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.
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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