CHAPTER XXII.

“We are Peaceable”—Capt. Ward’s Memories of the Massacre—A Nest of

Anarchists—Scenes in the Court—Seliger’s Revelations—Lingg, the

Bomb-maker—How he cast his Shells—A Dynamite Romance—Inside History

of the Conspiracy—The Shadow of the Gallows—Mrs. Seliger and the

Anarchists—Tightening the Coils—An Explosive Arsenal—The Schnaubelt

Blunder—Harry Wilkinson and Spies—A Threat in Toothpicks—The Bomb

Factory—The Board of Trade Demonstration.

DURING the progress of the trial the court-room was thronged daily.

The prisoners sat radiantly throughout the whole proceedings as if

supremely certain of acquittal, and they manifested great pride in the

boutonnieres which were handed in every morning by admiring friends.

As the testimony of the State’s witnesses proceeded, the defense

raised innumerable objections to the admission of parts particularly

criminative, and at times hours were consumed in arguments on the

points involved. The objections were almost invariably overruled,

and exceptions taken. Having finished the evidence then at hand with

reference to the McCormick riot, the State resumed the Haymarket

massacre.

WILLIAM WARD, Captain of Police at the Desplaines Street Station, a

member of the force since 1870, a resident of Chicago for thirty-six

years and a veteran of the Rebellion, was subjected to a long and

interesting examination. He first stated the facts with reference to

marching to the Haymarket and his order to the meeting to disperse,

corroborating the testimony of Inspector Bonfield in every particular,

and then concluded as follows:

“As the speaker was getting from the wagon he said, ‘We are

peaceable.’ That was this gentleman (indicating Fielden). I heard

some utterances of the speaker before I addressed him, but could not

understand them—quite a noise there. Our men had their clubs in their

belts, pistols in their pockets. A few seconds after Fielden said,

‘We are peaceable,’ I heard the explosion in my rear. I turned to

look and see, and pistol-firing began from the front and both sides

of the street by the crowd. I did not recognize anybody firing. Then

the police began firing, and we charged into the alley, Crane’s alley,

and north on Desplaines Street. Seven policemen died from the effects

of wounds; one was brought dead into the station—Mathias J. Degan.

There were in all killed and wounded sixty-six or sixty-seven—about

twenty-one or twenty-two out of Desplaines Street Station; forty-two

in all out of my precinct. It was only several seconds from the time

that Fielden said, ‘We are peaceable,’ and the time the police charged

down the alley and up Desplaines Street.”

The cross-examination resulted as follows:

“I had a detail there that night from the Central Police Station under

command of Lieut. Hubbard. At the time I gave the command to disperse

I was right close to the rear part of the wagon, close to the outside

wheel, southwest of the wheel. I could almost touch it; could have

touched it with my club. Some of the men carried their pistols in the

breast pocket of the coat, some the hip pocket. At the time I gave the

command, Inspector Bonfield stood at my left; Lieut. Steele was in the

rear of me, might have been a little to the right. There were four to

six persons on the wagon. Fielden was standing on the south end of

the truck, facing southwest, facing me, when I commenced to speak,

until I was through. Then he got off the truck, on the southeast end

of it, on the corner toward the sidewalk. All I could understand of

what Mr. Fielden said was: ‘We are peaceable.’ I did not see Fielden

after that. There was no pistol-firing of any kind by anybody before

the explosion of the bomb. I was several feet in advance of the front

rank of the police in marching down, sometimes eight or ten feet in

advance; sometimes not so far. The only utterance from any source

that I can recall that was heard by me, before the bomb exploded, was

that of Fielden, ‘We are peaceable,’ that he spoke to me, or looking

right at me when he spoke. It was a little louder than ordinary,

than if he was addressing me. I think the accent was on the last

word, ‘We are _peaceable_.’ I don’t remember whether I related this

utterance of Fielden on the occasion of the Coroner’s inquest when I

testified there. I think Steele’s line was about on a line with the

center of the alley. Quinn’s line had swung a little further forward.

A block and a half south of there, there were eight or ten electric

lights on the front of the Lyceum Theater, and they lit up the street

considerably. I don’t remember whether there was a torch-light or any

other light on the truck.”

MICHAEL HAHN, a tailor working on Halsted Street, stated that he was at

the Haymarket and received an injury in his back, one in his thigh, and

one in the leg:

“I went to the hospital that same night. Dr. Newman removed something

from my person that night; that is what he said; he showed it to

me. It was some kind of a nut. (Witness is handed an ordinary

iron-threaded nut.) I guess that was about the size. I left the

hospital two weeks after. I think that is the same nut.”

REUBEN SLAYTON, a policeman on the force fourteen years, testified that

he arrested Fischer:

“I searched him and found that gun (producing and exhibiting

a revolver). It is a 44-caliber; was loaded when I found it;

self-acting, I found this file ground sharp on three edges (producing

it), and that belt and sheath (producing same). The belt and sheath

were buckled on him; the file in the sheath, revolver stuck into the

slit in the belt, and he had ten cartridges in his pocket. He also had

this fulminating cap in his pocket. It was brighter when I found it.

He said he carried that revolver because he carried money, and going

home nights to protect himself. I took him to the Central Station.

He said he had worked at the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ as a compositor for

two years. When I arrested him he was coming down the stairs. I was

going up into the building. I felt this revolver and took him back

up, and searched him and took these things from him. The belt was

under his coat. You could not see the pistol and this stuff. I also

arrested Fielden at his house the same day, May 5th, in the morning,

at No. 110 West Polk Street. When I locked him up at the Central

Station, he took the bandage off his knee and put it on. I asked him

where he got it dressed. He told me when he got shot he came down the

alley and took a car and went to, I think he said, Twelfth and Canal

Streets—had his knee dressed there that night.”

On cross-examination, Officer Slayton stated that he met with no

resistance from Fischer or Fielden and that he found no munitions of

war at the latter’s house. He had no warrant, he said, for their arrest.

THEODORE FRICKE, business superintendent of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_,

once its book-keeper, testified to Spies’ handwriting on the manuscript

containing the word “Ruhe,” and identified several other documents as

in Spies’ handwriting. He continued:

[Illustration: SPIES’ MANUSCRIPT OF THE FAMOUS “RUHE” SIGNAL.

Engraved direct from the Original.]

“The _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ is the property of a corporation. Fischer was

a stockholder, so was I, so is Spies and Schwab. I was employed by

this corporation. Parsons is not a stockholder. Neebe belongs to this

corporation. I have known Neebe about two years; I saw him at picnics

and in our office. There was a library in the building belonging

to the International Working People’s Association—a Socialistic

association composed of groups, known by names. I belonged to the

group ‘Karl Marx,’ which met at No. 63 Emma Street. Before that I

belonged to the Northwest Side group, which met at Thalia Hall, No.

633 Milwaukee Avenue. Hirschberger was the librarian. I know Fischer;

he belonged to the Northwest Side group. Engel belonged to the same.

Spies formerly belonged to the Northwest Side group, later to the

American group. Parsons belonged to the American group. Schwab, I

guess, to the North Side group, I don’t know for sure. I don’t know

about Lingg. I guess Neebe belonged to the North Side group. These

groups, except the Northwest Side group, had a central committee,

which met at No. 107 Fifth Avenue. The Northwest Side group was not

represented. They had strong Anarchistic principles. Fielden, I guess,

belonged to the American group. This book here (Johann Most’s book)

I saw at the library in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ building. I have seen

that book sold at picnics by Hirschberger, at Socialistic picnics and

mass-meetings. At some of those meetings Spies, Parsons and Fielden

were present; sometimes Neebe, sometimes Schwab, maybe Fischer.”

Counsel for defendants objected to this line of inquiry, because,

as they said, it is not shown that any of the defendants knew or

participated in the selling, or that they had anything to do with, or

that they saw the selling. This led to some words between court and

counsel:

_The Court_—“If men are teaching the public how to commit murder, it

is admissible to prove it if it can be proved by items.”

_Mr. Black_—“Well, does your Honor know what this teaches?”

_The Court_—“I do not know what the contents of the book are. I asked

what the book was and I was told that it was Herr Most’s ‘Science of

Revolutionary Warfare,’ and taught the preparing of deadly weapons and

missiles, and that was accepted by the other side.”

_Mr. Black_—“Does that justify your Honor in the construction that it

teaches how to commit murder, or of stating that in the presence of

the jury?”

[Illustration: “Y—COME MONDAY EVENING.”

Reduced _Fac-simile_, engraved direct from the Original Manuscript.]

_The Court_—“.... I inquired what sort of book it was, and it was

stated by the other side what sort of book it was, and you said

nothing about it, so that in ruling upon the question whether it may

be shown where it was to be found, where it had been seen, I must take

the character of the book into consideration in determining whether it

is admissible; whether it is of that character or not we will see when

it is translated, I suppose. I suppose the book is not in the English

language.”

“Where were the picnics at which you have seen this book sold?” asked

the State’s Attorney.

“I saw this book sold at a picnic at Ogden’s Grove, on Willow Street,

on the North Side, in July of last year. There were present Spies,

Neebe, Parsons and Fielden. Also at a picnic at Sheffield, Indiana,

last September, where were present Spies, Neebe, Parsons and, I guess,

Fischer.”

Fricke then identified copies of the _Alarm_, Parsons’ paper, the

_Arbeiter-Zeitung_, the _Fackel_, the Sunday edition of that paper, and

the _Vorbote_, its weekly edition, of various dates from May 1st to May

5th.

On cross-examination, he testified that he had never seen any of the

defendants sell Most’s books anywhere, not even at the Sheffield,

Indiana, picnic, where there were 2,000 people, and that all

communications to the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ went through the hands of the

editor, Spies.

EDMUND FURTHMANN testified as follows:

“I am assistant in the State’s Attorney’s office. I was in the

_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office between eleven and twelve o’clock on the

5th of May. All the matter shown to Mr. Fricke was obtained by me in

the typesetting-room of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, and has been in my

possession since then. The typesetting-room was full of desks and

cases of type, and there were several tables covered with stone,

and at every case there was a hook containing a lot of manuscript,

which I took away. I found the doors locked. I found some twenty or

twenty-five of the ‘Revenge’ circulars there.”

On cross-examination he said:

“A locksmith opened the door. We had no search warrant. We also

carried away two mail-bags from there. We placed all this manuscript

into them. Mr. Grinnell, the State’s Attorney, Officer Haas, Lieut.

Kipley and myself were in the party.”

EUGENE SEEGER translated a paragraph in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ of March

15 and testified that it read as follows:

“‘Revolutionary Warfare has arrived, and is to be had through the

librarian, 107 Fifth Avenue, at the price of 10 cents.’

[Illustration: REDUCED FAC-SIMILE OF HEADING OF THE FACKEL.]

“This appears among what I would call, as a newspaper man, editorial

notices in the local column. These translations here (holding

typewriter copy, purporting to be the translation of certain

articles), are correct translations. There is an editorial here in the

_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ of May 4 headed ‘Editorial.’ ‘Blood has flowed’ is

the first phrase of it. There is another article on the fourth page of

May 3, headed ‘A Hot Conflict.’ In the local column of May 4 a report

headed, ‘Lead and Powder is a Cure for Dissatisfied Workingmen.’ All

these articles were also translated by Professor Olson, of the Chicago

University. We compared notes and found the translations correct.”

Assistant State’s Attorney Furthmann then read the translation of

Most’s volume.

WILLIAM SELIGER testified:

“I am a carpenter. Have lived in Chicago three years and a half.

Before that I lived at Charlottenburg, Germany. I was born at Eilau,

near Reichenbach, in Silesia. On May 4th last I lived at 442 Sedgwick

Street, in the rear of the lot. I occupied the second floor. Louis

Lingg, the defendant, boarded with me. On Monday, May 3, I worked

for Mr. Meyer. Quit work at half-past 4 P.M. In the evening of that

day I was at Zepf’s Hall, at a meeting of the Carpenters’ Union. I

was recording secretary of the union. I stayed there until half-past

eleven. I was not at the meeting at 54 West Lake Street that night.

I heard somebody call upon us, that all that knew should come to 54

West Lake Street. This here (holding paper), ‘Y—Komme Montag Abend,’

means that all the armed men should come to the meeting at 54 West

Lake Street. The armed men were divers ones—all the Socialistic

organizations. There were several organizations in existence which

were drilled in the use of arms. After I left Zepf’s Hall I took a

glass of beer in the saloon and then went to 71 West Lake Street

and took another glass of beer. Then I went home with several other

parties. I saw a copy of the ‘Revenge’ circular at Zepf’s Hall.

Balthasar Rau brought it to the meeting about nine o’clock.

“On Tuesday I did not work at my trade. I got up at half-past seven,

and after I got up Lingg came. I had previously told him that I wanted

those things removed from my dwelling. He told me to work diligently

at these bombs, and they would be taken away that day. I took some

coffee, and after a time I worked at some shells, at some loaded

shells. I drilled holes through which the bolt went. A shell like this

(indicating shell introduced in evidence). I worked on the shells half

an hour. Lingg went to the West Side to a meeting. Got back probably

after one o’clock. He said: ‘I didn’t do much. I ought to have worked

more diligently.’ I said I hadn’t any pleasure at the work.”

“What did Lingg reply?”

“Lingg said, ‘Well, we will have to work very diligently this

afternoon.’ During the afternoon I did different work at the shells.

In the morning I had a conversation about the bolts. He told me he

had not enough of them. He gave me one and told me to go to Clybourn

Avenue and get some that he had already spoken to the man about.

I got about fifty. I worked at the bombs during the whole of the

afternoon at different times. Hubner, Muntzenberg, Heuman, were

helping. I worked in the front room, also in Lingg’s room and the

rear room. Lingg first worked at gas or water pipes, such as these

(indicating). There were probably thirty or forty or fifty bombs made

that afternoon. The round bombs had been cast once before by Lingg,

in the rear room, on my stove, probably six weeks previous to the 4th

of May. The first bomb I ever saw was in Lingg’s room. That was still

before that. At that time he told me he was going to make bombs. I saw

dynamite for the first time in Lingg’s room, about five or six weeks

previous to the 4th of May. Lingg said every workingman should get

some dynamite; that there should be considerable agitation; that every

workingman would learn to handle these things. During that Tuesday

afternoon Lingg said those bombs were going to be good fodder for the

capitalists and the police, when they came to protect the capitalists.

Nothing was said about when they wanted the bombs completed or ready.

I only told him that I wanted those things out of my room. There was

only a remark that they were to be used that evening, but nothing

positive as to time. I left the house at half-past eight that evening.

Hubner was at the house probably from four to six o’clock. I did not

see what he did. He worked in the front room with Lingg. I was in

Lingg’s room. Muntzenberg was there as long as Hubner. Thielen was

there half an hour—quite that. I did not see what he was doing.

[Illustration: PLAN OF THE SELIGER RESIDENCE, USED IN EVIDENCE.]

“The Lehmans were at the house for a little while. I did not see

what they were doing. They were in the front room. Heuman also

worked at the bombs. I left the house in the evening with Lingg. We

had a little trunk with bombs in. The trunk was probably two feet

long, one foot high and one foot wide. It was covered with coarse

linen. There were round and pipe bombs in it. They were loaded with

dynamite and caps fixed to them. I don’t know how many there were.

The trunk might have weighed from thirty to fifty pounds. We pulled

a stick, which Lingg had broken, through the handle. That is the way

we carried the trunk, which was taken to Neff’s Hall, 58 Clybourn

Avenue. On the way to Neff’s Hall, Muntzenberg met us. He took the

package into the building through the saloon on the side into the

hallway that led to the rear. After the bombs were put down into that

passageway, there were different ones there, three or four, who took

bombs out for themselves. I took two pipe bombs myself; carried them

in my pocket. We went away from Neff’s Hall and left the package in

that passage. The back of Neff’s Hall is known under the name of the

Communisten-Bude. Different Socialistic and Anarchistic organizations

met there. The North Side group met there. I heard that the Saxon Bund

met there. I don’t know any others that met there. When I left Neff’s

Hall, Thielen and Gustav Lehman were with me. Later two large men of

the L. u. W. V. came to us. I believe they all had bombs. We went on

Clybourn Avenue north towards Lincoln Avenue, to the Larrabee Street

Station, where we halted. Lingg and myself halted there. I don’t know

what had become of the others. Some went ahead of us. Lingg and I had

a conversation, that there should be made a disturbance everywhere

on the North Side to keep the police from going over to the West

Side. In front of the Larrabee Street Station Lingg said it might be

a beautiful thing if we would walk over and throw one or two bombs

into the station. There were two policemen sitting in front of the

station, and Lingg said if the others came out these two couldn’t do

much. We would shoot these two down. Then we went further north to

Lincoln Avenue and Larrabee Street, where we took a glass of beer.

Webster Avenue Station is near there. After we left the saloon we went

a few blocks north, then turned about and came back to North Avenue

and Larrabee Street. While we stood there a patrol wagon passed. We

were standing south of North Avenue and Larrabee Street. Lingg said

that he was going to throw a bomb—that was the best opportunity to

throw the bomb—and I said it would not have any purpose. Then he

became quite wild, excited; said I should give him a light. I was

smoking a cigar, and I jumped into a front opening before a store and

lighted a match, as if I intended to light a cigar, so I could not

give him a light. When I had lighted my cigar the patrol wagon was

just passing. Lingg said he was going to go after the wagon to see

what had happened, saying that something had certainly happened on

the West Side—some trouble. The patrol wagon was completely manned,

going south on Larrabee Street. We were four or five houses distant

from the station. Then I went into a boarding-house between Mohawk and

Larrabee Streets and lighted a cigar; then we went towards home. First

Lingg wanted to wait until the patrol wagon would come back, but I

importuned him to go home with me. We got home probably shortly before

eleven; I cannot tell exactly. On the way home Lingg asked me whether

I had seen a notice that a meeting of the armed men should be held on

the West Side. I said I had seen nothing. Lingg wanted to go out. I

took the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_; tore it into two parts. He took one, and

I one. Thereupon he said, ‘Here it is,’ and called my attention to the

word ‘Ruhe.’ This here is the same that I saw in my house. I did not

know the meaning of the word ‘Ruhe’ until the time I saw it. Lingg

said there was to have been a meeting on the West Side that night, and

he was going to go at once to it. ‘Ruhe’ meant that everything was to

go topsy-turvy; that there was to be trouble. He said that a meeting

had been held at which it was determined that the word ‘Ruhe’ should

go into the paper, when all armed men should appear at 54 West Lake

Street; that there should be trouble. After that talk we went away.

Lingg wanted to go to the West Side, and I talked with him to go with

me to 58 Clybourn Avenue. Lingg and I went there. There were several

persons present at Neff’s Hall. I did not speak with Lingg at Neff’s

Hall. A certain Hermann said to him, in an energetic tone of voice,

‘You are the fault of it all.’ I did not hear what Lingg said to that.

They spoke in a subdued tone. Somebody said a bomb had fallen, which

had killed many and wounded many. I did not hear what Lingg said

to that. On the way home Lingg said that he was even now scolded,

chided for the work he had done. He got home shortly after twelve.

We laid the bombs off on our way on Sigel Street, between Sedgwick

and Hurlbut, under an elevated sidewalk. I laid two pipe bombs there.

I saw Lingg put some bombs there. I don’t know what kind. The next

morning I got up about six o’clock. I don’t know when Lingg got up. On

Wednesday evening, when Lingg got home, we spoke about the Haymarket

meeting. He said if the workingmen only had had the advantage of it

they would have gained the victory. Then we went together to a meeting

on Fifth Avenue, at Seamen’s Hall.

‘On Friday, I believe, before that Tuesday, the 4th of May, Lingg

brought some dynamite to the house in a wooden box about three feet

in length, about sixteen to eighteen inches in height, and about the

same width. Inside this box there was another box. The dynamite with

which we filled the bombs on Tuesday was in that large wooden box.

We handled the dynamite with our hands and with a flat piece of wood

which Lingg had made for more convenience. This here (indicating) is

the pan to cast those shells in. (Same offered in evidence.) Lingg

used to cast shells in them. Lingg once told me he had made eighty to

one hundred bombs in all. The bolts which I got on that Tuesday were

something like this (referring to bolt about two and one-half inches

long).

“I am a member of the North Side group of the International

Workingmen’s Association. During the last year I was financial

secretary. My number was, at last, 72. Two years ago the members

began to be given numbers. I heard Engel make a speech to the North

Side group last winter at Neff’s Hall. He said that every one could

manufacture those bombs for themselves; that these pipes could be

found everywhere without cost; that they were to be closed up with

wooden plugs fore and aft, and that in one of the plugs was to be

drilled a hole for the fuse and cap. He said they were the best means

against the police and capitalists. I never heard him make any other

speech.

“I saw two bombs at the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ last year at the time of

the car-drivers’ strike. Rau showed them to some one. I don’t know

precisely who were present. Spies was there. It was in the evening.

There was one round bomb and one long one—not very long. I was at

the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ as a delegate from the North Side group to the

meeting of the general committee of all the groups of Chicago.

“I know Schwab and Neebe. They were members of the North Side group of

the Internationale. I know Fischer. He is a member of some group, but

I don’t know positively. Lingg belonged to the North Side group. Engel

belonged to a group, I cannot tell to which one. The North Side group

met every Monday evening. There were speeches made, or a review of

what had happened during the week. On Sundays some members exercised

with rifles. I don’t know how many members had rifles. Every one took

his own rifle home with him. I had a rifle. I kept it at my dwelling.

This book here (Herr Most’s book) I saw at public meetings of the

North Side group. Hubner had charge of them latterly. The North Side

group bought them and sold them. Hubner was the librarian. This here

(indicating photograph) is Rudolph Schnaubelt.”

On cross-examination he gave the following testimony:

“I was arrested after the 4th of May. I was kept at the Chicago

Avenue Station. The first time fully a week. Then I was on the West

Side three weeks and one day; then I went back to the station of

my own accord and stayed there voluntarily. Was locked up there

ever since. When first arrested I made a statement, but not of all

that I have testified to-day. I made a full statement of all that

I testified to here, at the Chicago Avenue Station. Capt. Schaack,

Mr. Furthmann and some detectives were present. That was after I had

been in prison seven days. The day after and the second day after. I

have made statements in writing, signed by me, three times. In the

first statement I had not said much. I have done no work, earned no

money, during the time I have been in jail. I received money from

Capt. Schaack; once a dollar and a half, at another time five dollars.

While I was at liberty I read in the paper that I was indicted for the

murder of Degan. I did not know before this case was begun that I was

not to be tried. I did not know whether I was going to be tried for

the murder of Degan along with Mr. Spies and the other defendants.

When the trial was commenced I did not inquire of any of the officers

why I was not brought out for trial. I did not know I was to be used

as a witness instead of being a defendant at this trial. Capt. Schaack

did not tell me anything about my trial. If I would come in and tell

the story which was in the written statement that I have signed—he

only told me that it would be the best if I would tell the truth, and

asked me whether I would tell the truth before the court, and I said

yes.”

Seliger was then given a breathing-spell, and Mr. Buschick was

recalled. Buschick testified with regard to a map of the rear building

of No. 442 Sedgwick Street, and was excused.

Seliger, continuing on cross-examination, said:

“Lingg, I think, is twenty-one or twenty-two years old. He is not a

man of family. He has boarded with me since Christmas last. My house

where I lived on May 4th is about three-quarters of a mile distant

from the Haymarket. When Lingg and I, on Tuesday night at eleven

o’clock, after we had seen the word ‘Ruhe’ in the paper, spoke about

going over to the West Side, we meant Zepf’s Hall, or Greif’s Hall,

or Florus’ Hall. One of those halls was certainly meant, for there

is no other place. It was not understood or agreed between me and

any other men who had the bombs that night at Clybourn Avenue, that

any one of us was to go to the Haymarket meeting. I know that Capt.

Schaack paid my wife money at different times since my arrest. I don’t

know how much. I think $20 or $25. Lingg had made the same remark

about bombs being the best food for capitalists and police before

that Tuesday afternoon. When he brought the first bomb into the house

he said they were to be applied on occasions of strikes, and where

there were meetings of workingmen and were disturbed by the police. On

that Tuesday afternoon we agreed to go to Clybourn Avenue that night,

before the bombs were done. It was said that the bombs were to be

taken to Clybourn Avenue that evening. I don’t believe it was agreed

that the bombs were to be taken anywhere else than Clybourn Avenue.

When they were taken to Clybourn Avenue, I don’t know whether they

were to remain there, or were to be taken to further places. There was

no agreement as to where the bombs should be taken after they got to

Clybourn Avenue. I did not hear anything about an agreement that any

of the bombs manufactured on the afternoon of May 4th were to be taken

by anybody to the Haymarket; we were not making bombs to take to the

Haymarket and destroy the police. They were to be taken to Clybourn

Avenue for use on that evening. I can not say that one single bomb was

made for use at the Haymarket meeting. They were made everywhere to

be used against capitalists and the police. I cannot say who had the

bomb at the Haymarket on the night of May 4th. I don’t know anybody

who was expected to be at the Haymarket. I became acquainted with

Lingg in August of last year. I saw Engel once last year in the office

of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, and again at the meeting of the North Side

group. I did not see whether the bombs which I saw last summer at the

_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ building were loaded. The room where I saw them

was the library-room that belonged to the International Workingmen’s

Association. The bombs were below the counter. I never saw any bombs

in the office of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, neither in the editorial room

nor the printing-room, nor in the office of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_.

The office is the front room. This library-room is in the rear. I saw

those bombs in the rear room. I don’t know precisely whether that

library-room is a part of the office, or whether it is rented as a

library-room. I believe that it belonged to the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_.

Those drills on Sunday, of which I spoke, were in the daytime. We

kept our guns at home, in broad daylight, and in the presence of our

neighbors, or any one who might be on the streets, walked to the hall

on Sunday and drilled. We had a shooting society. We went to the

Sharpshooters’ Park or to the prairie to exercise. We used to meet and

march publicly on the streets with our guns exposed. We didn’t try to

keep it away from the police force that we had arms and drilled and

marched. I knew that I was indicted for conspiracy and for murder. I

did not employ the services of any lawyer. The only lawyers that I

talked with were Mr. Grinnell and Mr. Furthmann.”

On re-direct examination witness stated:

“During the time I was at liberty I went to the West Side to the house

of Mr. Gloom, on Twenty-second Street. I stayed with him two weeks and

one day. He is not a Socialist. I went there from fear of revenge by

the Socialists.”

MRS. BERTHA SELIGER testified as follows:

“I have lived in this country two years. Am the wife of William

Seliger. We lived at 442 Sedgwick Street from the 12th of October

to the 19th of May. I have known Louis Lingg since two weeks before

Christmas. He came to us to board with us. He boarded with us until

May. He took his meals with us and slept in the house. We occupied

the middle floor of that house. His room was next to the front room,

and there was a door opening into a clothes closet. Shortly before

May 1st I saw some bombs as Lingg was about to hide them—about half

a dozen lying on the bed. They were round bombs and long ones. After

Lingg had left the house I did not see any more of them; they were all

gone. On the Tuesday on which the bomb was thrown at the Haymarket

there were several men at our house. About six or eight. Perhaps more.

Those I knew were Hubner, Heuman, Thielen, Lingg and my husband. I

think they were there until past seven o’clock. They were going and

coming during most of the afternoon. They were in the front room and

in Lingg’s room, working at bombs. I saw Heuman working and filling at

them. What the others were doing I don’t know. I was in the kitchen,

and when supper was ready I went into the bed-room. I was so mad I

could have thrown them all out. I frequently saw Lingg make bombs. I

always saw him cast. I did not pay any particular attention. I simply

saw him melt lead on the cooking-stove in my house—twice with Heuman,

once with my husband and Thielen, and frequently he worked by himself.

He said to us: ‘Don’t act so foolishly. You might do something too.’

On Monday, the day before the bomb was thrown, Lingg was away. In the

morning some young fellows had come and had their names entered on the

list of the union, and then he was writing pretty much all day.

“On Wednesday, the day after the bomb was thrown, Lingg was at home in

the forenoon. That was the day on which he wanted to hide those bombs

in the clothes closet, and Lehman was with him. I heard some knocking,

and I went in, and I said to him: ‘Mr. Lingg, what are you doing

there? I will not suffer that,’—and he was tearing everything loose

below, and he sent that man Lehman after wall-paper, and he wanted

to cover up everything afterwards—nail up everything afterwards. He

had the wall-paper already there, and he said to me: ‘I suppose you

are crazy. You ought to have said before you wouldn’t suffer that,

that I would have looked for a place where I am allowed to do that.’

He was tearing up things all around about in the closet, and he had

loosened the baseboards and taken out the mortar. He said if he needed

something he couldn’t first go to the West Side to get it. On the

Friday following, on the 7th of May, he left my house. Lingg had a

trunk which he kept in his bed-room. This instrument (referring to

ladle identified by William Seliger) Lingg was always casting with.”

On cross-examination Mrs. Seliger stated:

“I have been locked up on account of this bomb business—on account of

Lingg—by Capt. Schaack. The first time I was there from Saturday to

Tuesday. Of course it was Lingg’s fault that I got locked up. I talked

with Capt. Schaack about this matter several times. I was locked up

twice. Capt. Schaack paid my rent. I made no memoranda of the money I

received from Capt. Schaack. He gave me money at different times, from

the time I made my statement down to the present time. He paid my rent

and gave me so much money with which to live. When I said to Lingg

that I wouldn’t allow that wall-paper to be put into the closet, and

‘what would the landlord say when he comes,’ Lingg said, ‘Well, then,

I will say to him that I will not dirty my clothes.’ Those boards were

about a foot high from the floor. The closet did not reach up as far

as the ceiling. He intended to put those things in the wall. There was

nothing in at that time. I stopped him at that juncture. I don’t like

Mr. Lingg very well, because he always had wrong things in his head. I

blame him for me and my husband having been locked up. My husband and

myself talked this thing over together. I said to my husband, ‘I will

tell the truth, and you tell it also.’ Capt. Schaack told us we had

better tell it. I am forty years old.

“I was locked up in the Larrabee Street Station, and my husband was

in the Chicago Avenue Station. I never occupied the same cell with my

husband while under arrest. I only heard after I came out again that

my husband was arrested in another station. While I was arrested I

didn’t see my husband. No one came to see me. I told that story, and

then they turned me out. When arrested the second time they kept me

from Monday until Friday. I made the same statement as at first and

signed it, and then they turned me out again. The second time I was

arrested they brought a statement, which they said my husband had

made, and asked me to sign it, and I put my name below that of my

husband’s, and then they turned me out. My husband was a Socialist

before he got acquainted with Lingg.”

MARSHALL H. WILLIAMSON, reporter for the _Daily News_, witnessed

the procession of the Socialists in 1885 at the time of the opening

of the Board of Trade building, and was also present at No. 107

Fifth Avenue, from which place they started, and where they finally

separated. He heard Parsons and Fielden speak from the windows of the

_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office. Said the witness:

“Parsons spoke of the police interfering with them in marching on

the Board of Trade that night. He called the police bloodhounds and

called on the mob to follow him in an assault on Marshall Field’s dry

goods house and various clothing-houses, and take from there what he

called the necessities of life. They spoke from the second floor.

There were about 1,000 people in front of the building. Fielden in

his speech also called upon the mob to follow them, and he agreed to

lead them to rob these places or go into them and take from them what

they needed in the way of clothing and dry goods. They both said that

the new Board of Trade was built out of money of which they had been

robbed; that all the men who transacted business there were robbers

and thieves, and that they ought to be killed. Nothing was said in the

speeches as to the means or mode of killing. Later I went up-stairs.

I saw Fielden and Parsons and some others whose names I didn’t know.

I didn’t know Spies at that time, but remember of seeing him there. I

asked Parsons why they didn’t march upon the Board of Trade and blow

it up. He said because the police had interfered, and they had not

expected that and were not prepared for them. I told him I had seen

revolvers exhibited by some in the procession. He told me when they

met the police they would be prepared with bombs and dynamite. Mr.

Fielden was standing at his elbow at the time. He said the next time

the police attempted to interfere with them, they would be prepared

for them. That would be in the course of a year or so. Spies was in

the room. It was the front room of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office.

Spies was not standing immediately with the party. I was shown what

they told me was a dynamite cartridge. The package was about six or

seven inches long, and an inch and a half or two inches in diameter.

It was wrapped in a piece of paper. The paper was broken. After I had

conversed with Mr. Parsons a while, he took out of the broken place a

small portion of the contents. It was of a slightly reddish color, and

he again said it was dynamite, and that was what they would use when

they went against the police; he also said he had enough of that where

he could put his hands on it to blow up the business center of the

city. I was shown a coil of fuse about fifteen or twenty feet; also a

fulminating cap by which they said dynamite bombs were exploded. The

cap was exploded in the room while I was there. It made quite a noise

and filled the room with smoke. It was copper and about an inch long

and perhaps one-eighth of an inch in diameter—about the size of a No.

22 cartridge cap. Mr. Parsons called for these articles. They were in

a drawer in a desk, and Mr. Spies handed them to him to be shown to

me. Parsons told me they were preparing for a fight for their rights;

that they believed they were being robbed every day by capitalists

and the thieving Board of Trade men. He said it must stop. He told me

that they had bombs, dynamite and plenty of rifles and revolvers, and

he said their manner of warfare would be to throw their bombs from

the tops of houses and stores, and in that way they could annihilate

any force of militia or police brought against them without any harm

to themselves. After this conversation I went down-stairs, where I

met Detectives Trehorn and Sullivan. I was acquainted with them. I

took them up-stairs and renewed the conversation with Mr. Parsons,

and left him talking with the police officers. The conversation I had

had with Mr. Parsons was in effect repeated with the police officers

in my presence. The officers were in citizens’ clothes. The red flags

in that procession were carried by some women. I was at 54 West Lake

Street, in some of the halls there, on several occasions, within a

year before the opening of the Board of Trade. That is where I got

acquainted with Parsons and Fielden. I heard them speak there. That

was during the winter months of 1884 and 1885. Mr. Fielden, on one

occasion, wanted them to follow him to those clothing stores and

grocery stores and some other places and get what they needed to

support their families. He told them to purchase dynamite. He said

that five cents’ worth of dynamite carried around in the vest pocket

would do more good than all the revolvers and pistols in the world.

Mr. Parsons also told them they were being robbed, and offered to lead

them to the grocery stores and other places to get what they wanted.

That is all I remember of those speeches. I heard them some eight or

ten times. There were never over between ten and twenty-five people

present.”

On cross-examination witness stated:

“The first of these meetings I attended was about two years ago. I

wrote reports of those meetings, which I think were published in

the _Daily News_ in each instance the day following, in the morning

edition. The circulation of the _Daily News_, about a year and a half

and two years ago, was, I think, 121,000 per day, as claimed by the

paper.

“When I went to the meetings at 54 West Lake Street I had no trouble

to get in. The meetings were held in the front rooms on the top floor.

There were no guards at the door. I simply went in and sat down and

took my notes publicly. Fielden and Parsons learned very soon that

I was a reporter on the _Daily News_. Those speeches of Parsons and

Fielden which I related were made at the first meeting I attended.

When Fielden suggested the five cents’ worth of dynamite carried in

the vest pocket, he gave no instructions whatever on the subject of

how to carry or use it. The proposal to go out to Marshall Field’s

and some clothing store was a proposal for immediate action. He did

not start, however. After he got through with his talk and proposal,

he sat down until the meeting was over. The meeting quietly dispersed

and went home. I did not see that army of less than twenty-five men

start for Field’s that night, or upon any subsequent occasion. I heard

that same proposal at every single meeting I attended at 54 West

Lake Street and 700 and something West Indiana Street, and various

other places. I do not think there was ever over twenty-five present

at their meetings in halls. I have seen larger numbers of people at

open-air meetings. Sometimes the attendance did not exceed about ten

men. The same proposition was made when there were only ten persons

present.

“In that procession on the night of the opening of the Board of Trade

I marched at the head. After Mr. Parsons had finished his speech from

the window of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office that night, in which

he proposed to lead the multitude against those stores, he quietly

went back into the room, and I entered into a conversation with

him. Mr. Fielden, after he had got through proposing, joined in the

conversation with Mr. Parsons and myself. He didn’t go down to the

street and lead anybody anywhere, either. The proposals that night,

both by Fielden and Parsons, were proposals for immediate action,

but they simply proposed to, and then gracefully retired from the

window. There were about twenty people in the room. Among them, I

think, was Mr. Spies. There were two reporters besides myself there.

I think both Fielden and Parsons knew me as a reporter at the time. I

presume they knew I was connected with the _Daily News_. Parsons never

manifested any reluctance in detailing to me what he did; but in one

conversation he refused to reveal the remainder of their plans. I saw

some three or four revolvers in that procession. I don’t know who had

them. There were not to exceed five hundred people in the procession.

I saw two revolvers in the right-hand side coat pocket, and two more

in the hip pocket, carried by four persons. I have informed various

police officers of what I have seen and heard regarding these people.

I had frequent conversations with police officers of Chicago. I think

there were about four women in that procession carrying banners. There

were about half a dozen women in the room while they spoke from the

windows. I think some women spoke from the same windows to the same

mob. I think the meetings which I attended were regularly advertised

in the _Daily News_.”

On re-direct examination, Williamson was asked by the State’s Attorney:

“You were about to say something about some interview that you had with

Parsons in regard to the plans, also in regard to leaders and privates

in their army. Will you please state what that was?”

“Parsons told me there were some 3,000 armed Socialists in the city of

Chicago, well armed with rifles and revolvers, and would have dynamite

and bombs when they got ready to use them; that they were meeting and

drilling at various halls in the city. He refused to give me a list of

those halls. He refused to tell me where they bought rifles. He said

the society was divided into groups, and that they knew each other

by twos and threes. He showed me an article in the _Alarm_, I think,

about street warfare. In that connection I think he told me it was

their intention to occupy the Market Place and the Washington Street

tunnel, and in that position they could successfully encounter any

force that could be brought against them.”

On re-cross-examination witness related:

“There was nobody present when I had that conversation with Mr.

Parsons. I think it was after New Year’s day of 1885, in the winter. I

did not ask him how they managed to drill if they only knew each other

by twos and threes. He said that in that organization of 3,000 no man

knew more than two or three others.”

JOHN SHEA, Lieutenant of Police, and at the head of the detective

force, testified about the search of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office and

proceeded:

“I know a man that is called Rudolph Schnaubelt. He was in the station

a couple of days after the arrest of those other gentlemen. This here

(indicating photograph) I recognize as Schnaubelt’s picture. When I

saw him he had a mustache. I had a conversation with Mr. Spies at

police headquarters, in my office, after he was arrested. We had a

conversation about that manuscript referred to by me. I asked Spies

if he was at the meeting at the Haymarket. He said he was; that he

opened the meeting; that Schwab was there, but that he understood

he went to Deering. He said Parsons was there, and Fielden; that

both spoke there—Fielden at the time the police came. He said he

spoke at a meeting on May 3, near McCormick’s factory, and some of

the parties there in the rear had commenced to halloa, and said,

‘Let’s go to McCormick’s,’ and they had started, and most of the

crowd had started with them. Spies said he had heard later what had

happened at McCormick’s; that he had got on a street car and come down

town. I asked him if he knew anything about that circular that was

circulated on the street. I don’t remember that I had present with me

the circular which I referred to during that conversation. He said

he did not know anything about the circular, but heard that it had

been circulated. I asked him if he wrote this manuscript (indicating

manuscript previously produced). Mr. Grinnell was sitting in the

office at the time. Spies said, ‘I refuse to answer.’ Then Mr. Spies

said he was the editor there. I said, ‘Now, would not anything of that

kind be likely to go through your hands before it would go to print?’

He said, ‘I refuse to answer.’

“I had a conversation with Fischer the next day. He said that on

the night of May 4 he and several others, Schwab, Fielden, were at

a meeting in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office; that Rau brought word

to the meeting that there was a large crowd at the Haymarket, that

Spies was there and very few speakers; and they immediately started

to the Haymarket. He said he didn’t hear Spies, but heard Fielden and

Parsons. That pistol and dagger he had had to protect himself. He

had not had it with him that night. It was in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_

office. On Wednesday morning he had put it on because he didn’t intend

to stay. He was going away. That fulminating cap he had got from a man

in front of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office some three months before

that. He had never paid any attention to it. He had made the sharpened

dagger himself for his own protection.

“In the conversation with Spies, my recollection is that he said he

got on the wagon, and said something to Parsons or Fielden about its

going to rain, and left the wagon. I don’t recollect where he said

he went to. Fischer said he was at Zepf’s Hall at the time of the

explosion.”

FRED. L. BUCK was called to testify with reference to some experiments

he had made with dynamite which he had received from the detectives’

office. He had gone to the lake front with Officer McKeough and another

officer and a newspaper reporter and there made several tests, all of

which demonstrated the immense force of the dynamite.

Lieut. GEORGE W. HUBBARD, now Superintendent of the force, had charge

of the company that composed the third division at the Haymarket. Being

a large company, it was divided into two, he himself commanding one

wing and Sergt. (now Capt.) Fitzpatrick, who was drill master, being in

command of the other.

“I was about four feet behind Stanton’s and Bowler’s companies. My

company was about six feet behind me. I could hear the sound of the

voices at the wagon, but couldn’t hear exactly what was said. I saw

the bomb when it was about six feet from the ground—a little tail

of fire quivering as it fell not more than six feet in front of me.

The bomb immediately exploded, and as far as I could see the entire

division in front of me disappeared, except the two ends; but a great

many of them got up again in a kind of disorder, and then I flanked

the left of the division. There was no firing before the explosion of

that bomb. The firing began almost immediately on both sides of the

street and north of me. I, being on the left, rushed my division of

the company right around toward the sidewalk, and commenced answering

the charge from that quarter, and Fitzpatrick went the other way,

to the east, and he commenced shooting right into the crowd on the

sidewalk, faced them right and left. In our company we had our regular

revolvers in our pockets, and we had a larger revolver in the sockets

attached to our belts, on the outside. The club in the socket and the

revolver in the socket were both hanging to the left side of each

officer. Pistols and clubs were all in the pockets until the explosion

of the bomb.”

S. J. WERNEKE, police officer, who was hit with a bullet in the head

at the Haymarket, testified that he heard Engel at 703 Milwaukee

Avenue in February, 1886, “advise every man in the audience to join

them, and urged the people to save up three or four dollars to buy a

revolver that was good enough to shoot these policemen down. I was at

the Haymarket in Lieut. Steele’s company. Got hit with a bullet in the

head.”

JOHN J. RYAN next took the witness-stand. He testified:

“I am a retired officer of the United States navy. Live at 274

North Clark Street. Lived in Chicago for three years. Have seen the

defendants Spies, Neebe, Parsons, Fielden and Schwab on the occasion

of their Sunday afternoon meetings during the summer of last year and

the year previous. I heard some of them speak there, namely, Spies,

Parsons and Fielden, in the English language. I can only designate

particularly two meetings, one previous to the picnic they had last

year, and one on the Sunday directly after it. That was in July of

last year, I think. I cannot say that I saw Mr. Spies at either of

those meetings. Mr. Parsons I remember at one of them.”

“State what he said,” put in the State’s Attorney.

“He was speaking in a general way,” said the witness, “about trouble

with the workingmen and the people, what he called the proletariat

class, and spoke about their enemies, the police and the constituted

authorities; that the authorities would use the police and militia and

they would have to use force against them. He advised them to purchase

rifles. If they had not money enough for that, then to buy pistols,

and if they couldn’t buy pistols they could buy sufficient dynamite

for twenty-five cents to blow up a building the size of the Pullman

building?”

“What, if anything, did you hear Fielden say at that meeting?”

“The speeches were very nearly alike; they spoke about dynamite and

fire-arms to be used against the police, and any one who opposed

them in their designs; they wanted things their way and to regulate

society. The speeches were alike Sunday after Sunday. I heard Spies

speak on the lake front before and after the meetings I mention;

he represented, as he said, the oppressed class, the workingmen,

as opposed to the capitalists and property-owners; the latter were

the enemy of the workingmen; if they couldn’t get their rights in

a peaceable manner they must get them in a forcible way. I heard

that talk about ten or fifteen times; the meetings were held there

every Sunday until late in the fall. After the picnic, Mr. Parsons,

I think—I won’t be sure of that—spoke about the young German

experimenting with dynamite at this picnic; that this young German

had a small quantity of dynamite in a tomato-can; it was thrown into

a pond or lake, and he spoke of the force this amount of dynamite

exerted, and what could be done with it in destroying buildings and

property in the city.”

On cross-examination Mr. Ryan stated:

“Those lake front meetings were held publicly in plain view to

everybody in every instance. The largest number of persons I ever saw

attend one of these meetings was not more than 150. The meetings that

I attended usually lasted two or three hours. I heard two or three

other persons speak on the lake front at those meetings—Mr. Henry,

Mrs. Parsons, Mrs. Holmes, and, one Sunday, a young Englishman whose

name I did not hear; also an Irishman whose name I never heard. The

meetings were held about half past two. The speeches were made in a

loud, clear tone, sometimes very loud when they would get excited.

A policeman who evidently had charge of the park was usually around

there. It was a general propagation of ideas and doctrines, down there

on the lake front. Once I heard Mr. Parsons say that now was the time

to do it. I heard the opinion expressed there that the workingmen

would have to secure their rights by force, and therefore should be

prepared for it.”

[Illustration: Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

1. Package left at Judge Tree’s house.

2. Package left at C. B. & Q. offices.]

HARRY WILKINSON, a reporter for the _Daily News_, testified as follows:

“On Thanksgiving Day, last year, I heard Mr. Parsons speak on the

Market Square. He advised the workingmen who were present (there

were several hundred there), to stand together, and to use force in

procuring their rights. He told them that they were slaves; that out

of a certain sum of money the per cent. they got was too small; it

ought to be more evenly divided with the man who employed them. I

don’t recollect that he said at that time anything as to the means or

manner of force to be used, or against whom.

“Last January I had several conversations with Mr. Spies, probably

half a dozen. I first saw Mr. Spies a few days after the 1st of

January of this year in regard to the matter published in this paper

(indicating copy of Chicago _Daily News_ of January 13, 1886). I wrote

up the result of my talk with Mr. Spies for that paper; it was not

all published. I inquired of Spies about an explosive which had been

placed on Judge Lambert Tree’s steps, and one that was placed in the

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad offices, and he emphatically

denied that those machines were either made or placed by Socialists

or Anarchists, and proved it by showing me that they were entirely

different in character to those used by the Socialists. He showed me

this bomb (indicating), which he described as the Czar; I took it with

me. He spoke of the wonderful destructive power of the Czar bomb; said

it was the same kind that had been used by Nihilists in destroying

the Czar. I told him that I thought it was a pretty tall story, and

he became somewhat excited and produced this, and said that there

were others, larger than that, run by mechanical power—clock-work

bombs—and he gave me that in a small room adjoining the counting-room

office of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. He denied that those things were

made at the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office; he said they were made by

other persons and that there were several thousand of them in Chicago

distributed, and that at some times they were distributed through the

_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office; that those who could make bombs made more

than they could use, and those that could make them gave them to those

that could not; that that one was one of the samples. I asked Mr.

Spies if I could take that (the bomb) and show it to Mr. Stone, and I

took it over there and didn’t bring it back. On another occasion, Mr.

Spies and Mr. Gruenhut and myself went to dinner together, and he told

us there about the organization of their people in a rather boastful

manner; how they had gone out on excursions on nice summer mornings,

some miles out of the city, and practiced throwing these bombs; the

manner of exploding them; that they had demonstrated that bombs made

of compound metal were much better than the other kind, and that a

fuse bomb with a detonating cap inside was by far the best; and how

at one attempt made in his presence one of their machines had been

exploded in the midst of a little grove, and that it had entirely

demolished the scenery; blown down four or five trees.

[Illustration: SOCIALISTIC BOMBS,

As illustrated in _Daily News_ of Jan. 14, 1886, from specimens shown

and description given by August Spies.]

He further described to me some very tall and very strong men, who

could throw a large-size bomb weighing five pounds, fifty paces; and

stated how, in case of a conflict with the police or militia, when

the latter would come marching up a street, they would be received

by the throwers formed in the shape of the letter V in the mouth

of the street just crossing the intersection, illustrating this by

taking some little toothpicks out of a vase on the table, laying them

down and making a street intersection. He stated the militia would

probably not stay to see a second or a third bomb go off. If the

conflict should occur at any of the principal street intersections in

the city, some of those organized men would be on the tops of houses

ready to throw bombs overboard among the advancing troops or police.

All these matters had been investigated; the men were all thoroughly

trained and organized. The means of access to the house-tops of

street intersections was a matter of common information among their

adherents. He said they had no leaders; one was instructed as well as

another, and when the great day came each one would know his duty and

do it. I tried to find out when this would probably occur, and he did

not fix the date precisely or approximately at that time. At another

of those interviews he said it would probably occur in the first

conflict between the police and the strikers; that if there would be a

universal strike for this eight-hour system there would probably be a

conflict of some sort brought about in some way between the First and

Second Regiment of the Illinois National Guards and the police, and

the dynamite upon the other hand. In trying to get at the probable

number of them, I understood him that there were probably eight or ten

thousand.

“He spoke of other larger bombs, as large as a cigar-box, to be

exploded by electricity, which would be placed under a street in case

they decided to barricade any section of the city, that they had

experimented with. That certain members of the organization had in

their possession a complete detail, maps and plans of the underground

system of the city. That these machines would either destroy everybody

that was above them when they went off, or so tear up the street

as to make it impassable. He told me that the ordinary dynamite of

commerce was about a 60 or 66 per cent. dynamite; that they made a

finer quality by importing infusorial earth and mixing it themselves;

that was about a 90 per cent. quality. He showed me no dynamite. I

don’t think he gave me any information about Herr Most’s ‘Science of

Revolutionary Warfare.’ I understood that the object of all this was

the bettering of the workingmen’s condition by the demolition of their

oppressors. He vaguely spoke of a list of prominent citizens who might

suddenly be blown up one at a time or all at once. I frequently said

that I didn’t believe much in the story he told me. He simply uttered

the renewed declarations.

[Illustration: CHART OF STREET WARFARE.

As published in _Daily News_, Jan. 14, 1886.]

“I had this conversation with Spies in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ at

his own desk, on the left-hand side as you entered the door in the

editorial room. Mr. Schwab was there once or twice when I was in. I

was not acquainted with him personally. The conversations which I have

chiefly detailed here took place in the Chicago Oyster House and in

a little room detached from the counting-room down-stairs where he

kept those specimen bombs. He got this bomb from one of those little

pigeonholes in that room.

“He particularly mentioned the Market Square, and that it would take

a very few men to fortify that street against all the police and

militia in Chicago, and that they would have the tunnel at their back

for a convenient place of retreat for those who were not engaged in

throwing the shells, or for women and children whom they might care

to take there. They were to receive the police or militia with their

line formed in the shape of a letter V, the open end of the letter V

facing toward the street intersection. Then there were to be others to

reinforce them, as it were, on the tops of houses, at those corners.

The plan here in this copy of the _Daily News_ of January 14th, I drew

from one that he made right on the table cloth as we sat at dinner

together, except that he did not put in these little squares, but

explained to me where these would be, and laid toothpicks to make

these lines. Those dotted lines and the other dotted lines are to

represent the dynamiters on tops of houses.”

On cross-examination Mr. Wilkinson testified:

“I got leave of Mr. Spies to carry the bomb off and show it to Mr.

Stone. I am now twenty-six years old. Have been in the newspaper

business about four years. I came to Chicago in September of last

year. I was assigned to this work with Mr. Spies by Mr. Stone

personally. I advised Mr. Spies of that fact. The circulation of the

_Daily News_, according to its official statistics, was about 165,000.

After that conversation in the presence of Joe Gruenhut, I had also an

interview with Gruenhut. Mr. Gruenhut said that the conflict to which

our conversation referred at the table would occur probably on the

1st of May, or within a few days thereafter, and that it might extend

all over the country. He spoke of the conflict between the workingmen

who were to strike for eight hours and their natural enemies, the

police and militia. I don’t remember that anything was said about the

capitalists. The Haymarket was not mentioned.

“I did not take any notes while the conversation with Mr. Spies was

going on. I wrote them up the first opportunity I afterwards had.

Spies said, as near as I could calculate, that they had about 9,000

bombs. As to those tall men who could throw a five-pound bomb fifty

paces, my recollection is that it was a company referred to, without

number. There were four or five only of that company, as I understood,

who could throw a five-pound bomb—that is a large-sized shell—and

fifty yards is a long distance to throw a shell. He described the

character of the organizations; that if there were three the first

would know the second and the second the third, but not the third the

first; that it was Nihilistic in its character, and that they were

known by other means than names. I don’t think I asked Spies about

how many men were interested in this project that were drilling and

getting ready. I don’t recollect his saying anything about that, but

I concluded that there were as many men as there were bombs, or more.

There was some delay of about three or four days in the publication of

my article after it was prepared.

“I did not believe all Spies said. I believed about half of it. The

article written by me is wound up by the suggestion that when dressed

to cold facts it was like a scarecrow flapping in the corn-field. I

did not write that. That was edited by some one who told me he didn’t

believe as much of the matter as I did. I remember a communication

from Mr. Spies in the _Daily News_, after this article. I think I

helped ‘fix it up,’ put a head-line on it. The original was then used

as copy. I never saw it afterwards. Joe Gruenhut is a Socialist.”

GUSTAV LEHMAN gave his testimony as follows:

“I am a carpenter. On May 4th I lived at 41 Freeman Street. I lived

there six months. Have been in this country and in this city four

years. I was born in Prussia. I attended a meeting at 54 West Lake

Street on the evening of May 3d. Got there a quarter of nine. I went

there from my home by myself. I was about to go to a carpenters’

meeting at Zepf’s Hall, but I met several persons who were going to 54

West Lake Street. I saw a copy of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ containing

the notice ‘Y—Komme Montag Abend.’ It meant that the armed ones

should attend the meeting at 54 West Lake Street. When I got there the

meeting was in session. Somebody made a motion to post somebody at the

door, and then I went out to the sidewalk, by the door, that no one

who was going to the water-closet could remain there and listen. I was

stationed on the sidewalk, where the steps were leading down, maybe a

good half hour. I went into the meeting twice. I heard that large man,

with the blonde mustache, say he was going to have hand-bills printed

and distributed. There were present at the meeting Seliger, Thielen,

myself, my brother, Fischer, Breitenfeld and the Hermanns. That is

about all I remember. I don’t know how Engel looks.

[Illustration: INTERIOR PLAN OF GREIF’S HALL.]

“I cannot tell whether Lingg was in the basement, but he went home

with me. We had a little quarrel. Lingg came up to us from behind, on

the sidewalk, and said to us, ‘You are all oxen, fools.’ I asked him

what had taken place at the meeting, where we were just coming from.

Lingg told me that if I wanted to know something I should come to

58 Clybourn Avenue the next evening. There were present Seliger, my

brother, and one other man. The next day I worked on Sedgwick Street.

After I quit work, at three o’clock, I met a gentleman, Schneideke,

and we went to Lingg’s. Got there about five o’clock. I saw there

Lingg, Seliger, and a blacksmith, whose name I don’t know, and

Hubner. I stayed there about ten minutes. They did some work in the

bed-room. I couldn’t understand what they were doing. I did not work

at anything. Lingg and Huebner had a cloth tied around their faces. I

had gone there because my countryman wanted to buy a revolver. After

I left I went home with my countryman. At about seven o’clock I went

back to Lingg’s, and stayed there perhaps ten minutes. They were still

busy in the bed-room. Hubner was cutting a fuse, or a coil of fuse,

into pieces. I saw something like that fuse (indicating a coil of

fuse) and caps. I didn’t do anything there. They were making these

fuse and caps in the front room. That afternoon Lingg gave me a small

hand satchel, with a tin box in it, and three round bombs, and two

coils of fuse and some caps. This here (indicating) is the box which

he gave me. It was said that dynamite was in it. It was nearly full.

This box of caps (indicating) I found afterwards in the satchel.

Lingg said to me he wanted me to keep these things so that no one

could find them. I took them home with me, to the wood-shed; got up at

three o’clock that night and carried them away to the prairie, about

Clybourn Avenue, behind Ogden’s Grove.

“After supper on that Tuesday evening I was about to go to Uhlich’s

Hall, but there was no carpenters’ meeting there. Then I was about to

go home, but we went to 58 Clybourn Avenue, Neff’s Hall, because of

what Lingg had told us Monday night. Schneideke was with me. We stayed

at Neff’s Hall about ten minutes. We got there about half past nine. I

did not see anybody there whom I knew but the barkeeper. After leaving

Neff’s Hall we went up Clybourn Avenue to Larrabee Street. We had no

special place in view. I got home about eleven o’clock. We met Seliger

and Lingg standing together on the sidewalk on Larrabee Street, near

Clybourn Avenue. We stood there with them, but one—I don’t know

whether it was Seliger or Lingg—remarked: ‘We four should not keep

together.’ Then we went towards North Avenue, along Larrabee Street.

Near North Avenue we met Thielen. I afterwards went to the prairie

with a detective, about May 19th or 20th, to find the things that

Lingg had given me. The bombs and the dynamite, the fuse and the caps

were still there.”

“Have you ever been a member of any Socialistic organization?”

“I have been a member of the North Side Group of the International

Workingmen’s Association. I belonged to the group about three months

prior to the 4th of May. The group met at 58 Clybourn Avenue,

regularly, every Monday evening. We talked together there, advised

together, and reviewed what had happened among the workingmen during

the week. We had hunting-guns and shot-guns with which we drilled. I

kept my gun at my house.”

“Did you ever attend a dance at Florus’ Hall?”

“Yes, about March of this year. It was a ball of the Carpenters’

Union. Lingg was present there. There was about ten or ten and a half

dollars’ profit on the beer. The money, according to a resolution

passed at the next meeting of the Carpenters’ Union, at 71 West Lake

Street, was handed over to Lingg, with the instruction to buy dynamite

with it, and experiment with it to find out how it was used. I heard

Engel make a speech at 58 Clybourn Avenue, about January or February

of this year, before the assembled workingmen of the North Side. He

said those who could not buy revolvers should buy dynamite. It was

cheap and easily handled. A gas-pipe was to be taken and a wooden

plug put into the ends, and it was to be filled with dynamite. Then

the other end is also closed up with a wooden plug, and old nails are

tied around the pipe by means of wire. Then a hole is bored into one

end of it, and a fuse with a cap is put into that hole. I was chairman

at that meeting. Engel said some gas-pipe was to be found on the West

Side, near the river, near the bridge.”

On cross-examination Lehman stated:

“The meeting at which Engel spoke was a public, open-door meeting. A

notice under the signal ‘Y,’ which was understood to be the call for

a meeting at 54 West Lake Street, I have seen once before. I belonged

to the armed section for about three or four months. The meetings of

the armed section at 54 West Lake Street were irregular, governed by

such a notice in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. I did not see Lingg at 54

West Lake Street that Monday night. I don’t know that he was there. As

we went home he came up to us from behind on the sidewalk. Whether

he was there or not I cannot say. When I went to Clybourn Avenue

Tuesday night, Lingg was not there. Seliger went down in the basement

at the meeting at 54 Lake Street Monday night. He was there for some

time, but I cannot tell how long. I am sure about that. We went there

together from where the carpenters’ meeting was to have taken place.

I, my brother, he and several others went down together. I am as sure

of Seliger’s having been down there in the basement that night as of

any fact that I have testified to.”

JEREMIAH SULLIVAN, a detective, testified:

“I was on the Market Square on the night of the inauguration of the

Board of Trade with Officer Trehorn. When we got down there, there

was quite a large crowd. One or two people were talking in German and

trying to hold the crowd until the speakers came. Mr. Schwab came

there first, and Parsons and Fielden came, and I believe this man

(indicating Lingg). Parsons spoke about the Board of Trade, and showed

some figures how the poor man was robbed. Then he denounced the police

as bloodhounds, the militia as servants of the capitalists, robbing

the laboring classes, and invited them all in a body to go there and

partake of some of those twenty-dollar dishes that they had up at the

Board of Trade building. They were to get there by force. Mr. Fielden

spoke after him. He denounced the police and militia as bloodhounds.

At that time there was a company of militia on Market Square for the

purpose of drilling. Mr. Schwab was there at the time, and called

the attention of the crowd to the militia, and they all started off

toward the militia. Schwab spoke in German. Officer Trehorn and I

went over there and asked the militia to disperse, and they marched

up Water Street. Then I came back and listened to Mr. Fielden, who

urged the crowd to force themselves in a body and partake of those

dishes. Then they all marched in a body, some carrying red flags. I

saw in the procession Schwab, Parsons, Fielden, and I am not positive

as to that young fellow (Lingg). There was no United States flag in

the procession. There was a platoon of police at every crossing. The

procession stopped at 107 Fifth Avenue. Parsons went in and spoke

from the window. He denounced the policemen as bloodhounds, and the

militia also, and stated how they stopped them from going in there and

partaking of the food; that a good many of his audience did not have

clothes and could not afford to pay twenty cents for a meal, let alone

twenty dollars, and wanted them to go and follow him, and he would

make a raid on those different places, mentioning Marshall Field’s

and one or two other places. After him Fielden spoke, and wanted

them all to go down with him in a body and he would lead them. I met

Williamson, the reporter, just as he was coming down-stairs, that

evening. We went up-stairs with him. I shook hands with Mr. Fielden

and spoke to him. They did not know me as a policeman. Fielden,

Parsons and Schwab were there. Spies was at the desk. Parsons asked

Spies for this dynamite. He brought it over, and Parsons told how it

could be used; that if it was thrown into a line of police or militia

it would take the whole platoon. He also exhibited a coil of fuse.

I said: ‘You can get that in any quarry. They use that in blasting

powder.’ He said: ‘It comes in good to load these with—to touch these

off with,’ referring to dynamite shells. I saw some caps there about

the size of a 22-caliber cartridge. The substance which he showed

was dynamite. It looked like red sand. It was shaped about a foot

long, and about an inch and a half in diameter. I asked one of them

why they didn’t go into the Board of Trade building. They said that

they were not prepared that night; that there were too many of the

bloodhounds before them on the street, but the next time they would

turn out they would meet them with their own weapons and worse.”

MORITZ NEFF testified:

[Illustration: INTERIOR PLAN OF NEFF’S HALL.]

“I live at 58 Clybourn Avenue, known as Thüringer Hall, also as Neff’s

Hall, since seven years. I keep a saloon there. Back of the saloon

is a hall. The North Side group used to meet there. I know all the

defendants. On the night when the bomb was thrown I was at my saloon.

Louis Lingg came in, in company with Seliger and another man whom

I had not seen before. This stranger carried the satchel. It was a

common bag, probably about a foot and a half long and six inches wide.

He put it on the counter, after that on the floor. Lingg and Seliger

were standing by, and Lingg asked me if some one had asked for him.

That stranger, whose name I afterwards found out to be Muntzenberg,

carried the satchel on his shoulder; that was ten or fifteen minutes

after eight. I told Lingg that nobody had inquired for him. Then

Muntzenberg picked up the bag and went out the side door, in the rear

of the room, followed by Lingg and Seliger. I have not seen the bag

since. There was a large meeting of painters, probably two hundred,

in the hall that evening. For this reason I opened this door in the

rear of the saloon, so that people going to that meeting would not

be compelled to go through the saloon. I saw Lingg and Seliger again

that night about eleven o’clock. Nobody had inquired in the meantime

for Lingg. I saw Hubner there before Lingg came. I saw Thielen on

the sidewalk in front of the saloon, but not inside. The two Lehmans

were there after Lingg had left. They were out on the sidewalk, not

inside. The first time Lingg stayed about five or ten minutes. He

went out through the saloon. I did not see Seliger and Muntzenberg go

out through the saloon. Before Lingg and Seliger came back, at about

eleven o’clock, several individuals had come into the saloon, among

them the Hermanns, the two Lehmans, the two Hagemans and Hirschberger.

Lingg and Seliger dropped in a little later. They were all talking

together. I didn’t pay much attention to it. I heard one of them

halloa out very loud, ‘That is all your fault.’ I heard them also say

that the bomb had been thrown among the police and some of them had

been killed. They came from the meeting.

“Engel addressed the North Side group in my hall in February last

winter. It was a public agitation meeting of the North Side group,

advertised in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_.”

“What did Engel say?”

“He wanted money for a new paper, the _Anarchist_, started by the

Northwest Side group and two of the South Side groups. He said the

_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ was not outspoken enough in those Anarchistic

principles; therefore they started this paper. They distributed some

of these papers. Later on he gave a kind of history of revolutions in

the old country, stated that the nobility of France were only forced

to give up their privileges by brute force; that the slaveholders in

the South were compelled by force to liberate their slaves, and the

present wage-slavery would be done away with only by force also. And

he advised them to arm themselves, and if guns were too dear for them

they should use cheaper weapons—dynamite or anything they could get

hold of to fight the enemy. To make bombs, anything that was hollow in

the shape of gas-pipes would do. That is all I heard him say. I wasn’t

present all the time. I bought a copy of the _Anarchist_ that night

for five cents. This here (indicating) is one of the copies, dated

January 1, 1886. This is one of the copies distributed that night.

Engel did not distribute it himself. Two other gentlemen who were

there did that.”