committee that
-called the meeting. The committee that called the meeting wanted to tell
-you certain facts of which you are probably aware. The capitalistic press
-has been misleading&mdash;misrepresenting the cause of labor for the last few
-weeks, so much so’&mdash;there is something here unintelligible that I can’t
-read; some of it went off on the side of my pocket. The next is: ‘Whenever
-strikes have taken place; whenever people have been driven to violence
-by the oppression of their’&mdash;something unintelligible here&mdash;‘Then the
-police’&mdash;a few unintelligible words, then there were cheers&mdash;‘But I want
-to tell you, gentlemen, that these acts of violence are the natural outcome of
-the degradation and subjection to which working people are subjected. I
-was addressing a meeting of ten thousand wage slaves yesterday afternoon
-in the neighborhood of McCormick’s. They did not want me to speak.
-The most of them were good church-going people. They didn’t want me
-to speak because I was a Socialist. They wanted to tear me down from
-the cars, but I spoke to them and told them they must stick together’&mdash;some
-more that is unintelligible&mdash;‘and he would have to submit to them if
-they would stick together.’ The next I have is: ‘They were not Anarchists,
-but good church-going people&mdash;they were good Christians. The patrol
-wagons came, and blood was shed.’</p>
-
-<p>“Some one in the crowd said, ‘Shame on them.’ The next thing I have
-is: ‘Throwing stones at the factory; most harmless sport.’ Then Spies
-said, ‘What did the police do?’ Some one in the crowd said, ‘Murdered
-them.’ Then he went on: ‘They only came to the meeting there as if
-attending church.’ ... ‘Such things tell you of the agitation.’ ...
-‘Couldn’t help themselves any more.’ ‘It was then when they resorted to
-violence.’ ... ‘Before you starve.’ ... ‘This fight that is going on now
-is simply a struggle for the existence of the oppressed classes.’</p>
-
-<p>“My pocket got fuller and fuller of paper; my notes got more unintelligible.
-The meeting seemed to be orderly. I took another position in the
-face of the speaker, took out my paper and reported openly during all the
-rest of the meeting. The balance of my notes I have not got. From what
-appears in my report in the <i>Tribune</i>, I can give you part of what Spies,
-Fielden and Parsons said. It is, however, only an abstract of what they
-said. So far as it goes it is verbatim, except the pronouns and the verbs
-are changed.</p>
-
-<p>“The balance of Spies’ speech is as follows (reading): ‘It was said that
-I inspired the attack on McCormick’s. That is a lie. The fight is going
-on. Now is the chance to strike for the existence of the oppressed classes.
-The oppressors want us to be content. They will kill us. The thought of
-liberty which inspired your sires to fight for their freedom ought to animate
-you to-day. The day is not far distant when we will resort to hanging these
-men. (Applause and cries of ‘Hang them now.’) McCormick is the man
-who created the row Monday, and he must be held responsible for the murder
-of our brothers. (Cries of ‘Hang him.’) Don’t make any threats,
-they are of no avail. Whenever you get ready to do something, do it, and
-don’t make any threats beforehand. There are in the city to-day between
-forty and fifty thousand men locked out because they refuse to obey the
-supreme will or dictation of a small number of men. The families of twenty-five
-or thirty thousand men are starving because their husbands and fathers
-are not men enough to withstand and resist the dictation of a few thieves on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[459]</a></span>
-a grand scale, to put it out of the power of the few men to say whether they
-should work or not. You place your lives, your happiness, everything, out
-of the arbitrary power of a few rascals who have been raised in idleness and
-luxury upon the fruits of your labor. Will you stand that? (Cries of ‘No.’)
-The press say we are Bohemians, Poles, Russians, Germans&mdash;that there
-are no Americans among us. That is a lie. Every honest American is with
-us; those who are not are unworthy of their traditions and their forefathers.’</p>
-
-<p>“Spies spoke fifteen or twenty minutes. What I have given here would
-not represent more than five or six minutes of actual talking.</p>
-
-<p>“Parsons stated first that the remedy for the wrongs of the workingmen
-was in Socialism; otherwise they would soon become Chinamen. ‘It is time
-to raise a note of warning. There is nothing in the eight-hour movement to
-excite the capitalists. Do you know that the military are under arms, and
-a Gatling gun is ready to mow you down? Is this Germany, Russia or
-Spain? (A voice: ‘It looks like it.’) Whenever you make a demand for
-eight hours’ pay, an increase of pay, the militia and the deputy sheriffs and
-the Pinkerton men are called out, and you are shot and clubbed and murdered
-in the streets. I am not here for the purpose of inciting anybody,
-but to speak out, to tell the facts as they exist, even though it shall cost me
-my life before morning.’ Then he spoke about the Cincinnati demonstration,
-and about the rifle guard being needed. Then the report continues:
-‘It behooves you, as you love your wives and children, if you don’t want to
-see them perish with hunger, killed, or cut down like dogs on the street,
-Americans, in the interest of your liberty and your independence, to arm,
-to arm yourselves. (Applause and cries of ‘We will do it, we are ready
-now.’) You are not.’ Then the rest of it is the wind-up. Besides what I
-have stated above he spoke for a long while about the fact that out of every
-dollar the workingman got fifteen cents, and the capitalists&mdash;the employers&mdash;got
-eighty-five cents. When he said, ‘To arms, to arms,’ he said that in
-his ordinary way of talking. I did not notice any difference in him when he
-said that.</p>
-
-<p>“The first that I have written out of Fielden’s speech is: ‘There are premonitions
-of danger&mdash;all know it. The press say the Anarchists will sneak
-away; we are not going to. If we continue to be robbed it will not be long
-before we will be murdered. There is no security for the working classes
-under the present social system. A few individuals control the means of
-living and hold the workingmen in a vise. Everybody does not know that.
-Those who know it are tired of it, and know the others will get tired of it,
-too. They are determined to end it and will end it, and there is no power
-in the land that will prevent them. Congressman Foran says the laborer
-can get nothing from legislation. He also said that the laborers can get
-some relief from their present condition when the rich man knew it was unsafe
-for him to live in a community where there are dissatisfied workingmen,
-for they would solve the labor problem. I don’t know whether you are
-Democrats or Republicans, but whichever you are, you worship at the shrine
-of heaven. John Brown, Jefferson, Washington, Patrick Henry and Hopkins
-said to the people, “The law is your enemy.” We are rebels against it.
-The law is only framed for those that are your enslavers. (A voice: ‘That
-is true.’) Men in their blind rage attacked McCormick’s factory and were
-shot down by the law in cold blood, in the city of Chicago, in the protection
-of property. Those men were going to do some damage to a certain person’s
-interest who was a large property-owner; therefore the law came to his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[460]</a></span>
-defense; and when McCormick undertook to do some injury to the interest
-of those who had no property, the law also came to his defense and not to
-the workingman’s defense, when he, McCormick, attacked him and his
-living. (Cries of ‘No.’) There is the difference. The law makes no distinctions.
-A million men hold all the property in this country. The law
-has no use for the other fifty-four millions. (A voice: ‘Right enough.’)
-You have nothing more to do with the law except to lay hands on it and
-throttle it until it makes its last kick. It turns your brothers out on the
-wayside, and has degraded them until they have lost the last vestige of
-humanity, and they are mere things and animals. Keep your eye upon it,
-throttle it, kill it, stab it, do everything you can to wound it&mdash;to impede its
-progress. Remember, before trusting them to do anything for yourself,
-prepare to do it yourself. Don’t turn over your business to anybody else.
-No man deserves anything unless he is man enough to make an effort to lift
-himself from oppression.’</p>
-
-<p>“Then there was an interruption on account of some storm-clouds.
-Everybody started to go away. Mr. Parsons suggested that they adjourn
-over to Zepf’s Hall. Fielden said no, the people were trying to get information,
-and he would go on. And he went on: ‘Is it not a fact that we
-have no choice as to our existence, for we can’t dictate what our labor is
-worth? He that has to obey the will of another is a slave. Can we do anything
-except by the strong arm of resistance? The Socialists are not going
-to declare war, but I tell you war has been declared upon us; and I ask you
-to get hold of anything that will help to resist the onslaught of the enemy
-and the usurper. The skirmish lines have met. People have been shot.
-Men, women and children have not been spared by the capitalists and minions
-of private capital. It has no mercy&mdash;so ought you. You are called
-upon to defend yourselves, your lives, your future. What matters it whether
-you kill yourselves with work to get a little relief, or die on the battle-field
-resisting the enemy? What is the difference? Any animal, however loathsome,
-will resist when stepped upon. Are men less than snails or worms?
-I have some resistance in me; I know that you have, too. You have been
-robbed, and you will be starved into a worse condition.’</p>
-
-<p>“That is all I have. At that time some one alongside of me asked if
-the police were coming. I was facing northeast, looked down the street,
-and saw a file of police about the middle of Randolph Street. At once I
-put my paper in my pocket and ran right over to the northwest corner of
-Randolph and Desplaines. Just when I reached the sidewalk, the front
-rank of the police got to the southwest corner of Randolph and Desplaines.
-I stood there until some of the police marched by, and the first thing I
-knew I heard an explosion; and the next thing there was a volley of fifteen
-or twenty or thirty shots, and I thought it was about time to leave, so I
-skinned down Randolph Street. While I was running I heard a great lot of
-shots, and somebody tumbled right in front of me, but I didn’t stop to see
-whether he was hurt. I didn’t see who shot first. As to the temper of the
-crowd, it was just an ordinary meeting.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Mr. English said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“It was a peaceable and quiet meeting for an out-door meeting. I
-didn’t see any turbulence. I was there all the time. I thought the speeches
-they made that night were a little milder than I had heard them make for
-years. They were all set speeches, about the same thing. I didn’t hear<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[461]</a></span>
-any of them say or advise that they were going to use force that night.
-Before I went to the meeting my instructions from the <i>Tribune</i> office were
-to take only the most incendiary part of the speeches. I think when Mr.
-Parsons spoke about the Cincinnati meeting he said he had been at Cincinnati
-and seen the procession. I heard the announcement to the crowd to
-disperse, distinctly. I did not hear Mr. Fielden say: ‘There come the
-bloodhounds now; you do your duty and I’ll do mine.’ I heard nothing of
-that import at all.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">M. M. Thompson</span> testified:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I am at present employed in the dry-goods business of Marshall Field
-&amp; Co. Prior to the 4th of May last I was running a grocery store at 108
-South Desplaines. I was at the Haymarket Square on the evening of May
-4th. I walked west on Randolph Street about half past seven o’clock, and
-somebody handed me a circular headed ‘Revenge,’ and signed ‘Your Brothers.’
-About twenty-five minutes to eight I got to the corner of Desplaines
-and Randolph. I met Mr. Brazleton of the <i>Inter-Ocean</i>. We talked about
-fifteen minutes. I asked the time. It was ten minutes of eight. Brazleton
-pointed out to me Mr. Schwab, who came rushing along Desplaines Street
-in a great hurry. I then went over to the east side of Desplaines Street. I
-walked up Desplaines Street near the corner of Lake, and came back again
-to the alley back of Crane Bros’. and stood just back of that alley. Then I
-saw Spies get up on the wagon and he asked for Parsons. Parsons didn’t
-respond. He then got down, and Schwab and Spies walked into that alley
-at Crane Bros’., near which the wagon was situated. The first word I heard
-between Schwab and Spies was ‘pistols;’ the next word was ‘police.’ I
-think I heard ‘police’ twice, or ‘pistols’ twice. I then walked just a little
-nearer the edge of the alley, and just then Spies said: ‘Do you think one is
-enough, or hadn’t we better go and get more?’ I could hear no answer to
-that. They then walked out of the alley and south on Desplaines Street,
-and west on the north side of Randolph to Halsted, and cut across the
-street and went over to the southwest corner; they were there about three
-minutes, came out of that crowd again and came back. On the way back,
-as they neared Union Street, I heard the word ‘police’ again. Just then I
-went past them, and Schwab said: ‘Now, if they come, we will give it to
-them.’ Spies replied he thought they were afraid to bother with them.
-They came on, and before they got up near the wagon they met a third
-party, and they bunched right together there, south of the alley, and appeared
-to get right in a huddle; and there was something passed between
-Spies and the third man&mdash;what it was I could not say. This here (indicating
-picture of Schnaubelt, heretofore identified) is, I think, the third
-man; I think his beard was a little longer than in this picture; this is the
-picture of the third man. I saw the third man on the wagon afterwards.
-Whatever it was that Spies gave him, he stuck it in his pocket on the right-hand
-side. Spies got up on the wagon, and I think that third man got up
-right after him. I noticed him afterwards sitting on the wagon, and that he
-kept his hands in his pockets. I stayed there until Mr. Fielden commenced
-to speak; then I left.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Thompson said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“My grocery store was closed by the Sheriff under an execution. I
-worked for Marshall Field before. I had never seen any of the defendants,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[462]</a></span>
-to my knowledge, before that night, in my life. When I saw Spies and
-Schwab go into the alley, there was a crowd there. I was standing right
-near the alley, or alongside north of it, up against the building. I couldn’t
-see down the alley unless I turned my face to it. The first time I had ever
-seen Spies was when he got up on the wagon. Spies got out of the wagon
-and went into Crane’s alley with Schwab. I was right around the corner
-of the alley within three feet probably at the farthest, and I moved down
-to within half a foot. I did not look down the alley, only when they came
-out of the alley I did look. The conversation between Spies and Schwab
-was in English. I don’t understand German. I didn’t hear any words
-between ‘police’ and ‘pistols.’ They were in there probably two or three
-minutes. When I drew up within a foot of the alley, I heard: ‘Do you
-think one enough, or had we better go for more?’ Going up Randolph
-Street, I heard some words spoken in German between them, but not in
-the conversation at the alley. I cannot say that I knew Mr. Schwab’s voice
-at that time. I only knew Mr. Spies’ voice from what I heard him ask on
-the wagon. Spies was the one who used the words ‘pistols’ and ‘police.’
-I did not see him when he said it. I could not see him without putting my
-head around the corner. They went out of my sight when they went into
-the alley. The whole conversation was done in three minutes, I should judge.
-The first remark that I heard was about a minute and a half after they
-went into the alley and went out of sight. When they came out and walked
-south on Desplaines I followed them within a few feet. It was then about
-a quarter past eight. They walked west on Randolph Street to Halsted,
-and I trailed after them all the time, part of the time beside them, part
-of the time ahead, and past them, but all the time close to them. When
-they came to Halsted there were a few people there, not much of a crowd.
-I was still tagging after them with no other object than looking for the meeting,
-to find where the audience was assembled. I don’t know whether they
-saw me; there was nothing whatever to prevent their seeing me. When
-they were going west I couldn’t hear a word of what they did say. The
-street lamps were lighted. When they got down on Halsted there was a
-crowd, of about twenty-five people. They were right in the thickest of the
-crowd, and I stood on the sidewalk, about ten feet from them. I didn’t
-hear either of them say a word. Then they went back east on Randolph
-Street. I was about six feet behind them. They said nothing. There was
-nobody else following them besides me. I couldn’t hear what they said
-until they came to Union Street. Then I got past them. It was light at
-the time; they could see me. Near Union Street Schwab said: ‘Now, if
-they come, we will give it to them,’ and Spies said he did not think they
-would bother them, because they were afraid. This conversation was
-carried on in the English language. I was behind them when I heard the
-first of it, but they kind of slackened, and I got by them. I was making my
-gait quicker to get by them. Schwab finished his remark when I got about
-three feet by them. Schwab made his remark in an ordinary tone of street
-conversation, loud enough for me to hear. I heard no more conversation
-between Schwab and Spies. I testified before the Coroner’s jury. I testified
-to this conversation at Union Street. If I didn’t, it was an oversight
-on my part, or it was because nobody asked me any question, but I say
-that I did say that before the Coroner’s inquest.</p>
-
-<p>“Coming back, I stopped on the northwest corner of Randolph and
-Desplaines. I was then about ten or fifteen feet ahead of Spies and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[463]</a></span>
-Schwab. They came up. I can’t say that they were talking. They went
-right through the street, moving diagonally to the wagon. I staid at the
-corner. I did not go after them until they got onto the wagon. That was
-the last time that I saw Schwab. I saw Spies when he got up to make a
-speech. Oh, no, that wasn’t the last time that I saw Schwab that night.
-That was the last time that I saw him until they were out of sight and the
-third man met them. When they started from the corner northeast across
-the street, I stood at the corner just to let them cross the street. Then I
-started after them. They did not get out of my sight. I didn’t catch up
-with them at all. When I got within eight or ten feet of them they were
-standing on the sidewalk. They stopped right there, about five feet south
-of the south line of Crane’s alley. There wasn’t probably more than half a
-dozen people on the east side of the street. There were a good many people
-on the West Side. It was then about twenty or twenty-five minutes past
-eight. When I got up within eight or ten feet of them and they stopped, I
-stopped too, and looked at them. They were in plain view of me. I don’t
-think they did see me, though they could see me if they looked up. I think
-there are some electric lights near there, on the Lyceum building. I was
-between them and the electric light. When they stopped there, the next
-thing was that they met that third man. I had never seen that third man
-before. I have seen this picture of Schnaubelt before; I think Mr. Furthmann
-showed it to me about a week ago. That third party came from the
-east. He must have been standing up against the house, and he walked
-west to the front of the sidewalk. Schnaubelt was not facing me; he had
-his back to me. They did not go into the alley. One had his back south,
-one east, and Spies had his back north. I didn’t hear what they were talking
-about. I was on the sidewalk near the curb-stone, partly south, not
-directly south of them. Spies stood directly to the north, which would
-bring his back to me. I don’t know but what he did see me. They stood
-there about thirty seconds. I didn’t hear a word. Spies handed that third
-man something, who put it into his pocket, and Spies got up on the wagon
-and made a speech. I did not see Schwab on the wagon. Spies got right
-up on the wagon and commenced to speak, but one or two minutes elapsed
-in the time.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">August Huen</span>, a printer in the employ of Wehrer &amp; Klein, set up the
-German part of the circular headed “Attention, Workingmen!” and testified
-that the last line read, “Workingmen, arm yourselves and appear in
-full force.” Mr. Fischer wrote it. On cross-examination, he testified that
-an hour after the form had been given to the pressman the last line was
-taken out.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Hugh Hume</span>, a reporter for the <i>Inter-Ocean</i>, testified:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I saw Mr. Fielden and other defendants in the sweat-box&mdash;that is, the
-cells down-stairs&mdash;at the Central Station, about midnight, between the 5th
-and 6th of May last. I had a conversation with Spies. He said he had
-been at the Haymarket meeting. He had gone up there to refute the statements
-of the capitalistic press in regard to what he had said at McCormick’s.
-Up at McCormick’s he had been talking to a lot of people whom
-he could not influence&mdash;all good Catholics. During his speech on the
-Haymarket, some people had shown a disposition to hang McCormick.
-He had told them not to make any threats of that kind. He had said,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[464]</a></span>
-‘When you want to do a thing of that kind, don’t talk so much about it,
-but go out and do it.’ He then said to me that the people had reached a
-condition where they were willing to do any violence, and he had advocated
-violence of that kind. It was necessary to bring about the revolution that
-the Socialists wanted. He said he had advocated the use of dynamite. I
-asked him if he was in favor of killing police officers with dynamite. He
-hesitated a little, and then said the police represented the capitalists and
-were enemies of theirs, and when you have an enemy he has got to be
-removed. That is the gist of what he said. Spies said he didn’t know
-anything about the bomb being exploded until afterwards. He had heard
-a noise that resembled the sound of a cannon, and thought the police were
-firing over the heads of the people to frighten them. He said he considered
-all laws as things you could get along without; they were inimical to
-the best interests of the people and of the social growth. He did not think
-that dynamite was in his office when he left it, and had an idea that the
-police put that dynamite there to get a case on him.</p>
-
-<p>“I had a little talk with Mr. Fielden. He was suffering somewhat from
-his wound. When I asked him how the Haymarket affair accorded with
-his ideas of Socialism, he said, ‘You are on dangerous ground now. There
-is an argument, though, that we have, that is to the effect that if you cannot
-do a thing peaceably, it has got to be done by force.’ Something to that
-effect; I don’t remember the language. Fielden said, as to the number of
-Socialists in Chicago, that there were a number of groups here, containing
-250 men. Those were recognized Socialists, but they had people from
-all over the city, from nearly every wholesale house; but those people are
-afraid to come out yet, only awaiting an opportunity. He spoke about the
-decision of the Supreme Court prohibiting military companies from marching
-around with arms. He was inclined to think that the decision was not
-right.</p>
-
-<p>“I had a short interview with Schwab. All he had to say was that
-Socialism was right, even with the blood shed at the Haymarket.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Mr. Hume said that Spies saw him write down
-answers to the questions and knew that he wanted the interview for publication.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Harry L. Gilmer</span> proved a strong witness and testified as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I am a painter by trade. Reside at 50 North Ann Street. On the
-evening of May 4 last, I was at the Haymarket meeting on Desplaines
-Street. I got there about a quarter to ten o’clock. In going home, when
-I got to the corner of Randolph and Desplaines Streets, I saw a crowd over
-there, and went up to where the speaking was going on, on the east side of
-Desplaines Street. I saw the wagon; did not pay particular attention to
-the speaking. I stood near the lamp-post on the corner of Crane Bros’.
-alley, between the lamp-post and the wagon, and up near the east end of
-the wagon for a few minutes. The gentleman here (pointing to Fielden)
-was speaking when I came there. I staid around there a few minutes,
-was looking for a party whom I expected to find there, and stepped back
-into the alley between Crane Bros’. building and the building immediately
-south of it. The alley was south of the wagon. I was standing in the
-alley looking around for a few minutes; noticed parties in conversation,
-right across the alley, on the south side of the alley. Somebody in front of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[465]</a></span>
-me on the edge of the sidewalk said, ‘Here comes the police.’ There was
-a sort of rush to see the police come up. There was a man came from the
-wagon down to the parties that were standing on the south side of the
-alley. He lit a match and touched it off, something or another&mdash;the fuse
-commenced to fizzle, and he give a couple of steps forward, and tossed it
-over into the street. He was standing in this direction (illustrating). The
-man that lit the match on this side of him, and two or three of them stood
-together, and he turned around with it in his hand, took two or three steps
-that way, and tossed it that way, over into the street. I knew the man by
-sight who threw that fizzing thing into the street. I have seen him several
-times at meetings at one place and another in the city. I do not know
-his name. He was a man about five feet ten inches high, somewhat full-chested,
-and had a light sandy beard, not very long. He was full-faced,
-his eyes set somewhat back in his head. Judging from his appearance, he
-would probably weigh 180 pounds. My impression is his hat was dark
-brown or black; I don’t know whether it was a soft hat, a felt hat or a stiff
-hat. This here (indicating photograph of Schnaubelt heretofore identified)
-is the man that threw the bomb out of the alley. There were four or five
-standing together in the group. This here (pointing to Spies) is the man
-who came from the wagon toward the group.</p>
-
-<p>“I did not see the police myself, there were so many people between
-me and them. I don’t recollect any declaration from any of the police officers
-about this person&mdash;nothing distinctly, anyway. That man over there
-(pointing at defendant Fischer) was one of the parties. After the bomb
-was thrown these parties immediately left through the alley. I stood
-there. The firing commenced immediately afterwards, and my attention
-was attracted by the firing, and I paid more attention to that than anything
-else.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Gilmer testified to having resided formerly in Des
-Moines, Iowa, Fort Dodge, Iowa, Kansas City, Mo., and in various localities
-in Chicago. He then proceeded as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I know the Coroner’s jury was investigating the matter. I saw an
-account of the investigation of the grand jury in the paper. I first told a
-man by the name of Allen and another party whom I don’t know, and a
-reporter of the <i>Times</i>, that I saw the match lighted, and saw the man who
-threw the bomb. I think that it was two or three days after the 4th of May.
-A number of people were talking the matter over on the west side of the
-City Hall, on La Salle Street, and I made the remark that I believed if I
-ever saw the party who threw the bomb I could identify him. They didn’t
-ask me why I made that remark. I don’t think they asked me any questions,
-what I knew about the matter. The reporter afterwards told me he
-had heard the remark. I think that was on the 6th of May. On May 5th,
-I was working on the corner of Twentieth Street and Wabash Avenue. On
-the 6th of May I went down to 88 La Salle Street to collect a bill. I went
-across the street, and there had the conversation with the reporter and
-the others. That night I had a note left at my room for me to come down
-to the Central Station. The name of James Bonfield was signed to the
-note. I went to the Central Station and had a conversation with Mr. Bonfield
-the next day; I couldn’t tell exactly whether on the 6th or the 7th. I
-made my statement to Mr. Bonfield. I never appeared before a Coroner’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[466]</a></span>
-jury; was never subpoenaed to appear before any Coroner’s jury that examined
-any of the dead policemen. I was at the Haymarket meeting about
-fifteen minutes from the time I got there to the explosion of the bomb. I
-was looking for a person who had told me he was going to the meeting.
-I kept looking through the crowd to see if I could find him. Fielden was
-speaking then. I don’t remember anything of his speech, except that he
-made use of the word McCormick. Before I went down-town I had read
-in the paper that there had been a riot at McCormick’s the day before, and
-that the police had shot some men. I was in the neighborhood of where
-Fielden talked for about fifteen minutes. I don’t remember anything about
-the connection in which Fielden spoke of McCormick. I was looking for a
-gentleman by the name of Richard Roe, and didn’t pay any attention to
-what Fielden said. When I stepped into the alley I think I was on the
-north side of the alley, about eight feet from the corner of Crane’s building.
-That group of men was right across the alley on the south side. The lamp
-was burning on the corner of the alley at that time, and it shone right
-down. I could see the persons in that party distinctly; could see their
-countenances; they could see myself. They were also about eight or nine
-feet from the mouth of the alley. I could hear them talk. They spoke
-German. I didn’t understand them. Before the man came from the wagon
-I stepped across the alley and was standing on the north side of the alley,
-perhaps three or four feet to the east of that group, so that I was standing
-about twelve or fourteen feet from the mouth of Crane’s alley. I did not
-say that I saw the wagon from that point. I could just see the hind end of
-the wagon from where I stood when I went through the alley. I think there
-was a tail-board. The edges of the box of the wagon were perhaps ten
-inches high. I don’t know whether there were side-boards on that wagon
-or not; I could not say positively as to the width of the side-boards on the
-wagon. They might have been higher than ten inches. I am sure there
-was a box of some kind on the wagon. My impression is it was a wagon
-about twelve or thirteen feet long, with low side-boards on. I didn’t see
-anybody get off of the wagon after I went in the alley. I did not say
-Mr. Spies got down off the wagon. I said he came from towards the wagon.
-I saw him standing on the sidewalk before I went in the alley. I did not
-say I saw Spies in the wagon at all. Mr. Spies is the man that came down
-in the alley and lighted the bomb, to the best of my recollection. When I
-saw him standing on the sidewalk he was talking with somebody. I would
-be inclined to think it was this gentleman here (indicating Schwab). I
-could not say for sure. I think it was a dark-complexioned man. My
-impression is it might be him. I have very little doubt but Fischer is the
-man I saw in the group. I am very nearly as positive that Fischer is the
-man as I am that the picture is the picture of the man who threw the bomb.
-I am sure Fischer is the man. I think I saw Mr. Parsons there that night
-talking to some ladies. I had been down to the Palmer House that evening
-to see some gentlemen from Des Moines that I understood were in the city.
-One of them was Judge Cole, another was ex-Gov. Samuel Merrill. I
-didn’t find either of them there. I went to the meeting, as I thought I
-would meet Mr. Roe, and we would go home together. That was the only
-business I had with Mr. Roe. It would have been eight or nine blocks
-from the Haymarket to where I lived.</p>
-
-<p>“I did not run at the time of the shooting. I did not move at all. I
-stood right at the mouth of the alley. After it was all over I backed out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[467]</a></span>
-the alley, took a car and went home. There were no bullets coming in
-around my locality in the alley. On the street-car on my way home I didn’t
-talk with anybody about the occurrence. There were quite a number of
-people in the car talking about the Haymarket occurrence, and there was
-considerable excitement in the car on account of it. The next morning I
-went down on the Wabash Avenue car to the corner of Twentieth Street
-and Wabash Avenue.</p>
-
-<p>“I heard people speak about the Haymarket affair in the restaurant, on
-Madison Street, where I took my breakfast. I did not say to them anything
-about my seeing the match lighted and the bomb thrown. I bought
-the <i>News</i> on the car. I think I was working for Frank Crandle that day;
-to the best of my recollection, there was only one man working with me on
-the job. We worked alongside of each other some time. Talked about
-different things, about our business. I did not say to him that I saw the
-bomb thrown, nor that I saw the man light the match that lit the bomb.
-I told him I had been at the Haymarket and spoke of the Haymarket riot,
-and I think I said there were a number killed or wounded. In the evening
-I went home on the Wabash Avenue car. People were speaking about the
-Haymarket meeting in the car. I didn’t tell them I knew anything about
-it. I think I got home about half past six. I had no conversation with the
-landlady. After my supper, my impression is I went to Mr. Roe’s house.
-He was not at home. I stayed there about fifteen minutes talking with Mrs.
-Roe. Her daughter, about twelve or thirteen years old, was present during
-the conversation. We talked about the Haymarket meeting. I told her I
-was there. She said she would not let Mr. Roe go to the meeting. I did
-not tell her nor anybody on that occasion that I saw the bomb lighted and
-thrown. Since noon adjournment I had no talk with James Bonfield.”</p>
-
-<p>“Were not you just now walking back and forth in the corridor with
-him?”</p>
-
-<p>“I did not have no&mdash;“</p>
-
-<p>“Didn’t you walk back and forth?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, sir.”</p>
-
-<p>“You were talking to him?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, sir.”</p>
-
-<p>“When I was at Central Station, I think, both Inspector Bonfield and
-Lieut. Kipley were present when I made the statement that I could
-recognize the man, if I ever saw him again, who threw the bomb.
-Afterwards I told all the details to Mr. Grinnell. I explained matters
-more to him than to anybody else. I would not be positive that I told Mr.
-Bonfield I saw the man light the match. I gave a description of the man
-that I saw throw the bomb. I think the man had a black or blue sack
-coat on. I think he had black eyes, and somewhat light whiskers. The
-bomb went in a westerly direction. I have seen Mr. Spies the last year
-and a half, and knew him by sight, not by name. I heard him speak at
-public meetings, seen him very frequently, but never knew his name. I
-heard him once on Market Street, a year ago last spring. I did not inquire
-who it was that spoke. I knew from hearing him and reading the papers
-that Spies was one of the speakers. I frequently heard the name of
-August Spies. At the time I had the conversation with Bonfield I
-described to him as well as I could the man that struck the match and
-lighted the fuse. It was either Bonfield or one of the officers in the
-Central Station. They were all together. I was twice over at police<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[468]</a></span>
-headquarters. This picture here (photograph of Schnaubelt) was shown to
-me first some time last week, at the State’s Attorney’s office. I was in the
-city during the time the Coroner’s jury was examining into the cause of
-the death of different policemen, and at the time the grand jury was examining
-into this case. The officers knew my name and address. They
-never called on me to go before the grand jury or the Coroner’s jury.</p>
-
-<p>“The man who threw the bomb was about five feet and eight, ten or
-nine inches high. I don’t think he was a man over six feet tall. The first
-time I told Mr. Grinnell of my experience at the Haymarket was when I
-made my second visit to the Central Station, on Sunday after the Haymarket
-meeting. I think at that time I only told Mr. Grinnell that I could
-identify the person that threw the bomb, if I saw him. I think I told him
-at that time that I saw one man strike a match and light the fuse, and
-another man throw the bomb. Mr. Fischer was brought in while we had
-the conversation at the Central Station. I looked at him. I said nothing
-about his being the man that struck the match. I knew him by sight. I
-identified him as being one of the men who composed the group in
-the alley.</p>
-
-<p>“I received some money two or three times when I have been over
-here from Mr. James Bonfield&mdash;ten or fifteen cents, sometimes a quarter.
-At the conversation at Central Station I was not told that I was wanted as
-a witness before the grand jury. I saw the picture of Rudolph Schnaubelt
-about six weeks ago, when Mr. Grinnell sent for me. I did not tell any
-person at any time, except the officers that I mentioned, that I saw the act
-of lighting the bomb accomplished. Neither Mr. Grinnell nor Bonfield, nor
-any other officer, told me to keep silent in regard to the matter.</p>
-
-<p>“I am six feet three in height. I could pretty near see right over the
-head of the fellow who threw the bomb. When I gave a description of the
-man who came from the wagon and lighted the match that lit the fuse they
-did not bring out Mr. Spies for me to look at. Spies had kind of dark
-clothes on that night. His hat was black or brown. My impression is
-it was a limber-rimmed hat. I first told Mr. Grinnell one day last week
-that this is the man that struck the match, when I saw him sitting here in
-court. I think Mr. Fischer had on a blue sack-coat that night. I think
-he had a black necktie. If Schnaubelt had any necktie that night it
-was a very light one. Spies had a turn-down collar that night and not any
-necktie. I think the upper buttons of Mr. Schnaubelt’s coat were
-buttoned. I think Spies had one or two buttons of his coat buttoned up
-when he came from the wagon into the alley.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Martin Quinn</span> was recalled and testified to finding, at Engel’s house,
-a machine for making bombs.</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Engel said it had been left there by some man about four or five
-months previous to that time. Mrs. Engel gave a description of the man
-who left the machine down at the basement door, as a man with long black
-whiskers and pretty tall. Mr. Engel said he thought he knew the man,
-and he thought the machine was made for the purpose of making bombs.
-There had been a meeting at Turner Hall, where this man had made a
-speech about the manufacture of bombs, and the next thing was, this
-machine was brought over, and Engel had said to him he wouldn’t allow
-him to make any bombs in his basement; so the man went away. Engel
-didn’t know where he was.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[469]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">John Bonfield</span> was recalled and testified to being at the Central
-Station when Officer Quinn brought Engel and the machine there. Bonfield,
-being asked by State’s Attorney Grinnell to explain the purpose of
-the apparatus, said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“This is a blast furnace in miniature&mdash;a home-made one. This upright
-part could be lined with fire-clay. This shoulder, some two and a half
-inches from the bottom, could be filled in around with clay, leaving the
-holes open. This, in a blasting furnace, would be known as a tweer. It is
-filled up to a considerable height with clay to protect it from the hot fire
-inside, and the pressure of air is applied through those pipes, one or both
-of them, as may be necessary. When the fire is extinguished or removed,
-the debris or slag that comes from the metal, and the ashes and cinders
-from the material used for fuel, can be taken out
-through the trap at the bottom. The spout is
-for the purpose of passing out the melted metal.
-It is stopped with a plug of clay, and when the
-plug is removed the metal is poured through that
-tube.”</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-469.jpg" width="200" height="419" id="i469"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">ENGEL’S BLAST FURNACE.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Louis Mahlendorf</span> testified as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I am a tinner by trade, at 292 Milwaukee
-Avenue, since two years. I know the defendant
-Engel since about eight years. I made this machine
-(referring to blasting-machine) for Engel
-over a year ago. I cut off the iron and formed
-it up. Another gentleman, a kind of heavy-set
-man with long beard, was with him when he
-ordered it. Mr. Engel waited for it. He took
-it away with him.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Hermann Schuettler</span>, a detective connected
-with the East Chicago Avenue Station, gave the
-facts with reference to his arrest of Lingg, and
-his search of the room on Sedgwick Street, with
-Officers Stift, Loewenstein and Whalen:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“We searched a trunk and found a round
-lead bomb in a stocking. The trunk was in the
-southeast room. In another stocking I found
-a large navy revolver. Both revolver and bomb
-were loaded. I turned them over to Capt. Schaack. We found a ladle
-and some tools, a cold chisel and other articles. This here (indicating) is
-the trunk I found in the room. The letters ‘L. L.’ were on it at the time.
-I recollect a round porcelain-lined blue cup made out of china that I found,
-and I believe a file. In the closet underneath the baseboard we found a
-lot of torn-off plaster. The lathing was sawed so you could get your hand
-between the floor and the bottom of the laths underneath. I saw those
-lead pipes (indicating) lying between the house Lingg lived in and the next
-house to it, in a small gangway. On the way to the Chicago Avenue Station
-I asked Lingg why he wanted to kill me. He said: ‘Personally, I have
-nothing against you, but if I had killed you and your partner I would have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[470]</a></span>
-been satisfied. I would have killed myself if I had got away with you and
-your partner.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination witness stated that he had had no search warrant
-for going through Lingg’s trunk.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Jacob Loewenstein</span>, another detective connected with the same station,
-testified to assisting Schuettler in arresting Lingg and that after they had
-vanquished him Lingg said several times: “Shoot me right here, before I
-will go with you. Kill me!” Witness further stated:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I was with Officers Whalen, Stift, Schuettler, Cushman and McCormick,
-at Lingg’s room, on May 7, between ten and eleven o’clock. Nobody
-was in the house. The door was locked. Finally we pushed in the door
-and went in. In a little bed-room in the southeast corner of the house there
-was a bed and a wash-stand and a trunk, and a little shelf up in the corner
-with some bottles on it. In the closet there were some shells, and some
-loaded cartridges, and on the floor some metal and some lead. Those here
-(indicating box containing shells) are the shells I found in the closet of
-Lingg’s room. I found those bolts (indicating) in the wash-stand. This
-metal here (indicating) I found in a dinner-box with some loaded dynamite
-bombs in the trunk. There were four bombs in this box (indicating), gas-pipe
-bombs. The two in the bottom were loaded. When I first opened
-the trunk this cover (indicating) dropped down, and with this Remington
-rifle (indicating), which was loaded, fell down. I found a lot of papers and
-books in the top of the trunk. In a gray stocking I found this round dynamite
-bomb, loaded (indicating). I found two pieces of solder in that
-dinner-box. I found a blast hammer and one smaller hammer, a couple of
-iron bits and drills, a two-quart pail, with a little substance looking like
-saw-dust in the bottom of it, which I found out to be dynamite. I found a
-little tin quart basin under the bed with a little piece of fuse in it. In the
-bottom of the trunk I found two or three pieces of fuse. In the closet we
-tore off the baseboard, which had been freshly nailed down&mdash;the nails
-were projecting out a little bit&mdash;and found the plaster was torn out all the
-way around on the baseboard, and there were holes there.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Joseph B. Casagrande</span>, telephone operator at the East Chicago Avenue
-Station, but on duty at the Larrabee Street Station on the night of May 4,
-and John K. Soller, a police officer at the last-named station, testified to a
-call for a patrol wagon and its leaving at 10:40 o’clock for Desplaines and
-Randolph Streets with a full load of officers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">John B. Murphy</span>, a physician and surgeon, was called to the Desplaines
-Street Station after the Haymarket explosion and remained until three
-o’clock in the morning. He was a surgeon at the Cook County Hospital,
-and when he left the station he proceeded direct to that institution. At the
-station Dr. Murphy said that he first dressed Barrett, who was complaining
-and crying with severe pain.</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“He had a very large wound in his side, large enough to admit two fingers
-right into his liver, and severely bleeding. I could not reach with my
-finger the piece of shell that caused the injury. It was a lacerated wound,
-much larger than could be made by an ordinary pistol bullet. I tampened<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[471]</a></span>
-the liver with gauze to prevent his bleeding to death at the station, and I
-went on to other officers in that way until I dressed in all between twenty-six
-and thirty at the station. When we got through with that, at three
-o’clock, Dr. Lee remained at the station while I went to the hospital to take
-care of those injured most severely, who were to be sent to the hospital.
-Officers Muller, Whitney, Keller, Barrett, Flavin and Redden are the principal
-men that I ordered him to send first to the hospital.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Dr. Murphy then gave a list of the men and specified the particular
-character of their wounds.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">E. G. Epler</span>, a physician and surgeon practicing at No. 505 South
-Canal Street, testified to having dressed a wound of Fielden between eleven
-and twelve at night on May 4.</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“The wound was on the left side of the left knee joint, the bullet having
-passed in underneath the skin and passed out again five inches from the
-point of entry. He said he was crawling on the pavement trying to get
-away from the crowd when he received the injury, and the bullet glanced
-off from the pavement and struck him in that position.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Michael Hoffman</span>, a detective connected with the Larrabee Street Station,
-gave evidence as to finding nine round bombs and four long ones.</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“These two bombs (indicating) I found at the corner of Clyde and Clybourn
-Avenue, near Ogden’s Grove, under the sidewalk. They were empty.
-I found another one there which was loaded, and which I gave to Capt.
-Schaack. Gustav Lehman, who was a witness in this case, was with me
-when I found them. I got two coils of fuse, a can of dynamite and a box of
-caps at the same time. I found these two pieces of gas-pipe (indicating)
-at 509 North Halsted Street, under the house of John Thielen, who was
-arrested, with two cigar-boxes full of dynamite and two boxes of cartridges,
-one rifle, one revolver. The revolver and one box of cartridges were buried
-under the floor of the coal-shed, and two bombs which were loaded, the
-dynamite and rifle and other box of cartridges were buried under the house
-in the ground. The can of dynamite which Lehman pointed out to me, and
-which I found near Ogden’s Grove, held about a gallon. This can and the
-box of caps were on the stone of the pavement; the bombs were buried in
-the ground.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">At this stage of the proceedings I was myself put on the stand. My
-testimony, as taken by the stenographers, was as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I am police captain of the Fifth Precinct. My headquarters are at East
-Chicago Avenue Station. I have charge of two other stations besides.
-Have been connected with the force for eighteen years. Have been captain
-one year. I have seen Spies, Schwab, Neebe and Fischer. Had no
-personal acquaintance with them. The defendants Engel and Lingg were
-arrested and confined in my station. Lingg was arrested on May 14th;
-Engel about the 18th. I had my first conversation with Lingg about this
-case about three o’clock on the afternoon of May 14th. Lingg told me his
-name, and that he had lived at 442 Sedgwick Street. He had been out of
-work for about four weeks. I asked him whether he was at the meeting
-held in the basement of 54 West Lake Street on Monday night, and he
-said, ‘Yes.’ On Tuesday night, May 4th, he said, he was at home&mdash;not all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[472]</a></span>
-the evening. He and Seliger had been on Larrabee Street, quite a ways
-north; had had several glasses of beer, and from there he went home. He
-said he had made some bombs to use them himself. He said he had reason
-for being down on the police; they had clubbed him out at McCormick’s.
-He said he was down on capitalists, and found fault with the
-police for taking the part of the capitalists. If the capitalists turned out
-the militia and the police force with their Gatling guns, they couldn’t do
-anything with revolvers, and therefore they had adopted these bombs and
-dynamite. He said he had learned to make bombs in scientific books of
-warfare published by Most, of New York. He had got his dynamite on
-Lake Street, somewhere near Dearborn, and had bought some fuse and
-caps, and told me what he paid for it. He had not used up all his dynamite.
-He said he had made bombs of gas-pipe, and also of metal and lead
-mixed. He found the gas-pipe on the street sometimes. The lead he got
-about the same way. He said the bombs they found in his place were all
-he made. We put Mrs. Seliger face to face with him, and she accused him
-that he had commenced making bombs a few weeks after he came to their
-house. He looked at the woman, but didn’t say anything. John Thielen,
-who was arrested at the time, faced him too. Lingg admitted he had
-given to Thielen the two cigar-boxes full of dynamite and the two bombs
-which Officer Hoffman brought to me; at the same time Lingg looked
-right square at Thielen and shook his head for him to keep still. Thielen
-said to him, ‘Never mind, you might as well tell it. They know it all,
-anyhow.’</p>
-
-<p>“In Lingg’s trunk I discovered a false bottom, and in there I found two
-long cartridges of dynamite, and some fuse four inches long, with caps on,
-and a big coil of fuse. I asked Lingg if that was the dynamite he used in
-his bombs, and he said yes. The dynamite in the package is lighter in
-quality than what was found in his bombs, except one that was black. I got
-three kinds of dynamite. That in the gallon-box that Lehman testified
-was given to him by Lingg looked like charcoal; the dynamite in the trunk
-was white, and the dynamite in most of those bombs is dark-colored.
-Lingg said he had tried a round bomb and a long one in the open air
-somewhere, and they worked well. He put one right in the crotch of a
-tree and split it all up. He said he had known Spies for some time. He
-had been at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office about five times, bringing reports of
-Socialistic and Anarchistic meetings to the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. He stated
-he had been financial secretary of a branch of the Carpenters’ Union. He
-had been a Socialist ever since he could think. He told me he had been in
-this country since last July or August; he had been a Socialist in Europe.”</p>
-
-<p>“Now give the conversation which you had with Engel.”</p>
-
-<p>“Engel said, in the first conversation that I had with him, that on Monday,
-3d of May, he was doing some fresco work for a friend by the name of
-Koch, somewhere out west. He had been for a little while at the 54 West
-Lake Street meeting that night, but made no speech there.</p>
-
-<p>“Several days afterwards I had another conversation, when his wife and
-daughter came. Engel complained that his cell was dark and no water
-running in it, and I told him we would give him another cell if we had it.
-The cells were crowded right along that night. And his wife said, ‘Do
-you see now what trouble you got yourself into?’ and Engel answered,
-‘Mamma, I can’t help it.’ I asked him why he didn’t stop that nonsense,
-and he said: ‘I promised my wife so many times that I would stop this business,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[473]</a></span>
-but I can’t stop it. What is in me has got to come out. I can’t help
-it that I am so gifted with eloquence. It is a curse. It has been a curse
-to a good many other men. A good many men have suffered already for
-the same cause, and I am willing to suffer and will stand it like a man.’
-And I think he mentioned Louise Michel as having taken a leading part in
-the Anarchist business. Engel said on the evening of May 4th he was at
-home tying on the lounge.</p>
-
-<p>“I have experimented with all dynamite that was brought me; also the
-bombs. I gave a portion of the lead bomb which Officer Schuettler testified
-he found in Lingg’s room to Professor Haines. I took the dynamite
-from that bomb and put the dynamite in a piece of gas-pipe, about five
-inches long, with ends screwed on. I had a box made two feet square,
-of inch boards, pretty well nailed together, and we dug a hole three feet
-deep out at Lake View, in the bushes, put the box into the hole, cut a hole
-in the top of the box, let the bomb into it, put a fuse and cap to it, and
-touched it off. This was found as the result of the explosion (indicating
-fragments). The box was blown all to pieces, and some of the pieces flew up
-in the trees. Everything in that box was smashed to pieces. This bomb
-here (indicating) I have made in the same way, and filled it with some
-black dynamite from that gallon can which was given by Lingg to Lehman,
-as stated here. This here (indicating fragments of the exploded
-bomb) was the result of the examination. I put some dynamite also in a
-beer keg. It smashed the keg all to pieces.</p>
-
-<p>“Now here are the fragments from a lead bomb which Lehman gave to
-Hoffman and Hoffman to me. We got a piece of boiler-iron a quarter of
-an inch thick, nineteen inches high, and thirty-four inches wide. Then we
-had a steel top weighing 140 pounds. On the ground I put two-inch plank.
-On top of the plank I put four large metal sheets. I put the bomb right in
-the center, and a big stone weighing about 125 pounds on top, and the
-inside of the boiler-iron, the tub, I had painted so we could see where the
-lead would strike. I touched it off myself. It knocked the tub away up in
-the air, and the stone on top was crushed all to pieces. This is the result
-of the lead after we picked it up on top of the boards (indicating fragments
-of the tub). Here is the bolt (indicating) that was on the bomb. The nut
-we did not find. I counted 195 places where the lead struck the painted
-boiler-iron. There is a crack clear through the boiler-iron. In six places
-it is bulged out. Professor Haines has got a piece of this bomb (indicating),
-and Professor Patton another piece. I gave to the professors pieces
-of metal from other bombs.</p>
-
-<p>“Lingg in his conversations with me said there would likely be a revolution
-through this workingmen’s trouble. There was a satchel brought
-from Neff’s place. The satchel was filled with bombs. Thielen was present.
-I asked him if he brought the satchel there. He said he saw the
-satchel there, saw it stand there when he left, and that was the last he saw
-of it. Lingg said he made the molds to make these bombs himself. He
-made them of clay, and that they could be used to cast in only about twice.
-He said he saw the ‘Revenge’ circular on the West Side, I believe at 71
-West Lake Street. I asked him when he had had his hair trimmed and his
-chin beard shaved. He said on or about the 7th of May. He said there
-had been several persons in his room on the afternoon of May 4th, among
-them the two Lehmans.</p>
-
-<p>“I experimented with fuse. I cut a fuse four inches long and set it on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[474]</a></span>
-fire, and you could count just six until it struck the cap within. I experimented
-with dynamite cartridges. I drilled a hole in one end about an inch
-and a half deep, shoved a percussion cap in, put a fuse on, and exploded
-it. I had it stand free up in the air in a stone weighing about twenty or
-thirty pounds. When it went off it broke the stone all up. I put one right
-in the center of a lot of shrubs and bushes, and it broke everything up&mdash;took
-around about four feet each way.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination I stated that I had never taken Lingg before any
-magistrate for examination. There was no complaint entered against him.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Frederick Drews</span> saw some cans underneath the sidewalk at his home,
-No. 351 North Paulina Street, about three miles from the Haymarket, and
-testified to having turned them over to me. His residence was about a mile
-and a half from Wicker Park.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Michael Whalen</span>, a detective connected with the Chicago Avenue Station,
-testified to having seen the cans referred to by the preceding witness
-in the yard at No. 351 North Paulina Street, and that there were four of
-those cans, one of which they emptied.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Daniel Coughlin</span>, a police officer, testified as to the explosive character
-of one of the cans found at North Paulina Street, with a fulminating cap
-and fuse about eight inches long. After igniting the fuse an explosion was
-caused which shattered the can, throwing the contents, some kind of vitriol,
-four or five feet around.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Charles E. Prouty</span>, manager of a gun-store at No. 53 State Street, recalled
-a visit of Mr. and Mrs. Engel at the store the previous fall.</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“They made some inquiries in regard to some large revolvers. They
-found one there that seemed to be satisfactory, and wanted to know at what
-price they could get a quantity of them, perhaps one or two hundred, and
-wanted to buy that one and pay for it and present it at some meeting of
-some society. They took the pistol and paid for it. A week or two after
-they returned, said the pistol was satisfactory, and wanted to know if I could
-get them a lot. I said I knew of one lot in the East, and would inquire. I
-wrote East, and found the lot had been disposed of. They were somewhat
-disappointed, but said they had found something else for a little less money
-that would answer the purpose, and with that they left our store. Mrs.
-Engel comes frequently to our store. She has a little store on the West
-Side, and buys fishing-tackle and other things in our line. I sold cartridges
-to them in a small way, as she might want them in her store. When I spoke
-of guns I meant large revolvers, something about seven-inch barrel&mdash;I think
-44 or 45-caliber, at $5.50 apiece. When I stated the price was very cheap
-they replied they didn’t care to make profit on them, it was for a society.
-I remember seeing Mr. Parsons’ face in the store. Never had any dealings
-with him.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">William J. Reynolds</span>, in the employ of D. H. Lamberson &amp; Co., gun
-business at No. 76 State Street, testified:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I think about February or March of this year Mr. Parsons came to our
-store. He said he wanted to buy a quantity of revolvers&mdash;I think forty or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[475]</a></span>
-fifty. He wanted what is called an old remodeled Remington revolver, 44
-or 45-caliber. I agreed to write and get a quotation of the revolver. He
-came in again, and I quoted him a price upon it. He did not purchase any
-revolvers, and was in once or twice after that. He seemed undecided
-about it.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Thomas McNamara</span>, a police officer, testified:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I found thirty loaded and one empty gas-pipe bombs under the sidewalk
-on Bloomingdale Road and Robey Street. The loaded bombs were
-fixed with caps and fuse. They were in an oil-cloth. The corner where I
-found them is about four blocks from Wicker Park. Found them on the
-afternoon of May 23 last. Three coils of fuse in a tin can and two boxes
-of dynamite caps&mdash;probably about two hundred caps&mdash;were also in the
-package.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Prof. <span class="smcap">Walter S. Haines</span> examined a number of bomb fragments and
-testified as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I am professor of chemistry in Rush Medical College in this city. I
-devote most of my time to practical chemistry. I have examined several
-pieces of metal at the request of the State’s Attorney. I received from
-Capt. Schaack, on June 24 this year, a piece of bomb said to have been
-connected with Lingg. I call it ‘Lingg bomb No. 1.’ I received from Dr.
-J. B. Murphy, on the same day, a piece of metal said to have been taken
-from Officer Murphy. I designate it ‘Murphy bomb.’ On July 22 I
-received a piece of metal said to have been taken from Officer Degan. I
-designate it ‘Degan bomb.’ The last piece I received from Mr. Furthmann.
-I subsequently received from Officer Whalen a piece of bomb said
-to have been connected with Lingg. I designate it ‘Lingg bomb No. 2,’
-The next day I received from Capt. Schaack pieces of two other bombs
-also said to have been connected with Lingg. I designate as ‘Lingg
-bombs Nos. 3 and 4.’ I received from Mr. Furthmann a portion of a bomb
-said to have been connected with Mr. Spies, which I designate as ‘Spies
-bomb.’ These were all subjected to chemical examination. Lingg bombs
-Nos. 1, 3 and 4 were found to consist chiefly of lead, with a small percentage
-of tin and traces of antimony, iron and zinc. The amount of tin in these
-three bombs differs slightly. One of them contained about 1.9 per cent.,
-another about 2.4 per cent., the third about 2½ per cent. of tin. Lingg
-bomb No. 2 contained more tin, consequently less lead; also a little more
-antimony and a little more zinc. The amount of tin in this bomb was very
-nearly seven per cent. The Murphy bomb was composed of a small proportion
-of tin, chiefly lead and traces of antimony, iron and zinc. The
-amount of tin was in round numbers 1.6 per cent. The Degan bomb contained
-in round numbers 1.6 or 1.7 per cent. The remainder was lead,
-with traces of antimony, iron and zinc. The Spies bomb consisted chiefly
-of lead with a small quantity of tin, about 1.1 per cent., in round numbers,
-with traces of antimony, iron and zinc. The different pieces of the same
-bomb differed slightly in the proportions of the metals present. The
-Degan bomb contained slightly more tin than what I call the Murphy bomb.
-There is no commercial substance with which I am acquainted that has such
-a composition as these bombs. Commercial lead frequently contains traces
-of other substances, but, as far as I know, never tin. Solder is composed
-of from a third to a half tin and the remainder lead. Lead must have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[476]</a></span>
-the basis for the preparation of the various articles which I examined, and
-this must have been mixed either with tin or some substance containing tin,
-as for instance solder.</p>
-
-<p>“Lingg bomb No. 2 had a minute trace of copper. This piece of candlestick
-(indicating) is composed of tin and lead, with a certain amount of
-antimony and zinc and a little copper. Professor Patton has been sick for
-about two weeks. I worked in connection with Professor Delafontaine
-instead of working with Patton.” (The Spies bomb is the one which the
-witness Wilkinson identified.)</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Prof. <span class="smcap">Mark Delafontaine</span> testified as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I am a chemist, teacher of chemistry in the High School in this city.
-Have been a chemist for over thirty years. I made an examination of the
-substances described by Prof. Haines, compared results with him, and they
-agreed as closely as they can. I found the piece of candlestick to be a mixture
-of antimony, tin, lead, zinc and a trace of copper. I made experiments
-with old lead pipes upon which there was solder. I took a piece of old
-lead pipe that had been very much mended, had much solder put on; I
-melted it, analyzed it, and the amount of tin contained in the mixture was
-about seven-tenths of one per cent. I don’t know of any one commercial
-product of which the pieces of bomb that I examined could be composed.
-I never found a sample of lead containing the least traces of tin.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Michael Whalen</span>, recalled, testified that he gave to Prof. Haines two
-pieces of lead which I had given to him.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Edmund Furthmann</span>, Assistant State’s Attorney, stated that the piece
-of lead he gave to Prof. Haines he had received from Dr. Bluthardt, and
-designated the various halls and places spoken of by various witnesses as
-being all located in Cook County and the State of Illinois.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Theodore J. Bluthardt</span> was then called and gave the following evidence:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I am County Physician. I made a <i>post-mortem</i> examination upon the
-body of Mathias J. Degan, on the 5th day of May last, before the Coroner’s
-inquest, at the Cook County Hospital. I found a deep cut upon his forehead,
-another cut over the right eye and another deep cut, about two inches
-in length, on the left side. I found a large wound, apparently a gun-shot
-wound&mdash;a hole in the middle of the left thigh. I found seven explosive
-marks on his right leg and two on the left leg. The large hole in the
-middle of the left thigh was the mortal wound caused by an explosive, a
-piece of lead that had penetrated the skin, destroyed the inside muscles
-and lacerated the femoral artery, which caused bleeding to death. Besides
-that he had a wound on the dorsum of the left foot, also caused by a piece
-of lead, which forced its way through the bones of the ankle joint. I found
-a piece behind the inside ankle of the left foot. Both pieces I gave to Mr.
-Furthmann. The external appearance of that wound on that left thigh was
-that of a rifle ball. It was round and not very ragged; it was clean cut
-through the skin, but the muscles of the thigh were all contused and torn&mdash;formed
-a kind of pulpy cavity as large as a goose egg on the inside. The
-missile was lodged in the upper part of the thigh, about four inches above
-the place where it entered. Mathias J. Degan died of hemorrhage of the
-femoral artery, caused by this wound that I described.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[477]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“I made a <i>post-mortem</i> examination on the body of John Barrett on the
-7th of May, at 171 East Chicago Avenue. A missile had passed through
-the eleventh rib into the upper part of the liver, about three inches deep.
-There I found a piece of lead and a piece of blue cloth with lining in. The
-right lung was collapsed. From the opening into the diaphragm the air
-rushed into the cavity of the chest and compressed the lung. In consequence
-of the wound in the liver there was a good deal of hemorrhage into
-the chest as well as into the abdomen. This wound, by this explosive piece
-of material, was the cause of his death. He had several other wounds.</p>
-
-<p>“On the same day I made a <i>post-mortem</i> examination on the body of
-George F. Muller, at the Cook County Hospital. This man died, in my
-opinion, from the effects of a pistol ball which wounded the small intestines
-and caused inflammation of the bowels.</p>
-
-<p>“On May 8th I made a <i>post-mortem</i> examination on the body of Tim
-Flavin. He had a small wound in the back four inches to the left of the
-spine. The missile, which was not a pistol ball, passed into the abdomen
-below the twelfth rib. I found much blood in both cavities, and the cause
-of his death was internal hemorrhage.</p>
-
-<p>“On May 10th I made a <i>post-mortem</i> examination on the body of Michael
-Sheehan. He died from exhaustion caused by a pistol shot wound upon the
-right side of the abdomen, three inches to the right and four inches above
-the umbilicus. The ball passed through the mesentary and lower part of
-the liver into the muscles of the abdomen. There was considerable blood
-in the abdomen and the liver. The surroundings were very much inflamed.</p>
-
-<p>“On May 17th I made a <i>post-mortem</i> examination on the body of Thomas
-Redden, at the Cook County Hospital. I found an abrasion over the right
-eye, a slight lacerated wound upon the lower part of the left hip, a large
-lacerated wound perforating the right forearm, a compound fracture of the
-left tibia, a large lacerated wound upon the posterior part of the left leg, a
-circular wound upon the right leg two inches below the knee joint, extending
-to the bone, another wound upon the right leg about seven inches above
-the ankle, a large lacerated wound upon the left side of the back. I found
-the lungs badly inflamed and the blood valves enlarged above the kidneys,
-and the liver somewhat inflamed with so-called cloudy swelling. In my
-opinion he died from the effects of these wounds bringing about blood-poisoning.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">James Bonfield</span>, being recalled, stated:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I found a number of banners at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. I found, altogether,
-about forty banners. I can identify only a few of them as found at
-the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">State’s Attorney Grinnell here announced that the prosecution rested its
-case. Thereupon counsel for the defendants moved that the jury be sent
-from the court-room while they would present and argue, on behalf of
-Neebe, a motion that the jury be instructed to find a verdict of not guilty
-as to Neebe. Judge Gary refused the motion.</p>
-
-<p>A like motion on behalf of the other defendants, except August Spies
-and Adolph Fischer, was also overruled by the court.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[478]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">The Programme of the Defense&mdash;Mayor Harrison’s Memories&mdash;Simonson’s
-Story&mdash;A Graphic Account&mdash;A Bird’s-eye View of Dynamite&mdash;Ferguson and the
-Bomb&mdash;“As Big as a Base Ball”&mdash;The Defense Theory of the Riot&mdash;Claiming the
-Police were the Aggressors&mdash;Dr. Taylor and the Bullet-marks&mdash;The Attack on Gilmer’s
-Veracity&mdash;Varying Testimony&mdash;The Witnesses who Appeared.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">MR. MOSES SALOMON opened the case for the Anarchists on Saturday,
-July 31. He proceeded to state that the defendants had
-steadily refused to believe that any man on the jury would be willing to
-convict any of the defendants because of being an Anarchist or a Socialist.</p>
-
-<p>“Mr. Grinnell,” said Mr. Salomon, “failed to state to you that he had a
-person by whom he could prove who threw the bomb, and he never expected
-to make this proof until he found that without this proof he was unable to
-maintain this prosecution against these defendants; and it was as this case
-neared the prosecution end of it that the State suddenly changed front and
-produced a professional tramp and a professional liar, as we will show you,
-to prove that one of these defendants was connected with the throwing of
-it. They then recognized, as we claimed and now claim, that that is the
-only way they can maintain their case here.”</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Salomon next directed the attention of the jury to the charge against
-the defendants and said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“As I told you a moment ago, they are not charged with Anarchy; they
-are not charged with Socialism; they are not charged with the fact that
-Anarchy and Socialism is dangerous or beneficial to the community; but,
-according to the law under which we are now acting, a charge specific in
-its nature must be made against them, and that alone must be sustained,
-and it is the duty of the jury to weigh the evidence as it bears upon that
-charge; and upon no other point can they pay attention to it. Now, gentlemen,
-the charge here is shown by this indictment. This is the accusation.
-This is what the case involves, and upon this the defendants and the
-prosecution must either stand or fall. This indictment is for the murder of
-Mathias J. Degan. It is charged that each one of these defendants committed
-the crime, each defendant individually; and it is charged in a number
-of different ways. Now, I desire to call your attention to the law governing
-this indictment and to read it to you; and I am presenting the law
-to you now, gentlemen, so that you can understand how we view this case
-and how the evidence is affected by what the law is.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Mr. Salomon then read the law touching murder and the statute on
-accessories and explained:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“The law says, no matter whether these defendants advised generally the
-use of dynamite in the purpose which they claimed to carry out, and sought
-to carry out, yet if none of these defendants advised the throwing of that
-bomb at the Haymarket, they cannot be held responsible for the action of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[479]</a></span>
-others at other times and other places. What does the evidence introduced
-here tend to show? It may occur to some of you, gentlemen, to ask:
-‘What, then, can these defendants preach the use of dynamite? May they
-be allowed to go on and urge people to overturn the present government
-and the present condition of society without being held responsible for it
-and without punishment? Is there no law to which these people can be
-subjected and punished if they do this thing?’ There is, gentlemen, but it
-is not and never has been murder, and if they are amenable, as the evidence
-introduced by the prosecution tends to show, it is under another and a
-different law, and no attempt on the part of the prosecution to jump the
-wide chasm which separates these two offenses can be successful unless it
-is done out of pure hatred, malice, ill-will, or because of prejudice. The
-law protects every citizen. It punishes every guilty man, and according to
-the measure of his crime; no more and no less. If a man be guilty of conspiracy,
-or if he be guilty of treason, he is
-liable to punishment for that offense, and
-not for a higher one. This is what the
-people of the State of Illinois have said,
-and that is their law. That is what they
-want enforced, and that is what I stand
-here for as the advocate of these defendants.
-I claim for them, and for the entire people
-of this State, that the law shall be applied
-as it is found, and as they have directed
-it to be enforced. Now, what is the statute
-on conspiracy, of which these defendants
-may be guilty, if they are guilty of anything?”</p></div>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-479.jpg" width="250" height="310" id="i479"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">MOSES SALOMON.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="p1">He next read the law with reference to
-conspiracy and proceeded:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“The proof in this case, with the exception
-of Gilmer’s testimony, showed and
-shows only that the State has a case within
-those sections which I have last read to you, and no other, if they have
-a case against them at all. Now, gentlemen, I have read to you the
-section of the statute relating to accessories. As I have told you before, it
-is only the perpetrator and abettor in the perpetration of a crime who,
-under the decision of almost every supreme court in the United States and
-England, can be held.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Mr. Salomon touched on one or two minor points and concluded as
-follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“That view of the law, that they must be proven to be accessories to the
-crime, is the one point only upon which the prosecution can sustain their
-case, and is the only one upon which this case must proceed, according to
-our view. Now, these defendants are not criminals; they are not robbers;
-they are not burglars; they are not common thieves; they descend to no
-small criminal act. On the contrary, this evidence shows conclusively that
-they are men of broad feelings of humanity, that their only desire has been,
-and their lives have been consecrated to, the betterment of their fellow-men.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[480]</a></span>
-They have not sought to take the life of any man, of any individual, to maliciously
-kill or destroy any person, nor have they sought to deprive any
-man of his property for their own benefit. They have not sought to get
-McCormick’s property for themselves; they have not sought to get Marshall
-Field’s property for themselves, and to deprive Marshall Field of it feloniously,
-but they have endeavored and labored to establish a different social
-system. It is true they have adopted means, or <i>wanted</i> to adopt means that
-were not approved of by all mankind. It is true that their methods were
-dangerous, perhaps; but then they should have been stopped at their inception.
-We shall expect to prove to you, gentlemen, that these men have
-stood by the man who has the least friends; that they have endeavored to
-better the condition of the laboring man. The laboring men have few
-friends enough. They have no means, without the combination and assistance
-of their fellow-men, to better their condition, and it was to further that
-purpose and to raise them above constant labor and constant toil and constant
-worry and constant fret, and to have their fellow-men act and be as
-human beings and not as animals, that these defendants have consecrated
-their lives and energies. If it was in pursuance of that, wrought up, perhaps,
-through frequent failures and through the constant force exercised
-against them, that they came to the conclusion that it was necessary to use
-force against force, we know not, and we do not expect to prove nor to deny
-that these defendants advocated the use of force, nor do we now intend to
-apologize for anything they have said, nor to excuse their acts. It is neither
-the place nor the time for counsel in this case, nor of the gentlemen of the
-jury, to either excuse the acts of these defendants nor to encourage them.
-With that we have here nothing to do. Our object is simply to show that
-these defendants are not guilty of the murder with which they are charged
-in this indictment. But the issue is forced upon us to say whether it was
-right or wrong, and whether they had the right to advocate the bettering of
-their fellow-men. As Mr. Grinnell said, he wanted to hang Socialism and
-Anarchy; but twelve men nor twelve hundred nor twelve thousand can
-stamp out Anarchy nor root out Socialism, no more than they can Democracy
-or Republicanism, that lie within the heart and within the head. Under
-our forms of government every man has the right to believe and the
-right to express his thoughts, whether they be inimical to the present institutions
-or whether they favor them; but if that man, no matter what he
-advocates or who he be, whether Democrat, Republican, Socialist or Anarchist,
-kill and destroy human life deliberately and feloniously, that man,
-whether high or low, is amenable to criminal justice, and must be punished
-for his crime, and for no other.</p>
-
-<p>“Now, what was the object of these defendants, as they are charged, in
-being so bloodthirsty? Their purpose was to change society, to bring into
-force and effect their Socialistic and Anarchistic ideas. Were they right or
-were they wrong, or have we nothing to do with it? As I told you, they
-had the right to express their ideas. They had the right. They had the
-right to gain converts, to make Anarchists and Socialists, but whether
-Socialism or Anarchy shall ever be established never rested with these
-defendants, never rested in a can of dynamite or in a dynamite bomb. It
-rests with the great mass of people, with the people of Chicago, of Illinois,
-of the United States, of the world. If they, the people, want Anarchy, want
-Socialism, if they want Democracy or Republicanism, they can and they will
-inaugurate it. But the people, also, will allow a little toleration of views.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[481]</a></span>
-Now, these defendants claim that Socialism is a progressive social science,
-and it will be a part of the proof which you will have to determine. Must
-the world stand as we found it when we were born, or have we a right to
-show our fellow-men a better way, a nobler life, a better condition? That
-is what these defendants claim, if they are forced beyond the issue in this
-case.... In furtherance of that plan, what have these defendants
-done? Have they murdered many people? What was their plan when
-they counseled dynamite? They intended to use dynamite in furtherance
-of the general revolution; never, never against any individual. We will
-show you that it was their purpose, as the proof, I think, partly shows
-already, that when a general revolution or a general strike was inaugurated,
-when they were attacked, that then, in fact, while carrying out the purposes
-of that strike or that revolution, that then they should use dynamite, and
-not until then. If it is unlawful to conspire to carry out that thing, these
-men must be held for that thing. We shall show you that these men, in
-carrying out their plan for the bettering of the condition of the workingmen,
-inaugurated the eight-hour movement. They inaugurated the early-closing
-movement. They inaugurated every movement that tended to alleviate the
-condition of the workingman and allow him a greater time to his family, for
-mutual benefit. That is what these defendants set up for a defense. That
-is what they claim was their right to do, and that is what they claim they
-did do, and they did nothing more.</p>
-
-<p>“Now, gentlemen, we don’t say that we desire to go into this proof, because
-we think it has nothing to do with this case, if our theory is correct;
-but if we are forced to show why they did these things it is simply to convince
-you that their objects were not for robbery, not for stealing, not to
-gain property for themselves, and not to maliciously or willfully destroy any
-man’s good name or his property interests.</p>
-
-<p>“We expect to show you, further, that these defendants never conspired,
-nor any one of them, to take the life of any single individual at any time or
-place; that they never conspired or plotted to take, at this time or at any
-other time, the life of Mathias Degan or any number of policemen, except
-in self-defense while carrying out their original purpose. We expect, further,
-to show you that on the night of the 4th of May these defendants had
-assembled peaceably, that the purpose of the meeting was peaceable, that
-its objects were peaceable, that they delivered the same harangue as before,
-that the crowd listened, and that not a single act transpired there, previous
-to the coming of the policemen, by which any man in the audience could be
-held amenable to law. They assembled there, gentlemen, under the provision
-of our Constitution, to exercise the right of free speech, to discuss
-the situation of the workingmen, to discuss the eight-hour question. They
-assembled there to incidentally discuss what they deemed outrages at
-McCormick’s. No man expected that a bomb would be thrown; no man
-expected that any one would be injured at that meeting; but while some of
-these defendants were there and while this meeting was peaceably in progress,
-the police, with a devilish design, as we expect to prove, came down
-upon that body with their revolvers in their hands and pockets, ready for
-immediate use, intending to destroy the life of every man that stood upon
-that market square. That seems terrible, gentlemen, but that is the information
-which we have and which we expect to show you. We expect to
-show you further, gentlemen, that the crowd did not fire, that not a single
-person fired a single shot at the police officers. We expect to show you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[482]</a></span>
-that Mr. Fielden did not have on that night, and never had in his life, a
-revolver; that he did not fire, and that that portion of the testimony here is
-wrong. We expect to show you further, gentlemen, that the witness Gilmer,
-who testified to having seen Spies light the match which caused the destruction
-coming from the bomb, is a professional and constitutional liar; that
-no man in the city of Chicago who knows him will believe him under oath,
-and, indeed, I might almost say that it would scarcely need even a witness
-to show the falsity of his testimony, because it seems to me that it must fall
-of its own weight. We expect to show you, gentlemen, that Thompson was
-greatly mistaken; that on that night Schwab never saw or talked with Mr.
-Spies; that he was at the Haymarket early in the evening, but that he left
-before the meeting began and before he saw Mr. Spies on that evening at
-all. We expect to show that Mr. Parsons, so far from thinking anything
-wrong, and Fischer, were quietly seated at Zepf’s Hall, drinking, perhaps, a
-glass of beer at the time the bomb exploded, and that it was as great a surprise
-to them as it was to any of you. We expect to show you that Engel
-was at home at the time the bomb exploded, and that he knew nothing
-about it. With the whereabouts of Lingg you are already familiar. It may
-seem strange why he was manufacturing bombs. The answer to that is,
-he had a right to have his house full of dynamite. He had a right to have
-weapons of all descriptions upon his premises, and until he used them, or
-advised their use, and they were used in pursuance of his advice, he is not
-liable any more than the man who commits numerous burglaries, the man
-who commits numerous thefts, who walks the streets, is liable to arrest and
-punishment only when he commits an act which makes him amenable to
-law.</p>
-
-<p>“I did not expect to address you concerning Mr. Neebe, and it is unnecessary
-for me to make much comment on that, but we will show you that Mr.
-Neebe did not know of this meeting, that he was not present, that he was in
-no manner connected with it, and there is no proof to show that he was.
-We will also prove to you, gentlemen, that Mr. Fielden did not go down the
-alley, as some of the witnesses for the State have testified, but that he went
-down Desplaines Street to Randolph, and up Randolph, as, indeed, if my
-memory serves me right, the statements made by Mr. Fielden immediately
-after the occurrence already sufficiently show.</p>
-
-<p>“Now, gentlemen, in conclusion, as I stated to you a moment ago, we
-do not intend to defend against Socialism, we do not intend to defend
-against Anarchism; we expect to be held responsible for that only which we
-have done, and to be held in the manner pointed out by law. Under the
-charge upon which these defendants are held under this indictment, we
-shall prove to you, and I hope to your entire satisfaction, that a case has
-not been made out against them. Whether they be Socialists or whether
-they be Anarchists we hope will not influence any one of you, gentlemen.
-Whatever they may have preached, or whatever they may have said, or
-whatever may have been their object, if it was not connected with the
-throwing of the bomb it is your sworn testimony to acquit them. We expect
-to make all this proof, and we expect such a result.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On the Monday following, being the 2d of August, the defense began
-its testimony. The first witness introduced was <span class="smcap">Carter H. Harrison</span>, then
-Mayor of Chicago. His evidence was as follows:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[483]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I am Mayor of the city of Chicago since over seven years. On the
-4th of May last I was present during a part of the Haymarket meeting so-called.
-On the day before there was a riot at McCormick’s factory, which
-was represented to me to have grown out of a speech made by Mr. Spies.
-During the morning of the 4th I received information of the issuance of a
-circular of a peculiar character and calling for a meeting at the Haymarket
-that night. I directed the Chief of Police that if anything should be said
-at that meeting that might call out a recurrence of such proceedings as at
-McCormick’s factory, the meeting should be dispersed. I believed that it
-was better for myself to be there and disperse the meeting myself instead
-of leaving it to any policeman. I went to the meeting for the purpose of
-dispersing it in case I should feel it necessary for the safety of the city. I
-arrived there about five minutes before eight. There was a large concourse
-of people about the Haymarket, but it was so long before any speaking
-commenced that probably two-thirds of the people there assembled left, as
-it seemed to me. It was about half-past eight when the speaking commenced
-and the meeting congregated around Crane’s building, or the alley
-near it.</p>
-
-<p>“Mr. Spies may have been speaking one or two minutes before I got
-near enough to hear distinctly what he said. I judge I left the meeting between
-10 and 10:05 o’clock that night. I staid to hear Mr. Spies’ speech,
-and I heard all of Mr. Parsons’ up to the time I left, with the exception of
-five or ten minutes, during which I went over to the station. When I judged
-that Mr. Parsons was looking towards the close of his speech I went over
-to the station, spoke to Capt. Bonfield, and determined to go home, but instead
-of going immediately I went back to hear a little more; staid there
-about five minutes longer and then left. Within about twenty minutes from
-the time that I left the meeting I heard the sound of the explosion of the
-bomb at my house. While at the meeting I noticed that I was observed
-when I struck a match to light my cigar and the full blaze showed my face.
-I thought Mr. Spies had observed me, as the tone of his speech suddenly
-changed, but that is mere conjecture. Prior to that change in the tone of
-Mr. Spies’ speech I feared his remarks would force me to disperse the
-meeting. I was there for that purpose; that is to say, it was my own determination
-to do it against the will of the police. After that occurrence
-the general tenor of Spies’ speech was such that I remarked to Capt. Bonfield
-that it was tame.”</p>
-
-<p>“Did anything transpire in the address of either Spies or Parsons, after
-the incident of the lighting of your cigar to which you have referred, that
-led you to conclude to take any action in reference to the dispersing of the
-meeting?”</p>
-
-<p>The State objected to an answer, and the objection was sustained.</p>
-
-<p>“I did in fact take no action at the meeting about dispersing it. There
-were occasional replies from the audience, as ‘Shoot him,’ ‘Hang him’ or
-the like, but I do not think, from the directions in which they came, here
-and there and around, that there were more than two or three hundred
-actual sympathizers with the speakers. Several times cries of ‘Hang him’
-would come from a boy in the outskirts, and the crowd would laugh. I felt
-that a majority of the crowd were idle spectators, and the replies nearly as
-much what might be called ‘guying’ as absolute applause. Some of the
-replies were evidently bitter; they came from immediately around the
-stand. The audience numbered from eight hundred to one thousand. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[484]</a></span>
-people in attendance, so far as I could see during the half hour before the
-speaking commenced, were apparently laborers or mechanics, and the majority
-of them not English-speaking people&mdash;mostly Germans. There was
-no suggestion made by either of the speakers looking toward calling for the
-immediate use of force or violence toward any person that night; if there
-had been I should have dispersed them at once. After I came back from
-the station Parsons was still speaking, but evidently approaching a close.
-It was becoming cloudy and looked like threatening rain, and I thought the
-thing was about over. There was not one-fourth of the crowd that had
-been there during the evening listening to the speakers at that time. In
-the crowd I heard a great many Germans use expressions of their being
-dissatisfied with bringing them there and having this speaking. When I
-went to the station during Parsons’ speech, I stated to Capt. Bonfield that
-I thought the speeches were about over; that nothing had occurred yet or
-looked likely to occur to require interference, and that he had better issue
-orders to his reserves at the other stations to go home. Bonfield replied
-that he had reached the same conclusion from reports brought to him, but
-he thought it would be best to retain the men in the station until the meeting
-broke up, and then referred to a rumor that he had heard that night
-which he thought would make it necessary for him to keep his men there,
-which I concurred in. During my attendance of the meeting I saw no
-weapons at all upon any person.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Mr. Harrison stated:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“The rumor that I referred to was related to me by Capt. Bonfield
-immediately after my reaching the station. Bonfield told me he had just
-received information that the Haymarket meeting, or a part of it, would go
-over to the Milwaukee and St. Paul freight-houses, then filled with ‘scabs,’
-and blow it up. There was also an intimation that this meeting might be
-held merely to attract the attention of the police to the Haymarket, while the
-real attack, if any, should be made that night on McCormick’s. Those
-were the contingencies in regard to which I was listening to those speeches.
-In listening to the speeches, I concluded it was not an organization to
-destroy property that night, and went home. My order to Bonfield was
-that the reserves held at the other stations might be sent home, because I
-learned that all was quiet in the district where McCormick’s factory is situated.
-Bonfield replied he had already ordered the reserves in the other
-stations to go in their regular order.</p>
-
-<p>“Bonfield was there, detailed by the Chief of Police, in control of that
-meeting, together with Capt. Ward. I don’t remember of hearing Parsons
-call ‘To arms! To arms! To arms!’ When I speak of a rumor in regard
-to a possible attack upon McCormick’s, the fact is it was not a rumor
-that came from others, but rather a fear or apprehension on my own part,
-and it was suggested first by myself that this might be the aim of this
-meeting. There was a direct statement by Mr. Bonfield to me that he had
-heard the rumor about the freight-houses.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Barton Simonson</span>, a traveling salesman for E. Rothschild &amp; Bros.,
-wholesale clothing, concluded, after taking supper at his mother’s house,
-No. 50 West Ohio Street, to take in the Haymarket meeting, and he went
-there and remained throughout the proceedings, until the explosion of the
-bomb. He testified:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[485]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“The speakers were northeast from me, in front of Crane Bros’. building,
-a few feet north of the alley. I remember the alley particularly. As
-far as I remember Spies’ speech, he said: ‘Please come to order. This
-meeting is not called to incite any riot.’ He then said that McCormick
-had charged him with the murder of the people at the meeting the night
-before; that Mr. McCormick was a liar. McCormick was himself responsible.
-Somebody had opposed his speaking at the meeting near McCormick’s
-because he was a Socialist. The people he spoke to were good
-Christian, church-going people. While he was speaking, McCormick’s
-people had come out. Some of the men and boys had started for them,
-and had had some harmless sport throwing stones into the windows, etc.
-Then he said that some workingmen were shot at and killed by the police.
-That is as far as my memory goes.</p>
-
-<p>“Parsons illustrated that the capitalists got the great bulk of the profit
-out of everything done. I remember in his speech he said: ‘To arms!
-To arms! To arms!’ but in what connection I cannot remember. Somebody
-in the crowd said, ‘Shoot’ or ‘Hang Gould,’ and he says, ‘No, a
-great many will jump up and take his place. What Socialism aims at is
-not the death of individuals, but of the system.’</p>
-
-<p>“Fielden spoke very loud, and as I had never attended a Socialistic meeting
-before in my life, I thought they were a little wild. Fielden spoke about a
-Congressman from Ohio who had been elected by the workingmen and confessed
-that no legislation could be enacted in favor of the workingmen; consequently
-he said there was no use trying to do anything by legislation.
-After he had talked awhile a dark cloud with cold wind came from the
-north. Many people had left before, but when the cloud came a great
-many people left. Somebody said, ‘Let’s adjourn,’&mdash;to some place, I can’t
-remember the name of the place. Fielden said he was about through, there
-was no need of adjourning. He said two or three times, ‘Now, in conclusion,’
-or something like that, and I became impatient. Then I heard a
-commotion and a good deal of noise in the audience, and somebody said,
-‘Police.’ I looked south and saw a line of police when it was at about the
-Randolph Street car-tracks. The police moved along until the front of the
-column got about up to the speakers’ wagon. I heard somebody near the
-wagon say something about dispersing. I saw some persons upon the
-wagon. I could not tell who they were. About the time that somebody
-was giving that command to disperse, I distinctly heard two words coming
-from the vicinity of the wagon or from the wagon. I don’t know who
-uttered them. The words were ‘peaceable meeting.’ That was a few seconds
-before the explosion of the bomb. As the police marched through the
-crowd the latter went to the sidewalks on either side, some went north,
-some few went on Randolph Street east, and some west. I did not hear
-any such exclamation as ‘Here come the bloodhounds of the police; you
-do your duty and I’ll do mine,’ from the locality of the wagon or from Mr.
-Fielden. I heard nothing of that sort that night. At the time the bomb
-exploded I was still in my position upon the stairs. A reporter talked to
-me while I was on those stairs. I remember he went down, and just before
-the police came he ran up past me again. There was no pistol fired by any
-person upon the wagon before the bomb exploded. No pistol shots anywhere
-before the explosion of the bomb. Just after the command to disperse
-had been given, I saw a lighted fuse or something&mdash;I didn’t know
-what it was at the time&mdash;come up from a point nearly twenty feet south of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[486]</a></span>
-the south line of Crane’s alley, from about the center of the sidewalk on the
-east side of the street, from behind some boxes. I am positive it was not
-thrown from the alley. I first noticed it about six or seven feet in the air,
-a little above a man’s head. It went in a northwest course and up about
-fifteen feet from the ground, and fell about the middle of the street. The
-explosion followed almost immediately, possibly within two or three seconds.
-Something of a cloud of smoke followed the explosion. After the bomb exploded
-there was pistol-shooting. From my position I could distinctly see
-the flashes of the pistols. My head was about fifteen feet from the ground.
-There might have been fifty to one hundred and fifty pistol shots. They
-proceeded from about the center of where the police were. I did not observe
-either the flashes of pistol shots or hear the report of any shots from
-the crowd upon the police prior to the firing by the police. I staid in my
-position from five to twenty seconds. There was shooting going on in
-every direction, as well up as down. I could see from the flashes of the
-pistols that the police were shooting up. The police were not only shooting
-at the crowd, but I noticed several of them shoot just as they happened
-to throw their arms. I concluded that my position was possibly more
-dangerous than down in the crowd, and then I ran down to the foot of the
-stairs, ran west on the sidewalk on Randolph Street a short distance, and
-then on the road. A crowd was running in the same direction. I had to
-jump over a man lying down, and I saw another man fall in front of me
-about one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet west of Desplaines Street.
-I took hold of his arm and wanted to help him, but the firing was so lively
-behind me that I just let go and ran. I was to the rear of the crowd running
-west, the police still behind us. There were no shots from the direction
-to which I was running.</p>
-
-<p>“I am not and have never been a member of any Socialistic party or
-association. Walking through the crowd before the meeting, I noticed
-from their appearance that the meeting was composed principally of ordinary
-workingmen, mechanics, etc. The audience listened, and once in
-awhile there would be yells of ‘Shoot him!’ ‘Hang him!’ from the audience.
-I didn’t find any difference in the bearing of the crowd during
-Fielden’s speech from what it was during Parsons’ or Spies’. In the
-course of the conversation which I had with Capt. Bonfield at the station
-before the meeting that night, I asked him about the trouble in the southwestern
-part of the city. He says, ‘The trouble there is that these’&mdash;whether
-he used the word Socialists or strikers, I don’t know&mdash;‘get their
-women and children mixed up with them and around them and in front of
-them, and we can’t get at them. I would like to get three thousand of
-them in a crowd, without their women and children’&mdash;and to the best of
-my recollection he added, ‘and I will make short work of them.’ I noticed
-a few women and children at the bottom of the steps where I was. I don’t
-think there were any in the body of the crowd around the wagon. At the
-time the police came up there, I did not observe any women or children.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Mr. Simonson said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I have several times visited police stations in the city. I attended a
-Salvation Army meeting on East Chicago Avenue, and I thought the
-roughs there interrupted the meeting. I went across to see Capt. Schaack
-two or three times about it. I was once at the Desplaines Street Station
-and made complaint against a policeman for abusing an old man, and one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[487]</a></span>
-evening I brought there a fellow who asked me for something to get him a
-lodging on the West Side, and I asked the police to take care of him.
-And another time, when I heard about the way people who had received
-lodging at the station were treated there, I went to the station to satisfy
-myself what was the fact about the matter, and Capt. Ward told me a different
-story.</p>
-
-<p>“I went to the Haymarket meeting out of curiosity to know what kind
-of meetings they held, believing that the newspapers ordinarily misrepresented
-such things. I had my impression that the papers had misrepresented
-the meetings of workingmen, not from anything definite I had, but
-from having seen reports in papers of occurrences I had seen, and, as a
-rule, they were one-sided. I went to the meeting to satisfy myself&mdash;to
-prove or disprove my impression. That was one of my reasons for going
-there. At that conversation with Mr. Bonfield that I testified to, nobody
-else was present. It was in the main office of Desplaines Street Station.
-Capt. Ward, I believe, was walking around at the time. There was a good
-deal of noise in the police station, and we talked quietly. I believe no one
-else could hear it. I believe it was last fall that I visited the North Side
-police station in regard to the Salvation Army again. I visited about a
-half dozen of their meetings. I saw Capt. Schaack at the station. I did
-not ask him to arrest any people who had disturbed the meeting, nor to
-arrest the Salvation Army people. I told him that in going to the meeting
-I heard somebody swear a very vicious oath and curse the Salvation
-Army people. The police were standing within hearing, and the crowd
-joined in the laugh. I told him it seemed to me that the police ought not
-to allow anything of that kind. The windows of the Salvation Army were
-filled with boards. I told Capt. Schaack that it seemed not right that in
-front of the police station they should do any such thing. He said he
-would order the boards taken down, and if they wanted protection they
-could get it. I went another time to Capt. Schaack when some of the Salvation
-Army people were confined in the Bridewell. Mayor Harrison had
-given me a note to Mr. Felton, telling him to let them go, and I went to
-Capt. Schaack to tell him that.</p>
-
-<p>“My recollection is that Fielden said: ‘The law is your enemy. Kill
-it, stab it, throttle it, or it will throttle you.’ When the police came, I
-looked at them and at the crowd. I watched both to some extent. I don’t
-know how many lines of police there were. When I saw them at the Randolph
-Street tracks, I saw a straight line of police filling the whole street.
-There was more than one column, but I don’t know how many. I was at
-that time contemplating the question of my own safety. I was looking in
-the direction of the wagon at the time the bomb was thrown. I didn’t see
-the officer command the meeting to disperse, but heard somebody, in some
-form, tell the meeting to disperse. The only words I remember to have
-heard were: ‘Command&mdash;meeting&mdash;to disperse.’ During the delivery
-of that, or right after it, I heard somebody say something, of which I caught
-the two words, ‘Peaceable meeting.’ The first column of police were
-standing on about a line with the north line of the alley. I don’t know
-where the other columns were with reference to where the bomb exploded.
-I only saw the police in a large body march out. It looked to me at the
-time as if the bomb struck the ground and exploded just a little behind the
-front line of police. I saw policemen behind the first line of police, but I
-did not distinguish the columns. I don’t know whether the bomb exploded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[488]</a></span>
-directly behind the front line, or between the second and the third or third
-and fourth lines.</p>
-
-<p>“The firing began from the police, right in the center of the street. I
-did not see a single shot fired from the crowd on either side of the street.
-I didn’t know what became of the men in the wagon. I don’t think there
-were any shots fired in the neighborhood of the wagon. I was not looking
-at the wagon all the time, but was looking over the scene in general. If
-you got up on a place as high as I was, and it was dark, you could see
-every flash; the flashes show themselves immediately when they are out of
-the revolver, on a dark night. The scene impressed itself so upon me that
-now, looking back, I see it as I did then. Looking at where the bomb exploded,
-I could not help looking toward the wagon, too. My impression is,
-the boxes on the opposite side of the street were from two to four feet high.
-I have been at the Haymarket to look over the ground, several times since
-the 4th of May, so as to get an idea of the dimensions of the thing. I went
-there of my own volition; nobody asked me to go there. It was on my way
-to mother’s house. I am employed by Rothschild Brothers, on commission.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">When this witness returned to the store, the firm by whom he was employed
-at once discharged him, saying that he was one of the worst Anarchists
-in the city and they had no use for him.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">John Ferguson</span>, a resident of Chicago for seventeen years, and in the
-cloak business, passed the Haymarket, and, noticing a crowd there, stopped
-to listen to the speeches. He was accompanied by an acquaintance. They
-stood at the Randolph Street crossing and listened about fifteen minutes to
-Parsons’ speech. Said the witness:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“We could hear all of the speaking plainly, from where we stood, as the
-speakers were facing Randolph Street. During his speech, when he mentioned
-Jay Gould’s name, somebody said: ‘Throw him in the lake;’ and a
-man standing almost in front of me took his pipe from his mouth and halloaed
-out: ‘Hang him.’ Parsons replied that would do no good; a dozen
-more Jay Goulds would spring up in his place. ‘Socialism aims not at the
-life of individuals, but at the system.’ I didn’t hear any other responses
-from the crowd than those I mentioned. After Parsons concluded, another
-gentleman got up and began speaking about Congressman Foran. After a
-few minutes I saw quite a storm cloud come up. Some one interrupted the
-speaker with the remark: ‘There is a prospect of immediate storm, and
-those of you who wish to continue the meeting can adjourn to’&mdash;some hall,
-I don’t remember the name of it; but the speaker, resuming, said: ‘I
-haven’t but two or three words more to say, and then you can go home.’ I
-walked away from the meeting, across Randolph Street to the southwest
-corner. There I saw the police rush out from the station in a body. They
-whirled into the street and came down very rapidly toward us. The gentleman
-in command of the police was swinging his arm and told them to
-hurry up. After they had passed us we turned to walk south toward the
-station, and we heard a slight report, something like breaking boards, or like
-slapping a brick down on the pavement. We turned, and we had just about
-faced around, looking at the crowd, when we saw a fire flying out about six
-or eight feet above the heads of the crowd and falling down pretty near the
-center of the street. It was all dark for almost a second, perhaps, then
-there was a deafening roar. Then almost instantly we saw flashes from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[489]</a></span>
-toward the middle of the street, south of Randolph on Desplaines, and
-heard reports. That side of the street where the crowd was was dark.
-At that time there did not appear to be any light there. Then we hurried
-away. I did not see any flashes from either side of the street. The majority
-of the crowd had gone away on the appearance of the approaching storm.
-The crowd was very orderly, as orderly a meeting as I ever saw anywhere
-in the street.</p>
-
-<p>“It could not have been longer than five minutes from the time that
-Fielden said, ‘We will be through in a short time,’ that the police marched
-down the street. I am not a Socialist, nor an Anarchist, nor a Communist;
-I don’t know anything about what those terms mean.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Ludwig Zeller</span> went to the meeting about a quarter past ten, and took
-a position at a lamp-post near Crane’s alley. A few minutes thereafter the
-police came, and when they passed him he heard the command of the Captain,
-but heard no reply from anybody on the wagon or near the wagon.</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I turned and went south to Randolph Street, and in turning I saw a
-light go through the air about six, or eight, or ten feet south of the lamp.
-It went in a northwesterly direction, right into the middle of the street and
-in the middle of the police; then I heard an explosion and shooting, and I
-tried to get out, because there were a great many men falling around me,
-and a few were crying. I turned the corner on Randolph Street east
-toward Clinton. A great many people were running in the same direction;
-men were falling before me and on the side of me. I heard shooting immediately
-upon the explosion of the bomb. The shots came from behind me
-while I ran. The shots came from the center of the street, from north and
-northwest of me.</p>
-
-<p>“On Sunday, May 2d, I was present at a meeting of the Central Labor
-Union as a delegate from the Cigar-makers’ Union, No. 15. The delegates
-of the Lumber-shovers’ Union at that meeting requested me, as a member
-of the agitation committee, to send a speaker to a meeting of the Lumber-shovers’
-Union to be held on Monday, May 3d, at the Black Road. They
-wanted a good speaker, who could keep the meeting quiet and orderly. In
-the afternoon of the same day we had another meeting of the Central Labor
-Union, at which Mr. Spies was present as a reporter of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>,
-and I told him personally to go out to the meeting of the Lumber-shovers’
-Union and speak in the name of the Central Labor Union. The Central
-Labor Union is a body composed of delegates from about twenty-five or
-thirty different labor unions of the city. The Lumber-shovers’ Union is
-represented in the Central Labor Union by delegates. There are from
-fifteen to sixteen thousand laborers represented by those unions. The
-agitation committee to which I belonged was for the purpose of organizing
-different branches of trade who had no eight-hour organization at that time.
-I did not notice any firing back from the crowd at the police, either on Desplaines
-Street or Randolph Street.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Mr. Zeller stated:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“Since last December, I don’t belong to any group. Prior to that I was
-a member of the group ‘Freiheit,’ which used to meet on Sherman Street.
-I only attended three meetings of that group. We had no numbers. I am
-not an Anarchist. I am a Socialist.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[490]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“I was standing about five or six feet south of that alley. I saw the
-fuse about eight or ten feet south of me. I didn’t know what it was. I saw
-behind that fuse something dark, but I couldn’t distinguish what it was.
-I was only looking where it was going. I cannot say what kind of looking
-thing it was; it seems to me it was more round, and about as big as a baseball.
-I cannot say who fired first after the bomb went off. I can’t say
-exactly whether the police fired&mdash;I didn’t see. On the wagon I only recognized
-Fielden. I was too far away from the wagon, and it was dark. The
-gas-light was lighted. I didn’t see anybody put it out.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Carl Richter and F. Liebel gave practically similar stories of the riot.
-The point which the defense seemed to wish to bring out in their testimony
-was that the <i>gravamen</i> lay rather with the police than with the Anarchists.
-They swore that, although standing close to the famous wagon, they had
-heard nothing about “bloodhounds.”</p>
-
-<p>Along this line, also, was the evidence of Dr. James D. Taylor, who gave
-a practically identical account of the explosion. This gentleman, however,
-seemed to be certain that the police had attacked the crowd. He had examined
-the scene of the riot on the next day and found that the bullet
-marks on the buildings came chiefly from the direction from which the
-police had charged. Quite a point was made by the Anarchists upon the
-fact that a telegraph pole, which was said to have thoroughly borne out Dr.
-Taylor’s testimony, had disappeared from the Haymarket. It was insinuated
-that the prosecution had made away with this pole. The fact was that the
-pole had been very prosaically, and in the common course of business, removed
-by the telegraph company.</p>
-
-<p>Frank Stenner, Joseph Gutscher and Frank Raab gave their memories
-of the riot, all agreeing closely with the theory of the defense. Wm. Urban,
-a compositor on the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, after telling the same story, swore that
-he saw something shining&mdash;which he believed were revolvers&mdash;in the
-hands of the police as they came up toward the meeting. The story of the
-explosion and the murder of the police, from the Anarchists’ point of view,
-was also detailed by Wm. Gleason, Wm. Sahl, Eberhard Hierzemenzel,
-Conrad Messer and August Krumm. This last witness, Krumm, also testified
-that he was lighting his pipe, in company with another man, in Crane’s
-alley, at the time that the bomb was thrown, which, it will be remembered,
-Gilmer swore had been fired in this alley by Spies and Schnaubelt&mdash;and
-Krumm declared that there was nobody in that little thoroughfare then save
-his friend and himself.</p>
-
-<p>This was not the only attack on Gilmer’s veracity. Lucius M. Moses
-had known Harry Gilmer six or seven years and would not believe him on
-oath. John O. Brixey stated on the stand that Gilmer’s reputation was bad
-and that he was not worthy of belief. John Garrick, an ex-deputy sheriff,
-knew Gilmer and would not believe him on oath. Mrs. B. P. Lee was another
-who had no confidence in Gilmer’s truth and veracity.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[491]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">Malkoff’s Testimony&mdash;A Nihilist’s Correspondence&mdash;More about the
-Wagon&mdash;Spies’ Brother&mdash;A Witness who Contradicts Himself&mdash;Printing the Revenge
-Circular&mdash;Lizzie Holmes’ Inflammatory Essay&mdash;“Have You a Match About You?”&mdash;The
-Prisoner Fielden Takes the Stand&mdash;An Anarchist’s Autobiography&mdash;The Red Flag
-the Symbol of Freedom&mdash;The “Peaceable” Meeting&mdash;Fielden’s Opinion of the Alarm&mdash;“Throttling
-the Law”&mdash;Expecting Arrest&mdash;More about Gilmer.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">THE evidence so far produced for the defendants showed that their
-counsel had done everything possible in their efforts to offset the
-damaging testimony of the State. They proved themselves not only fertile
-in resources, but ingenious in the selection of witnesses and in the manner
-of presenting their points before the jury. It was no fault of theirs that
-they failed to make “the worse appear the better reason.” They labored
-incessantly for the cause of their clients, and they certainly called the best
-witnesses that could be found among the Anarchists and their sympathizers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Robert Lindinger</span> lived with Carl Richter and accompanied him to the
-Haymarket meeting. He stood at the mouth of the alley and saw at the
-meeting Spies, Parsons and Fielden. He did not see the gentleman on
-trial (indicating Schwab); had never seen him before in his life, and he
-(Schwab) was not on the wagon when Spies was there. He did not hear anybody
-say, “Here come the bloodhounds,” etc., saw no one in the crowd fire
-any shots, and saw no pistol in Fielden’s hand. Witness was a cornice-maker,
-and had been in the country about three years. He was not a
-Socialist, but read the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">William Albright</span>, who stood in the alley with Krumm, stated substantially
-the same facts as given by his companion.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">M. D. Malkoff</span>, a reporter for the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, up to the 5th of
-May, saw Parsons at Zepf’s Hall from five to ten minutes before the explosion
-of the bomb. Said he:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“He was sitting at the window, north of the entrance door, in company
-with Mrs. Parsons and Mrs. Holmes. The saloon was pretty crowded at
-that time. I spoke with Mr. Allen about these parties. I think Mrs.
-Holmes was standing and Mrs. Parsons was sitting on the window-sill right
-on the side of Mr. Parsons. I saw them there when I heard the explosion
-of the bomb.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Mr. Malkoff said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I have been five years in the country; in Chicago about two years and
-a half. When I first came to the country, I was private teacher of the
-Russian language in Brooklyn. I taught Paesig, the editor of the Brooklyn
-<i>Freie Presse</i>. He is not a revolutionist; his paper is not a revolutionary one.
-Then I went to Little Rock for about half a year, working as a printer for
-the <i>Arkansas Staats-Zeitung</i>. Then I went to St. Louis for about three<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[492]</a></span>
-months, found no work there, and came to Chicago. I had no letter of
-introduction to Spies when I came here. I had obtained my position at
-Little Rock through a letter of introduction from Mr. Spies, whom I knew
-by some correspondence in regard to a novel which Mr. Paesig and I translated
-and sold to the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. It was not a revolutionary novel. I
-did not get that letter of introduction from Mr. Spies through Herr Most.
-I have seen Most, but don’t know him personally. I know Justus Schwab.
-I did not live with him, but had letters directed to his care. When I came
-to Chicago I went directly to Spies. For about half a year I was without
-employment; then, for a year and a half, up to May 4th, I was reporter on
-the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. I roomed with Balthasar Rau for about four months;
-part of that time was after the Haymarket meeting. I had been at Zepf’s
-Hall for more than an hour before I heard the bomb explode, part of the
-time in the saloon, part of the time attending the meeting up-stairs. When
-I came down again in the saloon it was a good half hour before the bomb
-exploded. I was there alone, standing near the counter, where I had one
-glass of beer. When I was talking with Mr. Allen, we stood on the floor
-between the stove and the bar.</p>
-
-<p>“When the bomb exploded we made a few steps toward the rear. Mr.
-Allen thought it was a Gatling gun; it sounded like a Gatling gun. A few
-seconds after that the shooting began, and a good many people came to
-the hall. A good many had been there before that. When the crowd came,
-we rushed out the back door.</p>
-
-<p>“I did not belong to any Nihilistic organization in Russia. I was not a
-Nihilist in Russia. I am not in this country as the agent of the Nihilists,
-or any other society in Russia. The reporters used to call me a Nihilist
-because I was a Russian, that is all. This letter here (indicating) is in my
-handwriting, and has my signature at the bottom. I don’t remember to
-whom I wrote it. I am now working for the <i>Moscow Gazette</i>, an illustrated
-paper.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">A translation of the letter heretofore referred to was introduced in evidence,
-as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Editor</span>:&mdash;The articles I send you herewith you may read, put them into
-proper form, and, if you consider them competent, reprint them in one of your papers. I
-have also nearly completed a very interesting article treating of the secret revolutionary
-societies of Russia, in the so-called Dekabrists&mdash;that is, of 1820 to 1830. I have also
-another one in my thoughts, but, being out of work, and having no dwelling-place, it is
-entirely impossible to give even a few hours daily to writing. You see, I am writing in
-German, which I can do&mdash;<i>i. e.</i>, I translate every sentence, word for word, from the Russian.
-You have in this connection the not easy task to set the corrupted German right. I hope
-you will pardon me for this. At the time I came over here I did not understand one
-German word. Thanks to Wassilisson, which I translated with the help of a dictionary, I
-have learned this little. For your letter I am very thankful to you. I would, of course, follow
-your accommodating invitation, and would have left New York long ago, but unfortunately
-it does not depend upon me. I am a proletarian in the fullest sense of the word, and
-a proletarian is not favored to put his ideas into execution.</p>
-
-<p class="pr2">Respectfully,<span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</span><span class="smcap">Michael Malkoff</span>.</p>
-
-<p class="pn">Care of J. H. Schwab, 50 First Street, New York. Written on the 22d of October, 1883.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">William A. Patterson</span>, a printer, attended the meeting at No. 107
-Fifth Avenue, on the evening of May 4, in response to an advertisement in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[493]</a></span>
-the <i>Daily News</i>, and said it was for the purpose of organizing the working
-women of Chicago. While there, a telephone message came for a speaker
-at Deering, and a clerk in the office answered it. That was a little after
-eight o’clock. They wanted a German speaker, and Schwab’s name was
-mentioned. After that, witness said, he did not see Schwab. There was
-also a call for speakers at the Haymarket. Those present at the Fifth
-Avenue meeting were Parsons, Fielden, Mrs. Parsons, Mrs. Holmes,
-Schwab, Waldo, Brown, Snyder and some others.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Henry Lindemeyer</span>, a mason, testified through an interpreter. He
-occasionally did calcimining, and, while working at that in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>,
-had occasion to place some things on a shelf in the closet off the
-editorial room. He missed a brush, and looked for it on a shelf in that
-closet. He found some papers, which he took down, but he did not find
-his brush. “I found,” said he, “no bundle, no large package, no dynamite
-on the shelf. Saw no indication of greasiness there.”</p>
-
-<p>On cross-examination he testified:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I have known Spies for seven or eight years. I am on the bond of his
-brother, who is charged with conspiracy growing out of the Haymarket
-trouble. I have known Schwab three or four years. Saw him at public
-meetings, at Turner Hall and other halls. I saw Spies nearly every day.
-He lives in my neighborhood since quite a time. I have been a subscriber
-to the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> since it is in existence. The closet was in the southeast
-part of the room, about four or five feet square, and about eleven or
-twelve feet high, as high as the room. There was only one shelf in the
-closet. There was a wash-stand in there, under which I kept some things.
-I had calcimined that room a few weeks before. On the 2d of May I calcimined
-the upper floor. On the 5th of May I calcimined the library. I
-left my things in the closet from the 2d to the forenoon of the 5th of May.
-When the police came I took them to some other place. The things I left
-in that closet were my working-clothes and my tools. My hat and my vest
-I had on the upper part of the shelf, and the rest on the floor. When I
-examined the shelf, I found nothing but a small package of papers, covering
-as much space as the size of an open paper, occupying about one-quarter
-of the shelf. I didn’t feel on the bottom of the shelf to see if there was
-any grease on it. There was no grease on there; else I wouldn’t have put
-my clothes there. The shelf was about six feet from the ground.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Edward Lehnert</span>, testifying through an interpreter, said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I know Schnaubelt, and saw him at the Haymarket that night about
-ten o’clock. I was standing on the west side of Desplaines Street, about
-thirty paces from Randolph, about twenty paces south of the wagon. I saw
-Schnaubelt about the time when it grew dark and cloudy. I had a conversation
-with him at that time, at the place where I stood. The speaking
-was still going on. It was before the bomb exploded. August Krueger
-was present. I mean Rudolph Schnaubelt, this man (indicating photograph
-of Schnaubelt).”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">“What was the conversation?”</p>
-
-<p>The State objected.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[494]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1"><i>Mr. Zeisler</i>&mdash;“We offer to show by this witness that Schnaubelt stated
-to Lehnert that he did not understand English; that he had expected a
-German speaker would be present; that no one was present who spoke
-German except Spies; that Spies had already made an English speech, and
-that he did not want to stay any longer, and asked Lehnert if he would go
-along; that Lehnert thereupon said he did not go in the same direction;
-and that then Schnaubelt went away with another party. We have been
-able to trace Schnaubelt only for a short distance on his way home. We
-offer this conversation with Lehnert for the purpose of explaining Mr.
-Schnaubelt’s movements after meeting Lehnert.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">The objection was sustained.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">William Snyder</span>, indicted for conspiracy in connection with the Haymarket
-riot, and in jail since the 8th of May, said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I am a Socialist, a member of the American group of the Internationale
-since it was organized. I am acquainted with all the defendants
-except Lingg. I saw Parsons and Fielden on Tuesday night, May 4 last,
-at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> building on Fifth Avenue. I had gone there pursuant
-to a notice of a meeting of the American group in the paper. I knew
-nothing of this meeting of the group before I read the notice in the paper.
-The meeting was called to order about half-past eight. Before that we had
-waited for some time for Mr. and Mrs. Parsons. They finally came about
-half-past eight. I was elected chairman. I asked the purpose for which
-the meeting was called. The general topic of consideration was to get
-money from the treasury for the purpose of furthering the organization of
-the sewing girls of this city through Mrs. Parsons and Mrs. Holmes. The
-meeting lasted about half an hour; then nearly all of us went over to the
-Haymarket meeting. I don’t remember seeing Schwab at that meeting.
-We walked over.” Witness got on the wagon and when the police came, he
-said, he got down first in front of Fielden. “Fielden did not shoot; he
-would have killed me if he had shot; I was south of him.” They both
-started for the alley, and there witness lost sight of Fielden. He heard no
-reference to bloodhounds and saw no one shooting except the police.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Snyder said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I used to make addresses to the working people. Never missed an
-opportunity to show the injustice which they are laboring under. I have
-been chairman of the American group; addressed meetings of the group
-from time to time. I never talked to people on the lake front. I read the
-<i>Alarm</i> every time it came out.”</p>
-
-<p>“How long have you been a Socialist?”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I was born one.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Thomas Brown</span>, arrested for conspiracy, belonged to the Internationale
-for about a year and a half, and after Parsons had spoken at the Haymarket
-he and Parsons went to Zepf’s saloon. When the bomb exploded, they
-were sitting there at a table. Fischer was there at the time. On cross-examination
-Brown said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I was born in Ireland; came to this country some thirty-four years ago.
-The first organization of Socialists I joined was in the city of Chicago, about
-1881. I did not know Parsons at that time. I became acquainted with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[495]</a></span>
-Parsons about two or two and a half years ago. When the bomb exploded,
-Parsons and I jumped up. I did not go out with Parsons from the rear
-door. I did not go out until some time after the explosion. I next saw
-Parsons on the corner of Kinzie and Desplaines Streets, when he was with
-Mrs. Parsons and Mrs. Holmes. Parsons asked me what I would do in his
-case. We separated on the corner. I went north, and I think Parsons went
-east.”</p>
-
-<p>“What was the conversation you had with Parsons?”</p>
-
-<p>“I told him I would leave for a while, under the circumstances. He
-said: ‘What do you think I had better do?’ I told him: ‘Suit yourself,
-you are your own boss. You must use your own judgment.’ I then loaned
-him five dollars. Parsons did not say to me that he could not get away
-because he had no money. He simply asked me for five dollars, and I lent
-it to him. I did not state to the State’s Attorney, at the Central Station, in
-the presence of Mr. Furthmann, James Bonfield, Lieut. Shea and others,
-that Parsons had said he had no money to get away with; that I advised
-him to go, and that I would lend him five dollars. I used to buy the <i>Alarm</i>
-every time it came out, and used to read it. I had stock in the paper.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Henry W. Spies</span>, a cigar manufacturer, brother of the defendant, went
-to the Haymarket with his brother. When his brother got off the wagon to
-hunt for Parsons, they went in a northwesterly direction from the wagon,
-but Schwab was not there.</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Schnaubelt and my brother went together, and I and Legner followed
-right behind them. After asking, ‘Is Parsons here?’ and descending from
-the wagon, August did not go in the direction of Crane’s Alley, nor into
-Crane’s Alley. He went as far as Union Street, and in fact got down on the
-side of the wagon, pretty near the middle of it. Just at that time the explosion
-took place. I asked him what it was. He said, ‘They have got a
-Gatling gun down there,’ and at the same time, as he jumped, somebody
-jumped behind him with a weapon, right by his back, and I grabbed it, and
-in warding off the pistol from my brother I was shot. I don’t know who did
-the shooting. I didn’t see August any more until I went home. I went to
-Zepf’s Hall, though, and inquired for him. August did not leave the wagon
-about the time the police came, or at any time, and go into the alley. Legner
-and myself helped him off the wagon just as the explosion came. The
-firing came from the street.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination the witness testified:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“On the 6th of May I was arrested at my house by Officers Whalen and
-Loewenstein. I told them when the bomb exploded I was at Zepf’s Hall,
-walked out and was shot in the door. I told them I was not at the Haymarket
-at all, from beginning to end. That was not true when I told it to
-them. I lied to them. I have told the truth now, when I was under oath.
-I was afterwards brought down to the Central Station, about the 9th or 10th
-of May. I was there interrogated by either Mr. Grinnell or Mr. Furthmann,
-in the presence of Lieuts. Shea and Kipley. I was asked whether I was a
-Socialist. I don’t believe I said I was not. I asked whether you could tell
-me what a Socialist was. I said I had been on business at Zepf’s saloon,
-which is a fact. I told you that I was down there for the purpose of collecting
-a bill. That was true when I said it. I also told you I was down there
-and did a large dealing in cigars. I also stated at that time and place that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[496]</a></span>
-I was not at the Haymarket from the beginning, but was in Zepf’s saloon,
-and was shot when I came out of the door at Zepf’s. I also said that I did
-not see my brother that evening until he called at the house and asked me
-if I had a good physician. I now state that what I then said about that was
-not the truth. I was not under oath then, and I knew the treatment which
-my brothers had found.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">August Krueger</span> said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I saw there the man represented on this picture (Schnaubelt). When
-I saw him I was standing with Mr. Lehnert on the west side of Desplaines
-Street, about thirty to forty feet north of Randolph. I saw that man about
-ten o’clock; he came from the northeast. I didn’t know at the time what
-his name was, although I knew him well. Mr. Furthmann since told me his
-name is Schnaubelt. Schnaubelt stayed there about five minutes. He
-wanted to go home, and wanted me to go along, and I went with him down
-on Randolph Street to Clinton. There I left him; he went further east on
-Randolph Street, and I turned north on Clinton Street. This is the last I
-saw of Schnaubelt. I walked down Milwaukee Avenue and went to Engel’s
-house. I reached it about fifteen minutes past ten&mdash;I don’t remember
-exactly. Mr. and Mrs. Engel were there. I stayed there and drank a pint
-of beer. Later Gottfried Waller came in and said he came from the Haymarket,
-and that 300 men were shot by the police, and we ought to go down
-there and do something. Engel said whoever threw that bomb did a foolish
-thing; it was nonsense, and he didn’t sympathize with such a butchery,
-and he told Waller he had better go home as quick as possible.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Krueger said he was known as “Little Krueger.”</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I am an Anarchist. I was arrested for a day at the North Side station.
-I had a conversation there with Capt. Schaack and Mr. Furthmann.
-I was shown a picture of Schnaubelt at that time. I was asked whether I
-had ever seen that man. I don’t know whether I answered, ‘I might have
-seen him,’ or what I answered. I know I had seen him. There were several
-other officers present at the conversation; I don’t know their names.
-I told Mr. Furthmann there that I was not at the Haymarket; I told him
-I was at Engel’s house. I don’t remember what I stated in regard to the
-time when I got to Engel’s house. It may be that I told him that I got to
-Engel’s house at nine o’clock and staid there until eleven, but I don’t
-remember.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Albert Pruesser</span> stated that he telephoned three times to the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-for a speaker for the meeting at Lake View. The committee from
-the Deering factory wanted Spies. Witness was told that Spies could not
-come, and he said it would make no difference if they sent some one else.
-A quarter of an hour later he telephoned again and received a reply that
-Schwab was on the way. He went to meet Schwab at the Clybourn Avenue
-car. He met him on the rear platform of the car. That was half past
-nine o’clock, or twenty minutes to ten. They went to Radtke’s saloon, 888
-Clybourn Avenue, remained there ten minutes, and then Schwab went to
-the prairie and spoke. He spoke about twenty minutes. When he got
-through they went and had lunch and beer at Schilling’s saloon. Schwab<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[497]</a></span>
-then took a car for the city. It takes forty-five minutes to reach the corner
-of Clark and Washington Streets, and ten minutes to the Haymarket if there
-is no interruption. On cross-examination Pruesser stated that he had been
-a carrier for the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> for a time.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Johann Grueneberg</span> testified that he was an intimate friend of Fischer’s.
-He went to the printing establishment of Wehrer &amp; Klein at Fischer’s request
-and got some circulars with the line: “Workingmen, arm yourselves
-and come in full force.” He took them to the compositors’ room in the
-<i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> and then took some down to Spies. Fischer, Spies and
-witness had some conversation, and then he took an order from Fischer to
-Wehrer &amp; Klein to leave out that line. On cross-examination Grueneberg
-stated:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I came to this country from Germany four years ago. I have lived in
-Chicago two years. I am a carpenter.”</p>
-
-<p>“Where did the armed section of the Northwest group drill?”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t know an armed section of the Northwest group. I don’t know
-of a single time that the Northwest group drilled. I know of a paper called
-the <i>Anarchist</i>. I distributed it three or four times. I saw Fischer on Monday,
-May 3, between five and half-past five, at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, in the
-compositors’ room. I did not see Fischer at any other place on Monday.
-I saw him on Sunday afternoon at my house, 570 West Superior Street. I
-did not see him Sunday morning at any place.”</p>
-
-<p>“Were you at home all the morning yourself?”</p>
-
-<p>The defense objected to this question.</p>
-
-<p><i>The Court</i>&mdash;“You have put this witness on the stand for the purpose of
-showing a thing was taken out, a particular circular. Whether he has told
-that thing as it occurred depends in some degree upon what his associations,
-feelings, inclinations, biases are in reference to the whole business.”</p>
-
-<p><i>Mr. Black</i>&mdash;“Whether he has told the truth in regard to that depends
-upon his bias and inclinations?”</p>
-
-<p><i>The Court</i>&mdash;“Whether it is to be believed&mdash;I don’t mean whether he
-has told the truth.”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t remember whether I was home on that Sunday morning,” continued
-the witness. “I was not on Emma Street that Sunday morning. I
-have known Spies a year and a half; saw him at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> and
-at several Socialistic meetings; once at our group, the other times I don’t
-remember where. I have known Neebe for a short time by sight. I have
-known Schwab as long as Spies; saw him at our group. He did not belong
-to the group. He made a speech once every few months. I know Lingg
-since the 1st of May. I met him at the Carpenters’ Union, not any other
-place.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Mrs. Lizzie May Holmes</span>, assistant editor of the <i>Alarm</i> for about a
-year, detailed what transpired at the meeting of the American group on
-Tuesday evening, May 4th, and stated that she, in company with Mr. and
-Mrs. Parsons and Mr. Brown, went to the Haymarket. Subsequently they
-went to Zepf’s Hall. She could not say just where Parsons was in the
-saloon when the explosion occurred. She had not heard of the word
-“Ruhe” at the meeting Tuesday evening.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[498]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>On cross-examination she said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“My name has been Holmes since November 26th last. Before that
-my name was Swank. All articles in the <i>Alarm</i> under which the initials
-L. M. S. appear are my articles. I wrote an article under date of April
-23d, 1886, headed, ‘It is Coming.’ I meant it in the same way that any
-prophet means anything, judging from events of past history. I was a
-member of the American group of the Internationale. That night I
-went home with Mrs. Parsons and staid there over night. Mr. Parsons
-did not go home that night. I left him on the corner of Kinzie. I am an
-Anarchist as I understand Anarchy. I have known Spies about three
-years, Fielden about four years. The latter was a stockholder in the paper,
-and I believe complaints were directed to him. I was sometimes absent
-for a whole week from the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> building. I wrote my articles
-at home and at various places. I don’t think I have ever been at the
-<i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> building more than six or eight times. I can’t remember
-where the Bureau of Information for the Internationale was. I suppose
-it was in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>.</p>
-
-<p>“I never advocated arson, or advised persons to commit arson in my
-life. I wrote the article entitled ‘Notice to Tramps,’ in the April 24th
-number of the <i>Alarm</i>, which reads:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“In a beautiful town, not far from Chicago, lives a large class of cultivated, well-informed
-people. They have Shakespeare, Lowell, Longfellow and Whittier at their tongues’ ends,
-and are posted in history and grow enthusiastic over the wickedness of the safely abolished
-institutions of the past. They say eloquent things about old fugitive slave laws, etc., which
-made it criminal to feed and shelter a starving human being if he were black. Posted at the
-roadside, in the hotels and stores, is a ‘Notice to Tramps,’ an abominable document which
-compares well with the old notices to runaway negroes which used to deface similar buildings.
-It is against the law to feed a tramp. You are liable to a fine if you give a cup of coffee and
-a piece of bread to a fellow-man who needs it and asks you for it. This is a Christian community,
-under the flag of the free. Look out, you wretched slaves. If, after toiling through
-your best years, you are suddenly thrown out of a job along with thousands of others, do not
-start out to hunt for work, for you will strike plenty of such towns as this. You must not
-walk from town to town. You must not stay where you are in idleness&mdash;you must move on.
-You must not ride&mdash;you have no money, and those tracks and cars you helped to build are
-not for such as you. You must not ask for anything to eat, or a place to sleep. You must
-not lie down and die, for then you would shock people’s morals. What are you to do?
-Great heavens! Jump into the lake? Fly up into the air? Or stay&mdash;have you a match
-about you?”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">“I wrote that article deliberately; it speaks for itself. I don’t think it
-needs any explanation from me.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Samuel Fielden</span> was then put on the witness-stand and testified in his
-own behalf as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“On May 4th last I took a load of stone to Waldheim Cemetery. I
-had engaged to speak that night at 268 Twelfth Street, and intended to go
-there. When I got home in the evening I bought a copy of the <i>Daily News</i>
-and there saw the announcement of a meeting of the American group to
-be held at 107 Fifth Avenue, that night. I believe it said important business.
-I was the treasurer of the American group, and as such had all the
-money it was worth. We should have had our semi-annual election the
-Sunday previous; besides, I thought that some money would be wanted,
-as important business was announced, so I determined to go to that meeting
-instead of to the meeting at which I had engaged to speak. I arrived
-at 107 Fifth Avenue about ten minutes before eight. I was there when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[499]</a></span>
-some telephoning was done with reference to the Deering meeting. The
-witnesses who have detailed that occurrence are substantially correct. After
-I had entered the room I asked what the meeting was called for, and a
-gentleman named Patterson, who was not a member of our organization,
-showed me a hand-bill, which did not call that meeting, but had reference
-to the organization of the sewing women. I paid, as treasurer, five dollars
-to those who had laid out the costs of printing those hand-bills, and who
-might need a little money for car-fare in going around to hire halls, and
-other incidental expenses. Schwab must have left there about ten or
-fifteen minutes past eight. During the progress of the meeting a request
-was received from the Haymarket meeting for speakers, in response to which
-Parsons and I went over. Mr. Parsons, I believe, brought his two children
-down-stairs and gave them a drink of water in the saloon; then we walked
-together through the tunnel, and from about the west end of the tunnel I
-walked with Mr. Snyder, with whom I had a conversation. Spies spoke
-about five minutes longer after we had arrived there; then he introduced
-Mr. Parsons. During Parsons’ speech I was on the wagon. After he concluded
-I was introduced by Mr. Spies to make a short speech. I did not
-wish to speak, but Mr. Spies urged me, and I did speak about twenty
-minutes. I referred to some adverse criticism of the Socialists by an evening
-paper, which had called the Socialists cowards and other uncomplimentary
-names, and I told the audience that that was not true; that the
-Socialists were true to the interests of the laboring classes and would continue
-to advocate the rights of labor. I then spoke briefly of the condition
-of labor. I referred to the classes of people who were continually posing
-as labor reformers for their own benefit, and who had never done anything
-to benefit the laboring classes, but had at all times approved the cause of
-labor, in order to get themselves into office. To substantiate this, I cited
-the case of Martin Foran, who, in a speech in Congress on the arbitration
-bill that was brought in by the labor committee, had stated that the working
-classes of this country could get nothing through legislation in Congress,
-and that only when the rich men of this country understood that it was
-dangerous to live in a community where there were dissatisfied people
-would the labor problem be solved. Somebody in the audience cried out,
-‘That is not true,’ or ‘That is a lie.’ Then I went over it again, adding
-words like these: That here was a man who had been on the spot for
-years, had experience, and knew what could be done there, and this was
-his testimony. It was not the testimony of a Socialist. Then I went on to
-state that under such circumstances the only way in which the working
-people could get any satisfaction from the gradually decreasing opportunities
-for their living&mdash;the only thing they could do with the law would be
-to throttle it. I used that word in a figurative sense. I said they should
-throttle it, because it was an expensive article to them and could do them
-no good. I then stated that men were working all their lifetime, their
-love for their families influencing them to put forth all their efforts, that
-their children might have a better opportunity of starting in the world than
-they had had. And the facts, the statistics of Great Britain and the United
-States, would prove that every year it was becoming utterly impossible for
-the younger generation, under the present system, to have as good an opportunity
-as the former ones had had.</p>
-
-<p>“Mr. Spies asked me, before I commenced, to mention that the
-Chicago <i>Herald</i> had advised the labor organizations of this city to boycott<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">[500]</a></span>
-the red flag. I briefly touched on that, and told them not to boycott the
-red flag, because it was the symbol of universal freedom and universal
-liberty.</p>
-
-<p>“I was just closing my remarks about that point, when some one said
-it was going to rain. There was a dark, heavy cloud which seemed to be
-rolling over a little to the northwest of me. I looked at it, and some one
-proposed to adjourn the meeting to Zepf’s Hall. Somebody else said:
-‘No, there is a meeting there,’ and I said: ‘Never mind; I will not talk
-very long; I will close in a few minutes, and then we will all go home.’
-Then I advised them to organize as laboring men for their own protection&mdash;not
-to trust to any one else, but to organize among themselves and
-depend only upon themselves to advance their condition. I do not think
-I spoke one minute longer when I saw the police. I stopped speaking,
-and Capt. Ward came up to me and raised his hand&mdash;I do not remember
-whether he had anything in his hand or not&mdash;and said: ‘I command this
-meeting, in the name of the people of the State of Illinois, to peaceably
-disperse.’ I was standing up, and I said: ‘Why, Captain, this is a
-peaceable meeting,’ in a very conciliatory tone of voice, and he very
-angrily and defiantly retorted that he commanded it to disperse, and called,
-as I understood, upon the police to disperse it. Just as he turned around
-in that angry mood, I said: ‘All right, we will go,’ and jumped from
-the wagon, and jumped to the sidewalk. This is my impression, after
-being in jail now for over three months, and I am telling, as near as I can
-remember, every incident of it. Then the explosion came. I think I went
-in a somewhat southeasterly direction from the time that I struck
-the street. It was only a couple of steps to the sidewalk. I
-had just, I think, got onto the sidewalk when the explosion came,
-and, being in a diagonal position on the street, I saw the flash.
-The people began to rush past me. I was not decided in my own mind
-what it was, but I heard some one say ‘dynamite,’ and then in my own
-mind I assented that that was the cause of the explosion, and I rushed and
-was crowded with the crowd. There were some of them falling down, others
-calling out in agony, and the police were pouring shots into them. We
-tried to get behind some protection, but there were so many trying to get
-there that little protection was afforded. I then made a dash for the northeast
-corner of Randolph and Desplaines Streets, turned the corner and
-ran until I got to about Jefferson Street. Seeing there was no pursuit, I
-dropped into a fast walk. I turned on Clinton, intending at that time to go
-home.</p>
-
-<p>“Immediately after the explosion of the bomb&mdash;I had possibly gone
-three or four steps&mdash;I was struck with a ball. I didn’t feel much pain at
-the time, in the excitement, but as I dropped into a walk down on Randolph
-Street I felt the pain, put my finger in the hole of my pants and felt my
-knee was wet. Then I concluded I had been shot. Walking down Clinton
-Street and intending to go home, I began to think about those that had
-been with me. Remembering about Mr. Spies being on the wagon at the
-time the police came up, I thought surely that some one of these men must
-have been killed from all of that shooting. I concluded to take a Van
-Buren Street car and ride down past the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> building and see
-if any one was there. I caught the car on the corner of Canal, but found
-that it was a car that runs directly east to State Street. I left the car on
-Fifth Avenue and walked down Fifth Avenue to Monroe Street. Of course,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">[501]</a></span>
-I was near the place and could have walked there, but I thought I was so
-well known in Newspaper Row by the reporters that if I should walk I
-should be known. So I jumped on the car and stood in front of it. I
-intended to go up to the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> building if I saw a light there;
-but there wasn’t any. I alighted near the corner of Randolph Street. Intending
-to go up to Parsons’ house, I took an Indiana Street car. When
-we got to Clinton Street the driver said: ‘Why, there is firing going on up
-there yet,’ and I saw a couple of flashes up near where I thought the Haymarket
-was, and I said, ‘If there is, I am not going up there.’ I then
-walked over on Jefferson Street north to Lake Street, and I saw a terrible
-crowd of people around there, and thought there might be a good many
-detectives there. So I turned back again, caught a Canalport Avenue car
-and rode down to the corner of Canal and Twelfth Streets. There I got
-my knee dressed by a young doctor who was on the stand here, as it
-was becoming very painful at that time.</p>
-
-<p>“I feel sure that Mr. Spies was at my side when Capt. Ward was talking.
-I did not see him after I had spoken to Capt. Ward; I did not see
-him leave the wagon. I jumped off at the south end of the wagon into the
-street. While I was speaking I did not pay any attention to the people in
-the wagon, but I think I noticed four or five there a little previous to the
-police coming up. Mr. Snyder assisted me in getting on the wagon. He
-got on before I did. When I got down from the wagon Snyder was on the
-ground. I think I saw him on the sidewalk there. Of course I don’t
-remember everything as distinctly now as I did the next day. I had no
-revolver with me on the night of May 4th. I never had a revolver in my
-life. I did not fire at any person at the Haymarket meeting. I never fired
-at any person in my life. I did not, after leaving the wagon, step back
-between the wheels of the wagon and fire behind the cover of the wagon;
-I did not stay there. My whole course was from the wagon south, without
-stopping, except, perhaps, for the smallest perceptible space of time, when
-I was startled by the explosion.</p>
-
-<p>“I first heard of the word ‘Ruhe’ having been published in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>,
-and about any significance of that word, when I had been in the
-County Jail for some days. I never had seen or heard of the word before,
-and did not hear of it on May 4th at any time, and, as I understand it is a
-German word, I would not have known what it meant if I had seen it. I do
-not read German. There was no understanding or agreement to which I
-was a party, or of which I had knowledge, that violence should be used at
-the Haymarket meeting, or that arms or dynamite should be used there.
-I anticipated no trouble of that character. I did not use, upon the approach
-of the police, and did not hear from any person that night any such expression
-as: ‘There come the bloodhounds; you do your duty and I’ll do
-mine.’</p>
-
-<p>“The first I heard of the Haymarket meeting was after I got to the
-American group meeting on the night of May 4th. I heard, for the first
-time, about a meeting held by certain persons on Monday night at 54
-Lake Street, after I had been from ten to fourteen days in the County Jail,
-when I read a paper that the police had got track of some such a meeting.
-I wish to say, however, that I spoke to the wagon-makers on the upper floor
-of 54 Lake Street on that Monday night. I was never in the basement of
-that building, except to the water-closet under the sidewalk. I did not go
-down-stairs there at all on that Monday night, and did not hear of any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">[502]</a></span>
-meeting being held there until much later, when I read about it, as stated
-before.</p>
-
-<p>“We drilled not over six times at 54 Lake Street, but nobody ever had
-arms there. I think it was proposed to call the organization the International
-Rifles, but I don’t think it was ever decided to call it so, as the
-organization was never perfected, never became an armed organization.
-We began to meet in August, and the last meetings must have been very
-near the end of September, 1885. There was no drilling during the winter
-and spring of 1885-’86. Once a few men belonging to the L. u. W. V. came
-in with their guns and shouldered arms, but they did not belong to the
-American group, and that is the only time that I ever saw any arms at any
-meeting of our organization.</p>
-
-<p>“The shots that were pouring in thick and fast after the explosion of
-the bomb came from the street&mdash;I should judge from the police. I did
-not hear the explosion of anything before the explosion of the bomb. As I
-was rushing down the sidewalk, I heard no explosion of any arms among
-any of the citizens who had attended the meeting.</p>
-
-<p>“I remember the testimony of the detective Johnson. I did not have
-the conversation which he testified to as having had with me in the presence
-of the older Mr. Boyd at Twelfth Street Turner Hall, nor at any other
-place, nor at any other time. I knew that he was a detective long before
-that, and I would not be fool enough to advocate anything of that kind, if
-I was a dynamiter, to him. The American group was open to everybody.
-It was not even necessary to have ten cents admission fee, but the fee was
-set at ten cents per month to cover the expense of paying for hall rent and
-advertising. On May 4th I returned home from my work about half past
-five. I bought the <i>Evening News</i> on the sidewalk just before I went into
-the house.</p>
-
-<p>“On May 3d I took several loads of stone from Bodenschatz &amp; Earnshaw’s
-stone dock, Harrison Street and the river, to different places in the
-city. I have worked for that firm three or four years. I owned my team
-and wagon, and they hired those and my services, and paid me by the day.
-I only worked three-quarters of a day on May 3d. Business was not brisk
-at that time. I have been a teamster for at least six years. I was arrested
-at my home at ten o’clock on the morning of May 5th. I was never before
-arrested in my life. I was taken to the Central Station by four or five
-detectives in citizens’ clothes, and have been confined ever since.</p>
-
-<p>“I had no examination except that I was brought before the Coroner’s
-jury on the evening of May 5th. I did not state to Officer James Bonfield
-or anybody else, after my arrest at the station, or at any other time or
-place, that I escaped through Crane’s alley on the night of May 4th.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Fielden said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I worked in a cotton-mill in England at eight years of age, and continued
-to work in the same mill until I came to the United States. I
-worked my way up until I became a weaver, and when I left the mill I was
-what is called a binder; that is, binding the warps on the beams. I joined
-the International Working People’s Association in July, 1884, by joining
-the American group. I suppose I was an Anarchist soon after, as soon as
-I began to study it. I suppose that I have been a revolutionist, in the
-sense of evolutionary revolution, for some years. I don’t know that I
-have ever been positively of the belief that the existing order of things<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">[503]</a></span>
-should be overthrown by force. I have always been of the belief, and am
-yet, that the existing order of things will have to be overthrown, either
-peaceably or by force. When I had the books of the American group it
-had about 175 members&mdash;that was last November. I don’t know how
-many have been added since. There were probably fifteen or twenty
-ladies among the members. It was called the American group because
-the English language was used in it. It was not confined to born
-Americans.</p>
-
-<p>“We tried to found an English-speaking group a year ago last winter,
-on West Indiana Street. I think we had only two meetings and then
-abandoned it. I have been making speeches for the last two or three years.
-They were labor speeches&mdash;not always Socialistic and not always Anarchistic;
-that is, sometimes I have touched on Socialism and Anarchy;
-sometimes they were delivered from an ordinary trades-union standpoint.
-I have made a great many speeches on the lake front, some on Market
-Square, some at West Twelfth Street Turner Hall, some at 106 Randolph
-Street, some at 54 West Lake. The meetings on the lake front were on
-Sunday afternoons.”</p>
-
-<p>“Did you make a speech on the night of the opening of the new Board
-of Trade?”</p>
-
-<p>“I did. I have two dollars’ worth of stock in the <i>Alarm</i>. I was part of
-the committee to see what should be done about the <i>Alarm</i> when it began
-to get in deep water, and my name was proposed to be put on the paper as
-the recipient of communications as to its management.</p>
-
-<p>“There were possibly twelve or fifteen members of the American group
-present at the meeting at 107 Fifth Avenue on May 4th. There were Mr.
-and Mrs. Parsons, Mr. and Mrs. Timmons, Mrs. Holmes, Snyder, Brown
-and some others. I am not positive whether Walters and Ducy were there.
-I think we staid there until nearly nine o’clock. Balthasar Rau came over
-from the Haymarket and said Spies was there and a large meeting, and no
-one else to speak. Some four or five of us went over together. I know that
-Rau, Parsons, myself and Snyder went about together. Schwab left the
-<i>Zeitung</i> office before us. I had promised, on Sunday night at Greif’s Hall,
-a man who had been to my house before, to speak at a labor meeting at
-either 368 or 378 West Twelfth Street that Tuesday night. Of those that
-were on the speakers’ wagon, I only remember Parsons, Spies and Snyder.
-There were some others there who were strangers to me. A boy about sixteen
-years of age came up on the wagon and rather crowded me to one side,
-and I told him he might as well stand down. I spoke because Mr. Spies
-requested me to make a short speech. Mr. Parsons had spoken longer than
-I thought he would, and I thought it was late enough to close. I don’t now
-remember whether or not I used this language: ‘There are premonitions of
-danger. All know it. The press say the Anarchists will sneak away. We
-are not going to.’ I have no desire to deny that I did use that language.
-If I used it&mdash;and I don’t know whether I did&mdash;if I had any idea in my
-mind at any time which would be expressed in that language, I know for
-what reasons I would have that idea. I used substantially all that language
-which Mr. English, the reporter, who was on the stand here, testified as
-having been used by me in my speech at the Haymarket meeting. I did
-not say that John Brown, Jefferson, Washington, Patrick Henry and Hopkins
-said to the people: ‘The law is your enemy.’ If I used the language,
-‘We are rebels against it,’&mdash;and I possibly did,&mdash;I referred to the present<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">[504]</a></span>
-social system. I don’t remember that I said: ‘It had no mercy; so ought
-you.’ There is not much sense in it, and I will not father it. The report
-of my speech, as given by Mr. English, has been garbled, and it does not
-give the connection. I don’t accept that as my speech at all. I think I
-used the language, but you haven’t got the sense of it at all, in quoting it in
-that way.</p>
-
-<p>“After I left the Haymarket meeting, my first intention was to go home.
-I cannot tell now why I changed my mind about that. Impressions sometimes
-come on a person’s mind which he cannot explain why they come
-there. I rode on the car in passing the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office, instead of
-walking, and I avoided the crowd on Lake Street, in which I thought there
-would be lots of detectives, because I certainly didn’t wish to be arrested
-that night. Of course, I thought I would be arrested after the trouble;
-it was only natural to suppose I would. I did not think there was anything
-inflammatory or incendiary in my speech. I did not incite anybody to do
-any overt act to anybody or anything. I spoke generally, from a general
-standpoint. I meant to say they should resist the present social system,
-which degraded them and turned them out of employment, and gave them
-no opportunity to get a living. Somebody threw a bomb. I did not know
-and do not know now who it was, or anything about it. Still I know, from
-reading of criminal proceedings, that in cases of that kind they arrest everybody
-in order to find out who is responsible. I supposed that I, being one
-of the participants of the meeting, would be arrested&mdash;for some time, at least.
-Knowing my innocence, I made a statement before the Coroner’s jury, expecting
-that when they examined into the truth of my statement I should
-be released.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On re-direct examination Fielden said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“If I did make the remark about premonitions of danger in my Haymarket
-speech, I must have meant that there were so many men striking
-just then for the eight-hour movement that some trouble might possibly
-originate between the strikers and their employers, as had been the case in
-former strikes, and, knowing that all men are not very cool, and some men
-become aggravated&mdash;their condition may have a good deal to do with it&mdash;they
-sometimes commit acts which the officers of the law, in their capacity
-as such, are compelled to interfere with. I was speaking of the general
-labor question and the issue that was up for settlement during the eight-hour
-movement. I had no reference to the presence of dynamite at the
-meeting. I did not say that John Brown, Jefferson, etc., said that the law
-was their enemy. What I said in regard to them was, that we occupied, in
-relation to the present social system, which no longer provided security for
-the masses, just about the position that John Brown, Jefferson, Hopkins,
-Patrick Henry occupied in relation to the government and dictation of
-Great Britain over the Colonies; that they repeatedly appealed to Great
-Britain to peaceably settle the differences in regard to the port duties, the
-stamp act, etc., but when it could not be peaceably settled, they could not
-submit to it any longer, and were compelled to do something else; and it
-was always the element of tyranny which incited strife, and as it was in that
-case, so it would be in this. As to the use of the expressions about killing,
-stabbing, throttling the law, I used them just as a Republican orator, in
-denouncing the Democratic party, might say, ‘We will kill it,’ or ‘We will
-throttle it,’ or ‘defeat it,’ or as one might speak of a candidate for office&mdash;‘We<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">[505]</a></span>
-will knife him.’ I used those adjectives, as any speaker would, in
-rushing along, throw in adjectives without thinking much of what their full
-import might be. My remarks that night were intended to call upon the
-people to resist the present social system&mdash;not by force, I had no such idea
-in my mind that night&mdash;so that they would be enabled to live; to call their
-attention to the fact that by the introduction of labor-saving machinery and
-the subdivision of labor less men were continually needed, more productions
-produced, and their chance to work decreased, and that by their
-organizing together they might become partakers in the benefits of civilization,
-more advantageous and quicker productions.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Together with the testimony given above, of which, of course, the most
-important was that of the prisoner Samuel Fielden, were the stories of a
-number of other witnesses whose names have been here omitted. The reason
-for this is, that while the statements of these persons were of much
-importance in the trial of the case, to print them all would stretch this
-book of mine out to unconscionable length. It will suffice to say that several
-witnesses testified strongly in support of the Anarchist theory of the
-episodes which occurred about the famous wagon at the Haymarket. Half
-a dozen others declared that they would not believe Harry W. Gilmer on
-oath. This statement of the evidence offered is made necessary by the
-space at my disposal. I have tried throughout this work to be wholly fair
-to the defense, and the reader will of course understand that these witnesses
-corroborated the testimony of others which has been previously given in
-full in these pages.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">[506]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XXVII.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">The Close of the Defense&mdash;Working on the Jury&mdash;The Man who Threw
-the Bomb&mdash;Conflicting Testimony&mdash;Michael Schwab on the Stand&mdash;An Agitator’s
-Adventures&mdash;Spies in his Own Defense&mdash;The Fight at McCormick’s&mdash;The Desplaines
-Street Wagon&mdash;Bombs and Beer&mdash;The Wilkinson Interview&mdash;The Weapon of the
-Future&mdash;Spies the Reporter’s Friend&mdash;Bad Treatment by Ebersold&mdash;The Hocking
-Valley Letter&mdash;Albert R. Parsons in his Own Behalf&mdash;His Memories of the Haymarket&mdash;The
-Evidence in Rebuttal.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">THROUGHOUT the trial the defendants maintained an air of careless
-indifference. Occasionally during the presentation of particularly striking
-and damaging evidence&mdash;notably that of Thompson and Gilmer&mdash;they
-were noticed to wince, but the flush was only momentary. It was
-apparent that the prisoners expected in some manner to extricate themselves
-from their perilous position, and the casual observer would have
-supposed them involved simply in an ordinary trial. Whatever may have
-been their real feelings, they did not betray them. After they had begun to
-place evidence on their own behalf before the jury, they even wore a
-certain air of cheerfulness; and whereas previously a sort of stolidity had
-marked their demeanor, their general bearing now was that of supreme confidence.
-They evidently felt confident of having made a favorable impression
-upon the jury. They possibly calculated upon their having
-successfully impeached the evidence of Gilmer and having proven to some
-extent their own disconnection with the Haymarket explosion. Fielden’s
-plausible explanations also, no doubt, added to their confidence.</p>
-
-<p>Taking the evidence of the State as a complete exposition of the conspiracy,
-there seemed to be no consolation in that direction; but their hope
-rested in winning over the jury by raising a reasonable doubt through the
-preponderance of offsetting testimony on their own side, and by making the
-jury believe, by the manner of their conduct under the severe fire of the
-prosecution, that they sincerely felt themselves innocent of all “guilty
-knowledge.”</p>
-
-<p>They played their part well, and their attitude is not at all surprising
-when their former bloodthirsty propensities are taken into consideration.
-In an ordinary murder or conspiracy trial Fielden’s statements might have
-had some influence in mitigation of extreme punishment, but, overshadowed
-as it was by overwhelming counter-evidence of complicity in a
-stupendous crime, the jury subsequently determined that it saw no way of
-disconnecting him from the other conspirators.</p>
-
-<p>The defendants pretended they had a host of witnesses beyond those that
-they really required to prove that they had never dreamed there would be
-a bomb thrown at the Haymarket, but that they only needed to use a few<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">[507]</a></span>
-of these witnesses to establish their innocence. Still, they put a very large
-number on the stand. The testimony of all these pretended to show what
-a harmless set of men the State had arrested and put on trial for their
-lives.</p>
-
-<p>The trend of much of the evidence for the defense seemed directed
-toward proving the police responsible for the massacre, by having opened
-fire on a “peaceable gathering;” and, through a brother of the defendant
-Spies, it was attempted to prove that the enmity of the police toward
-Anarchists was so great that one of them tried to shoot the defendant in
-the back while at the Haymarket. This brother of Spies&mdash;Henry&mdash;had
-been wounded in the abdomen, and he endeavored, on the witness-stand,
-to show that he had received the injury while suddenly pressing down the
-revolver that was aimed at his brother. The explanation was too lame to
-be serviceable.</p>
-
-<p>At this point several witnesses testified to Lingg’s presence at Zepf’s
-Hall early on the night of May 3d. Others strengthened the Anarchistic
-theory of an alleged police attack at the Haymarket. Still others impeached
-the witness Gilmer’s veracity. Inasmuch as I have previously
-given in full all the evidence which these people merely corroborated, I
-have not thought it necessary to give here their statements at length.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">John Bernett</span>, a candy-maker, said he saw the man who threw the
-bomb. The thrower was right in front of him. The bomb “went west and
-a little bit north.”</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“The man who threw it was about my size, maybe a little bit bigger,
-and I think he had a mustache. I think he had no chin beard, and his
-clothes were dark.”</p>
-
-<p>“Did you ever see that picture before?” (handing witness photograph
-of Schnaubelt).</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, sir; Mr. Furthmann showed it to me about two weeks ago.”</p>
-
-<p>“Do you recognize that as being the man who threw the bomb?”</p>
-
-<p>“I guess not.”</p>
-
-<p>“Did you tell Mr. Furthmann so at the time?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, sir.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Bernett said;</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I never could recognize anybody. I told Capt. Schaack and Mr.
-Grinnell that the man who threw the bomb was in front of me, and I could
-not tell how he did look. When the police came up first I stood right in
-the middle of the alley. When the captain of the police ordered them to
-leave that place, I heard somebody say: ‘Stand; don’t run,’ and there were
-about three or four men, about the middle of the street, west of the wagon,
-who halloaed out: ‘No; we won’t do it.’ That was said in English. I
-heard Fielden say something to the officer who spoke to him, but I could
-not hear it. The crowd began to rush, and rushed me, and I hurried out
-as fast as I could. I got shot and fell on the sidewalk. I told Mr. Furthmann
-that I thought the bomb was fired from about fifteen steps south of
-the alley&mdash;I count my steps about two feet and a half. I don’t think it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">[508]</a></span>
-came right from behind the boxes. From the place the bomb was thrown
-up to the other corner&mdash;the house goes up a little further on the other side&mdash;the
-distance is forty-five feet. The bomb was thrown forty-five feet south
-of the corner of the alley. I cannot remember how far the boxes were south
-of the alley that night&mdash;there was a lamp-post, and then the boxes came.
-I remember coming to the Central Station on the 7th of May and talking
-to Officer Bonfield in the presence of Mr. Grinnell. I don’t know that I
-said at that time that the bomb was thrown from behind the boxes, but I
-think I am right now. I don’t think I stated afterwards, some weeks ago,
-that it was thrown some twenty or twenty-five feet south of the alley. I
-can’t remember now how many feet I stated the distance was, but I think I
-have got it right now. On the 7th of May I was brought over here by
-Officer Bonfield and Officer Haas, so that I could see the defendants. I was
-asked if I had ever seen them before, and I said I had seen them all before
-on the lake front and the Haymarket. I told Capt. Schaack that I could
-not describe the man and would not know him if I saw him, and that the
-man’s back was toward me.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Michael Schwab</span> was then called in his own behalf, and he made the
-following statement:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“Up to the 4th of May I lived at 51 Florimond Street. I was co-editor
-of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. On the evening of May 4th I left home twenty
-minutes to eight, went to the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> and reached there about eight
-o’clock. I left about ten minutes later. While I was there a telephone
-message was received asking Mr. Spies to speak at Deering. After that I
-went over to the Haymarket to see whether I could find Mr. Spies. I didn’t
-stop long over there. I just went through the crowd, as the men out at Deering
-had been waiting for an hour already. I went over on Washington Street,
-turned north down Desplaines Street and went across Randolph Street, and
-north of Randolph on Desplaines I met my brother-in-law, Rudolph Schnaubelt,
-and talked to him about the matter; then took a car going in an easterly
-direction and rode up to the Court-house. At the Court-house I took
-a Clybourn Avenue car and went to Deering’s factory. Near the car stables
-I was met by a man and asked whether I was Mr. Schwab. The man testified
-here on the witness-stand. I think his name is Preusser, as he told me
-that night. I should judge it takes about ten minutes from the Haymarket
-to the Court-house and about forty or forty-five minutes from there to
-Fullerton Avenue. I stepped from the car with that man; went up to the
-saloon, 888 Clybourn Avenue, to see the committee, but the committee was
-not there; so we went directly to the prairie, corner of Fullerton and Clybourn
-Avenues, and there I met some men who told me that they were the
-committee. I talked with them some minutes, then mounted the stand and
-made a speech, twenty or twenty-five minutes long, about the eight-hour
-movement, to the men who had struck that same day and demanded eight
-hours’ work and ten hours’ pay. I returned home about eleven o’clock at
-night. I didn’t pay any attention to the time. After the meeting was over
-I went with Preusser to a saloon, took a glass of beer and had some lunch,
-and then I took the next car going south. I left the car on Willow Street,
-which is not far north from North Avenue, and walked home, which is a
-distance of about twenty minutes’ walk.</p>
-
-<p>“I did not at any time while I was at the Haymarket enter Crane’s alley
-or any alley with Mr. Spies. I had no conversation with him near the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509">[509]</a></span>
-mouth of the alley. I did not walk at any time that night in company with
-Mr. Spies on the north side of Randolph Street from the corner of Desplaines
-down past Union Street and return to where the wagon stood. I did not,
-in company with Mr. Spies, meet Schnaubelt when Spies handed to
-Schnaubelt any package or anything. I did not see Spies and did not speak
-to him at all that night at the Haymarket. I did not say anything to Spies
-or anybody else in the mouth of Crane’s alley about pistols or police, or
-whether one would be enough. I had no such conversation with anybody
-at the Haymarket or anywhere. I did not say to Mr. Spies or anybody else
-at any time before the meeting began or at any other time that if the police
-came we were ready for them or we would give it to them, or any words to
-that effect.</p>
-
-<p>“When I left the Haymarket the meeting had not begun; men were
-standing around on all four corners. I had seen Mr. Spies last that day in
-the afternoon. I did not see him again until the next day in the morning,
-when I came to the office.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Schwab said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I was a member of the North Side group of the International Workingmen’s
-Association from the time it started, some years ago, until up to the
-4th of May last. I walked over to the Haymarket from the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-that night through the Washington Street tunnel with Balthasar Rau. He
-left me on Desplaines and Randolph; there I lost him. Then I crossed
-Randolph Street, and about the middle of Randolph Street met Mr. Heineman.
-I inquired of some persons whom I knew by sight whether they had
-seen Spies. I staid there not more than five minutes, then took a car and
-went east. I went alone. I should judge it was about half-past eight when
-I took the car on Randolph Street and about twenty minutes of nine when I
-took the Clybourn Avenue car and went north. I was alone on that way. I
-don’t know what time it was when I got to the saloon at 888 Clybourn
-Avenue. From there it is about a block or a little more to the prairie where
-the meeting was held. When I got there I spoke first to some of the members
-of the committee to find out what they wanted me to speak about. That
-took about five minutes. After I had spoken to the meeting I went with
-Preusser to a saloon, corner of Clybourn and Ashland Avenues, not the
-same saloon I went into the first time. I did not see Balthasar Rau again
-that night.”</p>
-
-<p>“Are you an Anarchist?”</p>
-
-<p>“That depends upon what you mean by that. There are several divisions
-of the Anarchists.”</p>
-
-<p>“Are you an Anarchist?”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I can’t answer that.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">August Vincent Theodore Spies</span> was next put on the stand to testify
-in his own behalf. He said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“May 4th last I was one of the editors of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. I occupied
-that position since 1880. Prior to that I was engaged in this country
-principally in the furniture business. I am a member of the Socialistic
-Publishing Society, which is organized under the laws of the State of Illinois,
-and by which the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> was published. I was an employé of that
-society in my position as editor, and as such was subject to their control as
-to the general policy of the paper.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510">[510]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“At a meeting of the Central Labor Union in the evening of Sunday,
-May 2, at 54 West Lake Street, which I attended in the capacity of a reporter,
-I was invited by one or two delegates to address a meeting of the
-Lumber-shovers’ Union on the afternoon of May 3, on the corner of Twenty-second
-or Twentieth and Blue Island Avenue. As there were no other
-speakers, I went out. When I came there was a crowd of 6,000 to 7,000
-people assembled on the prairie. When I was invited, which was the first
-information I received of the meeting, nothing was said to me about any
-relationship of Mr. McCormick’s employés to that meeting. I did not know
-that the locality of the meeting was in the immediate neighborhood of McCormick’s.
-I arrived there, as near as I can judge, a little after three
-o’clock. Several men were speaking from a car in the Bohemian or Polish
-language; they were very poor speakers, and small crowds of those
-assembled detached themselves to the side and talked together. Balthasar
-Rau introduced me to the chairman of the meeting. I don’t remember his
-name; he testified here. I asked him if I was to speak there, and he said yes.
-I waited for about ten minutes while reports came in from the different
-owners of the lumber-yards as to the demand made by the union, which
-was eight hours’ work at twenty-two cents per hour. They then elected a
-committee to wait upon the bosses to find out what concessions they would
-make, if any. Thereupon I was introduced to address the meeting, and
-spoke from fifteen to twenty minutes. Having spoken two or three times
-almost every day for the preceding two or three weeks, I was almost prostrated,
-and spoke very calmly, and told the people, who in my judgment were
-not of a very high intellectual grade, to stand together and to enforce their
-demands at all hazards; otherwise the single bosses would one by one defeat
-them. While I was speaking I heard somebody in the rear, probably a hundred
-feet away from me, cry out something in a language which I didn’t understand&mdash;perhaps
-Bohemian or Polish. After the meeting I was told that
-this man had called upon them to follow him up to McCormick’s. I should
-judge about two hundred persons, standing a little ways apart from the main
-body, detached themselves and went away. I didn’t know where they were
-going until probably five minutes later I heard firing, and about that time I
-stopped speaking and inquired where the pistol shots came from, and was
-told that some men had gone up there to stone McCormick’s ‘scabs’ and that
-the police had fired upon them. I stopped there probably another five or
-six minutes, during which time I was elected a member of the committee
-to visit the bosses, when two patrol wagons came up in great haste on the
-Black Road, so-called, driving towards McCormick’s, followed immediately
-by about seventy-five policemen on foot, and then other patrol wagons
-came. I jumped from the car and went up to McCormick’s. They were
-shooting all the while. I thought it must be quite a battle. In front of
-McCormick’s factory there are some railroad tracks, on which a number of
-freight-cars were standing. The people were running away and hiding
-behind these freight-cars as much as they could, to keep out of the way of
-the pistol-firing. The fight was going on behind the cars. When I came
-up there on this prairie, right in front of McCormick’s, I saw a policeman
-run after and fire at people who were fleeing, running away.</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511">[511]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-511.jpg" width="400" height="656" id="i511"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">SPIES ADDRESSING THE STRIKERS AT MCCORMICK’S.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_512" id="Page_512">[512]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">My blood was boiling, and, seeing unarmed men, women and children, who were running
-away, fired upon, I think in that moment I could have done almost
-anything. At that moment a young Irishman, who probably knew me or
-had seen me at the meeting, came running from behind the cars and said:
-‘What kind of a&mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; business is this? What h&mdash;&mdash;l of a union is that?
-What people are these who will let those men be shot down here like dogs?
-I just come from there; we have carried away two men dead, and there are
-a number of others lying on the ground who will most likely die. At least
-twenty or twenty-five must have been shot who ran away or were carried
-away by friends.’ Of course I could not do anything there. I went back
-to where the meeting had been, which was about three blocks away. I
-told some of them what was going on at McCormick’s, but they were unconcerned
-and went home. I took a car and went down town. The same
-evening I wrote the report of the meeting which appeared in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-of the next day. Immediately after I came to the office I wrote the
-so-called Revenge circular, except the heading, ‘Revenge.’ At the time I
-wrote it I believed the statement that six workingmen had been killed that
-afternoon at McCormick’s. I wrote at first that two had been killed, and
-after seeing the report in the five o’clock <i>News</i> I changed the two to six,
-based upon the information contained in the <i>News</i>. I believe 2,500 copies
-of that circular were printed, but not more than half of them distributed,
-for I saw quite a lot of them in the office of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> on the
-morning I was arrested. At the time I wrote it I was still laboring under
-the excitement of the scene and the hour. I was very indignant.</p>
-
-<p>“On May 4th I was performing my regular duties at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>.
-A little before nine in the forenoon I was invited to address a meeting on
-the Haymarket that evening. That was the first I heard of it. I had no
-part in calling the meeting. I put the announcement of the meeting into
-the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> at the request of a man who invited me to speak. The
-<i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> is an afternoon daily paper, and appears at 2 <span class="smcap">P. M.</span>
-About eleven o’clock a circular calling the Haymarket meeting was handed
-to me to be inserted in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, containing the line, ‘Workingmen,
-arm yourselves and appear in full force.’ I said to the man who
-brought the circular that, if that was the meeting which I had been invited
-to address, I should certainly not speak there, on account of that line. He
-stated that the circulars had not been distributed, and I told him if that
-was the case, and if he would take out that line, it would be all right. Mr.
-Fischer was called down at that time, and he sent the man back to the
-printing-office to have the line taken out. I struck out the line myself
-before I handed it to the compositor to put it in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. The
-man who brought the circular to me and took it back with the line stricken
-out was on the stand here&mdash;Grueneberg I believe is his name.</p>
-
-<p>“I left home that evening about half-past seven o’clock and walked down
-with my brother Henry, arriving at the Haymarket about twenty or twenty-five
-minutes after eight. I had understood from the invitation that I should
-address the meeting in German; and, knowing that the English speeches
-would come first, I did not go there in time to reach the opening of the
-meeting. When I got there, there was no meeting in progress, however;
-simply crowds were standing around the corners here and there, talking
-together. I called them together. After having looked around for a speakers’
-stand&mdash;we generally had very primitive platforms&mdash;I saw this wagon
-on Desplaines Street; and being right near the corner, I thought it was a
-good place to choose and told the people that the meeting would take place
-there. There was no light upon the wagon. Early in the meeting I think
-the sky was bright. I cannot tell whether the lamp at the alley was burning
-or not; my impression is that it was. I could not say about any other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">[513]</a></span>
-light. I found the wagon just where we used it. It was not an ordinary
-truck wagon; it was a half truck and half express wagon, the truck with the
-box on. I don’t know that there were any stakes on it; it was a large, long
-express wagon. I believe I spoke with my brother Henry as to the advisability
-of choosing that place. Henry was with me during the entire evening.
-After the audience got together, somebody suggested to draw the wagon
-into the Haymarket. I replied that that might interfere with the street
-traffic, and that the cars would make a good deal of noise. Then I asked if
-Mr. Parsons was present. I thought he had been invited to address the
-meeting. I was not on the arrangement committee; but seeing the crowd
-and seeing that the meeting had been very poorly arranged, I took the
-initiative. When I asked for Parsons, one of the editors of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>,
-one Schroeder, stepped up and said: ‘Parsons is speaking up on
-the corner of Halsted and Randolph Streets; I just saw him there.’ I told
-him to go and call him. He left, but staid quite a while, and I left the
-wagon myself, and, in the company of my brother Henry, one Legner and
-Schnaubelt, whom I had just met, went up the street to find Parsons.
-Schwab was not with me at that time or at any time that evening. Schnaubelt
-told me I had been wanted at Deering, but as I had not been at hand
-Schwab had gone out there. After I left the wagon I did not go to the
-mouth of Crane’s alley. I did not even know at the time that there was an
-alley there at all. I did not enter the alley with Schwab, had no conversation
-with him there in which I referred to pistols and police, and in which
-Schwab asked whether one would be enough, etc., nor anything of that kind.
-Neither did I have that conversation with anybody else. I left the wagon
-and moved in a southwesterly direction obliquely across the street to the
-corner of the Haymarket. From there I went, in company with those I
-mentioned, up on Randolph Street, beyond Union and pretty near Halsted
-Street, but, seeing only a few people, probably twenty or twenty-five, standing
-there scattered, and not seeing Parsons, we returned, walking on the
-north side of Randolph Street, as we had in going down. I went on the
-wagon and addressed the meeting. I had no conversation with Schwab, at
-or about the crossing of Union Street, in which we spoke about being ready
-for them and that they were afraid to come. I had no such conversation
-with any one. I don’t remember exactly of what we were speaking, but
-Schnaubelt and I, as we walked along, were conversing in German. I have
-known Schnaubelt for about two years. I think he has not been in the
-country more than two years. He cannot speak English at all. He wore a
-light gray suit that night. In returning to the wagon I went from the corner
-of the Haymarket right straight to the wagon, in a northeasterly direction.
-I did not, on my return, or at any time that evening, walk with Schwab
-across Desplaines Street to the center of the sidewalk, some fifteen feet
-south of Crane’s alley, and at that point meet Schnaubelt, and there take
-anything out of my pocket, or otherwise, and give it to Schnaubelt, or anybody
-else, at that location.</p>
-
-<p>“I spoke about fifteen or twenty minutes. I began by stating that I
-heard a large number of patrol wagons had gone to Desplaines Street Station;
-that great preparations had been made for a possible outbreak; that
-the militia had been called under arms, and that I would state at the beginning
-that this meeting had not been called for the purpose of inciting a riot,
-but simply to discuss the situation of the eight-hour movement and the
-atrocities of the police on the preceding day. Then I referred to one of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">[514]</a></span>
-the morning papers of the city, in which Mr. McCormick said that I was
-responsible for the affair near his factory; that I had incited the people to
-commit violence, etc., and I stated that such misrepresentations were made
-in order to discredit the men who took an active part in the movement. I
-stated that such outbreaks as had occurred at McCormick’s, in East St.
-Louis, in Philadelphia, Cleveland and other places, were not the work of a
-band of conspirators, of a few Anarchists or Socialists, but the unconscious
-struggle of a class for emancipation; that such outbreaks might be expected
-at any minute and were not the arbitrary work of individuals. I then
-pointed to the fact that the people who committed violence had never been
-Socialists or Anarchists, but in most instances had been up to that time the
-most lawful citizens, good Christians, the exemplary so-called honest workmen,
-who were contrasted by the capitalists with the Anarchists. I stated
-that the meeting at McCormick’s was composed mostly of humble, church-going
-good Christians, and not by any means atheists, or materialists, or
-Anarchists. I then stated that for the past twenty years the wage-workers
-had asked their employers for a reduction of the hours of labor; that, according
-to the statement of the secretary of the National Bureau of Labor Statistics,
-about two millions of physically strong men were out of employment;
-that the productive capacity had, by the development of machines, so immensely
-increased that all that any rationally organized society required
-could be produced in a few hours, and that the mechanical working of men
-for ten hours a day was simply another method of murdering them. Though
-every student of social phenomena admitted the fact that society was, under
-the present condition of overwork, almost retrograding and the masses
-sinking into degradation, still their demands have been refused. I proceeded
-to state that the legislators had different interests at stake than those involved
-in this question, and did not care so much about the welfare of any
-class of society as for their own interests, and that at last the workingmen
-had conceived, consciously or unconsciously, the idea to take the matter
-in their own hands; that it was not a political question, but an economic
-question; that neither legislatures nor Congress could do anything in the
-premises, but the workingmen could only achieve a normal day’s work of
-eight hours or less by their own efforts.</p>
-
-<p>“I believe when I had gone so far somebody told me that Mr. Parsons
-had arrived. Turning around, I saw Parsons; and as I was fatigued, worn
-out, I broke off and introduced Parsons. I spoke in English. After introducing
-Parsons I staid on the wagon. When I stopped and Parsons began,
-I believe there were pretty nearly 2,000 people there; it was an
-ordinarily packed crowd. The people who wanted to listen would crowd to
-the wagon, others would stand on the opposite sidewalk, but I did not see
-any very packed crowd, exactly. While I spoke, I was facing, I believe, in a
-southwesterly direction; the bulk of the audience stood around the wagon
-south and southwesterly toward the Haymarket. Parsons spoke forty-five
-minutes to an hour. He stopped about ten o’clock. I had been requested
-by several persons to make a German speech, but Parsons had spoken
-longer than I expected, it was too late, and I didn’t feel much like speaking;
-so I asked Mr. Fielden to say a few words in conclusion and then adjourn.
-I introduced Fielden to the audience and remained on the wagon until the
-command was given by Capt. Ward to disperse. I did not see the police
-until they formed in columns on the corner of Desplaines and Randolph
-Streets. Somebody behind me, I think, said: ‘The police are coming.’ I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">[515]</a></span>
-could not understand that. I did not think even when I saw them that
-they were marching toward the meeting. The meeting was almost as well
-as adjourned. There were not over two hundred on the spot. About five
-minutes previous to that a dark cloud came moving from the north, and it
-looked so threateningly that most of the people ran away, and some people
-suggested an adjournment to Zepf’s Hall; more than two-thirds of the
-attendants left at that time. The police halted three or four feet south of
-the wagon. Capt. Ward walked up to the wagon. Fielden was standing
-in front of me, in the rear of the wagon. I was standing in the middle of
-the wagon. Ward held something in his hand, a cane or a club, and said:
-‘In the name of the people of the State of Illinois, I command you to disperse,’
-and Fielden said: ‘Why, Captain, this is a peaceable meeting.’
-And Ward repeated, I think, that command, and then turned around to his
-men, and while I didn’t understand what he said to them, I thought he said,
-‘Charge upon the crowd,’ or something to that effect. I did not hear him
-say: ‘I call upon you and you to assist;’ he may have said that and I may
-have misunderstood him. My brother and one Legner and several others
-that I did not know stood at the side of the wagon; they reached out their
-hands and helped me off the wagon. I felt very indignant over the coming
-of the police, and intended to ask them what right they had to break up the
-meeting, but I jumped down from the wagon. When I reached the sidewalk
-I heard a terrible detonation; I thought the city authority had brought
-a cannon there to scare the people from the street. I did not think they
-would shoot upon the people, nor did I think in the least, at that time, of a
-bomb. Then I was pushed along; there was a throng of people rushing up,
-and I was just carried away with them. I went into Zepf’s Hall. The firing
-began immediately, simultaneously with the explosion. I did not see any
-firing from the crowd upon the police. I did not hear, as I stood upon the
-wagon, either by Fielden or anybody else, any such exclamation as ‘Here
-come the bloodhounds; men, do your duty and I will do mine.’ Fielden
-did not draw a revolver and fire from the wagon upon the police or in their
-direction. I did not, before the explosion of the bomb, leave my position
-upon the wagon, go into the alley, strike a match and light a bomb in the
-hands of Rudolph Schnaubelt. I did not see Rudolph Schnaubelt in the
-mouth of the alley then or at any time that evening with a bomb. I did not
-at that time or any other time that evening go into the mouth of the alley
-and join there Fischer and Schnaubelt and strike a match for any purpose.
-Schnaubelt is about six feet three inches tall, I should judge, of large frame
-and large body.</p>
-
-<p>“I remember the witness Wilkinson, a reporter of the <i>News</i>. He was
-up at the office several times, but I only had one conversation with him as
-far as I remember. He made an interview out of it. He was introduced
-to me by Joe Gruenhut, who told me that the <i>News</i> wanted to have an
-article. Wilkinson inquired as to the report of some paper that the
-Anarchists had placed an infernal machine at the door of the house of
-Lambert Tree, and I told him that, in my opinion, the Pinkertons were
-doing such things to force people to engage them and to advertise themselves.
-He then asked whether I had ever seen or possessed any bombs?
-I said yes. I had had at the office for probably three years four bombshells.
-Two of them had been left at the office in my absence, by a man
-who wanted to find out if it was a good construction. The other two were
-left with me one day by some man who came, I think, from Cleveland or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516">[516]</a></span>
-New York, and was going to New Zealand from here. I used to show
-those shells to newspaper reporters, and I showed one to Mr. Wilkinson
-and allowed him to take it along and show it to Mr. Stone. I never asked
-him for it since. That part of the conversation was at noon, while I was in
-a hurry. Wilkinson came in the evening again with Joe Gruenhut, and
-invited me to dine with him. I had just about half an hour to spend. At
-the table we talked about an infernal machine which had been placed a few
-days previous into an office of the Burlington and Quincy Railroad, and
-about another placed in front of Lambert Tree’s house, and I gave the
-explanation which I have already stated. Talking about the riot drill that
-had shortly before been held on the lake front, and about the sensational
-reports published by the papers in regard to the armed organizations of
-Socialists, I told him that it was an open secret that some three thousand
-Socialists in the city of Chicago were armed. I told him that the arming
-of these people, meaning not only Socialists but workingmen in general,
-began right after the strike of 1877, when the police attacked workingmen
-at their meetings, killed some and wounded others; that they were of
-the opinion that if they would enjoy the rights of the Constitution, they
-should prepare to defend them too, if necessary; that it was a known fact
-that these men had paraded the streets, as many as 1,500 strong at a time,
-with their rifles; that there was nothing new in that, and I could not see
-why they talked so much about it. And I said I thought that they were
-still arming and I wished that every workingman was well armed.</p>
-
-<p>“Then we spoke generally on modern warfare. Wilkinson was of the
-opinion that the militia and the police could easily defeat any effort on the
-part of the populace by force, could easily quell a riot. I differed from him.
-I told him that the views which the bourgeoise took of their military and
-police was exactly the same as the nobility took, some centuries ago, as to
-their own armament, and that gunpowder had come to the relief of the
-oppressed masses and had done away with the aristocracy very quickly;
-that the iron armor of the nobility was penetrated by a leaden bullet just as
-easily as the blouse of the peasant; that dynamite, like gunpowder, had
-an equalizing, leveling tendency; that the two were children of the same
-parent; that dynamite would eventually break down the aristocracy of
-this age and make the principles of democracy a reality. I stated that it
-had been attempted by such men as General Sheridan and others to play
-havoc with an organized body of military or police by the use of dynamite,
-and it would be an easy thing to do it. He asked me if I anticipated any
-trouble, and I said I did. He asked me if the Anarchists and Socialists
-were going to make a revolution. Of course I made fun of that; told him
-that revolutions were not made by individuals or conspirators, but were
-simply the logic of events resting in the conditions of things. On the subject
-of street warfare I illustrated with toothpicks the diagram which had
-appeared in one of the numbers of the <i>Alarm</i>, introduced in evidence here.
-I said to him that I wasn’t much of a warrior, but had read a good deal on
-the subject, and I particularly referred to that article in the <i>Alarm</i>. I said
-that if, for instance, a military body would march up a street, they would
-have men on the house-tops on both sides of the street protecting and guarding
-the main body from possible onslaught, possibly by shooting, firing or
-throwing of bombs. Now, if the revolutionists or civilians, men not belonging
-to the privileged military bodies, would form an oblique line on each
-side of the street at a crossing, they could then very successfully combat the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">[517]</a></span>
-on-marching militia and police, by attacking them with fire-arms or dynamite.
-And I used Market Square for illustration. I said there was a system
-of canalization in large cities. Now, supposing they expected an attack,
-they could, by the use of a battery and dynamite, blow up whole regiments
-very easily. I don’t think that I said what Wilkinson testified to here in
-regard to the tunnel, but I may have given the talk a little color. I knew
-he wanted a sensational article for publication in the <i>News</i>, but there was
-no particular reference to Chicago, or any fighting on our part. The topic
-of the conversation was that a fight was inevitable, and that it might take
-place in the near future, and what might and could be done in such an event.
-It was a general discussion of the possibilities of street warfare under
-modern science.</p>
-
-<p>“I wrote the word ‘Ruhe’ for insertion in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> on May
-4th. It happened just the same as with any other announcement that
-would come in. I received a batch of announcements from a number of
-labor organizations and societies a little after eleven o’clock, in my editorial
-room, and went over them. Among them was one which read: ‘Mr.
-Editor, please insert in the letter-box the word ‘Ruhe,’ in prominent letters.’
-This was in German. There is an announcement column of meetings
-in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, but a single word or something like that would
-be lost sight of under the announcements. In such cases people generally
-ask to have that inserted under the head of ‘Letter-box.’ Upon reading
-that request, I just took a piece of paper and marked on it ‘Briefkasten’
-(Letter-box), and the word ‘Ruhe.’ The manuscript which is in evidence
-is in my handwriting. At the time I wrote that word and sent it up to be
-put in the paper, I did not know of any import whatever attached to it.
-My attention was next called to it a little after three o’clock in the afternoon.
-Balthasar Rau, an advertising agent of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, came
-and asked me if the word ‘Ruhe’ was in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. I had myself
-forgotten about it, and took a copy of the paper and found it there.
-He asked me if I knew what it meant, and I said I did not. He said there
-was a rumor that the armed sections had held a meeting the night before,
-and had resolved to put in that word as a signal for the armed sections to
-keep themselves in readiness in case the police should precipitate a riot, to
-come to the assistance of the attacked. I sent for Fischer, who had invited
-me to speak at the meeting that evening, and asked him if that word
-had any reference to that meeting. He said, ‘None whatever;’ that it was
-merely a signal for the boys&mdash;for those who were armed to keep their
-powder dry, in case they might be called upon to fight within the next
-days. I told Rau it was a very silly thing, or at least that there was not
-much rational sense in that, and asked him if he knew how it could be
-managed that this nonsense would be stopped; how it could be undone.
-Rau said he knew some persons who had something to say in the armed
-organizations, and I told him to go and tell them that the word was put in
-by mistake. Rau went pursuant to that suggestion, and returned to me at
-five o’clock.</p>
-
-<p>“I was not a member of any armed section. I have not been for six
-years. I have had in my desk for two years two giant-powder cartridges,
-a roll of fuse and some detonating caps. Originally I bought them to
-experiment with them, as I had read a good deal about dynamite and
-wanted to get acquainted with it, but I never had occasion to go out for
-that purpose, as I was too much occupied. The reporters used to bother<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">[518]</a></span>
-me a good deal, and when they would come to the office for something sensational
-I would show them these giant cartridges. They are the same
-that were referred to here by certain witnesses as having been shown on
-the evening of the Board of Trade demonstration. One of them will yet
-show a little hole in which I put that evening one of those caps, to explain
-to the reporter how terrible a thing it was. In fact, if that cartridge, as it
-is, were exploded in a free place, it would just give a detonation, and the
-concussion of the air might throw one on the floor, but it could do no harm
-to anybody. I know absolutely nothing about the package of dynamite
-which was exhibited here in court, and was claimed to have been found on
-a shelf in a closet in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> building. I never saw it before
-it was produced here in court. I don’t know anything about a revolver
-claimed to have been found in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. That was not my
-revolver, but I always carried a revolver. I had a very good revolver. I
-was out late at night, and I always considered it a very good thing to be
-in a position to defend myself. Strangely, I did not have that pistol with
-me on the night of the Haymarket. It was too heavy for me, and, while
-I took it along first, I left it with ex-Alderman Stauber on my way. I
-guess it is there now.</p>
-
-<p>“I was arrested on Wednesday morning after the Haymarket meeting,
-about half-past eight o’clock, at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> editorial room. I had
-begun writing. I had come to the office a little after seven o’clock, as
-usual. A man who afterwards told me he was an officer, James Bonfield,
-asked Mr. Schwab and myself to come over to police headquarters; that
-Superintendent Ebersold wanted to have a talk with us on the affair of the
-previous night. I was very busy and asked him if it could not be delayed
-until after the issue of the paper. He said he would rather have me come
-along then, and I, unsuspectingly, went along to the station. The Superintendent
-received us by saying: ‘You dirty Dutch &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash;, you dirty
-hounds, you rascals, we will choke you; we will kill you.’ And then they
-jumped upon us, tore us from one end to the other, went through our
-pockets, took my money and everything I had. I never said anything.
-They finally concluded to put us in a cell, and then Mr. Ebersold said:
-‘Well, boys, let’s be cool.’ I think Mr. James Bonfield interfered during
-the assault made upon us by Mr. Ebersold, and suggested to him that that
-was not the proper way nor the proper place. I have been continuously
-confined from then until now.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Spies stated:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“There was in fact no editor-in-chief of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>; there was
-a kind of autonomous editorial arrangement, but I was looked to as the
-editor-in-chief. I mean in the editorial department every one wrote what
-he pleased, and it was published without my looking at it. I never assumed
-any responsibility for the editorials. I never was made responsible by the
-company for the management of the paper. Schwab’s salary was the same
-as mine; our positions were coördinate. The management of the paper
-was left with the board of trustees; the editors had very little to say about
-it. Nobody looked over the editorials before they were inserted. Contributed
-articles were looked over sometimes by one of the reporters, sometimes
-by Schwab or Schroeder, or myself. Schroeder was editor for four
-months. I usually glanced at the paper to keep track of what it contained.
-Fischer was merely a compositor of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>; he had nothing to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519">[519]</a></span>
-do with the editorials or management of the paper. I had nothing to do with
-the <i>Alarm</i>, except for four or five weeks, when I edited it in the absence of
-Mr. Parsons.”</p>
-
-<p>“Was money ever sent you for the <i>Alarm</i>?”</p>
-
-<p>“There was. I also paid the bills for the printing of the <i>Alarm</i>.”</p>
-
-<p>“Did you ever write contributions for the <i>Alarm</i>?”</p>
-
-<p>“I have occasionally, whenever they were in need of manuscript. Of
-the bombs I had I received the two iron cast ones first. That was about
-three years ago. A man who gave his name as Schwape or Schwoep
-brought them to me. I only saw him once. I think he was a shoemaker,
-came from Cleveland, and left for New Zealand. He asked me
-if my name was Spies. I told him yes; and he asked me if I had seen
-any of the bombs that they were making, or something like that. I don’t
-know to whom he referred by ‘they.’ He spoke of people in Cleveland
-with whom he had associated; I didn’t ask him and didn’t know what
-class of people. I said I hadn’t seen any of them. I don’t remember anything
-more about the conversation I had with him. I would have twelve or
-fifteen conversations every day; this one was out of the order of my regular
-conversations; my recollection is, I got rid of him as soon as he would
-leave. He left those there; he said he would not take them along. I didn’t
-ask him if he had any more with him. They were bombs exploding by percussion,
-heavier on one side than on the other, so that when they were
-thrown the cap would always come down. I think they were at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-on May 4. I never saw the man before or after that. The other
-two bombs which Wilkinson called ‘Czar bombs,’ a term which I never
-used to him, were left one day, in my absence, in the office. When I came
-from dinner I saw them on my desk and was told that a man had brought
-them there to inquire whether they were bombs of a good construction, and
-the man never called for them. That was about a year and a half or two
-years ago. One I gave to Wilkinson; the other one, I suppose, was at the
-office ever since. I don’t know what became of it and of the two iron
-bombs. I had not seen them for some time, but I thought they were at the
-office. I got the dynamite about two years ago from the Ætna Powder
-Company. I got two of those bars. My intention at first was to experiment
-with them.”</p>
-
-<p>“What object did you have in experimenting with the dynamite?”</p>
-
-<p>“I had read a great deal about dynamite and thought it would be a good
-thing to get acquainted with its use, just the same as I would take a revolver
-and go out and practice with it. I don’t want to say, however, that
-it was merely for curiosity. I can give no further explanation. I got the
-caps and the fuse, because I would need them to experiment with. I was
-never present, to the best of my recollection, when experiments were made
-with dynamite. Neither bombs nor dynamite were ever distributed through
-the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office. I did not tell Mr. Wilkinson that they were.
-I never handled any dynamite outside of the two cartridges; never had
-anything to do with the distribution of dynamite. I know Herr Most; I
-guess I have known him for three years. This letter here is from Most.
-I do not know whether I answered that letter. I cannot remember.”</p>
-
-<p>“In whose handwriting is this postal card?”</p>
-
-<p>“It is Most’s handwriting. I suppose I received it&mdash;I see my address
-on it. I do not remember having read that postal or this letter at this date.
-I don’t remember the contents of that letter. I have undoubtedly received<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520">[520]</a></span>
-and read it, but don’t recollect anything about it now. I never carried on
-any correspondence with Most. I don’t remember whether I answered the
-postal card, and whether I said or wrote to Most anything in regard to the
-inquiries made of me in this letter. I know positively I did not give him
-the directions where to ship the material mentioned in the letter. There
-may have been a letter addressed in my care which I may have sent to
-Most, but I know absolutely nothing outside of that.</p>
-
-<p>“As to the phrase, ‘The social revolution,’ which occurs in my writings, I
-mean by it the evolutionary process, or changes from one system to another,
-which take place in society; I meant a change from a wage system, from
-the present relations between labor and capital, to some other system. By
-the abolition of the wage system I mean the doing away with the spoliation
-of labor, making the worker the owner of his own product.</p>
-
-<p>“I was invited to go to the Haymarket meeting at nine o’clock on Tuesday,
-by Mr. Fischer. It was about eleven o’clock when I objected to that last line
-in the circular. I objected to that principally because I thought it was ridiculous
-to put a phrase in which would prevent people from attending the meeting.
-Another reason was that there was some excitement at that time, and
-a call for arms like that might have caused trouble between the police and the
-attendants of that meeting. I did not anticipate anything of the kind, but I
-thought it was not a proper thing to put that line in. I wrote the ‘Revenge’
-circular, everything except the word ‘Revenge.’ I wrote the words, ‘Workingmen,
-to arms!’ When I wrote it I thought it was proper; I don’t think
-so now. I wrote it to arouse the working people, who are stupid and ignorant,
-to a consciousness of the condition that they were in, not to submit to
-such brutal treatment as that by which they had been shot down at McCormick’s
-on the previous day. I wanted them not to attend meetings under
-such circumstances, unless they could resist. I did not want them to do
-anything in particular&mdash;I did not want to do anything. That I called them
-to arms is a phrase, probably an extravagance. I did intend that they
-should arm themselves. I have called upon the workingmen for years and
-years, and others have done the same thing before me, to arm themselves.
-They have a right, under the Constitution, to arm themselves, and it would
-be well for them if they were all armed. I called on them to arm themselves,
-not for the purpose of resisting the lawfully constituted authorities
-of the city and county, in case they should meet with opposition from them,
-but for the purpose of resisting the unlawful attacks of the police or the
-unconstitutional and unlawful demands of any organization, whether police,
-militia or any other. I have not urged them in my speeches and editorials
-to arm themselves in order to bring about a social revolution or in order to
-overthrow the lawful authority of the country.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The letter referred to as that of Most, which was in German, and which
-was dated 1884, was then put in evidence and read, as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“<i>Dear Spies</i>:&mdash;Are you sure that the letter from the Hocking Valley was not written by a
-detective? In a week I will go to Pittsburg, and I have an inclination to go also to the
-Hocking Valley. For the present I send you some printed matter. There Sch. ‘H.’ also
-existed but on paper. I told you this some months ago. On the other hand I am in a condition
-to furnish ‘medicine,’ and the ‘genuine’ article at that. Directions for use are perhaps
-not needed with these people. Moreover they were recently published in the ‘Fr.’
-The appliances I can also send. Now, if you consider the address of Buchtell thoroughly
-reliable, I will ship twenty or twenty-five pounds. But how? Is there an express line to
-the place, or is there another way possible? Paulus, the Great, seems to delight in hopping
-around in the swamps of the N. Y. V. Z. like a blown-up (bloated) frog. His tirades excite<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521">[521]</a></span>
-general detestation. He has made himself immensely ridiculous. The main thing is only
-that the fellow cannot smuggle any more rotten elements into the newspaper company than
-are already in it. In this regard, the caution is important to be on the minute. The organization
-here is no better nor worse than formerly. Our group has about the strength of the
-North Side group in Chicago; and then, besides this, we have also the Soc. Rev. § 1, the
-Austrian League and the Bohemian League, so to say three more groups. Finally, it is easily
-seen that our influence with the trade organizations is steadily growing. We insert our
-meetings in the Fr., and cannot notice that they are worse attended than at the time when
-we got through weekly $1.50 to $2.00 into the mouth of the N. Y. V. Z. Don’t forget to put
-yourself into communication with Drury in reference to the English organ. He will surely
-work with you much and well. Such a paper is more necessary as to the truth. This,
-indeed, is getting more miserable and confused from issue to issue, and in general is whistling
-from the last hole. Enclosed is a fly-leaf which recently appeared at Emden, and is
-perhaps adapted for reprint. Greeting to Schwab, Rau and to you. Yours,</p>
-
-<p class="pr2">“<span class="smcap">Johann Most</span>.</p>
-
-<p>“P. S.&mdash;To Buchtell I will, of course, write for the present only in general terms.</p>
-
-<p class="pn">“<span class="smcap">A. Spies</span>, No. 107 Fifth Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The postal card referred to was also put in evidence and read, as
-follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“L. S. (<i>Dear Spies</i>:) I had scarcely mailed my letter yesterday when the telegraph
-brought news from H. M. One does not know whether to rejoice over that or not. The
-advance is in itself elevating. Sad is the circumstance that it will remain local, and, therefore,
-might not have a result. At any rate, these people make a better impression than the
-foolish voters on this and the other side of the ocean. Greetings and a shake.</p>
-
-<p class="pr2">“Yours,<span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</span>J. M.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Albert R. Parsons</span> made the following statement in his own behalf:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I have resided in Chicago for thirteen years. I was born June 20, 1848.
-On Sunday, May 2, I was in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. Came back from
-there to Chicago on Tuesday morning, May 4th, between seven and eight
-o’clock. I caused a notice calling for a meeting of the American group at
-107 Fifth Avenue, on the evening of May 4th, to be inserted in the <i>Daily
-News</i> of that evening. In the evening I left my house in company with
-Mrs. Holmes, my wife and two children, about eight o’clock. We walked
-from home until we got to Randolph and Halsted Streets. There I met two
-reporters that I have seen frequently at workingmen’s meetings. One of
-them was a reporter whose name I don’t know; the other was Mr.
-Heineman of the <i>Tribune</i>. There Mrs. Holmes, my wife and children and
-myself took a car and rode directly to the meeting at 107 Fifth Avenue.
-We arrived there about half-past eight and remained about half an hour.
-After the business for which the meeting had been called was about through,
-some one, I understood it was a committee, came over from the Haymarket
-and said that there was a large body of people and no speakers there except
-Mr. Spies, and myself and Mr. Fielden were urged to come over to address
-the mass-meeting. After finishing up the work, we adjourned and walked
-over. Fielden and myself crossed the river through the tunnel. There
-were three or four others present, but I don’t remember their names. I
-think it was after nine o’clock when I reached the meeting on Desplaines
-Street near the Haymarket. Mr. Spies was speaking. I managed to
-squeeze through the crowd, was assisted upon the wagon at once by some
-gentlemen standing about, and within a minute or two Mr. Spies concluded,
-stated that I had arrived and would address the meeting, and asked their
-attention while I was talking. I suppose I spoke about three-quarters of
-an hour. At the close of my speech I got down from the wagon. I think I
-was assisted by Henry Spies, who was standing by the wagon. Then I
-went to the wagon which stood about fifteen or twenty feet north of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522">[522]</a></span>
-speakers’ wagon, on which my wife and Mrs. Holmes were seated, listening
-to us. I got into that wagon, asked them how they were enjoying themselves,
-etc., and while talking with them, about ten minutes later, a coolness
-in the atmosphere attracted my attention. I looked up and observed white
-clouds rolling over from the north, and as I didn’t want the ladies to get
-wet, I went on to the speakers’ wagon and said: ‘Mr. Fielden, permit me
-to interrupt you a moment.’ ‘Certainly,’ he said. And I said: ‘Gentlemen,
-it appears as though it would rain. It is getting late. We might as
-well adjourn anyway, but if you desire to continue the meeting longer, we
-can adjourn to Zepf’s Hall, on the corner near by.’ Some one in the crowd
-said: ‘No, we can’t; it is occupied by a meeting of the furniture workers.’
-With that I looked and saw the lights through the windows of the hall, and
-said nothing further. Mr. Fielden remarked that it did not matter; he had
-only a few words more to say. I went over again to where the ladies were,
-helped them off the wagon and told them to go down to this corner place,
-and we would all get together and go home. They walked off, and some
-one detained me for a moment; then I followed them and met near the edge
-of the crowd a man whom I knew very familiarly&mdash;Mr. Brown. I asked
-him to have a drink with me, as the speaking had made me hoarse, and we
-moved off a little in the rear of the ladies, to the saloon. There had been
-no appearance of the police, no explosion or any disturbance up to that
-time. As I entered the saloon I noticed some four or five gentlemen standing
-at the bar. There were possibly as many as ten people sitting at tables
-on the other side next the wall, and about five or six men standing in the
-center of the floor talking to each other, among whom I noticed Mr. Malkoff,
-talking to a gentleman whom I did not know, but I supposed he was a
-reporter. He was upon the witness-stand in this trial. I believe it was Mr.
-Allen. The ladies took seats about ten feet from the door, in the saloon, at
-the end of the first table, with their backs to it, looking into the street. I
-said something to them, and I believe just then I introduced some one to
-Mrs. Parsons. Afterwards I went to the bar with Brown, and we had a
-glass of beer and a cigar. Then I turned around and noticed Mr. Fischer
-sitting at one of the tables and said a few words to him and sat down at the
-table for a few moments. Then I think I went around to where the ladies
-were, and I was standing near them looking out and wondering if the meeting
-would not close, anxious to go home. All at once I saw an illumination.
-It lit up the whole street, followed instantly by a deafening roar, and almost
-simultaneously volleys of shots followed, every flash of which, it seemed to
-me, I could see. The best comparison I can make in my mind is that it
-was as though a hundred men held in their hands repeating revolvers and
-fired them as rapidly as possible until they were all gone. That was the
-first volley. Then there were occasional shots, and one or two bullets
-whistled near the door and struck the sign. I was transfixed. Mrs. Parsons
-did not move. In a moment two or three men rushed breathlessly in
-at the door. That broke the apparent charm that was on us by the occurrence
-in the street, and with that I called upon my wife and Mrs. Holmes
-to come with me to the rear of the saloon. We remained there, possibly,
-twenty minutes or so.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">On cross-examination Parsons said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I was born in Montgomery, Alabama. Since I came to Chicago I
-worked as a type-setter for the first eight or nine years; then for a year and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523">[523]</a></span>
-a half myself and wife had a suit business on Larrabee street; then for about
-a year and a half myself and wife made ladies’ wrappers and suits, and I
-went out soliciting orders. For the last two years, since October, 1884,
-I was editor of the <i>Alarm</i>. It was a weekly paper for about a year, and
-then a semi-monthly. I wrote down the memorandum of my utterances on
-the night of May 4th, which I used in giving my testimony as to my speech,
-from time to time, as they occurred to me, and in looking over Mr. English’s
-report. When I referred to the methods which the Chicago <i>Times</i> and the
-Chicago <i>Tribune</i> and Tom Scott advised against striking workingmen, I told
-them they should defend themselves against such things in any way they
-could, by arming, if necessary. I did not mention dynamite at that meeting.
-I possibly mentioned it at other meetings. I said nothing about bombs that
-night, neither as a defensive means, or something to use against them. I
-did not, when I said that the present social system must be changed in
-the interest of humanity, explain to them how the social change should be
-brought about, because I did not know myself. I think I told the audience
-that the existing order of things was founded upon and maintained by force,
-and that the actions of the monopolists and corporations would drive the
-people into the use of force before they could obtain redress. I might have
-stated that&mdash;I am not sure. I did not tell them that the ballot was useless
-for them because the majority was against them. That is not correct; the
-workingmen are vastly in the majority. I did not tell them that night that
-the only way they could obtain their rights was by overturning the existing
-order of things by force. I could not tell whether there were any strikers
-present that night. There were very few Socialists present. I am a
-Socialist. I am an Anarchist, as I understand it.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">W. A. S. Graham</span>, a reporter with no Anarchistic tendencies, had interviewed
-Harry Gilmer at the City Hall as to what he had seen at the Haymarket
-and who threw the bomb.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Harry Gilmer</span> was then recalled by the defendants and stated that he
-had seen the gentleman (pointing to Graham) at the Central Station, and
-that he (Graham) asked him if he could identify the man who threw the
-bomb. Gilmer had answered that he could if he saw him. Witness did not
-say during the conversation that he saw the man throw the bomb, but that
-the man had his back to him and had whiskers. Witness did not say that
-the man was of medium size with dark clothes, and that he saw him light
-the fuse and throw the bomb.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Graham was recalled and stated that the man (Gilmer) just on the
-stand had told him that he saw the man light the fuse and throw the bomb,
-and that he could identify him if he saw him. Gilmer told him that the
-man was of medium height, and thought he had whiskers and wore a soft
-black hat, but had his back turned toward him. On cross-examination witness
-said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I had this conversation about four o’clock in the afternoon of May 5th.
-I talked with him about three or four minutes. He said nothing about there
-being more than one man at that location, a knot of men, or anything of that
-kind. He said that one man lighted the fuse and threw the bomb; he did<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524">[524]</a></span>
-not say anything about how it was lighted, whether with a match or a cigar,
-I did not ask him that. He said he was standing in Crane’s alley when it
-was done.</p>
-
-<p>This closed the evidence for the defense, and by agreement several
-newspaper articles and an address of Victor Hugo to the “Rich and Poor”
-were introduced. The State then proceeded to put in rebutting testimony.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Daniel Scully</span>, a justice of the peace, was first examined. He stated
-that at the preliminary examination, held on the 25th of May, Officer Wessler
-had not stated in his testimony that Stenner was the man who fired
-the shot from the wagon; neither had Officer Foley so stated.</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Did he, at that time, give a description of the man who fired the shot
-over the wagon that night as a stout man with heavy whiskers, saying at
-the same time that if he ever saw him again he thought he could identify
-him?” “Yes, sir. Stenner was discharged upon that examination.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Inspector John Bonfield</span> met Mr. Simonson, a witness in this case, at
-the police station on the night of the Haymarket riot. The man was introduced
-to him by Capt. Ward as a member of the firm of J. V. Farwell &amp; Co.</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“We three stood together outside of the railing. Mr. Simonson
-opened the conversation by remarking to me that he understood that the
-horses belonging to the Police Department were getting used up with the
-constant work they had, and that either Mr. Farwell or the firm&mdash;I understood
-him to say Mr. Farwell&mdash;that their horses were at our service in case
-we needed any horses. I told him that our teams had stood the work so
-far very well, but that if the troubles continued for any length of time we
-would likely need assistance and would call upon him if occasion demanded
-it, thanking him for his offer. He then spoke about the trouble at McCormick’s
-and on Centre Avenue and Eighteenth Street that afternoon, and
-said the police ought to have dispersed those crowds; not to have allowed
-them to collect. I did not, in the course of that conversation, tell him that
-I would like to get a crowd of 3,000 without any women and children, and
-in that case would make short work of them, or anything to that effect.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">The most important part of the work done by the State at this phase of
-the proceedings was the strong indorsement of Harry W. Gilmer’s veracity
-which was produced before the jury. To the credibility of this witness, and
-to their acquaintance with, and respect for him, the following persons testified:
-Judge Tuthill of the Superior Court, Chas. A. Dibble, John Steele,
-Michael Smith, Benjamin F. Knowles, Chester C. Cole, ex-Judge of the
-Supreme Court of Iowa, Edward R. Mason, Clerk of the U. S. Circuit Court at
-Des Moines, Samuel Merrill, President of the Citizens’ National Bank of
-Des Moines, Canute R. Matson, Sheriff of Cook County, Sylvanus Edinburn,
-W. P. Hardy, John L. Manning, an attorney, and many others.
-Many of these witnesses had known Gilmer in Iowa for many years; others
-were old acquaintances of his in Chicago; all of them swore that he was
-worthy of belief.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_525" id="Page_525">[525]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">Opening of the Argument&mdash;Mr. Walker’s Speech&mdash;The Law of the Case&mdash;Was
-there a Conspiracy?&mdash;The Caliber of the Bullets&mdash;Tightening the Chain&mdash;A
-Propaganda on the Witness-stand&mdash;The Eight-hour Movement&mdash;“One Single Bomb”&mdash;The
-Cry of the Revolutionist&mdash;Avoiding the Mouse-trap&mdash;Parsons and the Murder&mdash;Studying
-“Revolutionary War”&mdash;Lingg and his Bomb Factory&mdash;The Alibi Idea.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">THE evidence being now all in, Francis W. Walker, Assistant State’s
-Attorney, on the morning of August 11th, began his address to the
-jury. Although his argument was an exceedingly lengthy one, he held his
-audience and the jury to the closest attention from the first word to the
-last. Mr. Walker began by an examination of the law, defining what is
-meant by the term “reasonable doubt,” which he believed would be one of
-the arguments used by the defense. Following this he read the statutes
-showing what murder is, and what an accessory, under the laws of Illinois.
-Under the statute, as he proved, an accessory is to be held as a principal.
-Following this he reviewed at some length Mr. Salomon’s statement, in
-that gentleman’s opening speech, that the prisoners had been guilty, if
-they were guilty at all, of no crime more serious than conspiracy. Mr.
-Walker held that the fact that murder had followed the conspiracy proved
-the conspirators murderers. His logic was clear, cogent and unanswerable.
-Its effect could be seen in the gloomy attention which the doomed Anarchists
-paid to his fatal chain of reasoning.</p>
-
-<p>Leaving the authorities to one side, Mr. Walker addressed himself to
-the facts made manifest by the evidence. He said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“We start out first upon the analysis of the facts of this case in this
-way: Was there an unlawful combination, a conspiracy, to overthrow the
-systems of this Government upon the 1st day of May, 1886? Was the
-bomb thrown on the 4th of May in pursuance of the common design?
-Are these defendants members of that conspiracy? When those questions
-are answered in the affirmative the guilt of each and every one of these
-defendants of murder is proven beyond a reasonable doubt. But, if we go
-further than that, the argument would embrace the topic: Was there a murder
-committed at the Haymarket? Did the defendants aid, abet and assist
-the commission of that act? Or, if they were not present aiding, abetting
-and assisting, had they advised, encouraged, aided and abetted the perpetration
-of the crime? Under either aspect of this case, the defendants are
-guilty of murder with malice aforethought.</p>
-
-<p>“Was there a conspiracy? Was there a conspiracy to culminate on or
-about the 1st day of May? Were the defendants members of that conspiracy?
-Was the conspiracy unlawful? Was the bomb thrown in pursuance
-of the common design? Let us investigate the facts and answer each
-proposition.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Mr. Walker went into the peculiar fact that the bullets found in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_526" id="Page_526">[526]</a></span>
-bodies of the officers were 22 and 44-caliber; the officers carried 38-caliber.
-The witnesses who had appeared for the defense in this case were armed
-with pistols of the first-named sizes.</p>
-
-<p>He read to the jury many remarkable extracts from Most’s writings,
-pointing out the peculiar and criminal teachings of that Anarchist leader,
-and showing how Spies and the others had in every detail of their connection
-with the police, after the Haymarket murders, followed the printed
-advice given.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-526.jpg" width="250" height="323" id="i526"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">FRANCIS W. WALKER.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Following is one of the extracts from Most’s book:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Shield your person as long as there is a possibility to preserve it for future deeds, but
-when you see that you are irredeemably lost, then use the short respite to make the most of
-it for the propaganda of your principles. We have regarded it our duty to give you these
-instructions, the more so as we see from day to day
-even people who are expert in revolutionary matters
-violating even the plainest rules. May their
-lives be the last which are necessary in this regard.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">“I read you, gentlemen, this, so that
-we may start out from the proper standpoint
-and position, before we argue as to
-the merits of the testimony of the defendants’
-witnesses in this case. Who are
-they? Who is their advisor? Why, they
-have started out in social life agreeing to
-swear to perjury. They belong to the
-Social Revolution. There is not one of
-them, gentlemen, that bears upon his face
-the stamp of sensibility or of heart, and
-there can be no argument made when
-they talk about the motive to justify murder
-and the advice of murder, only from
-the malignant heart. Here they picture
-murder and gloat over it. They feast
-over the description of how to poison
-easiest, as the hyena does over the corpse of the dead.</p>
-
-<p>“Most laughs in his own book. He tells to the ‘mere compositor’:
-‘Use a dagger with grooves in it; the poison will stay on it the more
-readily.’ And a file is adopted for the purpose.</p>
-
-<p>“Gentlemen, we have found without any further analysis the reason why
-the defendant Parsons converted the witness-stand into a propaganda. It
-took him an hour by the clock here to repeat the substance of the speech
-that he delivered in less than three-quarters of an hour upon the Market
-Square. He endeavored to deny the conspiracy by an alibi; and I mean
-by that the conspiracy upon the night of May 4th. He only said he was in
-Cincinnati on Sunday, and did not get back until Tuesday morning. They
-never asked him if he knew what ‘Ruhe’ meant. They did not ask Schwab
-if he knew what ‘Ruhe’ meant. The only defendant that they have asked
-as to his personal knowledge of ‘Ruhe’ is the defendant Fielden&mdash;the only
-one, the only one from the beginning to the close of this case.</p>
-
-<p>“Was there a conspiracy? There has been a conspiracy existing in this
-community to overthrow the law of the State of Illinois by force, for years<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_527" id="Page_527">[527]</a></span>
-and years. In 1885, upon the anniversary of the birth of George Washington,
-in the city of Grand Rapids, the arch-conspirator in this case&mdash;because
-he is the one that is the most contemptible&mdash;said in the city of Grand Rapids&mdash;I
-refer you now to the testimony of Mr. Moulton and George Schook:
-‘There are three thousand men, armed, in the city of Chicago, secretly
-drilled. They are known by numbers and not by names. Whoever wishes
-to join may join, but before you have joined you cannot know their secrets,
-Mr. Moulton. There will be a revolution when the eight-hour movement
-takes place. We will favor the eight-hour not because we believe in it, but
-because it will assist us in the social revolution, and the eight-hour movement
-will occur on or about the 1st of May, 1886. If I fail, I shall be
-hanged.’ And then the man that puts the word ‘Ruhe’ for the purpose
-of this case on the shoulder of Fischer, compares himself to George Washington,
-and in his grotesque and horrible vanity says: ‘I am a rebel, and if
-I don’t succeed I shall be hanged.’</p>
-
-<p>“On October, 17, 1885, in the city of Chicago, at the West Twelfth Street
-Turner Hall, August Spies again, in a public meeting, admitted the great
-conspiracy and again foreshadowed the coming revolution on the first of
-May; and this was published by his coördinate editor in the <i>Alarm</i>, at the
-same office, 107 Fifth Avenue, Mr. Parsons.</p>
-
-<p>“The defendant Spies has been upon the stand. He only denied as to
-a conspiracy, and never whispered a word of denial except when he got to
-the word ‘Ruhe.’ Without explanation he could never escape the effect
-of that word, and his explanation is the evidence of his guilt; he tried to
-put that on Fischer.</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“August Spies was introduced at this point and offered the following resolutions: Whereas,
-a general move has been started among the organized wage-workers of this country for the
-establishment of an eight-hour work-day, to begin on May 1, 1886; whereas, it is to be
-expected that the class of professional idlers, the governing class who prey upon the bone and
-marrow of the useful members of society, will resist this attempt by calling to their assistance
-the Pinkertons, the police and State militia: Therefore, be it</p>
-
-<p class="pbq">“<i>Resolved</i>, That we urge upon all wage-workers the necessity of procuring arms before the
-inauguration of the proposed eight-hour strike, in order to be in a position of meeting our foe
-with their own argument, force.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">“Here is shown the sincerity of these men in their endeavor to ameliorate
-the laborer&mdash;as they call it, the wage-worker.</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Resolved, That while we are skeptical in regard to the benefits that will accrue to the wage-worker
-from the introduction of the eight-hour work-day, we nevertheless pledge ourselves to
-aid and assist our brethren of this class with all that lies in our power as long as they show
-an open and defiant front to our common enemy, the labor-devouring class of aristocratic
-vagabonds, the brutal murderers of our comrades in St. Louis, Chicago and Philadelphia
-and other places. Our war-cry is, ‘Death to the enemy of the human race, our despoilers.’</p>
-
-<p class="p1">“What does that mean? It was published in the <i>Alarm</i>. Was there a
-conspiracy, gentlemen, against the police on the first day of May, 1886?
-After the reading, these resolutions were received with round after round
-of applause, and the chair was about to put a vote, when Mr. J. K. Magie
-arose and said that he understood a discussion of them to be in order. He
-denounced the revolutionary character of the resolutions. He believed
-that six hours of labor was enough! This man was a labor agitator and believes
-in the amelioration of labor. ‘This is the best form of government
-that ever existed,’ he said of this Republic. He is an American citizen and
-believes in the institutions of his country. ‘If there are abuses, there is a
-proper way to correct them. Eighty per cent. of the voting population are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_528" id="Page_528">[528]</a></span>
-working people; they should strike with the ballot and not with the bullet.’
-Then this ameliorator of labor, August Spies, supposed that Mr. Magie did
-not like the terms in which the members of the Government were referred
-to. The reason of this was that Mr. Magie was one of those political vagabonds
-himself. There were nine millions of the best people engaged in the
-industrial trades of this country. There were but one million of them as
-yet organized&mdash;one million, and by the way, that is significant in the fact
-that these men fought to achieve this result all over the country. Schnaubelt
-had said at 54 West Lake Street the night before, the 3d of May, ‘We
-must telegraph our success to all the other cities throughout the country.’</p>
-
-<p>“To make the movement in which they were engaged&mdash;the eight-hour
-movement for the 1st of May&mdash;a successful one, it must be a revolutionary
-one. ‘Don’t let us,’ he exclaimed, ‘forget the most forcible argument, the
-gun and dynamite.’</p>
-
-<p>“Was there a conspiracy? Turn to the cross-examination of Wilkinson
-by Capt. Black, and find that part where Wilkinson said he had heard Joe
-Gruenhut say that the revolution that Spies spoke of was to occur, the conflict
-was actually to occur on the 1st or after the 1st of May, 1886. This
-was brought out by Capt. Black himself on cross-examination of this witness.
-In the first place you must remember that Lingg was in this country
-before the Christmas of 1885, between the 1st day of January and the
-14th day of January. The Czar bomb, but six or eight weeks after Lingg
-came here, was handed to Wilkinson by Spies&mdash;the twin, the same bomb
-in general construction and general make-up as that used at the Haymarket
-on that night, made by Lingg on the afternoon of that day, or filled with
-dynamite on the afternoon of that day.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Following this Mr. Walker reviewed Parsons’ utterances in the <i>Alarm</i>,
-quoting many of them. He argued that it was this sort of language and
-the dynamite bomb at the Haymarket which accounted for the failure of the
-eight-hour movement in the United States.</p>
-
-<p>Coming to August Spies, he read from the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> the following
-characteristic <i>morceau</i>:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“‘Six months ago, May 4th, when the eight-hour movement began’&mdash;this
-is in Spies’ own handwriting&mdash;‘there were speakers and journals of
-the I. A. A.’&mdash;that is the International Arbeiter Association&mdash;‘who proclaimed
-and wrote: “Workingmen, if you want to see the eight-hour system
-introduced, arm yourselves. If you don’t do this you will be sent home
-with bloody heads, and the birds will sing May songs upon your graves.”
-“That is nonsense,” was the reply. “If the workingmen are organized
-they will gain the eight-hour in their Sunday clothes.” Well, what do you
-say now? Were we right or wrong? Would the occurrence of yesterday
-have been possible if our advice had been followed? Wage-workers, yesterday
-the police of this city murdered at McCormick’s factory four of your brothers,
-and wounded more or less,’ etc. ‘If the brothers who defended themselves
-with stones (a few of them had little snappers in the shape of revolvers)
-had been provided with good weapons and one single dynamite bomb,
-not one of the murderers would have escaped their well-merited fate.’</p>
-
-<p>“The police went up there; they were nearly being murdered with
-stones; the mob were throwing at them before they ever fired a shot; and
-this man the next day writes: ‘Had they’&mdash;the mob&mdash;‘been provided<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_529" id="Page_529">[529]</a></span>
-with good weapons and one single dynamite bomb, not one of the murderers
-would have escaped his well-deserved fate.’ Then see: ‘As it was,
-only four of them were disfigured. That is too bad.”</p>
-
-<p>“Here, here is a man that has no design upon the police, don’t believe
-in force. ‘That is too bad. The massacre of yesterday took place in order
-to fill the forty thousand workingmen of this city with fear and terror;
-took place in order to force back,’ etc. ‘ Will they succeed in this? Will
-they not find at last that they have miscalculated? The near future will
-answer this question. We will not anticipate the course of events with
-surmises.’</p>
-
-<p>“That is what he himself said. If one single bomb had been used it
-would have been different. He sees these eight thousand men at his back,
-returns immediately to the office of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> and writes out this,
-(indicating the Revenge circular). What did he mean? What did he
-mean? ‘Revenge.’ He says he did not write the word ‘Revenge’ in
-English. <i>Rache, Rache</i>, Revenge, Revenge&mdash;he never denied that he wrote
-it in the German language, nor any witness for him; but it makes no
-difference whether he wrote it, or whether he did not write it. He wrote
-‘To arms;’ he says, ‘To arms, workingmen, to arms.’ What does that
-mean? Did anybody say at the Haymarket, ‘Here come the bloodhounds;
-you do your duty and I will do mine’? Let us see. ‘The bloodhounds’
-was the common expression from the lips of these defendants as the designation
-for the police. Spies says in English&mdash;did he mean this or
-didn’t he?”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Mr. Walker here read the text of the “Revenge” circular, both the
-English and German versions, as given in a previous chapter, and continued:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“Is that meaningless? ‘To arms, we call you to arms.’ Why, it is the
-cry of the revolutionist; it is the cry of the Communist; it is the cry of the
-Anarchist; it is the cry of Spies and Parsons&mdash;‘To arms, to arms!’ And
-yet the English was tame in comparison to the German version.</p>
-
-<p>“Did they have no design upon individuals in this conspiracy? Why,
-they had the most awful, damning malice against the police. It was the
-motive-hunting of a motiveless malignity. Without reason and without cause
-they had individualized the police; but Bonfield for the second time stood
-in the way of the Social Revolution. Just see how it forces up the blood
-of this social revolutionist: ‘The bloodhounds, the police are at you, in
-order to cure you, with bullets, of your dissatisfaction. Slaves, we ask, we
-conjure you by all that is sacred and dear to you, avenge’&mdash;what does
-that mean? What difference does it make whether he wrote revenge at
-the head of this circular or not? He wrote it in it. What did it mean?
-What did those conspirators mean?</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Avenge the atrocious murder which has been committed upon your brothers to-day,
-and which will be likely to be committed upon you to-morrow. Avenge, laboring men.
-Hercules, you have arrived at the cross-way. Which way will you decide, for slavery and
-hunger, or for freedom and bread? If you decide for the latter, then don’t delay a moment.
-Then, people, to arms! Annihilation, annihilation to the beasts in human form who call
-themselves your rulers. Uncompromising annihilation to them. This must be your motto.
-Think of the heroes whose blood has fertilized the road to progress, liberty and humanity,
-and strive to become worthy of them. Your brothers.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">“Thousands of these were circulated throughout the city. Does that
-mean that there was a conspiracy and no malice against individuals?</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_530" id="Page_530">[530]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“And then on Monday night a meeting at 54 West Lake Street took
-place, which has not been denied, and there were Lingg and Engel and
-Fischer. Engel’s plan was again reiterated; Lingg was to make the bombs,
-and Lingg was there to say he could make the bombs. He may have been
-to the Carpenters’ meeting before that. When he left the 54 West Lake
-Street meeting, he met Lehman upon the way home&mdash;Gustav Lehman, who
-testified he got the bombs from Lingg&mdash;and he said to Lehman, ‘If you
-want to know anything, you come to 58 Clybourn Avenue to-morrow night.’
-In response to the question, ‘What has been going on in the meeting at 54
-West Lake Street, in the basement?’</p>
-
-<p>“At that meeting at 54 West Lake Street were represented all the
-different Socialistic and Anarchistic organizations. ‘Y, Come Monday
-night,’ had brought delegates, according to Waller’s testimony, from every
-group in the city. The West Side, the South Side, Southwest Side, the
-North Side, every group was represented, and the Lehr und Wehr Verein
-also had its delegates. The plan was arranged that on to-morrow, if the
-revolution took place in the daytime, and the conflict had occurred, the
-word ‘Ruhe’ should be published, all the men should be at their outlying
-groups ready to annihilate the police, the fire department, to cut the telegraph
-wires, and to prevent communication with the central meeting at the
-Haymarket. Waller had suggested that this meeting be at Market Square;
-Fischer says: ‘No; that is a mouse trap; we will make it the Haymarket.’
-And then Spies takes it up north of the alley, north of the intersection
-of the street&mdash;and, by the way, that block has more alleys than perhaps
-any other block in the city of Chicago, and more means of escape&mdash;and
-locates that meeting just where he had located the street battle in his
-description to Mr. Wilkinson, and as Parsons had explained street warfare
-in the <i>Alarm</i>.</p>
-
-<p>“Who called the meeting at the Haymarket to order on Desplaines
-Street beyond the alley? Spies. He had written with his own hand the
-word ‘Ruhe.’ He was after the social revolution. Why did he move the
-meeting to that place if he knew what ‘Ruhe’ meant? Why was he there
-at all if he knew what ‘Ruhe’ meant? He has told. Why was he on the
-wagon if he knew what ‘Ruhe’ meant? Why didn’t he notify the police,
-if he knew what ‘Ruhe’ meant, not to come to that meeting? Why had he
-said upon the wagon, ‘If you want to do anything, why don’t you do it and
-say nothing?’ if he knew what ‘Ruhe’ meant? Why did he leave his
-revolver before he ever got to that meeting unless he knew what ‘Ruhe’
-meant? He follows out his own instructions in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, on that
-subject, when some one wrote:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“In the action itself one must be personally at the place to select personally that point
-on the place of the action and that part of the action which are the most important and are
-coupled with the greatest danger, upon which depend chiefly the success or failure of the
-whole affair.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">“And he selected the place himself. Fischer says: ‘No, the Market
-Square is a mouse trap,’ and they named they Haymarket, and Spies
-designates the place of meeting and publishes the word ‘Ruhe;’ and then
-it is expected from twenty-five to forty thousand people will be at the meeting
-on Haymarket Square. Eight thousand had rebelled at McCormick’s;
-the skirmish lines had met, and it was expected that there would be twenty-five
-thousand at the Haymarket on that night; but there were not, and for
-that reason this mob was not dispersed. The police could not see at any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_531" id="Page_531">[531]</a></span>
-time a meeting so large as to be beyond their control, but when this meeting
-became boisterous it was after ten o’clock, two hours later than the
-meeting was called for. If the police had been but two hours earlier in
-dispelling the meeting the flames would have been lighted out at Wicker
-Park; the instrument of fire described in Herr Most’s book, and found at
-Wicker Park, was for that purpose. The Northwestern group was to meet
-at Wicker Park, and come down past North Avenue Station. The North Side
-group was to annihilate the North Side Station, and Lingg was at his post
-of duty for that purpose.</p>
-
-<p>“Was there a conspiracy? They take the word and Spies publishes it.
-He says in explanation: ‘Among the announcements it came to me by no
-person of whom I am aware, no one about whom I know anything.’ No
-questions were asked. In this way the mere editor, Spies, publishes in
-the Briefkasten the word ‘Ruhe’ prominently. The Briefkasten is
-used to answer private correspondence, personal letters and editorials,
-or it is used to place the advertisements of secret meetings in,
-and for no other purpose. ‘Y&mdash;Come Monday night,’ is found in the Letter-box
-of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. That is a secret thing, and means that the
-armed groups shall meet at 54 West Lake Street. ‘Ruhe’ was an answer
-to no correspondent; the word ‘Ruhe’ could enlighten no ignorant man on
-the subject alone; and the editor-in-chief of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> picked up
-a piece of paper and wrote ‘Ruhe’ on it without ever knowing what it
-meant or where it came from, and says it was handed him among the labor
-announcements: ‘Mr. Editor, please publish the word “Ruhe” in the Letter
-box prominently.’ What tells you that it was a labor announcement?
-Who ever said it was a labor announcement? ‘Ruhe,’ peace, rest, quiet&mdash;‘Ruhe’
-a labor announcement! Why, who said so? It would be lost if
-put in the announcements of labor organizations. ‘Mr. Editor, publish
-the word “Ruhe” in the column where you put “Y&mdash;Come Monday
-night,” the secret sign of the armed sections, and publish it prominently.’
-Without a word he did so, and he asks you to believe it. Did he know
-what ‘Ruhe’ meant? Why, he sent for Fischer, and Fischer told him it was
-harmless. ‘Why,’ he said, ‘that is foolish, Fischer; don’t do that, don’t
-do that.’ Rau had only told him that it meant: ‘Workmen, be at your
-groups, keep yourselves armed and in preparation, so that if you are
-attacked you can defend yourselves; workingmen, arm yourselves and be at
-your groups.’ That is what Rau said ‘Ruhe’ meant, and, when asked,
-Fischer says: ‘Why, that means, “Keep your powder dry,” that is all.’
-‘Well,’ he says, ‘Fischer, that is foolish; that is crazy; why, I cannot have
-that.’ What did he think was foolish and crazy? To keep their powder
-dry, when this man had said the day before, ‘Workingmen, arm yourselves,
-arm yourselves!’ This is the explanation of the word ‘Ruhe.’</p>
-
-<p>“Did Parsons know of the conspiracy ‘Ruhe’? He was a party to the
-great conspiracy, for he had cried about April 24th for the revolution upon
-the 1st of May. That he has not denied; and to my mind he cuts one of
-the worst figures in this case. He was born at least upon American soil, and
-he stands here alone, alone amongst these vast hordes of witnesses who are
-not citizens of our republic, and whose purpose is her destruction. Albert
-R. Parsons is the only American, and he has no right, no right to belong to
-that nationality. He never said he did not know of the conspiracy, and he
-spoke of the 4th of May; it was said that night he staid away&mdash;by the way,
-he left this out&mdash;‘I should be accused of cowardice;’ but he did say, ‘I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_532" id="Page_532">[532]</a></span>
-would come if I were to die before morning.’ Did he know of the conspiracy?
-Why, he had been in it for years. He published the order of
-street fighting in his <i>Alarm</i>, foreshadowing the battle in his description;
-and not only did he do that, but he made the alibi by calling at the American
-group on that night, a group organized and holding a meeting for the
-sewing girls when not a sewing girl was present, with no one there but a
-Nihilist, a Communist, a Socialist and an Anarchist. Mrs. Parsons was
-there and Mrs. Holmes. Where was any sewing girl?</p>
-
-<p>“And here I want to ask you if, after hearing all the proof in this case;
-if, after reading Most’s ‘Revolutionary War,’ the instructions to the Nihilists
-and Anarchists; if after reading the <i>Alarm</i> here; if, after hearing the
-testimony of the witnesses, you will here and to-day say that the men lied
-who on that night stood when Captain Bonfield said ‘Fall in’&mdash;stood there
-when the concussion had riven to the earth sixty of Chicago’s noblest men
-because they had courage. When, out of the hundred and eighty, sixty lay
-wounded on the ground, the other one hundred and twenty killed the revolution
-with one blow. The men whose lives were spared fell in, and not a
-man has lived to say there was a coward in the whole one hundred and
-eighty.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">In the same manner he went through the evidence proving the guilt of
-Schwab, Fielden and Neebe.</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“Was Engel in the conspiracy? He proposed the plan at both
-meetings. He said to Captain Schaack, at the Chicago Avenue Station,
-that ‘what was in him had to come out,’ and he called it the dangerous
-power of internal eloquence. He planned the conspiracy of the Emma Street
-meeting, and has been an Anarchist for years, and instructor in the use of
-weapons, and adviser in the making of bombs. He not only was that, but
-he absolutely and unqualifiedly advised the Socialists to buy weapons for
-the express purpose of killing the police, maiming them, and then with all
-the cunning of a conspirator who has placed his neck within the noose, on
-the morning of the 4th of May he finds this infernal machine and takes it
-to the Chief of Police, and then comes the exhibition between Captain Bonfield
-and the leading counsel for the defense on that proposition. The
-counsel says: ‘He brought it to you freely,’ and he emphasized it, and
-then the tinner came, and the counsel says: ‘What is there about this
-piece of iron that makes you identify it? You only made that sheet; is
-that all? You just cut a piece of iron off for Mr. Engel.’ The witness says:
-‘Please look at the mark on the inside; that is my mark.’ Was Engel in
-the conspiracy?</p>
-
-<p>“Was Fischer, the lieutenant of Spies, in the conspiracy? Was Fischer,
-the messenger of Spies to the meeting at 54 West Lake Street, in the conspiracy?
-He was at the office on Monday afternoon between five and six
-o’clock, when the ‘Revenge’ circular was printed, and from there he went
-to 54 West Lake Street. Was he in the conspiracy&mdash;the man with the
-revolver nearly two feet long, and with the file dagger with grooves? What
-does that mean? Why, prussic acid evaporates; it dries off the instrument.
-‘Use something with grooves.’ And the revolutionists must use files that
-are ground down, in order to have an instrument that is capable of holding
-poison. If you remember, there was another file dagger found in the office
-of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> besides this one. Verdigris, which anyone can
-easily produce by dipping copper or brass into vinegar, and exposing it to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_533" id="Page_533">[533]</a></span>
-the atmosphere, may also be mixed with gum arabic and applied to weapons,
-but the weapons ought to be grooved, so that the poison will remain on
-easier and in larger quantities. That is the explanation of the file dagger
-and the revolver. Was Fischer in the conspiracy, with the Lehr und Wehr
-Verein belt strapped upon his person, and traveling in the streets of the city
-of Chicago with an armament worse than any Western outlaw&mdash;because no
-outlaw ever carried on his person a dagger grooved, the slightest scratch of
-which meant death. It was conceived by nobody except the mind of the
-revolutionist and lieutenant of Spies.</p>
-
-<p>“Was Lingg in the conspiracy? He made the very bomb that was used
-on that night, and it was used on that night in furtherance of the common
-design. Do you remember the analysis of that bomb? Do you remember
-the nuts used to fasten the half-globes together, identical with the one found
-in the wounded man upon the night of May 4? Do you remember Neff’s
-testimony and Seliger’s testimony&mdash;that after the bomb had been thrown, and
-Lingg was at 58 Clybourn Avenue, some one accused him and said: ‘You
-are responsible for all this&mdash;see what you have done’? Hubner said:
-‘You are responsible for all this.’ This does not come from the lips of any
-indicted man, but from the lips of Mr. Neff, the proprietor at the place 58
-Clybourn Avenue. Then Louis Lingg goes home and complains because he
-has been upbraided for his good work in this case, and then he flees,
-changes his appearance&mdash;and he is the only living man that changes his
-appearance in this case except the bomb-thrower. They are the two who
-shaved and cut their hair&mdash;Louis Lingg and Rudolph Schnaubelt. Was
-Lingg in the conspiracy? He was not only in the conspiracy, but he did
-everything in the world to carry out his part of it that night. ‘Lehman,
-you come to 58 Clybourn Avenue to-night, and you will find out what the
-meeting in the basement at 54 meant.’ And Lehman came, and on the next
-day he was at Lingg’s house, and bomb after bomb was distributed from
-that place before night. Where was Lingg in the morning, between eight
-and one? Looking after the revolution in the central part of the city. Men
-coming and going all day after bombs and with bombs&mdash;as Mrs. Seliger
-says&mdash;all day long, taking them away from that place.</p>
-
-<p>“‘Seliger, make haste!’ ‘Hubner, make haste!’ ‘Muntzenberg,
-make haste!’ ‘Put the cloth over your heads so that you can’t get headache.
-Make haste. These bombs must be done so as to be used to-night!’
-What a nice thing it would be, as he and Seliger stood at the corner of
-North Avenue and Larrabee Street, to throw a bomb in that station, Lingg
-says. Then it is 10:30, and the telephone has called for assistance from
-the North Avenue Station, and the patrol wagon goes out, and there stand
-Lingg and Seliger with bombs, and Lingg says, ‘Seliger, give me a light;
-they are going to the assistance of the others. It has happened; the
-revolution has come. Give me a light’&mdash;and here I am reminded that
-when a man throws a bomb in furtherance of the social revolution they do
-it by twos; one furnishes the light and the other throws the bomb. And this
-shows that it was not a solitary and single instance that occurred in the
-alley south of Crane’s when a match was lighted and Schnaubelt threw the
-bomb. The same thing was duplicated by Lingg and Seliger when Seliger
-was to furnish the light and Lingg throw the bomb. It was only because
-Seliger hesitated that those men were not killed by Lingg at North Avenue.
-Was Lingg in this conspiracy then? Why, he fled the next day, and he is
-the man who had the courage to give up all hope. You see, Lingg is a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_534" id="Page_534">[534]</a></span>
-practical annihilator. He don’t believe in preaching; he believes in acting,
-and not only believes in it, but he will do it at any time. He saw Schuettler
-come into the room and jumped upon him the moment he passed the door,
-with one of those large revolvers. And then you will remember the fight
-and struggle there. Most’s book says when there is a possibility to annihilate
-an opposing party, or where it becomes a question of life and death,
-that death or resistance, or both, are advisable.</p>
-
-<p>“That is the advice that Lingg acted on and that Spies acted on, but:
-‘If you are sure that the arrest is made only on vague suspicion, then submit
-to the inevitable. It is easier in such case to extract yourself again. Prove
-an alibi.’ Was Lingg in this conspiracy? Was it a Lingg bomb? Hubner,
-Neff and Seliger swear that Hubner said to Lingg, ‘You are responsible
-for this, Louis Lingg,’ and they had a dispute and a violent discussion
-when it was discovered there. After he tries to throw the bomb at the
-station he goes home and he sees ‘Ruhe,’ and he is almost crazy, and he
-wants to go to the Haymarket, and he goes back to 58 Clybourn Avenue
-and finds that it is over and that the revolution is not accomplished; and
-then he gets angry because he is upraided as the one to blame for the whole
-thing. ‘You have done this,’ Hubner tells him. Hubner was there all
-day and helped to make bombs, and Muntzenberg and the Lehmans were
-in and out all day. Was it Louis Lingg’s bomb?”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Mr. Walker then made a close examination of the evidence in rebuttal,
-and closed his magnificent address with a high tribute to the valor of the
-police and their services to law and order.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_535" id="Page_535">[535]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XXIX.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">The Argument for the Defendants&mdash;“Newspaper Evidence”&mdash;Bringing
-about the Social Revolution&mdash;Arson and Murder&mdash;The Right to Property&mdash;Evolution
-or Revolution&mdash;Dynamite as an Argument&mdash;The Arsenal at 107 Fifth Avenue&mdash;Was it all
-Braggadocio?&mdash;An Open Conspiracy&mdash;Secrets that were not Secrets&mdash;The Case
-Against the State’s Attorney&mdash;A Good Word for Lingg&mdash;More About “Ruhe”&mdash;The
-“Alleged” Conspiracy&mdash;Ingham’s Answer&mdash;The <i>Freiheit</i> Articles&mdash;Lord Coleridge on
-Anarchy&mdash;Did Fielden Shoot at the Police?&mdash;The Bombs in the Seliger Family&mdash;Circumstantial
-Evidence in Metal&mdash;Chemical Analysis of the Czar Bomb&mdash;The Crane’s
-Alley Enigma.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap08">ON the morning of August 12, Mr. Sigismund Zeisler opened his argument
-on behalf of the defendants. In view of the desperate condition
-of his case Mr. Zeisler made an able and ingenious plea. His argument
-occupied a whole day.</p>
-
-<p>During the morning hour, he elaborated at some length upon his theory
-of the law, and claimed that it was not only necessary to establish that the
-defendants were parties to a conspiracy, but it was also necessary to show
-that somebody who was a party to that conspiracy had committed an act in
-pursuance of that conspiracy. Besides that it was essential that the State
-should identify the principal. This, he held, was the law of the State and of
-the land and of the Constitution of the United States. If the principal is
-not identified, then no one could be held as accessory. Upon this theory
-the case should stand or fall, and it was for this reason that the defense
-endeavored to impeach the testimony of Harry L. Gilmer, as that testimony,
-he maintained, was vital for the case. Mr. Walker, he said, had
-stated that there was a conspiracy to inaugurate the social revolution on
-the 1st of May, citing in support of the claim the conversation between
-Spies and Moulton at Grand Rapids, a resolution adopted at the West
-Twelfth Street Turner Hall in October, 1885, and a conversation between
-Spies and Reporter Wilkinson; but after showing the general drift of those
-conversations and the tenor of the resolutions, Mr. Zeisler contended that
-the reports of these matters in the newspapers at the time could not be
-accepted as evidence, as newspapers are frequently given to misstatements.
-Then, referring to the testimony given by the parties named, he said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“Now, what does that testimony amount to?&mdash;the testimony of Mr.
-Moulton, the testimony of Mr. Wilkinson and the testimony in regard to
-the resolutions adopted at the West Twelfth Street Turner Hall? Nothing
-but the fact which is known to all Chicago, that the laboring classes had
-combined to fight for an eight-hours’ work-day on and after the 1st of May.
-That is one thing. And another thing, as far as these resolutions are concerned,
-that it was resolved that, inasmuch as the workingmen had to anticipate
-that the employers would call out the police and militia against them,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_536" id="Page_536">[536]</a></span>
-that they should arm themselves to meet the employers by the same means
-that they, the employers, used.</p>
-
-<p>“Now, further than that, Mr. Spies has spoken with Mr. Moulton and
-with Mr. Wilkinson about the coming social revolution; and when asked
-by Mr. Moulton, ‘How can you ever accomplish such a result? How can
-you ever bring about the social revolution? Under what circumstances
-can it be done?’ he says it can be done at a time when the workingmen
-will be unemployed. Substantially the same thing was said to Mr. Wilkinson
-at the time of that interview last January. Now, the State’s Attorney
-and his associates argue to you that Spies said himself the social revolution
-is coming. When is it coming? On the 1st of May. Can that be
-taken literally?”</p></div>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-536.jpg" width="250" height="321" id="i536"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">SIGISMUND ZEISLER.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Mr. Zeisler held that in the progress of the civilized world a social revolution
-was inevitable, not by the use of dynamite
-or force, but by the peaceable forces
-at work among the people.</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Now, the attorneys for the State talk
-to you about the social revolution, and try
-to make you believe that the social revolution
-means bombs and dynamite, and killing
-and arson and murder and all crimes that
-we know of. Mr. Fielden on the stand gave
-the proper expression. Asked whether he
-believed in the revolution, he said: ‘Yes,
-in the evolutionary revolution.’ And I tell
-you, gentlemen of the jury, this social revolution
-is coming&mdash;this social revolution in
-the sense in which Webster defines the word
-Socialism.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Mr. Zeisler next said that they had not
-denied that the defendants had declared
-that they would head a procession to go and
-sack Marshall Field’s or Kellogg’s store, because it was a fact, but asked if
-after such advice any one of them had taken the lead in any such procession.
-“No, sir,” he said. “They went and armed themselves with beer.
-That is what they did.” On the night of the Board of Trade opening,
-Parsons and Fielden proposed to lead the crowd to attack the groceries and
-clothing houses, but what did they do? They gracefully retired into the
-room of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office and were interviewed by a reporter about
-the terrible effects of a fulminating cap. Did any one come up and inquire
-why they had not led the procession to those places? They did not, as
-everybody understood what was meant. Mr. Zeisler continued:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“The listeners of these people are not very highly educated men. They
-are laboring men who, raised in poor families, did not have the benefits of
-a collegiate education; men who since that time worked at manual labor
-from the early morning until the late evening. They could not in the nature
-of things be very intelligent and highly cultivated and educated. Now,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_537" id="Page_537">[537]</a></span>
-Fielden and Parsons and Spies could not talk to those men by stating to
-them abstract principles of social science; but they told them: ‘Here,
-look at this state of things. There is a man who owns three hundred million
-dollars; there is another man who owns one hundred million. You
-starve, you get starvation wages. Is that a just condition of things?
-Now, I tell you, Mr. Marshall Field, who owns twenty-five millions of dollars,
-has no right to own them. I tell you, you have a right to take from the
-property which he has accumulated; part of it belongs to you. By natural,
-by equitable laws this man is not entitled to live in a palace while you
-starve. I am going to lead you down, if you want me, at once, and we
-will supply our wants from there.’ What is that? Is that an offer to go
-there? Is that an advice to go there? It is an illustration, as you give it
-in school to a child which cannot understand abstract principles of science.
-When they say to them: ‘You have a right to take from Marshall Field
-and Kellogg,’ that means simply in the present state of society that is
-allowed, but this is not a just and equitable condition of affairs, and if it
-were as it ought to be you would have a right to share with Marshall Field
-what he owns. Take it in this common-sense view and don’t allow yourselves
-to be deceived by declamations on the part of the attorneys for the
-State.</p>
-
-<p>“Can a revolution be made? A revolution is a thing which develops
-itself, but no single man nor a dozen of men can control the inauguration of
-a revolution. The social revolution was fixed for the 1st of May! Just
-think of it! The social revolution, the revolution by which the present state
-of proprietary conditions should be changed all over the world, was to be
-inaugurated by Mr. Spies and by Mr. Parsons and Mr. Fielden on the
-first day of May! Has ever a ridiculous statement like that been made to
-an intelligent jury? But all that is told you not because they believe it, but
-because they want to make you blind to the real issues in this case, by telling
-you that the social revolution was coming on the 1st of May, and that
-Inspector Bonfield by his cry, ‘Fall in, fall in,’ on the night of May 4th,
-saved the country from the social revolution; by that they want to deceive
-you, they want to scare you, they want to show you the monstrosity of these
-defendants. The social revolution to be brought about or inaugurated by
-the throwing of a bomb on the night of May 4th! What do you take these
-men for? Are they fools? Are they children? Don’t you see what their
-ideal is, and the last aim and end of theirs? It is the social revolution, yes,
-but not the social revolution brought about by the throwing of dynamite.
-It is the social revolution which will give the poor man more rights and
-which will do away with pauperism. And the means are left to the future;
-but for the present, in order that you may be strong and respected and be
-a power in the land, arm yourselves, organize. That is the meaning of it.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Mr. Zeisler then touched on the preparation of bombs and dynamite
-for that social revolution, referring to the evidence showing the finding of
-dynamite and bombs in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office. He held that Linnemeyer,
-who calcimined the closet in which the bag of dynamite was found,
-had proven that there was nothing of the kind there when he went in to
-search for a brush just immediately preceding the arrival of the police. He
-also pointed to a contradiction in the testimony of one of the officers that
-the dynamite was found on a floor below that of the closet, in a room not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_538" id="Page_538">[538]</a></span>
-used by Spies and not occupied by him at the time of the police search,
-but in the counting-room, and then the subsequent correction by the officer,
-on being recalled by the State, that the package was found in Spies’ editorial
-room. In reference to the bombs there was no secrecy, and Spies
-admitted that he had one more bomb than the police had discovered. That
-information was volunteered on the witness-stand, and the possession of
-those bombs explained.</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“That is the testimony in regard to the arsenal of dynamite and bombs
-and weapons of destruction at 107 Fifth Avenue, and Mr. Spies bragged
-about three thousand revolutionists ready to throw bombs and to annihilate
-the police. What was it? Braggadocio; the same object which all these
-people had in advocating the use of force, in calling upon workingmen to
-arm themselves, to organize, to buy weapons and all that sort of thing; and
-the purpose for which they did it openly and publicly was the same purpose
-Mr. Spies had in bragging that there were three thousand revolutionists&mdash;to
-scare the capitalists, to scare them into yielding to the demands of the
-workingmen, to try to induce them to make concessions to the laboring
-classes, as Mr. Fielden said in his speech on the night of May the 4th. And
-remember, gentlemen of the jury, that it has been testified to by all the
-witnesses who spoke in regard to the speeches and articles of these men,
-that they always made the same argument. Now, Mr. Fielden made the
-same argument a hundred times before. ‘The employers will not like to
-see dissatisfied workingmen in the community, and the laborer can get some
-relief if the employers find that there are dissatisfied workingmen in the
-city.’ That was the reason why they told them, ‘Arm yourselves and
-organize.’ That was the reason why Mr. Spies bragged about the three
-thousand revolutionists and about the bombs ready to be thrown; that was
-the reason why he told Mr. Wilkinson all about their plans.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Mr. Zeisler ridiculed the idea that a social revolution was to have been
-inaugurated with the dozens of bombs made by Lingg, and held there had
-been no preparation for it. Coming to the question of conspiracy, he said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“What is a conspiracy? What were you used to understand by the
-word conspiracy all your lifetime? Isn’t in the first place secrecy the test
-of a conspiracy? Was there anything secret about the doings of these
-men, or about their teachings and writings? When they vented their feelings
-at 54 West Lake Street at the meeting of the American group and told
-the people to go to Marshall Field’s and Kellogg’s, and offered to head the
-procession, told them about their rights, told them to use force, told them
-to arm themselves and to organize, the next morning the daily press of the
-city of Chicago, which reaches five hundred thousand people, and the State’s
-Attorney’s office, and the Mayor’s office, and the office of every authority in
-the city of Chicago, were informed of it.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">The speaker then proceeded to define conspiracy, and said that to constitute
-a conspiracy “they must agree with one another to do an unlawful
-act; one must have communicated the purpose to another, and the others
-must have consented to it.” Nothing of this kind had been done. They
-had simply propounded principles and expressed truths from their standpoint.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_539" id="Page_539">[539]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“You remember the testimony of Officer Trehorn, who saw the dynamite
-and the caps and the fuse on the night of the inauguration of the Board of
-Trade building, and who the next morning says he went to Lieutenant
-Bedell of the Cottage Grove Avenue Station and told him all about it. If
-that was a conspiracy, and that conspiracy has existed for three years, why
-has the State’s Attorney, or his predecessor in office, yet not prosecuted
-those who are parties to that conspiracy? The law of the State of Illinois
-makes it his duty to prosecute every crime which comes to his knowledge.
-He may plead that he has not known of it. If he did not, then it was culpable
-negligence that he did not know it. If he will answer to you that as
-long as those people did not do any overt act there was no reason for him
-to interfere, then I say as long as these people have not done any overt act
-there was no conspiracy. There is no way of escaping this consequence,
-gentlemen of the jury; to every logical mind it is clear. Either the State’s
-Attorney himself must plead guilty to the charge of the murder of Mathias J.
-Degan, or every one of these defendants who cannot be shown to have
-actually thrown or lighted the bomb must be acquitted. If it was not conspiracy
-then, if they had committed a crime up to the 4th of May for which
-it was the duty of the State’s Attorney to prosecute them, then what have
-they added to make their doings murder&mdash;to make them amenable to the
-law on a charge for the highest and gravest offense, the most heinous crime
-known to law?”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Mr. Zeisler next turned his attention to the special conspiracy entered
-into by a number of persons at No. 54 West Lake Street and held that of
-all the defendants it had only been shown that Engel and Fischer were
-present. He denied that Lingg was there or that any evidence had been
-introduced to prove it. He scored Waller and reviewed some of his testimony,
-taking occasion to call the attention of the jury to the fact that the
-man testified that the signal word “Ruhe” was not mentioned in connection
-with the Haymarket meeting. Next he alluded to the places where some
-of the witnesses for the State and some of those present at 54 West Lake
-Street had been on the night of May 4, and spoke of Engel being at home
-enjoying a social glass of beer, and the others widely scattered. “The only
-evidence of a conspiracy was that of Seliger, who testified that Lingg had
-asked him if he should throw a bomb. Fischer and others who saw the
-word ‘Ruhe’ in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> did not go to Wicker Park, but went
-elsewhere. What does Waller’s testimony say? It says that on the appearance
-of the word ‘Ruhe’ all should go to their meeting-places in the
-outskirts of the city, and that none of them were to be at the Haymarket
-except the observation committee.”</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“Has ‘Ruhe’ any reference to the Haymarket meeting? Does it not
-rather show that the parties who conspired there were not to take part in
-the Haymarket meeting at all? What, then, has the evidence in regard to
-that meeting got to do with the case? That much (illustrating by snapping
-the fingers).</p>
-
-<p>“Now, to return for a moment to Lingg’s alleged attempt to throw a
-bomb. Has there ever been heard such a ridiculous story as that? It is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_540" id="Page_540">[540]</a></span>
-an absolute falsehood upon its face. A revolutionist, a true disciple of
-Herr Most, goes out with bombs in his pocket, next to his friends, and takes
-a walk, and when he goes to the station and wants to throw a bomb into
-the station he isn’t even provided with a light to ignite the fuse; he has to
-ask his friend, ‘Have you got a light?’ And the other one says he hasn’t
-got it or makes some kind of excuse. Don’t you see that all that testimony
-is given in order to show you, or in order that Mr. Seliger may show
-himself to you as a highly moral person who has been the dupe of Lingg?
-He, the man who has been an Anarchist for years and years&mdash;and his wife
-herself says so&mdash;he has been persuaded by Lingg to make bombs, he has
-been misled by Lingg, has been the dupe of Lingg. Seliger, the man with
-a full beard (Seliger had a full beard at the time of the trial),
-a man of over thirty years, has been the dupe of this innocent-looking
-fellow, Lingg! If one was the dupe of the other, then Lingg surely
-was the dupe of Seliger. Seliger is the one who was arrested first. In
-order to save his own worthless neck, he betrays his friend and companion
-and swears against him, and upon the testimony of these treacherous lips
-you are asked to convict Lingg.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Mr. Zeisler maintained that he had shown that there was no conspiracy,
-no general conspiracy, and insisted that the alleged conspiracy of May 3
-had no reference whatever to the Haymarket meeting; that the throwing of
-the bomb at the Haymarket meeting was in direct contradiction of the
-agreement by the conspirators of May 3, and if one of them had done it,
-he would have done contrary to the conspiracy. He then spoke of the object
-of the Haymarket gathering and said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“It was called for the purpose of denouncing the atrocious act of the
-police in shooting down their brethren at the McCormick factory. That
-was the only purpose of the meeting, as Mr. Waller testified. Of course
-his testimony is the one that the State relies upon mostly. Now, what was
-the occasion of calling such a meeting to denounce the act of the police?
-It was the meeting at McCormick’s factory.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">The counsel then reviewed the testimony with reference to the meeting
-near McCormick’s factory, pointing to the fact that no one had testified to
-what Spies had actually said on that occasion, and maintained that not a
-single witness had been produced to prove that Spies had then and there
-incited men to riot. Witnesses for the State, he said, had shown that Spies
-continued talking after many of the men had started toward McCormick’s
-factory. Did any one suppose he would thus quietly continue speaking
-there if he had precipitated that riot? Mr. Zeisler did not excuse the men
-for stoning the factory&mdash;it was wrong&mdash;but he did not believe that gave
-the right to the police to shoot at those excited people. Coming back to
-the Haymarket, he read some of the testimony on the side of the State to
-show that it was an ordinary, peaceable meeting, and then said that on the
-day Spies wrote the “Revenge” circular Parsons was on his way back from
-Cincinnati and Fielden in a suburban town in a quarry. He next proceeded
-to show that there was no connection with the printing of the “Revenge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_541" id="Page_541">[541]</a></span>”
-circular and the Monday night meeting, and said Spies knew nothing
-about the call for that meeting. He closed by saying that the circular
-meant simply the same thing that Fielden and Parsons meant in their
-speeches on the evening of May 4, and that meaning, he said, he had made
-plain in the earlier part of his address.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Mr. George C. Ingham</span>, special counsel for the State, followed next.
-His argument was clear, concise and to the point. He opened by citing the
-law in the case, reading numerous authorities with reference to conspiracies
-and commenting thereon at some length. One authority he read was “Russell
-on Crimes,” to show that it was simply putting in the shape of a
-statute that which the common law already declares to be an offense, and
-then cited a case which arose not many years ago upon that very statute:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Johann Most, in the city of London, was indicted, because while there
-he published a paper advocating the assassination of the crowned heads of
-other countries. He was indicted under that statute, and he was convicted
-by a jury. The case went to their highest court, and I wish now to read
-you what the Justice of that court says as to what is meant by a solicitation
-to murder.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">The opinion of Lord Coleridge was read, and Mr. Ingham continued:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“You, gentlemen, will remember that that paper (<i>Die Freiheit</i>) is now
-published in the city of New York. The sentence is not given in the report
-I read. The custom is in England that before a sentence is pronounced,
-in case an appeal is taken, that is first passed upon, and after that the
-sentence is pronounced. That case was decided in 1881. Shortly after
-that John Most came to America. They probably thought the best thing
-they could do with him was to pass upon him a light sentence and ship
-him. At any rate they landed him here, and he started his <i>Freiheit</i> paper
-in New York.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Mr. Ingham next read the case of <i>Cox</i> vs. <i>The People</i>, from the Illinois
-Reports, and continued:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“Now, apply the law which I have read to the facts of this case. It
-appears in evidence in this case from the documents which I have read to
-you that these men&mdash;Schwab, Fischer and Parsons&mdash;were from time to
-time in this city publishing articles printed in papers which they owned, for
-the publishing of which Spies paid, and which they declared to be their own,
-in which they advised the destruction of the police of this city by force, in
-which they advised workingmen from time to time to arm themselves with
-dynamite and be ready whenever a conflict came to destroy the police of
-this city by force. For the publication of any one of those articles, if the
-law had been correctly understood, those men could have been convicted
-and punished for a misdemeanor; and when on that night Fielden, in the
-presence of the crowd, told the people before him assembled that the war
-had come, that war had been declared, that they must arm themselves to
-resist what he knew never had taken place, he was making a seditious address,
-and for that reason, if for no other, the police force of this city had a
-right to appear and disperse the meeting.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_542" id="Page_542">[542]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Fielden took the stand at the Haymarket, and until he concluded every
-sentence he uttered was a sentence seditious in its character, and which,
-under the decisions of the Supreme Court, would alone subject him to punishment
-for misdemeanor. A trap had been laid&mdash;Spies laid it; Schwab
-laid it; Fischer laid it; Engel laid it. A trap had been laid to bring out
-the police force of this city, and that trap was baited by the speeches of
-Parsons and Fielden. When the bait grew strong enough, the police did
-come. The moment they got there&mdash;the moment they stood opposite that
-alley, the moment their marching motion was stopped and they stood in
-that position where the bomb could be thrown with unerring certainty, the
-bomb came.</p></div>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-542.jpg" width="250" height="322" id="i542"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">GEORGE C. INGHAM.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>“Now, who made that bomb? You, gentlemen, have heard the evidence
-in this case, which is not disputed. I ask you, gentlemen, to remember that
-so far I have not alluded to a single fact about which there is or can be any
-dispute. It is uncontradicted in this case that Louis Lingg for months had
-been making bombs of a certain construction.
-It is uncontradicted that on the
-morning of Tuesday Louis Lingg said to
-Seliger that he must work hard all day;
-that the bombs would be needed and could
-be disposed of before night. It is in evidence
-in this case that on that morning
-Louis Lingg left that house and was gone
-all the morning, and nothing has been
-shown as to where he was. It is in evidence
-that he came back at noon, and
-because Seliger had filled only one bomb
-and had then laid down on the bed and
-gone to sleep, that Lingg upbraided him
-and told him that this matter must be
-hurried; and it is in evidence in this case
-that all that afternoon after that time men
-were coming and going to and from that
-house and working at that house on those
-bombs. Men came there whom Seliger
-knew; men came there whom Seliger did
-not know; men came there whom Mrs. Seliger knew; men came there
-whom Mrs. Seliger did not know. She tells you that during the whole
-of that day&mdash;Tuesday&mdash;men were coming and going to and from that
-house. What for? We put one man on the stand who went to that house
-in the afternoon&mdash;the witness Lehman. Lehman tells you that on Tuesday
-he was working at his trade; that he quit his work at three o’clock in the
-afternoon, instead of working until the afternoon was over; that he took
-a fellow-countryman of his, whose name I have forgotten, and with him
-went to Lingg’s house to buy a revolver; that they went to the house and
-dickered first about the revolver, and then went back again, and when he
-went back the second time Louis Lingg gave him dynamite&mdash;loaded
-bombs, fuse and detonating caps; that during the day Louis Lingg was distributing
-these bombs to different persons in the city.</p>
-
-<p>“I want to call your attention to those bombs of Lingg’s&mdash;admitted to
-be his&mdash;bombs which he admitted to the officers that he himself made, and
-which were found where he had sent them. Every one of those bombs is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_543" id="Page_543">[543]</a></span>
-about three inches in diameter, as nearly as they could be made with the
-rough material which he had. I want to call your attention to this bomb,
-called the ‘Czar’ bomb, obtained from Spies. That bomb in its appearance
-is composed of the same sort of material that Lingg’s bombs were. You
-can see that the only difference is in the bolts; that the bolt in the ‘Czar’
-bomb was smaller than the bolt in the Lingg bomb. This bolt (exhibiting
-same) would not be large enough to fasten together the three-inch bombs;
-it would not quite reach through. Now, suppose that Louis Lingg had this
-bolt in his possession and wanted to make a bomb for it, what would he do?
-He would file off the edges here so as to make its diameter smaller. If you
-will look at this bomb called the ‘Czar’ bomb, you will see that that is just
-what has been done&mdash;the edges of it filed off, and it is just in the condition
-it was, with the exception of this scraping here, when the reporter Wilkinson
-got it. The result of that is that its diameter through here would be
-shorter (indicating) than the diameter across there (indicating). What
-else does that show? Of course, as this was filed off, it would lessen the
-diameter of the bomb, and when you measure this you will find that that
-only lacks the eighth of an inch of being the same size as the bombs found
-in Lingg’s possession. In other words, if that had not been filed off as it
-has been in order that this shorter bolt could be used, these bombs would
-be identical in size.</p>
-
-<p>“What else is there in evidence in this case in regard to bolts? Seliger
-tells you that he was sent after bolts that day, that he bought a lot of bolts.
-They have been introduced in evidence. You, gentlemen, noticed it as
-soon as they were introduced in evidence, that the nut found in the body
-of the Socialist, and which came out of the bomb exploded at the Haymarket
-Square, is identically the same sort of a nut as those found on the
-bombs in Lingg’s possession on that day.</p>
-
-<p>“We have placed on the stand the two most eminent chemists in the
-city of Chicago. Those gentlemen told you that they made examinations
-of pieces of this ‘Czar’ bomb which they took from it themselves; that they
-made examinations of pieces of the four bombs which came from Lingg,
-and that they examined certain articles found in Lingg’s possession. And
-what is the result? They told you that these bombs were not made of lead
-alone; that they were not lead and solder alone; that there is not in the
-city of Chicago or known to commerce any one article of which those
-bombs could be made, but that they are made of a mixture&mdash;not only the
-Lingg bombs, but the ‘Czar’ bomb. They tell you that three of the Lingg
-bombs and the ‘Czar’ bomb contained identically the same constituents,
-without any difference whatever so far as the constituents themselves are
-concerned, and the only difference is that between those bombs there was a
-slight difference in the amount of the tin and the amount of the lead. They
-told you that in the ‘Czar’ bomb one per cent. or one and one-tenth per
-cent. is tin; that in one of the Lingg bombs one and five-tenths per cent.
-was tin; that in another of them two per cent. was tin. The point of it is
-this: that every bomb was composed of a mixture and not of any one
-metal; that the mixture in the bombs was as nearly identical as it could
-be made by any man using the materials which Louis Lingg used, in the
-way in which he used them. You will remember that he told Capt. Schaack
-that he made these bombs with a mold made of clay; that he could only
-mold one or two bombs, when he had to make a new mold. If you will
-look on the inside of these bombs you will find that they were all made by a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_544" id="Page_544">[544]</a></span>
-rough mold, just as you would expect from one made with a mold of clay;
-the only difference being that in the case of the ‘Czar’ bomb it had been
-filed off, as you can see, with a file, in order to smooth it.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Mr. Ingham then read the testimony of Walter S. Haines, one of the
-chemists, and proceeded:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“One of these bombs which Louis Lingg admitted that he made differed
-from the others in that it contained a trace of copper. In the trunk
-of Louis Lingg was found this piece of metal, which he had undoubtedly
-used in making that particular bomb, and which accounts for the trace of
-copper in it, the point being that everything found in any one of those
-bombs was found in some shape in Louis Lingg’s trunk and possession.</p>
-
-<p>“The answer to all this is that the bomb, instead of being thrown
-from the alley, was thrown thirty-five feet south of the alley. What of it?
-What if they have proven that? What if they have satisfied your minds
-clearly that the bomb came from thirty-five feet south of the alley? Can
-there be any question in the minds of any reasonable man that he who threw
-that bomb, whether he stood in the alley or thirty-five feet south of the
-alley, was one of the Anarchists associated with these men?</p>
-
-<p>“When that question is settled in your minds, that ends this case. We
-have proven the conspiracy. It has not been denied. We have proven
-that Degan died from the effects of that bomb; it has not been denied.
-We have proven it by circumstances making it as clear as the daylight that
-that bomb was thrown by one of the Anarchists, and when we have done
-that we have proven this case&mdash;when we have done that we have sealed
-the fate of these men, if jurors do their duty under the law as it is written
-and declared.</p>
-
-<p>“There was a conspiracy. These men know it and have not denied it.
-That bomb came from that conspiracy, and the moment it resulted in the
-death of Degan the crime of conspiracy was merged in the crime of murder,
-and every one of these men made amenable under the law.</p>
-
-<p>“The meeting came; the crowd did not. The Haymarket was covered
-with little groups of people scattered around. Spies goes around and picks
-out the place for the meeting, and, although he knew that the
-word ‘Ruhe’ had been published, although he knew that these armed
-groups were scattered all over this city, although he knew that Balthasar
-Rau in an hour could not notify every man who knew of that plan, he himself
-called it to order in the very place where the police force could be
-massed together and the most enormous destruction done. He told Wilkinson
-that it was discovered that bombs of composite metals were best, and
-when on that fatal night the bomb was thrown seven men were killed and
-sixty wounded, and to-day in a public hospital of this county, while these
-men sit here decked with flowers, there is one man with eighteen drainage
-tubes in his body. Was Spies right when he said that bombs of composite
-metal were best?”</p></div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_545" id="Page_545">[545]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XXX.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">Foster and Black before the Jury&mdash;Making Anarchist History&mdash;The Eight
-Leaders&mdash;A Skillful Defense&mdash;Alibis All Around&mdash;The Whereabouts of the Conspirators&mdash;The
-“Peaceable Dispersion”&mdash;A Miscarriage of Revolutionary War&mdash;Average
-Anarchist Credibility&mdash;“A Man will Lie to Save his Life”&mdash;The Attack on Seliger&mdash;The
-Candy-man and the Bomb-thrower&mdash;Conflicting Testimony&mdash;A Philippic against
-Gilmer&mdash;The Liars of History&mdash;The Search for a Witness&mdash;The Man with the Missing
-Link&mdash;The Last Word for the Prisoners&mdash;Captain Black’s Theory&mdash;High Explosives
-and Civilization&mdash;The West Lake Street Meeting&mdash;Defensive Armament&mdash;Engel
-and his Beer&mdash;Hiding the Bombs&mdash;The Right of Revolution&mdash;Bonfield and Harrison&mdash;The
-Socialist of Judea.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">MR. W. A. FOSTER was the next speaker, and he made a very strong
-case for his clients&mdash;the strongest that could be made in face of
-the many disadvantages under which he labored in view of the evidence
-against the Anarchists. He is a fluent, easy and graceful talker and held
-his facts well in hand. He began in a deliberate manner, and grew at
-times, as he proceeded, quite eloquent in his exposition of the virtues of the
-defendants. He was pointed and caustic sometimes, but he never seemed
-to lose the purpose of making a strong impression on the jury. The opening
-of his argument was largely devoted to showing that the Haymarket
-meeting was not riotous or boisterous, but that it had been called for a
-peaceable purpose. Then he said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“Take the theory just suggested by the prosecution in this case, that
-the time had come now that was conceived of years and years ago; the
-time had come now which was suggested by August Spies at Grand Rapids,
-Michigan, the time had come now which was foreseen in conversation had
-with the various defendants to various newspaper reporters at various times
-and various places; the time had come now when the attack could be made
-that was to be incited by the McCormick meeting and the McCormick riot;
-the time had come now when by reason of the gathering of the laboring
-people at the Haymarket Square the attempt was to be made and the
-response was to be made effectual; now history was to be written, now the
-point had come when bowie knives, when sharpened files poisoned with
-acids, when all of these implements of modern warfare, as we are told, were
-to be turned loose upon the world; when property rights were to be
-destroyed, when the police were to be killed, when any one aiding, assisting,
-abetting, standing up for or protecting the law was to be ruthlessly slain.
-The time had come. The men were there, the arrangements had been perfected,
-the police were in line, halt was made, and they were commanded to
-disperse. The time, the grand culmination of all the arrangements and
-conspiracies and confederations for years back had arrived&mdash;the time when
-the blow was to be struck which was to overturn civilization, which was to
-overturn the country.</p>
-
-<p>“These eight men are the leaders, they tell us. They tell us that there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_546" id="Page_546">[546]</a></span>
-are hundreds more that ought to have been indicted, and should be indicted&mdash;should
-be prosecuted, and should be convicted, and should be destroyed.
-But the time had come, and the leaders and their friends, having been preparing
-for years, were ready. They courted the attack&mdash;they hailed the
-day. They had pleaded for the opportunity, and the opportunity had now
-arrived. Where are these men? Where are the men that were to take
-charge and carry on the warfare that had been agreed upon for the last five
-or six years, or longer, in the city of Chicago? Where were they? In the
-first place, Mr. Parsons and Mr. Fischer are at Zepf’s Hall. Think of it!
-For six long years they had been making their preparations for the attack;
-for days and weeks and months they had sown and preached revolution;
-the skirmish lines had met, and they were prepared; and still Parsons and
-Fischer were quietly discussing matters between themselves over a glass of
-beer at Zepf’s Hall. They were principals in this matter, leaders in the
-overthrowing of the Government and the establishment of this idea. They
-were at Zepf’s Hall, away from any scene
-of action. Where is Engel? Engel, the
-great conspirator&mdash;Engel, who made the
-inflammatory speeches at Clybourn Avenue?
-Quietly at home, engaged in a game
-of cards with his friend&mdash;not there at all.
-There is no man that pretends or claims
-that Mr. Engel, at the time the bomb was
-thrown, was at the Haymarket meeting or
-near it.</p></div>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-546.jpg" width="250" height="321" id="i546"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">WILLIAM A. FOSTER.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>“Where was Schwab, one of the brainy
-men of this conspiracy, a man whose pen
-had added to its formation, whose genius
-and whose brain had been instrumental in
-bringing it about? An hour’s ride away,
-at Deering, addressing a quiet meeting of
-laboring men.</p>
-
-<p>“Where was Neebe? Neebe, one of
-the leading conspirators, they tell us. He
-is one of the eight heads, one of the chiefs
-in the overthrow of the Government and
-of property rights, and he was quietly at home. Lingg, the man who has
-prepared the implements of warfare, the man who has taken the dynamite,
-who has prepared the shells and loaded them, has inserted the caps and
-the fuse and made all the preparations for the destruction of the police, for
-the destruction of the militia and for the destruction of property everywhere&mdash;where
-is Lingg? Wandering about upon Larrabee Street, in the
-neighborhood of Clybourn Avenue.</p>
-
-<p>“Where is Spies and where is Fielden? Spies and Fielden, the only
-remaining ones of the eight, are upon the wagon, in the presence of line
-after line of the police, armed to the teeth, having not only the regulation
-revolvers in their coat-pockets, but those of larger caliber, in some instances,
-so far as some of the companies were concerned, in their belts. Those men
-were quietly standing upon the wagon, right in sight and within the aim of
-all of these murderous weapons, with the idea that an attack was to be made,
-with the idea and knowledge that an assault was to take place, with the
-idea and the knowledge that now the final blow was to strike which should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_547" id="Page_547">[547]</a></span>
-carry terror to the hearts of the capitalists and overturn society and government.
-They were there, quietly arguing, arguing with the police in command
-there, that the meeting was peaceable.</p>
-
-<p>“But they say, gentlemen, ‘Ruhe’ is a German word and means peace,
-quiet, rest; that because it means quiet, therefore&mdash;this is what they intend
-to have you believe&mdash;that because Fielden said, ‘This is a quiet meeting,’
-or that it was peaceable, or, ‘We are peaceable,’ that that was the watchword
-which was to be an order in cipher to commence immediately an attack.
-Now, gentlemen, I say that this is, in my opinion, an unfair deduction; it is
-an unfair conclusion. The testimony all agrees that Captain Ward appeared
-there and said: ‘In the name of the people of the State of Illinois, I command
-you to quietly and peaceably disperse.’ That was the expression&mdash;‘I
-command you to peaceably disperse’&mdash;to which Mr. Fielden replied: ‘We
-are peaceable,’ or ‘This is a peaceable meeting, Captain.’ Could anything
-be more natural than that that reply should be made? Suppose, gentlemen,
-now, that the theory of the prosecution is right; suppose that it was
-the grand beginning of an uncertain end; suppose that it was the culmination
-of the idea that had existed for years. Do you believe that bombs
-would not have hailed from the top of every building? Do you believe they
-would not have been thrown from every sidewalk? Do you suppose they
-would not have been thrown from the rear and from the front? In the
-nature of things, can you, in the light of this testimony, say that because
-some man somewhere, on account of some reason, which is not explained
-here, which never can be explained, acting upon his own individual responsibility,
-lighted a bomb and threw it, that therefore you must say that the
-grand conspiracy, the arrangement for years and years had this result, or
-rather that the throwing of that bomb was the result of that conspiracy?</p>
-
-<p>“But there is one thing the gentlemen have lost sight of in this case, it
-seems to me. Of course they haven’t, but in their argument they have carefully
-avoided it. A Socialist is not to be believed, a Communist is a liar, and
-an Anarchist is capable of committing any crime. That is what they tell
-us in plain language&mdash;that we have produced some witnesses here who are
-Socialists, Communists and Anarchists, and because we have done so, their
-testimony, for that reason alone, is to be discarded. Mr. Walker and Mr.
-Ingham both made reference to the character of some of our witnesses upon
-the theory and upon the ground that the evidence showed that they were
-Anarchists or Communists. Well, they were Anarchists, Socialists and
-Communists, some of them.</p>
-
-<p>“Although the gentlemen claim that a conviction might exist, leaving
-out the testimony of Gilmer and of Thompson, they would never concede
-that under any circumstances a conviction could be had were it not for the
-testimony of Seliger and the testimony of Waller; they never would concede
-that, and did the gentlemen ever think, while they were presenting to
-you the case upon which they demanded a conviction, that the very witnesses
-that they proved the facts by upon which they ask you to hang
-these men are Socialists and Communists and Anarchists?</p>
-
-<p>“Not only, then, are Waller and Seliger Communists, Socialists and
-Anarchists, but they are State’s witnesses, co-confederates and conspirators,
-men whose testimony is regarded with disfavor and with suspicion by
-the law.</p>
-
-<p>“They tell us that a man will lie to save his life. Said Mr. Walker,
-‘Do you believe Mr. Spies? Will he not lie to save his life?’ Then I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_548" id="Page_548">[548]</a></span>
-retort the argument of the gentleman upon his own head and say, ‘Would
-not Seliger lie to save his own neck?’</p>
-
-<p>“They take Mr. Seliger down and they examine him and they get his
-statement and they reduce it to writing. The detective force is turned
-loose upon him. His statement is not strong enough; that won’t do; it is
-not enough; still there are missing links. ‘Mr. Seliger, this statement
-won’t do; we want something stronger than that.’ I can imagine&mdash;I am
-not giving the testimony now, but I can imagine how those detectives
-would go to Seliger, carried away from his family as he was, shut up in a
-dark dungeon, kept there day after day&mdash;‘Now, Seliger, here are two propositions:
-here is a rope and here is a statement; choose between them.’
-He chose the lesser of the two evils&mdash;the statement, as any man would,
-Mr. Walker says, to save his own life. He makes the statement. He
-goes away. I can imagine, I say, the conduct and the actions of the detective
-force as they ply him with questions from day to day. ‘It won’t do,
-Mr. Seliger, it won’t do. There are too many missing links. We want
-something more. Isn’t this so, isn’t that so? Didn’t this happen, didn’t
-that happen?’ And poor Seliger, frightened, weak-minded and timid,
-ignorant of the laws of this country, ignorant of the rights which American
-citizens have under the laws, sits down and makes the second statement.
-And still the thing goes on, still he is kept in confinement, still he is plied
-with questions, still he is examined and cross-examined: ‘Mr. Seliger, the
-first statement won’t do, and the second statement won’t do. Mr. Seliger,
-we want more from you than this.’ And, says Mr. Walker, ‘Won’t a man
-lie to save his life?’ And Mr. Seliger makes the third statement, and
-again he goes back to his dungeon, and after a while again they go to Seliger
-and they say to Seliger, ‘This won’t do. You have made a statement,
-you have made a second statement, you have made a third statement, but
-still there are missing links. Isn’t this so, isn’t that so?’ And, as Mr.
-Walker says, ‘Won’t any man lie to save his life?’ And the fourth statement
-is made by Seliger. And these statements are unrolled as he sits
-here quivering and trembling, knowing perhaps that he is destroying the
-lives of these eight men, his former friends and associates, and questions
-are pronounced after questions, and the testimony is introduced before you,
-gentlemen, from a Socialist, from a Communist, from an Anarchist, from a
-conspirator, and from a man that will lie to save his own life; and upon
-that testimony you are to act, and you are not to act upon any testimony
-introduced by the defendants in this case.</p>
-
-<p>“You remember the candy-maker that was brought upon the stand by
-the merest accident. You remember the circumstance that when his
-name was called he responded from that corner of the room (indicating)&mdash;none
-of us had ever seen him; we didn’t know it, and I don’t to-day
-hardly know how we got any information in regard to the man at all. And
-when he came forward here you will remember that this case was delayed
-until Mr. Zeisler and myself took him into the other room to ascertain if
-possible why he was here and to what facts he was going to testify. He
-came upon the stand, and what does he tell you? He tells you that on the
-night of the 4th of May he was at the Haymarket. He tells you that he was
-south of the alley, and when it was rumored there that the police were coming
-he started with others down. He tells you that at the time he did not
-know how far it was south of the alley, but he knows from the location and
-from the surroundings, and that since then he has gone there with his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_549" id="Page_549">[549]</a></span>
-tape-line and he has measured it, and that it is thirty-eight feet south of the
-south line of Crane’s alley. He tells you that as they were going down,
-when the police had come up he saw a man with this motion, indicating a
-backward and upward motion with the right hand&mdash;not with this motion that
-Frank Walker tells about&mdash;cast a burning fuse, as it went hissing through
-the air; that he followed it until it struck, that he looked at it until the
-whole country around about was illuminated by the explosion and policemen
-bit the dust.</p>
-
-<p>“Is he a reliable man, gentlemen? Is there anything wrong in his
-character? If there was, why, as late as two weeks before the time that he
-testified, was Mr. Furthmann placing before him the picture of Rudolph
-Schnaubelt? If he was an unreliable man and they knew it, if they did not
-believe his statement because of his unreliability, why, I say, was Mr. Furthmann
-two weeks before&mdash;according to the testimony of the witness
-which Mr. Furthmann has not undertaken to gainsay or deny&mdash;presenting
-the photograph of Rudolph Schnaubelt to see whether he could identify
-that man as being the man who threw the bomb? If he was an unreliable
-man, he tells us where he has worked; he tells us where he has lived; he
-tells us who his associates are; he tells us all about it. If there is anything
-wrong, then Captain Schaack would turn loose his detectives and his police
-and in less than an hour’s time the character, the true character, the villainous
-character of the man would have been exhibited before you. But
-nothing of that kind is done. They ascertain the fact that he saw the
-bomb-thrower&mdash;they know that he saw the bomb-thrower&mdash;at least, they
-believe that he saw the bomb-thrower, and the question is, Who shall be
-used? Shall the candy-maker be used, or shall Gilmer be used? Which
-shall it be&mdash;the candy-man or Gilmer?</p>
-
-<p>“Now, you will remember that the State was two weeks putting in their
-testimony, and you will remember that the defense was one week&mdash;a week
-and one day more. You will remember the testimony of this witness was that
-two weeks before that time, which was one week after the State began to introduce
-their testimony, Mr. Furthmann presented before his face the
-picture of Rudolph Schnaubelt and demanded to know whether he could
-recognize the picture as being the man who threw the bomb. I say then it
-seems, Mr. Gilmer to the contrary notwithstanding, that a week after they
-had commenced the introduction of their testimony it was still a doubtful,
-uncertain and mooted question as to where took place the throwing of that
-bomb, and into whose hands to place it.</p>
-
-<p>“What does the candy-maker say? He says honestly to Mr. Furthmann: ‘I
-cannot recognize that man as being the man; I don’t believe that
-that man had whiskers; all I know is that I think he had a light mustache
-and I think he was an ordinary-sized man; that is all I know about him.’</p>
-
-<p>“And, gentlemen, that is a reasonable story. Hurrying away as he was
-in that crowd, supposing that the police had come there for a purpose, seeing
-this thing take place and the disaster that resulted from it and the
-excitement incident to it, would we expect that he would know or would be
-able to see any more than that? He did not recognize Schnaubelt as being
-the man; he did not recognize Fischer as being present at the time the
-bomb was thrown; he did not recognize Spies as being the man who lighted
-the fuse, and the prosecution did not want him, and so they sent him back
-to the candy-shop in obscurity, and there intended that he should remain.
-They did not want him. Why didn’t they? They had found a conspiracy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_550" id="Page_550">[550]</a></span>
-they say, to use violence for certain illegal purposes. They had established
-the fact of murder; there was a missing link; that was what was troubling
-them, and that is what has troubled them from the beginning of this trial
-down to the present time&mdash;the missing link. Where is the man in all the
-face of God’s green earth, where is the man that can identify one of these
-men that we will show was in any conspiracy to do anything which we
-might criticise or object to, that is in any way responsible for what was done
-at the Haymarket that night? They must have the missing link, or else
-they must fail in this prosecution. The candy-man won’t furnish it. He
-tells his story, a consistent and reasonable story. They believe his story
-because they take him up and they exhibit to him the picture&mdash;‘Is that
-the man?’ Oh, if he had only said, ‘Yes, that is the man, that is the man
-that was in company with him,’ how quickly the candy-maker would have
-come before us as a witness. But no; the man said honestly, ‘I cannot do
-that; I was in a crowd in the darkness; I was in the bustle and the excitement;
-I cannot do that.’ They didn’t want him; they sent him home.
-And still there is a missing link. Who is going to furnish it?</p>
-
-<p>“Gilmer comes proudly to the front. He says, ‘Rather than have the
-play stopped I will furnish the missing link.’ Gilmer&mdash;Harry L. Gilmer&mdash;the
-old soldier that they tell us about. I don’t believe it. I don’t believe
-he was ever in the army a day of his life, because I believe if he had
-been that my brother Grinnell, of all witnesses that had been called, would
-have asked him that very first question. Some of you gentlemen bear upon
-your breasts the emblem of the Grand Army of the Republic; some of you
-were in the war and marched at the peril of your lives under the stars and
-stripes, and you would delight in meeting a man, and delight in believing
-in his honor and integrity, if you believed that he was engaged in the common
-cause with you in those trying days; and still the shrewd counsel never
-asked the question. A veteran! Yes, a veteran of Battery D, a veteran
-of Chicago, of the Home Rangers, a man that never smelt burnt powder in
-his life perhaps&mdash;he is the veteran soldier that is lauded before you gentlemen
-in the argument of counsel who have addressed you on the part of the
-prosecution in this case.</p>
-
-<p>“I undertake to say, gentlemen, that all history, ancient and modern,
-has given to the world three of the grandest, the most consummate and
-infernal liars that ever existed since Adam first was set in the Garden of
-Eden&mdash;three names prominently that we find in the history that we are
-making now, in modern history and in ancient, and in importance they
-stand in the order in which I name them. First of all, greater than all,
-above them all in infamy and falsehood, is Harry L. Gilmer; next to him
-comes M. M. Thompson, and third is Ananias of old, whose Christian name
-I never heard, if, in fact, he ever had one. All history, ransacked, will furnish
-no three such men as the three names that I have suggested.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Mr. Foster then adverted to some points in the management of the case,
-and touched at some length on the fact that Gilmer had not testified before
-the grand jury. He proceeded as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“Of all the testimony that has been introduced here, the testimony of
-Harry Gilmer is paramount. Bind the rest of it together in a sheaf, set it
-alongside of the testimony of Harry Gilmer, and it is as a molehill compared
-to a mountain, if the testimony of Harry Gilmer is true. If the testimony<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_551" id="Page_551">[551]</a></span>
-of Harry Gilmer is true, August Spies and Mr. Fischer must die. If you
-believe him, they must be swept from the face of the earth; and yet Mr.
-Grinnell, saying, ‘We have nothing to conceal and nothing to hide,’ forgets
-to tell you that he has the man who saw Mr. Spies, in the presence of Mr.
-Fischer, light the fuse which was thrown by Mr. Schnaubelt, and which
-destroyed Officer Degan. He never expected to prove it. If he did&mdash;if it
-is true that he expected to, and if it is true that he had nothing to conceal
-and nothing to hide, why, then, didn’t he say it? Why had it not been
-published broadcast to the land by these newspaper gentlemen? Why was
-it that Harry Gilmer’s face was not published and sent forth in every paper
-that is published in the land? Why was it that it was not said: ‘This is
-the man&mdash;this is the man who has the testimony within his knowledge
-which will show the connection and establish the link which fastens some of
-the defendants, at least, to the murder of Mathias J. Degan?’ Not a word&mdash;not
-a word upon the subject of Harry L. Gilmer, the veteran of the war,
-the old soldier, so eloquently discoursed upon by my brother Walker.
-Where was Gilmer then?</p>
-
-<p>“I can imagine brother Grinnell, in his anxiety and his quandary in
-determining what course to pursue here, discussing with himself and his
-associates as to whether or not this case should be determined upon the
-testimony of Thompson alone, or Thompson and Gilmer mixed. It has
-been a serious consideration on the part of the gentlemen. There can’t be
-any doubt about that. But the honest man who says, ‘No, I can’t identify
-them,’ is sent home, and Harry Gilmer is brought to the front. He will
-identify Schnaubelt&mdash;oh, yes; no question about that. He will do more
-than that; he will identify Fischer&mdash;oh, yes; he will do more than that.
-Fischer may prove an alibi; they do not know whether Fischer was there,
-but there is one man that they do know was there, and that he was there
-all that time upon that wagon, and that was August Spies, and, if necessary,
-Harry Gilmer will identify Spies. Now, do you believe that, gentlemen?
-Do you believe that? And I do not charge my brother Grinnell with putting
-Harry Gilmer upon the stand knowing that he was swearing to a pack
-of lies. Not at all; I do not charge him with that. I charge him with
-placing no reliance upon the man at all. I say that, if Mr. Grinnell knew
-at the time he made his opening statement that Harry Gilmer was to come
-upon the stand and swear to that fact, he did not do his duty as a lawyer
-and he did not keep his pledge to the jury, and if he did not know it, it
-shows the absolute unreliability of the testimony of Mr. Gilmer.</p>
-
-<p>“Now, I say to you, gentlemen, from all the surrounding circumstances
-in this case&mdash;I say that Harry L. Gilmer&mdash;and I stated to you the other
-day that I was not in the habit of calling witnesses liars; I preferred to present
-their testimony under the suspicion of mistake rather than the suspicion
-of falsehood&mdash;but I say as to Harry L. Gilmer that he is a stupendous,
-colossal, a monumental liar, and there is no escape from it. Now,
-just think of it for a moment. The world was excited; every daily paper in
-the universe published accounts&mdash;in Paris and in London, in Petersburg
-and Vienna, on the morning following the 4th of May, citizens read of
-the disaster of the Haymarket; the civilized world was shocked with the
-outrage that was perpetrated there. Where was Harry Gilmer, the man
-who could identify the man who threw the bomb, the man who could
-identify his companion, and the man who could identify the person who lit
-the fuse? Where was Harry Gilmer on the 5th day of May? He tells us<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_552" id="Page_552">[552]</a></span>
-he was in Crane’s alley the night of the 4th; he was there in the alley; he
-saw Spies; he says, ‘That is the man right over there; that is the man
-that threw it;’ he saw that man right over there&mdash;Spies&mdash;strike a match and
-light the fuse, and saw Fischer in his company. Schnaubelt threw it in the
-ranks of the policemen.</p>
-
-<p>“There is the missing link, and if you believe that testimony as to two
-of these defendants, the chain is complete. Darwin is dead, but the missing
-link has been found. The man who furnished the missing link went home.
-The man that has seen this meandered through Crane’s alley and went
-quietly home to his roost, and he went to bed undisturbed. It is true he
-had seen the man who threw the bomb; he would know him anywhere.
-He would know him by his picture; he knows how many buttons of his coat
-were buttoned. He saw the man that stood by. He would know him anywhere.
-He knows what kind of clothing he had on and how many buttons
-he had buttoned of his clothes. He knew the kind of hat, the kind of
-clothes. He knew the man who lit the match, who touched the fuse that
-exploded the bomb that Schnaubelt threw. He knew him. He knew
-whether his coat was buttoned and how many buttons. He knew all about
-it&mdash;everything that every man in the universe demanded should be known
-by the officers of the law. And he went home and went to bed and never
-said a word to any living soul about it. And he got up in the morning,
-fresh upon his mind the fact of this great outrage that was perpetrated and
-that everybody was talking about everywhere&mdash;in restaurants, on the street
-and in street-cars&mdash;knowing that he was the man that could recognize
-them all&mdash;he goes and buys a paper on the street and sits down to read
-how terrible it was, goes into a restaurant and there sits, where men were
-conversing of the horror and of the outrage, and never opens his head in
-regard to knowing anything about it&mdash;not a word. Then he goes, after he
-has had his ‘meal,’ and gets upon the car&mdash;goes to the corner of Twenty-second
-Street and Wabash Avenue, and there he meets a friend, a brother
-painter, and they work all day, and from a third to half the time, as he states,
-they were painting together and lapping each other’s brushes as they
-painted upon the side of the building, and when noon came they sat down
-to discuss matters and talk, over their lunch. They speak, at times, about
-the Haymarket meeting and the great disaster, and he never tells his friend
-that he had seen the bomb thrown, or knew anything about it&mdash;not a word.
-The world was in flames, but Harry Gilmer was cool.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Mr. Foster continued his attention to Gilmer at considerable length,
-making, however, no new points against him, and then proceeded:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“Now, Mr. Graham is not a Socialist. He is not a Communist nor an
-Anarchist. He is a reporter, and I say that he is an honorable man. His
-bearing showed it; his countenance indicated it; and the fact that he is
-not attacked nor impeached, nor one word said against him, either in argument
-or in testimony, in my mind establishes it.</p>
-
-<p>“Well, that didn’t amount to very much. There are always knowing
-ones around, and Gilmer was one of them. He liked to loaf about police
-stations. He remembered the time when he was collecting the dog tax in
-Des Moines. He associated with men that wore uniforms, and he liked it.
-He wanted to ingratiate himself into their good opinions, and he says: ‘I
-believe I would know the fellow. I was there. I was right in plain sight,
-and I saw him light the fuse and I saw him toss the bomb. His back was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_553" id="Page_553">[553]</a></span>
-to me, it is true, but I do believe I would know him.’ Ah! where was
-Fischer then? Where was ‘that man sitting over there,’ as Gilmer expresses
-it? Where was Spies and where was Fischer then? Well, they hadn’t
-developed at that stage of the proceeding, that is all. They were the afterbirth
-in his testimony.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Mr. Foster went into a long and searching examination of the evidence,
-arguing out the more important facts developed, and closing with an eloquent
-appeal to the sympathies of the jury. His speech was effective and
-impressive.</p>
-
-<p>On the next morning&mdash;Tuesday&mdash;Capt. Black began his argument for
-the defense, and was listened to by the jury with marked attention. He is
-a forcible speaker and dwelt upon the testimony favorable to his side with
-earnestness and emphasis. He traversed necessarily a good deal of the
-ground covered by his colleagues, but he clothed his argument in captivating
-language, and made a striking and effective appeal for his clients.
-The following will show the points he made:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“On the morning of the 5th of May, 1886, the good people of the city
-of Chicago were startled and shocked at the event of the previous night,
-frightened, many of them, not knowing whereunto this thing might lead.
-Fear is the father of cruelty. It was no ordinary case. Immediately after
-that first emotion came a feeling which has found expression from many
-lips in the hearing of many, if not all of you: ‘A great wrong has been
-done; somebody must be punished, somebody ought to suffer for the suffering
-which has been wrought.’ Perhaps it was that feeling&mdash;I know not&mdash;which
-led to the unusual and extraordinary proceedings which were taken in
-connection with this matter immediately following the 4th of May. Perhaps
-it was that feeling, in a large measure, which led to the arrest and
-presentment of these eight defendants. Perhaps it was something of that
-feeling which will explain the conduct of the prosecution in this case. I
-am not disposed to say that there has been any willful or deliberate intent
-on the part of the representatives of the State to act unfairly. I am not
-disposed to charge that there has been upon their part any disposition to
-do an injustice to any man. But in their case, as in the case of all, passion
-perverts the heart, prejudice corrupts the judgment.</p>
-
-<p>“On the night of the 4th of May a dynamite bomb was thrown in the
-city of Chicago and exploded. It was the first time that in our immediate
-civilization, and immediately about us, this great destructive agency was
-used in modern contests. I beg you to remember, in the consideration of
-this case, that dynamite is not the invention of Socialists; it is not their
-discovery. Science has turned it loose upon the world&mdash;an agency of
-destruction, whether for defense or offense, whether for attack or to build
-the bulwarks round the beleaguered city. It has entered into modern warfare.
-We know from what has already transpired in this case that dynamite
-is being experimented with as a weapon of warfare by the great nations
-of the world. What has been read in your hearing has given you the
-results of experiments made under the direction of the Government of Austria,
-and while you have sat in this jury-box considering the things which
-have been deposed before you, with reference to reaching a final and correct
-result, the Government of the United States has voted $350,000 for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_554" id="Page_554">[554]</a></span>
-building of a dynamite cruiser. It is in the world by no procurement of
-Socialism, with no necessary relationship thereto. It is in the world to
-stay. It is manufactured freely; it is sold without let, hindrance or restriction.
-You may go from this jury-box to the leading powder companies of
-the country, or their depots, and buy all the dynamite that you wish without
-question as to your purpose, without interrogation as to your motive.
-It is here. Is it necessarily a thing of evil? It has entered into the great
-industries, and we know its results. It has cleared the path of commerce
-where the great North River rolls on its way to the sea. It is here and
-there blasting out rocks, digging out mines, and used for helpfulness in the
-great industries of life. But there never came an explosive into the world,
-cheap, simple of construction, easy of manufacture, that it did not enter
-also into the world’s combats.</p></div>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-554.jpg" width="250" height="349" id="i554"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">CAPT. WILLIAM P. BLACK<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="pbq">I beg
-you to remember also that hand-bombs
-are not things of Socialistic devising.
-It may be that one or another, here and
-there, professing Socialistic tenets, has
-devised some improvements in their
-construction, or has made some advances
-with reference to their composition;
-they have not invented them. The
-hand-grenade has been known in warfare
-long ere you and I saw the light.
-The two things have come together&mdash;the
-hand-grenade, charged no longer
-with the powder of old days, but charged
-with the dynamite of modern science.
-It is a union which Socialists are not
-responsible for. It is a union led up
-to by the logic of events and the necessities
-of situations, and it is a union that
-will never be divorced. We stand amazed
-at the dread results that are possible
-to this union; but as we look back over
-history we know this fact, contradictory
-as it may seem, strange as it may first
-strike us, that in the exact proportion
-in which the implements of warfare have been made effective or destructive,
-in that precise proportion have wars lost the utmost measure of
-their horror, and in that precise proportion has death by war diminished.
-When gunpowder came into European warfare there was an outcry against
-it. All the chivalry which had arrogated to itself the power and glory of
-battle in martial times sprang up against the introduction of gunpowder, an
-agency that made the iron casque and shield and cuirass of the plumed
-knight no better a defense than the hemp doublet of the peasant. But now,
-instead of wars that last through thirty years, that are determined by the
-personal collision of individuals, that desolate nations, the great civilized
-nations of the world hesitate at war because of its possibilities of evil, and
-diplomacy sits where once force alone was intrenched. The moral responsibility
-for dynamite is not upon Socialism.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Captain Black insisted that the sole question before the jury was who
-threw the bomb, for the doctrine of accessory before the fact, under which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_555" id="Page_555">[555]</a></span>
-it was sought to hold the defendants, was nothing but the application to the
-criminal law of the civil or common law doctrine that what a man does by
-another he does himself. When the prosecution charged that the defendants
-threw it, their charge involved that the bomb was thrown by the procurement
-of these men, by their advice, direction, aid, counsel or encouragement,
-and that the man who threw it acted not alone for himself, or upon
-his own responsibility, but as a result of the encouragement or procurement
-of these men. He held that the State must show that the agent of the
-defendants did the deed, and that it is not sufficient to show that the
-defendants favored such deeds. Upon this point counsel spoke at some
-length. Next he took up the case of one of the talesmen examined with
-reference to his taking a place on the jury, who swore that, having been for
-three years connected with the office of the Prosecuting Attorney in the
-State of New York, he found in himself that the habit of thought and life
-to which he had there devoted himself had created in him a predisposition
-to believe every accused man guilty, which, in his own deliberate judgment
-before God, disqualified him from sitting as an impartial juror in a criminal
-case. The application of this case to the attachés of the State’s Attorney’s
-office who had appeared before the jury was made the most of.</p>
-
-<p>After going over the evidence as to the other conspirators Capt. Black
-came to the case against Fischer and Engel. He said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“It is perhaps proper that, in view of the circumstance that Fischer and
-Engel were the only two defendants at the West Lake Street meeting on
-Monday night, I should present briefly my opinions touching that meeting
-as relating to this case. Two witnesses, Waller and Schrade, testified as
-to what occurred at that meeting. Waller said there were seventy or
-eighty people present; the other placed the attendance at thirty-five to
-forty. Let us suppose thirty-five or forty met together in that basement.
-In the progress of the meeting it transpired that there had been a meeting
-of the North Side group, of which Mr. Engel was a member, on the previous
-morning (Sunday). At that meeting a resolution was adopted, which
-was brought before the Monday night meeting for consideration, and it was
-adopted in the manner indicated by Waller. I think I state it fairly to the
-State and fairly to the defendants themselves, when I say that the action
-then and there resolved upon was this, no more, no less: That if in the
-event of a struggle the police should attempt by brute force to overpower
-the strikers unlawfully and unjustly, those men would lend their help to
-their fellow-wageworkers as against the police. A plan of action was suggested
-by one of the group which contemplated the blowing up of police
-stations, cutting telegraph wires and disabling the Fire Department. Every
-particle of that resolution, gentlemen, was expressly dependent upon the
-unlawful invasion of the rights of the working people by the police. Nothing
-was to be inaugurated by the so-called conspirators, there was to be no
-resort to force by them in the first instance. It was solely defensive, and
-had reference alone to meeting force by force; it had reference alone to a
-possible attack in the future, dependent upon the action that the police
-themselves might take. I am not here to defend the action of that meeting.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_556" id="Page_556">[556]</a></span>
-The question here is: Had that action anything whatever to do with
-the result of the Haymarket meeting? The action of the North Side group
-had nothing to do with that, since the Haymarket meeting had never been
-dreamed of or suggested at that time. By whom was the Tuesday meeting
-suggested? What was its scope, purpose and object? As then and there
-declared, it was simply to be a mass-meeting of workingmen with reference
-to police outrages that had already taken place. Were the armed men,
-those conspirators who met at West Lake Street, present? ‘No; they
-were not there.’ That is the testimony of Waller and Schrade. I am not
-here even to say that the proposition to call that meeting was a wise one.
-The event has proven how sadly unwise it was. But I am here to say that
-the men who in that Monday night meeting proposed the calling of the
-Tuesday night meeting, if we take the testimony of the State itself, had no
-dream or expectation of violence, difficulty or contest on that eventful night.
-But before the Tuesday night meeting was proposed, a suggestion was made
-that they ought to have some sort of signal for action, and the word ‘Ruhe’
-was suggested by somebody. Waller could not tell who suggested it;
-Schrade did not know it had been agreed upon. Evidently there was no
-very clear idea that night what ‘Ruhe’ did mean, because Lingg saw it in
-the paper at eleven o’clock, and said: ‘That is a signal that we ought to
-be over at 54 West Lake Street.’ Waller finally, under close examination
-by the State, said the word ‘Ruhe’ was to be inserted in the ‘Letter-box’
-of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> in the event of the time arriving for a downright
-revolution. Had that revolution come; had it commenced when the word
-was put in the ‘Letter-box’? No. When the members saw this in the
-‘Letter-box’ what were they to do? Go to the Haymarket and attack anybody?
-No. They were to go to their respective places of meeting, and
-then, according to advices brought to them, were to determine upon a
-course of action. It had no reference to the throwing of the bomb at the
-Haymarket. Did that Monday night meeting pick out the man who was to
-throw the bomb? Did it provide that a collision between the police and
-the people was to be brought about at the Haymarket? Did it contemplate
-murder? Not at all. When Fischer told Spies that the word ‘Ruhe’
-had no connection with the Haymarket meeting, he spoke the truth. It
-was a signal that the armed men should meet at the places designated by
-themselves to determine what action should be taken with reference to
-whatever might have transpired.</p>
-
-<p>“But it is to be borne in mind that the meeting of the armed section
-never took place. There was no meeting of the Northwest Side groups;
-there was no meeting of any group pursuant to the word ‘Ruhe.’ Were
-any bombs to be thrown, any violence to be resorted to? No. If the police
-made an attack, a committee was to take word to the groups, and the
-groups were then, and not till then, to determine what action they should
-take in the line of offense. Does that make every man who was present at
-the Monday night meeting responsible for the throwing of the bomb? Not
-at all. Unless they are all responsible, it does not make Fischer and Engel
-responsible. Engel was not at the Tuesday night meeting. Fischer was
-there and went quietly away before the bomb was thrown. There was
-absolutely nothing in connection with the Monday night meeting which
-contemplated violence at the Haymarket or provided for the throwing of
-the bomb.</p>
-
-<p>“Let me call your attention, in passing, to another thing. When Waller,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_557" id="Page_557">[557]</a></span>
-having from some source heard of the lamentable occurrence at the Haymarket,
-went to Engel’s house, he found him drinking beer with two or three
-friends. After listening to the details of the affair Engel said, while Waller
-was saying, ‘Let’s do something,’ ‘You had better go home. I have no
-sympathy with a movement of this kind. The police are of the common
-people, and when the general revolution does occur, they should be with us.
-I am utterly opposed to this slaughtering of them.’ That is the full extent
-of the case against these two defendants, except the further fact that Fischer
-had a pistol and a dagger. It is not right to hang any man for the Haymarket
-murder simply because he had a dagger or a pistol in his possession.</p>
-
-<p>“As to Lingg, he came from that republic sitting in the center of Europe
-preaching the everlasting lesson of liberty. He came here in the fall of
-1885, and became a member of the Seliger household. Whatever he knows
-of social and labor conditions in this country he learned from those about
-him. He joined a carpenters’ union, being himself a carpenter by trade.
-He attended the meetings of that union. Young, active, bright, capable,
-he enters the band of which they speak, and manufactures bombs. There
-is no law against that, gentlemen; but they claim that is a circumstance
-from which you must draw the conclusion of his guilt, when taken with
-other circumstances, for the Haymarket tragedy. The State put on the
-stand one man, Lehman, to whom he gave bombs. Did he tell Lehman to
-go to the Haymarket and use the bombs there? No. Lehman swears that
-he said: ‘You take these and put them in a safe place.’ And Lehman hid
-them where the officer, piloted by him, found them. Does that prove that
-Lingg sent a bomb to the Haymarket for the purpose of having somebody
-killed? How did he come to make bombs? Was it a matter to engage in
-on his own volition or responsibility? No. The Carpenters’ Union at one
-of its meetings resolved to devote a certain amount of money for the purpose
-of experimenting with dynamite. You may say that was not right,
-but he was not responsible for it. There is no more reason in holding him
-responsible for the Haymarket affair on account of his experiments than
-there is to hold every other member of the Carpenters’ Union for the same
-thing. That is how Lingg came to make bombs. Without dynamite a
-bomb-shell is a toy. The Lingg bombs would kill nobody unless some human
-independent agency took hold of them. Did Lingg know on Monday
-night that one of his bombs was to be used? He could not have known it,
-because the testimony is incontrovertible that it was understood by the men
-who met at 54 West Lake Street there should be no violence at the Haymarket
-meeting. And yet the State asks you to say that Lingg shall be
-hanged because he manufactured bombs. The man who threw the bomb
-did the independent act necessary for its explosion. Who was that man?
-Was he connected with the defendants? The evidence does not show it.</p>
-
-<p>“And a word more about that. This boy Lingg was dependent upon
-others as to his impressions of our institutions. He went to Seliger’s house.
-Seliger is a Socialist; he has been in this country for years. He is thirty-one
-years of age; Lingg is twenty-one. And yet the great State of Illinois,
-through its legal representatives, bargains with William Seliger, the man of
-mature years, and with his wife, older even than himself, that if they will
-do what they can to put the noose around the neck of this boy they shall go
-scatheless! Ah! gentlemen, what a mockery of justice is this.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Proceeding to discuss the Haymarket meeting, he held that there was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_558" id="Page_558">[558]</a></span>
-no law that could take away the right of the people to meet and consider
-grievances. When it was proposed to adopt the Constitution, in 1787, the
-States were so careful to preserve the rights of the people that several
-amendments were put in. Capt. Black spoke of our forefathers, who
-had made the name of the revolutionist immortal, and referred to the
-meetings that had to be held as a preliminary to the great struggle.
-It had been charged against these men that they were guilty of misdemeanors
-for holding meetings, and they had been prosecuted for crimes.
-Before the Constitution could receive the approbation of the States, it had
-been necessary that the amendment providing that no laws should be
-passed by Congress abridging free speech should be inserted. Such a provision
-had been incorporated in the first Constitution of Illinois in
-1818, and renewed in the subsequent Constitutions of 1848 and 1870. The
-Haymarket meeting had been called for the common good. Those men believed
-that a great wrong had been done, a great outrage committed, and the
-rights of the citizens in that assemblage had been invaded by an unlawful,
-unwarrantable and outrageous act.</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Bonfield, in his police office, surrounded by his minions, one hundred
-and eighty strong, armed to the teeth, knew that the meeting was quietly
-and peacefully coming to its close. Nay, he had said so to Carter Harrison.
-When Parsons had concluded, Mayor Harrison went to the station and told
-Bonfield that it was a quiet meeting, and Bonfield replied, ‘My detectives
-make me the same report.’ Yet Carter Harrison did not get out of hearing
-before Inspector Bonfield ordered his men to fall in for that death march.
-Who is responsible for it? Who precipitated that conflict? Who made
-that battle in that street that night? The law looks at the approximate
-cause, not the remote. The law looks at the man immediately in fault; not
-at some man who may have manufactured the pistol that does the shooting,
-the dynamite that kills, the bomb that explodes. I ask you, upon your
-oath before God, in a full and honest consideration of this entire testimony,
-who made the Haymarket massacre? Who is responsible for that collision?
-If Bonfield had not marched there, would there have been any death?
-Would not that meeting have dissolved precisely as it proposed to do?
-Did the bomb-thrower go down to the station where the police were and
-attack them? A bomb could have been thrown into that station with even
-more deadly effect than at the Haymarket itself. There they were, massed
-together in close quarters, in hiding, like a wild beast in its lair ready to
-spring. Did the bomb-thrower move upon them? Was there here a design
-to destroy? God sent that warning cloud into the heavens; these men
-were still there, speaking their last words; but a deadlier cloud was coming
-up behind this armed force. In disregard of our constitutional rights as
-citizens, it was proposed to order the dispersal of a peaceable meeting.
-Has it come to pass that under the Constitution of the United States and
-of this State, our meetings for the discussion of grievances are subject to
-be scattered to the winds at the breath of a petty police officer? Can they
-take into their hands the law? If so, that is Anarchy; nay, the chaos of
-constitutional right and legally guaranteed liberty. I ask you again,
-charging no legal responsibility here, but looking at the man who is morally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_559" id="Page_559">[559]</a></span>
-at fault for the death harvest of that night, who brought it on? Would it
-have been but for the act of Bonfield?”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Captain Black went on to say that as long as the Mayor was there Bonfield
-could not act, but as soon as Harrison had gone the officer could not
-get to the Haymarket quick enough. The police, the speaker urged, had
-been searching the files of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> and the <i>Alarm</i> for years to
-put before the jury the most inflammatory articles. After alluding to Christ
-as the great Socialist of Judea, who first preached the Socialism taught
-by Spies and his other modern apostles, he compared John Brown and his
-attack on Harper’s Ferry to the Socialists’ attack on modern evils, concluding:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Gentlemen, the last words for these eight lives. They are in your
-hands, with no power to whom you ace answerable but God and history,
-and I say to you in closing only the words of that Divine Socialist: ‘As ye
-would that others should do to you, do you even so to them.’”</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_560" id="Page_560">[560]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XXXI.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">Grinnell’s Closing Argument&mdash;One Step from Republicanism to Anarchy&mdash;A
-Fair Trial&mdash;The Law in the Case&mdash;The Detective Work&mdash;Gilmer and his Evidence&mdash;“We
-Knew all the Facts”&mdash;Treason and Murder&mdash;Arming the Anarchists&mdash;The
-Toy-shop Purchases&mdash;The Pinkerton Reports&mdash;“A Lot of Snakes”&mdash;The Meaning
-of the Black Flag&mdash;Symbols of the Social Revolution&mdash;The <i>Daily News</i> Interviews&mdash;Spies
-the “Second Washington”&mdash;The Rights of “Scabs”&mdash;The Chase into
-the River&mdash;Inflaming the Workingmen&mdash;The “Revenge” Lie&mdash;The Meeting at the
-<i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> Office&mdash;A Curious Fact about the Speakers at the Haymarket&mdash;The
-Invitation to Spies&mdash;Balthasar Rau and the Prisoners&mdash;Harrison at the Haymarket&mdash;The
-Significance of Fielden’s Wound&mdash;Witnesses’ Inconsistencies&mdash;The Omnipresent
-Parsons&mdash;The Meaning of the Manuscript Find&mdash;Standing between the Living and
-the Dead.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap08">STATE’S ATTORNEY GRINNELL took Wednesday and a part of
-Thursday in which to deliver his argument. He indulged in no flights
-of oratory, but presented a review of the case at once able, convincing and
-unassailable. He began as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I said to you in the opening, gentlemen, that in this country, above all
-countries in the world, is Anarchy possible. In my investigations of this
-case, in my conduct with it, with my knowledge of my own country and the
-freedom we enjoy and possess, I have been led to conclude that that is
-true. In those strong European governments, where there is monarchical
-or strongly centralized government, they strangle Anarchy or ship it here.
-Everybody comes to our climate; everybody reaches our shores; our freedom
-is great&mdash;and it should never be abridged&mdash;and here with that freedom,
-with that great enjoyment of liberty to all men, they seek to obtain
-their end by Anarchy, which in other countries is impossible. As I said,
-there is one step from republicanism to Anarchy. Let us never take that
-step, and, gentlemen, the responsibility which has devolved upon you in
-this case is greater than any jury in the history of the world ever undertook.
-This is no slight or mean duty that you are called upon to perform. You
-are to say whether that step shall be taken.</p>
-
-<p>“When the Haymarket tragedy occurred, the spontaneous declaration
-by every honest, every law-abiding man and woman in this city was: ‘An
-outrage has been perpetrated; a great crime has been committed; but let
-there be a cool, unimpassioned trial and let the guilty suffer. Then and
-not till then.’ That has been the sentiment of every newspaper in this city
-from which counsel sought to make you believe by quotations there had
-been something said to the contrary. The little extracts and abstracts that
-have been clipped from the newspapers that they have talked to you about
-are such extracts as met the disapproval of the newspapers. And even as
-to what Capt. Black referred to the other day in your hearing and which
-Foster elaborated to you, something that some crank has written to the
-<i>Inter-Ocean</i> as to what should be done with these defendants, horrifying
-you by the recital as he did&mdash;what does the newspaper say? That the
-man who wrote it was as bad as an Anarchist; that we are here to maintain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_561" id="Page_561">[561]</a></span>
-the law, not break it. And that can be said of every newspaper in this
-city. There never has been in the history of America, in the world, such
-unanimity of sentiment as has prevailed through the length and breadth of
-this country, not only as to the crime itself and the perpetrators, but as to
-the perpetrators having a fair trial. And why, especially, has there been
-so much talk about a fair trial in this case? Because every honest, country-loving
-American citizen knew that his country’s life was at stake, and the
-only thing to do was to demonstrate the strength of the law by a fair trial,
-which the defendants have had.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Mr. Grinnell at this point went into a very lengthy discussion of the law
-in the case. He showed conclusively that in a conspiracy the men who had
-advised and abetted the commission of the crime were fully as guilty as the
-man who had actually made himself the instrument of their deed. Inasmuch
-as the instructions given by the court to the jury are really a concise
-and complete statement of the points of law which Mr. Grinnell and the
-other attorneys for the State urged, I have taken the liberty to omit that
-part of the address.</p>
-
-<p>Coming to the facts in the case, Mr. Grinnell, in his examination of the
-attempt made by the defense to impeach Gilmer’s testimony, said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“A few days, gentlemen, after the Haymarket riot, for a whole week, as
-is plain from the testimony in this case, and from Captain Schaack, there
-was not the least particle of knowledge or a suspicion, great as had been
-the crime that was committed there&mdash;there was not a suspicion that it was
-any farther-reaching than the result of these repeated inflammatory speeches
-which our city had listened to for years. But the magnificent efforts of
-Schaack, without my knowledge at that time, got the leading-string which
-led to the conspiracy. Then it was, for the first time, that we knew of
-Schnaubelt, or that we knew or suspected that a conspiracy existed at all.
-I confess here, gentlemen, a weakness; because, whatever may be the
-instincts of the prosecutor, as they say, I have not been so long in this office
-as to be callous to human sentiments and to humanity, and I have not yet
-become so hardened that I believe everybody accused of a crime is guilty.
-I hope in the prosecution of my duty, and in this office, that that time will
-never come. When we had Spies under arrest, I confess to you that then,
-and after it was developed that a conspiracy existed&mdash;I confess the weakness&mdash;that
-I did not suppose that a man living in our community would enter
-into a conspiracy so hellish and damnable as the proof showed, and our
-investigations subsequently showed, he had entered into; and therefore,
-notwithstanding Gilmer’s statement to us so frequently, Spies was not shown
-to him and not identified.</p>
-
-<p>“Honesty of purpose is the only thing that will determine, in every way,
-the right from the wrong.</p>
-
-<p>“It may sound to you a little out of place for me to say here that the
-only mistake I have made&mdash;the only mistake that has been pointed out to
-you that I have made&mdash;and I frankly confess it was a mistake&mdash;was the
-suggestion in my opening about the bomb-thrower. We knew the facts.
-There was no law compelling me to make any statement. I might have
-proceeded with the proof, if I desired, without any opening statement. I
-did make an opening. I undertook to make it fairly and frankly and broad.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_562" id="Page_562">[562]</a></span>
-I was afraid of wearying you, as I was weary myself, from the days and days
-that we had been working here in getting a jury, and the anxiety under
-which I labored. I said in that opening that we would show to you who
-threw that bomb. I said in that opening that we would show that the man
-left the wagon, lighted the match and threw the bomb. That was not absolutely
-correct. I should have said that the man who came from the
-wagon, assisted the bomb-thrower, as the proof shows, and who we knew
-came from the wagon, was in that group, and that the bomb was thrown by
-a man whom we would show to you.</p>
-
-<p>“Gentlemen, let me proceed, as fast as I can, in the discussion of another
-branch of this case. The gentlemen upon the other side have said to you
-deliberately, for the purpose of gaining some favor in your eyes for their
-clients, that this is a plain, simple case of murder, and that we have no
-right to discuss anything or talk about anything except that which occurred
-at the Haymarket meeting. They read some law to you, yesterday, upon
-that proposition. It was inapplicable, and was manifestly so. There never
-was a murder committed in the world, be it treasonable murder or the murder
-for mere gain, but what the trial of the perpetrator meant an investigation
-of the life of the man who committed the murder. What had been his
-utterances? What has he said? Has he threatened life? Has he talked
-against a system represented by police? Has he advised the use of dynamite?
-Has he advised the use of poison? Has he advised the use of the
-pistol, the rifle, the musket, to accomplish his end? Those are legitimate
-sources of investigation. And further than that, as the gentlemen well know,
-you can go back in those declarations for years and years, and there is no
-statute of limitation against threats, when a repeated threat results in the
-deed threatened.</p>
-
-<p>“On the lake front, at the different halls in the city of Chicago, at
-these Communistic or Socialistic halls, as the gentlemen called them&mdash;they
-are Anarchistic halls; don’t let us have any mistake about names and titles&mdash;in
-all these months and years there has been openly preached to the citizens
-of this city treason and murder by these defendants. Why? To
-bring about a social revolution. And these humanitarians, these God-like
-men, these defendants who have the similitude of Christ&mdash;peace&mdash;have
-openly talked murder in our streets. I think it ought to have been stopped
-before. I think when they made the utterance from the lake front, or
-any other spot in the city of Chicago, that they should have been snatched
-by policemen and taken to the station and fined for disorderly conduct, as
-that would be as far as they could go, except under the common-law rule
-which provides that if they had advised murder then they could have been
-punished for such advice. We know more law to-day than we did&mdash;I do,
-I am very glad to say.”</p></div>
-
-<p class=" p1">Following this, Mr. Grinnell took up the case against each of the conspirators
-as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“Why was Engel preparing for the purchase of a large amount of
-arms? That has not been disputed. There is testimony in this case that
-Engel not later than last winter, and perhaps in the spring, negotiated for
-a large amount of arms, with his daughter present. His daughter has not
-been placed upon the stand to deny that fact. Why? He was not a
-dealer in arms. It could have been denied if not true. He is a keeper
-of a toy-store, it appears, over on Milwaukee Avenue. These belligerent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_563" id="Page_563">[563]</a></span>
-humanitarians, these men whom Black would have you surround and cover
-with garlands&mdash;these are the men that we have demonstrated before you
-have been buying arms and preparing for years for something. Why was
-it that Parsons at another place, no later than last winter, or late in the fall,
-also negotiated for a large amount of arms? Has he denied it? He has been
-on the witness-stand. Why did he negotiate for arms? For humanitarian
-purposes? Why, gentlemen, to dispose of the bloodhounds, the police, the
-capitalists. That has been their cry. Their cry on the lake front and
-everywhere has been that same treasonable, infamous cry. Is that the only
-place they have spoken? Their halls are all over the city. Look at the
-testimony of Johnson, the detective, on that subject. The only testimony
-against Johnson, the only syllable in this proof against Pinkerton’s detective
-who is called Johnson, or Jansen, is Foster’s&mdash;that is all, except that
-Fielden said, as I remember, that the man O’Brien, in whose presence
-Johnson said Fielden made the remark about a little dynamite in his pocket,
-was not here, and that therefore he did not say it. Why, Fielden had been
-saying it for years&mdash;he had been talking it day after day and Sunday after
-Sunday on the lake shore.</p>
-
-<p>“He had been talking it year in and year out. He had been speaking
-for dynamite and demanding its use by the workingmen, and advising them
-to arm themselves with it for months and years. Foster said that Johnson
-is not to be believed because he is a detective, and he delivered a very
-pleasant lecture on that subject. I presume he has delivered it in every
-important trial that he has ever been in. It is the ordinary language, the
-usual philippic against detectives, I suppose. I never saw a detective on
-the witness-stand that commended himself so favorably to the honest consideration
-of any listener as did Johnson. And after he had withstood that
-severe, critical and exasperating cross-examination of Foster, he still stood
-there a monument of strength to the truth which he had uttered. He had
-said nothing, gentlemen, but what had been in the public press for years
-about these utterances; and they have not denied a single syllable of his
-testimony. I suppose then, gentlemen, from that follows another proposition&mdash;that
-we, in the city of Chicago and elsewhere, must suffer murder,
-must be robbed, our friends killed, our houses invaded, law set at defiance,
-because it would be unfortunate to have anybody convicted who was guilty
-on the testimony of the detective. Foster said there never was any great
-murder trial in the world but what there is a detective in it. That may be
-so. The peculiarity of this murder trial and the detective is this&mdash;that
-this report was made from day to day by the detective to his principals,
-and by them to citizens, long before this murder. The detective that Foster
-pictures is the one who after the act goes back to make up a case.
-This was making the case without thinking that it would ever take place,
-and the actual written statements made by him from night to night and
-from day to day were here in court; and if they were not, the fact has not
-been denied, and these men have been on the stand. Why didn’t they
-deny it? Did any of them deny the existence of the armed group and the
-marching backward and forward and the explanation of the dynamite cans
-at Greif’s Hall? No; none of them denied it. They would have denied
-it if it had not been so absolutely strong in its proof. The written evidence,
-the handwriting on the wall, was against these men.</p>
-
-<p>“But, not content, these revolutionists, these traitors, these men who
-have committed treason&mdash;I thank again the gentleman for the word&mdash;these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_564" id="Page_564">[564]</a></span>
-men who have committed treason are not content with confining their
-power and influence to the small limits of Cook County, but Spies goes to
-Grand Rapids and there gives utterance to these same treasonable sentences;
-and there is no doubt that other proselytes of the humanitarian
-crowd were at other places in the country doing the same thing. It seems
-that Parsons was at Cincinnati Sunday or Saturday before the Haymarket
-difficulty. Was he down there for the same purpose that Spies was at
-Grand Rapids? And at Grand Rapids, what did Spies say? He said that
-the social revolution must come, would come when there were great numbers
-of laboring men out of employment, and foreshadowed the difficulties
-in the ensuing year, in 1886. The great things that he was to accomplish
-then were foreshadowed. ‘But,’ said Moulton to him,&mdash;the other witness
-heard the conversation,&mdash;‘they will strangle you like a lot of snakes. It will
-be murder.’ ‘Oh no; oh no. No murder about this. We are humanitarians.
-No murder. We will succeed. It will be revolution, and I, great
-Spies, will be the second Washington of America.’ The second Washington
-of America! ‘But if you fail?’ says Moulton. ‘Of course, if we fail,
-that is another thing; but we ain’t going to fail.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because
-hundreds of thousands of laboring men will be out of employment all over
-the United States, and they have the power.’ That is the friend of the
-laboring man, the Anarchist and friend of the laboring man, advocating
-the destruction of property to advance the interests of the laboring man.
-It would be a great benefit to me, with the very little property that I have,
-to have it destroyed; it would enrich me so at once!</p>
-
-<p>“But that is not all&mdash;and there has been no dispute about that interview
-with Moulton, not a syllable of dispute about that interview from any
-source. Counsel did not even undertake to cross-examine Moulton. His
-intelligence was such, he was so clear-headed and concise in what he
-uttered, that they dropped him. What was all this for? That meant preparation
-and threats toward what? Toward murder, the social revolution&mdash;and
-it was murder. That is why this is competent evidence. That is why
-the utterances of these men are material and necessary. That is why the
-proof is overpowering.</p>
-
-<p>“There is no use in my giving you the details of these speeches from
-day to day. They have made indignant every man who has listened to
-them or read them. They have caused other things&mdash;they have caused
-bloodshed and riot.</p>
-
-<p>“Foster says to you that there is no difficulty about the black flag; that
-that is a flag they use over in Europe to march around with, showing their
-humanitarian desires, or that they are hungry&mdash;that that is what it means.
-It does not mean that here. They were going to march down Michigan
-Avenue under the black flag and strike terror to the hearts of the capitalists.
-Didn’t Fielden and Spies and Parsons and all that gang understand that
-when the valiant crowd would march up Michigan Avenue under the black
-flag, it meant death, no quarter, piracy?</p>
-
-<p>“But that is not all. The Board of Trade meeting occurs, and there
-the black flag and the red flag were carried. The article has been read to
-you, and it is unnecessary to go into that again. And there they say that
-that meeting was copiously supplied with nitro-glycerine pills, or something
-of that kind. They did not get at the Board of Trade, but had to
-march clear around it, within a block of it, and then vented their spite&mdash;aroused
-by their difficulties, vented their spite in speeches from the<i> Arbeiter-Zeitung</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_565" id="Page_565">[565]</a></span>
-office that night, commending their valorous deeds and acts, only
-saying that they were preparing for them, declaring: ‘We will wait for
-some other time, when we are ready for the police.’ They did not expect
-any police that night. They thought they would march right down. The
-police began to wake up.</p>
-
-<p>“Gentlemen, the red flag has passed in our streets enough. At that
-meeting which they comment so much upon in the <i>Alarm</i> and the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>,
-representing its peculiarities, its honor, and its humanitarian influences,
-they suggest that the red flag that was carried there, and carried
-by women, that it is the flag of universal liberty, and it is so described here
-on the witness-stand. Ah, gentlemen, there is but one flag of liberty in this
-land, and that is the stars and stripes. That flag is planted on our soil, and
-planted to stay, if you have the courage to carry out the law. It is a plant
-of liberty.</p></div>
-
-<p class="pp6 p1">
-The blades of heroes fence it round;<br />
-Where’er it springs is holy ground.<br />
-From tower and dome its glories spread;<br />
-It waves where lonely sentries tread.</p>
-
-<p class="pp6 p1">It makes the land as ocean free,<br />
-And plants an empire on the sea&mdash;<br />
-Always the banner of the free,<br />
-The starry flower of liberty.</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“That is the flag that these men want to wipe out and supplant with the
-black and the red. No wonder those flags over there (indicating flags
-offered in evidence) disturbed Foster. He is an American citizen, not
-tinctured or tainted with any of the Anarchy of his clients.</p>
-
-<p>“There is one other suggestion I want to make to you in this connection.
-I wish to hurry along and be as brief as possible. As has been said
-to you by counsel, the case in its magnitude and scope is so great that no
-one man can cover it. Some branches of this case, and nearly all, have
-been well covered by Mr. Walker and Mr. Ingham, who preceded me. But
-there is one forcible suggestion brought to my attention by Mr. Ingham,
-and I wish to again ask: Why all these threats? Why all this talk? Why
-so many threats of murder, outside of the question of the desire to accomplish
-that end? Ah! gentlemen, it is so that the revolution could more
-easily take place by causing terror in your hearts and my heart. That is
-what it meant: causing terror in the heart of every American citizen, and
-thereby making more easy the accomplishment of that which they desire
-and preach. Why all these armed groups, scattered throughout and
-operating in the city of Chicago, as they all say, as Most explains in his
-book, as Spies explains and as Parsons and all in their speeches explain?
-Why this network of groups? It was the nucleus, the foundation from
-which that social revolution was to spring, and these armed men were to do
-their part of the duty. There was a desire to strike terror&mdash;that is the
-watchword&mdash;to strike terror to the hearts of the capitalists and their minions,
-the bloodhounds of the police. That is what it meant. Threaten life&mdash;specific
-in one direction&mdash;and threaten the peaceful citizens and the
-law-abiding citizens on the other hand, so that they would throw up both
-hands at once, and let it go on. That was their scheme. Why? Because
-these men, in their craven spirit, supposed that one hundred thousand honest
-laboring men in this town would at once wheel in behind the ranks of
-the three thousand and mow down everybody else. Lingg, who told Capt.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_566" id="Page_566">[566]</a></span>
-Schaack of all the bombs, not admitting that he had made the bomb that
-killed Degan, admitted and told Schaack that they were pills and medicine
-for the police and capitalists.</p>
-
-<p>“They were not the friends of the laboring man, although they were
-always talking about that in public&mdash;such wonderful friends of the laboring
-man! Gentlemen, they wanted to kill the system. They said they wanted
-to kill the system, and on the witness-stand here they said that on that
-night of the Haymarket massacre they meant the system. What system?
-The system of law. They have no malice in their hearts against the seven
-officers&mdash;Oh! no. They did not know them. It was not the seven officers,
-as persons, they desired to kill; but they desired to kill the officers, and all
-of them, in order to kill the system&mdash;the system of law.</p>
-
-<p>“Besides the frequent declarations that have been proven here as to the
-designs of these men foolishly and dishonestly to represent themselves as
-the friends of the laboring man, they have said in their writings, and they
-have preached on the stump, that the eight-hour movement, as a movement,
-would not help the laboring man. And why? Because the laboring man
-must have Anarchy&mdash;must have what other people have got in the way of
-property, as they have defined in their ideas of property. Black calls that a
-theory.</p>
-
-<p>“Declarations threatening dynamite were made in our midst for the purpose
-of terrorizing the people, and causing them to believe that these men
-were more powerful than they were, and thereby causing the laboring man
-to come to their ranks. It was a bid for the laboring man&mdash;that is what it
-was, and that is why Wilkinson’s interview was so easily obtained.
-Wilkinson interviewed these men, and published in the <i>Daily News</i>] of the
-14th day of January, 1886, his interview with Spies as to the purposes and
-objects of the revolutionists and Anarchists in the city of Chicago. What
-did he say? He told about the bombs, the dynamite, their preparation,
-their network of groups, their thousands of armed men in the city of Chicago,
-their drilling from day to day or week to week. He gave him a
-sample of a bomb, and told him further that the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office was
-a place for the distribution of bombs in the city of Chicago, and upon his
-own testimony it appears that he received bombs, as Mr. Ingham has explained
-to you, from one part of the country; and then samples were
-brought in&mdash;two more, of which the one here presented and called the Czar
-bomb was one.</p>
-
-<p>“And now, why did he do all that? Why did this foolish man do that?
-They want you to acquit him because he is foolish. Why did this foolish
-man do all that? Gentlemen, the answer is plain and simple. First,
-vanity&mdash;the second Washington of this country! God save the memory
-of the father of our country.</p>
-
-<p>“Another thing, he wanted to demonstrate through the public press to
-the one hundred thousand honest laborers in Chicago that Anarchy had
-come. That is what he wanted. That is why it was advertised. That is
-why he so flippantly discussed open secrets in that way. He wanted the
-laboring man to follow in the wake of the despoilers of our country, the
-Anarchists. Yes, and fearing that such talk in the newspapers would scare
-some of his conspirators and co-workers in evil, he goes to Fielden when
-they were having a meeting at Greif’s Hall a day or two after, and says to
-him, ‘Go light on that interview among our companions; they may be scared
-off.’ He was obliged to hedge among his companions to keep them in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_567" id="Page_567">[567]</a></span>
-control, and by his vaporings, as they call it, seek to pull to them the one
-hundred thousand laborers in this town. If there had been a possibility of
-the accomplishment of his designs, what would we have done in this city
-with one hundred thousand men let loose? Parsons says he was a Knight
-of Labor. His very paper abuses Powderly, the genius and inspiration of
-the Knights of Labor in this country. Their honest leaders in this country
-are men who are opposed to Anarchy, and in the organization of the Knights
-of Labor, gentlemen, the one element in it to-day which is dangerous to it
-and the rights of the laboring man is the very element of Anarchy&mdash;dangerous
-wherever it is.</p>
-
-<p>“Parsons was buying arms, negotiating for them; Engel was negotiating
-for them; Lingg was making bombs; Fischer was doing the work of
-Spies in the promulgation of their ideas; Fielden was making speeches
-preparing the public; Parsons, in his humanitarian designs against his own
-country, where his fathers were born and lived&mdash;he was writing and speaking
-for the social revolution and against all law, as was Schwab and Spies,
-and it was to take place the 1st of May, 1886. Gentlemen, as I said in the
-opening, I say again, Spies appeared at the McCormick meeting for the
-purpose of inflaming that crowd to the highest intensity, as expressed in
-their editorials&mdash;to the highest pitch of excitement&mdash;appeared at that crowd
-and spoke. It appears from his own lips, and appears in proof here, that
-before he spoke there had been no riot; that while he was speaking the
-rioting occurred and the difficulty was precipitated. I take, gentlemen, his
-explanation, given by himself, written that night, as the full explanation.
-He in that article says: ‘If there had been one dynamite bomb.’ Think
-of the horror! It makes one’s blood run cold&mdash;these men deliberating
-with such infamy the destruction of life and property in a country which
-has freedom for its basis and freedom for its glory, and talking riot and
-bloodshed.</p>
-
-<p>“I am not going to discuss further that McCormick meeting, except to
-make this suggestion that seems to have been omitted. It is in regard to
-the ‘Revenge’ circular. I say, gentlemen, that the basis of the ‘Revenge’
-circular is a lie, premeditated, deliberate, infamous, and is the key-note to
-the situation.</p>
-
-<p>“McCormick had some laboring men&mdash;it is the high privilege, the great
-and high privilege of the defendants in this case to call them ‘scabs.’ We
-will call them ‘scabs.’ They were working at McCormick’s for their honest
-daily bread. They had no fight with the world. They were seeking their
-subsistence by daily toil. They had rights which every man should respect;
-they had the right to peaceful employment, of coming and going to their
-labor as they saw fit. They came out of that great factory, only a moment
-before teeming with the busy throb of life, to be set upon, attacked and
-murdered by the strikers whom defendant Spies was speaking to. Who
-there was entitled to protection, gentlemen? Was it the duty of the police
-to protect the ‘scabs,’ or the six thousand, part of whom began the riot? The
-time that the attack occurred, gentlemen, there were only two policemen on
-the ground. Those two policemen that came out of McCormick’s factory
-nearly lost their lives; one of them was stoned nearly to death; secured
-himself in a patrol box, which was afterwards pulled down, and all for what?
-Because a few ‘scabs’ coming out of McCormick’s on their way to their
-homes and their families had been attacked by the mob which Spies was
-addressing and instigating. The two policemen called a patrol wagon in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_568" id="Page_568">[568]</a></span>
-order, as was their right and duty, to protect the property of McCormick, the
-lives of the ‘scabs’ who swam the river, and the lives of the two officers who
-were there then. He calls such protection of a few ‘scabs’ against this army
-of strikers which he sought to inflame&mdash;and did not entirely succeed&mdash;calls
-that transaction the bloodhounds of the police wickedly shooting down your
-friends. It was a lie. The police were there in honored duty, protecting
-life and property, and the mob began the fight, and not the police. Not
-only has Spies declared in that circular that men were killed who were not,
-but that men were injured who were not hurt; not only that, but, pervading
-it, the whole of it, is a lie, and the purpose of that lie was to inflame the
-laboring men. He rushed down to his office and wrote that circular, as he
-says, ‘with his blood boiling against the outrages of the police.’ Poor
-bloodhounds of the police, who had undertaken to protect the lives of a few
-people, and McCormick, who is unfortunate enough to own more property
-than perhaps any of us&mdash;to protect his property from being stoned, and his
-premises pillaged, and his men murdered. He writes the ‘Revenge’
-circular and prepares for war.</p>
-
-<p>“They had prepared, before the McCormick meeting, for this difficulty.
-At Emma Street, on Sunday, was a conspiracy meeting of these infamous
-scoundrels, and among them was Fischer, seeking our lives&mdash;seeking the
-destruction of the law. They agreed upon the plan&mdash;they agreed upon
-‘Ruhe’&mdash;they agreed that the meeting of the armed men should be called
-for Tuesday night. It is in the history of this conspiracy that the first
-meeting on that Sunday contemplated the difficulties at McCormick’s.
-Where is this Thielen? Where is this German friend&mdash;this comrade?
-He was down there with Comrade Spies, on the top of that car, and their
-intention was to do that which was done&mdash;to excite that mob. That was
-the preliminary step in this conspiracy to the open infraction of law. The
-general conspiracy had been going along for weeks, perhaps for months; it
-may be for years. But the details of the conspiracy were arranged at the
-Emma Street meeting. Then comes the McCormick meeting, the inflaming
-of the workingmen, and then what? The production of the ‘Revenge’
-circular, to still more incite them. The armed men meet at that Emma
-Street place, where the Northwest Side group meet&mdash;the group that the
-worst Anarchists in the city belong to&mdash;at that Emma Street meeting it
-was discussed, talked about and suggested, and at that meeting it was
-arranged and talked about as to where and how the fighting should be done
-when the contest came. How was it to be done? One man suggested that
-they should go into the crowd themselves, and begin killing then and there.
-Another says: ‘That won’t do; we may come in contact with the policemen
-or a detective and our lives’&mdash;yes, their precious lives&mdash;‘might be at
-stake.’ That plan was rejected&mdash;that part of it. And another thing you
-will remember: that it was settled that the meeting should not be on the
-Market Square, down here on the South Side, because ‘it was a mouse trap,’
-because the power of the police, the militia and everything of that character
-was such that it was impossible to get out of the way, at Market Square, if
-the contest came. Courageous men!</p>
-
-<p>“After Spies had written that circular, after he had had it printed, where
-does it appear? He has it sent over to the printer by a boy; and that circular,
-printed by him, ordered by him, is distributed broadcast through the
-city, by whose order? By Spies’. It is another significant fact, gentlemen,
-that it appears at every meeting almost simultaneously with the conspiracy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_569" id="Page_569">[569]</a></span>
-meeting; as I remember, brought there either by Fischer or Balthasar
-Rau&mdash;that I would not be sure of; but it appears almost like the
-wind in all parts of the city, distributed from horseback, and it never could
-have been distributed if it had not been done at the order of the arch-conspirator
-of all, August Spies. That circular was intended to inflame; it
-did inflame. It inflamed people throughout the city who read it; it was a
-lie. They could not know that. The police had not committed the outrages,
-but the mob had. There had not been that number killed nor
-wounded. They could not know that. Their apostle, the individual who
-has been their leader, had said, ‘To arms!’ Some answer, ‘We will.’
-That is Anarchy. Gentlemen, it is unnecessary for me to go over step by
-step that conspiracy. It is established here so that it never can be moved.
-Mr. Ingham and Mr. Walker went over the ground thoroughly and completely.
-The defense has seen fit to let it alone. The conspiracy was
-established, and all the defendants show themselves as coming into it.
-Isn’t it significant that on Tuesday, on Tuesday morning, between nine and
-ten, as I understand, Parsons appeared from Cincinnati? What does he
-do? He rushes straight to the <i>Daily News</i> office before eleven o’clock, and
-inserts a notice for the American group to meet at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-office, where it never had met before. For what purpose? For the purpose
-of ‘important business.’ If that had been an honest desire to have the
-important business for the purpose of arranging the sewing girls and their
-employment, or making a union among the sewing girls, as they now claim,
-why didn’t he say so? Before eleven o’clock Parsons appears and has this
-article inserted. Why? So that the main head centers of the conspiracy
-could be readily reached when the contest came ‘to its highest intensity’
-at the Haymarket. Not another day in the whole history of this organization
-has the American group ever met at Fifth Avenue. Why didn’t it
-meet over at the other place, at Greif’s Hall, where it always met? That
-would not do, because there were meetings there, conspiracy meetings and
-everything else. Whom else do we find here at this <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office?
-Schwab. What for? He was not a member of the American group?
-What was he there for? He was there, too, for that purpose. He had
-been talking and writing, as has been read to you, about Anarchy and
-bloodshed and dynamite and rifles, and he appears at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-office for the first time, when the American group meets; never was there
-with them before, so far as this proof shows.</p>
-
-<p>“Fischer seeks to obtain this circular printed; that is his part of the programme;
-he goes out&mdash;there is no dispute about these facts&mdash;he goes out
-of the meeting and finds the printing-office closed. He waits until the next
-morning. Now, this man is a printer; he is the friend of Spies; he went
-from Spies when the circular was printed; he was in the meeting at which
-the circular was distributed; he knows, as a matter of fact, that Spies wrote
-that circular, ‘Workingmen, to arms.’ Spies is his general, his boss and
-chief, and the arch-conspirator. He says, ‘Workingmen, to arms!’ What
-does Fischer say? Why, he says: ‘Workingmen, to arms,’ in his circular,
-and adds: ‘Come in full force,’ and it appears the next morning.</p>
-
-<p>“Now the circular was circulated. Who was invited to speak, gentlemen?
-No one. Why? Because they knew that if twenty-five thousand
-laboring men appeared at that meeting that night in the inflamed condition
-of this town with the results following the McCormick meeting&mdash;they knew
-that it was the bounden duty of the police to tell those men to go home.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_570" id="Page_570">[570]</a></span>
-It is in proof in this case that they expected twenty-five thousand laboring
-men there. They would not need a speaker. If there was no
-speaker, then there would be tumult and crowding and jostling.
-Fights might occur, difficulties be precipitated, and the police inevitably
-would have to come. How do I know that no speakers were invited?
-Spies said that Fischer invited him. From brother Foster’s remarks I conclude
-that he has been on the stump a good many years out in Iowa. I
-venture to say he never went to a public meeting in his life, where he addressed
-it, where great crowds were assembled, where talking was to be
-indulged in, without asking his invitor who else was going to speak. It
-don’t appear in proof here that Fischer was ever asked that question.
-Spies was to speak in German, and that is the reason he didn’t hurry to
-the meeting. Fischer, Spies says, invited him to speak. Well, he was invited
-to speak, and nobody else&mdash;and he has never said anything about
-anybody else having been invited&mdash;not a syllable, not a name given. In fact,
-every other individual that could be invited had gone elsewhere, had prepared
-his alibi, had arranged for the meeting at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office,
-at the American group; every other speaker was there, but Spies alone was
-invited to speak, he says, and yet he waits, he waits after getting to that
-meeting. He does that which the design showed clearly was the intention
-to do, to precipitate a difficulty at the Haymarket meeting, and to gain
-results by armed men and dynamite early in the evening, and then would
-destruction and chaos come.</p>
-
-<p>“The first words of Spies’ opening speech demonstrate a significant
-thing. Why should Spies open the meeting? Why didn’t Fischer open it?
-Why didn’t the executive committee open it? Spies opened it. After idling
-around there some time in regard to the matter, Spies opened the meeting.
-Had anybody asked him to open the meeting? Why, no. He was only an
-ordinary invited speaker at a meeting at which no other speaker had been
-invited, and he appears there, and the first words he says, as I will show you
-by English’s testimony, are: ‘Mr. Parsons and Mr. Fielden will be here in
-a very short time to address you.’ How did he know where they were?
-He had not seen them. There is no indication that he had seen Parsons
-that day. How did he know that Parsons was not in Cincinnati? ‘Parsons
-and Fielden will be here in a few moments.’ How do you know, Mr. Spies?
-Why, they are over at the <i>Alarm</i> office, or at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office, and
-Balthasar Rau is sent over there to get them.</p>
-
-<p>“And now, Belthasar Rau went from this meeting over to the <i>Alarm</i>
-office, the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office, and invited those two people to come over
-there, that Spies wanted some help. Why did he want help? Well, the
-meeting was not big enough. It was going to dissolve; it looked as though
-it was going to pieces; the thing was a fiasco; he had got to keep it&mdash;try
-and see if he could not do something. And he continued, holding the
-audience till help came, and said: ‘I will say, however, first, that this
-meeting was called for the purpose of discussing the general situation of the
-eight-hour strike, and the events which have taken place during the last
-forty-eight hours. It seems to have been the opinion of the authorities that
-this meeting had been called for the purpose of raising a little row and
-disturbance.’</p>
-
-<p>“Now, how did Spies know that the authorities knew anything about it?
-Had Spies told them that there was going to be a row? Oh, no; he said
-nothing of that kind; but he said deliberately in that meeting that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_571" id="Page_571">[571]</a></span>
-authorities are supposed to believe or know that a riot is going to take place
-right there. Had the ‘Revenge’ circular been circulated? Yes. Had
-the other circular been circulated? Yes. What was their purpose? To
-make a row. Spies knew it, and he hedges in his inflammatory utterances
-which you read between the lines. It is a Mark Antony style of oratory&mdash;inflames
-most when there is least said. He was lying about the Gatling
-guns and the police, all for inflaming purposes, discussing that McCormick
-matter, about which he had in the inception begun to lie, for the same purpose.
-That was a very significant opening. It shows that he knew the
-purposes and object of that meeting. Gentlemen, it was the duty of the
-police to have disturbed and broken up that meeting in its inception.
-Why? The whole town was aflame. You remember it. Riot had occurred
-the day before, and the calling of a meeting upon so public a place as that
-was ill-advised and ought not to have been done. And the police, if they
-had walked down there thus early in the evening and dispersed it, would
-have done what was right. But the police did not walk down there and
-disturb the meeting; they walked down there and asked the meeting to disperse.
-There is no use of talking about proof, gentlemen. Their belts
-were on, their clubs in their sockets, their pistols in their pockets. That is
-the fact. They marched down that street, not with the precipitation which
-they would have you believe. They marched down that street perhaps fast,
-but not with precipitation, not with haste. They marched down that street
-to disperse a meeting that had talked ‘To arms;’ that had said: ‘Throttle
-the law,’ and that had said enough to have caused bloodshed then and
-there, and the only reason that more lives were not lost is because they
-failed to come earlier. The arrangement of that meeting was that it should
-be called, and that they should come early, and that it should be precipitated,
-and blood would flow. Engel was there in the evening; he knew
-about it. Fischer walked up with Waller, and Waller was armed. ‘Workingmen,
-come armed.’ A word, gentlemen, only a word, about the breaking-up
-of that meeting. They have played Harrison in and out of this case,
-for the purpose of saving the defendants. Harrison, you remember, went
-there for the purpose of ascertaining if that meeting was organized to attack
-the freight-house of the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad, about which you
-remember there was some difficulty, or McCormick’s, or if it was called to
-attack any particular place. He found, from the speeches, that, although
-inflammatory&mdash;and he said so&mdash;from the speeches themselves he found that
-no particular place was pointed out for an attack.</p>
-
-<p>“It was the same old speeches&mdash;riot, bloodshed, the black flag, the red
-flag, dynamite, war, to arms. And counsel upon the other side say that that
-‘To arms! To arms!’ didn’t mean anything. It was Pickwickian, and
-used to round a sentence. They went down to that meeting, and Harrison
-was there and saw that meeting and heard those speeches, and reported
-back to Bonfield what had been the result, namely, that they had ceased to
-become inflammatory since they had seen his face.</p>
-
-<p>“Thinking that the meeting was organized for plunder at the freight-house,
-hearing the speeches, seeing them become more moderate, Harrison
-left, and after he is gone, then come the reports, the incendiary character
-still increased, and when they come, they come in such shape that if Bonfield
-had not gone down there, then and there, he would have failed to perform
-his duty.</p>
-
-<p>“We have had enough of this. It is time it stopped. They were asked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_572" id="Page_572">[572]</a></span>
-peaceably to disperse&mdash;peaceably to disperse&mdash;peaceably to disperse.
-The police had their clubs in their belts, their pistols in their belts, and the
-bomb was thrown. So say Bonfield, Wessler, Foley, Bowler, Hanley, Ward,
-Hubbard, Haas, Hull, Heinemann&mdash;and I want to suggest a word about
-Heinemann’s testimony. Heinemann said that when that bomb exploded
-he was getting away on the east side of the street, going south. What did
-he get? He got the whistling of bullets past his ear. Where did they come
-from? Where could they come from? Hull was on that platform up there,
-and Owen was there, and that is where Simonson was. Hull says firing
-began by the crowd. Well, Owen got hit up there. It had to come from
-over there. Dr. Newman says that all sizes of bullets were found, from
-twenty-two to forty-four, and the police did not have anything but thirty-eight
-caliber. That was a cruel thrust for counsel to make at men standing
-up as these men did that night&mdash;death in their midst&mdash;standing there so
-nobly&mdash;a thrust to save the lives or the liberty of the defendants&mdash;by saying
-that they shot each other in their fright and terror. As Wirt Dexter said in
-a speech about that matter&mdash;I wish I could deliver his words to you&mdash;in
-praising the act of the police in that transaction: How noble was their conduct!
-Instead of fleeing and running, they said: ‘Fall in, boys,’ and the
-city was saved. Supposing the police had fired first, after the bomb. The
-man who threw that bomb obtained it from Lingg or Spies, and threw it in
-accordance with the general plan of conspiracy, and death was the result.
-I cannot talk to you about families, about wives and children, but if I had
-the power I would like to take you all over there to the Haymarket that
-night, and with you, with tears in your eyes, see the dead and mingle with
-the wounded, the dying&mdash;see law violated, and then I could, if I had the
-power, paint you a picture that would steel your hearts against the defendants.
-Captain Black said, in argument to you, that the State had no right
-to do that. The State has all the rights that it could possibly possess
-through so weak an instrument as myself. He has no more right. Did
-Fielden shoot? I think so. If he did not, he is made of poorer clay than
-I take him to be. He has been saying for years: ‘The bloodhounds of the
-police should be massacred and killed.’ He it was who said that he would
-march with the black flag down Michigan Avenue and strike terror to the
-heart of the capitalist. He it is who has said, day in and day out, since
-living in this inhospitable country: ‘Death to the police and the capitalists&mdash;the
-despoilers&mdash;our despoilers&mdash;death to them!’</p>
-
-<p>“Why, do you mean to say that he would not do what he says he would
-do? Dr. Epler swears that he told him when he dressed the wound that
-he was shot when he was down on the pavement, and he has not denied
-it. That was a significant fact, gentlemen; a very significant fact. The
-officer who was shot thinks it was by Fielden. It may have been by somebody
-else; nobody can tell.</p>
-
-<p>“Another thing. One of the officers swears that he was wounded in
-the knee. I was not looking at Capt. Black when he motioned to you the
-place where the wound occurred. For the purpose of correcting myself
-and making no mistake about it, because the testimony of an officer or any
-witness who put his finger on the spot cannot get into the record; and I
-found by looking at the record that he pointed his finger ‘here and here.’
-Of course there was no significance to that. So I saw the wound again. I
-had seen it once before. The bullet went in there (indicating), and came out
-above, going around up opposite the knee-cap, and was not from behind.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_573" id="Page_573">[573]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“That bomb was thrown in furtherance of a common design. No matter
-who threw it. But the gentlemen say there can be no conviction in
-this case because we have failed to prove, or cannot prove, who threw that
-identical bomb. That is not the law, as I explained to you yesterday. The
-other question is, Is there anything in this case showing who did? Gilmer
-says that he was in the alley, and a match was lighted, and that bomb was
-thrown by one man; Fischer stood by, and that Spies lighted it. Is that
-remarkable? Spies had been advising the doing of that thing for years;
-and in one of the articles that has been read to you, over his own signature,
-he says: ‘Take as few people into your confidence as possible; do it alone;
-in your revolutionary deeds, do it alone; but if you have to consult anybody,
-take your nearest friend, a man you can rely upon.’ Who is Schnaubelt?
-Schwab’s brother-in-law. Who is Fischer? A man who got the
-meeting up at Spies’ instance, and works for Spies. Now, gentlemen, I
-presume, and I have no doubt but what if they had raked a little more carefully,
-we would have found the man that said that that bomb was thrown
-from the top of Crane’s building; you could have found the man that said
-it came from away in the alley; any number of men probably would have
-put it north of the alley, and some south. The question here is, about
-where did it come from? The explanation of street warfare is, that it is to
-be done near alleys. Is Spies so craven now, after the deed is done, that
-he shall say, ‘I had no hand in it,’ when he had advised it for years?
-Gentlemen, men’s lives speak for themselves. He has advised it, said it,
-talked it, acted it. Why, the witnesses say, counsel upon the other side say
-to you, ‘Gentlemen, it is impossible that this man would do it, because no
-man saw the light which would have flashed up in their faces.’ Why, gentlemen,
-they put two witnesses on the stand to swear distinctly and clearly
-and positively that they had lighted a match and lighted a pipe, which
-would take a good deal longer than lighting a fuse. Spies says in one
-article: ‘It never goes out in a dry night; the Anarchist fuse never fails.’
-It could have happened; it has been advised to happen] precisely as Gilmer
-states it. Ignore Gilmer, and the case is made. But they want you to
-ignore Thompson too. Why? What for? Because they heard Schwab
-and Spies talk together. Was there anything marvelous in that? Had
-they said anything there together that they had not been saying in public
-for years? But supposing you ignore Thompson’s testimony and say that
-Thompson is mistaken; then it was Schnaubelt, wasn’t it? Why was
-Spies so confidential with Schnaubelt that night? Where is Schnaubelt?
-He was the man that was arrested before the conspiracy was known, and
-let go; shaved his whiskers off, changed his appearance, and he has not
-been seen since. Why was Spies so confidential with Schnaubelt? He
-says he did walk with him; says that Henry Spies walked behind him.</p>
-
-<p>“Gentlemen, let me show you the testimony of these people in pairs. It
-is the most marvelous thing I ever saw in a lawsuit. Ferguson and Gleason
-were together. They went in pairs. You remember it. Ferguson
-says that he was on the corner of Randolph Street when the bomb was
-thrown. Gleason says that was not so; they were away down next to the
-station, more than half a block away. Ferguson says that they heard a
-crash like the breaking of a plank or a pistol, and then the bomb exploded.
-That is when he was on the corner of the street. Gleason says that was
-not so; he didn’t remember of hearing anything of that kind, but they both
-distinctly remembered of seeing, after the bomb was exploded, the police<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_574" id="Page_574">[574]</a></span>
-fire from that way. The Anarchists fired south, the police north. Ferguson
-and Gleason were south of and behind the police, yet they say the
-police fired south, while facing north. Ridiculous. And one or the other
-of them, I don’t know&mdash;or it was Taylor&mdash;says that they, the police, fired
-clear down to Madison Street, and along Madison Street. Queer that
-nobody else heard of that. What were they shooting down there for?
-Richter and Liniger&mdash;you remember them&mdash;these are the two loving
-friends that went to that meeting pursuant to the notice that they saw in
-the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>&mdash;not only the notice of the meeting, but the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-contained the ‘Revenge’ circular. They went to that meeting and
-lovingly stood in the alley, midway between the edge of the walk and the
-building, arm in arm, for over an hour. Foster knew that that was ridiculous,
-and he tried to get them apart; he asked them questions to get them
-apart, but they clung together for over an hour, and finally moved up to
-the lamp-post, where Taylor had been standing before the meeting began,
-and they didn’t know where the meeting was to be.</p>
-
-<p>“Again Krumm stood in the alley with his back to the wall all the time
-except when he lighted his pipe and walked backward and forward in it,
-Albright standing with him. Krumm had his back up against that wall,
-glued like a post for almost an hour, saving only at intervals did he leave
-it; and Krumm and Albright lighted their pipes, and they moved to the
-lamp-post. The lamp-post was peopled thick. Gentlemen, it is an insult
-to your intelligence to suggest a word about the truth of that Krumm and
-Albright’s testimony. Why, Krumm is the man that left his boarding-house,
-boarding with Albright at that time&mdash;left his house in search of a
-friend whose name he could not give; if he could it was indefinite&mdash;and
-that he was to meet him on the corner of Canal and Randolph Streets that
-night somewhere. He went down to Canal and Randolph Streets, wandered
-around there looking for his friend, or for somebody who said he would
-meet him there, and then walked back to the meeting and began to look
-for Albright, or at least he found Albright. Now, isn’t that a queer
-circumstance&mdash;that they neither of them knew that that meeting was
-going to happen, or knew that the other was to be there; left the house
-about the same time, and yet did not leave together, and happened to meet
-right in that alley, with their backs up against the wall? The next pair is
-Fischer and Wandry. That is for the alibi. Now, why doesn’t Spies, who
-was on the stand, who says he was in Zepf’s, say something about Fischer
-being there. Why wasn’t Waller, who was on the stand, asked by these
-men whether Fischer was there? The witnesses all congregate at this
-place, at Zepf’s Hall, after the meeting, and Fischer has not been seen by
-anybody, except Wandry. Even this respectable Nihilist from Russia don’t
-remember of seeing Fischer, and got Fischer in a great many different
-places, as they do Parsons. Finding Parsons had got to be in several places,
-and further, finding that they have got him down in the window, they get
-another man there that looks like Parsons&mdash;as they did Krumm, who lighted
-his pipe in the alley and looked so much like Spies. To digress a moment,
-Mr. Walker never said to you, gentlemen, that the defendants’ lawyers put
-up Mr. Krumm because of his resemblance to Spies and to account for a
-light in the alley. That was not fair. He made the declaration that the
-other side, or somebody, had put up the job.</p>
-
-<p>“We have endeavored to try this lawsuit like gentlemen. I think we
-have succeeded on both sides. There was not that implication to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_575" id="Page_575">[575]</a></span>
-drawn from what Walker said, but it was rather ingenious and sagacious
-to allow you, gentlemen, to believe that we had been saying something that
-was unfair.</p>
-
-<p>“The two men that saw Schnaubelt&mdash;Lehnert and Krueger. That was
-the queerest circumstance that I have yet come across. By the way, Krueger
-was in the conspiracy, was in both the meetings, with Schnaubelt, with
-Waller, with Engel, with Lingg; he was there, knew them all, and, although
-he was on the stand, the gentlemen upon the other side never asked him
-nor Grueneberg a question about the conspiracy. Neither did they ask
-Spies, or Parsons, or Schwab. They did ask Fielden.</p>
-
-<p>“August Krueger and Lehnert got this man some twenty or thirty feet
-away from the alley and the wagon, talking in a quiet tone of voice about
-going home. They walk a little ways together. Krueger goes one direction
-and Schnaubelt another. Black tells you that the reason of that was
-because they could not go together any further, as their places diverged.
-It would not have done for them to have gone together any further, because
-Krueger went to Engel’s. There were too many at Engel’s&mdash;it would not
-have done.</p>
-
-<p>“I believe that Schnaubelt threw the bomb. You may believe that it
-is an unknown person threw it; it is immaterial.</p>
-
-<p>“Back and Mitlacher. Back, if I remember, is the man that appeared
-at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office that Tuesday night, at the time of the meeting
-of the American group. Now, what was he there for? He was a member
-of some other group. At all events he was there, and a German; he was
-not an American; he had not been here long enough, to start with, and he
-didn’t look as if he ever wanted to be one of our kind.</p>
-
-<p>“Now, where did these two men stand? They stood on the platform,
-next to the plumber’s shop, on the south side of the alley, and at least
-thirty-five or forty feet from where that wagon was; yet those men, one of
-them, the tall man, says that he distinctly remembers seeing Henry Spies.
-Why, it was a dark night, and the man couldn’t see from there. And the
-other fellow saw Henry Spies’ hat. They stood there all the evening,
-nearly; walked up and down once in a while; stood there all the evening.
-That is another ridiculous suggestion.</p>
-
-<p>“This alibi business and this suggestion of these pairs, couples, constitute
-what Black calls proof. That is right. It is negative, and a very poor
-negative at that. He says that that is all you could prove. Didn’t see anything,
-of course.</p>
-
-<p>“My attention is brought to another fact. Captain Black made a mistake.
-I put it that way. He read Thompson’s testimony to you. Your
-(<i>i. e.</i>, Captain Black’s) shorthand writer has either made a mistake, or your
-typewriter has. Thompson did not change, in his answers, from Spies to
-Schwab.</p>
-
-<p>“In regard to the testimony of Thompson, gentlemen, it was a remarkable
-feature of the case that he stood that searching cross-examination with
-such splendid equanimity, and no disturbance of what he said. And, gentlemen,
-that same can be said of Gilmer. Let any of you go onto that
-witness-stand, and let the sagacious, clear-headed Foster hammer away at
-you two hours and a half, over some little fact, and you would see where
-you would be. I could not stand it. There is not one man in a thousand
-that could. And it is nothing against a man’s character in the city of Chicago
-that those that know well of him do not know where he lives. I do<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_576" id="Page_576">[576]</a></span>
-not believe that one of you gentlemen knows where I live, or where Foster
-lives, or where Black lives. It is nothing against a man that his employer
-sometimes speaks well of him.</p>
-
-<p>“I have my attention brought&mdash;I had almost forgotten it&mdash;to a peculiar
-circumstance about this case, and the most significant of anything that
-I have seen in it. When Spies was arrested he left the traces of his crime
-in his office. Free speech had become so common to him&mdash;free speech, as
-they call it in this case, had become so remarkably liberal that he feared
-nothing. Bonfield came in and arrested him. He goes over to Ebersold.
-Ebersold, in his indignation, characterizes the crowd as you heard it here,
-and Spies says, upon the witness-stand, that he <i>unsuspectingly</i> went over
-there. If he had had his senses about him, he would have destroyed
-‘Ruhe,’ the manuscript, and everything of that character, and no traces&mdash;autonomous
-traces&mdash;would be left.</p>
-
-<p>“In speaking of ‘Ruhe,’ I want to speak of another thing. Spies said
-that he received a communication that he was to put in prominent letters
-in the Letter-box. Now, the bare fact of putting it in the Letter-box is as
-prominent as it could be. It is separate and distinct. Let us see how he
-puts it. He puts it in the Letter-box, marks a double line under it, which
-means big letters, puts in an exclamation point at the other end, and inserts
-it. That makes it prominent, sure. Now, what does he say about it? He
-unsuspectingly leaves the traces of his crime; and there never was a criminal,
-great or small, in the world, but that somewhere, at some time, committed
-a mistake. It is the little mistakes, the plain, noticeable mistakes
-that they make, which serve for detection. ‘Ruhe’ appears, and he says he
-supposed that it was some labor organization. The idea! Why, his labor
-organizations are all distinct and plain. It says: ‘This organization meets
-so-and-so. That organization meets so and so.’ The paper speaks for
-itself. Talk about a labor organization putting in such a word as that
-‘Ruhe,’ whose significance is peace, quiet and rest, but which meant war
-and bloodshed!</p>
-
-<p>“The police did not wait any too long. It has been done enough in
-this town. It is time that we American citizens awoke to a full realization
-of the importance of liberty and freedom of speech, and that freedom of
-speech does not mean license to preach murder, to preach assassination, to
-preach crime and the perpetration of it. That is not free speech. A man
-who does that is answerable for it, and for the result of his preaching, the
-result of his words. If it results in crime, he is responsible himself. Gentlemen,
-that is the law. I have gone over this case perhaps more <i>in extenso</i>
-than I intended; more perhaps than you desire to listen to; I am through.
-Your duty is about to begin. I felt relieved when you were selected. Some
-of the great responsibility that has rested upon my shoulders I felt I could
-place upon yours. It has been placed there. Gentlemen, the responsibility
-is great. You have to answer yourselves, under your oaths, to the people of
-the State, not to me. My duty is performed, and yours begins, and in this
-connection, gentlemen, let me suggest to you another reason why it is important
-that you should be careful. You can acquit them all, one, or none;
-you can distribute the penalties as you please. To some you can administer
-the extreme penalty of the law; to others less than that, if you desire. To
-some you can give life, administer punishment if you desire; to some, years
-of punishment.</p>
-
-<p>“I have a word to say in this connection about Neebe. The testimony<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_577" id="Page_577">[577]</a></span>
-has been analyzed, the testimony in regard to his connection with the
-<i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office; his connection with these people from time to time,
-the evidence that when he saw the dynamite in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office on
-that morning when it was discovered there, which these men so infamously
-suggest was put there by the police&mdash;but I have not argued that question;
-it looks so insulting to a man’s intelligence. If that had been so, if it was
-not there and did not belong there, they could have brought Lizius here.
-His name is on the back of the indictment. They could have brought all
-the employés of the office here. What did Neebe say about the dynamite?
-Why, he said it was stuff to clean type with, he guessed; and he circulated,
-not two circulars, but a lot of them. Gentlemen, I am not here to ask you to
-take the life of Oscar Neebe on this proof. I shall ask you to do nothing in
-this case that I feel I would not do myself were I seated in your chairs.</p>
-
-<p>“This case is greater than us all, more important to the country than
-you conceive; the case itself and what it involves is more important than
-all their lives, than all the lives of the unfortunate officers who bit the dust
-that night in defense of our laws.</p>
-
-<p>“Some of these people, we sincerely and honestly believe, should receive
-at your hands the extreme penalty of the law. Spies, Fischer, Lingg,
-Engel, Fielden, Parsons, Schwab, Neebe, in my opinion, based upon the
-proof, is the order of the punishment. It is for you to say what it shall be.
-You have been importuned, gentlemen, to disagree. Don’t do that; don’t
-do that. If, in your judgments, in the judgment of some of you, some of
-these men should suffer death, and others think a less punishment would
-subserve the law, don’t stand on that, but agree on something. It is no
-pleasant task for me to ask the life of any man. Personally I have not a
-word to say against these men. As a representative of the law I say to
-you, the law demands now, here, its power. Regardless of me, of Foster,
-of Black, or of us all, that law which the exponents of Anarchy violated to
-kill Lincoln and Garfield, that law that has made us strong to-day, and
-which you have sworn to obey, demands of you a punishment of these men.
-Don’t do it because I ask you. Do it, if it should be done, because the
-law demands it. You stand between the living and the dead. You stand
-between law and violated law. Do your duty courageously, even if that
-duty is an unpleasant and a severe one.”</p></div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_578" id="Page_578">[578]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XXXII.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">The Instructions to the Jury&mdash;What Murder Is&mdash;Free Speech and its
-Abuse&mdash;The Theory of Conspiracy&mdash;Value of Circumstantial Evidence&mdash;Meaning of
-a “Reasonable Doubt”&mdash;What a Jury May Decide&mdash;Waiting for the Verdict&mdash;“Guilty
-of Murder”&mdash;The Death Penalty Adjudged&mdash;Neebe’s Good Luck&mdash;Motion for a New
-Trial&mdash;Affidavits about the Jury&mdash;The Motion Overruled.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap08">ON the conclusion of State’s Attorney Grinnell’s review of the arguments
-made by the defense, Judge Gary proceeded to charge the
-jury. The hour was after the noon recess of Thursday, August 19, and the
-presentation and reading of the instructions consumed a goodly portion of
-the afternoon. When the court had finished the jury retired, and the fate of
-eight men was in their hands.</p>
-
-<p>The instructions given were as follows on behalf of the people:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“The court instructs the jury, in the language of the statute, that murder
-is the unlawful killing of a human being in the peace of the people, with
-malice aforethought, either expressed or implied. An unlawful killing may
-be perpetrated by poisoning, striking, starving, drowning, stabbing, shooting,
-or by any other of the various forms or means by which human nature
-may be overcome, and death thereby occasioned.</p>
-
-<p>“Express malice is that deliberate intention unlawfully to take away the
-life of a fellow-creature which is manifested by external circumstances capable
-of proof. Malice shall be implied when no considerable provocation
-appears, or when all the circumstances of the killing show an abandoned
-and malignant heart.</p>
-
-<p>“The court instructs the jury that whoever is guilty of murder shall
-suffer the penalty of death or imprisonment in the penitentiary for his
-natural life, or for a term not less than fourteen years. If the accused or
-any of them are found guilty by the jury, the jury shall fix the punishment
-by their verdict.</p>
-
-<p>“The court instructs the jury that, while it is provided by the Constitution
-of the State of Illinois that every person may freely speak, write and
-publish on all subjects, he is, by the Constitution, held responsible under
-the laws for the abuse of liberty so given. Freedom of speech is limited by
-the laws of the land, to the extent, among other limitations, that no man is
-allowed to advise the committing of any crime against the person or property
-of another; and the statute provides: An accessory is he who stands
-by and aids, abets and assists, or who, not being present, aiding, abetting or
-assisting, hath advised, encouraged, aided or abetted the perpetration of
-the crime. He who thus aids, abets, assists, advises or encourages, shall
-be considered as principal, and punished accordingly.</p>
-
-<p>“Every such accessory, when the crime is committed within or without
-this State by his aid or procurement in this State, may be indicted and convicted
-at the same time as the principal, or before or after his conviction,
-whether the principal is convicted or amenable to justice or not, and punished
-as principal.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_579" id="Page_579">[579]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“The court further instructs the jury, as a matter of law, that if they believe
-from the evidence in this case, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the
-defendants, or any of them, conspired and agreed together, or with others,
-to overthrow the law by force, or to unlawfully resist the officers of the law,
-and if they further believe from the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt,
-that, in pursuance of such conspiracy and in furtherance of the common object,
-a bomb was thrown by a member of such conspiracy at the time, and
-that Mathias J. Degan was killed, then such of the defendants that the jury
-believe from the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, to have been parties
-to such conspiracy, are guilty of murder, whether present at the killing or
-not, and whether the identity of the person throwing the bomb be established
-or not.</p>
-
-<p>“If the jury believe from the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, that
-there was in existence in this county and State a conspiracy to overthrow the
-existing order of society, and to bring about social revolution by force, or
-to destroy the legal authorities of this city, county or State by force, and
-that the defendants, or any of them, were parties to such conspiracy, and
-that Degan was killed in the manner described in the indictment, that he
-was killed by a bomb, and that the bomb was thrown by a party to the conspiracy,
-and in furtherance of the objects of the conspiracy, then any of the
-defendants who were members of such conspiracy at that time are in this
-case guilty of murder, and that, too, although the jury may further believe
-from the evidence that the time and place for the bringing about of such
-revolution, or the destruction of such authorities, had not been definitely,
-agreed upon by the conspirators, but was left to them and the exigencies of
-time, or to the judgment of any of the co-conspirators.”</p>
-
-<p>“If these defendants, or any two or more of them, conspired together
-with or not with any other person or persons to excite the people or classes
-of the people of this city to sedition, tumult and riot, to use deadly weapons
-against and take the lives of other persons, as a means to carry their
-designs and purposes into effect, and in pursuance of such conspiracy, and
-in furtherance of its objects, any of the persons so conspiring publicly, by
-print or speech, advised or encouraged the commission of murder without
-designating time, place or occasion at which it should be done, and in pursuance
-of, and induced by such advice or encouragement, murder was committed,
-then all of such conspirators are guilty of such murder, whether
-the person who perpetrated such murder can be identified or not. If such
-murder was committed in pursuance of such advice or encouragement, and
-was induced thereby, it does not matter what change, if any, in the order
-or condition of society, or what, if any, advantage to themselves or
-others the conspirators proposed as the result of their conspiracy,
-nor does it matter whether such advice and encouragement had
-been frequent and long continued or not, except in determining whether
-the perpetrator was or was not acting in pursuance of such advice
-or encouragement, and was or was not induced thereby to commit the murder.
-If there was such conspiracy as in this instruction is recited, such
-advice or encouragement was given, and murder committed in pursuance of
-and induced thereby, then all such conspirators are guilty of murder. Nor
-does it matter, if there was such a conspiracy, how impracticable or impossible
-of success its end and aims were, nor how foolish or ill-arranged
-were the plans for its execution, except as bearing upon the question
-whether there was or was not such conspiracy.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_580" id="Page_580">[580]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“The court instructs the jury that a conspiracy may be established by
-circumstantial evidence the same as any other fact, and that such evidence
-is legal and competent for that purpose. So also whether an act which
-was committed was done by a member of the conspiracy, may be established
-by circumstantial evidence, whether the identity of the individual who committed
-the act be established or not; and also whether an act done was in
-pursuance of the common design may be ascertained by the same
-class of evidence, and if the jury believe from the evidence in
-this case beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants or any of them
-conspired and agreed together or with others to overthrow the law by force,
-or destroy the legal authorities of this city, county or State by force, and that
-in furtherance of the common design, and by a member of such conspiracy,
-Mathias J. Degan was killed, then these defendants, if any, whom the jury
-believe from the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, were parties to such
-conspiracy, are guilty of the murder of Mathias J. Degan, whether the
-identity of the individual doing the killing be established or not, or whether
-such defendants were present at the time of the killing or not.</p>
-
-<p>“The jury are instructed, as a matter of law, that all who take part in
-the conspiracy after it is formed, and while it is in execution, and all who
-with knowledge of the facts concur in the plan originally formed, and aid in
-executing them, are fellow-conspirators. Their concurrence without proof
-of an agreement to concur is conclusive against them. They commit the
-offense when they become parties to the transaction or further the original
-plan with knowledge of the conspiracy.</p>
-
-<p>“The court instructs the jury, as a matter of law, that circumstantial evidence
-is just as legal and just as effective as any other evidence, provided
-the circumstances are of such a character and force as to satisfy the minds
-of the jury of the defendants’ guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.</p>
-
-<p>“The court instructs the jury that what is meant by circumstantial evidence
-in criminal cases is the proof of such facts and circumstances connected
-with or surrounding the commission of the crime charged as tend
-to show the guilt or innocence of the party charged. And if those facts
-and circumstances are sufficient to satisfy the jury of the guilt of the defendants
-beyond a reasonable doubt, then such evidence is sufficient to authorize
-the jury in finding the defendants guilty.</p>
-
-<p>“The law exacts the conviction wherever there is sufficient legal evidence
-to show the defendants’ guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and circumstantial
-evidence is legal evidence.</p>
-
-<p>“The court instructs the jury, as a matter of law, that when the defendants
-August Spies, Michael Schwab, Albert R. Parsons and Samuel Fielden
-testified as witnesses in this case, each became the same as any other witness,
-and the credibility of each is to be attested by and subjected to the
-same tests as are legally applied to any other witness; and in determining
-the degree of credibility that shall be accorded to the testimony of any one
-of said above-named defendants, the jury have a right to take into consideration
-the fact that he is interested in the result of this prosecution, as
-well as his demeanor and conduct upon the witness-stand during the trial,
-and the jury are also to take into consideration the fact, if such is the fact,
-that he has been contradicted by other witnesses. And the court further
-instructs the jury that if, after considering all the evidence in this case,
-they find that any one of said defendants August Spies, Michael Schwab,
-Albert R. Parsons and Samuel Fielden has willfully and corruptly testified<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_581" id="Page_581">[581]</a></span>
-falsely to any fact material to the issue in this case, they have the right to
-entirely disregard his testimony, except in so far as his testimony is corroborated
-by other credible evidence.</p>
-
-<p>“The rule of law which clothes every person accused of crime with the
-presumption of innocence, and imposes upon the State the burden of establishing
-his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, is not intended to aid any one
-who is in fact guilty of crime to escape, but is a humane provision of law,
-intended, so far as human agencies can, to guard against the danger of any
-innocent person being unjustly punished.</p>
-
-<p>“The court instructs the jury, as a matter of law, that in considering
-the case the jury are not to go beyond the evidence to hunt up doubts, nor
-must they entertain such doubts as are merely chimerical or conjectural. A
-doubt, to justify an acquittal, must be reasonable, and it must arise from a
-candid and impartial investigation of all the evidence in the case, and unless
-it is such that, were the same kind of doubt interposed in the graver transactions
-of life, it would cause a reasonable and prudent man to hesitate and
-pause, it is insufficient to authorize a verdict of not guilty. If, after considering
-all the evidence, you can say you have an abiding conviction of the
-truth of the charge, you are satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt.</p>
-
-<p>“The court further instructs the jury, as a matter of law, that the doubt
-which the juror is allowed to retain on his own mind, and under the influence
-of which he should frame a verdict of not guilty, must always be a
-reasonable one. A doubt produced by undue sensibility in the mind of any
-juror, in view of the consequences of his verdict, is not a reasonable doubt,
-and a juror is not allowed to create sources or materials of doubt by resorting
-to trivial and fanciful suppositions and remote conjectures as to possible
-states of fact differing from that established by the evidence. You are not
-at liberty to disbelieve as jurors if from the evidence you believe as men;
-your oath imposes on you no obligation to doubt where no doubt would
-exist if no oath had been administered.</p>
-
-<p>“The court instructs the jury that they are the judges of the law as well
-as the facts in this case, and if they can say, upon their oaths, that they
-know the law better than the court itself, they have the right to do so; but
-before assuming so solemn a responsibility, they should be assured that they
-are not acting from caprice or prejudice, that they are not controlled by
-their will or their wishes, but from a deep and confident conviction that the
-court is wrong and that they are right. Before saying this, upon their
-oaths, it is their duty to reflect whether, from their study and experience,
-they are better qualified to judge of the law than the court. If, under all
-the circumstances, they are prepared to say that the court is wrong in its
-exposition of the law, the statute has given them that right.</p>
-
-<p>“In this case the jury may, as in their judgment the evidence warrants,
-find any or all of the defendants guilty or not, or all of them not guilty; and
-if, in their judgment, the evidence warrants, they may, in case they find the
-defendants, or any of them, guilty, fix the same penalty for all the defendants
-found guilty, or different penalties for the different defendants found
-guilty.</p>
-
-<p>“In case they find the defendants, or any of them, guilty of murder, they
-should fix the penalty either at death or at imprisonment in the penitentiary
-for life, or at imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of any number of
-years, not less than fourteen.”</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_582" id="Page_582">[582]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="p1">The instructions given on behalf of defendants were as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“The jury in a criminal case are the judges of the law and the evidence,
-and have to act according to their best judgment of such law and the
-facts.</p>
-
-<p>“The jury have a right to disregard the instructions of the court, provided
-they can say upon their oaths that they believe they know the law
-better than the court.</p>
-
-<p>“The law presumes the defendants innocent of the charge in the indictment
-until the jury are satisfied by the evidence, beyond all reasonable
-doubt, of the guilt of the defendants.</p>
-
-<p>“If a reasonable doubt of any facts, necessary to convict the accused, is
-raised in the minds of the jury by the evidence itself, or by the ingenuity
-of counsel upon any hypothesis reasonably consistent with the evidence,
-that doubt is decisive in favor of the prisoners’ acquittal. A verdict of
-not guilty simply means that the guilt of the accused has not been
-demonstrated in the precise, specific and narrow forms prescribed by
-the law.</p>
-
-<p>“No jury should convict anybody of crime upon mere suspicion, however
-strong, or because there is a preponderance of all the evidence against
-him, but the jury must be convinced of the defendant’s guilt, beyond all
-reasonable doubt, before they can lawfully convict.</p>
-
-<p>“The law does not require the defendants to prove themselves innocent,
-but the burden of proof that they are guilty beyond all reasonable doubt
-is upon the prosecution.</p>
-
-<p>“The indictment is of itself a mere accusation and no proof of the guilt
-of the defendants.</p>
-
-<p>“The presumption of the innocence of the defendants is not a mere
-form, but an essential, substantial part of the law of the land, and it is the
-duty of the jury to give the defendants the full benefit of this presumption
-in this case.</p>
-
-<p>“It is incumbent upon the prosecution to prove beyond all reasonable
-doubt every material allegation in the indictment, and unless that has been
-done, the jury should find the defendants not guilty.</p>
-
-<p>“The burden is upon the prosecution to prove by credible evidence,
-beyond all reasonable doubt, that the defendants are guilty as charged in
-the indictment of the murder of Mathias J. Degan; it is the duty of the
-jury to acquit any of the defendants as to whom there is a failure of such
-proof. The jury are not at liberty to adopt any unreasonable theories
-or suppositions in considering the evidence in order to justify a verdict of
-conviction.</p>
-
-<p>“A reasonable doubt is that state of mind in which the jury, after considering
-all the evidence, cannot say they feel an abiding faith, amounting
-to a moral certainty, from the evidence in the case, that the defendants
-are guilty as charged in the indictment.</p>
-
-<p>“The rules of evidence as to the amount of evidence in this case are
-different from those in a civil case; a mere preponderance of evidence
-would not warrant a verdict of guilty.</p>
-
-<p>“Mere probability of the defendants’ guilt is not sufficient to warrant a
-conviction.</p>
-
-<p>“Your personal opinions as to facts not proved cannot be the basis of
-your verdict, but you must form your verdict from the evidence, and that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_583" id="Page_583">[583]</a></span>
-alone, unaided and uninfluenced by any opinions or presumptions not
-founded upon the evidence.</p>
-
-<p>“The jury are the sole judges of the credibility of witnesses, and in passing
-thereon may consider their prejudices, motives or feelings of revenge,
-if any such have appeared, and if the jury believe from the evidence that
-any witness has knowingly or willfully testified falsely as to any material
-fact, they may disregard his entire testimony, unless it is corroborated by
-other credible evidence.</p>
-
-<p>“If one single fact is proved by a preponderance of the evidence which
-is inconsistent with the guilt of a defendant, this is sufficient to raise a
-reasonable doubt as to his guilt and entitles him to an acquittal. In order
-to justify the inference of legal guilt from circumstantial evidence, the existence
-of the inculpatory facts must be absolutely incompatible with the
-innocence of the accused upon any rational theory.</p>
-
-<p>“The witnesses Gottfried Waller and Wilhelm Seliger are accomplices,
-and while a person accused of crime may be convicted upon the
-uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice, still the jury should weigh it
-with great care and caution, and convict upon it only if they are satisfied
-beyond any reasonable doubt of its truth.</p>
-
-<p>“If you believe from the evidence that the witnesses Gottfried Waller
-and Wilhelm Seliger were induced to become witnesses by any promise of
-immunity from punishment, or by any hope held out to them, that it would
-go easier with them in case they disclosed who their confederates were, or
-in case they implicated some one else in the crime, then you should take
-such facts into consideration in determining the weight to be given to their
-testimony.</p>
-
-<p>“Same instruction in regard to the testimony of any other witnesses for
-the prosecution.</p>
-
-<p>“The testimony of an accomplice should be subjected to critical examination
-in the light of all the other evidence.</p>
-
-<p>“A person charged with crime may testify in his own behalf, but his
-neglect to do so shall not create any presumption against him.</p>
-
-<p>“The jury should endeavor to reconcile the testimony of the defendants’
-witnesses with the belief that all of them endeavored to tell the truth,
-and you should attribute any contradictions or differences in their testimony
-to mistake or misrecollection rather than to a willful intention to swear
-falsely, if you can reasonably do so under the evidence.</p>
-
-<p>“The jury should fairly and impartially consider the testimony of the
-defendants, together with all the other evidence.</p>
-
-<p>“If the verbal admission of a defendant is offered in evidence, the whole
-of the admission must be taken together, and those parts which are in favor
-of the defendant are entitled to as much consideration as any other parts,
-unless disproved, or apparently improbable or untrue, when considered with
-all the other evidence.</p>
-
-<p>“It would be improper for the jury to regard any statements of the
-prosecuting attorneys, not based upon the evidence, as entitled to any weight.</p>
-
-<p>“If all the facts and circumstances relied on by the People to secure a
-conviction can be reasonably accounted for upon any theory consistent
-with the innocence of the defendants, or any of them, then you should
-acquit such of them as to whom the facts proven can thus be accounted for.</p>
-
-<p>“It is not enough to warrant the conviction of a person charged with
-crime that he contemplated the commission of such crime. If any reasonable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_584" id="Page_584">[584]</a></span>
-hypothesis exists that such crime may have been committed by
-another in no way connected with the defendants, the accused should be
-acquitted.</p>
-
-<p>“If the evidence leaves a reasonable doubt of the guilt of the defendants,
-as charged in the indictment, the jury should acquit, although the evidence
-may show conduct of no less turpitude than the crime charged.</p>
-
-<p>“The allusions and references of the prosecuting attorneys to the supposed
-dangerous character of any views entertained or principles contended
-for by the accused should in no way influence you in determining this
-case.</p>
-
-<p>“Individuals and communities have the legal right to arm themselves for
-the defense and protection of their persons and property, and a proposition
-by any person, publicly proclaimed, to arm for such protection and defense,
-is not an offense against the laws of this State.</p>
-
-<p>“If the defendants, or some of them, agreed together, or with others, in
-the event of the workingmen or strikers being attacked, that they (defendants)
-would assist the strikers to resist such an attack, this would not constitute
-conspiracy if the anticipated attack was unjustified and illegal, and
-such contemplated resistance simply the opposing of force wrongfully and
-illegally exercised, by force sufficient to repel said assault.</p>
-
-<p>“The burden is not cast upon the defendants of proving that the person
-who threw the bomb was not acting under their advice, teaching or procurement.
-Unless the evidence proves beyond all reasonable doubt that
-either some of the defendants threw said bomb, or that the person who
-threw it acted under the advice and procurement of defendants or some of
-them, the defendants should be acquitted. Such advice may not necessarily
-be special as to the bomb, but general, so as to include it.</p>
-
-<p>“It is not proper for the jury to guess that the person who threw the
-bomb was instigated to do the act by the procurement of defendants or any
-of them. There must be a direct connection established, by credible evidence,
-between the advice and consummation of the crime, beyond all reasonable
-doubt.</p>
-
-<p>“The bomb might have been thrown by some one unfamiliar with, and
-unprompted by, the teachings of the defendants or any of them. Before
-defendants can be held liable therefor, the evidence must satisfy you
-beyond all reasonable doubt that the person throwing said bomb was acting
-as the result of the teaching or encouragement of defendants or some of
-them.</p>
-
-<p>“Before a person charged as accessory to a crime can be convicted, the
-evidence must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the crime was committed
-by some person acting under the advice, aid, encouragement, abetting
-or procurement of the defendant whose conviction as accessory is
-sought. Though you may believe from the evidence that a party in fact
-advised the commission in certain contingencies of acts amounting to crime,
-yet, if the act complained of was in fact committed by some third party of
-his own mere volition, hatred, malice or ill-will, and not materially influenced,
-either directly or indirectly, by such advice of the party charged, or any
-party for whose advice the defendants are responsible, the party charged
-would not in such case be responsible.</p>
-
-<p>“If you find that at a meeting held on the evening of May 3d at 54 West
-Lake Street, at which some of the defendants were present, it was agreed
-that in the event of a collision between the police, militia or firemen, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_585" id="Page_585">[585]</a></span>
-striking laborers, certain armed organizations, of which some of the defendants
-were members, should meet at certain places in Chicago, that a committee
-should attend public places and meetings where an attack by the
-police and others might be expected, and in the event of such attack report
-the same to said organizations to the end that such attack might be resisted
-and the police stations of the city destroyed, still, if the evidence does not
-prove, beyond all reasonable doubt, that the throwing of the bomb which
-killed Mathias J. Degan was the result of any act in furtherance of the common
-design herein stated, and if it may have been the unauthorized and
-individual act of some person acting upon his own responsibility and volition,
-then none of the defendants can be held responsible therefor on account of
-said West Lake Street meeting.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Upon the conclusion of the reading of the instructions in behalf of the
-defendants, which were read after the instructions on behalf of the people,
-the court of its own motion gave to the jury the following instruction:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“The statute requires that instructions by the court to the jury shall be
-in writing, and only relate to the law of the case.</p>
-
-<p>“The practice under the statute is that the counsel prepare on each
-side a set of instructions and present them to the court, and, if approved, to
-be read by the court as the law of the case. It may happen, by reason of
-the great number presented and the hurry and confusion of passing on them
-in the midst of the trial, with a large audience to keep in order, that there
-may be some apparent inconsistency in them, but if they are carefully
-scrutinized such inconsistencies will probably disappear. In any event,
-however, the gist and pith of all is that if advice and encouragement to
-murder was given, if murder was done in pursuance of and materially induced
-by such advice and encouragement, then those who gave such advice and
-encouragement are guilty of the murder. Unless the evidence, either direct
-or circumstantial, or both, proves the guilt of one or more of the defendants
-upon this principle so fully that there is no reasonable doubt of it, your duty
-to them requires you to acquit them. If it does so prove, then your duty
-to the State requires you to convict whoever is so proved guilty. The case
-of each defendant should be considered with the same care and scrutiny as
-if he alone were on trial. If a conspiracy, having violence and murder as
-its object, is fully proved, then the acts and declarations of each conspirator
-in furtherance of the conspiracy are the acts and declarations of each one
-of the conspirators. But the declarations of any conspirator before or after
-the 4th of May which are merely narrative as to what had been or would be
-done, and not made to aid in carrying into effect the object of the conspiracy,
-are only evidence against the one who made them.</p>
-
-<p>“What are the facts and what is the truth the jury must determine from
-the evidence, and from that alone. If there are any unguarded expressions
-in any of the instructions which seem to assume the existence of any facts,
-or to be any intimation as to what is proved, all such expressions must be
-disregarded, and the evidence only looked to to determine the facts.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The jury the next day reported to the court that they had agreed upon
-a verdict. The members were accordingly brought in, and the clerk of the
-court read the verdict as follows:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_586" id="Page_586">[586]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“We, the jury, find the defendants August Spies, Michael Schwab,
-Samuel Fielden, Albert R. Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel and
-Louis Lingg guilty of murder in manner and form as charged in the indictment
-and fix the penalty at death. We find the defendant Oscar W. Neebe
-guilty of murder in manner and form as charged in the indictment, and fix
-the penalty at imprisonment in the penitentiary for fifteen years.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">This was a great surprise to the defendants, and their counsel at once
-entered a motion for a new trial. The hearing of the motion was postponed
-until the next term, and on the 1st of October arguments were submitted.
-The grounds upon which the motion was based were numerous. They
-first related to a refusal of some, and a modification of several other instructions
-at the hands of the court asked for by the defendants; a claim
-that jurors had been summoned by the officers with the avowed view to
-conviction; improper language by the State’s Attorney in his closing argument;
-erroneous rulings of the court in regard to the competency of jurors,
-and the refusal of separate trials for the defendants. Other grounds touched
-on a statement made by one of the members of the jury, Mr. Adams, prior
-to the trial, with reference to the Haymarket massacre, showing prejudice
-against the defendants, backed by an affidavit as to what he said; an
-affidavit of one Mr. Love, that he met Gilmer on the night of May 4, shortly
-after eight o’clock, and went to a saloon with him, where they and another
-person drank beer and talked until 9:20 o’clock, and also a further reason
-that the defendants had discovered some new evidence, to back which an
-affidavit was submitted from John Philip Deluse, dated August 24, 1886,
-concerning a mysterious individual who had called at his saloon, in Indianapolis,
-Ind., in May, 1886.</p>
-
-<p>The argument of counsel on each side, on the points raised, consumed
-several days, and finally, on the 7th of October, 1886, Judge Gary, in an
-elaborate and exhaustive opinion, overruled the motion.</p>
-
-<p>The defendants then entered a motion in arrest of judgment, and this
-was also overruled.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_587" id="Page_587">[587]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">The Last Scene in Court&mdash;Reasons Against the Death Sentence&mdash;Spies’
-Speech&mdash;A Heinous Conspiracy to Commit Murder&mdash;Death for the Truth&mdash;The Anarchists’
-Final Defense&mdash;Dying for Labor&mdash;The Conflict of the Classes&mdash;Not Guilty, but
-Scapegoats&mdash;Michael Schwab’s Appeal&mdash;The Curse of Labor-saving Machinery&mdash;Neebe
-Finds Out what Law Is&mdash;“I am Sorry I am not to be Hung”&mdash;Adolph Fischer’s
-Last Words&mdash;Louis Lingg in his own Behalf&mdash;“Convicted, not of Murder, but of Anarchy”&mdash;An
-Attack on the Police&mdash;“I Despise your Order, your Laws, your Force-propped
-Authority. Hang me for it!”&mdash;George Engel’s Unconcern&mdash;The Development
-of Anarchy&mdash;“I Hate and Combat, not the Individual Capitalist, but the System”&mdash;Samuel
-Fielden and the Haymarket&mdash;An Illegal Arrest&mdash;The Defense of Albert R.
-Parsons&mdash;The History of his Life&mdash;A Long and Thrilling Speech&mdash;The Sentence of
-Death&mdash;“Remove the Prisoners.”</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap16">AFTER motion in arrest of judgment had been overruled by Judge
-Gary, Spies was asked if he had anything to say why sentence of
-death should not be passed upon him. The prisoner rose, with pallid
-cheeks and distended eyes, and advanced toward the bench with a hesitating
-tread. The moment he faced the court he recovered his equanimity
-and proceeded with much deliberation to give his reasons why he should not
-be sent to death on the gallows. He spoke in a firm, almost a menacing
-tone of voice, and seemed bent on posing as a martyr to the cause of the
-laboring classes. In his very opening sentence he desired to have that understood.
-“In addressing this court,” he said, “I speak as the representative
-of one class to the representative of another. I will begin with the
-words uttered five hundred years ago, on a similar occasion, by the Venetian
-Doge Falieri, who, addressing the court, said, ‘My defense is your accusation.
-The cause of my alleged crime is your history.’” He then referred
-to his conviction, holding that there was no evidence to show that he had
-any knowledge of the man who threw the bomb, or that he had had anything
-to do with its throwing. There being no evidence to establish his
-legal responsibility, he maintained, his “conviction and the execution of the
-sentence would be nothing less than willful, malicious and deliberate murder,
-as foul a murder as may be found in the annals of religious, political or any
-sort of persecution.” He charged that the representative of the State had
-“fabricated most of the testimony which was used as a pretense to convict,”
-and that the defendants had been convicted “by a jury picked out
-to convict.”</p>
-
-<p>“I charge,” he continued, “the State’s Attorney and Bonfield with the
-heinous conspiracy to commit murder.” Having thus proved the truth of
-the old adage that “no rogue e’er felt the halter draw with good opinion of
-the law,” Spies next paid his compliments to the Citizens’ Association, the
-Bankers’ Association and the Board of Trade, attributing to them the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_588" id="Page_588">[588]</a></span>
-inspiration for the attack on the Haymarket meeting, and he proceeded to
-give an account of his movements on the night of that meeting in the company
-of Legner. He again repeated that, “notwithstanding the purchased
-and perjured testimony of some,” the prosecution had not established the
-defendants’ legal responsibility, and insisted that those who had brought
-about their conviction were the “real and only law-breakers.” When he approached
-this part of the subject Spies’ anger scarcely knew any bounds.
-He rose in a towering passion and characterized the proceedings of the trial
-as “rascalities perpetrated in the name of the people.” He continued:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“The contemplated murder of eight men, whose only crime is that they
-have dared to speak the truth, may open the eyes of these suffering millions;
-may wake them up. Indeed, I have noticed that our conviction has worked
-miracles in this direction already. The class that clamors for our lives, the
-good, devout Christians, have attempted in every way, through their newspapers
-and otherwise, to conceal the true and only issue in this case. By
-simply designating the defendants as ‘Anarchists,’ and picturing them as a
-newly-discovered species of cannibals, and by inventing shocking and horrifying
-stories of dark conspiracies said to be planned by them, these good
-Christians zealously sought to keep the naked fact from the working people
-and other righteous parties, namely: That on the evening of May 4 two
-hundred armed men, under the command of a notorious ruffian, attacked a
-meeting of peaceable citizens! With what intention? With the intention
-of murdering them, or as many of them as they could. I refer to the testimony
-given by two of our witnesses. The wage-workers of this city began
-to object to being fleeced too much&mdash;they began to say some very true
-things, but they were highly disagreeable to our patrician class; they put
-forth&mdash;well, some very modest demands. They thought eight hours’ hard
-toil a day, for scarcely two hours’ pay, was enough. This lawless rabble
-had to be silenced! The only way to silence them was to frighten them,
-and murder those whom they looked up to as their ‘leaders.’ Yes, these
-foreign dogs had to be taught a lesson, so that they might never again interfere
-with the high-handed exploitation of their benevolent and Christian
-masters. Bonfield, the man who would bring a blush of shame to the managers
-of the Bartholomew night&mdash;Bonfield, the illustrious gentleman with
-a visage that would have done excellent service to Doré in portraying
-Dante’s fiends of hell&mdash;Bonfield was the man best fitted to consummate the
-conspiracy of the Citizens’ Association of our patricians. If I had thrown
-that bomb, or had caused it to be thrown, or had known of it, I would not
-hesitate a moment to state so. It is true a number of lives were lost&mdash;many
-were wounded. But hundreds of lives were thereby saved! But for
-that bomb there would have been a hundred widows and hundreds of
-orphans where now there are few. These facts have been carefully suppressed,
-and we were accused and convicted of conspiracy by the real
-conspirators and their agents. This, your honor, is one reason why sentence
-should not be passed by a court of justice&mdash;if that name has any significance
-at all.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Spies then adverted to the fact of his having published articles on the
-manufacture of dynamite and bombs, and wanted to know what other newspapers
-in the city had not done the same thing. He forgot to show, however,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_589" id="Page_589">[589]</a></span>
-that other papers had never urged the people to use dynamite to the
-destruction of the lives and property of the people.</p>
-
-<p>Spies claimed that his only offense was in espousing the cause of “the
-disinherited and disfranchised millions,” and asked what they had said in
-their speeches and publications.</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“We have interpreted to the people their condition and relations in
-society. We have explained to them the different social phenomena and
-the social laws and circumstances under which they occur. We have, by
-way of scientific investigation, incontrovertibly proved and brought to their
-knowledge that the system of wages is the root of the present social iniquities&mdash;iniquities
-so monstrous that they cry to heaven. We have further
-said that the wage system, as a specific form of social development, would,
-by the necessity of logic, have to make room for higher forms of civilization;
-that the wage system must prepare the way and furnish the foundation for
-a social system of coöperation&mdash;that is, <i>Socialism</i>. That whether this or
-that theory, this or that scheme regarding future arrangements were
-accepted, was not a matter of choice, but one of historical necessity, and
-that to us the tendency of progress seemed to be <i>Anarchism</i>&mdash;that is, a free
-society without kings or classes&mdash;a society of sovereigns in which the
-liberty and economic equality of all would furnish an unshakable equilibrium
-as a foundation and condition of natural order.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">After some further explanation of Socialism, he said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I may have told that individual who appeared here as a witness that
-the workingmen should procure arms, as force would in all probability be
-the <i>ultima ratio</i>, and that in Chicago there were so and so many armed
-men, but I certainly did not say that we proposed to inaugurate the social
-revolution. And let me say here: Revolutions are no more made than
-earthquakes and cyclones. Revolutions are the effect of certain causes and
-conditions. I have made social philosophy a specific study for more than
-ten years, and I could not have given vent to such nonsense! I do believe,
-however, that the revolution is near at hand&mdash;in fact, that it is upon us.
-But is the physician responsible for the death of the patient because he
-foretold that death?”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">If the opinions of the court were good, Spies held there was “no person
-in this country who could not be lawfully hanged,” and maintained that
-they ought to be exempted from responsibility because they had sought to
-bring about reforms. Then he turned to the labor movement and pronounced
-his anathema against the wealthy classes.</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labor movement&mdash;the
-movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who
-toil and live in want and misery&mdash;the wage slaves&mdash;expect salvation&mdash;if
-this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread upon a spark, but
-there, and there, and behind you and in front of you, and everywhere, flames
-will blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out. The
-ground is on fire upon which you stand. You can’t understand it. You
-don’t believe in magical arts, as your grandfathers did, who burned witches
-at the stake, but you do believe in conspiracies; you believe that all these
-occurrences of late are the work of conspirators! You resemble the child<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_590" id="Page_590">[590]</a></span>
-that is looking for his picture behind the mirror. What you see and what
-you try to grasp is nothing but the deceptive reflex of the stings of your
-bad conscience. You want to ‘stamp out the conspirators’&mdash;the agitators?
-Ah! stamp out every factory lord who has grown wealthy upon the
-unpaid labor of his employés. Stamp out every landlord who has amassed
-fortunes from the rent of overburdened workingmen and farmers. Stamp
-out every machine that is revolutionizing industry and agriculture, that
-intensifies the production, ruins the producer, that increases the national
-wealth, while the creator of all these things stands amidst them, tantalized
-with hunger! Stamp out the railroads, the telegraph, the telephone, steam
-and yourselves&mdash;for everything breathes the revolutionary spirit. You,
-gentlemen, are the revolutionists. You rebel against the effects of social
-conditions which have tossed you, by the fair hand of fortune, into a magnificent
-paradise. Without inquiring, you imagine that no one else has a
-right in that place. You insist that you are the chosen ones, the sole proprietors.
-The forces that tossed you into the paradise, the industrial forces,
-are still at work. They are growing more active and intense from day to
-day. Their tendency is to elevate all mankind to the same level, to have
-all humanity share in the paradise you now monopolize. You, in your
-blindness, think you can stop the tidal wave of civilization and human
-emancipation by placing a few policemen, a few Gatling guns and some
-regiments of militia on the shore&mdash;you think you can frighten the rising
-waves back into the unfathomable depths whence they have arisen, by
-erecting a few gallows in the perspective. You, who oppose the natural
-course of things, <i>you</i> are the real revolutionists. <i>You</i> and <i>you</i> alone are the
-conspirators and destructionists!</p>
-
-<p>“Said the court yesterday, in referring to the Board of Trade demonstration:
-‘These men started out with the express purpose of sacking the
-Board of Trade building.’ While I can’t see what sense there would have
-been in such an undertaking, and while I know that the said demonstration
-was arranged simply as a means of propaganda against the system that
-legalizes the respectable business carried on there, I will assume that the
-three thousand workingmen who marched in that procession really intended
-to sack the building. In this case they would have differed from the
-respectable Board of Trade men only in this&mdash;that they sought to recover
-property in an unlawful way, while the others sack the entire country lawfully
-and unlawfully&mdash;this being their highly respectable profession. This
-court of ‘justice and equity’ proclaims the principle that when two persons
-do the same thing, it is not the same thing. I thank the court for this confession.
-It contains all that we have taught, and for which we are to be
-hanged, in a nutshell. Theft is a respectable profession when practiced
-by the privileged class. It is a felony when resorted to in self-preservation
-by the other class.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">He then scored the capitalistic class, and referred to the strikes in the
-Hocking Valley, East St. Louis, Milwaukee and Chicago. Reverting again
-to the prosecution, he continued:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“‘These men,’ Grinnell said repeatedly, ‘have no principle; they are
-common murderers, assassins, robbers,’ etc. I admit that our aspirations
-and objects are incomprehensible to some, but surely for this we are not to
-be blamed. The assertion, if I mistake not, was based on the ground that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_591" id="Page_591">[591]</a></span>
-we sought to destroy property. Whether this perversion of facts was
-intentional, I know not. But in justification of our doctrines I will say that
-the assertion is an infamous falsehood. Articles have been read here from
-the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> and <i>Alarm</i> to show the dangerous character of the
-defendants. The files of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> and <i>Alarm</i> have been searched
-for the past years. Those articles which generally commented upon some
-atrocity committed by the authorities upon striking workingmen were picked
-out and read to you. Other articles were not read to the court. Other
-articles were not what was wanted. The State’s Attorney, upon those articles
-(who well knows that he tells a falsehood when he says it), asserts
-that ‘these men have no principle.’”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">What a perversion of facts! Some of the articles did comment on some
-alleged atrocity, but those taken at various dates and published in a preceding
-chapter show that force by the use of dynamite was continually
-being agitated. However, in his criticism of the prosecution Spies seemed
-to overlook a great many points. He repeated what he had said to the Congregational
-ministers at the Grand Pacific Hotel, on the 9th of January, 1886,
-with reference to Socialism, and then stated that he had seen Lingg only
-twice before he was arrested, but had never spoken to him. With
-Engel he had not been on speaking terms for at least a year, and Fischer
-had gone about making speeches against him. The article in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-with reference to the Board of Trade demonstration, he claimed, he
-had not seen until he had read it in the paper. In conclusion he said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“Now, if we cannot be directly implicated with this affair, connected
-with the throwing of the bomb, where is the law that says that ‘these men
-shall be picked out to suffer’? Show me that law if you have it! If the
-position of the court is correct, then half of this city&mdash;half of the population
-of this city&mdash;ought to be hanged, because they are responsible the
-same as we are for that act on May 4th. And if not half of the population
-of Chicago is hanged, then show me the law that says, ‘Eight men shall
-be picked out and hanged, as scapegoats’? You have no good law. Your
-decision, your verdict, our conviction is nothing but an arbitrary will of this
-lawless court. It is true there is no precedent in jurisprudence in this case!
-It is true that we have called upon the people to arm themselves. It is
-true that we have told them time and again that the great day of change
-was coming. It was not our desire to have bloodshed. We are not beasts.
-We would not be Socialists if we were beasts. It is because of our sensitiveness
-that we have gone into this movement for the emancipation of the
-oppressed and suffering. It is true that we have called upon the people to
-arm and prepare for the stormy times before us. This seems to be the
-ground upon which the verdict is to be sustained. ‘But when a long train
-of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a
-design to reduce the people under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is
-their duty, to throw off such government and provide new guards for their
-future safety.’ This is a quotation from the ‘Declaration of Independence.’
-Have we broken any laws by showing to the people how the abuses that
-have occurred for the last twenty years are invariably pursuing one object,
-viz.: to establish an <i>oligarchy</i> in this country as strong and powerful and
-monstrous as never before has existed in any country? I can well understand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_592" id="Page_592">[592]</a></span>
-why that man Grinnell did not urge upon the grand jury to charge
-us with treason. I can well understand it. You cannot try and convict
-a man for treason who has upheld the Constitution against those who try to
-trample it under their feet. It would not have been as easy a job to do
-that, Mr. Grinnell, as to charge ‘these men’ with murder.</p>
-
-<p>“Now these are my ideas. They constitute a part of myself. I cannot
-divest myself of them, nor would I if I could. And if you think that you
-can crush out these ideas that are gaining ground more and more every day,
-if you think you can crush them out by sending us to the gallows&mdash;if you
-would once more have people suffer the penalty of death because they
-have dared to tell the truth&mdash;and I defy you to show us where we have
-told a lie&mdash;I say, if death is the penalty for proclaiming the truth, then I
-will proudly and defiantly pay the costly price! Call your hangman!
-Truth crucified in Socrates, in Christ, in Giordano Bruno, in Huss, Galileo,
-still lives&mdash;they and others whose number is legion have preceded us on
-this path. We are ready to follow.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Michael Schwab</span> had very little to say, but what he did say was that it
-was “idle and hypocritical to think about justice” having been done to them.
-He criticised the acts of the prosecution in securing his conviction “for
-writing newspaper articles and making speeches,” and contended that they
-had engaged in no conspiracy, as “all they did was done in open daylight.”
-He seemed rather vindictive toward Mr. Furthmann for having had the
-articles in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> translated, and excused his own inflammatory
-utterances by holding that after the mayoralty election, in the spring of
-1885, Edwin Lee Brown, president of the Citizens’ Association, had urged
-the people, in a public speech, “to take possession of the Court-house by
-force, even if they had to wade in blood.” Schwab touched on the labor
-problem, drawing largely from his own experience while living among the
-poor in Europe, and then spoke of the condition of laborers in Chicago,
-holding that they lived in miserable, dilapidated hovels, owned by greedy
-landlords. He continued:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“What these common laborers are to-day, the skilled laborer will be
-to-morrow. Improved machinery, that ought to be a blessing for the workingman,
-under the existing conditions turns for him to a curse. Machinery
-multiplies the army of unskilled laborers, makes the laborer more dependent
-upon the men who own the land and the machines. And that is the reason
-that Socialism and Communism got a foothold in this country. The outcry
-that Socialism, Communism and Anarchism are the creed of foreigners, is a
-big mistake. There are more Socialists of American birth in this country
-than foreigners, and that is much, if we consider that nearly half of all
-industrial workingmen are not native Americans. There are Socialistic
-papers in a great many States, edited by Americans for Americans. The
-capitalistic newspapers conceal that fact very carefully.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">In conclusion Schwab said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“If Anarchy were the thing the State’s Attorney makes it out to be,
-how could it be that such eminent scholars as Prince Krapotkin and the
-greatest living geographer, Elisée Reclus, were avowed Anarchists, even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_593" id="Page_593">[593]</a></span>
-editors of Anarchistic newspapers? Anarchy is a dream, but only in the
-present. It will be realized. Reason will grow in spite of all obstacles.
-Who is the man that has the cheek to tell us that human development has
-already reached its culminating point? I know that our ideal will not be
-accomplished this or next year, but I know that it will be accomplished as
-near as possible, some day, in the future. It is entirely wrong to use the
-word Anarchy as synonymous with violence. Violence is one thing and
-Anarchy another. In the present state of society violence is used on all
-sides, and therefore we advocated the use of violence against violence,
-but against violence only, as a necessary means of defense. I never read
-Mr. Most’s book, simply because I did not find time to read it. And if I
-had read it, what of it? I am an agnostic, but I like to read the Bible
-nevertheless. I have not the slightest idea who threw the bomb on the
-Haymarket, and had no knowledge of any conspiracy to use violence on
-that or any other night.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Oscar Neebe</span> followed. In his opening sentence he very correctly
-diagnosed the situation when he said: “I have found out during the last
-few days what law is. Before I didn’t know.” He, more than all the
-other defendants, except Parsons, ought to have known the law. He was
-a citizen, and as such he should have known the law of the land long before
-he engaged in the inculcation of force. He spoke of his having presided
-at Socialistic meetings, having headed the Board of Trade procession, and
-how he happened to drive to the office of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> after learning
-on May 5 that Spies and Schwab had been arrested.</p>
-
-<p>The rest of his statement consists simply of abuse of the prosecution,
-laudation of his own acts in endeavoring to ameliorate the condition of the
-workingmen and in continuing the publication of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> after
-May 4, and a disavowal of his having distributed the “Revenge” circular.
-In speaking of his having organized the Beer-brewers’ Union and attended
-a meeting at the North Side Turner Hall to announce the result of his
-conference with the bosses, he said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I entered the hall. I went on the platform and I presented the union
-with a document signed by every beer-brewer of Chicago, guaranteeing ten
-hours’ labor and $65 wages&mdash;$15 more wages per month&mdash;and no Sunday
-work, to give the men a chance to go to church, as many of them are good
-Christians. There are a good many Christians among them. So, in that
-way, I was aiding Christianity&mdash;helping the men to go to church. After
-the meeting I left the hall, and stepped into the front saloon, and there were
-circulars lying there called the ‘Revenge’ circular. I picked up a couple
-of them from a table and folded them together and put them in my pocket,
-not having a chance to read them, because everybody wanted to treat me.
-They all thought it was by my efforts that they got $15 a month more wages
-and ten hours a day. Why, I didn’t have a chance to read the circulars.
-From there I went to another saloon across the street, and the president
-of the Beer-brewers’ Union was there; he asked me to walk with him, and
-on the way home we went into Heine’s saloon. He was talking to Heine
-about the McCormick affair, and I picked up a circular and read it, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_594" id="Page_594">[594]</a></span>
-Heine asked me: ‘Can you give me one?’ I gave him one, and he laid
-it back on his counter. That is my statement.”</p>
-
-<p>In conclusion Neebe said:</p>
-
-<p>“They found a revolver in my house, and a red flag there. I organized
-trades-unions. I was for reduction of the hours of labor, and the education
-of laboring men, and the reëstablishment of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>&mdash;the
-workingmen’s newspaper. There is no evidence to show that I was connected
-with the bomb-throwing, or that I was near it, or anything of that
-kind. So I am only sorry, your honor&mdash;that is, if you can stop it or help
-it, I will ask you to do it&mdash;that is to hang me, too; for I think it is more
-honorable to die suddenly than to be killed by inches. I have a family and
-children; and if they know their father is dead, they will bury him. They
-can go to the grave, and kneel down by the side of it; but they can’t go to
-the penitentiary and see their father, who was convicted for a crime that he
-hasn’t had anything to do with. That is all I have got to say. Your honor,
-I am sorry I am not to be hung with the rest of the men.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Adolph Fischer</span> rose with some signs of nervousness and proceeded
-slowly and deliberately with his protest. “I was tried here in this room,”
-he said, “for murder, and I was convicted of Anarchy.” He objected most
-vigorously to the charge that he was a murderer, and insisted that he had
-had nothing to do with the throwing of the bomb. He confessed to having
-made arrangements for the Haymarket meeting, to having been present,
-but urged that it had not been called for the purpose of committing violence
-or crime. He said he had been present at the Monday evening meeting,]
-of which Waller was chairman, but aside from volunteering to have hand-bills
-printed for the Haymarket meeting he had not done anything. He
-had invited Spies to speak at the Haymarket, and in the original copy he
-had had the line put in, “Workingmen, appear armed!” His reason for
-this was, he said, that he “did not want the workingmen to be shot down in
-that meeting as on other occasions.” He then entered into some details as
-to his movements on the night of the Haymarket gathering and again
-launched into a protest against the jury’s verdict. He said that the verdict
-against him was because he was an Anarchist, and “an Anarchist,” he explained
-with a defiant toss of his head, “is always ready to die for his
-principles.” He concluded as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“The more the believers in just causes are persecuted, the more quickly
-will their ideas be realized. For instance, in rendering such an unjust and
-barbarous verdict, the twelve ‘honorable men’ in the jury-box have done
-more for the furtherance of Anarchism than the convicted have accomplished
-in a generation. This verdict is a death-blow to free speech, free press and
-free thought in this country, and the people will be conscious of it, too.
-This is all I care to say.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_595" id="Page_595">[595]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-595.jpg" width="400" height="663" id="i595"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">LINGG’S SUICIDE BOMBS.&mdash;<span class="smcap wn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-<p class="pf400 wn">Made of gas-pipe, six inches in length, and with a notched bolt, as shown, inserted in the bottom of
-each. These were found in Lingg’s cell, and are similar to the bomb with which he took his life. The fuse
-is so short that explosion ensues in one second after lighting, making them fitted for self-destruction only.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_596" id="Page_596">[596]</a></span></p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Louis Lingg</span> was in no gentle frame of mind when he advanced to enter
-his objection at the bar of the court. After a thrust at the court, he said
-that he had been accused of murder and been convicted; and “what
-proof,” he defiantly asked, “have you brought that I am guilty?” He
-acknowledged that he had helped Seliger to make bombs; “but,” he stoutly
-maintained, “what you have not proven&mdash;even with the assistance of your
-bought ‘squealer,’ Seliger, who would appear to have acted such a prominent
-part in the affair&mdash;is that any of those bombs were taken to the Haymarket.”
-He referred to the testimony of the experts as simply showing
-that the Haymarket bomb bore “a certain resemblance to those bombs
-of his,” and that was the kind of evidence, he held, upon which he had
-been convicted. He had been convicted of murder, but it was Anarchy
-on which the verdict was based. “You have charged me with despising
-‘law and order,’” he said. “What does your ‘law and order’ amount to?
-Its representatives are the police, and they have thieves in their ranks.”
-He then opened fire on me because the detectives I had sent out had broken
-into his room, as he claimed, to effect his arrest, and insisted that he had
-not been at the Monday night meeting, but at Zepf’s Hall, at that time,
-which I had stated to be false.</p>
-
-<p>Lingg next turned his attention to Mr. Grinnell, and accused him of
-having “leagued himself with a parcel of base, hireling knaves, to bring
-me to the gallows.” Then the Judge came in for a scoring. “The Judge
-himself,” he held, “was forced to admit that the State’s Attorney had not
-been able to connect me with the bomb-throwing. The latter knows how
-to get around it, however. He charges me with being a ‘conspirator.’
-How does he prove it? Simply by declaring the International Workingmen’s
-Association to be a ‘conspiracy.’ I was a member of that body, so
-he has the charge securely fastened on me. Excellent!” He concluded as
-follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I tell you frankly and openly, I am for force. I have already told
-Captain Schaack, ‘If they use cannon against us, we shall use dynamite
-against them.’ I repeat that I am the enemy of the ‘order’ of to-day, and
-I repeat that, with all my powers, so long as breath remains in me, I shall
-combat it. I declare again, frankly and openly, that I am in favor of using
-force. I have told Captain Schaack, and I stand by it, ‘If you cannonade
-us, we shall dynamite you.’ You laugh! Perhaps you think, ‘You’ll throw
-no more bombs,’ but let me assure you that I die happy on the gallows, so
-confident am I that the hundreds and thousands to whom I have spoken
-will remember my words; and when you shall have hanged us, then, mark
-my words, they will do the bomb-throwing! In this hope do I say to you:
-‘I despise you. I despise your order, your laws, your force-propped
-authority.’ Hang me for it!”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">George Engel</span> appeared the least concerned of all when it came his
-turn to respond to the court’s question as to any reasons he might have
-against the infliction of the death penalty. He opened by setting forth his
-arrival in America in 1872 and gave some reasons which had prompted him
-to espouse Anarchy. It was “the poverty, the misery of the working
-classes.” People here in a free land, he said, were “doomed to die of starvation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_597" id="Page_597">[597]</a></span>”
-He had read the works of Lassalle, Marx and George, and after
-studying the labor question carefully he had come, he said, to the conclusion
-that “a workingman could not decently exist in this rich country.”
-He had sought to remedy the inequalities through the ballot-box, but after
-a time, he said, it had become clear to him “that the working classes could
-never bring about a form of society guaranteeing work, bread and a happy
-life by means of the ballot.” He had labored for a time in the interest of
-the Social-Democratic party, but, finding political corruption in its ranks,
-he had left it.</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I left this party and joined the International Working People’s Association,
-that was just being organized. The members of that body have
-the firm conviction that the workingman can free himself from the tyranny
-of capitalism only through force&mdash;just as all advances of which history
-speaks have been brought about through force alone. We see from the
-history of this country that the first colonists won their liberty only through
-force; that through force slavery was abolished, and just as the man who
-agitated against slavery in this country had to ascend the gallows, so also
-must we. He who speaks for the workingmen to-day must hang. And
-why? Because this republic is not governed by people who have obtained
-their office honestly. Who are the leaders at Washington that are to guard
-the interests of this nation? Have they been elected by the people, or by
-the aid of their money? They have no right to make laws for us, because
-they were not elected by the people. These are the reasons why I have
-lost all respect for American laws.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Engel then alluded to the displacement of labor by machinery and held
-that the amelioration of the workingmen’s condition could only be effected
-through Socialism. As to his conviction, he declared that he was not at all
-surprised. He had learned long ago that the workingman had no more
-rights here than anywhere else in the world. His crime, he insisted, consisted
-simply in having labored to “bring about a system of society by
-which it is impossible for one to hoard millions, through the improvements
-in machinery, while the great masses sink to degradation and misery.” He
-believed that inventions should be free to all and touched on the aims of
-Anarchy. In his opinion “Anarchy and Socialism were as much alike as
-one egg is to another.” Whatever difference existed was in tactics.</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“It is true, I am acquainted with several of my fellow-defendants; with
-most of them, however, but slightly, through seeing them at meetings, and
-hearing them speak. Nor do I deny that I, too, have spoken at meetings,
-saying that, if every workingman had a bomb in his pocket, capitalistic rule
-would soon come to an end.</p>
-
-<p>“That is my opinion, and my wish; it became my conviction when I
-mentioned the wickedness of the capitalistic conditions of the day.</p>
-
-<p>“Can any one feel any respect for a government that accords rights only
-to the privileged classes, and none for the workers? We have seen but
-recently how the coal barons combined to form a conspiracy to raise the
-price of coal, while at the same time reducing the already low wages of their
-men. Are they accused of conspiracy on that account? But when workingmen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_598" id="Page_598">[598]</a></span>
-dare ask an increase in their wages, the militia and the police are sent
-out to shoot them down.</p>
-
-<p>“For such a government as this I can feel no respect, and will combat
-them, despite their power, despite their police, despite their spies.</p>
-
-<p>“I hate and combat, not the individual capitalist, but the system that
-gives him those privileges. My greatest wish is that workingmen may
-recognize who are their friends and who are their enemies.</p>
-
-<p>“As to my conviction, brought about, as it was, through capitalistic influence,
-I have not one word to say.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Samuel Fielden</span> entered into a long disquisition on the troubles of the
-working classes all over the world, and covered much of the ground traversed
-by him when on the witness-stand. He spoke of his having been in England
-a Sunday School superintendent, a local preacher of the Methodist
-Church, and an exhorter, and then chronicled his change of convictions after
-his arrival in the United States in 1868. He branched out into an exposition
-of Socialism and cited instances of the oppression practiced on working
-people by capitalists. He then reviewed some of the points in the testimony
-against him and sought to show wherein his speeches at various
-meetings had been incorrectly reported in the newspapers. He had neither
-said at the Haymarket meeting, “Here come the bloodhounds,” nor had he
-fired a revolver. He claimed that the meeting had been a peaceable one,
-and held that there had been no indication of trouble, and that his language
-had not been incendiary. He said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I am charged with having said, ‘Stab the law.’ No one claims but that
-it was in connection with my conception of the meaning of Foran’s speech,
-and the word ‘stab’ is not necessarily a threat of violence upon any person.
-Here at your primary elections you frequently hear the adherents of different
-candidates state before the primaries are called that they will ‘knife’ so and
-so. Do they mean that they are going to kill him, stab him, take his life
-away from him? They are forcible expressions&mdash;very emphatic expressions.
-They are adjectives which are used in different ways to carry conviction,
-and perhaps make the language more startling to the audience, in
-order that they may pay attention.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">In speaking of his arrest he said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I didn’t attempt to run away. I had been out walking around the
-street that morning, and there was plenty of opportunity for me to have
-been hundreds of miles away. When the officer came there I opened the
-door to him. He said he wanted me. I knew him by sight and I knew
-what was his occupation. I said: ‘All right; I will go with you.’ I have
-said here that I thought, when the representatives of the State had inquired
-by means of their policemen as to my connection with it, that I should have
-been released. And I say now, in view of all the authorities that have been
-read on the law and regarding accessories, that there is nothing in the evidence
-that has been introduced to connect me with that affair. One of the
-Chicago papers, at the conclusion of the State’s Attorney’s case, said that
-they might have proved more about these men, about where they were and
-what they were doing on the 2d and 3d of May. When I was told that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_599" id="Page_599">[599]</a></span>
-Captain Schaack had got confessions out of certain persons connected
-with this affair, I said: ‘Let them confess all they like. As long as they
-will tell only the truth, I care nothing for their confessions.’”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Fielden next dwelt upon his treatment at the Central Station, and criticised
-the searching of houses without warrant. With reference to the trial
-he said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“We claim that the foulest criminal that could have been picked up in
-the slums of any city of Christendom, or outside of it, would never have
-been convicted on such testimony as has been brought in here, if he had not
-been a dangerous man in the opinion of the privileged classes. We claim
-that we are convicted, not because we have committed murder. We are
-convicted because we were very energetic in advocacy of the rights of labor.
-I call your attention to a very significant fact&mdash;that on this day, at this time
-when the sentence of death is going to be passed on us, the Stock-yards
-employers have notified their employés that they will be required to work ten
-hours next Monday or they will shut down. I think it is a logical conclusion
-to draw that these men think they have got a dangerous element out of the
-way now, and they can return again to the ten-hour system. I know that I
-had considerable to do with the eight-hour question, although I only spoke
-once in that neighborhood, every man there being a stranger to me&mdash;but I
-went down there in March previous and made an eight hour speech and
-formed the nucleus of an eight-hour organization there, and the Stock-yards
-succeeded in starting the eight-hour system, though they have not been able
-to keep it up in its entirety. We claim that we have done much.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">He predicted that it would be a grand day when everybody adopted
-Socialism, and then touched on his own case, denying that he had entered
-into a conspiracy. Fischer, Lingg and Engel, he said, were men with
-whom he had not associated for a year, and therefore, he maintained, he
-could not have been conspiring with them. He had never, he said, seen a
-dynamite bomb till he saw one in the court-room, and had never known that
-dynamite was kept at the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office. In concluding his speech
-Fielden said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">Your honor, I have worked at hard labor since I was eight years of
-age. I went into a cotton factory when I was eight years old, and I have
-worked continually since, and there has never been a time in my history
-that I could have been bought or paid into a single thing by any man or for
-any purpose which I did not believe to be true. To contradict the lie that
-was published in connection with the bill by the grand jury charging us
-with murder, I wish to say that I have never received one cent for agitating.
-When I have gone out of the city I have had my expenses paid.
-But often when I have gone into communities, when I would have to
-depend upon those communities for paying my way, I have often come
-back to this city with money out of pocket, which I had earned by hard
-labor, and I had to pay for the privilege of my agitation out of the little
-money I might have in my possession. To-day as the beautiful autumn
-sun kisses with balmy breeze the cheek of every free man, I stand here
-never to bathe my head in its rays again. I have loved my fellow-men as
-I have loved myself. I have hated trickery, dishonesty and injustice.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_600" id="Page_600">[600]</a></span>
-The nineteenth century commits the crime of killing its best friend. It will
-live to repent of it. But, as I have said before, if it will do any good, I
-freely give myself up. I trust the time will come when there will be a
-better understanding, more intelligence, and above the mountains of
-iniquity, wrong and corruption, I hope the sun of righteousness and truth
-and justice will come to bathe in its balmy light an emancipated world.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Albert R. Parsons</span> consumed a great deal of time in the delivery of his
-speech. He began by declaring that the trial had been conducted with
-“passion, heat and anger,” and pronounced the verdict as one of “passion,
-born in passion, nurtured in passion, and the sum totality of the organized
-passion of the city of Chicago.” For that reason he asked for a suspension
-of sentence and a new trial. He said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Now, I stand here as one of the people, a common man, a workingman,
-one of the masses, and I ask you to give ear to what I have to say.
-You stand as a bulwark; you are as a brake between them and us. You
-are here as the representative of justice, holding the poised scales in your
-hands. You are expected to look neither to the right nor to the left, but to
-that by which justice, and justice alone, shall be subserved. The conviction
-of a man, your honor, does not necessarily prove that he is guilty.
-Your law-books are filled with instances where men have been carried to
-the scaffold and after their death it has been proven that their execution
-was a judicial murder. Now, what end can be subserved in hurrying this
-matter through in the manner in which it has been done? Where are the
-ends of justice subserved, and where is truth found in hurrying seven
-human beings at the rate of express speed upon a fast train to the scaffold
-and an ignominious death? Why, if your honor please, the very method of
-our extermination, the deep damnation of its taking-off, appeals to your
-honor’s sense of justice, of rectitude, and of honor. A judge may also be
-an unjust man. Such things have been known.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Parsons acknowledged being an Anarchist and proceeded to show the
-ends Anarchy sought. Then he asked:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Now, what is this labor question which these gentlemen treat with
-such profound contempt, which these distinguished ‘honorable’ gentlemen
-would throttle and put to ignominious death, and hurry us like rats to
-our holes? What is it? You will pardon me if I exhibit some feeling? I
-have sat here for two months, and these men have poured their vituperations
-out upon my head, and I have not been permitted to utter a single
-word in my own defense. For two months they have poured their poison
-upon me and my colleagues. For two months they have sat here and spat
-like adders the vile poison of their tongues, and if men could have been
-placed in a mental inquisition and tortured to death, these men would have
-succeeded here now&mdash;vilified, misrepresented, held in loathsome contempt,
-without a chance to speak or contradict a word. Therefore, if I show
-emotion, it is because of this, and if my comrades and colleagues with me
-here have spoken in such strains as these, it is because of this. Pardon us.
-Look at it from the right standpoint. What is this labor question? It is
-not a question of emotion; the labor question is not a question of sentiment;
-it is not a religious matter; it is not a political problem; no, sir, it
-is a stern economic fact, a stubborn and immovable fact.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_601" id="Page_601">[601]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="p1">He entered into a long explanation of the capitalistic system and pointed
-to the troubles experienced by the laboring classes under the present conditions.
-He spoke of capitalistic combinations and “corners,” touched on
-landlordism, discoursed on the eight-hour movement, and then reviewed
-some of the evidence against him. Referring to the <i>Alarm</i>, of which he
-had been editor, he said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Why, the very article that you quote in the <i>Alarm</i>, a copy of which I
-have not, but which I would like to see, calling the American group to
-assemble for the purpose of considering military matters and military organization,
-states specifically that the purpose and object is to take into consideration
-measures of defense against unlawful and unconstitutional attacks
-of the police. The identical article shows it. You forgot surely that fact
-when you made this observation; and I defy any one to show, in a speech
-that is susceptible of proof, by proof, that I have ever said aught by word
-of mouth or by written article except self-defense. Does not the Constitution
-of the country, under whose flag myself and my forefathers were
-born for the last two hundred and sixty years, provide that protection, and
-give me, their descendant, that right? Does not the Constitution say that
-I, as an American, have a right to keep and to bear arms? I stand upon
-that right. Let me see if this court will deprive me of it. Let me call
-your attention to another point here. These articles that appear in the
-<i>Alarm</i>, for some of them I am not responsible any more than is the editor
-of any other paper. And I did not write everything in the <i>Alarm</i>, and it
-might be possible that there were some things in that paper which I am not
-ready to indorse. I am frank to admit that such is the case. I suppose
-that you can scarcely find an editor of a paper in the world but that could
-conscientiously say the same thing. Now, am I to be dragged up here and
-executed for the utterances and writings of other men, even though they
-were published in the columns of a paper of which I was the editor? Your
-honor, you must remember that the <i>Alarm</i> was a labor paper, published by
-the International Working People’s Association, belonging to that body.
-I was elected its editor by the organization, and, as labor editors generally
-are, I was handsomely paid. I had saw-dust pudding as a general thing
-for dinner. My salary was eight dollars a week, and I have received that
-salary as editor of the <i>Alarm</i> for over two years and a half&mdash;eight dollars a
-week! I was paid by the association. It stands upon the books. Go down
-to the office and consult the business manager. Look over the record in
-the book, and it will show you that A. R. Parsons received eight dollars a
-week as editor of the <i>Alarm</i> for over two years and a half. This paper
-belonged to the organization. It was theirs. They sent in their articles&mdash;Tom,
-Dick and Harry; everybody wanted to have something to say, and I
-had no right to shut off anybody’s complaint.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">He then offered some reasons to justify his utterances on labor questions.
-He quoted from newspapers to show their hostility to the interests of labor,
-and he dwelt on various strikes in the United States and endeavored to
-show how the men had been treated by corporations. The tramp question
-was next handled, and Parsons maintained that the present social system
-was responsible for the fact that millions did not know where to get a bed
-or supper. He continued:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_602" id="Page_602">[602]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Who are the mob? Why, dissatisfied people, dissatisfied workingmen
-and women; people who are working for starvation wages, people who are
-on a strike for better pay&mdash;these are the mob. They are always the mob.
-That is what the riot drill is for. Suppose a case that occurs. The First
-Regiment is out with a thousand men armed with the latest improved Winchester
-rifles. Here are the mobs; here are the Knights of Labor and the
-trades-unions, and all of the organizations without arms. They have no
-treasury, and a Winchester rifle costs eighteen dollars. They cannot purchase
-those things. We cannot organize an army. It takes capital to organize
-an army. It takes as much money to organize an army as to organize
-industry, or as to build railroads; therefore, it is impossible for the working
-classes to organize and buy Winchester rifles. What can they do? What
-must they do? Your honor, the dynamite bomb, I am told, costs six cents.
-It can be made by anybody. The Winchester rifle costs eighteen dollars.
-That is the difference. Am I to be blamed for that? Am I to be hanged
-for saying this? Am I to be destroyed for this? What have I done?
-Go dig up the ashes of the man who invented this thing. Find his ashes
-and scatter them to the winds, because he gave this power to the world. It
-was not I.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Coming to the Haymarket meeting and referring to the presence of the
-police as an affront, he said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“Was not that a most grievous outrage? Was not that a violation of
-all of those principles for which our forefathers struggled in this country?
-At this juncture some unknown and unproven person throws a bomb among
-the police, killing several men. You say that I did it, or you say that I
-knew of it. Where is your proof, gentlemen of the prosecution? You have
-none. You didn’t have any. Oh, but you have a theory, and that theory
-is that no one else could have had any motive to hurl that missile of death
-except myself, and, as is the common remark of the great papers of the city,
-the police are never short of a theory. There is always a theory on hand
-for everything. A theory they have got, and especially the detectives; they
-hatch up a theory at once and begin to follow that out. There was a theory
-carried out during this trial. Let us examine that theory. I say that a
-Pinkerton man, or a member of the Chicago police force itself, had as much
-inducement to throw that bomb as I had, and why? Because it would
-demonstrate the necessity for their existence and result in an increase of
-their pay and their wages. Are these people any too good to do such a
-thing? Are they any better than I am? Are their motives any better than
-my own? Let us look at this thing now from every standpoint. Perhaps,
-on the other hand, the dread missile was hurled in revenge by some poor
-man or woman, or child even, whose parent or protector or friend was killed
-by the police in some of their numerous massacres of the people before.
-Who knows? And if it was, are we seven to suffer death for that? Are
-we responsible for that act? Or, might it not be that some person with the
-fear of death in his eyes threw that bomb in self-defense? And if they did,
-am I responsible for it? Am I to be executed for that? Is it law to put
-me to death for that? And who knows? My own deliberate opinion concerning
-this Haymarket affair is that the death-dealing missile was the work,
-the deliberate work, of monopoly, the act of those who themselves charge us
-with the deed. I am not alone in this view of the matter.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_603" id="Page_603">[603]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Monopoly, Parsons held, was responsible for the labor troubles;</p>
-
-<p>“What are the real facts of that Haymarket tragedy? Mayor Harrison,
-of Chicago, has caused to be published his opinion&mdash;because, mark you,
-your honor, this is all a matter of conjecture. It is only presumed that I
-threw the bomb. They have only assumed that some one of these men
-threw that bomb. It is only an inference that any of us had anything to do
-with it. It is not a fact, and it is not proven. It is merely an opinion.
-Your honor admits that we did not perpetrate the deed, or know who did
-it, but that we, by our speeches, instigated some one else to do so. Now,
-let us see the other side of this case. Mayor Harrison, of Chicago, has
-caused to be published in the New York <i>World</i>&mdash;and the interview was
-copied in the <i>Tribune</i> of this city, in which he says: ‘I do not believe there
-was any intention on the part of Spies and those men to have bombs thrown
-at the Haymarket. If so, why was there but one thrown? It was just as
-easy for them to throw a dozen or fifty, and to throw them in all parts of
-the city, as it was to have thrown one. And again, if it was intended to
-throw bombs that night, the leaders would not have been there at all, in my
-opinion. Like commanders-in-chief, they would have been in a safe place.
-No, it cannot be shown that there was any intention on the part of these
-individuals to kill that particular man who was killed at that Haymarket
-meeting.’ Now, your honor, this is the Mayor of Chicago. He is a sensible
-man. He is in a position to know what he is talking about. He has
-first-rate opportunities to form an intelligent opinion, and his opinion is
-worthy of respect. He knows more about this thing than the jury that sat
-in this room, for he knows&mdash;I suspect that the Mayor knows&mdash;of some of
-the methods by which most of this so-called evidence and testimony was
-manufactured. I don’t charge it, but possibly he has had some intimation
-of it, and if he has, he knows more about this case and the merits of this case
-than did the jury who sat here. There is too much at stake to take anything
-for granted. Your honor can’t afford to do that.</p>
-
-<p>“Is it nothing to destroy the lives of seven men? Are the rights of the
-poor of no consequence? Is it nothing that we should regard it so lightly,
-as a mere pastime? That is why I stand here at such length to present this
-case to you, that you may understand it; that you may have our side of
-this question as well as that of the prosecution.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Parsons then referred to attacks of the police on workingmen’s meetings,
-and reviewed some of the evidence against himself, insisting that he
-had never seen Lingg until he saw him in the court-room.</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“Waller testified in chief, and reiterated it in cross-examination, that
-Engel and Fischer, these noble and brave Germans, offered a resolution at
-Greif’s Hall, on the announcement that six men had been wantonly and
-brutally murdered by the police at McCormick’s, that if other men should
-come into encounter with the police we should aid them; and further swore
-that this plan was to be followed only when the police, by brutal force,
-should interfere with the workmen’s right of free assemblage and free
-speech. Now, then, where is the foul and dastardly criminal conspiracy
-here? Where is it? So preposterous was it on its face to call such a
-noble compact to do a lawful thing a conspiracy, that it became necessary,
-in face of a dozen witnesses, both for the prosecution and the defense, who
-swear that the bomb came from the pavement on Desplaines Street, south<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_604" id="Page_604">[604]</a></span>
-of the alley, between the alley and Randolph Street&mdash;a statement made by
-Bonfield himself to reporters about half an hour after the tragedy occurred,
-and published in the <i>Times</i>, on May 5, the following morning&mdash;Louis Haas,
-Bonfield’s special detective on the ground, at the Coroner’s inquest, swore
-the bomb was thrown from the east side of Desplaines Street, and about
-fifteen feet, he believed, south of the alley, a statement confirmed by the
-witness Burnett, for the defense, who located it fifteen feet further south
-than Haas or Bonfield did&mdash;still, on the impeached testimony of Gilmer,
-who swore the bomb was thrown from within the alley, we are convicted,
-because he was also willing to perjure himself by swearing that Spies lit
-the fuse of the fatal missile. The idea of a man striking a match in an
-alley to light a bomb in the midst of a crowd, the people and police standing
-all around him! It seems to me that such a statement as that ought,
-among sensible men, on the face of it, to carry its own refutation. Perfectly
-absurd! If this statement bore the semblance of truth with regard to Gilmer,
-or was the truth, not one of these defendants would shrink from the
-responsibility of the right of self-defense, your honor, and of free speech,
-and the right of the people peaceably to assemble. It is because this is
-not the work of the Anarchists or of the workingmen that we repel the
-charge, which proves there was no concerted action, and that it was none
-of the plans of these groups. It is not unlawful to repel an invasion of our
-meetings.</p>
-
-<p>“About this time some one, as testified to by three reputable witnesses,
-stopped at Indianapolis. That was in May. The Haymarket tragedy was
-the 4th. This man testifies to that fact. A stranger stops there. He says:
-‘I am going to Chicago. I have something that will work. You will hear
-from it.’ The man was in his cups, no doubt; probably he drank too much.
-The Pinkertons are not all temperance men; they sometimes take a little,
-and sometimes possibly take a little too much. Possibly he talked a little
-more than he ought to have talked. Possibly he didn’t care, but at any rate
-it is sworn to that he said it. He came to Chicago, and the bomb was heard
-from and heard around the world. Your honor, is this an unreasonable
-assumption? It is far more likely, much more reasonable than your honor’s
-surmise that I instigated some one to do it.</p>
-
-<p>“The absolute proof that the missile thrown was not dynamite, but what
-was known in the late civil war as an infernal bomb, is in the evidence of
-every surgeon who testified&mdash;that all incisions were clean, and that the flesh
-was torn as from an explosive in the interior. It was testified by these scientific
-men, your honor, that dynamite is percussive, and had a shell the
-size of Lingg’s manufacture, on exhibition in evidence, been thrown in the
-closed ranks of the police, as was this infernal machine, instead of killing
-but one on the spot, and wounding a few others, it would have blown to
-unrecognizable fragments the platoons in the vicinity, and the wounds, where
-there were wounds, would have been as clean as with solid projectiles.</p>
-
-<p>“This was an infernal bomb from New York, brought there by the
-Indianapolis traveler, and not a dynamite bomb, the description in its effects
-upon its victims exactly corresponding with the description of those explosives
-when once used in battle on the Potomac. The hollow bullets within
-the shell, after entering the victim, exploded, lacerating the flesh and inflicting
-ugly internal and really infernal wounds.</p>
-
-<p>“Six of these condemned men were not even present at the Haymarket
-meeting when the tragedy occurred. One of them was five miles away, at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_605" id="Page_605">[605]</a></span>
-the Deering Harvester Works, in Lake View, addressing a mass-meeting of
-two thousand workingmen. Another was at home, in bed, and knew not
-of the meeting being held at all until the next day. These facts, your honor,
-stand uncontradicted before this court. Only one witness&mdash;Gilmer&mdash;and
-his testimony is overwhelmingly impeached, as I remarked before&mdash;connected
-the other two&mdash;two only&mdash;of these men with the tragedy at the Haymarket
-at all.</p>
-
-<p>“Now, with these facts, the attempt to make out a case of conspiracy
-against us is a contemptible farce. What are the facts testified to by the
-two so-called informers? They said that two of these defendants were
-present at the so-called conspiracy meeting of Monday night. What, then,
-have you done with the other six men who were not members&mdash;who were
-not present, and did not know of the meeting being held Monday night?
-These two so-called informers testified that at the so-called conspiracy meeting
-of May 3 it was resolved that in the future, when police and militia
-should attack and club and kill workingmen at their meetings, then, and
-then only, they were in duty bound to help defend these working people
-against such unlawful, unrighteous and outrageous assaults. That was all
-that was said or done. Was that a conspiracy? If it was, your honor, it
-was a conspiracy to do right and oppose what is wrong.</p>
-
-<p>“But your sentence says that it is criminal for the workingmen to resolve
-to defend their lives and their liberties and their happiness against
-brutal, bloody and unlawful assaults of the police and militia.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">Parsons again returned to Anarchy and defined its doctrines at some
-length. In concluding his remarks, which consumed two hours on Friday
-and six hours on Saturday, he said:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“The next day I saw that they were dragging these men to prison,
-treating them in a shameful manner. I left the city. I went to Geneva,
-Ill., for a couple of days; staid there with friend Holmes. Then I went
-to Elgin, Ill.; staid there a couple of days. Then I left there and went to
-Waukesha, Wis., where I obtained employment as a carpenter and afterwards
-as a painter, and remained for over seven weeks in Waukesha. My
-health was debilitated, and I went to the springs when I was thirsty. The
-house I was working on was only half a block from the springs, and I needed
-the recreation and the rest, and the pure air, and the water besides. When
-I saw the day fixed for the opening of this trial, knowing I was an innocent
-man, and also feeling that it was my duty to come forward and share whatever
-fate had in store for my comrades, and also to stand, if need be, on the
-scaffold, and vindicate the rights of labor, the cause of liberty, and the
-relief of the oppressed, I returned. How did I return? It is interesting,
-but it will take time to relate it, and I will not state it. I ran the gauntlet.
-I went from Waukesha to Milwaukee. I took the St. Paul train at the
-Milwaukee depot and came to Chicago; arrived here at 8:30, I suppose, in
-the morning; went to the house of my friend Mrs. Ames, on Morgan
-Street, sent for my wife and had a talk with her. I sent word to Captain
-Black that I was here and prepared to surrender. He sent word back to
-me that he was ready to receive me. I met him at the threshold of this
-building, and we came up here together. I stood in the presence of this
-court. I have nothing, not even now, to regret.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">The speeches of the defendants occupied three days&mdash;the 7th to the 9th<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_606" id="Page_606">[606]</a></span>
-of October, inclusive&mdash;and when Parsons had finished the court proceeded
-to pronounce sentence. Judge Gary said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I am quite well aware that what you have said, although addressed to
-me, has been said to the world; yet nothing has been said which weakens
-the force of the proof, or the conclusions therefrom upon which the verdict
-is based. You are all men of intelligence, and know that, if the verdict
-stands, it must be executed. The reasons why it shall stand I have already
-sufficiently stated in deciding the motion for a new trial.</p>
-
-<p>“I am sorry beyond any power of expression for your unhappy condition,
-and for the terrible events that have brought it about. I shall address
-to you neither reproaches nor exhortation. What I shall say shall be said
-in the faint hope that a few words from a place where the people of the
-State of Illinois have delegated the authority to declare the penalty of a
-violation of their laws, and spoken upon an occasion so solemn and awful as
-this, may come to the knowledge of and be heeded by the ignorant, deluded
-and misguided men who have listened to your counsels and followed your
-advice. I say in the faint hope; for if men are persuaded that because of
-business differences, whether about labor or anything else, they may destroy
-property and assault and beat other men and kill the police if they, in the
-discharge of their duty, interfere to preserve the peace, there is little
-ground to hope that they will listen to any warning.</p>
-
-<p>“It is not the least among the hardships of peaceable, frugal and
-laborious people to endure the tyranny of mobs who, with lawless force,
-dictate to them, under penalty of peril to limb and life, where, when and
-upon what terms they may earn a livelihood for themselves and their families.
-Any government that is worthy of the name will strenuously endeavor
-to secure to all within its jurisdiction freedom to follow their lawful avocations
-in safety for their property and their persons, while obeying the law;
-and the law is common sense. It holds each man responsible for the
-natural and probable consequences of his own acts. It holds that whoever
-advises murder is himself guilty of the murder that is committed pursuant
-to his advice, and if men band together for forcible resistance to the execution
-of the law, and advise murder as a means of making such resistance
-effectual,&mdash;whether such advice be to one man to murder another or to a
-numerous class to murder men of another class,&mdash;all who are so banded
-together are guilty of any murder that is committed in pursuance of such
-advice.</p>
-
-<p>“The people of this country love their institutions. They love their
-homes. They love their property. They will never consent that by violence
-and murder their institutions shall be broken down, their homes despoiled
-and their property destroyed. And the people are strong enough to protect
-and sustain their institutions and to punish all offenders against their laws.
-And those who threaten danger to civil society if the law is enforced are
-leading to destruction whoever may attempt to execute such threats.</p>
-
-<p>“The existing order of society can be changed only by the will of the
-majority. Each man has the full right to entertain and advance, by speech
-and print, such opinions as suit himself; and the great body of the people
-will usually care little what he says. But if he proposes murder as a means
-of enforcing them he puts his own life at stake. And no clamor about free
-speech or the evils to be cured or the wrongs to be redressed will shield him
-from the consequences of his crime. His liberty is not a license to destroy.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_607" id="Page_607">[607]</a></span>
-The toleration that he enjoys he must extend to others, and he must not
-arrogantly assume that the great majority are wrong and that they may
-rightfully be coerced by terror or removed by dynamite.</p></div>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-607a.jpg" width="200" height="215" id="i607a"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">E. F. L. GAUSS.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>“It only remains that for the crime you have committed&mdash;and of which
-you have been convicted after a trial unexampled in the patience with
-which an outraged people have extended
-you every protection and privilege of the
-law which you derided and defied&mdash;the sentence
-of that law be now given.</p>
-
-<p>“In form and detail that sentence will
-appear upon the records of the court. In
-substance and effect it is that the defendant
-Neebe be imprisoned in the State Penitentiary
-at Joliet at hard labor for the term of
-fifteen years.</p>
-
-<p>“And that each of the other defendants,
-between the hours of ten o’clock in the forenoon
-and two o’clock in the afternoon of the
-third day of December next, in the manner
-provided by the statute of this State, be
-hung by the neck until he is dead. Remove
-the prisoners.”</p>
-
-<p><i>Capt. Black</i>&mdash;“Your honor knows that we intend to take an appeal to
-the Supreme Court in behalf of all the defendants. I ask that there be a
-stay of execution in the case of Mr. Neebe until the 3d day of December.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-607b.jpg" width="200" height="266" id="i607b"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">HENRY SEVERIN.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p><i>Mr. Grinnell</i>&mdash;“If the court please, that is a matter that usually
-stands between counsel for the defendants and the State. Every possible
-facility will be allowed and everything will be
-granted you in that particular that good sense and
-propriety dictate.”</p>
-
-<p><i>Captain Black</i>&mdash;“That is sufficient.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Thus closed the most remarkable trial which
-ever engaged the attention of a judge and jury in
-America. It was begun, as stated, on the 21st
-day of June, 1886, and ended on the 20th day of
-August, thus occupying exactly two months. I
-cannot close this chapter without paying a deserved
-tribute to Mr. E. F. L. Gauss, who acted as interpreter
-throughout the trial. A very large proportion
-of the witnesses testified in foreign tongues,
-but in all the mass of testimony rendered into
-English by Mr. Gauss, not a syllable of the translation
-was ever challenged.</p>
-
-<p>Chief Bailiff Henry Severin, with his staff of twenty-six men, had charge of
-the eight defendants. It was his duty to bring the prisoners from and to the
-court, to preserve order in the crowded court-room, and to guard the jury,
-escorting them to and from their hotel and in their walks, and watching out
-to prevent any attack by the malcontents upon the officers of the court.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_608" id="Page_608">[608]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">In the Supreme Court&mdash;A <i>Supersedeas</i> Secured&mdash;Justice Magruder Delivers
-the Opinion&mdash;A Comprehensive Statement of the Case&mdash;How Degan was Murdered&mdash;Who
-Killed Him?&mdash;The Law of Accessory&mdash;The Meaning of the Statute&mdash;Were
-the Defendants Accessories?&mdash;The Questions at Issue&mdash;The Characteristics of
-the Bomb&mdash;Fastening the Guilt on Lingg&mdash;The Purposes of the Conspiracy&mdash;How
-they were Proved&mdash;A Damning Array of Evidence&mdash;Examining the Instructions&mdash;No
-Error Found in the Trial Court’s Work&mdash;The Objection to the Jury&mdash;The Juror
-Sandford&mdash;Judge Gary Sustained&mdash;Mr. Justice Mulkey’s Remarks&mdash;The Law Vindicated.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap16">ALTHOUGH doomed to die, the prisoners did not despair. Their
-counsel led them to believe that the State Supreme Court would certainly
-grant them a rehearing, and the first step to get their case before that
-court was to secure a stay of the execution of the sentence. For this purpose
-Hon. Leonard Swett was called into the case to assist Capt. Black,
-and the two gentlemen accordingly went before Chief Justice Scott, and on
-the 25th of November, 1886, secured the desired <i>supersedeas</i>. In March,
-1887, the appeal came before the Supreme Court of Illinois, and arguments
-were heard in the case until the 18th of the same month, when the matter
-was taken under advisement. Several months elapsed before a decision
-was handed down, but meanwhile all the prisoners expressed the utmost
-confidence in a reversal of the judgment of the Criminal Court. Their
-counsel were alike confident of a rehearing, and sympathizers joined in the
-hopes indulged in by the men behind the bars and their representatives
-before the bar.</p>
-
-<p>On Wednesday, September 14, 1887, however, the Supreme Court
-rendered its decision, sustaining the findings of the lower court in every
-particular. It was given by the full bench, and there was not a dissenting
-opinion. Justice Benjamin D. Magruder delivered the opinion.
-After stating various rulings bearing on murder, conspiracy, accessory before
-the fact and other legal points involved in the case, and citing numerous
-extracts from the organs of the Anarchists and Herr Most’s book, he
-reviewed the authorities given by the counsel to sustain their respective
-sides, and then delivered the opinion of the court, as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“This case comes before us by writ of error to the Criminal Court of
-Cook County. The writ has been made a <i>supersedeas</i>.</p>
-
-<p>“Plaintiffs in error were tried in the summer of 1886 for the murder of
-Mathias J. Degan, on May 4, 1886, in the city of Chicago, Cook County,
-Illinois. On August 20, 1886, the jury returned a verdict finding the defendants
-August Spies, Michael Schwab, Samuel Fielden, Albert R. Parsons,
-Adolph Fischer, George Engel and Louis Lingg guilty of murder,
-and fixing death as the penalty. By the same verdict they also found<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_609" id="Page_609">[609]</a></span>
-Oscar W. Neebe guilty of murder and fixed the penalty at imprisonment in
-the penitentiary for fifteen years.</p></div>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-609.jpg" width="250" height="351" id="i609"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">JUDGE BENJAMIN D. MAGRUDER.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p>“About the 1st day of May, 1886, the workingmen of Chicago and of
-other industrial centers in the United States were greatly excited upon the
-subject of inducing their employers to reduce the time during which they
-should be required to labor on each day to eight hours. In the midst of
-the excitement growing out of this eight-hour movement, as it was called,
-a meeting was held on the evening of May 4, 1886, at the Haymarket, on
-Randolph Street, in the West Division of the city of Chicago. This meeting
-was addressed by the defendants Spies, Parsons and Fielden. While the
-latter was making the closing speech, and at some point of time between
-ten and half-past ten o’clock in the evening, several companies of policemen,
-numbering one hundred and eighty men, marched into the crowd
-from their station on Desplaines Street, and ordered the meeting to disperse.
-As soon as the order was
-given, some one threw among the
-policemen a dynamite bomb,
-which struck Degan, one of the
-police officers, and killed him.
-As a result of the throwing of the
-bomb and of the firing of pistol
-shots, which immediately succeeded
-the throwing of the bomb, six
-policemen besides Degan were
-killed, and sixty more were seriously
-wounded.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The court then went into the
-law of accessory, confirming the
-interpretation and ruling of the
-trial court, that all distinction between
-principals and accessories
-is by the Illinois statute abolished.
-The issue thus became:
-Were the defendants accessories
-to the murder of Degan?</p>
-
-<p>To find the answers to these
-questions the court went into an
-exhaustive review of all the evidence
-in the case, covering the
-same ground which has been gone over in the previous chapters of this
-book.</p>
-
-<p>First the bomb with which the murder had been done was considered.
-It had been proven to be round; to have a projecting fuse; to be of composite
-manufacture; to contain tin and lead, with traces of antimony, iron
-and zinc; to have upon it a small iron nut. All these characteristics were
-found in the bombs which Louis Lingg manufactured, and for these and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_610" id="Page_610">[610]</a></span>
-other reasons the court held that the jury was warranted in believing that
-the bomb which killed Degan had been made by Lingg.</p>
-
-<p>The purposes of the conspiracy were next inquired into, and the articles
-in the <i>Alarm</i>, the platform of the Internationale and similar incendiary
-and dangerous language from many sources are quoted in full in the opinion.
-The organization of the Anarchists was also inquired into, and the divisions
-into groups, the make-up of the Lehr and Wehr Verein and like matters
-stated. The court declared this to be an “illegal conspiracy.”</p>
-
-<p>The damning array of evidence against the assassins was brought together
-relentlessly and completely. The speeches of the defendants were
-sifted, their teachings examined, and there could be left in no mind a doubt
-that these men had advised murder and arson, and that they were guilty
-technically as well as morally. The opinion of the court was a masterly
-presentation of the facts, and the conclusions drawn from them settled once
-for all both the law and the equity of this celebrated case. It was evident
-that there was law enough in America to protect society.</p>
-
-<p>That the Haymarket murders were the legitimate and expected result
-of the teachings of the ring-leaders of the conspiracy was conclusively
-shown with a ruthless logic that left no hope for pardon, nor for interference
-with the law’s stern course.</p>
-
-<p>Lingg’s case, and the case of Spies, of Engel, of Fischer, of Parsons, of
-Neebe, of Fielden were taken up separately, examined with a care that
-might be described as almost microscopic, and in each case there was no
-flaw in the record&mdash;no reason why these men should not pay the penalty
-for their crime.</p>
-
-<p>The concluding part of the opinion is so important from a legal standpoint,
-and at the same time of such general interest, that I will quote it
-entire:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“If the defendants, as a means of bringing about the social revolution
-and as a part of the larger conspiracy to effect such revolution, also conspired
-to excite classes of workingmen in Chicago into sedition, tumult
-and riot and to the use of deadly weapons and the taking of human
-life, and, for the purpose of producing such tumult, riot, use of weapons
-and taking of life, advised and encouraged such classes by newspaper
-articles and speeches to murder the authorities of the city, and a murder
-of a policeman resulted from such advice and encouragement, then defendants
-are responsible therefor.</p>
-
-<p>“It is a familiar doctrine of the law, in criminal cases, that, if a reasonable
-doubt of the guilt of the prisoner is entertained, the jury have no discretion,
-but must acquit. The twelfth and thirteenth instructions for the
-prosecution are objected to as not correctly stating to the jury the meaning
-of ‘reasonable doubt.’ The twelfth instruction is an exact copy, <i>verbatim
-et literatim</i>, of the sixth instruction in <i>Miller et. al.</i> vs. <i>The People</i>, 39 Ill.
-457, which we approved in that case, and which since that case we have
-indorsed as correct in at least three cases, to-wit: <i>May</i> vs. <i>The People</i>, 60<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_611" id="Page_611">[611]</a></span>
-Ill. 119, <i>Connaghan</i> vs. <i>The People</i>, 88 id. 460, and <i>Dunn</i> vs. <i>The People</i>, 109
-id. 635.</p>
-
-<p>“The portion of the thirteenth instruction which plaintiffs in error complain
-of is that which is contained in the following words: ‘You are not at
-liberty to disbelieve as jurors if from the evidence you believe as men.’
-This expression has been sanctioned by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
-as having been properly used in an instruction given to the jury by a trial
-judge, and we are inclined to follow the ruling there laid down. That
-court said in <i>Nevling</i> vs. <i>Commonwealth</i>, 98 Pa. St. 322: ‘The learned judge
-then proceeded to say that the doubt must be a reasonable one, and that
-jurymen could not doubt as jurymen what they believed as men. In
-all this there was no error. It is the familiar language found in the textbooks
-and decisions which treat of the subject.’</p>
-
-<p>“By the twelfth and thirteenth instructions, considered in connection
-with the eleventh instruction for the State, and also in connection with the
-definitions of reasonable doubt as embodied in the instructions given for
-the defense, we think the law upon this subject was correctly presented to
-the jury.</p>
-
-<p>“The statute of this State provides that ‘juries in all criminal cases
-shall be judges of the law and fact.’ Instruction number thirteen and a
-half, given for the prosecution, is objected to as improperly limiting and
-qualifying this provision of the statute. It tells the jury, that ‘if they can
-say upon their oaths that they know the law better than the court itself,
-they have the right to do so,’ ... but that ‘before saying this, upon
-their oaths, it is their duty to reflect whether from their study and experience
-they are better qualified to judge of the law than the court,’ etc.</p>
-
-<p>“The language of instruction number thirteen and a half is an exact
-copy, <i>verbatim et literatim</i>, of the language used by this court in <i>Schnier</i> vs.
-<i>The People</i>, 23 Ill. 17. The views expressed in <i>Schnier</i> vs. <i>The People</i> have
-been approved of and indorsed in <i>Fisher</i> vs. <i>The People</i>, 23 Ill. 283, <i>Mullinix</i>
-vs. <i>The People</i>, 76 id. 211, and <i>Davison</i> vs. <i>The People</i>, 90 id. 221. The question
-is settled, and we see no reason to retreat from our position upon this
-subject.</p>
-
-<p>“It is also claimed that the court erred in refusing to give certain instructions
-asked by the defendants. The refusal of refused instructions
-numbered 3, 8, 9, 11 and 18 is especially insisted upon as error.</p>
-
-<p>“Instruction No. 3 was properly refused because it told the jury that
-those of the defendants who were not present at the Haymarket, counseling,
-aiding or abetting the throwing of the bomb, should be acquitted. Under
-our statute and the decision of this court in <i>Brennan</i> vs. <i>The People</i>, 15 Ill.
-517, the defendants were guilty if they advised and encouraged the murder
-to be committed, although they may not have been present.</p>
-
-<p>“Instruction No. 8 was wrong for a number of reasons, but it is sufficient
-to refer to one: it assumes that ‘a conspiracy to bring about a change of
-government ... by peaceful means if possible, but, if necessary, to
-resort to force for that purpose,’ is not unlawful. The fact that the conspirators
-may not have intended to resort to force, unless, in their judgment,
-they should deem it necessary to do so, would not make their conspiracy
-any the less unlawful.</p>
-
-<p>“All that was material in instructions 9, 11 and 18 was embodied in the
-instructions which were given for the defendants.</p>
-
-<p>“The defendants also complain that the court refused to give an instruction<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_612" id="Page_612">[612]</a></span>
-for them which contained the following statement: ‘It can not be
-material in this case that defendants, or some of them, are or may be Socialists,
-Communists or Anarchists,’ etc.</p>
-
-<p>“If there was a conspiracy, it was material to show its purposes and
-objects, with a view to determining whether and in what respects it was
-unlawful. Anarchy is the absence of government; it is a state of society
-where there is no law or supreme power. If the conspiracy had for its
-object the destruction of the law and the government, and of the police and
-militia as representatives of law and government, it had for its object the
-bringing about of practical Anarchy. Whether or not the defendants were
-Anarchists, may have been a proper circumstance to be considered in connection
-with all the other circumstances in the case, with a view to showing
-what connection, if any, they had with the conspiracy and what were their
-purposes in joining it. Therefore, we can not say that it was error to refuse
-an instruction containing such a broad declaration as that announced in the
-above quotation.</p>
-
-<p>“Defendants further complain because the instruction numbered 13,
-which was asked by them, was refused by the trial court. The refusal of
-this instruction was not error. It was proper enough, so far as it stated
-that if a person at the Haymarket ‘without the knowledge, aid, counsel,
-procurement, encouragement or abetting of the defendants or any of them,
-then or theretofore given, ... threw a bomb among the police, wherefrom
-resulted the murder or homicide charged in the indictment, then the
-defendants would not be liable for the results of such bomb,’ etc. But the
-instruction is so ingeniously worded as to lead the jury to believe that the
-person who threw the bomb at the Haymarket was justified in doing so if
-the meeting there was lawfully convened and peaceably conducted and if
-the order to disperse was unauthorized and illegal. Counsel inject into the
-instruction the hypothesis that the bomb may have been thrown by an outside
-party ‘in pursuance of his view of the right of self-defense.’ A mere
-order to disperse can not be an excuse for throwing a dynamite bomb into
-a body of policemen. If the bomb-thrower had been illegally and improperly
-attacked by the police, while quietly attending a peaceable meeting,
-and had thrown the bomb to defend himself against such attack, another
-question would be presented. The vice of the instruction lies in the insidious
-intimation embodied in it, that when a body of policemen, even if in
-excess of their authority, give a verbal order to an assemblage to disperse,
-a member of that assemblage will be excusable for throwing a bomb, on the
-ground of self-defense and because of the supposed invasion of his rights.</p>
-
-<p>“The instruction given by the court of its own motion, and which has
-already been referred to, is also claimed to be erroneous. So far as it
-speaks of murder and advice to commit murder in general terms, it is sufficiently
-limited and qualified when read in connection with all the other
-instructions, to which it specifically calls attention. It does not supersede
-and stand as a substitute for the other instructions, given for both sides.
-It does not so purport upon its face. On the contrary, the jury are directed
-to ‘carefully scrutinize’ such other instructions, and are told that their
-apparent inconsistencies will disappear under such scrutiny. In the last
-sentence they are requested to disregard any unguarded expressions that
-may have crept into the instructions, ‘which seem to assume the existence
-of any facts,’ and look only to the evidence, etc. Why caution the jury to
-disregard certain expressions of a particular kind in the other instructions,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_613" id="Page_613">[613]</a></span>
-if the latter were to be entirely superseded? We do not think that the
-instruction given by the trial judge <i>sua motu</i> is obnoxious to the objections
-urged against it.</p>
-
-<p>“Defendants also object to the instruction as to the form of the verdict
-as being erroneous. It is claimed that the jury were obliged, under this
-instruction, to find the defendants either guilty or not guilty of murder,
-whereas the jury were entitled to find that the offense was a lower grade of
-homicide than murder, if the evidence so warranted. This position is fully
-answered by our decisions in the cases of <i>Dunn</i> vs. <i>The People</i>, 109 Ill. 646,
-and <i>Dacey</i> vs. <i>The People</i>, 116 id. 555. If counsel desired to have the jury
-differently instructed as to the form of the verdict, they should have prepared
-an instruction, indicating such form as they deemed to be correct,
-and should have asked the trial court to give it. They did not do so, and
-are in no position to complain here.</p>
-
-<p>“The court, at the request of the defendants, did give the jury an instruction
-defining manslaughter in the words of the statute and specifying the
-punishment therefor as fixed by the statute. The court also gave the jury
-the following instruction: ‘The jury are instructed that under an indictment
-for murder a party accused may be found guilty of manslaughter; and
-in this case, if from a full and careful consideration of all the evidence
-before you, you believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants or
-any of them are guilty of manslaughter, you may so find by your verdict.’</p>
-
-<p>“The next error assigned has reference to the impaneling of the jury.
-The counsel for plaintiffs in error have made an able and elaborate argument
-for the purpose of showing that the jury which tried this case was
-not an <i>impartial</i> jury in the sense in which the word ‘impartial’ is used
-in our Constitution. We do not deem a consideration of all the points presented
-as necessary to a determination of the case, and shall only notice
-those that seem to us to be material.</p>
-
-<p>“Nine hundred and eighty-one men were called into the jury-box and
-sworn to answer questions. Each one of the eight defendants was entitled
-to a peremptory challenge of twenty jurors, making the whole number of
-peremptory challenges allowed to the defense one hundred and sixty.
-The State was entitled to the same number. Seven hundred and fifty-seven
-were excused upon challenge for cause. One hundred and sixty were challenged
-peremptorily by the defense and fifty-two by the State.</p>
-
-<p>“Of the twelve jurors who tried the case, eleven were accepted by the
-defendants. They challenged one of these, whose name was Denker, for
-cause, but, after the court overruled the challenge, they proceeded to further
-question him and finally accepted him, although one hundred and forty-two
-of their peremptory challenges were at that time unused. They accepted
-the ten others, including the juror Adams, without objection. When
-Adams, the eleventh juror, was taken, they had forty-three peremptory challenges
-which they had not yet used.</p>
-
-<p>“Therefore, as to eleven of the jurymen, the defendants are estopped
-from complaining. They virtually agreed to be tried by them, because they
-accepted them, when, by the exercise of their unused peremptory challenges,
-they could have compelled every one of them to stand aside.</p>
-
-<p>“Counsel for the defense complain that the trial court overruled their
-challenges for cause of twenty-six talesmen, to whose examinations they
-specifically call our attention. As they afterwards peremptorily challenged
-the talesmen so referred to, no one of them sat upon the jury. Every one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_614" id="Page_614">[614]</a></span>
-of these twenty-six men had been peremptorily challenged before the eleventh
-juror was taken.</p>
-
-<p>“After the eleventh juror was accepted, the forty-three peremptory challenges
-which then remained to the defendants were all used by them before
-the twelfth juror was taken.</p>
-
-<p>“After the defendants had examined the twelfth juror, whose name was
-Sandford, they challenged him for cause. Their challenge was overruled
-and they excepted.</p>
-
-<p>“The one hundred and sixty talesmen who were peremptorily challenged
-by defendants were first challenged for cause, and the challenges for cause
-were overruled by the trial court. It is claimed that, inasmuch as the defendants
-exhausted all their peremptory challenges before the panel was
-finally completed, the action of the court in regard to these particular jurors
-will be considered, and, if erroneous, such action is good ground of reversal.
-We think it must be made to appear that an objectionable juror was put
-upon the defendants after they had exhausted their peremptory challenges.
-‘Unless objection is shown to one or more of the jury who tried the case,
-the antecedent rulings of the court upon the competency or incompetency
-of jurors who have been challenged and stood aside will not be inquired
-into in this court.’ <i>Holt</i> vs. <i>State</i>, 9 Texas Ct. App. 571.</p>
-
-<p>“We cannot reverse this judgment for errors committed in the lower
-court in overruling challenges for cause to jurors, even though defendants
-exhausted their peremptory challenges, unless it is further shown that an
-objectionable juror was forced upon them and sat upon the case after they
-had exhausted their peremptory challenges. This doctrine is ably discussed
-in <i>Loggins</i> vs. <i>State</i>, 12 Texas Ct. App. 65. We think the reasoning in that
-case is sound and answers the objection here made.</p>
-
-<p>“In addition to this reason, we have carefully considered the examinations
-of the several jurors challenged by the defendants peremptorily, and
-while we cannot approve all that was said by the trial judge in respect to
-some of them, we find no such error in the rulings of the court in overruling
-the challenges for cause as to any of them as would justify a reversal of the
-cause. The examinations, as they appear in the record, of the forty-three
-talesmen who were challenged peremptorily after the eleventh juror was
-accepted, show that many of the forty-three challenges were exercised arbitrarily
-and without any apparent cause. Such challenges were not compelled
-by any demonstrated unfitness of the jurors, but seem to have been
-used up for no other purpose than to force the selection of one juror after
-the forty-three challenges were exhausted.</p>
-
-<p>“The only question, then, which we deem it material to consider, is:
-Did the trial court err in overruling the challenge for cause of Sandford, the
-twelfth juror? or, in other words, Was he a competent juror?</p>
-
-<p>“The following is the material portion of his examination:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Have you an opinion as to whether or not there was an offense committed at the Haymarket
-meeting by the throwing of a bomb? A. Yes. Q. Now, from all that you have
-read and all that you have heard, have you an opinion as to the guilt or innocence of any of
-the eight defendants of the throwing of that bomb? A. Yes. Q. You have an opinion
-upon that question also? A. I have.... Q. Now, if you should be selected as a juror in
-this case to try and determine it, do you believe that you could exercise legally the duties of
-a juror, that you could listen to the testimony and all of the testimony and the charge of the
-court, and after deliberation return a verdict which would be right and fair as between the
-defendants and the People of the State of Illinois? A. Yes, sir. Q. You believe that
-you could do that? A. Yes, sir. Q. You could fairly and impartially listen to the testimony<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_615" id="Page_615">[615]</a></span>
-that is introduced here? A. Yes. Q. And the charge of the court, and render an
-impartial verdict, you believe? A. Yes. Q. Have you any knowledge of the principles
-contended for by Socialists, Communists and Anarchists? A. Nothing except what I read
-in the papers. Q. Just general reading? A. Yes. Q. You are not a Socialist, I presume,
-or a Communist? A. No, sir. Q. Have you a prejudice against them from
-what you have read in the papers? A. Decided. Q. Do you believe that that would influence
-your verdict in this case or would you try the real issue which is here as to whether
-the defendants were guilty of the murder of Mr. Degan or not, or would you try the question
-of Socialism and Anarchism, which really has nothing to do with the case? A. Well,
-as I know so little about it in reality at present, it is a pretty hard question to answer. Q. You
-would undertake, you would attempt of course to try the case upon the evidence introduced
-here, upon the issue which is presented here? A. Yes, sir.... Q. Well, then, so
-far as that is concerned, I do not care very much what your opinion may be now, for your
-opinion now is made up of random conversations and from newspaper reading, as I understand?
-A. Yes. Q. That is nothing reliable. You do not regard that as being in the nature of
-sworn testimony at all, do you? A. No. Q. Now, when the testimony is introduced here and
-the witnesses are examined, you see them and look into their countenances, judge who are
-worthy of belief and who are not worthy of belief, don’t you think then you would be able to
-determine the question? A. Yes. Q. Regardless of any impression that you might
-have or any opinion? A. Yes. Q. Have you any opposition to the organization by
-laboring men of associations or societies or unions so far as they have reference to their own
-advancement and protection and are not in violation of law? A. No, sir. Q. Do you
-know any of the members of the police force of the city of Chicago? A. Not one by name.
-Q. You are not acquainted with any one that was either injured or killed, I suppose, at the
-Haymarket meeting? A. No.... Q. If you should be selected as a juror in this case,
-do you believe that, regardless of all prejudice or opinion which you now have, you could
-listen to the legitimate testimony introduced in court, and upon that, and that alone, render
-and return a fair and impartial, unprejudiced and unbiased verdict? A. Yes.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The foregoing examination was by the defense. The following was by
-the State:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Q. Upon what is your opinion founded&mdash;upon newspaper reports? A. Well, it is
-founded on the general theory and what I read in the newspapers. Q. And what you read
-in the papers? A. Yes, sir. Q. Have you ever talked with any one that was present at
-the Haymarket at the time the bomb was thrown? A. No, sir. Q. Have you ever talked with
-any one who professed of his own knowledge to know anything about the connection of the
-defendants with the throwing of that bomb? A. No. Q. Have you ever said to any one
-whether or not you believed the statement of facts in the newspapers to be true? A. I
-have never expressed it exactly in that way, but still I have no reason to think they were
-false. Q. Well, the question is not what your opinion of that was. The question simply
-is&mdash;it is a question made necessary by our statute, perhaps. A. Well, I don’t recall
-whether I have or not. Q. So far as you know then, you never have? A. No, sir. Q. Do
-you believe that, if taken as a juror, you can try this case fairly and impartially and render
-an impartial verdict upon the law and the evidence? A. Yes.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">“It is objected that Sandford had formed such an opinion as disqualified
-him from sitting upon the jury.</p>
-
-<p>“It is apparent from the foregoing examination that the opinion of the
-juror was based upon rumor or newspaper statements, and that he had expressed
-no opinion as to the truth of such rumors or statements. He
-stated upon oath that he believed he could fairly and impartially render a
-verdict in the case in accordance with the law and the evidence. That
-the trial court was satisfied of the truth of his statement would appear from
-the fact that the challenge for cause was overruled.</p>
-
-<p>“Therefore, the examination of the juror shows a state of facts which
-brings his case exactly within the scope and meaning of the third proviso
-of the 14th section of chapter 78, entitled ‘Jurors,’ of our Revised Statutes.
-That proviso is as follows: ‘<i>And provided further</i>, that, in the trial
-of any criminal cause, the fact that a person called as a juror has formed an
-opinion or impression, based upon rumor or upon newspaper statements<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_616" id="Page_616">[616]</a></span>
-(about the truth of which he has expressed no opinion), shall not disqualify
-him to serve as a juror in such case, if he shall, upon oath, state that he
-believes he can fairly and impartially render a verdict therein in accordance
-with the law and the evidence, and the court shall be satisfied of the truth
-of such statement.’</p>
-
-<p>“In <i>Wilson</i> vs. <i>The People</i>, 94 Ill. 299, one William Gray was examined
-touching his qualifications as a juror and said: ‘I have read newspaper
-accounts of the commission of the crime with which the defendant is
-charged and have also conversed with several persons in regard to it since
-coming to Carthage and during my attendance upon this term of court; do
-not know whether they are witnesses in the case or not; do not know who
-the witnesses in the case are. From accounts I have read and from conversations
-I have had, I have formed an opinion in the case; would have an
-opinion now if the facts should turn out as I heard them, and I think it
-would take some evidence to remove that opinion; would be governed by
-the evidence in the case and can give the defendant a fair and impartial
-trial according to the law and the evidence.’ Gray was challenged for
-cause and the challenge overruled by the trial court. We held that all objection
-to Gray’s competency was clearly removed by the proviso above
-quoted. We also there said: ‘The opinion formed seems not to have
-been decided, but one of a light and transient character which at no time
-would have disqualified the juror from serving.’</p>
-
-<p>“The expressions of Sandford in the case at bar as to the opinion
-formed by him are not so strong as those used by Gray in the Wilson case in
-regard to his opinion. Sandford’s impressions were not such as would
-refuse to yield to the testimony that might be offered, nor were they such
-as to close his mind to a fair consideration of the testimony. They were
-not ‘strong and deep impressions,’ such as are referred to by Chief Justice
-Marshall when he said upon the trial of Aaron Burr for treason: ‘Those
-strong and deep impressions which will close the mind against the testimony
-which may be offered in opposition to them, which will combat that
-testimony and resist its force, do constitute a sufficient objection’ to a juror.
-(1 Burr’s Trial, 416.)</p>
-
-<p>“Counsel for the defense seem to claim in their argument that the proviso
-above quoted is unconstitutional in that it violates section 9 of article
-2 of the present Constitution of this State, which guarantees to the accused
-party in every criminal prosecution ‘a speedy public trial by <i>an impartial
-jury</i> of the county or district in which the offense is alleged to have been
-committed.’ We do not think that the proviso is unconstitutional for the
-reason stated. The rule which it lays down, when wisely applied, does not
-lead to the selection of partial jurors. On the contrary, it tends to secure
-intelligence in the jury-box and to exclude from it that dense ignorance
-which has often subjected the jury system to just criticism. A statute upon
-this subject, similar to ours and attacked as unconstitutional for the same
-reason here indicated, was held to be constitutional by the Court of Appeals
-in the State of New York in <i>Stokes</i> vs. <i>The People</i>, 53 N. Y. 171.</p>
-
-<p>“The juror Sandford further stated that he had a prejudice against
-Socialists, Communists and Anarchists. This did not disqualify him from
-sitting as a juror. If the theories of the Anarchists should be carried into
-practical effect, they would involve the destruction of all law and government.
-Law and government cannot be abolished without revolution, bloodshed
-and murder. The Socialist or Communist, if he attempted to put into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_617" id="Page_617">[617]</a></span>
-practical operation his doctrine of a community of property, would destroy
-individual rights in property. Practically considered, the idea of taking a
-man’s property from him without his consent, for the purpose of putting it
-into a common fund for the benefit of the community at large, involves the
-commission of theft and robbery. Therefore, the prejudice which the ordinary
-citizen, who looks at things from a practical standpoint, would have
-against Anarchism and Communism, would be nothing more than a prejudice
-against crime.</p>
-
-<p>“In <i>Winnesheik Insurance Co.</i> vs. <i>Schueller</i>, 60 Ill. 465, we said: ‘A man
-may have a prejudice against crime, against a mean action, against dishonesty,
-and still be a competent juror. This is proper, and such prejudice
-will never force a jury to prejudge an innocent and honest man.’ In <i>Robinson
-et al.</i> vs. <i>Randall</i>, <i>supra</i>, we again said: ‘The mere fact, therefore
-that a juror may have a prejudice against crime does not disqualify him as
-a juror. A juror may be prejudiced against larceny, or burglary, or murder,
-and yet such fact would not in the least disqualify him from sitting
-upon a jury to try some person who might be charged with one of these
-crimes.’</p>
-
-<p>“Sandford stated that he would ‘attempt to try the case upon the evidence
-introduced here upon the issue which is presented here.’ The issue
-presented was whether the defendants were guilty or not guilty of the murder
-of Mathias J. Degan. Any prejudice against Communism or Anarchism
-would not render a juror incapable of trying that issue fairly and
-impartially.</p>
-
-<p>“We cannot see that the trial court erred in overruling the challenge
-for cause of the twelfth juror. This being so, it does not appear that the
-defendants were injured, or that their rights were in any way prejudiced by
-his selection as a juryman.</p>
-
-<p>“On the motion for a new trial the defendants read three affidavits for
-the purpose of showing that, shortly after May 4, 1886, two of the jurors
-had given utterance to expressions showing prejudice against the defendants.
-The two jurors made counter-affidavits denying that they had used
-the expressions attributed to them.</p>
-
-<p>“We do not think that the affidavits satisfactorily proved previously
-expressed opinions on the part of the two jurors referred to. It was a dangerous
-practice to allow verdicts to be set aside upon <i>ex parte</i> affidavits as
-to what jurors are claimed to have said before they were summoned to act
-as jurymen. The parties making such affidavits submit to no cross-examination,
-and the correctness of their statements is subjected to no test whatever.
-We adhere to the views which we have recently expressed upon this
-subject in the case of <i>Hughes</i> vs. <i>The People</i>, 116 Ill. 330.</p>
-
-<p>“The defendants claim that, although they were entitled to one hundred
-and sixty peremptory challenges, yet the State was entitled to only twenty,
-and they charge it as error that the State was allowed to peremptorily challenge
-more than twenty talesmen. The statute says: ‘The attorney
-prosecuting on behalf of the people shall be admitted to a peremptory
-challenge of the same number of jurors that the accused is entitled to.’
-(Rev. Stat. chap. 38, sec. 432.) We cannot conceive how language can be
-plainer than that here used. It explains itself and requires no further
-remark. The defendants also claim that the trial court erred in refusing
-a separate trial, from the other defendants, to the defendants Spies, Schwab,
-Fielden, Neebe and Parsons. Error cannot be assigned upon the refusal to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_618" id="Page_618">[618]</a></span>
-grant separate trials where several are jointly indicted. It was a matter of
-discretion with the court below. We so decided in <i>Maton et al.</i> vs. <i>The
-People</i>, 15 Ill. 536. We are unable to see any abuse of the discretion in
-this case.</p>
-
-<p>“Defendants also take exceptions to the conduct of the special bailiff.[
-The regular panel having been exhausted and the defendants having objected
-‘to the Sheriff summoning a sufficient number of persons to fill the
-panel’ of jurors, the court appointed a special bailiff named Ryce to summon
-such persons under section 13, chapter 78, of the Revised Statutes.
-On the motion for new trial, defendants read the affidavit of one Stevens, in
-which Stevens swore that he had heard one Favor say that he, Favor, had
-heard Ryce say that he, Ryce, was summoning as jurors such men as the
-defense would be compelled to challenge peremptorily, etc. The defendants
-then made a motion, based upon this affidavit, that Favor be compelled
-to come into court and testify to what Ryce had said to him. The
-refusal of the court to grant the application is complained of as error.</p>
-
-<p>“The statements in the affidavit were mere hearsay and were too indefinite
-and remote to base any motion upon. Moreover, if Ryce did make
-the remark in question to Favor, it does not appear that defendants were
-harmed by it. There is nothing to show that Ryce made any remarks of
-any kind, proper or improper, to the jurors whom he summoned. In addition
-to this, it is not shown that the defendants served Favor with a subpœna
-so as to lay a foundation for compelling his attendance.</p>
-
-<p>“We think that the course pursued on the trial in regard to the manner
-of impaneling the jury was correct and in accordance with the plain
-meaning of section 21, chapter 78, of the Revised Statutes. That section
-says ‘that the jury shall be passed upon and accepted in panels of four by
-the parties, commencing with the plaintiff.’ The State is not called upon
-to tender the defendants a second panel before the defendants tender it
-back four.</p>
-
-<p>“We can not see that the remarks of the State’s Attorney in his argument
-to the jury were marked by any such improprieties as require a
-reversal of the judgment. <i>Wilson</i> vs. <i>The People</i>, <i>supra</i>, and <i>Garrity</i> vs.
-<i>The People</i>, 107 Ill. 162.</p>
-
-<p>“In their lengthy argument counsel for the defense make some other
-points of minor importance, which are not here noticed. As to these, it is
-sufficient to say that we have considered them and do not regard them as
-well taken.</p>
-
-<p>“The judgment of the Criminal Court of Cook County is affirmed.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">After the reading of the decision, Justice Mulkey stated that it had
-been his intention, if health had permitted, to file a separate opinion. He
-said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“While I concur in the conclusion reached, and also in the general view
-presented in the opinion filed, I do not wish to be understood as holding
-that the record is free from error, for I do not think it is. I am nevertheless
-of opinion that none of the errors complained of are of so serious a character
-as to require a reversal of the judgment.</p>
-
-<p>“In view of the number of defendants on trial, the great length of time
-it was in progress, the vast amount of testimony offered and passed upon
-by the court, and the almost numberless rulings the court was required to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_619" id="Page_619">[619]</a></span>
-make, the wonder with me is, that the errors were not more numerous and
-more serious than they are.</p>
-
-<p>“In short, after having carefully examined the record, and given all the
-questions arising upon it my very best thought, with an earnest and conscientious
-desire to faithfully discharge my whole duty, I am satisfied fully
-that the conclusion reached vindicates the law, does complete justice between
-the prisoners and the State, and that it is fully warranted by the law
-and the evidence.”</p></div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_620" id="Page_620">[620]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XXXV.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">The Last Legal Struggle&mdash;The Need of Money&mdash;Expensive Counsel
-Secured&mdash;Work of the “Defense Committee”&mdash;Pardon, the Only Hope&mdash;Pleas for
-Mercy to Gov. Oglesby&mdash;Curious Changes of Sentiment&mdash;Spies’ Remarkable Offer&mdash;Lingg’s
-Horrible Death&mdash;Bombs in the Starch-box&mdash;An Accidental Discovery&mdash;My
-own Theory&mdash;Description of the “Suicide Bombs”&mdash;Meaning of the Short Fuse&mdash;“Count
-Four and Throw”&mdash;Details of Lingg’s Self-murder&mdash;A Human Wreck&mdash;The
-Bloody Record in the Cell&mdash;The Governor’s Decision&mdash;Fielden and Schwab Taken to
-the Penitentiary.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">IN spite of this overwhelming defeat at the hands of the Supreme Court of
-Illinois, counsel for the Anarchists did not lose hope. They at once set
-about formulating plans to carry their case before the highest tribunal under
-the law, the Supreme Court of the United States, and for some time they
-labored unremittingly in preparing the necessary grounds on which to bring
-the matter within the jurisdiction of that court. The point on which they
-mainly relied was a constitutional question involving the validity of the jury
-law of the State of Illinois, but time was necessary to put in proper shape
-other questions incidental to the main issue, growing out of rulings in the
-trial court. Meanwhile money was needed, just as it had been during
-the trial and the appeal to the State Supreme Court. It had been resolved
-to call into the service of the convicted men eminent constitutional lawyers,
-of national reputation as well as of high standing before the highest tribunal
-in the land, and contributions were accordingly sought throughout the
-country by the Anarchist “Defense Committee” of Chicago, a body which
-had been organized preceding the trial. In compliance with the call, a
-great deal of money was subscribed, and the local counsel began to cast
-about for legal assistance among the most noted constitutional expounders
-in the Union, to properly prepare the case for presentation at Washington.
-Capt. Black, to whom this duty seems to have been mainly intrusted, finally
-decided upon Gen. Pryor, of New York, and J. Randolph Tucker, and with
-these eminent jurists he held long consultations on the best points to make
-before the court of last resort. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler was also called
-into the case as special counsel for Spies and Fielden.</p>
-
-<p>Finally, on Thursday, October 27, 1887, the case was brought before the
-United States Supreme Court, and arguments were heard before a full
-bench. Mr. Tucker was the first to speak, and held the court’s attention
-for some time, contending that the Illinois jury law was in contravention
-of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
-That amendment, he said, had been adopted, and had been construed by
-the court as for the special protection of the negro, and he insisted that it
-should be opened up for the protection of the whites as well. Upon this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_621" id="Page_621">[621]</a></span>
-point he elaborated at some length, consuming nearly the whole time allotted
-to him, and then he proceeded to show that an impartial jury had not
-been chosen in the trial court, some men upon it&mdash;reference being made to
-Denker and Sandford&mdash;having formed a newspaper opinion, but, in spite of
-that fact, having still been admitted under the rulings of the court. The
-first ten amendments to the Constitution, he held, limited the States in the
-adoption of laws abridging the rights of citizens. His whole argument
-received marked attention and was ably presented.</p>
-
-<p>Benjamin F. Butler made a few points in addition to those presented in
-his brief, but the main burden of his plea was that his clients, Spies and
-Fielden, were aliens and had come to this country under treaties made with
-Germany and England, long before the jury law of Illinois was passed.</p>
-
-<p>Attorney-General Hunt, of Illinois, replied to the various points made
-by the petitioners, showing that the Federal Constitution, in its first ten
-amendments, did not restrict the rights of a State in the regulation of jury
-selections, and that there was no refuge for any of the defendants under the
-treaties. It was an eloquent and masterly argument, and its effect on the
-court was subsequently shown in the decision, which closely followed in the
-line of Mr. Hunt’s position on the matters in question.</p>
-
-<p>State’s Attorney Grinnell was present simply to assist the Attorney-General
-in pointing out the salient features in the record of the trial court,
-with which he was so thoroughly familiar, but, on solicitation, he also addressed
-the court at some length. He spoke with reference to some details
-in the trial, and made a clear and concise exposition of the case. He was
-followed by General Butler, who spoke at considerable length, but advanced
-no new points, except that he maintained that Spies had been compelled to
-testify against himself.</p>
-
-<p>The arguments occupied two days, and the court reserved its decision
-until Wednesday, November 2. On that day the court decided, on the
-claim that the first ten amendments to the Constitution limited the rights
-of a State in the passage of laws affecting personal rights, that they “were
-not intended to limit the powers of the State Government in respect to
-their own citizens, but to operate on the National Government alone.”
-This had been decided more than fifty years before, and that decision had
-been steadily adhered to ever since. “It was contended in argument,”
-said the court, “that, although originally the first two amendments were
-adopted as limitations on Federal power, yet, in so far as they secure and
-recognize fundamental rights, common-law rights of the man, they make
-them privileges and immunities of the man as a citizen of the United States
-and cannot now be abridged by a State under the Fourteenth Amendment.”
-The objections raised, in brief, were that a statute of the State, as construed
-by the court, deprived the petitioners of a trial by an impartial jury and
-that Spies was compelled to give evidence against himself. The statute to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_622" id="Page_622">[622]</a></span>
-which special objection was made, continued the court, was approved
-March 12, 1874, and went into force on July 1 of that year. The claim set
-up by petitioners was that the trial court, acting under this law, compelled
-them against their will to submit to a trial by a jury that was not impartial,
-and thus deprived them of one of the fundamental rights they had as
-citizens of the United States under the Federal Constitution, and that if
-the sentence was carried out they would be deprived of their lives “without
-due process of law.” The court then referred to the peremptory challenges
-allowed petitioners and held that with these the constitutional right of the
-accused had been maintained.</p>
-
-<p>“Although a juror called as a juryman,” said the court, “may have
-formed an opinion based upon rumor or newspaper statement, he is still
-qualified as a juror if he states that he can fairly and impartially render a
-verdict thereon in accordance with the law and the evidence. Indeed, the
-rule of the statute of Illinois as construed by the trial court is not materially
-different from that which has been adopted by the courts in many other
-States without any legislation. We agree entirely with the Illinois Supreme
-Court in the opinion that the statute on its face, as construed by the trial
-court, is not repugnant to section 9 of article 2 of the Constitution of that
-State, which guarantees to the accused party in every criminal prosecution
-a speedy trial by an impartial jury of the county or district in which the
-offense is alleged to have been committed.”</p>
-
-<p>Speaking of the alleged bias of one of the jurors&mdash;Denker&mdash;the court
-says that neither party at the close of the examination challenged the juror
-peremptorily. “When this occurred it was not denied,” says the court,
-“that the defendants were still entitled to 143 peremptory challenges, or
-about that number.” As to Juror Sandford, the court said that “at the
-close of his examination on the part of the defendants the juror was challenged
-on their behalf for cause, and the attorney for the State, after having
-ascertained that all the peremptory challenges of the defendants had been
-exhausted, took up the examination of the juror.” It then appearing that
-he could render an impartial verdict, he was sworn in under the proper rulings
-of the court.</p>
-
-<p>As to Spies being compelled to be a witness against himself, the court
-ruled that, inasmuch as he had voluntarily offered himself as a witness in his
-own behalf, by so doing he had become bound to submit himself to a proper
-cross-examination. But it was said that the reading of Most’s letter was
-not proper evidence. “That is,” continued the court, “a question of State
-law in the courts of the States, and not of Federal law.” Something was
-said about the alleged unreasonable search and seizure of the papers and
-property of some of the defendants, and their use in evidence in the trial of
-the case. Special reference was made to letters from Most to Spies, about
-which he was cross-examined; but “we have,” said the court, “not been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_623" id="Page_623">[623]</a></span>
-referred to any part of the record in which it appears that objection was
-made to the use of the evidence on that account,” and therefore, “as the
-Supreme Court of Illinois says so, we cannot consider the constitutional
-question involved.”</p>
-
-<p>The writ of error prayed for in the petitions and briefs filed and the
-arguments made on their merits was therefore denied.</p>
-
-<p>The late Chief Justice Waite read the decision, and there was not a dissenting
-opinion, thus overwhelmingly sustaining the most important rulings
-made by Judge Gary and attesting the impregnable position taken by the
-State.</p>
-
-<p>The prisoners in the Cook County Jail were now confronted with the
-awful fate in store for them nine days hence from the rendering of the
-Supreme Court’s decision. But, like drowning men grasping at straws,
-they turned in the direction of executive clemency. Their counsel, Capt.
-Black especially, entertained strong hopes of securing from Gov. Oglesby
-a commutation of sentence to imprisonment in the penitentiary. Steps
-were accordingly taken looking to that end. Petitions to the chief executive
-of Illinois were at once put in circulation for signatures, and friends
-and sympathizers of the condemned busied themselves in writing personal
-letters pleading for mercy.</p>
-
-<p>As the day of execution approached, it was surprising to note how many,
-who had hitherto clamored for blood in atonement for the Haymarket
-massacre, now exerted themselves in the effort to secure executive clemency.
-With my own eyes I saw people who had made the most fuss shouting,
-“Hang the Anarchists! Don’t give them a chance for their lives. Destroy
-them at once. They must be roasted out; the balance of them must
-leave the country,” the first to weaken. They began calling the doomed
-Anarchists “poor innocent men; it is too bad to hang them. If they would
-only promise to do better hereafter, the authorities ought to let them go.”
-There were others, again, who wished to see the laws enforced, but who
-failed to make their true feelings known during the interval immediately
-preceding the day set for the execution. These, when it became almost
-certain that the Anarchists must hang, showed themselves very firm and
-openly declared that the men fully deserved hanging, and should be hanged
-as determined by the verdict of the jury.</p>
-
-<p>Some of those who had given their moral support to the prosecution
-even went to the extent of giving up rooms in their residences for meetings
-of parties interested in imploring executive clemency, and avowed Anarchists
-and Socialists spread their feet under mahogany tables and shuffled
-dirt-laden shoes over velvety rugs in houses that had hitherto sheltered
-owners who, on the streets and in the marts of trade, had denounced the
-Anarchists in unmeasured terms. But there were those who believed, from
-the conclusion of the trial up to the last moment, that the law should take<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_624" id="Page_624">[624]</a></span>
-its course, and these were largely in the majority. Governor Oglesby is
-made of stern material, but the most stern and rugged natures, with the
-clearest perceptions of duty and the most absolute belief in guilt, would
-have yielded to public sentiment as being the best guide in a case involving
-the lives of human, fallible beings. Really public sentiment upheld the verdict,
-and only yielded in the abatement of the sentence of Fielden and
-Schwab as justified by the mitigating circumstances in their cases.</p>
-
-<p>The day drew near for decisive action, and, on the 9th of November,
-Capt. Black, accompanied by his wife, George Schilling, Mrs. Schwab, Mrs.
-and Miss Spies, Miss Engel, Miss Mueller, Lingg’s sweetheart, and Mrs.
-Fischer, repaired to the Capitol at Springfield, to personally intercede for
-mercy. The “Amnesty Committee,” organized shortly before to arouse
-interest in preventing the execution, was represented by Cora L. V. Richmond,
-a noted trance-spiritualistic exhorter, and a few others of less renown.
-Mr. W. M. Salter, of the Ethical Society of Chicago, Gen. M. M. Trumbull,
-Henry D. Lloyd and S. P. McConnell also proceeded to the State
-capital on special missions in behalf of one or the other of the Anarchists,
-and besides there was a large sprinkling of labor representatives. Governor
-Oglesby, who had meanwhile accumulated a voluminous mass of
-letters and had received lengthy petitions from Chicago and all other parts
-of the country, even from the Commune of Paris, met the various delegations
-in his office in the Executive Department.</p>
-
-<p>The first speaker was Capt. Black, who presented a long petition, which
-he read, signed by Schwab, Fielden and Spies. It set forth the grounds
-upon which an exercise of the pardoning power was invoked, claiming that
-the signers were wholly innocent of any knowledge of the throwing of the
-bomb, and giving a brief epitome of the history of the case. It gave ten
-reasons for asking a pardon. These reasons may be summarized as follows:
-1. They were innocent of the bomb-throwing, alike in act and intent.
-2. They had no knowledge of any purpose or arrangement for the throwing
-of the bomb. 3. They (those present) counseled peace at the Haymarket
-meeting and there disclaimed any purpose of violence. 4. A great
-deal of evidence was permitted to be presented in court which had no specific
-reference to the crime charged, and an effort was made to prove that
-their utterances and advice had reference alone to “defensive action by the
-wage class as against any unlawful attacks upon them,” and in thus publicly
-expressing their sentiments by pen and speech they were not conscious
-that they were violating the law. 5. Under a rule of responsibility allowed,
-which was contrary to Anglo-Saxon legislation but expressed in the statute
-law of the State, they were held to be accessories “for the act of a supposed
-but absolutely unknown and unidentified principal, when the actor in the
-commission of the crime charged may have acted, not as the agent, but the
-enemy, of the accused;” and they had been tried as “the supposed leaders<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_625" id="Page_625">[625]</a></span>
-of a general movement or conspiracy embracing a much larger number of
-men.” 6. Their trial was at a time of great public excitement, when press
-and public demanded their conviction as enemies of public order. 7. That
-men were allowed to sit upon the jury with strong prejudices against them.
-8. They were not tried by men according to constitutional rights, but had
-jurors “with a prejudgment of their guilt induced and inflamed by the daily
-reading of the papers,” whose columns had never ceased to denounce them.
-9. Some of them were subjected to illegal cross-examinations, and “the provisions
-of the Constitution and the law were set aside, and property unlawfully
-seized in unauthorized searches was introduced to bring about a conviction.”
-10. They believed and charged that the special bailiff who was
-intrusted with securing talesmen for the jury had deliberately selected men
-whose views he was assured were hostile to them.</p>
-
-<p>Capt. Black commented upon each point made in the petition, and explained
-that up to the time of the Haymarket meeting his clients had had
-the absolute, uniform acquiescence of the municipal authorities in all their
-public and secret gatherings. He also read an affidavit of Otis S. Favor, to
-show that the bailiff had said to affiant that he was “managing this case”
-(meaning selection of the jury to try the Anarchists) and “he knew what he
-was about.”</p>
-
-<p>The plea was an eloquent and forcible one, but the Governor never gave
-the slightest sign as to how far it had affected his judgment of the case.</p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Richmond spoke with reference to the petitions which her committee
-had presented, containing many signatures, and explained that “the majority
-of those who had signed them had done so because they considered it a
-matter of public policy that these men should not be hanged.” Another
-reason she advanced was that “these men did not intend a murder, and the
-fact cannot be shown that they had any direct connection in the throwing of
-the bomb which caused the death of Officer Degan.” She held that public
-opinion was unanimous that these men could not afford to be sacrificed.
-“The shock upon the rising generation will be such that it will take fifty or
-one hundred years to wipe it out, and we believe it never could be wiped
-out from the records of this State.” She asked that the sentence be commuted
-“on the higher ground that it should be done for the welfare of the
-people,” and then, after deploring the existence of capital punishment in
-Illinois, she said that if mercy was shown by the Governor, his name would
-forever be written on the scroll of humanity along with that of the martyred
-Abraham Lincoln. “I again implore you, sir, to extend clemency to these
-condemned men, and enroll your name among those who have dared to do
-for humanity what all the courts of the land have denied.”</p>
-
-<p>Gen. M. M. Trumbull had had a pamphlet prepared respecting the trial,
-and after presenting a copy of it to the Governor, and calling attention to
-the fact that he had therein reviewed the unfairness of the trial, he made a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_626" id="Page_626">[626]</a></span>
-few remarks, closing as follows: “In behalf of the families of these men; in
-behalf of the men themselves; in behalf of thousands and hundreds of
-thousands of people who sympathize with them in their misfortunes, I
-implore your Excellency to show mercy in their case.”</p>
-
-<p>Elijah M. Haines, ex-Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives,
-said: “I do not come here, your Excellency, like others, to appeal to the
-executive of this State to exercise an act of clemency; neither do I come
-here representing petitioners. But I come here representing a sentiment
-appealing to the executive branch of the government for an act of justice.”
-His plea was based simply on the ground of justice, not policy, and he held
-that what had been a crime years ago was not a crime now, and that “this
-sentence, at this time, would not have been the sentence of the barbarous race
-that preceded us.” He held that no conspiracy had been proven, and that
-the men had been condemned to die through prejudice. He did not believe
-in capital punishment, and concluded that “the peculiar complication of this
-case would make the execution of these men hazardous to the best interests
-of society.”</p>
-
-<p>State Senator Streeter made a short address. He began by saying:
-“We are not here to favor any crime, but we do believe that this case
-marks an epoch in our history; that you and I, Governor, and the people
-who are living, probably never met or never will again meet an emergency
-in history like this. It is almost without parallel.” He then pleaded for
-clemency on the ground of “the common good of society,” and asked the
-Governor to give the petition a careful consideration.</p>
-
-<p>Messrs. Bailey and Campbell, representing the Trades and Labor
-Assembly of Quincy, Ill., each spoke a few words for the doomed men,
-and they were followed by William Urban, who spoke “for the German
-workingmen of North Chicago,” and presented a set of resolutions passed
-by the Central Labor Union.</p>
-
-<p>L. S. Oliver, on behalf of the “Amnesty Committee,” made a few statements
-and presented a petition containing 41,000 names.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Shullenberg, of Detroit, Mich., said he represented forty-five organizations,
-and he asked, on their behalf, that executive clemency be
-extended.</p>
-
-<p>C. G. Dixon, of Chicago, also submitted a long petition, and addressed
-the Governor at some length. He was followed by Samuel Gompers, of
-New York, President of the American Federation of Labor, who went into
-an account of the eight-hour movement, and held that the police were
-responsible for the Haymarket riot. He said that thousands would consider
-that the men had been executed because they had stood up for free speech
-and free assemblage, and maintained that throughout the civilized world
-there had arisen a protest against the execution of the men. He concluded
-by saying that the throwing of that bomb had killed the eight-hour movement,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_627" id="Page_627">[627]</a></span>
-and that, had it not been for that, it would have been successful to a
-great extent.</p>
-
-<p>Other addresses were made by Edward King, of District Assembly 49,
-of New York; President Quinn, of the same organization, and George
-Schilling. The various delegations then withdrew to permit the relatives
-of the doomed men to confer personally with the Governor, and then each
-in turn gave a few reasons why the Governor should be lenient.</p>
-
-<p>After this conference Mr. J. R. Buchanan and Mrs. George Schilling,
-accompanied by two friends, sought an audience with the Governor and
-presented a personal letter from August Spies. In that letter, dated
-November 6, among other things he wrote:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“I care not to protest my innocence of any crime, and of the one I am
-accused of in particular. I have done that, and leave the rest to the judgment
-of history.... If a sacrifice of life there must be, will not my life
-suffice? The State’s Attorney of Cook County asked for no more. Take
-this, then! Take my life! I offer it to you so that you may satisfy the
-fury of a semi-barbaric mob, and save that of my comrades.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">This extract fully indicates the whole tenor of the letter.</p>
-
-<p>Messrs. Salter, Lloyd and McConnell next visited the Governor and
-spoke on behalf of the men.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Edward Johnson, a slate and stone dealer of Chicago, presented a
-petition on behalf of Fielden’s former employers, numbering thirty-one
-firms, and in that document they set forth that they had known Fielden for
-fifteen years as an honest, hard-working, sober, reliable employé, with no
-brutal or bloody instincts, and that the only trouble with him was that “he
-was cursed with a gift of rude eloquence, a fatal facility of speech, and had
-a consuming desire for the praise and applause of his fellow-men, and in
-this lay the cause of his downfall.”</p>
-
-<p>This petition was accompanied by a personal letter from Fielden, dated
-November 5, 1887. After speaking of his earlier years, and his interest in
-the cause of workingmen, the letter concludes:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I was intoxicated with the applause of my hearers, and, the more violent
-my language, the more applause I received. My audience and myself
-mutually excited each other. I think, however, it is true that, for sensational
-or other purposes, words were put in my mouth and charged to me
-which I never uttered; but, whether this be true or not, I say now that I no
-longer believe it proper that any class of society should attempt to right its
-own wrongs by violence. I can now see that much that I said under
-excitement was unwise, and all this I regret. It is not true, however, that
-I ever consciously attempted to incite any man to the commission of crime.
-Although I do admit that I belonged to an organization which was engaged
-at one time in preparing for a social revolution, I was not engaged in any
-conspiracy to manufacture or throw bombs. I never owned or carried a
-revolver in my life and did not fire one at the Haymarket. I had not the
-slightest idea that the meeting at the Haymarket would be other than a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_628" id="Page_628">[628]</a></span>
-peaceable and orderly one, such as I had often addressed in this city, and
-was utterly astounded at its bloody outcome, and have always felt keenly
-the loss of life and suffering there occasioned.</p>
-
-<p>“In view of these facts I respectfully submit that, while I confess with
-regret the use of extravagant and unjustifiable words, I am not a murderer.
-I never had any murderous intent, and I humbly pray relief from the murderer’s
-doom. That these statements are true I do again solemnly affirm
-by every tie that I hold sacred, and I hope that your Excellency will give a
-considerate hearing to the merits of my case, and also to those of my imprisoned
-companions who have been sentenced with me.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Judge Gary and Mr. Grinnell also wrote a letter setting forth this
-natural desire of Fielden’s for applause and saying that there was no evidence
-showing that he knew of any preparations to throw the bomb. They
-believed him to have been an honest and industrious man and thought executive
-clemency in his case would be justifiable.</p>
-
-<p>A letter from Schwab was also presented to the Governor. It was short
-and read as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“As supplemental to the petition heretofore signed by me, I desire to
-say that I realize that many utterances of mine in connection with the labor
-agitation of the past, expressions made under intense excitement, and often
-without any deliberation, were injudicious. These I regret, believing that
-they must have had a tendency to incite to unnecessary violence oftentimes.
-I protest again that I had no thought or purpose of violence in connection
-with the Haymarket meeting, which I did not even attend, and that I have
-always deplored the results of that meeting.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">This was accompanied by a letter from Judge Gary, concurring with
-State’s Attorney Grinnell’s opinion that Schwab’s case deserved consideration,
-as the man was friendless and had evidently been the pliant tool of
-stronger-willed men. George C. Ingham also wrote, saying that if executive
-clemency was shown to Fielden and Schwab it would not be misplaced.</p>
-
-<p>While the case was thus being discussed at Springfield, Parsons, Lingg,
-Engel and Fischer were strongly urged by their friends to send personal
-letters appealing for clemency, but each absolutely refused. They wrote
-letters to the Governor, but declared that they would not accept a pardon
-unless it restored them to full liberty. They held that they had committed
-no wrong, and hence could seek no clemency except that which would release
-them from imprisonment.</p>
-
-<p>On the same day that the delegations appeared before the Governor, Mr.
-Vere V. Hunt went before Judge Richard J. Prendergast, of the County
-Court in Chicago, and filed a petition to try the sanity of Lingg. He gave
-as witnesses Dr. James G. Kiernan, George E. Detwiler, Ferdinand
-Spies, Ida Spies, Henry Spies, Chris Spies, Mr. Kuttleman, Gustav Poch,
-Louis Zetter, Mr. Linnemeyer and W. Bentthin. After arguments, Judge
-Prendergast held that, in view of the judgment of the Supreme Court, affirming
-the sentence of the Criminal Court, he had no jurisdiction. The next<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_629" id="Page_629">[629]</a></span>
-day Mr. Hunt presented the same petition to Judge Frank Baker, but, after
-hearing arguments, the court declined to examine into the question of the
-bomb-maker’s sanity.</p>
-
-<p>Another curious move was also made on behalf of Parsons on the day
-preceding the execution. It was an application for a writ of <i>habeas corpus</i>
-by Attorney Salomon, and was presented before Judge M. F. Tuley. The
-grounds on which it was based were that the judgment affirmed by the
-Supreme Court was directed against seven men and not against one, and
-that the prisoner, not being in court when the sentence was passed, could
-not be executed under it. He also claimed that the death warrant was not
-legal because it did not run in the name of the people of the State of Illinois.
-Judge Tuley said the court had no power to correct any errors of
-the Supreme Court, and that the prisoner was
-legally in the custody of the Sheriff, and the application
-would accordingly be denied.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-629.jpg" width="150" height="262" id="i629"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">JAILOR FOLZ.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>While favorable results were being anticipated
-by some as to the Governor’s decision, an incident
-occurred which dampened their expectations and
-somewhat affected public sentiment in the belief of
-the guilt of the conspirators. Although it probably
-had no effect on the Governor’s decision, Anarchists
-at large thought it would highly prejudice
-the case of their friends at his hands. This incident
-was the horrible suicide of Louis Lingg.</p>
-
-<p>While the Anarchists were confined in the
-Cook County Jail they were quartered in that portion
-of the premises known as “murderers’ row.”
-This row faces south on the first gallery, in view
-of the entrance to the jail corridor, and had been
-so designated because in times past men accused
-of murder and awaiting trial, or men convicted of murder and awaiting execution
-of sentence, were kept in the cells on that tier. Lingg, the most
-defiant Anarchist of them all, occupied cell No. 22; Engel, No. 23; Spies,
-No. 24; Schwab, No. 26; Fielden, No. 27, and Fischer, No. 28. During
-Neebe’s detention, before being taken to the penitentiary, he occupied cell
-No. 21. All the prisoners were subjected to strict prison discipline. The
-rules of the jail knew no relaxation in the case of any one brought into
-that part of the establishment, and each regulation was carried out to the
-very letter.</p>
-
-<p>Jailor Folz is a veteran in the service, having filled the jailorship off and
-on for twenty-two years, and he thoroughly understands all the requirements
-in the way of jail discipline, to prevent escapes and guard against suicides
-and assaults. I know him well, and he always has one ear and one eye open<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_630" id="Page_630">[630]</a></span>
-to the conduct of the prisoners and the other eye and ear for his own security,
-like a sailor who gives one-half of his body to the ship and reserves the other
-half for his own safety. Where so many desperate characters are confined
-it requires the utmost vigilance to keep them under control and restrain them
-from violent outbreaks. Men whose lives have been almost a continual
-record of misdeeds, crimes and murders are not, as a rule, easily handled,
-and the wonder is that there have been so few to create trouble in Folz’s
-bailiwick.</p>
-
-<p>One of the rules is a regular inspection of all the cells for contraband
-articles and the exclusion of all implements calculated to aid a prisoner in
-effecting his escape. Sometimes a revolver may be found during these inspections;
-at other times a tiny saw for cutting the bars, and then again
-some tool for cutting through the flagstones with a view to reaching the air-shaft
-or getting into the sewer underneath; and, though rarely, even smuggled
-poison has been discovered.</p>
-
-<p>All prisoners are carefully searched before being locked up, but it frequently
-happens that prisoners are permitted to talk with their friends
-through the lawyers’ cage. This cage is an inclosure ten by sixteen feet in
-dimensions, with iron bars and strong wires, and while it would seem impossible
-to pass anything through the narrow interstices, now and then an
-aperture is pried open wide enough to pass in contraband articles. In
-this way many things have been found smuggled into the jail. Food and
-delicacies handed into the jail office for prisoners are always carefully
-examined, and this precaution was particularly exercised in the case of
-the Anarchists as the time approached for their execution.</p>
-
-<p>On Sunday morning, November 6, 1887, Mr. Folz gave orders about
-eight o’clock to have the cells of the Anarchists searched, and Deputies
-John Eagan and O. E. Hogan were detailed for that purpose. Lingg’s cell
-was first examined, and while the search proceeded he was locked up in
-the “lawyers’ cage.” A lot of revolutionary books, copies of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-and other papers were taken out and thrown temporarily in the
-corridor. In one corner of the room stood a ten-pound starch-box, in one
-nook of which there was a kerosene lamp, about which again some onions
-were piled. Box and onions were placed on the gallery platform for the
-time being.</p>
-
-<p>The officers were next about to proceed to a search of Engel’s cell, but
-just before doing so Hogan happened to kick box, onions and all over the
-platform, down onto the main floor. At the time some of the prisoners,
-who were exercising themselves in the corridor, got curious as to the
-contents of the rubbish, and, in the hope of finding something they might
-desire, began a search of the pile. Some of them seemed particularly
-interested in something they had discovered, and Hogan, noticing their
-intent gaze, stopped to look at them. He noticed that one of the prisoners<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_631" id="Page_631">[631]</a></span>
-had something strange in his hands. Eagan also noticed the same thing
-and started on a run down-stairs. Arriving at the place where the knot of
-prisoners had gathered, he found that the curious object which they were
-scrutinizing was nothing else than a dynamite bomb. The bomb, it
-appears, had been dashed out of the box as it fell on the floor from the
-gallery platform above, and interest at once centered in the innocent-looking
-box. Mr. Eagan found therein three other bombs, and they were
-immediately taken to Jailor Folz’s office. The box was next carefully
-examined, and it was found to have a false bottom, in which the bombs had
-been concealed. Some six days before this box had been brought into
-the jail, and, being apparently empty, it had been passed in to Lingg. It
-was evident that it had been made according to Lingg’s instructions by
-some handy carpenter who was a close friend, and, judging from its
-construction, it seems to have been patterned after Lingg’s trunk, which,
-it will be remembered, also had a false bottom, and in whose secret apartment
-I found a lot of dynamite, together with a coil of fuse and a supply
-of caps. Either the bombs were in the box at the time it was brought to
-the jail, or they must have been smuggled in through a temporarily-forced
-opening in the wire cage. The officials incline to the former theory.</p>
-
-<p>Lingg was a most interested spectator. It was evident from his actions
-that the discovery greatly troubled him. His face became almost livid
-with rage, his eyes fairly snapped fire, and he fumed in his cage like an imprisoned
-beast of prey. He was speechless with anger, and every motion
-betrayed an energy of passion that was fearful to behold.</p>
-
-<p>After a little while Lingg was taken out of the “lawyers’ cage,” and
-thereafter he was confined in a cell fixed up for him on the lower floor, where
-he could be directly under the eyes of the officials, who by this time had
-come to regard him as a very dangerous man. At ten o’clock on the same
-morning, I received a dispatch from the Sheriff asking me to call at the
-jail immediately. Arriving there, I met Sheriff Matson and Jailor Folz, and
-after they had explained the circumstances of the morning’s find, the four
-bombs were handed to me for examination. I found that they were all
-loaded with dynamite of the regular kind, and I gave it as my opinion that
-they were manifestly intended for suicidal purposes, to escape the gallows.
-I could not believe that they were made for any other purpose. Both the
-Sheriff and the Jailor concurred in this view, and they so expressed themselves
-to outsiders, although sensational reports were circulated in the
-newspapers that the bombs were smuggled in to be used especially on the
-day of the execution, to blow the jail, prisoners and visitors to the four
-winds.</p>
-
-<p>I took charge of the bombs, and subsequently, at the station, gave them
-a more thorough examination. They were all of the same size, being six
-inches long, three-eighth gas-pipe, and one end of each had been plugged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_632" id="Page_632">[632]</a></span>
-with a boiler rivet one inch long. On each rivet there had been cut
-about a dozen notches with a sharp chisel, and after the rivets had been
-inserted hot lead had been poured into the pipe from the top, thus fastening
-them in place. A wooden plug, through which a hole had been bored in
-the center for the cap and fuse, had been put at the other end of each pipe;
-and thus plugged, with a charge of dynamite inside, it was a most destructive
-implement. The dynamite used was of the regular factory make, the
-percussion cap of English manufacture, and the fuse of the tar-cloth, water-proof
-kind. The fuse was cut scarcely an inch long, and a fuse of that
-length would explode the cap as soon almost as it was ignited. I explained
-these features in a general way to Sheriff Matson and Jailor Folz, and told
-them that with such a short fuse no one using one of these deadly contrivances
-could light it and then throw the bomb away before it would explode.
-It might, as I explained to them, be kept about the body or inserted in a
-man’s mouth, and in an instant after being lighted an explosion would follow.
-Hence my theory was that they were designed exclusively
-for suicidal purposes. A photographic illustration
-of the suicide bombs appears on page 595.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-632.jpg" width="200" height="277" id="i632"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">BENJ. P. PRICE.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The bomb used at the Haymarket was of the
-kind called the “five and six seconds fuse.” The
-fuse on a bomb of that kind was cut at a length of
-four inches, and the instruction to Anarchists in
-handling one of them was to count four just as soon
-as the fuse caught fire, and then throw it. If the
-bombs found in Lingg’s cell had had that length
-of fuse, then it might have been possible that they
-were intended for general destruction. These
-bombs had evidently been made under instructions
-from Lingg. He was the only one who
-made bombs by plugging up one end with lead,
-and, whoever the party was that turned them out for him, he must have had
-some prior experience with Lingg in bomb-making. That could be plainly
-seen, too, in the way the fuse had been fastened in the caps. It was also manifest
-that the man must have been a machinist. But no clue as to his identity
-could be secured, and, of course, Lingg never gave the slightest hint to
-any of the officers, or even to his associates.</p>
-
-<p>Thereafter, as might have been expected, Lingg was more carefully
-watched than ever. No strange visitors were permitted to see him. The
-discovery of the explosives had created an intense and wide-spread excitement,
-and Sheriff Matson issued most stringent orders with reference, not
-only to Lingg, but to all the other confined Anarchists. By these orders
-the public was measurably reassured.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_633" id="Page_633">[633]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-633.jpg" width="400" height="635" id="i633"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">LOUIS LINGG’S TERRIBLE DEATH.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_634" id="Page_634">[634]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The bomb-maker had been committed to cell No. 11, and every article
-constituting its outfit had been subjected to the closest inspection. It
-seemed certain that there could be no dynamite in that cell. Besides this,
-Mr. Benjamin P. Price, the Jail Clerk, made it his special business to look
-after the desperate man, and there seemed no possibility of danger from
-that quarter.</p>
-
-<p>But on the morning of the 10th of November, at 8:45 o’clock, the officials
-as well as occupants of the jail were startled by the sound of a terrific explosion.
-Consternation seized everybody for the moment. Each surmised
-that some sad havoc had been created in some portion of the jail, and that
-his special section had miraculously escaped. All within the jail precincts
-jumped to their feet, and the most eager inquiries were made as to the cause
-of the noise. Even the inmates of the cells in the immediate vicinity of
-the spot where the explosion had occurred thought that some other portion of
-the building had been blown up, and they were uncertain whether the attack
-had come from without or within.</p>
-
-<p>The first idea credited the explosion to confederates of the Anarchists
-on the outside. This was a perfectly natural conclusion. All sorts of
-rumors about violent demonstrations and forcible attempts at rescue of the
-doomed Anarchists were in circulation about the city, and the instant this
-detonation was heard it was supposed that the threats had been finally carried
-into effect. So loud was the report that people passing on the streets
-surrounding the jail imagined that fearful destruction must have been
-created inside. But after the first flush of excitement had subsided, the
-source of the commotion was easily and speedily ascertained.</p>
-
-<p>The explosion had occurred in Lingg’s cell. The night before Lingg
-had appeared in one of his complacent moods, and when the death-watch
-eyed him closely the next morning nothing unusual was discovered in his
-demeanor. Lingg seemed to be resting easily on his couch, and there was
-not the slightest indication that anything tragic was contemplated. While
-the death-watch, Deputy Sheriff Osborne, was giving his attention to something
-else for a moment, however, Lingg saw his opportunity, rose stealthily
-from his bed, seized a candle that flickered dimly in a corner of the
-cell, and, jumping back to his couch, put the bomb in his mouth and
-applied the flame. In an instant a loud explosion followed.</p>
-
-<p>Officials were soon in the cell and found Lingg lying on his side on the
-couch, with one arm thrown over his head and the other resting on a little
-table. A stream of blood was coursing down the pillow, and pools of it
-had gathered upon the bedding. The deputies raised him up gently. A
-ghastly sight met their gaze. The lower jaw had been almost entirely
-blown away, the upper lip was completely torn to shreds, the greater part
-of his nose was in tatters, only a fragment of his tongue remained, and
-every vestige of front teeth had disappeared. What remained of his
-cheeks looked like flesh torn by vultures, and every jagged part bled profusely.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_635" id="Page_635">[635]</a></span>
-The inside of his upper jaw was horribly lacerated. It looked as
-though no man could survive such a wound for a moment after its infliction.
-And yet the bomb-maker was alive and breathing regularly.</p>
-
-<p>Lingg was at once removed from the cell to a large bath-room near
-the Jailor’s office, and made as comfortable as circumstances would permit.
-Drs. Fenger, Moyer and Bluthardt were at once sent for, and they responded
-immediately. They applied such restoratives as medical science
-suggested, but they found no little difficulty in stopping the bleeding and
-preventing the blood from running down the man’s throat and interfering
-with his breathing. Now and then he coughed, and with each spell
-emitted large quantities of blood. The pallet upon which he rested, and
-the floor underneath,
-were saturated
-with blood,
-and its strong
-flow attested a
-superb physical
-condition&mdash;a
-wonderful vitality.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-635.jpg" width="300" height="262" id="i635"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">LINGG’S LAST WORDS.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>During all the
-operations of the
-surgeons Lingg
-remained perfectly
-conscious and
-eyed them as
-complacently as
-though they had
-been at work on
-some other patient.
-He showed
-no concern and
-never quivered. While calmly stretched on the cot, he closely observed all
-who entered the room and seemed surprised at their consternation. It was
-only when some police officers entered to look at him that he showed signs
-of nervousness, and then, with pantomimic flourishes of his hand, he indicated
-that he desired them to leave. The signs were correctly interpreted;
-for the moment the officers left he quieted down easily, and a grateful look
-from his eyes expressed his satisfaction. John C. Klein, who afterwards
-became famous for the active part he took in the troubles in the island of
-Samoa&mdash;readers will remember that there was a great deal of diplomatic
-correspondence on account of them, that there was even talk of war between
-the United States and Germany&mdash;was at that time a reporter for one of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_636" id="Page_636">[636]</a></span>
-Chicago dailies, and in that capacity was present in the room. While still
-being operated upon, Lingg beckoned to Klein for pencil and paper, and,
-these being handed to him, he wrote, in German: “Please support my back.
-When I lie down I cannot breathe.” That piece of paper, stained with
-Lingg’s blood, is still in existence, and is shown in the engraving.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-636.jpg" width="250" height="313" id="i636"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">JOHN C. KLEIN.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Everything was done to alleviate Lingg’s sufferings, but he died at 2:45
-that afternoon.</p>
-
-<p>The bomb-maker’s remains were placed in a neat coffin, and Bailiff
-Eagan was detailed to critically examine Lingg’s cell. It was discovered
-that when Lingg had lighted the bomb, which had been placed firmly
-between the teeth, he was reclining on his cot, with his head near the wall.
-This was indicated by the fact that Eagan found portions of the man’s
-mustache, pieces of the tongue and shreds of flesh clinging firmly to the wall
-nearest where the head had rested. A piece of the tallow candle which
-had stood before its tragic use in a corner of the cell was found in the bed,
-and the wall where the head had lain was not only marred by the almost
-direct force of the explosion, but thickly bespattered with blood. All this
-indicated unmistakably the means Lingg had used to light the bomb and
-the position he had assumed when applying the fatal spark.</p>
-
-<p>The bomb used was undoubtedly similar
-to the lot discovered a few days previously.
-But how it became separated and
-in what manner it was concealed and
-smuggled into Lingg’s hands after he had
-been placed in a new cell and put under
-strict surveillance, are matters of conjecture.
-My own theory is that Lingg had
-a confidential friend among the smaller
-class of criminals. To such a friend this
-bomb was intrusted for safe-keeping in the
-event of the discovery of the bombs in his
-own cell, and when they were found he
-relied on that trusted friend to help him
-to escape the gallows. In no other way
-could this bomb have come into the possession
-of Lingg, since the prisoner had
-been searched several times and nothing found upon him. A confederate
-must have carefully kept the bomb and smuggled it to him at the last
-moment. Everything indicated that the bomb had been part of the discovered
-explosives, and its use fully corroborated the opinion I had given to
-Sheriff Matson and Jailor Folz at the time of the find, that the bombs were
-only intended for suicidal purposes and had been brought into the jail for
-no other object. At the time this opinion was given I was severely criticised<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_637" id="Page_637">[637]</a></span>
-by Chief Ebersold and others&mdash;the newspapers especially&mdash;for advancing
-such a theory. They maintained that the bombs had been brought
-in to be thrown at the time of the execution, so as not only to kill all who
-might become spectators, but to enable the Anarchists to escape hanging
-by death in the general destruction around them. A few of the papers even
-went so far as to attribute the opinion to “Schaack’s stupidity.”</p>
-
-<p>The doomed Anarchists were closely watched when it became quite apparent
-that there was no chance of their escaping the gallows either through
-an intervention of the courts or through executive clemency. Before this,
-however, some latitude had been allowed them. They had been watched,
-of course, but the rigorous scrutiny subsequently adopted had not then
-prevailed. Visitors had been admitted, and, although separate conversations
-had not been permitted, prisoners and friends had been close together.
-No contraband articles had ever been noticed, however, the general opinion
-among the jail officials being that, considering the prisoners were so hopeful
-of good results from the labors of their counsel, such a thing as suicide
-was not contemplated by any one of them.</p>
-
-<p>The first thing to arouse Jailor Folz’s suspicion was Engel’s action one
-day about the 1st of November. It appears that at that time Engel was
-very nervous and restless, and secured some morphine to quiet his nerves.
-He took an over-dose, and when charged with having deliberately done so
-with suicidal intent, he stoutly maintained that he had taken too much by
-mistake. Folz thought no man could take such a dose except with a view
-to suicide, and he resolved to keep a close watch on Engel thereafter and
-allow him no medicine save what was administered by a physician. The
-others were also more closely watched after that episode. All were searched
-at stated intervals, as I have already mentioned.</p>
-
-<p>One day, while Parsons was being searched, he was handed a common
-white shirt by Otto Folz, a son of the Jailor. Parsons looked at it for a
-moment and then exclaimed:</p>
-
-<p>“My God! you are not going to put a shroud on a live man?”</p>
-
-<p>After the bomb discovery the doomed Anarchists were removed from
-their old cells and placed on the lower floor, along the tier containing
-Lingg’s cell. Parsons was put in cell No. 7, Fischer, No. 8, and Engel,
-No. 9. When Lingg had been removed to the bath-room, his comrades
-were again subjected to an examination, and their clothes were all changed
-in the Jailor’s office. While this change was being effected, Parsons became
-greatly agitated, and he remarked:</p>
-
-<p>“If I only had one of the bombs Lingg had in his cell, I would make
-very short work of all this.”</p>
-
-<p>Fischer also made a similar remark. He said that he was ready to die
-at any time, and he did not care how he died. He was very defiant, and
-showed that he was in earnest in his expressions.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_638" id="Page_638">[638]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Late in the afternoon of November 10, Gov. Oglesby gave his decision
-on the various applications for mercy. It reads:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="pr2 p1">
-<span class="smcap">State of Illinois, Executive Office, Springfield, Nov. 10.</span></p>
-
-<p>On the 20th day of August, 1886, in the Cook County Criminal Court, August Spies,
-Albert R. Parsons, Samuel Fielden, Michael Schwab, Adolph Fischer, George Engel and
-Louis Lingg were found guilty by the verdict of the jury and afterward sentenced to be hanged
-for the murder of Mathias J. Degan.</p>
-
-<p>An appeal was taken from such finding and sentence, to the Supreme Court of the State.
-That court, upon a final hearing and after mature deliberation, unanimously affirmed the
-judgment of the court below.</p>
-
-<p>The case now comes before me by petition of the defendants, for consideration as Governor
-of the State, if the letters of Albert R. Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel and Louis
-Lingg demanding “unconditional release,” or, as they express it, “liberty or death,” and protesting
-in the strongest language against mercy or commutation of the sentence pronounced
-against them, can be considered petitions.</p>
-
-<p>Pardon, could it be granted, which might imply any guilt whatever upon the part of either
-of them, would not be such a vindication as they demand. Executive intervention upon the
-grounds insisted upon by the four above-named persons could in no proper sense be deemed
-an exercise of the constitutional power to grant reprieves, commutations and pardons, unless
-based upon the belief on my part of their entire innocence of the crime of which they stand
-convicted.</p>
-
-<p>A careful consideration of the evidence in the record of the trial of the parties, as well as
-of all alleged and claimed for them outside of the record, has failed to produce upon my mind
-any impression tending to impeach the verdict of the jury or the judgment of the trial court
-or of the Supreme Court, affirming the guilt of all these parties.</p>
-
-<p>Satisfied, therefore, as I am, of their guilt, I am precluded from considering the question
-of commutation of the sentences of Albert R. Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel and
-Louis Lingg to imprisonment in the penitentiary, as they emphatically declare they will not
-accept such commutation. Samuel Fielden, Michael Schwab and August Spies unite in a
-petition for “executive clemency.” Fielden and Schwab, in addition, present separate and
-supplementary petitions for the commutation of their sentences. While, as said above, I am
-satisfied of the guilt of all the parties, as found by the verdict of the jury, which was sustained
-by the judgments of the courts, a most careful consideration of the whole subject leads me to
-the conclusion that the sentence of the law as to Samuel Fielden and Michael Schwab may be
-modified as to each of them, in the interest of humanity, and without doing violence to public
-justice.</p>
-
-<p>As to the said Samuel Fielden and Michael Schwab, the sentence is commuted to imprisonment
-in the penitentiary for life.</p>
-
-<p>As to all the other above-named defendants, I do not feel justified in interfering with the
-sentence of the court. While I would gladly have come to a different conclusion in regard to
-the sentence of defendants August Spies, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, Albert R. Parsons
-and Louis Lingg, I regret to say that under the solemn sense of the obligations of my
-office I have been unable to do so.</p>
-
-<p class="pr2">
-<span class="smcap">Richard J. Oglesby, Governor.</span></p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">This removed the last hope of the Anarchists. Spies said he had been
-prepared for the worst, and that he had only signed the petition of Fielden
-and Schwab for clemency at the solicitation of Miss Van Zandt.</p>
-
-<p>On the next morning after the Governor’s decision Fielden and Schwab
-were removed to the penitentiary at Joliet.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_639" id="Page_639">[639]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">The Last Hours of the Doomed Men&mdash;Planning a Rescue&mdash;The Feeling
-in Chicago&mdash;Police Precautions&mdash;Looking for a Leak&mdash;Vitriol for a Detective&mdash;Guarding
-the Jail&mdash;The Dread of Dynamite&mdash;How the Anarchists Passed their Last
-Night&mdash;The Final Partings&mdash;Parsons Sings “Annie Laurie”&mdash;Putting up the Gallows&mdash;Scenes
-Outside the Prison&mdash;A Cordon of Officers&mdash;Mrs. Parsons Makes a Scene&mdash;The
-Death Warrants&mdash;Courage of the Condemned&mdash;Shackled and Shrouded for the
-Grave&mdash;The March to the Scaffold&mdash;Under the Dangling Ropes&mdash;The Last Words&mdash;“Hoch
-die Anarchie!”&mdash;“My Silence will be More Terrible than Speech”&mdash;“Let the
-Voice of the People be Heard”&mdash;The Chute to Death&mdash;Preparations for the Funeral&mdash;Scenes
-at the Homes of the Dead Anarchists&mdash;The Passage to Waldheim&mdash;Howell
-Trogden Carries the American Flag&mdash;Captain Black’s Eulogy&mdash;The Burial&mdash;Speeches
-by Grottkau and Currlin&mdash;Was Engel Sincere?&mdash;His Advice to his Daughter&mdash;A Curious
-Episode&mdash;Adolph Fischer and his Death-watch.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">THE Anarchists of Chicago now became desperate. Many of them had
-calculated on the worst for some time, and they had formed into small
-groups to be better able to plot for their imprisoned friends with the least
-possible danger of police detection. While assembling in large bodies,
-they had discovered that many of their secrets were in my possession, and
-after the decision of the Illinois Supreme Court they realized that it was
-essential to the success of any movement they might decide upon to keep
-all knowledge of it within the circle of true and trusted men. The leading
-lights in the order accordingly resorted to private residences, as I have
-already stated.</p>
-
-<p>Sometimes they were joined in meetings of a general nature by some
-who had previously been anti-Anarchists, but who since the decision of the
-Illinois court had secretly expressed sympathy with the condemned men.
-Becoming emboldened by what they thought to be a growing sentiment in
-favor of the prisoners, these secret abettors finally threw off their masks,
-and, openly expressing their views, many of them speedily lost the esteem
-and friendship of neighbors by whom they had previously been highly regarded.
-With a view to aiding to effect a general change in public sentiment,
-some of these sympathizers even threw open their doors to Anarchists,
-as I have indicated in a prior chapter. But whenever some risky project
-was contemplated the small bands of conspirators saw to it that none but
-avowed and tried adherents of the red flag were present.</p>
-
-<p>It was at this time that the police discovered the plot to release the
-doomed men, and one day Detective Schuettler learned of a place where
-numerous secret conferences were being held from time to time. He was
-under orders of Mr. Ebersold, who had taken him away from the Chicago
-Avenue Station with a view to crippling my force, but nevertheless the
-detective found a way, even while engaged in other directions, to keep a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_640" id="Page_640">[640]</a></span>
-keen eye on secret revolutionary movements. He had been too long in the
-service to lose his interest in things Anarchistic, and he resolved to get at
-the bottom of the rumored clandestine gatherings.</p>
-
-<p>Learning that star-chamber sessions were being held in the room of an old-time
-Communist named Theodore Appell, at No. 234 West Division Street,
-Schuettler at once rented an adjoining room. In this apartment there was
-a closet, and after reconnoitering about the premises at a favorable opportunity,
-he discovered that by cutting a hole in the closet wall he could
-obtain a good view of those who might be present at future meetings. A
-hole was accordingly cut. This gave him a fine chance both to see and
-hear. Everything worked nicely for a time, but finally the conspirators
-became suspicious, as they found their secrets getting beyond their own
-circle, and, satisfied that the leakage was not due to members in their own
-set, they instituted a search. The result was that the officer’s peep-hole was
-discovered. That closed their deliberations in that place, but they resolved
-to take revenge on the man who had thus obtruded his attentions upon
-them. For this purpose they decided to hold a mock meeting in the
-old quarters, and then and there, when they were satisfied that the concealed
-individual had his eye at the hole, to discharge a syringe filled with
-vitriol. This would destroy the eye-sight as well as disfigure for life the
-face of the man who had dared to intrude on their secrecy. I learned of this
-plan, however, and warned the officer. Schuettler never again went near
-that closet. But he had already gathered all the information that was
-needed.</p>
-
-<p>The conspirators left the place like young birds leave the old nest, with
-a flop and a flourish, never to return; but we had learned that they had in
-view the liberation of their friends in jail.</p>
-
-<p>This information put the authorities on their guard, and it is possible
-that this timely discovery averted a jail delivery.</p>
-
-<p>But the Anarchists did not lose hope. When they learned that the
-United States Supreme Court had refused to interfere with the execution
-they became more desperate than ever. Where before they had been
-revengeful, they now were frantic, and their schemes now embraced more
-drastic and destructive measures. They considered propositions looking to
-a blowing-up of the jail building with dynamite, and in the turmoil and
-confusion incident to the wreckage of a part of the building and the
-destruction of life within they contemplated a rush to the untouched
-portion containing their comrades, whom they would thus rescue from the
-hands of the law. This diabolical plot was earnestly debated, and about
-the time the reds became satisfied that the Governor would not step in
-between their convicted leaders and the gallows they even went so far as
-to advocate an explosion that would not only rob the gallows of its victims,
-but kill those whom curiosity might assemble about the jail a short time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_641" id="Page_641">[641]</a></span>
-before the expected event. If their comrades must die, they should not
-die alone. The disgrace of an execution must be averted, and a terrible
-lesson imparted to the enemies of Anarchy.</p>
-
-<p>But the jail officials joined me in most rigid measures to prevent the
-execution of each and all of the plots, and officers and detectives were
-stationed in goodly numbers about the building, night and day, to watch
-the movements of suspicious characters. When the decision of the
-Governor was finally announced
-this vigilance was redoubled, and
-we made sure that no secret
-mines had been constructed under
-any of the sidewalks surrounding
-the building or across under the
-alley on the west side of the jail
-structure.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-641.jpg" width="250" height="346" id="i641"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">THE CHICAGO WATER-WORKS.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>It was not only the liberation
-of the imprisoned Anarchists that
-was aimed at in the numerous
-conspiracies which came to our
-knowledge about this time. One
-plot which was reported to me
-embraced a wanton scheme of incendiarism
-and pillage, and in
-order to facilitate this, it was proposed
-to cut off the water
-supply of the city by demolishing
-the stand-pipe in the
-Water-works tower. In
-some manner the conspirators
-had learned the exact
-spot in the tower where a
-charge of dynamite would
-accomplish the most effective
-execution, and the reports
-brought to me showed that this project was debated most minutely.
-For the space of two months we were required therefore to keep extra guard
-over the source of Chicago’s water supply, and the contemplated attack of
-the reds was not attempted.</p>
-
-<p>While the plots on the outside of the jail were thus met with vigilance,
-the doomed conspirators within appeared quiet and resigned. They received
-the Governor’s decision with extraordinary composure, and, having
-felt throughout that day that they must face the inevitable on the morrow,
-they busied themselves in arranging their earthly affairs, writing letters<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_642" id="Page_642">[642]</a></span>
-to friends and relatives and giving directions as to the disposition of personal
-matters and the publication of their autobiographies and other manuscripts.
-Early in the evening they received their immediate friends and
-relatives to bid them farewell, and through all that trying ordeal they
-remained unmoved. Tears coursed down the blanched faces of wives, sisters
-and daughters as the last loving words were spoken, but no emotion
-of despair or grief seemed to agitate the men. They were solemn and stoical
-in their demeanor, and their efforts were mainly directed to administering
-words of cheer and consolation. When the final parting had taken place,
-they returned to their cells, and their last night on earth was varied with
-letter-writing and chats with the death-watch. None of them retired early.
-Parsons did not seek his couch till after midnight, and then it was some
-time before the rapid thoughts coursing through his brain would permit
-him to sleep. Before morning he broke the stillness of his surroundings by
-singing a favorite song of his earlier days&mdash;“Annie Laurie.” The clear
-tones echoing down the corridor startled all then awake, and prisoners and
-death-watch eagerly inclined their heads to catch every word and note.
-When Parsons drew near the closing stanza, his voice tripped and hesitated,
-unmistakably showing that his feelings were giving way to the recollections
-of former times.</p>
-
-<p>Spies lay down to rest at a late hour, but his thoughts, as he chatted with
-his death-watch, seemed busy with the events that had brought him to a
-murderer’s doom. He denounced the verdict as iniquitous, and declared
-that the people would shortly see the error of hanging men for seeking the
-welfare of the laboring classes.</p>
-
-<p>Fischer was the quietest and most self-composed of all, and he had very
-little to say even to his death-watch. He soon apparently fell into a slumber
-and seemed to rest easily.</p>
-
-<p>Engel was also remarkably self-possessed, and he was the last to retire
-to his couch&mdash;not because of thoughts of the morrow occupying his mind,
-but for another reason, as will appear further along.</p>
-
-<p>During the latter part of the night, if any one of them had happened to
-be awake, the horrible preparations for the execution could have been
-distinctly heard. Around the corner, in the corridor north of the one in
-which their cells were located, the gallows were being placed in position,
-and, even though the sounds of the hammer were subdued, the echo plainly
-told the character of the work the carpenters were engaged upon. It was
-the same scaffold on which the three Italians had two years before atoned
-for the death of a murdered countryman, and on which the murderer
-Mulkowsky had also paid the penalty for his foul crime. It was a large
-structure&mdash;large enough to have dropped seven men had the original
-sentence of the trial court been carried into full execution. At the end of
-each rope one hundred and eighty pound weights were attached, so as to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_643" id="Page_643">[643]</a></span>
-give a heavier fall, and, thus arranged, by daylight the trap of death was
-ready for its victims.</p>
-
-<p>When morning dawned, the four Anarchists arose early, but each seemed
-to have had a restful night. Their demeanor had not changed perceptibly
-from that of other mornings. After their ablutions they perused the morning
-papers and subsequently partook of breakfast, brought in from a neighboring
-restaurant. They ate quite heartily, and then each turned his attention
-again to letter-writing. Their communications were mainly directed to
-their families and to friends in the city, and some to Anarchists in other
-parts of the country, and very nearly the last they penned were directed to
-the Sheriff and to the Coroner and had reference to the disposition of their
-bodies and personal effects after death.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-643.jpg" width="200" height="248" id="i643"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">CANUTE R. MATSON.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>During the fleeting morning hours, the Anarchists were visited by the
-Rev. Mr. Bolton, of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Chicago,
-who came to assist in their spiritual preparation for death, but while each
-received him courteously, they all declined
-his kindly proffered ministrations. They
-had no faith in the gospel and frankly told
-the clergyman that they did not desire his
-services. They wanted to die as they had
-lived, with no faith in God or man as exalted
-above general humanity. Some of them
-even went into discussion with the clergyman,
-stoutly combatting every point he made
-to reach their hearts; but the talk always
-ended as it had begun&mdash;in a positive refusal
-to accept any spiritual guidance or advice.
-The Rev. Mr. Bolton was forced to retire
-without having made any impression, and
-the men treated the whole matter afterwards
-in a most indifferent and flippant manner.</p>
-
-<p>While the unfortunates on the inside were apparently unmoved by their
-impending fate, commotion and excitement prevailed on the outside of the
-jail. At a very early hour in the morning a contingent of the police force,
-numbering three hundred men, was detailed to preserve order and keep away
-from the immediate vicinity of the building all persons not having proper
-credentials or not properly vouched for. Across Michigan and Illinois
-Streets, on the east side of Clark Street, and on Dearborn Avenue at its
-intersections with the two first-named streets, stout ropes were stretched,
-and within the inclosure thus formed and at the barriers squads of policemen
-were marching up and down with glistening bayonets and Winchester
-rifles. There were also policemen in and about the Criminal Court and
-jail building and on the roof, commanding the streets below in all directions.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_644" id="Page_644">[644]</a></span>
-There was thus a most complete arrangement to meet any unexpected
-attack or any violent hostile demonstration.</p>
-
-<p>As the hour approached for the execution the streets beyond the ropes
-became crowded with people of all grades and descriptions, impelled by
-curiosity; but they were all kept moving by policemen scattered along the
-thoroughfares amongst them, so that no groups might gather and under the
-excitement of the moment precipitate a row or a riot. Along toward ten
-o’clock Mrs. Parsons, dressed in mourning and accompanied by her two
-children, presented herself at the ropes and demanded admittance to see
-her husband “murdered by law.” She was, of course, delicately refused,
-and then she endeavored to create a scene, but the police promptly called
-a patrol wagon and sent her to the Chicago Avenue Station, where she was
-detained until after the execution. During the forenoon thousands of people
-passed in the vicinity of the building, but the only satisfaction they
-received for their pains was a sight of the somber walls of the jail at a distance.
-Taking the crowd as a whole, it was remarkably orderly, although
-there was more or less subdued muttering among the Anarchists who had
-sought the vicinity only to find themselves ordered to “move on.” These
-generally sought solace for their wounded feelings in neighboring saloons,
-where they cast dire imprecations upon the police, promising to be avenged
-in time.</p>
-
-<p>Within the jail everything was quiet, and, except for the presence of
-those who had come to witness the execution, there seemed to be no special
-indication of the tragedy to be enacted. The officials moved about quietly
-while making the preliminary arrangements, and the unfortunate Anarchists
-smoked, wrote hasty notes and chatted at intervals with their attendants.</p>
-
-<p>At 11:30 o’clock Sheriff Matson, accompanied by Deputies Hartke,
-Cleveland, Spears and Peters, County Physician Moyer and Jailor Folz,
-started from the jail office, and repaired to the cell occupied by Spies. The
-iron-barred door was opened, and Spies advanced to meet the Sheriff.
-Mr. Matson at once proceeded to read the death warrant. Spies listened
-with folded arms, and there was no indication of nervousness nor trace of
-emotion. His feelings could not be divined from his demeanor. The facial
-muscles remained unmoved, and no color rose to flush the usual paleness
-of the cheeks, nor was the pallor of his face heightened when the last fearful
-words of the warrant had been read. The Sheriff was visibly agitated,
-and his voice was at times tremulous. On the conclusion of the reading
-Spies merely bowed his head slightly, and then stepped out into the corridor
-in obedience to the deputies’ request. Around his chest was placed a leather
-belt about an inch and a half wide, with which to pinion his arms just above
-the elbows, and his hands were handcuffed behind his back. Then a white muslin
-shroud was thrown over him and fastened slightly at the neck and waist.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_645" id="Page_645">[645]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-645.jpg" width="400" height="641" id="i645"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">THE EXECUTION.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_646" id="Page_646">[646]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>While these details were being carried out, the Sheriff was at Fischer’s
-cell, and the same programme of preparation was gone through with. The
-Anarchist was manacled, pinioned and shrouded, and he gazed upon each
-operation with curious interest, but with no sign of perturbation or weakness.
-Now and then he faintly smiled, and he seemed more concerned
-about the trepidation of the deputies than about his own situation.</p>
-
-<p>Meantime the death warrant had been read to Engel, who was soon
-arrayed in the habiliments of death. He stood it all unflinchingly, and
-seemed even less concerned than his comrades. There was also an entire
-absence of affected indifference.</p>
-
-<p>Parsons was the last to step out of his cell, and, as he stood receiving
-the ghastly paraphernalia, he endeavored to display no sign of fear. He
-bore up well, although he evidently wrestled with his inner feelings.</p>
-
-<p>The solemn march to the scaffold began with the Sheriff in the lead.
-In the east corner of the north corridor stood the scaffold. Below and
-before it were benches for the two hundred spectators. The death procession
-moved slowly and with measured tread. As it neared the corner the
-footfalls became distinctly audible to those assembled. When the shuffling
-of feet on the iron stairway leading to the first gallery, which was on a
-level with the gallows, was heard, the buzz of conversation ceased, and
-every eye was centered on the spot whence the Anarchists would be first
-seen. It was only a moment, and then Spies, Fischer, Engel and Parsons,
-one after the other, came into view, each with a deputy by his side. Having
-reached their respective places on the trap, they faced the spectators.
-Spies, the moment he caught sight of the audience, gave it a contemptuous
-look, and thereafter his eyes seemed centered on some invisible object down
-the corridor above the heads of the spectators. Fischer merely looked
-down for a moment on the uncovered heads below, and then his eyes wandered
-in various directions. Engel seemed the most unconcerned of all,
-and swept the audience with a cool glance as though it might have been
-composed of friends. Parsons was superbly stiff, and his gaze, after a snap
-at those below, firmly set itself in the direction of the cell tiers.</p>
-
-<p>As soon as those on the platform had taken the positions assigned, the
-lower limbs of the four Anarchists were pinioned. This was done very
-quickly. The nooses dangling overhead were then lifted from their hooks,
-and Spies was the first to have the rope placed around his neck. The
-noose had been slipped a little too tight, and, noticing the uneasiness it gave
-him, the deputy instantly loosened it a trifle. Spies gave a faint smile in
-acknowledgment of the kindness and again seemed at ease. Not a tremor
-was visible during the adjustment of the rope. Another deputy next placed
-the rope around the neck of Fischer, who, to facilitate its proper adjustment,
-bent his tall form slightly and received it with head inclined until the knot
-rested in its proper place under the left ear. Engel received the noose as
-if it had been a decoration about to be placed upon his shoulders by friendly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_647" id="Page_647">[647]</a></span>
-hands, and several times he turned his head around to exchange a word or
-two with the deputy, accompanying his whispered utterances with a smile.
-Parsons stood unmoved when his turn came, and appeared entirely indifferent
-to the operation. Loose-fitting white caps were now produced,
-and, as these came in sight, Fischer and Engel turned their heads slightly
-to the left and spoke a second to their respective deputies. Spies first,
-Fischer next, then Engel, and Parsons last, was the order in which the caps
-were adjusted, and the heads had no sooner been enveloped, shutting out
-forever the light of day, than all knew that the fatal moment had arrived.
-During all the preliminary preparations not a relaxation of nerve or an
-expression of anguish or despair had been observed. Now the tension of
-silence was painful. But suddenly there broke from the lips of Spies an
-exclamation that startled the auditors as if by a shock.</p>
-
-<p>“You may strangle this voice,” said he, in clear but subdued tones, “but
-my silence will be more terrible than speech.”</p>
-
-<p>Spies had scarcely uttered his last words, when Fischer shouted:</p>
-
-<p>“This is the happiest moment of my life. <i>Hoch die Anarchie!</i>”</p>
-
-<p>Engel immediately caught up the sentiment, and in a strong voice, and
-with a pronounced German accent, cried:</p>
-
-<p>“Hurrah for Anarchy!”</p>
-
-<p>Parsons then lifted his voice, and in firm, deliberate tones, exclaimed:
-“O men of America!”</p>
-
-<p>Then, lowering his voice to an appealing accent:</p>
-
-<p>“Mr. Sheriff, may I be permitted to say a few words?”</p>
-
-<p>Raising his voice again, without waiting for an answer, and continuing in
-the same breath, he said:</p>
-
-<p>“O men of America, let the voice of the people be heard.”</p>
-
-<p>The last word had barely escaped his lips, when the signal was given to
-the unknown and hidden man in the sentry-box back of the platform, the
-rope controlling the trap was cut, and four bodies shot downward into space.
-The intervals between the adjustment of the caps, the utterances and the
-drop were only a few moments, but they were moments that seemed like
-hours. The first instant after the drop, the bodies all seemed motionless,
-but immediately one after the other began violent contortions, the limbs contracted,
-the breasts swelled with spasms, and the arms shook convulsively.
-It was fully eight minutes before the last was limp and lifeless. The bodies,
-however, were left hanging for twenty-six minutes, and then they were
-deposited in plain coffins, ready to be turned over to their relatives. The
-jury selected by the Sheriff to pass upon the death, as required by law, next
-viewed the remains and then signed the usual legal certificates. Those
-composing the jury were Dr. Ferdinand Henrotin, Dr. Denslow Lewis,
-Dr. G. A. Hall, Dr. Harry Brown, Dr. J. B. Andrews, Dr. M. W. Thompson,
-John N. Hills, William B. Keep, ex-Sheriff John Hoffman, Edwin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_648" id="Page_648">[648]</a></span>
-Wynn, George Lanz, George M. Moulton, John L. Woodward and H. L.
-Anderson.</p>
-
-<p>It was subsequently ascertained that the necks of none of the Anarchists
-had been broken, and that death had come in each case through strangulation.</p>
-
-<p>Within an hour and a half the coffins were removed, the bodies of Spies,
-Parsons and Fischer being receipted for by a committee of the Central
-Labor Union, and those of Engel and Lingg by a friend of Mrs. Engel. The
-body of Lingg had reposed in the women’s department of the jail. Shortly
-before his death, the bomb-maker had expressed the wish that his body be
-allowed to repose by the side of Engel’s, and that it be given in charge of
-Engel’s family, as he himself had no relatives in America.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-648.jpg" width="200" height="271" id="i648"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">JOHN A. ROCHE.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The remains of Spies, Fischer and Parsons
-were taken to an undertaking establishment
-at No. 596 Milwaukee Avenue,
-and those of Engel and Lingg to a similar
-place at No. 186 Milwaukee Avenue, and
-there costly and ornamental coffins were
-provided after the bodies had been first
-embalmed. Subsequently they were removed
-to the houses of their respective
-relatives, and arrangements were at once
-set on foot for a tremendous demonstration
-at the funeral, the following Sunday.</p>
-
-<p>No sooner had each coffin been taken
-to the relatives than hundreds of Anarchists
-flocked in to view the remains. Others,
-too&mdash;men, women and children, moved
-by morbid curiosity&mdash;crowded in to view
-the dead. The families were in almost
-constant tears, and deep were the lamentations over the fate of their loved
-ones. Mrs. Parsons was in paroxysms of grief and had to be almost forcibly
-removed from beside the bier of her husband. Her curses were loud
-against the police, and she strenuously refused all comfort. At the Spies
-residence there were copious tears, and no one was more deeply moved
-than Miss Van Zandt. The sorrow of Mrs. Engel and her daughter was
-more subdued, but nevertheless keen and poignant. It was the same at
-Fischer’s home.</p>
-
-<p>Meantime the preparations for the funeral went on, and the committee
-having it in charge determined that it should be conducted with the utmost
-pomp, ceremony and display. They desired that on this occasion the red
-flag should again be unfurled and wave over the bodies of those whom they
-regarded as martyrs. The police learned of it, and when a committee<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_649" id="Page_649">[649]</a></span>
-waited upon Mayor Roche to secure the necessary permission for the procession,
-he set his face firmly against the red flag.</p>
-
-<p>“The American flag,” said he, “is good enough for us, and it is good
-enough for you. If that flag don’t suit you, I am sorry. No red flag shall
-ever take its place while I am Mayor of Chicago.”</p>
-
-<p>Sunday, November 13, came, and every Anarchistic organization in
-the city turned out to attend the funeral. The procession, which started at
-an early hour, first called at the Spies residence, No. 154 Bryson Street,
-for the coffin of the editor, and then moved on to Mrs. Parsons’ residence
-at No. 785 Milwaukee Avenue. After the coffin of Parsons had been
-placed in the hearse, Fischer’s house was reached, and next that of Engel,
-and when all the hearses were in line, the entire funeral procession proceeded
-down Milwaukee Avenue, thence to Lake Street, and thence along
-Fifth Avenue to the depot of the Wisconsin Central Railway. At each of
-the houses of the executed Anarchists the cortege had been joined by
-friends and by various societies of which the dead had been members, and
-with these accessions the procession, as it finally moved on to its destination,
-numbered not less than six thousand. The hearses were loaded down
-with flowers, wreaths and other floral tributes, and each was followed by
-carriages containing the mourners. Close behind the Spies hearse was a
-carriage containing Mrs. and Miss Van Zandt, mother and daughter, and
-Mrs. Spies, the mother, and Miss Gretchen, the sister of the deceased. All
-along the line of march, the sidewalks were thronged, and there must have
-been over fifty thousand persons who viewed the procession as it passed.
-Hundreds had gathered at the residences before the procession started, and
-when they joined the throngs already on Milwaukee Avenue the streets
-became almost impassable. Policemen were stationed at the various street
-corners, and these gave the processionists ample room to move unimpeded.
-The procession did not lack music, several bands having been engaged,
-and the “Marseillaise” and “Annie Laurie” were the airs most frequently
-heard.</p>
-
-<p>The absence of the red banner on the street was commented on, but
-with a seeming defiance of the Mayor’s orders two red flags decked the
-coffins of Engel and Lingg. What was still more significant was the fact
-that not a single flag of the Union was borne by the procession. It was
-only when the Anarchists reached Lake Street that the red, white and blue
-was unfurled to the breeze, and then it was done, not by an Anarchist, but
-by Howell Trogden, a veteran of the civil war. It was a small emblem in
-size, and of cheap material, but he held it high above his head and proudly
-carried it before the cortege, clear down to the depot, greatly to the discomfiture
-and chagrin of the reds. When remonstrated with by some one
-who was in the crowd that had gathered about him and cheered him on the
-way, he defiantly exclaimed in plain, though perhaps not elegant, language:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_650" id="Page_650">[650]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“What, furl the ensign of the nation I fought for? Not much! You
-bet your life, I’ll carry this flag and I’ll kill the first man who tries to wrest
-it from me. I’ll shed my blood to keep it there.”</p>
-
-<p>And the flag was kept there.</p>
-
-<p>Arriving at the depot, the various organizations boarded the trains in
-waiting, and shortly after one o’clock all were under way to Waldheim Cemetery,
-situated some nine miles west of Chicago. It was a gloomy, cold day,
-but nevertheless an immense concourse of people followed the remains to
-the vault in which they were temporarily deposited. Those who had immediate
-charge of the funeral arrangements were Frank A. Stauber, H.
-Linnemeyer, George Schilling, R. M. Burke, Julius Leon, Edwin Goettge,
-Charles F. Seib, Ernst Litzman, H. Ulharn, F. G. Bielefeld, William
-Urban, Dr. Ernst Schmidt and T. J. Morgan, all members of the Defense
-Committee and the Amnesty Association.</p>
-
-<p>After the coffins had been placed in the vault, Capt. W. P. Black took a
-position near the entrance and delivered the funeral oration. In concluding
-his address, he said, speaking of a day “when righteousness should reign”:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“We look forward to that day. We hope for it. We wait for it, and
-with such a hope in our hearts can we not bring the judgment of charity to
-bear upon any mistakes of policy or action that may have been made by any
-of those who, acknowledging the sublime and glorious hope in their hearts,
-rushed forward to meet it? We are not here this afternoon to weep. We
-are not here to mourn over our dead. We are here to pay by our presence
-and our words the tribute of our appreciation and the witness of our love.
-I loved these men. I knew them not until I came to know them in the time
-of their sore travail and anguish. As months went by and I found in the
-lives of those with whom I talked the witness of their love for the people,
-of their patience, gentleness and courage, my heart was taken captive in
-their cause. For this I have no apology. If any of you feel that the tears
-are coming listen to the last words spoken by one of these, our dead.</p>
-
-<p>“‘Go not to my grave with your mourning, with your lamentations and
-tears, with your forebodings and fears. When my lips are dumb, do not
-thus come. Bring no long train of carriages; no hearse with waving
-plumes, with the gaunt glory of death illumed; but with hands on my heart
-let me rest. Ye who are left on this desolate shore, there still to suffer
-alone, deeply do I pity you. For me no more are the hardships, the bitterness,
-heartache and strife, the sadness and sorrow of life, but the glory
-of the divine, that is mine. Poor creatures, afraid of the darkness, who
-groan at the sight of the anguish in our silent night, go to my tomb. Peal
-no solemn bell&mdash;I am well.’</p>
-
-<p>“It has been said that these men knew no religion. I repel the charge.
-I know but one religion&mdash;the religion which seeks to manifest itself by its
-service of God&mdash;or of the supreme good&mdash;by its service of humanity in its
-anguish and its hours of despair. And one of these, our dead, while within
-the very gloom of approaching death, gave in these words: ‘My religion
-is this: To live right. To do right is to live right, and the service of
-humanity is my worship of God.’</p>
-
-<p>“I remember that back in the centuries it was written in words that shall<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_651" id="Page_651">[651]</a></span>
-never perish: ‘He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is
-righteous.’ There is no conception possible to humanity of that which we
-call God other than the conception which sets our life aflame in the service
-of our fellow-men. But I must not keep you. There is no necessity for multiplying
-words in such a presence as this. There are times when silence is
-more terrible than speech; when men moving to the supreme issue of life
-can say, standing with their feet on earth and their hands reaching out into
-the unknown, in a sublime burst of enthusiasm: ‘This is the happiest
-moment of my life’ (the last words of Fischer), and then in that hour can
-cheer for the cause to which they have given their lives (as Engel did), and
-men in that hour, forgetting themselves, can speak of the voice of the people
-(Parsons’ last words) until utterance is silenced forever, what need is there
-to stand by such men and multiply words?</p>
-
-<p>“I say that a mistake may well be forgotten in the glory of the purpose
-which we condemn&mdash;it may be through undue haste. I say that whatever
-of fault may have been in them, these, the people whom they loved and in
-whose cause they died, may well close the volume and seal up the record
-and give our lips to the praise of their heroic deeds and their sublime self-sacrifice.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Some weeks afterwards arrangements were made for the final interment
-of the bodies. A suitable lot had been purchased with money collected by
-the “Defense Committee,” and accordingly on Sunday, the 18th of December,
-1887, the Anarchists were invited out to Waldheim to witness the last
-rites over the dead conspirators. It was a cold, chilling day, and only
-about a thousand people were in attendance. The remains of the five
-Anarchists were removed from the vault, the coffins opened and the bodies
-viewed by all who desired. They were then placed in one grave, and a
-heavy flagstone was lowered and firmly cemented to protect them. The
-orators on this occasion were Mr. Buchanan, of Chicago, Paul Grottkau,
-of Milwaukee, and Albert Currlin, of St. Louis. The tenor of Grottkau’s
-speech may be judged from the following extract:</p>
-
-<p class="pbq p1">“Those cold clods of clay were the first offerings required at our hands,
-but they will not be the last. Our lords believed that with them they could
-slaughter the idea and ideals they represent. They imagined that the fivefold
-gallows would forever choke liberty. How they have succeeded the
-future will show. Let them erect their gallows, put them up by the million,
-and they will never destroy the glorious principles. Not all their revolvers,
-their armories of bayonets and Gatling guns, not all their bristling rows of
-cannon, can conquer us. (‘Bravo!’ ‘Bravo!’) From this land the fame
-of our martyrs and our principles will go out to the whole world. Our strangled
-ones are put at the head of the column. Their names will ever be the
-brightest on history’s page. Party hate or sectional strife cannot dim their
-laurels. They were the champions of degraded and plundered humanity.
-They fought long and manfully for us; they died to serve us; and more
-than that man cannot do. It but remains for us to do our duty as they did
-theirs. We must be moved by their spirit. All mean personal desires must
-depart from us. We must continue our organization. We must be unswervingly
-loyal to the principles they taught us&mdash;the great principles that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_652" id="Page_652">[652]</a></span>
-will free the wretched and enslaved proletarians and drive all injustice from
-the face of the earth. Brothers, they (pointing to the five coffins) have done
-their duty; let us do ours.”</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Currlin closed his address as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“We have been constantly bought, sold and delivered at the ballot-box
-(Applause.) These heroes and true men had well considered the folly of
-relying on the ballot, and with firm hearts and resounding voices had pointed
-out the road to the thinking and the brave.</p>
-
-<p>“They are gone. Shall the sacrifice of these noble lives be fruitful or not?
-It will, it must be. Let the dreadful act cement us together. Let us be
-loftier, firmer than ever. You have your Golgotha. See to it that you have
-your Easter, and have it soon. You owe it to yourselves and your families
-that you ever revere these dead. If at any time you become soul-weary or
-discouraged, make a pilgrimage to this hallowed spot and be reinvigorated
-for the strife. Let the prison, even the gallows, be powerless to overturn
-your purpose. Let us struggle for the right, for justice, freedom, and true
-fraternity until the nations of the earth are of us and with us, until the peoples
-are regenerated, and clean hands and clean hearts have authority to
-rule.” (Applause.)</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">With the final burial of the dead, it may perhaps be well to inquire
-whether one of them continued to believe in Anarchy when he saw that there
-was no escaping from his fate. That one about whose faith there is most
-doubt is Engel.</p>
-
-<p>It is frequently the case that men condemned to death, either on the gallows
-or otherwise, make a powerful effort to die bravely, and that, whatever
-may have been their true feelings, the truth dies with them. It is seldom
-that any one reveals from the bottom of his heart his true sentiments. In
-this case, Engel was a man known to have been sober and sincere, who
-believed that everything he said was true and right, and who expressed his
-opinions freely before all his people. He professed the same sentiments to
-the public up to the moment of his death, his last words being, “Hurrah for
-Anarchy!” Yet he felt differently. It is a well-known fact that people sentenced
-to death adhere until the last second to the position that they are
-right in their opinions or doctrines, or they simulate innocence. Now, as to
-Engel, it had been shown by the evidence that he had frequented many
-places at night, to attend Anarchist meetings, and at many of them he delivered
-addresses. On some of these occasions he was accompanied by his
-only daughter, a bright young girl about fifteen or sixteen years of age, and
-she often heard him utter sentiments which she ought not to have heard.
-But the girl could not help it. She was there, and she had to listen. After
-these meetings they would walk home together, and the daughter’s company
-was always a source of great pleasure to Engel. She was also greatly attached
-to her father, and, naturally, whatever she heard him say she regarded as
-true, having the most implicit faith in him. Engel knew all this, and many
-stormy nights she would brave the weather to be at his side at meetings he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_653" id="Page_653">[653]</a></span>
-felt himself obliged to attend. She would cling to his arm, and through
-snow and storm they would face the elements. When Engel’s last night on
-earth came, he asked the Sheriff and Jailor to permit his beloved daughter
-to remain with him during the night, and, the officials having satisfied themselves
-that no sinister purpose was in view, the wish was granted. This was
-the night of November 10, and young Mary kept her father cheerful company
-during the long hours. Engel seemed to have had something on his
-mind, but he refrained from saying anything until shortly before the time
-for her departure. It was evident that Engel had a deep solicitude for her
-welfare, in spite of his pretended stolidity. In theory he had always expressed
-the greatest admiration for Louise Michel, and on every occasion
-he had lauded that Frenchwoman for her bravery in suffering imprisonment
-and readiness to sacrifice her life for Anarchy. But he regarded theory and
-practice as separate and distinct, and in the face of death his thoughts
-concerned themselves
-with the
-future of his dear
-child. Should she
-espouse Anarchy
-and follow in his
-footsteps, taking
-up his work where
-he had left off?
-This is what agitated
-Engel, and
-he soon decided
-the issue. With
-a serious and earnest
-manner, and in
-a very strong voice, he said in German:</p>
-
-<p>“Mein liebes Kind, kümmere dich nicht um Anarchie. Du siehest wie
-es mir geht. Und vergesse diese Worte nicht so lange du lebst.” (Translated:
-“My dear child, do not trouble yourself about Anarchy. You see
-my situation. Do not forget these words as long as you live.”)</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-654.jpg" width="300" height="190" id="i653"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">KIERLAN’S SOUVENIR.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>I am happy to record this to Engel’s credit. He was conscious that he
-had been in the wrong for some time, and he had the manhood to warn his
-daughter not to embrace Anarchy. He wished her to maintain a good
-character and grow up to be a good woman.</p>
-
-<p>The words I have given are true to the letter, just as they were spoken
-by Engel to his daughter, at the time I have stated, and, no matter how
-strenuously Anarchists may deny this, it will still remain the truth. I will
-even add that I have no doubt that Engel’s comrades entertained similar
-sentiments.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_654" id="Page_654">[654]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The other doomed Anarchists, however, kept their own counsel, and no
-one seems to have been able to probe their real feelings. Spies and Parsons
-were decidedly reserved, and Fischer had a severe demeanor, which
-only relaxed to intimate and trusted friends. A slight exception to his rule
-was made in his conduct toward his death-watch, John B. Kierlan. In
-speaking of Fischer, Kierlan, who was a deputy in the jail building, says:</p>
-
-<p>“At the beginning of February, 1887, I was detailed as death-watch to
-Fischer. When I first went on watch Fischer did not care much for my
-company, but after a week or so we got to be friends. He asked me to
-play cards with him, and I often joined him in a game. We played
-for imaginary and invisible beers. Sometimes I would lose, and then
-again he would be the loser. The one who lost generally wanted satisfaction,
-and the next night we would ‘saw off’ the games, and in
-this way we were accustomed to spend our evenings together until
-the last few nights preceding November 11th. Fischer was at this time in
-cell No. 28, second row. He became greatly attached to me, and was
-always pleased to see me. He had more confidence in me than in any other
-officer in the building, and I was with him nearly all the morning of November
-11th. When it was nearly eleven o’clock that morning he said:</p>
-
-<p>“‘Well, John, what about the beer you owe me?’</p>
-
-<p>“I was so greatly astonished that I could not answer him. Then
-Fischer threw his arm around my neck and said:</p>
-
-<p>“‘Dear John, we must part.’</p>
-
-<p>“At the same time he kissed my cheek. This was a trying moment for
-me, as I had become greatly attached to him. While I knew him, he
-never used bad language or said anything unbecoming a gentleman. He
-asked me:</p>
-
-<p>“‘John, will you remember me?’</p>
-
-<p>“‘I said: ‘Yes, but I would like to have something to remember you by.’</p>
-
-<p>“He then pulled out a card from his pocket and wrote these words:</p>
-
-<p>“‘Liberty or death. Adolph Fischer, Cook County Jail, November 11,
-1887.’</p>
-
-<p>“This card was given to me forty-five minutes before he died, and I am
-positive that these were the last words he wrote in his life.”</p>
-
-<p>A <i>fac-simile</i> of the card appears on another page.</p>
-
-<p>The <i>Freiheit</i> of March 16th prints what it calls Lingg’s literary testament.
-It is stated in the introduction to the article that while in prison the
-bomb-maker carved a handsome little casket, which shortly before his death
-he presented to Johann Most as a souvenir. In a secret compartment of
-this casket was contained a small book, on the leaves of which Lingg had
-inscribed his sentiments, and from which the following is extracted:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“What is Anarchy?</p>
-
-<p>“A man-worthy existence for the entire term of life, guaranteed to every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_655" id="Page_655">[655]</a></span>
-one through complete individual liberty, all human needs being supplied by
-means of equal participation in the enjoyment of all the products of the
-community.</p>
-
-<p>“Free society (Anarchy) finds its limits only in those of the earth.</p>
-
-<p>“The object of Anarchy is to secure the greatest possible happiness to all.</p>
-
-<p>“This object is attained through the total extermination of all domination.</p>
-
-<p>“Domination is personified in exploiters (<i>Ausbeuter</i>) and tyrants.</p>
-
-<p>“The extermination of these, in view of their sources of power, can best
-be accomplished by means of dynamite.</p>
-
-<p>“After such extermination the workingmen will organize according to
-their inclinations, for protection and consumption.</p>
-
-<p>“Centralization&mdash;<i>i. e.</i>, subordination of the different groups of production
-and consumption under a clique composed of individuals, or even
-under a majority of society&mdash;is not advisable, because in that way another
-domination would be established, and such would make illusory the stated
-purpose of free society&mdash;Anarchy.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">In writing this book I have endeavored at all times to be fair and honest.
-While I have done everything in my power and made use of every faculty
-which God has given me to ferret out and to combat Anarchy, and while I
-believe now, as I always have believed, that the men who suffered death at
-the hand of justice in the Cook County Jail deserved their fate, I also believe
-that there are those unhanged, and who probably never will be hanged,
-who are morally as guilty, and who deserve even a harsher fate than
-befell the men whose lives the law demanded. For these cowards&mdash;selfish,
-sneaking conspirators as they are, who fight from ambush and take no
-risks&mdash;would not deserve even the sympathy of the poor fools whom they
-lead to ruin. I firmly believe that Engel, Lingg and Fischer were at least
-sincere in their convictions and honest in their belief and in their expressions.
-Spies, I think, was led to his fate by vanity and a consuming desire
-for notoriety.</p>
-
-<p>In my investigations I of course looked carefully into the antecedents of
-all the Anarchists who were arrested by my command, and I will say right
-here that not a dishonest act, as regards the rights of property, was laid to
-the door of any one of them. Lingg, particularly, was scrupulously honest
-and conscientious in his dealings with his fellow-man. The day after the
-Haymarket massacre he found himself penniless, and for that reason refused
-at first to partake of the food offered him at Seliger’s table.</p>
-
-<p>“I cannot partake of what belongs to you and your wife,” he said, “nor
-of what I cannot pay for. You are as poor as I am.”</p>
-
-<p>“You must share with us as long as we have food,” replied Seliger; but
-it was only after considerable urging that Lingg consented to appease his
-hunger.</p>
-
-<p>While apparent bravery in facing death on the gallows counts for nothing&mdash;I
-have seen craven cowards meet their doom like stage heroes&mdash;I
-believe that Lingg, Engel and Fischer would have died calmly and bravely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_656" id="Page_656">[656]</a></span>
-even without the stimulants which are always administered to the condemned
-before the fatal moment, and which were, of course, administered to the
-four men before they were led to the fatal trap which hurled them into eternity.
-Lingg, particularly, during the entire term of his confinement, through
-the long months of the trial, and up to the very day when he so tragically
-took his own life, showed a consistency and a determination which would
-have been heroic had he not been the dupe of designing men who saw in
-the ardor of his temperament and in the resistless force of his enthusiastic
-energy the means to further and carry out iniquitous plots with which they
-had not the courage to openly identify themselves. I repeat again, there
-are those still unhanged, who are even now parading before a credible public
-as apostles of the cause of labor, and whose cowardice keeps them out of
-the reach of law, who deserve the greater share of public odium. Some of
-these, and others like them, are still at work in our midst, and in the midst
-of all communities in which the revolutionists see a chance of making propaganda
-out of differences between employers and employed. I hope that
-one result of my book may be to open the eyes of honest workingmen to the
-fact that those who preach violence and those who stir up trouble and
-intensify discontent are the enemies of honest labor.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_657" id="Page_657">[657]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XXXVII.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">Anarchy Now&mdash;The Fund for the Condemned Men’s Families&mdash;$10,000
-Subscribed&mdash;The Disposition of the Money&mdash;The Festival of Sorrow&mdash;Parsons’ Posthumous
-Letter&mdash;The Haymarket Monument&mdash;Present Strength of the Discontented&mdash;7,300
-Revolutionists in Chicago&mdash;A Nucleus of Desperate Men&mdash;The New Organization&mdash;Building
-Societies and Sunday-schools&mdash;What the Children are Taught&mdash;Education
-and Blasphemy&mdash;The Secret Propaganda&mdash;Bodendick and his Adventures&mdash;“The
-Rebel Vagabond”&mdash;The Plot to Murder Grinnell, Gary and Bonfield&mdash;Arrest of the
-Conspirators Hronek, Capek, Sevic and Chleboun&mdash;Chleboun’s Story&mdash;Hronek Sent
-to the Penitentiary.</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">THE question which will naturally present itself to the reader at this
-time is: What is the present condition of Anarchy in Chicago? Has
-the frightful fate of the convicted conspirators proven a salutary lesson to
-the others, or is the propaganda still maintained?</p>
-
-<p>Unfortunately these questions must be answered in a manner not calculated
-to allay public apprehension.</p>
-
-<p>After the death and the burial of the executed leaders there was a period
-of quietness among the Anarchists. They seemed stunned by the blow
-which had been leveled at them, but the impression soon wore away, and in
-a short time they were as rampant as ever.</p>
-
-<p>Their first work was to provide for the families of the dead, and for this
-purpose a fund of $10,000 was speedily raised. Of this amount, strange to
-say, $4,000 has been invested in four per cent. Cook County bonds. This
-amount was intended as a reserve fund for the support of the families, and
-the rest of the money they are paying out in weekly installments to the
-families. On New Year’s Day of 1888 each of the families was presented
-with $202 in cash, and loans have been made to Mrs. Parsons, Mrs. Fielden
-and Mrs. Engel to the amount of $400 in each case. These loans are deducted
-in small amounts from the weekly allowances to these women.
-Later in the year funds were found to send Mrs. Parsons on a lecturing
-tour to England, an adventure which did not prove a conspicuous success
-if the reports are to be believed, for the English discontents showed marked
-disapproval of Mrs. Parsons’ dynamite appeals.</p>
-
-<p>Money is still being collected for a monument at Waldheim Cemetery
-which shall be the shrine of Anarchist pilgrimages from every part of the
-country. In this connection the revolutionists have established a “Festival
-of Sorrow,” as they curiously call it, upon the anniversary of the execution.</p>
-
-<p>In the proceedings of commemoration held at the cemetery on November
-11, 1888, the most interesting episode was the reading of the following
-letter from Albert R. Parsons to his children, which had, by his instructions,
-remained sealed for a year. It ran as follows:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_658" id="Page_658">[658]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1"><span class="smcap">Dungeon No. 7, Cook County Jail, Chicago, ILL.</span>, November 9, 1887.&mdash;<i>To My
-Darling, Precious Little Children, Albert R. Parsons, Jr., and his Sister, Lulu Eda Parsons</i>:
-As I write this word I blot your names with a tear. We never meet again. Oh, my children,
-how deeply, dearly your papa loves you. We show our love by living <i>for</i> our loved
-ones; we also <i>prove</i> our love by dying, when necessary, for them. Of my life and the cause
-of my unnatural and cruel death you will learn from others. <i>Your father is a self-offered
-sacrifice upon the altar of liberty and happiness.</i> To you I leave the legacy of an honest name
-and duty done. Preserve it, emulate it. Be true to yourselves, you cannot then be false to
-others. Be industrious, sober and cheerful. Your mother! Ah, she is the grandest, noblest
-of women. Love, honor and obey her. My children, my precious ones, I request you to
-read this parting message on each recurring anniversary of my death in remembrance of him
-who dies not alone for you, but for the children yet unborn. Bless you, my darlings. Farewell.</p>
-
-<p class="pr2">Your father,<span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</span><span class="smcap">Albert R. Parsons</span>.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">It was a somewhat disappointing epistle, for all the Anarchists had expected
-a sensational document, as the result of such a theatrical instruction.</p>
-
-<p>On the other hand the people of Chicago have not been idle. A monument
-to the memory of the murdered policemen will soon grace Haymarket
-Square as a lasting memorial to the brave men who fell in the line of duty,
-and as showing the gratitude of the city to its defenders.</p>
-
-<p>The pedestal for the police monument was completed long before the
-figure was ready to be placed. The foundation was begun and finished in
-December, 1888. The cost of the pedestal, with railings, light supports,
-and everything complete, in readiness for the figure, aggregated $5,000.
-The contract price for the pedestal was $3,500. This was increased to
-$4,000 by minor changes and extra work. The railings, electric lights and
-supports, and placing the figure in position, will add another $1,000. The
-figure itself will make the value of the monument $10,000.</p>
-
-<p>The pedestal sits on a circular sub-base of dressed granite, sixteen feet
-nine inches in diameter, elevated two steps above the foundation. A base
-of dressed granite with Ionic cornices rests on the center of this circular
-sub-base. The central cube, decorated with a shield on which is the coat of
-arms of the city, supports a block bearing an inscription giving the date of
-the riot and appropriate sentiments. Worked around these inscriptions
-are branches and leaves of oak, indicative of strength. By a graceful series
-of Ionic cornices the pedestal ascends to the base of the figure, the height
-from the foundation being seven feet six inches. The pedestal is oblong,
-extending north and south across the circular base. Two arms of granite
-extending from the base unite on either side the granite base of the posts
-which support the lights.</p>
-
-<p>The designer of the figure which surmounts the pedestal, and which
-represents a police officer in full uniform with his arm extended, is Charles
-F. Batchelder.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_659" id="Page_659">[659]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-659.jpg" width="400" height="610" id="i659"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">THE HAYMARKET MONUMENT.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_660" id="Page_660">[660]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>All of these are facts directly connected with and growing out of the trial
-of the case. I come now to the present status of Anarchy. The authorities
-have recognized the constant menace which the existence of this conspiracy
-conveyed to the cause of law and order, and consequently the malcontents
-have been watched with unceasing vigilance. Their meetings, their
-plottings, their purposes, their plan of organization and their system of
-propaganda we know nearly as well as they know it themselves.</p>
-
-<p>The Socialists themselves estimate their numbers in Chicago at 75,000
-men, women and children. As Socialism is the parent of Anarchy&mdash;the
-two are identical in their ultimate aims, differing only in tactics&mdash;these
-figures are significant.</p>
-
-<p>The number of Anarchists in Chicago to-day is not far from 7,300
-men and women. Of these there are thirty-five known to us to be desperate
-men, ready to commit murder, arson or any other crime to revenge
-themselves upon the officers and the magistrates who were concerned in
-bringing about the hanging of their leaders. These are the most dangerous
-conspirators in the body, and it may easily be believed that rather close
-attention is paid to their movements. Next to these comes a collection of
-some 275 men who are at heart dynamiters, and who would be ready to
-plunge into a revolt at any moment if they were not held back by the more
-prudent counsels of the others. These men are dangerous. Next to these
-there is a body of about 5,000 Anarchists, who would join in a revolt if they
-could persuade themselves or be persuaded that there was any real chance
-for success; but they are as a rule careful of themselves, and they are not
-going to rush to the gallows if they can help it. Only in a time of great
-public tumult are they to be really feared. I place in still another category
-a body of 2,000 “sympathizers”&mdash;men upon whom neither the Anarchists
-nor society could rely. They are a doubtful class, and might easily be led
-one way or the other by a decided victory on either side in a time of real
-struggle.</p>
-
-<p>Many women are to be found in each of these classifications, from the
-most desperate up. There are about forty “women-workers” so called
-who are engaged in the Anarchic propaganda in the city, six of them
-being lecturers. They are doing a great deal of harm.</p>
-
-<p>The present plans of the reds, as broadly stated by one of the open
-leaders, contemplate the use of every force in society&mdash;“the force of education,
-the force of agitation and the force of arms; the first now and always;
-the second, with great care and judgment; the last, when the time shall
-arrive for a strike at liberty.” The reds throughout the world have learned
-a lesson from the failure of Spies and his companions, and while their aims
-and sentiments are unchanged, their plans have undergone considerable
-modification.</p>
-
-<p>A new system of organization has also been developed. They met at
-first in little groups of five or ten, fearing to gather in larger numbers in the
-excited times following the hanging. It was proposed to organize ward
-clubs, but this was negatived because the politicians would mix up with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_661" id="Page_661">[661]</a></span>
-them to get their votes, and thus destroy the secrecy that they wanted.
-Their demand was for some sort of an organization enabling many people
-to meet together without attracting suspicion or inviting investigation
-by the police, and this they succeeded in doing by getting up a Building
-Society. This was followed by another and another in different parts of the
-town. They charge an initiation of ten cents, none but approved and
-guaranteed Anarchists are admitted, and the societies are working in full
-force, although I doubt whether they will greatly contribute to the material
-improvement of Chicago. The Anarchists are a very quarrelsome lot, and
-they often get into serious disputes with each other, and thus one party, to
-get revenge, would often come to me with information on his enemy. This
-has been stopped by the “Building Association,” which maintains committees
-to settle all quarrels between members.</p>
-
-<p>Aside from a majority of the thirty-two organizations affiliated with the
-Central Labor Union, the reds of late have been propagating the revolutionary
-cause through the following societies:</p>
-
-<p>1. The Workingmen’s Defense Association, composed chiefly of men,
-of which Fred Bentthin is secretary. This same organization raised the
-money to defend the reds who were tried for the conspiracy to assassinate
-Judges Gary and Grinnell, Bonfield and others.</p>
-
-<p>2. The Pioneer Aid and Relief Society, composed chiefly of women.
-This institution came into existence immediately after the arrest of the
-Anarchists in May, 1886.</p>
-
-<p>3. A. R. Parsons Assembly No. 1. This is a reorganization of the
-suspended or expelled Assembly 1307, once known as the Sons of Liberty.
-It has always been a hotbed of Anarchy, and is now composed of Anarchists
-almost exclusively. Its membership is composed of such revolutionary
-lights as Oliver, Holmes, Snyder, Brown, Glasgow, and other
-fire-brands. Snyder and Brown were arrested at the time of the Haymarket
-massacre and held in custody for months.</p>
-
-<p>4. The English branch of the Socialistic Labor party, Waverly Hall,
-122 Randolph Street.</p>
-
-<p>5. The German branch of the Socialistic Labor party, 54 West Lake
-Street.</p>
-
-<p>6. The Socialistic Publishing Society, which controls the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-on the communistic plan and devotes all surplus to the cause of the
-social revolution.</p>
-
-<p>7. The “Arbeiter-Bund,” or Working People’s Confederation, recently
-organized at 636 Milwaukee Avenue. This is the most violent public organization
-of Anarchists in Chicago.</p>
-
-<p>It was the Arbeiter-Bund which, through its attorneys, applied to Judge
-Tuley only a short time ago for an injunction to restrain the police from
-interfering with meetings of Socialists and Anarchists. While the injunction<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_662" id="Page_662">[662]</a></span>
-was not technically granted, still the decision was such as to render
-the police powerless to interfere with their gatherings. The Chancellor’s
-opinion is too lengthy to print here, but it was made on a broad construction
-of the constitutional provision guaranteeing free speech. I am not a
-lawyer, and I will not attempt to say that the learned Chancellor misunderstands
-the law or the Constitution, but it does seem that there ought to be
-some provision which should make it unsafe or impossible for bloody-minded
-revolutionists to preach their foreign doctrine in open defiance of a respectable
-and law-abiding community.</p>
-
-<p>The impudence shown by the Anarchists, extreme Socialists and other
-enemies of society in claiming redress under the law would seem ridiculous
-if it were not contemptible. These agitators shout “throttle the law,” and
-then complain that their meetings are suppressed contrary to law. At their
-meetings, in their speeches, and in other ways they cover the courts and
-judges with opprobrium, and then apply to the courts for restraining orders
-forbidding the police to interfere with their meetings. With yells and
-screeches in foreign tongues they declare that the Constitution shall be
-destroyed, and then complain that they are denied freedom of speech in
-violation of the Constitution. Putting themselves outside the law and demanding
-its destruction, they at the same time demand its protection.</p>
-
-<p>Other forms of public organization are the “Schulgemeinde” of the
-Northwest Side, and the “Arbeiter Bildungs-Verein.” The two last-named
-seem to have for their special object the establishment and maintenance
-of “Sunday schools.”</p>
-
-<p>Of all this more will be said hereafter, but first I will call attention to
-the fact that the organizations named are only what appear on the surface.
-Underlying and controlling all these is the secret organization, which in
-Chicago consists of an “invisible committee.” It must be understood
-that the movement toward the object to which the Internationale looks
-forward&mdash;the social revolution&mdash;is local, national, and international, and
-it is probable that the committee for Chicago was appointed from the
-headquarters of the Internationale in New York, at the suggestion of that
-arch-conspirator and mischief-maker, Johann Most. The “invisible committee,”
-although they have full direction of the movement in Chicago,
-are supposed to be unknown to the mass of the order. They work individually,
-and not as a body, and always quietly. Their identity they hold
-sacredly secret. It is only when open revolutionary work has actually
-begun that they are to come to the front. In the meantime, the open
-workers and agitators report to the individual “invisibles,” and act under
-their advice. The “invisibles” themselves make it a point to practice
-moderation in their public utterances to divert suspicion. The old-time
-centralized organization, the reds believe, led to the detection and conviction
-of their leaders, after the failure of the Haymarket plot, and this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_663" id="Page_663">[663]</a></span>
-it was that made the new plan not only advisable but necessary. Decentralization
-is now the ruling principle.</p>
-
-<p>The public agitators are such people as Currlin, Holmes, Morgan,
-Mikolanda, Grottkau, Mostler, Bergman, G. Smith, Poch, Mittag, Mentzer
-and others. They declare themselves openly as Anarchists and agitators.
-They are of course well known to the police, and consequently
-they are on the look-out not to come in contact with us. They only enlist
-recruits, however. The secret agitators visit public meetings occasionally,
-but they very seldom do any talking. Nobody notices them, and this is
-what they want. They are seldom members of any “Verein,” and they
-form acquaintances on the street, in shops or saloons, but always with
-the utmost caution until they have gained confidence. They meet at
-private houses in parties of three or four, agitating wherever they can
-gain a point. When charged with being Anarchists they deny it, and
-to throw off suspicion some of them even go regularly to church. Among
-these there are fanatics who would do almost anything to gain their ends.
-I know a great many of this class, and I would not believe it if I did not
-know of my own knowledge that they are Anarchists of the purest water.
-They are the most harmless-looking men in Chicago.</p>
-
-<p>The open and public movement still goes on under cover of the cause
-of labor. The plan of campaign is, so far as the public associations and
-meetings are concerned, to teach Anarchy; to create in the minds of Socialistic
-adherents a hatred of all law and of all religion, and to inspire a spirit
-of revenge for the execution of Spies and his comrades. Their teachings
-are carried out by speeches more or less incendiary.</p>
-
-<p>The most potent factor for evil in Chicago to-day, as heretofore, is the
-<i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>. When this paper was first established it was delivered
-secretly through alleyways and at back doors. Now it has a circulation
-of 7,000 copies daily. Time was when the daily tirades of abuse scattered
-broadcast by that sheet were viewed with indifference by the English-speaking
-press of this city. That was in the seed-time of “theoretic”
-and “practical” Anarchy in Chicago. Then the dire meaning of it all
-escaped the bulk of the population. It was said&mdash;and the saying was
-flaunted in the faces of the sullen hordes until it acted like the red
-rag on an infuriated bull&mdash;that all this talk would end where it began&mdash;in
-talk. The paper is more readable and interesting now than it
-ever was. Its present editorial staff is an abler one, and understands better
-on occasion how to convey its meaning without expressing it in so
-many plain words. It comprises not only some of the old-time writers&mdash;men
-like Paul Grottkau and Albert Currlin&mdash;but it has now at its head a
-man of infinitely more cunning and ability than ever distinguished August
-Spies.</p>
-
-<p>Editor Jens Christensen, a native of the formerly Danish province of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_664" id="Page_664">[664]</a></span>
-Schleswig, is a good-looking young German, and bears quite a resemblance
-to his predecessor in personal appearance. He is thoroughly proficient
-not only in German, but also in English, French, and all the Scandinavian
-tongues, is a scientifically trained man, and has at command an
-arsenal of facts, arguments and deductions to be marshaled up in defense
-of his specious pleadings.</p>
-
-<p>Christensen was at one time a Socialist candidate for the German
-Reichstag, and is now in constant and confidential correspondence with
-the leading European prophets of destruction. Although he has been
-in America less than a year, he has inspired in his disciples within that
-short time a degree of confidence which Spies never possessed. He has
-not the easy address of Spies in dealing with a crowd, and he is at all
-times a better, more logical and more forcible writer than orator; but he is,
-for all that, the best public speaker the destructionists of this city have
-within their ranks to-day. He is more suave than impassioned in his
-speech&mdash;reserved and self-possessed, and never at a loss for a reply.
-He is a zealot and a fanatic in the cause he has espoused, and he is probably
-the only Socialist in Chicago who can give a scientific basis for every
-dogma he announces, and a proof for every word he utters.</p>
-
-<p>Since Christensen’s arrival here he has been in a newspaper warfare
-with Johann Most. He attacked Most, charging him with being an injury
-to the cause of the revolution by his bad judgment and radical plans of
-dynamite and other methods for the application of physical force. Most
-has been striking back in his characteristic way, and this has brought
-Christensen into considerable prominence. Moreover, he is a writer with
-great executive ability. He is a man of strong convictions, evident
-courage, but is quite a diplomat, and does not propose to follow his
-“comrades” to the gallows by any slip of the pen or tongue if he can
-help it. Christensen is a Socialist, not an Anarchist, he says, and yet
-he declares with a good deal of frankness that Socialists and Anarchists
-are pretty much the same, so far as the result sought is concerned, the
-only essential differences being in the tactics used to reach the object
-aimed at.</p>
-
-<p>Such a man, it will be readily seen, when once started in the wrong
-path, is a much more dangerous foe than the hot-headed, rather selfish,
-openly ambitious Spies. And he shows his power in nothing better than in
-his manner of conducting the avowed organ of all the destructionists. Since
-his advent, this afternoon sheet has set the ferment of social agitation going
-again until the movement, as a matter of fact, is to-day in reality more formidable
-than it was three years ago, for now it is directed by a cautious,
-self-contained man who weighs every step before advising it, and who in all
-things considers the question of expediency first.</p>
-
-<p>The paper he presides over is a daily proof of his skill and of his capacity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_665" id="Page_665">[665]</a></span>
-for doing harm. It spreads the old doctrine of destruction and social
-upheaval, but it does so in a much more insidious, in a more guarded, and,
-probably, in a more effective manner. There is a general policy laid down,
-and that is never deviated from. Every line that goes into the reading
-columns of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> has to serve a purpose. That purpose is to
-teach a lesson, to serve as one more grain of disgust with the existing state
-of things, to render the reader more weary of the society of to-day. Every
-piece of news is bent to that end&mdash;distorted, falsified, or magnified&mdash;so as
-to “point a moral or adorn a tale.” If a laborer has been cheated out of
-his wages, for instance, by his employer, a general deduction as to all employers
-is made. If a wealthy thief escape more or less merited punishment,
-the sharp edge of sarcasm and of lament over the futility of trying to
-regenerate this world by any but “radical” means is again used. Every
-piece of rascality, in fact, on the part of well-to-do or highly placed men,
-every misstep, every error, every unwise law and every unwise application
-of a wise one&mdash;all of these things and many more are seized and made to
-serve the purpose of this personally smooth and amiable Mephistopheles,
-and are dished up to his benighted readers, peppered, salted and seasoned
-with Chile sauce, to make them palatable.</p>
-
-<p>Thus the paper acts on that vast body of half or wholly discontented, on
-all those who, with or without their own fault, are not as well off as they might
-be, on all those thousands who sympathized or still sympathize with the
-dread fate of the eight Anarchists arrested after the Haymarket slaughter,
-as a constant irritant, distorting everything to their mental eye and keeping
-them forever in an irritable mood and in a sort of self-made purgatory which
-embitters even their hours of rest and recreation. That this sort of effect
-cannot go accumulating in the minds of many thousands of men and women
-and children without finally producing something tangible, an explosion, is
-self-evident and needs no emphasizing. Did space permit, I should like to
-give here extracts to show how insidious and subtle the poison which is
-daily instilled into the minds of these readers.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Currlin, ex-editor of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>, is known as the wandering
-missionary of Anarchy. He is busily engaged in the propagation of revolutionary
-ideas. His style of oratory and the general drift of his sentiments
-may be gathered from quotations heretofore given in this book.</p>
-
-<p>George Schilling would strenuously object to being called an Anarchist.
-But he admits being a Socialist. When asked a short time ago if he
-expected another outbreak as the result of existing revolutionary forces, he
-said:</p>
-
-<p>“I expect something of the kind about the end of the present century&mdash;say
-in ten years. Society is just now dormant, like a river frozen in winter
-time, but some night there will be a mighty crack in the ice, and under the
-warming influences of evolutionary forces there will be a mighty upheaval.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_666" id="Page_666">[666]</a></span>
-There will no doubt be a squall or two before that time, but the great event
-will not come, in my judgment, much sooner. There will be lots of men
-and women who will not be able to see beyond the squall, and they will
-think the time has arrived. It will come, not as the result of a conspiracy
-of Anarchists, but as a conspiracy of all the evolutionary forces of society.”</p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Lucy Parsons is still an active exhorter in the cause. She is simply
-irrepressible, and has made herself obnoxious to the more peaceable and
-conservative Socialists. To the ordinary hearer her harangues would seem
-ridiculous, were it not for the fact that the loss of a husband by death on
-the gallows naturally creates sympathy, even for a fanatic.</p>
-
-<p>“Prison bars nor the scaffold shall ever prevent me from speaking the
-truth,” she exclaimed at a Sunday afternoon meeting of Socialists at
-Waverly Hall a few months ago. “The ballot is useless as a remedy, and
-a change in the present condition of the wage slave will never be brought
-about peacefully. Force is the only remedy, and force will certainly be
-used.”</p>
-
-<p>This meeting had been called to listen to a paper by Prof. Charles
-Orchardson on “Salvation from Poverty.” The speaker, deprecating the
-incendiary arguments and appeals to forceful measures on the part of what
-were known as Anarchists, said that Anarchy never would improve the condition
-of society. He devoted himself principally to the private ownership
-of land, and claimed that more frauds had been committed in that name
-than in any other. Fire and murder were the sole right and title of the
-original owners of the land, and no original robbery could be tortured into
-a righteous transaction. The owner of the land was the owner of the inhabitants.
-Land in Chicago originally worth $1 an acre was now, in some
-localities, worth perhaps $1,000,000 an acre. The people made this value,
-but the land-owner reaped the benefit of the advance the people had created.
-A land speculator was nothing but a land peculator, and held the
-people at his mercy. The three evils of society to-day, the speaker said,
-were private enterprise, the competitive system and private ownership of
-land. The first remedy to be applied was the education of the people.
-Another remedy was to adopt the single-tax theories of Henry George and
-to establish the Australian method of secret voting, so that the employé
-could fearlessly deposit his ballot without fear of discharge from his employer.
-This method would also abolish the buying and selling of votes.
-Then men should be elected to represent the people in the halls of legislation
-and to resist the encroachments of the capitalists and monopolists.
-Private ownership in land should be abolished, and the capitalists should
-be compelled to stop the work of increasing poverty by curtailing the productions
-of the labor of man.</p>
-
-<p>During the discussion which followed the reading of Prof. Orchardson’s
-paper, the ringing voice of Mrs. Parsons was heard in the rear of the hall.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_667" id="Page_667">[667]</a></span>
-She had entered late, and few were aware of her presence, but she was
-greeted with loud applause as she rapidly and defiantly made her way
-to the front of the platform. She said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“I did not hear the beginning of this lecture to-day, but I heard
-it last evening at 599 Milwaukee Avenue. I have heard what he had to
-say about the Anarchists, and I want to say to him and to everybody else
-that it is about time to give the Anarchists a rest. Are there not enough
-of them dead? Do you need to go into their graves and aid the detectives
-in their work of digging up their memories for abuse and obloquy?
-Last night the Professor was asked what remedy he would propose if the
-men elected to the legislature betrayed their trust and sold out their
-poor constituents, and he then said his remedy would be to organize secret
-societies and assassinate the men who proved unfaithful to their trusts.
-He need not deny this, for I have witnesses here to prove that he said
-this. And now to-day he throws his slings at Anarchy. Anarchy, as I
-understand it, is one of the most beautiful theories, and I do not agree
-with the speaker when he favors assassination. I hold human life too
-sacred, and do not believe in assassinating the men who sell out. Before
-they talk about Anarchy let them define it. It is a philosophy which
-they do not, or will not, understand....</p>
-
-<p>“Men talk about revolution as if it were a terrible thing. Every one
-present is a revolutionist because he is poor. Every man who lives in a
-tenement-house and wants to secure a better home is a revolutionist,
-because the beneficial change means a revolution in his very life. I
-know I have to be careful what I say nowadays, but I assert that any
-and all means are justified in order to get rid of the present system of
-wage slavery. (Loud applause.) Any means, I say. If the ballot will
-accomplish that purpose, adopt it; but if it will not, let us adopt some
-more potent means. (Applause.)</p>
-
-<p>“The speaker has argued in favor of Australian laws, but I know the
-same state of society exists there that exists here, and the laws furnish no
-remedy. Does any one suppose that the capitalists&mdash;your masters&mdash;will
-ever permit you to peacefully take their lands from them while they can
-invoke the aid of a policeman’s club or a Gatling gun? The ballot-box
-is useless to reform the evils of society, and there is not a State Socialist
-living who believes that a reform can be brought about peaceably. They
-all admit it, but they claim that it is not policy to say so. I am not afraid
-to say what I believe, whether it leads me to prison bars or the scaffold.
-The capitalists never have relinquished anything until they were compelled
-to, and they will not now, unless they have a change of heart, or
-something of that sort. But go on voting. Vote for what you want, but
-don’t forget that the Bill of Rights gives every man the right to keep and
-bear arms, and when you want to vote take your little musket to the polls
-with you, and then your vote will be counted&mdash;not before. Take the
-ballot; but first put an idea, a strong arm and determination behind,
-and then buy yourselves good Winchester rifles. Then you will be prepared
-to fight for your rights. Men who are armed are bound to be free,
-and you are all wage slaves to-day because you are not.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Here the applause was almost deafening. Mrs. Parsons paused and
-gazed around the room.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_668" id="Page_668">[668]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“I do not care,” said she, “whether there are any policemen or detectives
-here or not, or whether the newspapers want to come out with
-sensational head-lines about me. Go on voting, and in ten years you will
-find yourselves where I am now. You will be no further advanced, and
-then you will have to come to the revolution of force which I advocate now.”</p>
-
-<p>Her voice rang out strong and clear, and as she finished it seemed evident
-from the loud applause that followed that the majority of those present
-were in full accord with her sentiments.</p>
-
-<p>Professor Orchardson then replied to his critic. He claimed that Mrs.
-Parsons had begun by picturing Anarchy as one of the most lovely and
-beautiful conditions imaginable, but before she had finished she had advocated
-murder, force, carbines and every violent measure conceivable.
-She had claimed that Anarchy did not mean war, and in the same breath had
-urged that all means were justifiable to secure it. “A man who undertakes
-to philosophize upon this question,” said he, “soon becomes contaminated
-by that horrible theory Anarchism.”</p>
-
-<p>A few hisses were heard about the room.</p>
-
-<p>“I see I have no sympathy here,” he continued, “and I here declare
-that if I live I will never speak again where Anarchists are admitted and
-permitted to speak.”</p>
-
-<p>Here a storm of hisses and loud cries of “Shame” were heard on all
-sides, and for a moment it seemed as if trouble was imminent. The chairman,
-however, succeeded in restoring order, and the speaker was about to
-continue his remarks, when he was interrupted by Mrs. Parsons.</p>
-
-<p>“Did you not advocate assassination in your lecture last night?” she
-asked.</p>
-
-<p>“I did not. I simply said that if humanity had sunk so low that men
-would sell themselves out, secret societies should be formed for the purpose
-of bringing retribution on the men who had betrayed their trusts.”</p>
-
-<p>“You said assassination,” shouted Mrs. Parsons, “and I can prove it.”</p>
-
-<p>“I never did and never will advocate the vicious, horrible and bloodthirsty
-ideas of the Anarchists, that made it so hard to argue the Socialistic
-question before the people,” concluded the Professor, in evident disgust;
-“and I again repeat that I never will attend another meeting where such
-ideas are advocated.”</p>
-
-<p>As the speaker took his seat, he was warmly cheered by a number
-present, but there was a loud murmur of dissent from the rear of the room,
-where Mrs. Parsons sat surrounded by her friends.</p>
-
-<p>The most conspicuous feature of the propaganda of the Internationale
-in Chicago to-day is the Sunday school movement. There are now four of
-these schools in successful and established operation, and a number of
-others are fairly started.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_669" id="Page_669">[669]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-669.jpg" width="400" height="250" id="i669"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">AN ANARCHIST “SUNDAY SCHOOL.” <span class="smcap wn">Teaching Unbelief and Lawlessness.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_670" id="Page_670">[670]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The first was opened in the spring of 1888, at Lake View, by the
-“Socialistic Turn-Verein.” The second was begun in August, 1888, at
-Jefferson, by the Turn-Verein “Fortschritt.” The third was commenced in
-September, at “Thalia Hall,” by the “Arbeiter Bildungs-Verein” of the
-Northwest Side, and the fourth was started at 58 Clybourn Avenue, by the
-“Arbeiter Bildungs-Verein” of the North Side. The school at Lake View
-is frequented by about 190 children; the school of the Turn-Verein “Fortschritt”
-has from forty to fifty pupils; the school of the Northwest Side was
-visited on Sunday, December 9, 1888, by 230 children, and this Verein will
-have to rent another hall, as the present one is not large enough to accommodate
-all the pupils. The North Side school was attended by about 100
-children on the same day. All schools are under the supervision of the one
-organized on December 9, 1888, at Aurora Turn Hall. The main mission
-of this school is the organization of others. It can easily be seen that the
-schools now established are prospering, because the number of pupils is
-increasing from day to day. The schools are of Socialistic and Anarchistic
-origin. Nothing is taught relating to dynamite or bombs. The German
-language is used in all the schools, and all the ordinary branches of education
-are embraced in the curriculum, but underneath and above all is the
-spirit of contempt for law and religion. The children are instructed that
-religion is nothing but a humbug; that there exists no God and no devil, no
-heaven and no hell, and that Christianity is only a preventive system
-adopted by the capitalists to rule the working people and keep them under.
-After this they are to be taught the spirit of revolution. In all, the main
-point is agitation for Socialism and Anarchy.</p>
-
-<p>As showing the spirit of the Anarchist Sunday schools, I append the
-following appeal for Christmas presents from the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> of December
-7, 1888. It seems to me that it leaves very little to be said, except perhaps
-to point out that 58 Clybourn Avenue is a low-class groggery, and that
-it was in the very room in which the school is held that the Anarchists who
-were to carry out Engel’s plan on the 4th of May, 1886, secured their supplies
-of dynamite and bombs:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="pn1"><i>Christmas Presents for the Scholars of the Sunday School of the North Side.</i></p>
-
-<p>The “Arbeiter Bildungs-Verein” of the North Side held a meeting December 3d, and
-adopted the following: A presentation of Christmas presents and a lottery for the children
-of the Sunday school will be held at 58 Clybourn Avenue on Christmas day. Every one is
-invited who has an interest in taking from the clergy the power over our little ones, and who
-will help us to educate our children to become useful persons&mdash;also parents, their friends
-and business people who are willing to contribute a small sum of money for the benefit of
-this noble cause. Leave your contributions for the presentation of Christmas presents or for
-the dressing of the Christmas tree for the dear little ones until Saturday, December 22, with
-the committee, No. 58 Clybourn Avenue.</p>
-
-<p>Receipts for presents will be published in the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>.</p>
-
-<p class="pr2"><span class="smcap">Arbeiter Bildungs-Verein.</span></p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Dr. E. G. Kleinoldt, who lives at 591 Sedgwick Street, is one of the
-chief teachers. He is an enthusiast in instructing innocent children that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_671" id="Page_671">[671]</a></span>
-there is no God and no hereafter. He tells his small charges that priests,
-and ministers alike are swindlers, and there are in this city fathers who
-bring their children to the rear of a beer saloon on Sundays to be taught
-such doctrine by a drunkard.</p>
-
-<p>On Saturday night, December 1, 1888, a dance was in progress in Yondorf’s
-Hall. Officer Lorch, of my command, called in to see what kind of a
-gathering it was. Entering the hall, he saw Kleinoldt with three young
-men, talking very busily. The officer approached near enough to hear that
-Kleinoldt was talking about dynamite, and finally heard him tell the young
-men how to make bombs, explaining the process in the same manner as
-Engel had done. He also suggested that if his hearers would make bombs
-and put them under “the leafers of policemen,” it would make the “bloodhounds”
-jump. The officer approached Kleinoldt and said:</p>
-
-<p>“This is not an Anarchist meeting. Stop your talk, or I will put you out.”</p>
-
-<p>Kleinoldt made some insulting remarks, and the officer took him by the
-back of the neck and pushed him out of the hall. This was the last of him
-there for that night, but the young men he had been talking to were not
-Anarchists. One of the three followed him out on the sidewalk and there
-met a friend whom he told what Kleinoldt had advised. The newcomer,
-who happened to carry a large turkey, was a little under the influence of
-liquor himself, but was sober enough to oppose Anarchy. He followed
-Kleinoldt, struck him with the turkey, knocked him down and broke his
-eye-glasses, apparently for the purpose of demonstrating to the worthy pedagogue
-that all people who drink too much beer are not necessarily Anarchists.</p>
-
-<p>This man Kleinoldt was interviewed a short time ago by a reporter of
-the Chicago <i>Herald</i>. While other Anarchist pedagogues are loth to communicate
-their plans and doings, Kleinoldt talked readily, and what he said
-seems to me sufficiently interesting to repeat here.</p>
-
-<p>“We do not teach Socialism or Anarchism in our Sunday-schools, and
-the newspapers do us an injustice when they say so,” said Dr. Kleinoldt.
-“The object of our Sunday schools is to keep the children away from the
-influence of the Jesuits, who teach the Bible, religious songs, and church
-doctrine, subjects that are very distasteful to us who are Socialists. I was
-one of the prime movers in the project to organize schools to be held on
-Sundays all over the city, which shall be open to children of all parents who
-are opposed to the hurtful influences of church instruction. While it is
-possibly true that most of those in attendance are the offspring of Socialists
-and Anarchists, still it is by no means restricted to them, for in one school,
-at 58 Clybourn Avenue, as well as others, you will find those whose fathers
-have no sympathy with our advanced ideas on sociology.”</p>
-
-<p>“What do you teach at these schools?” asked the reporter.</p>
-
-<p>“Our course takes in reading, writing, natural history, geography, literature,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_672" id="Page_672">[672]</a></span>
-general history and morality&mdash;so much of ethics as young minds
-are capable of receiving.”</p>
-
-<p>“And you do not teach the tenets of Anarchy?” queried the reporter.</p>
-
-<p>“By no means. We say nothing of bombs, dynamite, overthrow of
-kingdoms, uprooting of our present social system, or anything of that kind.
-What would be the use of it? If you had a correct appreciation of the
-principles of Anarchy and Socialism you would readily understand that the
-questions are too grave for the apprehension of juvenile minds. Later on&mdash;well,
-that is something else.”</p>
-
-<p>“Still, Doctor, your teachers are thoroughly imbued with these sentiments,
-and it would be only natural for you to desire, if you are honest in
-your convictions, that these young people should grow up in your peculiar
-faith.”</p>
-
-<p>“That is another matter,” replied Dr. Kleinoldt, regarding the reporter
-fixedly through his spectacles. “As the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.
-We are honest in what we profess, else why should we profess at all, since
-we have nothing to gain but obloquy, in the present at least? Being honest
-and believing that our teachings are best for the human family, we should
-be strange beings indeed if we were not anxious to have our children grow
-up into our faith. What I have said is, and I repeat it, that we do not teach
-Anarchistic or Socialistic principles to the pupils in our Sunday schools.”</p>
-
-<p>The reporter here read to the Doctor a paragraph from one of the
-Chicago dailies to the effect that at the school held in the rear of Rachau
-Bros’. saloon, corner of Lincoln Avenue and Halsted Street, the day before,
-a teacher had dilated upon the death of Spies and Parsons, declaring they
-were murdered by the capitalists and that they were martyrs.</p>
-
-<p>“Of that I know nothing. All I know is that such is not the design
-of our schools. Such talk is not heard at our school in the rear of the
-saloon at 58 Clybourn Avenue. We use the same books that are used
-in the day schools, and what we teach is as I have told you before&mdash;only
-this and nothing more.”</p>
-
-<p>“But since your teachers hold to these peculiar views, and since children
-have investigating minds&mdash;being eager to ask questions&mdash;is there
-anything to prevent teachers from defining their views even if they do
-not enter into arguments to demonstrate the tenableness of their position?”</p>
-
-<p>“I repeat again, there are many children in attendance upon our schools
-whose parents are not Anarchists or Socialists. Those who are hear these
-opinions at their homes. Those who are not do not hear them.”</p>
-
-<p>“True; but there are some, doubtless, in every class, who have heard
-at their homes the teachings of Anarchy or Socialism; they may ask questions.
-Is there anything to prevent the teachers from replying to them
-in such manner as to indoctrinate the others in this faith?”</p>
-
-<p>“It is possible, I admit. But I say again, it is not so in our school.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_673" id="Page_673">[673]</a></span>
-Indeed, most of the children are too small to know anything about such
-matters. You will say time will correct that. I add that our primary
-object is the education of the young people. We teach in German altogether,
-because the children learn English in the public schools. They
-all attend the latter, because it is a primary
-principle with us that it is education alone that
-can make men free. In addition to the studies
-named, we teach music and singing, and we
-hold a session at 58 Clybourn Avenue in the
-afternoon of each Sunday, when teachers from
-the Workingmen’s Educational Society&mdash;an
-art organization&mdash;teach them drawing.”</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-673a.jpg" width="200" height="240" id="i673a"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">FRANK CHLEBOUN.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The Doctor is a short, thick-set, mild-mannered
-man, possessed of a gentle voice,
-and is, apparently, about thirty-five years old.
-He spoke carefully, and without excitement.</p>
-
-<p>“Let me tell you further,” he said, after
-a brief pause, “we do not teach anything of
-what is termed religion, because we do not
-believe in that. We do teach morals, the duties we owe to our neighbors,
-the great principles of right and wrong. We desire the children to grow
-up into Socialists, that they may be worthy successors of their parents;
-but we do not think the Sunday school we
-have organized is the proper place to inculcate
-such doctrines.”</p>
-
-<p>“Because your pupils are too young?”
-asked the reporter.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, and because, as I have said, the
-parents of some of the children do not hold
-to our views, and it is our desire to bring
-into our fold as many as possible, thus saving
-as many as we can from the evil influences
-of the church.”</p>
-
-<p>“You say you teach music and songs.
-Do these include sacred music?”</p>
-
-<p>“Our music and songs are strictly secular;
-we have nothing to do with anything
-connected with the churches.”</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-673b.jpg" width="200" height="277" id="i673b"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">FRANK CAPEK.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph taken by the Police.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Dr. Kleinoldt may be correct in his statement
-that the school at 58 Clybourn Avenue has not taught Anarchy, yet
-it is nevertheless true that at least two of the school’s enthusiastic teachers
-have dilated upon the “martyrdom” of Spies, Parsons, Fischer and Engel,
-declaring that they died for a glorious cause, and that those officials who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_674" id="Page_674">[674]</a></span>
-were instrumental in their arrest, and those who took part in the trial and
-at the execution, are guilty of the vilest of crimes. At one of the schools,
-a teacher even went so far as to allude to the Savior as the lazy loafer of
-Nazareth. It will not demand a very close reading “between the lines” of
-the interview with Dr. Kleinoldt, however, to find out that, whatever the
-motive of those who have inaugurated this movement, the ultimate result
-will be the same as though the open and expressed object were the dissemination
-of those views now universally regarded among civilized nations
-as subversive of all government. The schools are organized for the purpose
-of sowing in the minds of innocent children the seeds of atheism, discontent
-and lawlessness.</p>
-
-<p>The Sunday school movement is only one feature of the general plan of
-the revolutionists. The Socialists fear as heartily as they hate the church,
-and of late they have had especial reason, from their standpoint, for both.
-Both Catholic and Protestant churches located in German, Bohemian and
-Polish sections have recently extended their facilities for reaching the youth
-of their nationalities, and hundreds of children have been gathered into
-Christian schools on Sundays, thus taking them for a brief while on that
-day from the squalid streets upon which they roam without restraint, and
-bringing them in contact with Christian influences. Even scores of children
-of Socialistic parents have had this experience. The great aim of the
-Internationals now, as always, is to increase their numerical strength. To
-do this they hold it necessary to establish secular Sunday schools wherein
-the principles of Socialism will be taught and where children will be
-made to despise, though they may obey, the laws.</p>
-
-<p>It need only be added here that all the schools of the Socialists now
-in operation in Chicago are held either in the rear or in the basements of
-beer saloons.</p>
-
-<p>Judge Tuley, in his decision on the application for an injunction, stated
-that “there are Christian Anarchists.” I venture the assertion, however,
-that the learned jurist has never seen one of that class. I know that I have
-not, and I never expect to see one. Christianity and Anarchy are entirely
-opposite. While it is possible of course that a man professing the religion
-of Christ should be blinded by the plausible preachings of the Anarchists,
-still the hallucination would be only temporary. Religion and Anarchy, as
-I understand and have seen it, do not and never will go together.</p>
-
-<p>The conspirator Hronek, at his trial, was asked if he believed in God.</p>
-
-<p>“I have never seen him,” was the reply.</p>
-
-<p>Scratch the hide of an Anarchist, and you will find an infidel or a fool.
-An intelligent human being cannot reconcile the violent doctrines of Anarchy
-with any form of Christianity.</p>
-
-<p>Charles L. Bodendick, twenty-five years old, 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighing
-150 pounds, was arrested by Officer Hanley for robbing Justice White, March<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_675" id="Page_675">[675]</a></span>
-18, 1886, and was held to the Criminal Court in $1,500 bonds. He was tried
-and sentenced to the penitentiary in Joliet for one year. During his trial it
-was demonstrated that he was a thorough Anarchist. The <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>
-then called him a “crank” and said that he was crazy. Before he was
-arrested, however, he had made his home about the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i> office,
-and at that time he had been looked on as a valuable man. The poor fellow
-had kept hanging around there, reading their misleading trash, until
-he was destitute and a vagrant. The next steps were robbery and the
-penitentiary.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-675.jpg" width="250" height="265" id="i675"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="cf"><p class="pc">CHARLES L. BODENDICK.<br />
-<span class="wnn">From a Photograph taken by the Police.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>After his release from prison Bodendick came back to the city, and, roaming
-about from place to place, finally fell into his old ways again, living on
-wind and Anarchy. He grew more
-desperate even than before his arrest.
-He wanted to manufacture
-something stronger than dynamite.
-A card was given to him by Dyer
-D. Lum, and he called at the Public
-Library for the “Techno-Chemical
-Receipt Book,” K 4314. On page
-30 of this book Bodendick learned
-what he knew of the make-up of
-explosives. He admitted that he
-wanted to use sulphur, saltpeter
-and soda potash. He also procured
-other books on explosives, and he
-finally purchased a quantity of material
-and went to his room to experiment.
-But before he had
-learned very much he was arrested. Bodendick was kept in the Central Station
-in the sweat-box for two weeks. He was defiant at first, but finally sent
-word to the Inspector that he wanted to talk with him. He was brought to the
-office, and after he had given a lot of information, and promised to leave the city
-at once, he was released. The Anarchists claim that he never did “squeal.”</p>
-
-<p>This Bodendick was an odd genius. Here is <i>verbatim et literatim</i> a
-poem in which he melodiously voiced his sentiments some years ago:</p>
-
-<p class="pc1">THE REBELL-VAGABOND.</p>
-
-<p class="pp7 p1">I live and will <i>take the right</i>,<br />
-To demand of the world abundance;<br />
-To do so, I’m prepared to fight<br />
-the world and all its Dungeons.</p>
-
-<p class="pp7 p1">Your a Loafer, says “the upper ten,”<br />
-You aught to go to Prison.<br />
-But, who are the priveledged ones<br />
-To loaf? the toilers lot dissmissend?</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_676" id="Page_676">[676]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="pp7 p1">I’ve toiled hard, sometime ago,<br />
-From early morn till late.<br />
-That I ain’t worth some millions now<br />
-Is really too bad.</p>
-
-<p class="pp7 p1">You see, a generous toiling man<br />
-Gets never much ahead;<br />
-For which a rascal always can<br />
-Rob men of life and (e)state.</p>
-
-<p class="pp7 p1">7-10 from what I have produced<br />
-You took in your possessions<br />
-While the toiling part you have reduced<br />
-To crime and degradations.</p>
-
-<p class="pp7 p1">Not only this, nay vamper like<br />
-Do suck the Blood of men<br />
-And with the bones you take the hide<br />
-But, things get to an end.</p>
-
-<p class="pp7 p1">That time I was quiet ignorant<br />
-of, who was my enemy real,<br />
-That I’ve become to you a torment<br />
-Is only the result you feel.</p>
-
-<p class="pp7 p1">I’ll work for life and liberty,<br />
-For thiefs like you I wont<br />
-The courage that is left in me<br />
-Makes me a Rebell-Vagabond.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">The most serious recent development of the spirit of revolt and disorder,
-however, is that shown in the attempt of the men Hronek and Capek to
-assassinate Judges Gary and Grinnell and Inspector Bonfield.</p>
-
-<p>In July of 1888, Judge Grinnell sent for me and told me that he had
-been informed by a Bohemian citizen that there was a conspiracy afoot to
-murder himself, Gary and Bonfield, and that he thought there was something
-in the information. It appears that there were three Bohemian Anarchists,
-John Hronek, Frank Capek and Frank Chleboun, who had determined to
-avenge the “martyrdom,” as they called it, of the Anarchist leaders.
-Chleboun was never in real sympathy with the others, and when the affair
-began to grow very serious he went to a Bohemian friend and confided to
-him the plot. This gentleman at once advised Judge Grinnell. Among
-the details was the fact that three men had examined the Judge’s house on
-July 4th, with a view to blowing it up if a good opportunity offered, and
-the Judge remembered having seen three suspicious-looking men loitering
-about Aldine Square on that day. They had eyed him so strangely that
-his attention was attracted to them. This fact made him attach much
-weight to the story he had been told. The Judge wished me to conduct the
-investigation, but the suspects all lived in Inspector Bonfield’s district, and
-I urged that the inquiry should be made by him, of course promising to cooperate
-as heartily as I could. After this Bonfield, the Judge and I had a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_677" id="Page_677">[677]</a></span>
-conference in which we went over the whole ground. We had all the facts
-in the case pretty well in hand. On the morning of July 17th, Bonfield was
-ready to strike, and the arrests were made. On the evening before warrants
-were sworn out for these three men, and at 4 <span class="smcap">A.M.</span> Bonfield drove Lieut.
-Elliott past Hronek’s house, 2952 Farrell Street, so that he might know it.
-Officers Rowan, Miller, Nordrum, Murtha, Styx and Meichowsky assisted
-in the arrests.</p>
-
-<p>In describing what followed Inspector Bonfield said:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“We had reason to believe that Hronek, who only occupied the two rear
-rooms of a two-story frame dwelling, had dynamite, a revolver and a formidable-looking
-dagger, which we had been told was poisoned. We had also
-been given to understand that Hronek was a reckless fellow of the Lingg
-type and would offer a desperate resistance, and for that reason, in order
-not to jeopardize the lives of any of our men, we thought it prudent, instead
-of entering the house, to catch him unawares when he came out early in the
-morning. At the side of the house is a covered stairway leading from the
-ground to Hronek’s rooms, and about seven o’clock we saw our man come
-down these, and he was immediately arrested by Officers Nordrum and one
-or two others. Leaving one or two men to watch the house, we took the
-prisoner, who appeared utterly indifferent, and astonished perhaps, to the
-nearest patrol-box, called the wagon, and sent him to Deering Street Station,
-whence he was removed to the Central Station later on.</p>
-
-<p>“We then searched the house, and in a sort of closet we found a small
-quantity of dynamite in the original Ætna No. 2 packages. In the bed-room
-we found our information to be true, for under the pillow on which Hronek
-had a short time previous been sleeping we found a vicious-looking dagger,
-in a leather sheath, and a revolver. In addition to these we also found in
-the rooms several bombs, some of which are empty and some of which are
-loaded. The bombs are made of cast-iron piping, plugged at each end.
-The pipe had been made for some other purpose and turned to that use, and
-the bombs were four or five inches long and about an inch and a half in
-diameter.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">Frank Capek was arrested at his home, 498 West Twentieth Street, at
-the same time as was Frank Chleboun, who was found at Zion Place.
-Capek’s house was not searched, as it was known that he had made away
-with the dynamite that he had had there.</p>
-
-<p>The arrests caused the greatest excitement in the city as soon as it
-became generally known what was the charge.</p>
-
-<p>About the truth of it there could be no doubt. Hronek was a desperate
-fellow, quite ready and willing for any violence. He was an enthusiastic
-Anarchist, and a great admirer of the “martyrs,” as he called them, and he
-had a regular arsenal of explosives and weapons.</p>
-
-<p>Chleboun’s story was a singular one. He was a tailor who had come from
-Bohemia to Chicago in 1882. He met Hronek shortly after the Haymarket
-riot, and the two struck up an acquaintanceship. With Frank Capek they
-discussed Anarchy and the trial of the leaders, and all went well as long as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_678" id="Page_678">[678]</a></span>
-they confined themselves to theory and beer.</p>
-
-<div class="floatright">
- <img src="images/ill-678a.jpg" width="200" height="310" id="i678a"
- alt=""
- title="" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Chleboun was one of those weak-minded people
-who like to play at conspiracy, but he soon found
-that he had allied himself with desperate and dangerous
-men and that the chances were altogether
-in favor of his own neck paying the penalty for his
-comrades’ work. This alarmed him, and he seems
-to have tried to draw away from them. But they
-would not let him. For a time he lent them money
-and tried to get along with them, but they made
-his life a burden to him. In October, 1887, he
-wanted to visit the old country, and desired to take
-out citizen’s papers before he left. It shows the
-relations between the men, that Hronek and Capek would not help him to
-get naturalized until he had formally agreed to the plot to kill Grinnell,
-Gary and Bonfield. They, also demanded $25 from him, and he paid it.
-He returned from Europe in December, and they at once pounced on him
-again. The poor fellow did not know which
-way to turn, and he finally did the wisest
-thing by making a clean breast of the whole plot.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-678b.jpg" width="200" height="226" id="i678b"
- alt=""
- title="" />
-</div>
-
-<p>The trial of the would-be assassins
-came on in the November term, but the prisoners
-secured a severance, and only Hronek
-was tried, Capek’s trial being deferred until the
-next term. On the stand Chleboun told
-the story of the conspiracy at great length
-and in detail, and a very severe cross-examination
-failed to shake his testimony in any
-way. He showed how Hronek had planned
-the murder of the three men coolly and deliberately; how he had provided
-dynamite made up into tin bombs, and in other ways, and had secured
-a poisoned dagger, as well as a pistol. Capek seemed to concur in what
-the others did, but Hronek was the undoubted leader. Among other
-things Hronek told them was that he had met
-Inspector Bonfield, and had had a safe chance to
-kill him, but that he had had no arms with him
-and could not do it. Hronek was very angry over
-his disappointment. Chleboun described the visit
-of the three men&mdash;himself, Hronek and Capek&mdash;to
-Judge Grinnell’s house in Aldine Square, and
-the reconnoissance they made.</p>
-
-<div class="floatleft">
- <img src="images/ill-678c.jpg" width="200" height="213" id="i678c"
- alt=""
- title="" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Dynamite was in the possession of all the parties,
-and on one occasion a man named Janauschek<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_679" id="Page_679">[679]</a></span>
-tried to get Chleboun to give him an order on Mikolanda, one of the
-open leaders, for some of the stuff. This was not done, however.</p>
-
-<p>Hronek, in his own testimony, steadily denied any purpose of killing either
-of the threatened gentlemen, but under the skillful cross-examination of Mr.
-Elliott he failed to convince the jury that his possession of the bombs, which
-he claimed had been left at his house by a man named Karefit, was innocent.
-In fact, the testimony against him was too strong, and it was corroborated
-in many places even by his own admissions, and the jury found him guilty.
-He was sentenced to twelve years in the penitentiary.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-679.jpg" width="400" height="443" id="i679"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">JOHN HRONEK’S PORTRAIT AND DESCRIPTION&mdash;I.<br />
-<span class="wn">Showing the New Method of Recording Criminals for Identification.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_680" id="Page_680">[680]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The trial was watched closely by the general public as well as by Anarchists,
-and among those of the red fraternity who found admission to the
-court-room there were many curious characters. Some of these were
-sketched by an artist of my acquaintance, and three of his sketches are given
-on page 678. They are truthful representations of men who have not yet sat
-for our rogues’ gallery photographer, but their associations warrant the fear
-that they will some day have their pictures taken at the expense of the taxpayers.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/ill-680.jpg" width="400" height="419" id="i680"
- alt=""
- title="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="pc">JOHN HRONEK’S PORTRAIT AND DESCRIPTION&mdash;II.<br />
-<span class="wn">Showing the New Method of Recording Criminals for Identification.</span></p>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Portraits of Hronek taken by the police photographer are shown here,
-and a slightly reduced <i>fac-simile</i> of the form now used by the Police Department
-for identifying criminals. Formerly only front view photographs, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_681" id="Page_681">[681]</a></span>
-a rule, were to be found in rogues’ gallery collections. The new method is
-a vast improvement, and the reader will note from the details of the blank
-that it provides all the necessary data for perfect and unmistakable identification.</p>
-
-<p>The case against Hronek was conducted by Judge Longenecker, the
-State’s Attorney, and by Mr. Elliott, and was followed with the closest
-attention by the people of Chicago, as it displayed in unmistakable colors
-to what a pitch of desperation the Anarchist conspirators in this city can
-bring themselves.</p>
-
-<p>Let us hope that the lesson will prove a salutary one.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_682" id="Page_682">[682]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h2>
-
-<p class="pch">The Movement in Europe&mdash;Present Plans of the Reds&mdash;Stringent Measures
-Adopted by Various European Governments&mdash;Bebel and Liebknecht&mdash;A London
-Celebration&mdash;Whitechapel Outcasts&mdash;“Blood, Blood, Blood!”&mdash;Verestchagin’s Views&mdash;The
-Bulwarks of Society&mdash;The Condition of Anarchy in New York, Philadelphia,
-Pittsburg, Cincinnati, St. Louis and other American Cities&mdash;A New Era of Revolutionary
-Activity&mdash;A Fight to the Death&mdash;Are we Prepared?</p>
-
-<p class="drop-cap18">AS regards the present plans and movements of the reds in Europe, of
-course it is almost impossible to obtain an adequate conception here.
-It is known, however, that the French, German, English and Belgian governments
-have only recently adopted most stringent measures, the effect of
-which will undoubtedly be to send some very undesirable immigrants to our
-hospitable shores.</p>
-
-<p>Notwithstanding the measures taken by the French Government, it is
-reported as tolerably certain that the Revolutionary Congress will meet at
-Paris, although there is a pressure to have the date of the session delayed
-until October. Much will depend, probably, upon the proceedings of the
-proposed meeting of German, Swiss and Austrian Socialists at Zurich the
-coming summer.</p>
-
-<p>With all their talk of universal brotherhood and a grand combination of
-the proletariat of every nation against tyranny, race hatreds are very strong
-among the Socialists of Europe. A French Communist would be more
-likely to cut a German Socialist’s throat than labor with him for the overthrow
-of the common oppressor.</p>
-
-<p>The social conference soon to convene at The Hague, it is said, will ask
-the German leaders to take the decisive step of annulling the Zurich meeting,
-in order to give the Paris congress the more importance and avoid
-giving any possible offense by such action as may be taken there. It is well
-known that Bebel, Liebknecht and their immediate followers have no particular
-love for the dynamite faction of the Paris Communists, but there are
-many Swiss, South Germans and Russians who are engaged in the thankless
-and seemingly hopeless task of reconciling national differences, and
-these men have no small influence over their fellows by reason of their
-intelligence and approved courage and the sacrifices they have made for the
-common cause. By their unceasing labor a large proportion of the rank
-and file of the German army have been won over to the Socialistic movement,
-and they do not despair of allaying the French repugnance to affiliating
-with men of their own ideas from across the Rhine.</p>
-
-<p>The London celebration of the anniversary of the Paris Commune on
-the night of March 18, 1889, consisted of a small crowd of boozy, beery,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_683" id="Page_683">[683]</a></span>
-pot-valiant, squalid, frowsy, sodden Whitechapel outcasts who shrieked
-and fought in a small hall in their district under the eye of a single policeman.</p>
-
-<p>“Better not go in, sir,” the policeman said to a correspondent who entered
-the door of the small hall at 87 Commonwealth Road. “There ain’t
-no danger, but it’s very unpleasant.”</p>
-
-<p>It was the fumes of scores of dirty pipes and a thousand other causes
-that made the air almost unbearable. About two hundred people, a fourth
-of whom were lushed, soggy Whitechapel women, were in the low-ceilinged
-hall, while a long-haired Pole was screaming an address from the
-platform. He cursed and swore with frantic blasphemy, and called upon
-his hearers to arm themselves and wade to liberty through blood. Whenever
-he uttered the word “blood,” the muddled and maudlin crowd set up
-a shriek of “Blood, blood, blood!” that was deafening. All of the women
-and most of the men had soiled red flags and handkerchiefs, which they
-waved in the air as they shrieked “Blood!” in chorus. Then they would
-sink back into drunken indifference till the word “blood” was mentioned
-again.</p>
-
-<p>Two women and a man, says the correspondent, lay in senseless stupor,
-with the crowd treading on them. One woman’s rags did not half cover her.
-An illiterate Englishman pushed the Pole aside and began to harangue the
-people from the platform. It was the most shameless, ribald and obscene
-harangue imaginable. In the midst of it one woman struck another with a
-piece of a broken beer glass, and the two females began to fight like cats.
-Faces were cut and bleeding. No one paid the slightest attention except
-the policeman, who looked indifferently on. Presently one of the women
-ran sobbing from the hall with her face streaming blood. Another woman
-started after her, when a man made a sign to a policeman, and she was restrained.
-Then a neighbor plucked the correspondent’s sleeve:</p>
-
-<p>“Don’t let that nasty scene deceive you,” he said shortly, “it doesn’t
-mean that Socialism is dead in London. It means that it is more intelligent.
-They’ve left off shouting in public and begun to work under cover. This
-thing to-night proves it.”</p>
-
-<p>The following, from the pen of Vassili Verestchagin, the eminent Russian
-painter, whose realistic representations of battle scenes have created a
-great sensation wherever exhibited, and who is also a writer of great
-ability, will show how the situation in Europe as regards Socialism, Anarchy
-and Nihilism appears to one close and intelligent observer:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">“There is no gainsaying the fact that all the other questions of our time
-are paling before the question of Socialism that advances on us, threateningly,
-like a tremendous thunder-cloud.</p>
-
-<p>“The masses that have been for centuries leading a life of expectancy,
-while hanging on the very borders of starvation, are willing to wait no more.
-Their former hopes in the future are discarded; their appetites are whetted,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_684" id="Page_684">[684]</a></span>
-and they are clamoring for arrears, which means now the division of all the
-riches, and so as to make the division more lasting, they are claiming that
-talents and capacities should be leveled down to one standard, all workers
-of progress and comfort alike drawing the same pay. They are striving to
-reconstruct society on new foundations, and, in case of opposition to their
-aims, they threaten to apply the torch to all the monuments pertaining to
-an order that, according to them, has already outlived its usefulness; they
-threaten to blow up the public buildings, the churches, the art galleries,
-libraries and museums&mdash;a downright religion of despair!...</p>
-
-<p>“My friend the late General Skobeleff once asked me, ‘How do you
-understand the movement of the Socialists and the Anarchists?’ He owned
-to it that he himself did not understand at all what they aimed at. ‘What
-do they want? What are they striving to attain?’</p>
-
-<p>“‘First of all,’ I answered, ‘those people object to wars between nations;
-again, their appreciation of art is very limited, the art of painting not
-excluded. Thus, if they ever come into power, you, with your strategic
-combinations, and I, with my pictures, will both be shelved immediately.
-Do you understand this?’</p>
-
-<p>“‘Yes, I understand this,’ rejoined Skobeleff, ‘and from this on I am
-determined to fight them.’</p>
-
-<p>“There is no mistaking the fact that, as I have said before, society is
-seriously threatened at the hands of a large mass of people counting hundreds
-of millions. Those are the people who, for generations, during
-entire centuries, have been on the brink of starvation, poorly clad, living in
-filthy and unhealthy quarters; paupers, and such people as have scarcely
-any property, or no property at all. Well, who is it that is to blame for
-their poverty&mdash;are they not themselves to be blamed for it?</p>
-
-<p>“No, it would be unjust to lay all the blame at their door; it is more
-likely that society at large is more to blame for their condition than they
-are themselves.</p>
-
-<p>“Is there any way out of the situation?</p>
-
-<p>“Certainly there is. Christ, our Great Teacher, has long ago pointed
-out the way in which the rich and the powerful could remedy the situation
-without bringing things to a revolutionary pass, without any upheaval of the
-existing social order, if they would only seriously take care of the miserable;
-that certainly would have insured them the undisturbed enjoyment of the
-bulk of their fortune. But there is little hope of a peaceful solution of the
-question now; it is certain that the well-to-do classes will still prefer to
-remain Christian in name only; they will still hope that palliative measures
-will be sufficient to remedy the situation; or else, believing the danger
-to be distant yet, they will not be disposed to give up much; while the paupers&mdash;though
-formerly they were ready for a compromise&mdash;may be soon
-found unwilling to take the pittance offered them.</p>
-
-<p>“What do they want, then?</p>
-
-<p>“Nothing less than the equalization of riches in the society to come;
-they claim the material as well as the moral equalization of all rights, trades,
-all capacities and talents; as we have already said, they strive to undermine
-all the foundations of the existing state of society, and, in inaugurating
-a new order of things they claim to be able to open a real era of liberty,
-equality and fraternity, instead of the shadows of those lofty things, as
-existing now....</p>
-
-<p>“I do not mean to go into the discussion of the matter; I would not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_685" id="Page_685">[685]</a></span>
-pretend to point out how much justice or injustice, how much soundness or
-unsoundness there is in these claims; I state only the fact that there is a
-deep gulf between the former cries for bread and the sharply formulated
-claims of the present. It is evident that the appetite of the masses has
-grown within the past centuries, and the bill which they intend to present
-for payment will not be a small one.</p>
-
-<p>“Who will be required to pay this bill?</p>
-
-<p>“Society, most certainly.</p>
-
-<p>“Will it be done willingly?</p>
-
-<p>“Evidently not.</p>
-
-<p>“Consequently there will be complications, quarrels, civil wars.</p>
-
-<p>“Certainly there will be serious complications; they are already casting
-their shadows before them in the shape of disturbances of a Socialistic character
-that are originating here and there. In America, most likely, those
-disturbances are lesser and less pointed, but in Europe, in France and Belgium,
-for instance, such disorders assume a very threatening aspect.</p>
-
-<p>“Who is likely to be victorious in this struggle?</p>
-
-<p>“Unless Napoleon I. was wrong in his assertion that victory will always
-remain with the <i>gros bataillons</i>, the ‘regulators’ will win. Their numbers
-will be very great; whoever knows human nature will understand that all
-such as have not much to lose will, at the decisive moment, join the claims
-of those who have nothing to lose....</p>
-
-<p>“It is generally supposed that the danger is not so imminent yet; but,
-as far as I was able to judge, the impendence of the danger varies in different
-countries. France, for instance&mdash;that long-suffering country which is
-forever experimenting on herself, whether it be in social or scientific questions,
-or in politics&mdash;is the nearest to a crisis; then follow Belgium and
-other countries.</p>
-
-<p>“It is very possible that even the present generation will witness something
-serious in that respect. As to the coming generations, there is no doubt
-that they will assist at a thorough reconstruction of the social structure in
-all countries.</p>
-
-<p>“The claims of Socialists, and, particularly, the Anarchists, as well as
-the disorders incited by them, generally produce a great sensation in society.
-But no sooner are the disorders suppressed, than society relapses again into
-its usual unconcern, and no one gives a thought to the fact that the frequency
-of those painful symptoms, recurring with so much persistency, is
-in itself a sign of disease.</p>
-
-<p>“Far-seeing people begin to realize that palliative measures are of no
-more use; that a change of governments and of rulers will not avail any
-more; and that nothing is left but to await developments contingent on
-the attitude of the opposed parties&mdash;the energetic determination of the
-well-to-do classes, not to yield, and that of the proletaires, to keep their
-courage and persevere....</p>
-
-<p>“The only consolation remaining to the rich consists in the fact that the
-‘regulators’ have not had time yet to organize their forces for a successful
-struggle with society. This is true to a certain extent. But, though they
-do it slowly, the ‘regulators’ are perfecting their organization all the time;
-yet, on the other hand, can we say that society is well enough organized not
-to stand in dread of attack?</p>
-
-<p>“Who are the recognized and official defenders of society?</p>
-
-<p>“The army and the church.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_686" id="Page_686">[686]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“A soldier, there is no doubt of it, is a good support; he represents a
-solid defense; the only trouble about him is that the soldier himself begins
-to get weary of his ungrateful part. It is likely that for many years to come
-yet the soldier will shoot with a light heart at such as are called his ‘enemies;’
-but the time is not far distant when he will refuse to shoot at his
-own people.</p>
-
-<p>“Who is a good soldier? Only one to whom you can point out his
-father, his mother or his brother in the crowd, saying, ‘Those are enemies
-of society, kill them’&mdash;and who will obey.</p>
-
-<p>“I may remark here, in passing, that it occurred to me to refer to this
-idea in a conversation I had with the well-known French writer and thinker,
-Alexandre Dumas, <i>fils</i>, and with what success? Conceding the justice of
-the apprehension, he had no other comforting suggestion to offer than to
-say: ‘Oh, yes, the soldier will shoot yet!’</p>
-
-<p>“The other defender of society, the priest, has been less ill-used than
-the soldier, and consequently he is not so tired of his task; but, on the
-other hand, people begin to tire of him, less heed is paid to his words, and
-there arises a doubt as to the truth of all that he preaches.</p>
-
-<p>“There was a time when it was possible to tell the people that there is
-but one sun in the heavens as there is but one God-appointed king in the
-country. As stars of the first, second, third and fourth magnitude are
-grouping themselves around the sun, so the powerful, the rich, the poor and
-the miserable surround the king on earth. And, as all that appeared
-plausible, people used to believe that such arrangements are as they ought
-to be. All was accepted, all went on smoothly; none of such things can be
-advanced nowadays, however; no one will be ready to believe in them....</p>
-
-<p>“Clearly, things assume a serious aspect. Suppose the day comes when
-the priests will entirely lose their hold on the people, when the soldiers will
-turn their guns muzzles down&mdash;where will society look for bulwarks then?
-Is it possible that it has no more reliable defense?</p>
-
-<p>“Certainly, it has such a defense, and it is nothing else but <i>talents</i>, and
-their representatives in science, literature and art in all its ramifications.</p>
-
-<p>“Art must and will defend society. Its influence is less apparent and
-palpable, but it is very great; it might even be said that its influence over
-the minds, the hearts and the actions of people is enormous, unsurpassed,
-unrivaled. Art must and will defend society with all the more care and
-earnestness, because its devotees know that the ‘regulators’ are not disposed
-to give them the honorable, respectable position they occupy now&mdash;since,
-according to them, a good pair of boots is more useful than a good
-picture, a novel or a statue. Those people declare that talent is luxury;
-that talent is aristocratic, and that, consequently, talent has to be brought
-down from its pedestal to the common level&mdash;a principle to which we shall
-never submit.</p>
-
-<p>“Let us not deceive ourselves. There will arise new talents, which will
-gradually adapt themselves to new conditions, if such will prevail, and their
-works may perhaps gain from it, but we shall not agree to the principle of
-general demolition and reconstruction, when such have no other foundation
-but the well-known thesis: ‘Let us destroy everything and clear the ground;
-as to the reconstruction&mdash;about that we shall see later on.’ We shall
-defend and advocate the improvement of the existing things by means of
-peaceful and gradual measures.”</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_687" id="Page_687">[687]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="p1">That is Verestchagin’s view. It is certainly original and at least presents
-matter for serious reflection to the thoughtful, even though his deductions
-are not agreed to.</p>
-
-<p>Only recently a tremendous sensation was caused by the discovery of a
-dynamite bomb factory in Zurich, secretly conducted by students, and the
-tracing therefrom of a Nihilist conspiracy against the Czar, with extensive
-ramifications throughout Russia. Official and court circles in St. Petersburg
-were panic-stricken at the news, and the public journals, as usual, were
-promptly forbidden publishing information, making comment, or saying a
-word on the subject. In the meantime the police pushed investigation in
-all directions and a large number of arrests were made.</p>
-
-<p>Following up the traces of the plot, they found in a street of the capital
-most important evidences of its ramifications in St. Petersburg. This
-conspiracy was said to be more formidable than any preceding one. Nor
-was the danger diminished by the discoveries made. The arrests were only
-of minor people, and these maintained unbroken fidelity to their leaders,
-refusing to divulge even the little they were allowed to know.</p>
-
-<p>All over the world the apostles of disorder, rapine and Anarchy are
-to-day pressing forward their work of ruin, and preaching their gospel
-of disaster to all the nations with a more fiery energy and a better organized
-propaganda than was ever known before. People who imagine that
-the energy of the revolutionists has slackened, or that their determination
-to wreck all the existing systems has grown less bitter, are deceiving themselves.
-The conspiracy against society is as determined as it ever was,
-and among every nation the spirit of revolt is being galvanized into a
-newer and more dangerous life.</p>
-
-<p>In Chicago the signs of the times are so plain that he who runs may
-read. The skulking conspirators, who but a few months ago met secretly
-and in fear, in out-of-the-way cellars and thoroughly tiled halls, now court
-publicity. Their meetings are advertised and open&mdash;any one who chooses
-may attend&mdash;and they evidently feel a confidence and security which was
-unknown before this year of grace 1889. If this feeling is rampant here
-in Chicago, where the heaviest blow was struck at Anarchy, what must
-it be in other American cities, New York for instance, where the reds
-have a formidable and growing organization, or in Philadelphia, Pittsburg
-or Cincinnati? It is manifest that a new era of “revolutionary
-activity” is at hand, and it is to be questioned whether the proper means
-for meeting the proposed attack have been taken, or are being prepared.</p>
-
-<p>In Europe the same ferment is apparent. In England the conspiracy
-is still largely under cover, for the English proletariat, as the Anarchists
-love to call the raw material of Anarchy, is slow to move and difficult to
-arouse. But the propaganda is busy, and occasional rumblings may be
-heard of the work going on underground, which should be received as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_688" id="Page_688">[688]</a></span>
-the danger signals they are. In London there are all the factors for the
-most dangerous mob the world can produce. There are thousands upon
-thousands of half-starved, desperate men, who have absolutely nothing to
-lose save lives which they themselves hold as almost worthless, and
-there is the constant temptation before them of wealth so great and so
-flaunting, and of a wealthy class often so cruelly unjust, that it need never
-be a matter of wonder when the East End of London springs at the throat
-of the West. In England, however, nobody seems to believe that there
-can be such a thing as a servile revolt&mdash;that might occur among the
-French or the Germans or the Russians, but never in John Bull’s island,&mdash;and
-the conspirators, safely covered by the fancied security of the people,
-are permitted to undermine at their will the fabric of English society.</p>
-
-<p>In France the Commune is stronger than it ever was, and the Red
-Terror may appear with every turn of the whirligig of politics. France
-does not disbelieve in the danger, but it is practically powerless to avert
-it, owing to the general demoralization which has followed Boulanger’s
-success. Of course, it can only be a wild and bloody riot followed by a
-wild and bloody retribution, by a nation frightened out of freedom back
-into the arms of a strong government, for in France the issues are made
-up, and the country has made up its mind.</p>
-
-<p>In Spain and Italy, and especially in the smaller states&mdash;Switzerland,
-Belgium and the Scandinavian countries&mdash;the Socialists are busy, while
-in Germany and in Russia a crisis is at hand. Thus, the world over, it
-is evident that Anarchy is at work with a feverish purpose never before
-displayed, and the governments are menaced with a danger before which
-foreign war is as nothing. Nothing but the uprooting of the very foundations
-and groundwork of our civilization will satisfy these enemies of order.
-Their fight is to the death. They will neither take nor give quarter. It
-is war <i>à l’outrance</i>&mdash;composition or truce is futile and foolish.</p>
-
-<p>Are we prepared, or are we even preparing for the shock?</p>
-
-<p>Let none mistake either the purpose or the devotion of these fanatics,
-nor their growing strength. This is methodic&mdash;not a haphazard conspiracy.
-The ferment in Russia is controlled by the same heads and the same
-hands as the activity in Chicago. There is a cold-blooded, calculating
-purpose behind this revolt, manipulating every part of it, the world over,
-to a common and ruinous end. Whether the next demonstration of the Red
-Terror will occur where its disciples are goaded to desperation under despotic
-measures, as in the land of the Czar, or in our own country, where they are
-allowed to preach its bloody doctrines under a broad construction of the
-American constitutional right of free speech, time alone can tell.</p>
-
-<p>But believe me, Anarchy is not an enemy for society to despise.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_691" id="Page_691">[691]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">APPENDIX A.</h2>
-
-<p class="drop-cap04">THE meeting places of the Anarchist groups in Chicago prior to May
-4, 1886, were as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq limit1">
-
-<p class="pn1">South Side, Saturday nights, 2883 Wentworth Avenue.<br />
-Southwest Side, No. 1, Saturday nights, 691 South Halsted Street.<br />
-Southwest Side, No. 3, Saturday nights, 611 Throop Street.<br />
-Vorwaerts, Saturday nights, 204 Blue Island Avenue.<br />
-Jefferson, Saturday nights, at or near 1800 Milwaukee Avenue.<br />
-Town of Lake, No. 1, Saturday nights, 514 State Street.<br />
-Town of Lake, No. 2, every other Sunday evening, in Thomas Hall, corner of Fifty-eighth
-and Laflin Streets.<br />
-Bridgeport, Sunday afternoons, 2 o’clock, 2513 South Halsted Street.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">The Lehr und Wehr Verein companies met as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="pbq">
-
-<p class="p1">First Group&mdash;Tuesday and Friday evenings, at Mueller’s Hall, corner of Sedgwick and
-North Avenue; also, at No. 58 Clybourn Avenue, Sunday mornings, for instruction in shooting
-and rifle practice.</p>
-
-<p>Second Group&mdash;Wednesday evenings, and two weekly meetings, together with the Northwest
-Side Group, at 8 o’clock, at 636 Milwaukee Avenue.</p>
-
-<p>Third Group&mdash;Wednesday evenings at the West Twelfth Street Turner Hall.</p>
-
-<p>No. 58 Clybourn Avenue was a general meeting-place. A general invitation was extended
-to all to come there on Sundays for practice in shooting.</p></div>
-
-<p class="p1">List of names of Anarchists and Socialists as found on record with Secretaries
-Seliger and Lingg, at 442 Sedgwick Street:</p>
-
-<p class="pp7 p1">
-William Hesse.<br />
-Moritz Neff.<br />
-William Lange.<br />
-Balthasar Rau.<br />
-Albert Bonien.<br />
-Michael Schwab.<br />
-H. Harmening.<br />
-William Medow.<br />
-A. Hovestadt.<br />
-Oscar Neebe.<br />
-Franz Hoffman.<br />
-Ch. Charlevitz.<br />
-H. Kaune.<br />
-H. Tietgens.<br />
-Theodore Polling.<br />
-Louis Hensling.<br />
-E. Buschner.<br />
-Henry Bonnefoi.<br />
-George Meng.<br />
-W. L. Rosenberg.<br />
-Carl Wichmann.<br />
-Ch. Mauner.<br />
-Chr. Mauer.<br />
-John Nedovlacid, <i>alias</i> Pohl.<br />
-A. Hirschberger.<br />
-Edward Schnaubelt.<br />
-John Altherr.<br />
-William Buffleben.<br />
-Carl Milbi.<br />
-Chr. Ramm.<br />
-Max Mitlacher.<br />
-Paul Grottkau.<br />
-Joseph Bach.<br />
-Albert Gorns.<br />
-Julius Stegemann.<br />
-Otto Habitzreiter.<br />
-William Hoelscher.<br />
-William Ludwig.<br />
-H. Perschke.<br />
-A. Roehr.<br />
-William Urban.<br />
-Ernst Altenhofer.<br />
-H. Fasshauer.<br />
-Abraham Hermann.<br />
-Michael Hermann.<br />
-Lorenz Hermann.<br />
-Peter Huber.<br />
-John Neubauer.<br />
-Rudolph Kobitch.<br />
-Julius Habitzreiter.<br />
-Fritz Fischer.<br />
-Albin Mittlacher.<br />
-Fritz Reuter.<br />
-Carl Teuber.<br />
-Rudolph Ohlf.<br />
-Theodore Remane.<br />
-E. Brassholz.<br />
-Joseph Knochelman.<br />
-A. Picard.<br />
-Arthur Fritzsche.<br />
-Franz Domes.<br />
-John B. Lotz.<br />
-John Wohlleben.<br />
-Gustav Moeller.<br />
-H. Ulrich.<br />
-William Neumann.<br />
-H. Kallina.<br />
-August Stollidorf.<br />
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_692" id="Page_692">[692]</a></span>W. Senderson.<br />
-George Rosenzweig.<br />
-Robert W. Ebill.<br />
-S. Heidenbluth.<br />
-William Luetzgerath.<br />
-R. Lauterbach.<br />
-Ernst Fischer.<br />
-Carl Schroeder.<br />
-Otto Voigt.<br />
-Heinrich Menge.<br />
-John Neunkirchen.<br />
-William Kaune.<br />
-Chris Ammer.<br />
-Carl Leukert.<br />
-H. Boeltscher.<br />
-H. Vogelsaenger.<br />
-B. Leber.<br />
-Joseph Mattius.<br />
-John Holm.<br />
-William Walteck.<br />
-Carl Puder.<br />
-N. Willes.<br />
-William Linden.<br />
-George Menge.<br />
-Louis Krauthahn.<br />
-Wilhelm Schleuter.<br />
-Paul Riedel.<br />
-Fritz Huebner.<br />
-Louis Liebl.<br />
-Rudolph Effinger.<br />
-Wilhelm Lindner.<br />
-Conrad Meier.<br />
-August Baer.<br />
-Wilhelm Rieger.<br />
-Hans Reindel.<br />
-Rudolph Schnaubelt.<br />
-William Heinze.<br />
-Anton Schmidt.<br />
-Fritz Schmidt.<br />
-Albert Wilke.<br />
-Gustav Schroth.<br />
-Carl Meier.<br />
-George Engelett.<br />
-H. Marcmann.<br />
-H. Albert.<br />
-Ch. Blendow.<br />
-August Neuhaus.<br />
-Chr. Hase.<br />
-H. C. Eden.<br />
-H. Thomser.<br />
-Claus Boege.<br />
-Frederick Boecer.<br />
-H. Kirvitt.<br />
-H. Lehman.<br />
-Nic Schroegel.<br />
-Max Biehle.<br />
-Andrew Decker.<br />
-Johann Mass.<br />
-Hermann Klug.<br />
-H. Honsel.<br />
-Edward Koelble.<br />
-Adolph Greschner.<br />
-Guenther Bock.<br />
-Fritz Bock.<br />
-C. Bock.<br />
-Fritz Linden.<br />
-Leo Wierig.<br />
-Nic Keller.<br />
-Aug. Wassilof.<br />
-Linarz.<br />
-Fr. Rathke.<br />
-Baehrendt.<br />
-Henry Schmidt.<br />
-Franz Hein.<br />
-Chas. Meyer.<br />
-Otto Bathke.<br />
-Louis Peters.<br />
-Wm. Seliger.<br />
-Christ Jansen.<br />
-Chas. Scholl.<br />
-B. Horschke.<br />
-Kinder.<br />
-Robert Moench.<br />
-Latinker.<br />
-Leopold Miller.<br />
-E. Trolson.<br />
-Otto Blonk.<br />
-Ludwig Sitzberger.<br />
-Albert Sommer.<br />
-Albert Dilke.<br />
-Alfred Bartels.<br />
-August Asher.<br />
-Henry Slvetera.<br />
-Hermann Pabst.<br />
-John Richlich.<br />
-Ernst J. Nitschke.<br />
-Fritz Roeber.<br />
-W. Callinius.<br />
-E. Hoffman.<br />
-W. Matuspkirvitz.<br />
-Carl Pundt.<br />
-E. Rudolph.<br />
-Franz Stahr.<br />
-Hermann Weg.<br />
-H. Judknecht.<br />
-Christ. Drawert.<br />
-Julius Blecksmith.<br />
-Carl Rick.<br />
-Carl Leukert.<br />
-Gustav Stolze.<br />
-Edward Heis.<br />
-Wilhelm Waldeck.<br />
-Ludwig Lintz.<br />
-August Pavel.<br />
-H. Hildemann.<br />
-Ernst Altenhofer.<br />
-John Kleinsten.<br />
-Hermann Hoges.<br />
-Wilhelm Alb.<br />
-H. Markmann.<br />
-H. Albert.<br />
-Blendow.<br />
-H. C. Eden.<br />
-John Maas.<br />
-Hermann Klug.<br />
-H. Hansel.<br />
-F. Thiesen.<br />
-Henry Abelman.<br />
-Joseph Neder.<br />
-Leo Wierig.<br />
-Nic Keller.<br />
-Max Hollock.<br />
-George Binder.<br />
-Wm. Lueneberg.<br />
-Anton Besser.<br />
-Franz Springer.<br />
-O. Deichman.<br />
-Joseph Schramm.<br />
-Carl Kroger.<br />
-Franz Turban.<br />
-George Binder.<br />
-John Kerr.<br />
-Wenzel Kinzill.<br />
-Ernst Niendorf.<br />
-Theodore Blumbach.<br />
-H. Zwierlein.<br />
-August Metschke.<br />
-K. Kumberg.<br />
-Charles Lovitte.<br />
-H. Kauney.<br />
-H. Mathge.<br />
-Ludwig Luetzeberger.<br />
-Frederick Schmiecke.<br />
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_693" id="Page_693">[693]</a></span>Christ Wegemann.<br />
-Carol Fischhammer.<br />
-E. Andauer.<br />
-Bernard Labor.<br />
-August Litch.<br />
-Paul Polke.<br />
-Franz Schumann.<br />
-Franz Hermann.<br />
-Franz Bohl.<br />
-Christ. Killgers.<br />
-Max Hollock.</p>
-<p class="pc1 reduct">Total number of members, 232.</p>
-
-<p class="p1">Names of Socialists belonging to different parts of the city:</p>
-
-<p class="pp7 p1">
-Fritz Kaderli.<br />
-Alois Preiss.<br />
-Anton Bonner.<br />
-Gustav Zerbe.<br />
-Carl Weidenhammer.<br />
-Berthold Bauer.<br />
-Nic Goebel.<br />
-Franz Frank.<br />
-George H. Karst.<br />
-Fritz Witt.<br />
-August Ziemann.<br />
-Rudolph Spuhr.<br />
-Ernst Blanck.<br />
-August Krause.<br />
-Wilhelm Helm.<br />
-Franz Krueger.<br />
-Frederick Luebbe.<br />
-Jacob Beck.<br />
-Hermann Wechmann.<br />
-Hermann Boese.<br />
-B. Gromall.<br />
-Fred Wessling.<br />
-Franz Schips.<br />
-Michael Michels.<br />
-John Tallmann.<br />
-Gustav Hopper.<br />
-Carl Chuast.<br />
-Nic Mueller.<br />
-Franz Schlopp.<br />
-Philipp Glaser.<br />
-John Woehrle.<br />
-Louis Boechlke.<br />
-Albert Koch.<br />
-John Voss.<br />
-Fred Heiden.<br />
-Franz Heidench.<br />
-Carl Michael.<br />
-George Bloecher.<br />
-Fred Naffs.<br />
-Robert Wegener.<br />
-Max Miller.<br />
-Frank Wiederkehr.<br />
-Heinrich Volkmann.<br />
-Friederich Wargowsky.<br />
-Gustav Bressmann.<br />
-Hermann Jocks.<br />
-Peter Dieterich.<br />
-John Fromm.<br />
-Frederich Hanne.<br />
-Carl Norvotny.<br />
-Heinrich Simon.<br />
-August Rieger.<br />
-Henry Lebierri.<br />
-Christ Erbman.<br />
-Rudolph Arndt.<br />
-John Sellmann.<br />
-William Rehfeldt.<br />
-Emil Kaiser.<br />
-Carl Swansen.<br />
-Louis Jansen.<br />
-Jacob Lieser.<br />
-Carl Billhardt.<br />
-Johann Grefflath.<br />
-Fritz Peters.<br />
-Albert Bittelkau.<br />
-Leo Engelmann.<br />
-Christ Feidler.<br />
-Peter Bucher.<br />
-George Lange.<br />
-August Littele.<br />
-Hermann Pretch.<br />
-Albert Fork.<br />
-Wilhelm Hohmann.<br />
-Hermann Theile.<br />
-Carl Heinrich.<br />
-Friederich Rathman.<br />
-Carl Wild.<br />
-Wilhelm Wetendorf.<br />
-Carl Gerbech.<br />
-Friederich Assmussen.<br />
-Louis Griep.<br />
-Heinrich Zeiss.<br />
-Carl Mund.<br />
-George Schmidt.<br />
-August Buchwald.<br />
-Peter Weber.<br />
-Christ. Jungknecht.<br />
-Johann Fleischmann.<br />
-August Bernatzki.<br />
-Julius Koschnitzki.<br />
-Bernard Kaelle.<br />
-Richard Wagner.<br />
-Christ. Schumann.<br />
-George Stange.<br />
-Johann Siegfried.<br />
-Frank Ehlert.<br />
-Heinrich Becker.<br />
-Johann Peters.<br />
-Hermann Junke.<br />
-Julius Beck.<br />
-Louis Thiess.<br />
-John Weber.<br />
-Robert Lattmann.<br />
-Mike Hartmann.<br />
-Heinrich Pressler.<br />
-Otto Bartell.<br />
-Martin Lausgres.<br />
-Heinrich Koehler.<br />
-Fritz Geding.<br />
-Peter Ferneeten.<br />
-Louis Schroeder.<br />
-Heinrich Rauch.<br />
-John Mangels.<br />
-Hermann Tombrow.<br />
-John Koehler.<br />
-Wilhelm Kramp.<br />
-Hermann Gnadke.<br />
-Peter Pauls.<br />
-Adolph Rudemann.<br />
-Louis Schalk.<br />
-Rudolph Firo.<br />
-Joseph Kaiser.<br />
-Frank Allring.<br />
-Heinrich Block.<br />
-Carl Beck.<br />
-John Urech.<br />
-Gustav Roshke.<br />
-Ed. Peterson.<br />
-M. Grant.<br />
-August Hoffman.<br />
-Gustav Kerstarm.<br />
-J. Casper.<br />
-Philipp Wichmann.<br />
-John Bernier.<br />
-August Schnedort.</p>
-<p class="pc1 reduct">Total number, 139.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_694" id="Page_694">[694]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="p1">Names of Socialistic women of North Side, 1886:</p>
-
-<p class="pp7 p1">
-Mrs. Back.<br />
-Mrs. W. Lange.<br />
-Mrs. Mattius.<br />
-Mrs. Rehm.<br />
-Mrs. Johanna Schroeder.<br />
-Mrs. Antonie Hoverstadt.<br />
-Mrs. Rosenzweig.<br />
-Mrs. Fisher.<br />
-Mrs. Wilhelmina Menge.<br />
-Mrs. H. Habitzreiter.<br />
-Mrs. Elizabeth Reuter.<br />
-Marie Schnaubelt.<br />
-Mrs. Lane.<br />
-Mrs. Hermann.<br />
-Mrs. Pohl.<br />
-Mrs. Neuhaus.<br />
-Ida Schnaubelt.<br />
-Johanna Schnaubelt.<br />
-Mrs. Schwab.<br />
-Mrs. Miller.<br />
-Mrs. Huber.</p>
-<p class="pc1 reduct">Total number, 21.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_695" id="Page_695">[695]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="p4">ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
-
-<p class="pc2">*<br />*<span class="vh">&mdash;&mdash;</span>*</p>
-
-<table id="toi" summary="illustrations">
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Portrait of the Author,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#fr">Frontispiece</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The French Revolution&mdash;The Feast of Reason,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i16">16</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Storming the Bastile,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i18">18</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Karl Marx,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i19">19</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Michael Bakounine,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i20">20</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Pierre Joseph Proudhon,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i21">21</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Louise Michel,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i24">24</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Ferdinand Lassalle,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i25">25</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Excavated Dynamite Mine in Moscow,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i33">33</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">“It is Too Soon to Thank God.”&mdash;The Assassination of Czar Alexander II.,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i35">35</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Czar’s Carriage after the Explosion,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i36a">36</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Diagram of Elnikoff’s Bomb,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i36b">36</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Nihilists in the Dock,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i38">38</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Execution of the Nihilist Conspirators,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i39">39</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Book Bomb,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i40">40</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Scenes from the Riots at Pittsburg, 1877,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i51">51</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Great Strike in Baltimore&mdash;The Militia Fighting their Way through the
-Streets,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i57">57</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Labor Troubles of 1877&mdash;Riots at the Halsted Street Viaduct, Chicago,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i63">63</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Dr. Carl Eduard Nobiling,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i67a">67</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Max Hoedel,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i67b">67</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Banners of the Social Revolution&mdash;I.,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i69">69</a></td>
- </tr>
-
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Carter H. Harrison,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i70">70</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Black Flag,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i75">75</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Office of the <i>Arbeiter-Zeitung</i>,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i76">76</a></td>
- </tr>
-
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">An Anarchist Procession,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i78">78</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Board of Trade,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i80">80</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Banners of the Social Revolution&mdash;II.,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i85">85</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">A Group of Anarchists,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i87">87</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Banners of the Social Revolution&mdash;III.,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i91">91</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Red Banner of the Carpenters’ Union,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i93">93</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Dr. Nobiling’s Attempt to Assassinate the Emperor of Germany,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i95">95</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">August Reinsdorf,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i96">96</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Johann Most,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i100">100</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Banners of the Social Revolution&mdash;IV.,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i109">109</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Interior View of Neff’s Hall,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i111">111</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">A Strike&mdash;The Walking Delegate Sowing the Seed of Discontent,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i114">114</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Greif’s Hall,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i115">115</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">A Round-up,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i118">118</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Specimen Rioters&mdash;Hynek Djenek and Anton Seveski,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i120">120</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">&mdash;&mdash;John Pototski and Frank Novak,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i121">121</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">&mdash;&mdash;Vaclav Djenek and Anton Stimak,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i122">122</a></td>
- </tr>
-
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">&mdash;&mdash;Ignatz Urban and Joseph Sugar,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i123">123</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Charging the Mob at McCormick’s,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i126">126</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Officer Casey’s Peril,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i127">127</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Franz Mikolanda, a Polish Conspirator,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i128">128</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4"><i>Fac-simile</i> of the Famous “Revenge” Circular,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i130">130</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_696" id="Page_696">[696]</a></span>
-The Call for the Haymarket Meeting&mdash;<i>Fac-simile</i> I.,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i132">132</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">&mdash;&mdash; <i>Fac-simile</i> II.,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i135">135</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Neff’s Hall, Exterior View,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i136">136</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Haymarket Meeting&mdash;“In the Name of the People I Command You to
-Disperse,”</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i140">140</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Haymarket Riot&mdash;The Explosion and the Conflict,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i142">142</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Inspector John Bonfield,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i143">143</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Captain William Ward,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i144">144</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Lieut. (now Chief) G. W. Hubbard,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i145">145</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Sergt. (now Capt.) J. E. Fitzpatrick,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i146">146</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Lieut. James P. Stanton,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i147a">147</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Lieut. Bowler,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i147b">147</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Desplaines Street Station,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i151">151</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Haymarket Martyrs,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i154">154</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Adolph Fischer,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i157">157</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Fischer Family,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i158">158</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Fischer’s Belt and Poisoned Daggers,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i159">159</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">August Spies,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i160">160</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Miss Nina Van Zandt,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i162">162</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Chris Spies,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i163">163</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Miss Gretchen Spies,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i164">164</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Michael Schwab,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i165">165</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Albert R. Parsons,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i166">166</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Mrs. Lucy Parsons,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i167">167</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Oscar W. Neebe,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i168">168</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Rudolph Schnaubelt, the Bomb-Thrower,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i170">170</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Balthasar Rau,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i173">173</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Lingg’s Candlestick,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i177">177</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Round Iron Bomb,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i180">180</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Samuel Fielden,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i181">181</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Detective James Bonfield,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i184">184</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Officer Henry Palmer,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i185">185</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Officer (now Lieut.) Baer,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i186">186</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Detective Hermann Schuettler,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i189">189</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Detective Michael Hoffman,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i189">189</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Detective Michael Whalen,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i189">189</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Detective Charles Rehm,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i189">189</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Detective John Stift,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i189">189</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Detective Jacob Loewenstein,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i189">189</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Edmund Furthmann,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i191">191</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The East Chicago Avenue Station,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i193">193</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">A Back-Yard Interview,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i195">195</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">A Friendly Communication,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i197">197</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Notorious Florus’ Hall,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i203">203</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Shadowed Detectives,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i204">204</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The “Red” Sisterhood,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i207">207</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Turning the Tables,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i209">209</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Underground Auditors,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i211">211</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Betrayed by Beauty,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i214">214</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Thalia Hall,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i218">218</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Underground Conspirators,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i220">220</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Officer Nordrum,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i221">221</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_697" id="Page_697">[697]</a></span>
-The Scared Amateur Anarchist,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i223">223</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Watching a Suspect,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i225">225</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Julius Oppenheimer’s Double,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i231">231</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Mr. and Mrs. William Seliger,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i236">236</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">A Noble Woman’s Influence-A Kiss that Prevented Bloodshed,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i239">239</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">John Thielen,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i248">248</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Louis Lingg, the Bomb-maker,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i257">257</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Lingg’s Trunk,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i258">258</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Coils of Fuse Found in Lingg’s Trunk,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i259">259</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Composition Bomb Found in Lingg’s Room,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i261">261</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Cast-Iron and Large Gas-pipe Bombs,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i262">262</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Gas-pipe Bombs Found in Lingg’s Room,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i263">263</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Gas-pipe Bombs without Fuse,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i264">264</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Unfinished Gas-pipe Bombs Found in Lingg’s Dinner-box,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i265">265</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Lingg’s Revolver,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i267">267</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">A Desperate Struggle&mdash;Louis Lingg’s Arrest,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i269">269</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Iron Bolt Found in Lingg’s Trunk,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i271">271</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Lingg’s Sweetheart,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i274">274</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Ladle used by Lingg in Casting, with Can of English Dynamite,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i276">276</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Muntzenberg Peddling Books and Bombs,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i281">281</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">George Engel,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i284">284</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Miss Mary Engel,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i285">285</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Gottfried Waller,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i287">287</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Underground Rifle Practice&mdash;A Meeting of the Lehr und Wehr Verein,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i289">289</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Numbered Plates from L. u. W. V. Rifles,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i290">290</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">“Liberty Hall,”</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i295">295</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Otto Lehman,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i298">298</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Gustav Lehman,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i303">303</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Zepf’s Hall,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i306">306</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Timmerhof Hall,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i309">309</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Herman Muntzenberg,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i313">313</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">A Hasty Toilet,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i325">325</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">A Dangerous Storing-Place,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i327">327</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">An Obstreperous Prisoner,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i329">329</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Conspiracy Meeting&mdash;Waller Reading Engel’s “Plan,”</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i336">336</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The “Czar” Bomb,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i343">343</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Anarchist Ammunition&mdash;I.,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i348">348</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti5">1. Incendiary Bomb, with powder flask detached.
-2. Gas-Pipe Bombs, without cap or fuse, but loaded with dynamite. Found in Lingg’s Room.
-3. Bombs used in Evidence, after analysis by chemists.
-4. Gas-pipe Bombs, with fuse and caps, secreted by Julius Oppenheimer under a dancing-platform.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">A Group of the Lehr und Wehr Verein,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i352">352</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Wife-Beater’s Trial,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i362">362</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">An Incendiary Can,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i365">365</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Henry Spies,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i368">368</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Larrabee Street Station,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i371">371</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Hinman Street Station,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i374">374</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Neebe’s Sword and Belt,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i377">377</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Anarchist Ammunition&mdash;II.,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i381">381</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti5">1. Round Iron Bombs, cast whole, and designed for use with percussion caps, to explode on falling.
-2. Sheet-iron Molds, used by Lingg in the construction of infernal machines.
-3, 4. Sectional Views of the “Czar” Bomb.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Hon Joseph E. Gary,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i384">384</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_698" id="Page_698">[698]</a></span>
-Portraits of the Jury,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i386">386</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Portraits of the Jury,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i387">387</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Hon. Julius S. Grinnell,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i391">391</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Great Trial&mdash;Scene in the Court-room,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i410">410</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Spies’ Manuscript of the Famous “Ruhe” Signal&mdash;<i>Fac-simile</i>,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i421">421</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">“Y&mdash;Come Monday Evening”&mdash;<i>Fac-simile</i>,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i422">422</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Reduced <i>Fac-simile</i> of Heading of the <i>Fackel</i>,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i423">423</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Plan of the Seliger Residence,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i425">425</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Dynamite Packages,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i436">436</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti5">1. Package left at Judge Tree’s House.
-2. Package left at C., B. &amp; Q. Railroad offices.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Socialistic Bombs&mdash;Diagrams from <i>Daily News</i> of January 14, 1886,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i437">437</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Chart of Street Warfare,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i438">438</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Interior Plan of Greif’s Hall,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i440">440</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Interior Plan of Neff’s Hall,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i443">443</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Adolph Lieske,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i449">449</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Parsons’ Handwriting,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i451">451</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">A Picnic of the “Reds” at Sheffield,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i453">453</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti5">1. Experimenting with Dynamite.
-2. Getting Inspiration.
-3. Engel on the Stump.
-4. “Hoch die Anarchie!”
-5. Mrs. Parsons Addressing the Crowd.
-6. Children Peddling Most’s Literature.
-7. A Family Feast.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Engel’s Blast Furnace,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i469">469</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Moses Salomon,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i479">479</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Spies Addressing the Strikers at McCormick’s,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i511">511</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Francis W. Walker,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i526">526</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Sigismund Zeisler,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i536">536</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">George C. Ingham,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i542">542</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">William A. Foster,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i546">546</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Capt. William P. Black,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i554">554</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Lingg’s Suicide Bombs,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i595">595</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">E. F. L. Gauss,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i607a">607</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Henry Severin,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i607b">607</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Judge Benjamin D. Magruder,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i609">609</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Jailor Folz,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i629">629</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Benjamin P. Price,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i632">632</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Lingg’s Terrible Death,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i633">633</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti5">1. Lighting the Deadly Bomb.
-2. The Explosion.
-3. The Deputy Entering Lingg’s Cell.
-4. The Dying Bomb-Maker in the Hands of the Surgeons.</td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Lingg’s Last Request,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i635">635</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">John C. Klein,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i636">636</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Chicago Water-works,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i641">641</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Sheriff Canute R. Matson,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i643">643</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Execution,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i645">645</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">John A. Roche,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i648">648</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Kierlan’s Souvenir,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i653">653</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">The Haymarket Monument,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i659">659</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">An Anarchist “Sunday-school”&mdash;Teaching Unbelief and Lawlessness,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i669">669</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Frank Chleboun,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i673a">673</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Frank Capek,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i673b">673</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Charles L. Bodendick,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i675">675</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Anarchist Sympathizers&mdash;Court-room Sketches,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i678a">678</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Anarchist Sympathizers&mdash;Court-room Sketches,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i678b">678</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Anarchist Sympathizers&mdash;Court-room Sketches,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i678c">678</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Hronek’s Portrait and Description&mdash;I. Showing New Police Method of Identifying
-Criminals,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i679">679</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="ti4">Hronek’s Portrait and Description&mdash;II.,</td>
- <td class="tdr1"><a href="#i680">680</a></td>
- </tr>
-
-</table>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
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