A Pinkerton Operative’s Adventures—How the Leading Anarchists Vouched
for a Detective—An Interesting Scene—An Enemy in the Camp—Getting
into the Armed Group—No. 16’s Experience—Paul Hull and the Dynamite
Bomb—A Safe Corner Where the Bullets were Thick—A Revolver
Tattoo—“Shoot the Devils”—A Reformed Internationalist.
THE examination of witnesses continued from day to day before a crowded
court-room. At times tilts between the attorneys and long arguments on
knotty legal points varied the proceedings. Every coigne of vantage
occupied by the State was stubbornly contested by counsel for the
defendants. But the prosecution maintained its position and brought
out all the material evidence it had accumulated. The theory of the
State with reference to conspiracy, murder and “accessory before the
fact” was gradually being developed with force and effect. Newspaper
reporters proved important witnesses and rendered the State great
service.
The greatest interest at this stage of the trial was taken in the
testimony of ANDREW C. JOHNSON, a Pinkerton detective, who became a
member of the International Workingmen’s Association February 22, 1885,
or rather on March 1, 1885, a few days later, for it was on that day
that he got his red card of membership, bearing his number, and began
his series of reports to the agency.
Among a number of minor particulars, Johnson told how the blowing up of
the Board of Trade was proposed on March 29 by Fielden, and indorsed
by others. The most interesting part of his story, however, is the
description of his admission into the armed group. This took place on
August 24, at Greif’s Hall. Said Johnson:
“There were twenty or twenty-three men and two women present. It was
Monday night. Among them Parsons, Fielden, besides Walters, Bodendick,
Boyd and Larson, Parker, Franklin and Snyder. After having been there
a short time, a man armed with a long cavalry sword, dressed in a blue
blouse, wearing a slouch hat, came into the room. He ordered all those
present to fall in. He then called off certain names, and all those
present answered to their names. He then inquired whether there were
any new members who wished to join the military company. Those who
did should step to the front. Myself and two others did so. We were
asked separately to give our names. My name was put down in a book,
and I was told my number was 16. Previous to my name being put down
the man asked whether any one present could vouch for me as a true
man. Parsons and Bodendick vouched for me. The same process was gone
through in regard to the other two. The man then inquired of two other
men in the room, whether they were members of the American group, and
asked to see their cards, and as they were unable to produce their
cards he told them to leave the room. Two others were expelled. The
doors were closed and the remainder were asked to fall in line. For
about half an hour or three-quarters we were put through the regular
manual drill, marching, counter-marching, turning, forming fours,
wheeling, etc. That man with a sword drilled us. He was evidently
a German. After that he stated he would now introduce some of the
members of the first company of the German organization. He went out
and in a few minutes returned with ten other men dressed like himself,
each one armed with a Springfield rifle. He placed them in line in
front of us and introduced them as members of the first company of
the L. u. W. V., and proceeded to drill them about ten minutes. After
that a man whose name I do not know—he was employed by the proprietor
of the saloon at 54 West Lake Street—came into the room with two
tin boxes, which he placed on a table. The drill instructor asked
us to examine them, as they were the latest improved dynamite bomb.
They had the appearance of ordinary preserve fruit cans, the top
part unscrewed. The inside of the cans was filled with a light brown
mixture. There was also a small glass tube inserted in the center of
the can. The tube was in connection with a screw, and it was explained
that when the can was thrown against any hard substance it would
explode. Inside of the glass tube was a liquid. Around the glass tube
was a brownish mixture which looked like fine saw-dust. The drill
instructor told us we ought to be very careful in the selection of new
members of the company, otherwise there was no telling who might get
into our midst. After that a man named Walters was chosen as captain,
and defendant Parsons for lieutenant. We decided to call ourselves
the International Rifles. The drill instructor then suggested that we
ought to choose some other hall, as we were not quite safe there, and
added, ‘We have a fine place at 636 Milwaukee Avenue. We have a short
range in the basement, where we practice shooting regularly.’ Parsons
inquired whether we couldn’t rent the same place, and the drill
instructor said he didn’t know. Then the time for the next meeting
of the armed section was fixed for the following Monday. Parsons and
Fielden drilled with us that evening. They were present also with a
number of others at the next meeting, on August 31, at 54 West Lake
Street. Capt. Walters drilled us for about an hour and a half. Then
we had a discussion as to the best way of procuring arms. Some one
suggested that each member pay a weekly amount until he had enough to
purchase a rifle for each member of the company. Parsons suggested:
‘Look here, boys; why can’t we make a raid some night on the militia
armory? There are only two or three men on guard there, and it is
easily done.’ This suggestion was favored by some members, but after
some more discussion the matter of the raid on the armory was put off
until the nights got a little bit longer.”
The witness, whose testimony was very lengthy, refreshed his
memory from copies of reports which he had made at the time. On
cross-examination he was asked why the reports were countersigned
by L. J. Gage. He replied that he did not know why they were so
countersigned, but he found that they were. The history he had to tell
bore chiefly upon the facts leading up to the riot at the Haymarket.
JOSEPH GRUENHUT, a factory and tenement-house inspector of the Health
Department of the city, had known Spies for six years, Parsons about
ten years, Fielden and Schwab about two years, more or less.
“I have known Neebe perhaps fifteen or twenty years. I was in the
habit of meeting some of them daily, at labor meetings or at the
office of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. I am myself interested in labor
movements, formerly the Labor Party of the United States. It changed
its name into the Socialistic Labor Party. I am a Socialist. I don’t
consider myself an Anarchist. I am not a member of any group of the
Internationals in the city, nor of the Lehr und Wehr Verein. I was
present at interviews between the reporter Wilkinson and Mr. Spies. I
introduced Mr. Wilkinson to Mr. Spies at the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office
in the forenoon, and on the evening of the same day, I believe, I was
present at a conversation between them at a restaurant on Madison
Street. We took supper there together.”
“State the conversation which took place there between Spies and the
reporter.”
“Mr. Wilkinson asked him how many members belonged to the military
societies of organized trade and labor unions. Spies said that there
were many thousand; that these organizations were open to everybody,
and at meetings people were asked to become members, but their names
would not be known, because they would be numbered, and they didn’t
keep any record of names. Mr. Spies laid some toothpicks on the table
so as to show the position of armed men on tops of houses, on street
corners, and how they could keep a company of militia or police in
check by the use of dynamite bombs. The conversation was carried on
in a conversational tone, half joking, etc., and it lasted perhaps a
quarter of an hour, while we were taking our supper.”
On cross-examination Mr. Gruenhut stated that he had heard no reference
to any attack to be made on the first of May, and in the re-direct
examination he said, with reference to Spies’ attitude on the
eight-hour movement:
“At the start he said he did not believe they would get it, and then
it would not amount to anything anyhow; it was only a palliative
measure—not radical enough. As I recollect, I brought him a list of
the different organizations in Chicago, and we were trying to pick
out those which needed organization, and the packers and a great
many others were directly organized by these men for the eight-hour
movement. We were in constant consultation about organizing those
trades which had not been organized before. I don’t suppose he
ever said that he was in favor of the eight-hour movement. I don’t
know that he was ever enthusiastically in favor of the eight-hour
movement, but he was enthusiastically in favor of the eight-hour
movement that we had talked about on Monday. There never had been
a general eight-hour mass-meeting. There had been a mass-meeting
representing the great assemblies, at the Armory, but not the
Central Labor Union. It was a Socialistic organization; was not
represented there. In October, 1885, there had been a mass-meeting
of the Socialistic organizations in favor of the eight-hour movement
at West Twelfth Street Turner Hall. I was not there. At the time I
had that conversation with Mr. Spies and the others present about a
mass-meeting to be held, we did not know where the meeting was to
be held at all. We only considered the advisability of holding a
mass-meeting on the question of the eight-hour movement in the open
air. There are only three or four places where you can hold such a
meeting; either the lake front or Market Square or the Haymarket. At
that time I am sure I saw Spies, Rau and Neebe almost every day, but
I could not tell whether the meeting was agreed upon on Saturday or
Monday, night or day; but there was a general agreement upon having
one general mass-meeting in the open air. It was not sure whether the
meeting was to be in the forenoon, afternoon or night, but at last
we came to the conclusion it ought to be at night. My recollection
is that Spies said to Wilkinson, at the time of that conversation,
that the military associations were open and free to everybody; that
they meet, advertise their meetings, have picnics and advertise them,
and meet in halls, even in open ground, at Sheffield, or out on the
prairie. That proposed mass-meeting was to be an eight-hour meeting
and an indignation meeting over the killing of men at McCormick’s at
the same time. Parsons and Spies, during conversations within the
twelve months before the bomb was thrown, said that arming meant the
use of dynamite bombs by individuals; all men should individually
self-help, as against a squad of policeman or company of militia, so
that they need not be an army.”
F. H. NEWMAN, a physician, attended some of the officers wounded at
the Haymarket, and identified an iron nut extracted from Hahn. He had
also examined some ten or twelve officers, and had found some bullets
and fragments of a combination of metals much lighter than lead. “The
fragments were also much lighter,” he said, “than the bullets, varying
very much in size, from perhaps what we would call 22-caliber up to
45-caliber. The bullets also varied in size. This piece of metal I took
from the heel of Officer Barber. It made a ragged wound and was buried
in the bone; crushed the bone considerably, fractured it in several
places. I examined the wounds of one officer who had a large ragged
wound in the liver. He died within a few hours. It could have been a
wound produced by a bullet, if the bullet was very ragged, spread out
considerably, as they do sometimes.”
MAXWELL E. DICKSON, a newspaper reporter, had had several interviews
with Parsons. He said:
“The last time I met Mr. Parsons, either the latter part of last year
or the commencement of this year, he gave me two or three papers, and
one of them contained one or two diagrams, a plan of warfare. Parsons
stated that the social revolution would be brought about in the way
that paper would describe. In November of last year, some time after
that demonstration on the Market Square, I remarked to Parsons, in a
sort of joking way, ‘You are not going to blow up anybody, are you?’
He said: ‘I don’t say that we won’t, I don’t know that we won’t, but
you will see the revolution brought about, and sooner than you think
for.’ I attended a number of meetings at which some of the defendants
spoke.
“The Twelfth Street Turner Hall meeting was a meeting called for
the purpose of discussing the Socialistic platform. A circular had
been issued, in which public men, clergy, employers and others who
were interested in the social question were invited to be present to
discuss the question of the social movement. The hall was crowded.
During the meeting Mr. Parsons made a speech, during which he said
that the degradation of labor was brought about by what was known as
the rights of private property; he quoted a long line of statistics,
showing that an average man with a capital of five thousand dollars
was enabled to make four thousand dollars a year, and thus get rich,
while his employé, who made the money for him, obtained but $340, and
there were upwards of two million heads of families who were in want,
or bordering on want, making their living either by theft, robbery or
any such occupation as they could get work in; and he said that, while
they were the champions of free speech and social order, it would
be hard for the man who stood in the way of liberty, fraternity and
equality to all. Later on Fielden spoke and said that the majority
of men were starving because of over-production, and went on to show
that overcoats were being sent to Africa, to the Congo states, which
were needed at home, and he could not understand how that was. As a
Socialist, he believed in the equal rights of every man to live. The
present condition of the laboring man was due to the domination of
capital, and they could expect no remedy from legislatures, and there
were enough present in the hall to take Chicago from the grasp of the
capitalists; that capital must divide with labor; that the time was
coming when a contest would arise between capital and labor. He was no
alarmist, but the Socialist should be prepared for the victory when it
did come. Several other persons spoke after that. Then Spies spoke in
German, advising the workingmen to organize in order to obtain their
rights, and that they might be prepared for the emergency. Then there
were resolutions adopted denouncing the capitalists, the editors and
clergymen, and those who had refused to come to hear the truth spoken
and discuss the question, whereupon the meeting adjourned.
[Illustration: ADOLPH LIESKE.
BEHEADED NOV. 17, 1885.—From Photograph found in the possession of
Anarchist Bodendick, on back of which was written: “Revenge is Sweet.”]
“At the meeting at Mueller’s Hall Fielden presided and Mr. Griffin
spoke first, advocating the use of force to right social wrongs. A
young man named Lichtner said he was in favor of Socialistic ideas,
but opposed to the use of force. Schwab, in German, said that the
gap between the rich and the poor was growing wider; that, although
despotism in Russia had endeavored to suppress Nihilism by executing
some and sending others to Siberia, Nihilism was still growing. And he
praised Reinsdorf, who had then been recently executed in Europe, but
stated that his death had been avenged by the killing of Rumpf, the
Chief of Police of Frankfort, who had been industrious in endeavoring
to crush out Socialism; that murder was forced on many a man through
the misery brought on him by capital; that freedom in the United
States was a farce, and in Illinois was literally unknown; that both
of the political parties were corrupt, and what was needed here was a
bloody revolution which would right their wrongs.
“A young man named Gorsuch was against all government, which was made
for slaves. The only way the workingmen could get their rights was by
the Gatling gun, by absolute brute force. Then Mr. Fielden called upon
the capitalists to answer these arguments and to save their property,
for when the Socialists decided to appropriate the property of the
capitalists it would be too late for the capitalists to save anything.
“Then Spies said in German that the workingmen should revolt at once.
He had been accused of giving this advice before, it was true, and he
was proud of it. That wage slavery could only be abolished through
powder and ball. The ballot was a sort of skin game. He compared it to
a deck of cards in which there was a marked deck put in the place of
the genuine, and in which the poor man got all of the skin cards, so
that, when the dealer laid down the cards, his money was taken from
him. Then Spies offered these resolutions, which were adopted:
“‘Whereas, our comrades in Germany have slain one of the dirtiest
dogs of his Majesty Lehmann, the greatest disgrace of the present
time—namely, the spy Rumpf.
“‘_Resolved_, That we rejoice over and applaud the noble and heroic
act.’
“Then Parsons offered some resolutions favoring the abolition of the
present social system, and the formation of a new social coöperative
system that would bring about an equality between capital and labor.
“The next meeting I attended was on the Market Square, on Thanksgiving
day. Mr. Parsons asked what they had to be thankful for, whether it
was for their poverty, their lack of sufficient food and clothing,
etc., and argued that the capitalists on the avenue spent more money
for wine at one meal than some of them received pay in a month.
Fielden said they would be justified in going over to Marshall Field’s
and taking out from there that which belonged to them. A series of
resolutions were adopted, offered, I believe, by Parsons, denouncing
the President for having set apart Thanksgiving day—that it was a
fallacy and a fraud; that the workingmen had nothing to be thankful
for; that only a few obtained the riches that were produced, while the
many had to starve.”
On cross-examination Mr. Dickson said:
“Parsons said to me that when the social revolution came, it would
be better for all men; it would place every man on an equality. He
pictured me personally as a wage slave, referring to my position as
a newspaper reporter, and that all reforms had to be brought about
through revolution, and bloodshed could not be avoided. I frequently
heard him give expression to such ideas in friendly conversation, in
which the social outlook of the country was talked over, and Parsons
frequently insisted that any method would be justifiable to accomplish
the object which he advocated as the intended result of a social
revolution. Parsons once stated to me that if it became necessary
they would use dynamite, and it might become necessary. Parsons never
expressed any distinct proposal to inaugurate the revolution at any
particular time, or by the use of any particular force. He simply
spoke of the social revolution as the inevitable future. I am not
certain as to whether the paper which Parsons gave me, which contained
those diagrams, was a copy of the _Alarm_ or of some other paper. This
article here in the _Alarm_ of July 25, 1885 (indicating), under the
title, ‘Street Fighting—How to Meet the Enemy,’ is, to the best of
my recollection, the article to which my attention was called by Mr.
Parsons at the time. I am positive these diagrams here (indicating)
are the same as in the article given me by Parsons.
“The position of these parties in meetings that I have attended, since
January 18, 1885, when they spoke of the industrial condition, was
that they predicted a social revolution, and they also advised the
workingmen to bring about that revolution. It was Mr. Fielden on the
lake front—I cannot fix the date—who used language of that import,
advised the men to go forward and get that which did belong to them by
force.”
PAUL C. HULL, a reporter of the _Daily News_, attended the Haymarket
meeting and heard Fielden speak. He testified as follows:
[Illustration: PARSONS’ HANDWRITING.
The Manuscript of an Advertisement calling a Meeting of the “American
Group.”]
“When the bomb exploded I was on the iron stairway, about four steps
from the top landing. After the bomb exploded the firing began from
the crowd before the police fired. I saw the bomb in the air. My head
was probably within twelve or fifteen feet above the crowd. It was
quite dark. Directly opposite me was a pile of boxes on the sidewalk,
and an area-way surrounded by an iron railing. My eyes were directed
toward the speakers’ wagon. As the words were in his mouth, I saw
arching through the air the sparks of the burning fuse. According to
my recollection it seemed to come from about fifteen or twenty feet
south of Crane’s alley, flying over the third division of police and
falling between the second and third. It seemed to throw to the ground
the second and third divisions of police. At almost the same instant
there was a rattling of shots that came from both sides of the street
and not from the police. The meeting was noisy and turbulent. When the
speaking began there were about eight hundred to one thousand people
in the crowd. At the time the police came it had dwindled away a third
from what it was at its largest number. About a quarter of the crowd,
that part which clustered about the wagon, were enthusiasts, loudly
applauded the speakers and cheered them on by remarks. The outskirts
of the crowd seemed to regard the speakers with indifference, often
laughed at them and hooted them.
“Spies told his version of the McCormick riot. He had been charged
with being responsible for the riot and the death of those men, by
Mr. McCormick. He said Mr. McCormick was a liar and was himself
responsible for the death of the six men which he claimed were killed
at that time; that he had addressed a meeting on the prairie, and when
the factory bell rang a body of the meeting which he was addressing
detached themselves and went toward the factory, and that there the
riot occurred. He then touched upon the dominating question of labor
and capital and their relations very briefly, and asked what meant
this array of Gatling guns, infantry ready to arms, patrol wagons
and policemen, and deduced from that that it was the Government or
capitalists preparing to crush them, should they try to right their
wrongs. I don’t remember that he said anything in his speech about the
means to be employed against that capitalistic force.
“Parsons dealt considerably in labor statistics. He drew the
conclusion that the capitalists got eighty-five cents out of the
dollar, and the laboring man fifteen cents, and that the eight-hour
agitation and the agitation of the social question was a still hunt
after the other eighty-five cents. He advised the using of violent
means by the workingmen to right their wrongs. Said that law and
government was the tool of the wealthy to oppress the poor; that the
ballot was no way in which to right their wrongs. That could only be
done by physical force.
“I only heard a part of Fielden’s speech. He said Martin Foran had
been sent to Congress to represent the Labor Party, and he did not
do it satisfactorily. When McCormick’s name was mentioned during
the speeches there were exclamations like ‘Hang him,’ or ‘Throw him
into the lake.’ Some such a remark would be made when any prominent
Chicago capitalist’s name was used. When some one in the crowd cried
‘Let’s hang him now,’ when some man’s name was mentioned, one of the
speakers, either Spies or Parsons, said, ‘No, we are not ready yet.’”
On cross-examination Mr. Hull said:
“The firing of the revolvers startled me. I considered my position
dangerous and tried to get around the corner. A few moments before
the explosion of the bomb a threatening cloud came up, and Mr. Spies
said the meeting would adjourn to 54 West Lake Street, I believe. At
no time during the meeting was I as near as eight or ten feet from
the speaker. I don’t believe I heard Fielden say, in a loud voice,
‘There come the bloodhounds! Now you do your duty and I’ll do mine,’
when the police were coming up. I remember that Mr. Fielden said ‘in
conclusion,’ after I got my position on the stairs again, and when the
police were forming and marching below. I was confused at the time
I wrote my reports. (After examining his report in a copy of _Daily
News_ of May 5th, 1886:) I have said nowhere in this report that the
crowd fired upon the police. I did say that the police required no
orders before firing upon the crowd. I wrote this up about an hour
after the occurrence. After describing the explosion of the bomb, I
used this language in my report: ‘For an instant after the explosion
the crowd seemed paralyzed, but, with the revolver shots cracking like
a tattoo on a mighty drum, and the bullets flying in the air, the
mob plunged away into the darkness with a yell of rage and fear.’ My
recollection is that the bomb struck the ground about on a line with
the south line of the alley. The bomb apparently fell north from the
point where I first saw it in the air. I judge it came from the south,
going west-northwest.”
[Illustration: A PICNIC OF THE “REDS” AT SHEFFIELD.
1. Experimenting with Dynamite. 2. Getting Inspiration. 3. Engel on the
Stump. 4. “Hoch die Anarchie!” 5. Mrs. Parsons addressing the Crowd. 6.
Children peddling Most’s Literature. 7. A Family Feast.]
WHITING ALLEN, another reporter, was present at the Haymarket meeting
in company with Mr. Tuttle, another newspaper man, and heard some of
the speeches. Said the witness:
“Parsons was speaking when we got there. About the only thing that
I could quote from his speech is this: ‘What good are these strikes
going to do? Do you think that anything will be accomplished by
them? Do you think the workingmen are going to gain their point? No,
no; they will not. The result of them will be that you will have to
go back to work for less money than you are getting.’ That is his
language in effect. At one time he mentioned the name of Jay Gould.
There were cries from the crowd, ‘Hang Jay Gould!’ ‘Throw him into
the lake!’ and so on. He said, ‘No, no; that would not do any good.
If you would hang Jay Gould now, there would be another, and perhaps
a hundred, up to-morrow. It don’t do any good to hang one man; you
have to kill them all, or get rid of them all.’ Then he went on to say
that it was not the individual, but the system; that the government
should be destroyed. It was the wrong government, and these people
who supported it had to be destroyed. I heard him cry, ‘To arms!’ I
cannot tell in what connection. The crowd was extremely turbulent. It
seemed to be thoroughly in sympathy with the speakers; was extremely
excited, and applauded almost every utterance. I staid there some ten
or fifteen minutes. I then left and went to Zepf’s Hall. Later I came
back again, when Fielden was speaking. When the bomb was thrown I was
in the saloon of Zepf’s Hall, standing about the middle of the room
at the time. I did not see any of the defendants there. They were not
there to my knowledge. When I was down at the meeting, I pointed out
to Mr. Tuttle Mr. Parsons, Fielden, Spies, and a man that I presume
was Mr. Schwab, but was not certain. The general outline was that of
Mr. Schwab. I could not get a full view of his face. That must have
been half past nine.”
CHARLES R. TUTTLE said he did not remember much of what Parsons spoke:
“Parsons made a series of references to existing strikes—one was
the Southwestern strike—and to Jay Gould, the head of that system
of railways, and the winding up of the peroration in connection with
that created a great deal of excitement and many responses from the
audience. He then spoke of the strike at McCormick’s, and detailed
the suffering of the people who had wives and children, and who were
being robbed by one whom I took to be Mr. McCormick, although I cannot
say that was the idea; who were being robbed, anyway, by capitalists.
And he said it was no wonder that these persons were struggling for
their rights, and then said that the police had been called on by the
capitalists to suppress the first indications of any movement on the
part of the working people to stand up for rights, and he asked what
they are going to do. One man—I believe the same one who had spoken
when he referred to Gould—stuck up his hand with a revolver in it,
and said, ‘We will shoot the devils,’ or some such expression, and I
saw two others sticking up their hands, near to him, who made similar
expressions, and had what I took to be at the time revolvers.”
EDWARD COSGROVE, a detective connected with the Central Station, was on
duty at the Haymarket. He gave the substance of some of the speeches,
and, referring to Spies, said:
“Then he talked about the police, the bloodhounds of the law, shooting
down six of their brothers, and he said: ‘When you are ready to do
something, do it, and don’t tell anybody you are going to.’ A great
number of the crowd cheered him loudly. The enthusiastic part of
the crowd was close to the wagon. Sometimes there would be some on
the outskirts. I did not hear all of Spies’ speech and only part of
Parsons’. Parsons talked of statistics—about the price laboring men
received. He said they got fifteen cents out of a dollar, and they
were still on the hunt for the other eighty-five. He talked of the
police and capitalists and Pinkertons. He said he was down in the
Hocking Valley region, and they were only getting twenty-four cents
a day, and that was less than Chinamen got. And he said his hearers
would be worse than Chinamen if they didn’t arm themselves, and they
would be held responsible for blood that would flow in the near
future. There was a great deal of cheering close to the wagon during
his speech. I was in Capt. Ward’s office when the police were called
out. I came down the street at the time the police did. When the
police came to a halt, I was on the northwest corner of Randolph and
Desplaines. I heard no firing of any kind before the explosion of the
bomb, but immediately after that. I can’t tell from what source the
pistol shots came, whether the police fired first or the other side.
I reported at the station from time to time what was going on at the
meeting.”
On cross-examination Cosgrove said:
“I was twice at the station reporting. My second report was that Mr.
Parsons said they would be held responsible for the blood that would
flow in the streets of America in the near future. The police remained
at the station after this report. I didn’t hear any part of Fielden’s
speech. When I came out before the police quite a number of the crowd
had gone away. When I saw Schwab he was about forty feet south of the
south sidewalk of Randolph Street, on Desplaines. I saw Schwab about
half past eight, or a little later, at the wagon. My impression is
that I saw Mr. Schwab near the close of Parsons’ speech, but I am not
sure. When I saw him at the wagon it was about the time Mr. Spies came
back the second time to speak.”
TIMOTHY MCKEOUGH, a detective, was present when the meeting opened.
“Spies got on the wagon and called out twice: ‘Is Mr. Parsons here?’
He received no answer, and said: ‘Never mind, I will go and find him
myself.’ Somebody said: ‘Let us pull the wagon around on Randolph
Street and hold the meeting there.’ Mr. Spies said: ‘No, that might
stop the street-cars.’ He started away then, and Officer Myers and
myself followed him as far as the corner. There was a man with him
who, I think, was Schwab, but I am not very sure about that, and
in about fifteen minutes he returned, and when I got back he was
addressing the meeting, talking about what happened to their brethren
the day before at McCormick’s. He had been down to McCormick’s and
addressed a meeting, and they wanted to stop him; tried to pull him
off the car because he was a Socialist; that while he was talking
a portion of the crowd started toward McCormick’s and commenced to
throw stones, the most harmless amusement they could have; how wagons
loaded with police came down the Black Road and commenced firing
into the crowd. Somebody halloaed out: ‘Let us hang him,’ and he
said: ‘My friends, when you get ready to do anything, go and do it,
and say nothing about it.’ About that time Parsons arrived and Spies
introduced him, saying Parsons could talk better English than he, and
would probably entertain them better. The crowd in the neighborhood
of the wagon appeared very much excited when Spies spoke about the
shooting down of workingmen at McCormick’s. Parsons quoted from some
book on labor statistics, which he thought his hearers probably had
not read, because they didn’t have the money to buy it or leisure to
read it, as they had to work too much. He said out of every dollar the
laboring man makes for capitalists he only gets fifteen cents, and
they are on a still hunt for the other eighty-five. He had been down
to the coal mines, and, according to labor statistics, they received
24½ cents for their daily labor on the average during a year. That
was just half as much as the Chinaman would get, and he said: ‘If we
keep on we will be a great deal worse than Chinamen. I am a tenant and
I pay rent to a landlord.’ Somebody asked, ‘What does the landlord
do with it?’ Parsons said the landlord pays taxes, the taxes pay the
sheriff, the police, the Pinkertonites and the militia, who are ready
to shoot them down when they are looking for their rights. He said: ‘I
am a Socialist from the top of my head to the soles of my feet, and I
will express my sentiments if I die before morning.’ The crowd near
the wagon loudly cheered him. Later I heard Mr. Parsons say, taking
off his hat in one hand: ‘To arms! to arms! to arms!’ Then I went over
to Desplaines Street Station and reported to Inspector Bonfield. When
I came back Fielden was speaking. He criticised Martin Foran, the
Congressman that was elected by the working people. Speaking about the
law, he said the law was for the capitalists. ‘Yesterday, when their
brothers demanded their rights at McCormick’s, the law came out and
shot them down. When Mr. McCormick closed his door against them for
demanding their rights, the law did not protect them.’ If they loved
their wives, their children, they should take the law, kill it, stab
it, throttle it, or it would throttle them. That appeared to make
the crowd near the wagon more excited, and I made another report to
Inspector Bonfield. I saw Spies, Parsons and Fielden on the wagon. I
saw Schwab on the wagon in the early part of the evening, and a man
named Schnaubelt.”
HENRY E. O. HEINEMAN, a reporter of the Chicago _Tribune_, testified:
“I saw the bomb, that is the burning fuse, rise out of the crowd and
fall among the police. It rose from very nearly the southeast corner
of the alley. I didn’t hear any shots before the bomb exploded. Almost
instantly after it shots were heard. I could not say whether the first
shots came from the police or the crowd. It seems to me as if I heard
some bullets close to myself, whizzing from the north as I was going
south.
“Spies started out by saying that the meeting was intended to be a
peaceable one—it was not called to raise a disturbance—and then gave
his version of the affair at McCormick’s, the day before. The crowd
near the speaker’s wagon was in sympathy with the speakers. There was
occasionally applause. I heard a few Germans talk with one another. I
heard Parsons call out toward the close of his speech, ‘To arms! to
arms! to arms!’ Fielden, towards the end of his speech, told the crowd
to kill the law, to stab it, to throttle it, or else it would throttle
them. I was formerly an Internationalist. I ceased my connection with
them about two years ago. At that time the defendant Neebe belonged to
the same group I belonged to. It is not in existence now. I met Spies
and Schwab occasionally in the groups. I ceased my connection with
the Internationale immediately after, and on account of the lectures
Herr Most delivered in this city. I saw on the wagon at the Haymarket
meeting Spies, Parsons, Fielden, and at one time Rudolph Schnaubelt.”