Anarchy Now—The Fund for the Condemned Men’s Families—$10,000
Subscribed—The Disposition of the Money—The Festival of
Sorrow—Parsons’ Posthumous Letter—The Haymarket Monument—Present
Strength of the Discontented—7,300 Revolutionists in Chicago—A
Nucleus of Desperate Men—The New Organization—Building Societies
and Sunday-schools—What the Children are Taught—Education
and Blasphemy—The Secret Propaganda—Bodendick and his
Adventures—“The Rebel Vagabond”—The Plot to Murder Grinnell, Gary
and Bonfield—Arrest of the Conspirators Hronek, Capek, Sevic and
Chleboun—Chleboun’s Story—Hronek Sent to the Penitentiary.
THE question which will naturally present itself to the reader at this
time is: What is the present condition of Anarchy in Chicago? Has the
frightful fate of the convicted conspirators proven a salutary lesson
to the others, or is the propaganda still maintained?
Unfortunately these questions must be answered in a manner not
calculated to allay public apprehension.
After the death and the burial of the executed leaders there was a
period of quietness among the Anarchists. They seemed stunned by the
blow which had been leveled at them, but the impression soon wore away,
and in a short time they were as rampant as ever.
Their first work was to provide for the families of the dead, and for
this purpose a fund of $10,000 was speedily raised. Of this amount,
strange to say, $4,000 has been invested in four per cent. Cook County
bonds. This amount was intended as a reserve fund for the support of
the families, and the rest of the money they are paying out in weekly
installments to the families. On New Year’s Day of 1888 each of the
families was presented with $202 in cash, and loans have been made to
Mrs. Parsons, Mrs. Fielden and Mrs. Engel to the amount of $400 in
each case. These loans are deducted in small amounts from the weekly
allowances to these women. Later in the year funds were found to send
Mrs. Parsons on a lecturing tour to England, an adventure which did not
prove a conspicuous success if the reports are to be believed, for the
English discontents showed marked disapproval of Mrs. Parsons’ dynamite
appeals.
Money is still being collected for a monument at Waldheim Cemetery
which shall be the shrine of Anarchist pilgrimages from every part of
the country. In this connection the revolutionists have established a
“Festival of Sorrow,” as they curiously call it, upon the anniversary
of the execution.
In the proceedings of commemoration held at the cemetery on November
11, 1888, the most interesting episode was the reading of the following
letter from Albert R. Parsons to his children, which had, by his
instructions, remained sealed for a year. It ran as follows:
DUNGEON NO. 7, COOK COUNTY JAIL, CHICAGO, ILL., November 9, 1887.—_To
My Darling, Precious Little Children, Albert R. Parsons, Jr., and his
Sister, Lulu Eda Parsons_: As I write this word I blot your names with
a tear. We never meet again. Oh, my children, how deeply, dearly your
papa loves you. We show our love by living _for_ our loved ones; we
also _prove_ our love by dying, when necessary, for them. Of my life
and the cause of my unnatural and cruel death you will learn from
others. _Your father is a self-offered sacrifice upon the altar of
liberty and happiness._ To you I leave the legacy of an honest name
and duty done. Preserve it, emulate it. Be true to yourselves, you
cannot then be false to others. Be industrious, sober and cheerful.
Your mother! Ah, she is the grandest, noblest of women. Love, honor
and obey her. My children, my precious ones, I request you to read
this parting message on each recurring anniversary of my death in
remembrance of him who dies not alone for you, but for the children
yet unborn. Bless you, my darlings. Farewell.
Your father,
ALBERT R. PARSONS.
It was a somewhat disappointing epistle, for all the Anarchists had
expected a sensational document, as the result of such a theatrical
instruction.
On the other hand the people of Chicago have not been idle. A monument
to the memory of the murdered policemen will soon grace Haymarket
Square as a lasting memorial to the brave men who fell in the line of
duty, and as showing the gratitude of the city to its defenders.
The pedestal for the police monument was completed long before the
figure was ready to be placed. The foundation was begun and finished
in December, 1888. The cost of the pedestal, with railings, light
supports, and everything complete, in readiness for the figure,
aggregated $5,000. The contract price for the pedestal was $3,500. This
was increased to $4,000 by minor changes and extra work. The railings,
electric lights and supports, and placing the figure in position,
will add another $1,000. The figure itself will make the value of the
monument $10,000.
The pedestal sits on a circular sub-base of dressed granite, sixteen
feet nine inches in diameter, elevated two steps above the foundation.
A base of dressed granite with Ionic cornices rests on the center of
this circular sub-base. The central cube, decorated with a shield on
which is the coat of arms of the city, supports a block bearing an
inscription giving the date of the riot and appropriate sentiments.
Worked around these inscriptions are branches and leaves of oak,
indicative of strength. By a graceful series of Ionic cornices the
pedestal ascends to the base of the figure, the height from the
foundation being seven feet six inches. The pedestal is oblong,
extending north and south across the circular base. Two arms of granite
extending from the base unite on either side the granite base of the
posts which support the lights.
The designer of the figure which surmounts the pedestal, and which
represents a police officer in full uniform with his arm extended, is
Charles F. Batchelder.
[Illustration: LAW
PEACE
ORDER
THE HAYMARKET MONUMENT.]
All of these are facts directly connected with and growing out of
the trial of the case. I come now to the present status of Anarchy.
The authorities have recognized the constant menace which the
existence of this conspiracy conveyed to the cause of law and order,
and consequently the malcontents have been watched with unceasing
vigilance. Their meetings, their plottings, their purposes, their plan
of organization and their system of propaganda we know nearly as well
as they know it themselves.
The Socialists themselves estimate their numbers in Chicago at 75,000
men, women and children. As Socialism is the parent of Anarchy—the two
are identical in their ultimate aims, differing only in tactics—these
figures are significant.
The number of Anarchists in Chicago to-day is not far from 7,300 men
and women. Of these there are thirty-five known to us to be desperate
men, ready to commit murder, arson or any other crime to revenge
themselves upon the officers and the magistrates who were concerned
in bringing about the hanging of their leaders. These are the most
dangerous conspirators in the body, and it may easily be believed that
rather close attention is paid to their movements. Next to these comes
a collection of some 275 men who are at heart dynamiters, and who
would be ready to plunge into a revolt at any moment if they were not
held back by the more prudent counsels of the others. These men are
dangerous. Next to these there is a body of about 5,000 Anarchists,
who would join in a revolt if they could persuade themselves or be
persuaded that there was any real chance for success; but they are as
a rule careful of themselves, and they are not going to rush to the
gallows if they can help it. Only in a time of great public tumult are
they to be really feared. I place in still another category a body of
2,000 “sympathizers”—men upon whom neither the Anarchists nor society
could rely. They are a doubtful class, and might easily be led one way
or the other by a decided victory on either side in a time of real
struggle.
Many women are to be found in each of these classifications, from the
most desperate up. There are about forty “women-workers” so called who
are engaged in the Anarchic propaganda in the city, six of them being
lecturers. They are doing a great deal of harm.
The present plans of the reds, as broadly stated by one of the open
leaders, contemplate the use of every force in society—“the force of
education, the force of agitation and the force of arms; the first now
and always; the second, with great care and judgment; the last, when
the time shall arrive for a strike at liberty.” The reds throughout
the world have learned a lesson from the failure of Spies and his
companions, and while their aims and sentiments are unchanged, their
plans have undergone considerable modification.
A new system of organization has also been developed. They met at first
in little groups of five or ten, fearing to gather in larger numbers in
the excited times following the hanging. It was proposed to organize
ward clubs, but this was negatived because the politicians would mix
up with them to get their votes, and thus destroy the secrecy that
they wanted. Their demand was for some sort of an organization enabling
many people to meet together without attracting suspicion or inviting
investigation by the police, and this they succeeded in doing by
getting up a Building Society. This was followed by another and another
in different parts of the town. They charge an initiation of ten
cents, none but approved and guaranteed Anarchists are admitted, and
the societies are working in full force, although I doubt whether they
will greatly contribute to the material improvement of Chicago. The
Anarchists are a very quarrelsome lot, and they often get into serious
disputes with each other, and thus one party, to get revenge, would
often come to me with information on his enemy. This has been stopped
by the “Building Association,” which maintains committees to settle all
quarrels between members.
Aside from a majority of the thirty-two organizations affiliated with
the Central Labor Union, the reds of late have been propagating the
revolutionary cause through the following societies:
1. The Workingmen’s Defense Association, composed chiefly of men,
of which Fred Bentthin is secretary. This same organization raised
the money to defend the reds who were tried for the conspiracy to
assassinate Judges Gary and Grinnell, Bonfield and others.
2. The Pioneer Aid and Relief Society, composed chiefly of women. This
institution came into existence immediately after the arrest of the
Anarchists in May, 1886.
3. A. R. Parsons Assembly No. 1. This is a reorganization of the
suspended or expelled Assembly 1307, once known as the Sons of
Liberty. It has always been a hotbed of Anarchy, and is now composed
of Anarchists almost exclusively. Its membership is composed of such
revolutionary lights as Oliver, Holmes, Snyder, Brown, Glasgow, and
other fire-brands. Snyder and Brown were arrested at the time of the
Haymarket massacre and held in custody for months.
4. The English branch of the Socialistic Labor party, Waverly Hall, 122
Randolph Street.
5. The German branch of the Socialistic Labor party, 54 West Lake
Street.
6. The Socialistic Publishing Society, which controls the
_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ on the communistic plan and devotes all surplus to
the cause of the social revolution.
7. The “Arbeiter-Bund,” or Working People’s Confederation, recently
organized at 636 Milwaukee Avenue. This is the most violent public
organization of Anarchists in Chicago.
It was the Arbeiter-Bund which, through its attorneys, applied to Judge
Tuley only a short time ago for an injunction to restrain the police
from interfering with meetings of Socialists and Anarchists. While the
injunction was not technically granted, still the decision was such
as to render the police powerless to interfere with their gatherings.
The Chancellor’s opinion is too lengthy to print here, but it was made
on a broad construction of the constitutional provision guaranteeing
free speech. I am not a lawyer, and I will not attempt to say that the
learned Chancellor misunderstands the law or the Constitution, but it
does seem that there ought to be some provision which should make it
unsafe or impossible for bloody-minded revolutionists to preach their
foreign doctrine in open defiance of a respectable and law-abiding
community.
The impudence shown by the Anarchists, extreme Socialists and other
enemies of society in claiming redress under the law would seem
ridiculous if it were not contemptible. These agitators shout “throttle
the law,” and then complain that their meetings are suppressed contrary
to law. At their meetings, in their speeches, and in other ways they
cover the courts and judges with opprobrium, and then apply to the
courts for restraining orders forbidding the police to interfere
with their meetings. With yells and screeches in foreign tongues
they declare that the Constitution shall be destroyed, and then
complain that they are denied freedom of speech in violation of the
Constitution. Putting themselves outside the law and demanding its
destruction, they at the same time demand its protection.
Other forms of public organization are the “Schulgemeinde” of the
Northwest Side, and the “Arbeiter Bildungs-Verein.” The two last-named
seem to have for their special object the establishment and maintenance
of “Sunday schools.”
Of all this more will be said hereafter, but first I will call
attention to the fact that the organizations named are only what
appear on the surface. Underlying and controlling all these is the
secret organization, which in Chicago consists of an “invisible
committee.” It must be understood that the movement toward the object
to which the Internationale looks forward—the social revolution—is
local, national, and international, and it is probable that the
committee for Chicago was appointed from the headquarters of the
Internationale in New York, at the suggestion of that arch-conspirator
and mischief-maker, Johann Most. The “invisible committee,” although
they have full direction of the movement in Chicago, are supposed to be
unknown to the mass of the order. They work individually, and not as a
body, and always quietly. Their identity they hold sacredly secret. It
is only when open revolutionary work has actually begun that they are
to come to the front. In the meantime, the open workers and agitators
report to the individual “invisibles,” and act under their advice.
The “invisibles” themselves make it a point to practice moderation in
their public utterances to divert suspicion. The old-time centralized
organization, the reds believe, led to the detection and conviction
of their leaders, after the failure of the Haymarket plot, and this
it was that made the new plan not only advisable but necessary.
Decentralization is now the ruling principle.
The public agitators are such people as Currlin, Holmes, Morgan,
Mikolanda, Grottkau, Mostler, Bergman, G. Smith, Poch, Mittag, Mentzer
and others. They declare themselves openly as Anarchists and agitators.
They are of course well known to the police, and consequently they
are on the look-out not to come in contact with us. They only enlist
recruits, however. The secret agitators visit public meetings
occasionally, but they very seldom do any talking. Nobody notices them,
and this is what they want. They are seldom members of any “Verein,”
and they form acquaintances on the street, in shops or saloons, but
always with the utmost caution until they have gained confidence. They
meet at private houses in parties of three or four, agitating wherever
they can gain a point. When charged with being Anarchists they deny it,
and to throw off suspicion some of them even go regularly to church.
Among these there are fanatics who would do almost anything to gain
their ends. I know a great many of this class, and I would not believe
it if I did not know of my own knowledge that they are Anarchists of
the purest water. They are the most harmless-looking men in Chicago.
The open and public movement still goes on under cover of the cause
of labor. The plan of campaign is, so far as the public associations
and meetings are concerned, to teach Anarchy; to create in the minds
of Socialistic adherents a hatred of all law and of all religion, and
to inspire a spirit of revenge for the execution of Spies and his
comrades. Their teachings are carried out by speeches more or less
incendiary.
The most potent factor for evil in Chicago to-day, as heretofore, is
the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. When this paper was first established it was
delivered secretly through alleyways and at back doors. Now it has a
circulation of 7,000 copies daily. Time was when the daily tirades of
abuse scattered broadcast by that sheet were viewed with indifference
by the English-speaking press of this city. That was in the seed-time
of “theoretic” and “practical” Anarchy in Chicago. Then the dire
meaning of it all escaped the bulk of the population. It was said—and
the saying was flaunted in the faces of the sullen hordes until it
acted like the red rag on an infuriated bull—that all this talk would
end where it began—in talk. The paper is more readable and interesting
now than it ever was. Its present editorial staff is an abler one,
and understands better on occasion how to convey its meaning without
expressing it in so many plain words. It comprises not only some of the
old-time writers—men like Paul Grottkau and Albert Currlin—but it has
now at its head a man of infinitely more cunning and ability than ever
distinguished August Spies.
Editor Jens Christensen, a native of the formerly Danish province
of Schleswig, is a good-looking young German, and bears quite a
resemblance to his predecessor in personal appearance. He is thoroughly
proficient not only in German, but also in English, French, and all
the Scandinavian tongues, is a scientifically trained man, and has at
command an arsenal of facts, arguments and deductions to be marshaled
up in defense of his specious pleadings.
Christensen was at one time a Socialist candidate for the German
Reichstag, and is now in constant and confidential correspondence with
the leading European prophets of destruction. Although he has been in
America less than a year, he has inspired in his disciples within that
short time a degree of confidence which Spies never possessed. He has
not the easy address of Spies in dealing with a crowd, and he is at
all times a better, more logical and more forcible writer than orator;
but he is, for all that, the best public speaker the destructionists
of this city have within their ranks to-day. He is more suave than
impassioned in his speech—reserved and self-possessed, and never at
a loss for a reply. He is a zealot and a fanatic in the cause he has
espoused, and he is probably the only Socialist in Chicago who can give
a scientific basis for every dogma he announces, and a proof for every
word he utters.
Since Christensen’s arrival here he has been in a newspaper warfare
with Johann Most. He attacked Most, charging him with being an injury
to the cause of the revolution by his bad judgment and radical plans of
dynamite and other methods for the application of physical force. Most
has been striking back in his characteristic way, and this has brought
Christensen into considerable prominence. Moreover, he is a writer with
great executive ability. He is a man of strong convictions, evident
courage, but is quite a diplomat, and does not propose to follow his
“comrades” to the gallows by any slip of the pen or tongue if he can
help it. Christensen is a Socialist, not an Anarchist, he says, and
yet he declares with a good deal of frankness that Socialists and
Anarchists are pretty much the same, so far as the result sought is
concerned, the only essential differences being in the tactics used to
reach the object aimed at.
Such a man, it will be readily seen, when once started in the wrong
path, is a much more dangerous foe than the hot-headed, rather
selfish, openly ambitious Spies. And he shows his power in nothing
better than in his manner of conducting the avowed organ of all the
destructionists. Since his advent, this afternoon sheet has set the
ferment of social agitation going again until the movement, as a matter
of fact, is to-day in reality more formidable than it was three years
ago, for now it is directed by a cautious, self-contained man who
weighs every step before advising it, and who in all things considers
the question of expediency first.
The paper he presides over is a daily proof of his skill and of his
capacity for doing harm. It spreads the old doctrine of destruction
and social upheaval, but it does so in a much more insidious, in a more
guarded, and, probably, in a more effective manner. There is a general
policy laid down, and that is never deviated from. Every line that
goes into the reading columns of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ has to serve a
purpose. That purpose is to teach a lesson, to serve as one more grain
of disgust with the existing state of things, to render the reader
more weary of the society of to-day. Every piece of news is bent to
that end—distorted, falsified, or magnified—so as to “point a moral
or adorn a tale.” If a laborer has been cheated out of his wages, for
instance, by his employer, a general deduction as to all employers is
made. If a wealthy thief escape more or less merited punishment, the
sharp edge of sarcasm and of lament over the futility of trying to
regenerate this world by any but “radical” means is again used. Every
piece of rascality, in fact, on the part of well-to-do or highly placed
men, every misstep, every error, every unwise law and every unwise
application of a wise one—all of these things and many more are seized
and made to serve the purpose of this personally smooth and amiable
Mephistopheles, and are dished up to his benighted readers, peppered,
salted and seasoned with Chile sauce, to make them palatable.
Thus the paper acts on that vast body of half or wholly discontented,
on all those who, with or without their own fault, are not as well
off as they might be, on all those thousands who sympathized or still
sympathize with the dread fate of the eight Anarchists arrested after
the Haymarket slaughter, as a constant irritant, distorting everything
to their mental eye and keeping them forever in an irritable mood and
in a sort of self-made purgatory which embitters even their hours of
rest and recreation. That this sort of effect cannot go accumulating
in the minds of many thousands of men and women and children without
finally producing something tangible, an explosion, is self-evident
and needs no emphasizing. Did space permit, I should like to give here
extracts to show how insidious and subtle the poison which is daily
instilled into the minds of these readers.
Mr. Currlin, ex-editor of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, is known as
the wandering missionary of Anarchy. He is busily engaged in the
propagation of revolutionary ideas. His style of oratory and the
general drift of his sentiments may be gathered from quotations
heretofore given in this book.
George Schilling would strenuously object to being called an Anarchist.
But he admits being a Socialist. When asked a short time ago if he
expected another outbreak as the result of existing revolutionary
forces, he said:
“I expect something of the kind about the end of the present
century—say in ten years. Society is just now dormant, like a river
frozen in winter time, but some night there will be a mighty crack in
the ice, and under the warming influences of evolutionary forces there
will be a mighty upheaval. There will no doubt be a squall or two
before that time, but the great event will not come, in my judgment,
much sooner. There will be lots of men and women who will not be able
to see beyond the squall, and they will think the time has arrived. It
will come, not as the result of a conspiracy of Anarchists, but as a
conspiracy of all the evolutionary forces of society.”
Mrs. Lucy Parsons is still an active exhorter in the cause. She is
simply irrepressible, and has made herself obnoxious to the more
peaceable and conservative Socialists. To the ordinary hearer her
harangues would seem ridiculous, were it not for the fact that the loss
of a husband by death on the gallows naturally creates sympathy, even
for a fanatic.
“Prison bars nor the scaffold shall ever prevent me from speaking the
truth,” she exclaimed at a Sunday afternoon meeting of Socialists at
Waverly Hall a few months ago. “The ballot is useless as a remedy,
and a change in the present condition of the wage slave will never be
brought about peacefully. Force is the only remedy, and force will
certainly be used.”
This meeting had been called to listen to a paper by Prof. Charles
Orchardson on “Salvation from Poverty.” The speaker, deprecating the
incendiary arguments and appeals to forceful measures on the part of
what were known as Anarchists, said that Anarchy never would improve
the condition of society. He devoted himself principally to the private
ownership of land, and claimed that more frauds had been committed in
that name than in any other. Fire and murder were the sole right and
title of the original owners of the land, and no original robbery could
be tortured into a righteous transaction. The owner of the land was
the owner of the inhabitants. Land in Chicago originally worth $1 an
acre was now, in some localities, worth perhaps $1,000,000 an acre.
The people made this value, but the land-owner reaped the benefit of
the advance the people had created. A land speculator was nothing but
a land peculator, and held the people at his mercy. The three evils
of society to-day, the speaker said, were private enterprise, the
competitive system and private ownership of land. The first remedy to
be applied was the education of the people. Another remedy was to adopt
the single-tax theories of Henry George and to establish the Australian
method of secret voting, so that the employé could fearlessly deposit
his ballot without fear of discharge from his employer. This method
would also abolish the buying and selling of votes. Then men should
be elected to represent the people in the halls of legislation and to
resist the encroachments of the capitalists and monopolists. Private
ownership in land should be abolished, and the capitalists should be
compelled to stop the work of increasing poverty by curtailing the
productions of the labor of man.
During the discussion which followed the reading of Prof. Orchardson’s
paper, the ringing voice of Mrs. Parsons was heard in the rear of the
hall. She had entered late, and few were aware of her presence, but
she was greeted with loud applause as she rapidly and defiantly made
her way to the front of the platform. She said:
“I did not hear the beginning of this lecture to-day, but I heard it
last evening at 599 Milwaukee Avenue. I have heard what he had to
say about the Anarchists, and I want to say to him and to everybody
else that it is about time to give the Anarchists a rest. Are there
not enough of them dead? Do you need to go into their graves and aid
the detectives in their work of digging up their memories for abuse
and obloquy? Last night the Professor was asked what remedy he would
propose if the men elected to the legislature betrayed their trust
and sold out their poor constituents, and he then said his remedy
would be to organize secret societies and assassinate the men who
proved unfaithful to their trusts. He need not deny this, for I have
witnesses here to prove that he said this. And now to-day he throws
his slings at Anarchy. Anarchy, as I understand it, is one of the
most beautiful theories, and I do not agree with the speaker when he
favors assassination. I hold human life too sacred, and do not believe
in assassinating the men who sell out. Before they talk about Anarchy
let them define it. It is a philosophy which they do not, or will not,
understand....
“Men talk about revolution as if it were a terrible thing. Every one
present is a revolutionist because he is poor. Every man who lives in
a tenement-house and wants to secure a better home is a revolutionist,
because the beneficial change means a revolution in his very life. I
know I have to be careful what I say nowadays, but I assert that any
and all means are justified in order to get rid of the present system
of wage slavery. (Loud applause.) Any means, I say. If the ballot will
accomplish that purpose, adopt it; but if it will not, let us adopt
some more potent means. (Applause.)
“The speaker has argued in favor of Australian laws, but I know the
same state of society exists there that exists here, and the laws
furnish no remedy. Does any one suppose that the capitalists—your
masters—will ever permit you to peacefully take their lands from them
while they can invoke the aid of a policeman’s club or a Gatling gun?
The ballot-box is useless to reform the evils of society, and there
is not a State Socialist living who believes that a reform can be
brought about peaceably. They all admit it, but they claim that it is
not policy to say so. I am not afraid to say what I believe, whether
it leads me to prison bars or the scaffold. The capitalists never have
relinquished anything until they were compelled to, and they will not
now, unless they have a change of heart, or something of that sort.
But go on voting. Vote for what you want, but don’t forget that the
Bill of Rights gives every man the right to keep and bear arms, and
when you want to vote take your little musket to the polls with you,
and then your vote will be counted—not before. Take the ballot; but
first put an idea, a strong arm and determination behind, and then buy
yourselves good Winchester rifles. Then you will be prepared to fight
for your rights. Men who are armed are bound to be free, and you are
all wage slaves to-day because you are not.”
Here the applause was almost deafening. Mrs. Parsons paused and gazed
around the room.
“I do not care,” said she, “whether there are any policemen or
detectives here or not, or whether the newspapers want to come out with
sensational head-lines about me. Go on voting, and in ten years you
will find yourselves where I am now. You will be no further advanced,
and then you will have to come to the revolution of force which I
advocate now.”
Her voice rang out strong and clear, and as she finished it seemed
evident from the loud applause that followed that the majority of those
present were in full accord with her sentiments.
Professor Orchardson then replied to his critic. He claimed that Mrs.
Parsons had begun by picturing Anarchy as one of the most lovely
and beautiful conditions imaginable, but before she had finished
she had advocated murder, force, carbines and every violent measure
conceivable. She had claimed that Anarchy did not mean war, and in the
same breath had urged that all means were justifiable to secure it. “A
man who undertakes to philosophize upon this question,” said he, “soon
becomes contaminated by that horrible theory Anarchism.”
A few hisses were heard about the room.
“I see I have no sympathy here,” he continued, “and I here declare that
if I live I will never speak again where Anarchists are admitted and
permitted to speak.”
Here a storm of hisses and loud cries of “Shame” were heard on all
sides, and for a moment it seemed as if trouble was imminent. The
chairman, however, succeeded in restoring order, and the speaker was
about to continue his remarks, when he was interrupted by Mrs. Parsons.
“Did you not advocate assassination in your lecture last night?” she
asked.
“I did not. I simply said that if humanity had sunk so low that men
would sell themselves out, secret societies should be formed for the
purpose of bringing retribution on the men who had betrayed their
trusts.”
“You said assassination,” shouted Mrs. Parsons, “and I can prove it.”
“I never did and never will advocate the vicious, horrible and
bloodthirsty ideas of the Anarchists, that made it so hard to argue the
Socialistic question before the people,” concluded the Professor, in
evident disgust; “and I again repeat that I never will attend another
meeting where such ideas are advocated.”
As the speaker took his seat, he was warmly cheered by a number
present, but there was a loud murmur of dissent from the rear of the
room, where Mrs. Parsons sat surrounded by her friends.
The most conspicuous feature of the propaganda of the Internationale
in Chicago to-day is the Sunday school movement. There are now four of
these schools in successful and established operation, and a number of
others are fairly started.
[Illustration: AN ANARCHIST “SUNDAY SCHOOL.” TEACHING UNBELIEF AND
LAWLESSNESS.]
The first was opened in the spring of 1888, at Lake View, by the
“Socialistic Turn-Verein.” The second was begun in August, 1888, at
Jefferson, by the Turn-Verein “Fortschritt.” The third was commenced
in September, at “Thalia Hall,” by the “Arbeiter Bildungs-Verein” of
the Northwest Side, and the fourth was started at 58 Clybourn Avenue,
by the “Arbeiter Bildungs-Verein” of the North Side. The school at
Lake View is frequented by about 190 children; the school of the
Turn-Verein “Fortschritt” has from forty to fifty pupils; the school
of the Northwest Side was visited on Sunday, December 9, 1888, by
230 children, and this Verein will have to rent another hall, as the
present one is not large enough to accommodate all the pupils. The
North Side school was attended by about 100 children on the same day.
All schools are under the supervision of the one organized on December
9, 1888, at Aurora Turn Hall. The main mission of this school is the
organization of others. It can easily be seen that the schools now
established are prospering, because the number of pupils is increasing
from day to day. The schools are of Socialistic and Anarchistic origin.
Nothing is taught relating to dynamite or bombs. The German language
is used in all the schools, and all the ordinary branches of education
are embraced in the curriculum, but underneath and above all is the
spirit of contempt for law and religion. The children are instructed
that religion is nothing but a humbug; that there exists no God and
no devil, no heaven and no hell, and that Christianity is only a
preventive system adopted by the capitalists to rule the working people
and keep them under. After this they are to be taught the spirit of
revolution. In all, the main point is agitation for Socialism and
Anarchy.
As showing the spirit of the Anarchist Sunday schools, I append the
following appeal for Christmas presents from the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ of
December 7, 1888. It seems to me that it leaves very little to be said,
except perhaps to point out that 58 Clybourn Avenue is a low-class
groggery, and that it was in the very room in which the school is held
that the Anarchists who were to carry out Engel’s plan on the 4th of
May, 1886, secured their supplies of dynamite and bombs:
_Christmas Presents for the Scholars of the Sunday School of the North
Side._
The “Arbeiter Bildungs-Verein” of the North Side held a meeting
December 3d, and adopted the following: A presentation of Christmas
presents and a lottery for the children of the Sunday school will be
held at 58 Clybourn Avenue on Christmas day. Every one is invited
who has an interest in taking from the clergy the power over our
little ones, and who will help us to educate our children to become
useful persons—also parents, their friends and business people who
are willing to contribute a small sum of money for the benefit of
this noble cause. Leave your contributions for the presentation of
Christmas presents or for the dressing of the Christmas tree for the
dear little ones until Saturday, December 22, with the committee, No.
58 Clybourn Avenue.
Receipts for presents will be published in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_.
ARBEITER BILDUNGS-VEREIN.
Dr. E. G. Kleinoldt, who lives at 591 Sedgwick Street, is one of the
chief teachers. He is an enthusiast in instructing innocent children
that there is no God and no hereafter. He tells his small charges
that priests, and ministers alike are swindlers, and there are in this
city fathers who bring their children to the rear of a beer saloon on
Sundays to be taught such doctrine by a drunkard.
On Saturday night, December 1, 1888, a dance was in progress in
Yondorf’s Hall. Officer Lorch, of my command, called in to see what
kind of a gathering it was. Entering the hall, he saw Kleinoldt with
three young men, talking very busily. The officer approached near
enough to hear that Kleinoldt was talking about dynamite, and finally
heard him tell the young men how to make bombs, explaining the process
in the same manner as Engel had done. He also suggested that if his
hearers would make bombs and put them under “the leafers of policemen,”
it would make the “bloodhounds” jump. The officer approached Kleinoldt
and said:
“This is not an Anarchist meeting. Stop your talk, or I will put you
out.”
Kleinoldt made some insulting remarks, and the officer took him by the
back of the neck and pushed him out of the hall. This was the last of
him there for that night, but the young men he had been talking to
were not Anarchists. One of the three followed him out on the sidewalk
and there met a friend whom he told what Kleinoldt had advised. The
newcomer, who happened to carry a large turkey, was a little under the
influence of liquor himself, but was sober enough to oppose Anarchy. He
followed Kleinoldt, struck him with the turkey, knocked him down and
broke his eye-glasses, apparently for the purpose of demonstrating to
the worthy pedagogue that all people who drink too much beer are not
necessarily Anarchists.
This man Kleinoldt was interviewed a short time ago by a reporter of
the Chicago _Herald_. While other Anarchist pedagogues are loth to
communicate their plans and doings, Kleinoldt talked readily, and what
he said seems to me sufficiently interesting to repeat here.
“We do not teach Socialism or Anarchism in our Sunday-schools, and the
newspapers do us an injustice when they say so,” said Dr. Kleinoldt.
“The object of our Sunday schools is to keep the children away from
the influence of the Jesuits, who teach the Bible, religious songs,
and church doctrine, subjects that are very distasteful to us who are
Socialists. I was one of the prime movers in the project to organize
schools to be held on Sundays all over the city, which shall be open
to children of all parents who are opposed to the hurtful influences
of church instruction. While it is possibly true that most of those in
attendance are the offspring of Socialists and Anarchists, still it
is by no means restricted to them, for in one school, at 58 Clybourn
Avenue, as well as others, you will find those whose fathers have no
sympathy with our advanced ideas on sociology.”
“What do you teach at these schools?” asked the reporter.
“Our course takes in reading, writing, natural history, geography,
literature, general history and morality—so much of ethics as young
minds are capable of receiving.”
“And you do not teach the tenets of Anarchy?” queried the reporter.
“By no means. We say nothing of bombs, dynamite, overthrow of kingdoms,
uprooting of our present social system, or anything of that kind.
What would be the use of it? If you had a correct appreciation of the
principles of Anarchy and Socialism you would readily understand that
the questions are too grave for the apprehension of juvenile minds.
Later on—well, that is something else.”
“Still, Doctor, your teachers are thoroughly imbued with these
sentiments, and it would be only natural for you to desire, if you are
honest in your convictions, that these young people should grow up in
your peculiar faith.”
“That is another matter,” replied Dr. Kleinoldt, regarding the reporter
fixedly through his spectacles. “As the twig is bent the tree’s
inclined. We are honest in what we profess, else why should we profess
at all, since we have nothing to gain but obloquy, in the present at
least? Being honest and believing that our teachings are best for the
human family, we should be strange beings indeed if we were not anxious
to have our children grow up into our faith. What I have said is, and I
repeat it, that we do not teach Anarchistic or Socialistic principles
to the pupils in our Sunday schools.”
The reporter here read to the Doctor a paragraph from one of the
Chicago dailies to the effect that at the school held in the rear of
Rachau Bros’. saloon, corner of Lincoln Avenue and Halsted Street, the
day before, a teacher had dilated upon the death of Spies and Parsons,
declaring they were murdered by the capitalists and that they were
martyrs.
“Of that I know nothing. All I know is that such is not the design of
our schools. Such talk is not heard at our school in the rear of the
saloon at 58 Clybourn Avenue. We use the same books that are used in
the day schools, and what we teach is as I have told you before—only
this and nothing more.”
“But since your teachers hold to these peculiar views, and since
children have investigating minds—being eager to ask questions—is
there anything to prevent teachers from defining their views even if
they do not enter into arguments to demonstrate the tenableness of
their position?”
“I repeat again, there are many children in attendance upon our schools
whose parents are not Anarchists or Socialists. Those who are hear
these opinions at their homes. Those who are not do not hear them.”
“True; but there are some, doubtless, in every class, who have heard
at their homes the teachings of Anarchy or Socialism; they may ask
questions. Is there anything to prevent the teachers from replying to
them in such manner as to indoctrinate the others in this faith?”
“It is possible, I admit. But I say again, it is not so in our school.
Indeed, most of the children are too small to know anything about
such matters. You will say time will correct that. I add that our
primary object is the education of the young people. We teach in German
altogether, because the children learn English in the public schools.
They all attend the latter, because it is a primary principle with us
that it is education alone that can make men free. In addition to the
studies named, we teach music and singing, and we hold a session at 58
Clybourn Avenue in the afternoon of each Sunday, when teachers from
the Workingmen’s Educational Society—an art organization—teach them
drawing.”
[Illustration: FRANK CHLEBOUN.
From a Photograph.]
The Doctor is a short, thick-set, mild-mannered man, possessed of a
gentle voice, and is, apparently, about thirty-five years old. He spoke
carefully, and without excitement.
“Let me tell you further,” he said, after a brief pause, “we do not
teach anything of what is termed religion, because we do not believe in
that. We do teach morals, the duties we owe to our neighbors, the great
principles of right and wrong. We desire the children to grow up into
Socialists, that they may be worthy successors of their parents; but we
do not think the Sunday school we have organized is the proper place to
inculcate such doctrines.”
“Because your pupils are too young?” asked the reporter.
“Yes, and because, as I have said, the parents of some of the children
do not hold to our views, and it is our desire to bring into our fold
as many as possible, thus saving as many as we can from the evil
influences of the church.”
“You say you teach music and songs. Do these include sacred music?”
“Our music and songs are strictly secular; we have nothing to do with
anything connected with the churches.”
[Illustration: FRANK CAPEK.
From a Photograph taken by the Police.]
Dr. Kleinoldt may be correct in his statement that the school at 58
Clybourn Avenue has not taught Anarchy, yet it is nevertheless true
that at least two of the school’s enthusiastic teachers have dilated
upon the “martyrdom” of Spies, Parsons, Fischer and Engel, declaring
that they died for a glorious cause, and that those officials who were
instrumental in their arrest, and those who took part in the trial
and at the execution, are guilty of the vilest of crimes. At one of
the schools, a teacher even went so far as to allude to the Savior as
the lazy loafer of Nazareth. It will not demand a very close reading
“between the lines” of the interview with Dr. Kleinoldt, however, to
find out that, whatever the motive of those who have inaugurated this
movement, the ultimate result will be the same as though the open and
expressed object were the dissemination of those views now universally
regarded among civilized nations as subversive of all government.
The schools are organized for the purpose of sowing in the minds of
innocent children the seeds of atheism, discontent and lawlessness.
The Sunday school movement is only one feature of the general plan
of the revolutionists. The Socialists fear as heartily as they hate
the church, and of late they have had especial reason, from their
standpoint, for both. Both Catholic and Protestant churches located
in German, Bohemian and Polish sections have recently extended their
facilities for reaching the youth of their nationalities, and hundreds
of children have been gathered into Christian schools on Sundays, thus
taking them for a brief while on that day from the squalid streets upon
which they roam without restraint, and bringing them in contact with
Christian influences. Even scores of children of Socialistic parents
have had this experience. The great aim of the Internationals now, as
always, is to increase their numerical strength. To do this they hold
it necessary to establish secular Sunday schools wherein the principles
of Socialism will be taught and where children will be made to despise,
though they may obey, the laws.
It need only be added here that all the schools of the Socialists now
in operation in Chicago are held either in the rear or in the basements
of beer saloons.
Judge Tuley, in his decision on the application for an injunction,
stated that “there are Christian Anarchists.” I venture the assertion,
however, that the learned jurist has never seen one of that class.
I know that I have not, and I never expect to see one. Christianity
and Anarchy are entirely opposite. While it is possible of course
that a man professing the religion of Christ should be blinded by the
plausible preachings of the Anarchists, still the hallucination would
be only temporary. Religion and Anarchy, as I understand and have seen
it, do not and never will go together.
The conspirator Hronek, at his trial, was asked if he believed in God.
“I have never seen him,” was the reply.
Scratch the hide of an Anarchist, and you will find an infidel or a
fool. An intelligent human being cannot reconcile the violent doctrines
of Anarchy with any form of Christianity.
Charles L. Bodendick, twenty-five years old, 5 feet 4 inches tall,
weighing 150 pounds, was arrested by Officer Hanley for robbing Justice
White, March 18, 1886, and was held to the Criminal Court in $1,500
bonds. He was tried and sentenced to the penitentiary in Joliet for
one year. During his trial it was demonstrated that he was a thorough
Anarchist. The _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ then called him a “crank” and said
that he was crazy. Before he was arrested, however, he had made his
home about the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ office, and at that time he had been
looked on as a valuable man. The poor fellow had kept hanging around
there, reading their misleading trash, until he was destitute and a
vagrant. The next steps were robbery and the penitentiary.
[Illustration: CHARLES L. BODENDICK.
From a Photograph taken by the Police.]
After his release from prison Bodendick came back to the city, and,
roaming about from place to place, finally fell into his old ways
again, living on wind and Anarchy. He grew more desperate even than
before his arrest. He wanted to manufacture something stronger than
dynamite. A card was given to him by Dyer D. Lum, and he called at
the Public Library for the “Techno-Chemical Receipt Book,” K 4314. On
page 30 of this book Bodendick learned what he knew of the make-up of
explosives. He admitted that he wanted to use sulphur, saltpeter and
soda potash. He also procured other books on explosives, and he finally
purchased a quantity of material and went to his room to experiment.
But before he had learned very much he was arrested. Bodendick was kept
in the Central Station in the sweat-box for two weeks. He was defiant
at first, but finally sent word to the Inspector that he wanted to talk
with him. He was brought to the office, and after he had given a lot of
information, and promised to leave the city at once, he was released.
The Anarchists claim that he never did “squeal.”
This Bodendick was an odd genius. Here is _verbatim et literatim_ a
poem in which he melodiously voiced his sentiments some years ago:
THE REBELL-VAGABOND.
I live and will _take the right_,
To demand of the world abundance;
To do so, I’m prepared to fight
the world and all its Dungeons.
Your a Loafer, says “the upper ten,”
You aught to go to Prison.
But, who are the priveledged ones
To loaf? the toilers lot dissmissend?
I’ve toiled hard, sometime ago,
From early morn till late.
That I ain’t worth some millions now
Is really too bad.
You see, a generous toiling man
Gets never much ahead;
For which a rascal always can
Rob men of life and (e)state.
7-10 from what I have produced
You took in your possessions
While the toiling part you have reduced
To crime and degradations.
Not only this, nay vamper like
Do suck the Blood of men
And with the bones you take the hide
But, things get to an end.
That time I was quiet ignorant
of, who was my enemy real,
That I’ve become to you a torment
Is only the result you feel.
I’ll work for life and liberty,
For thiefs like you I wont
The courage that is left in me
Makes me a Rebell-Vagabond.
The most serious recent development of the spirit of revolt and
disorder, however, is that shown in the attempt of the men Hronek and
Capek to assassinate Judges Gary and Grinnell and Inspector Bonfield.
In July of 1888, Judge Grinnell sent for me and told me that he had
been informed by a Bohemian citizen that there was a conspiracy afoot
to murder himself, Gary and Bonfield, and that he thought there
was something in the information. It appears that there were three
Bohemian Anarchists, John Hronek, Frank Capek and Frank Chleboun, who
had determined to avenge the “martyrdom,” as they called it, of the
Anarchist leaders. Chleboun was never in real sympathy with the others,
and when the affair began to grow very serious he went to a Bohemian
friend and confided to him the plot. This gentleman at once advised
Judge Grinnell. Among the details was the fact that three men had
examined the Judge’s house on July 4th, with a view to blowing it up if
a good opportunity offered, and the Judge remembered having seen three
suspicious-looking men loitering about Aldine Square on that day. They
had eyed him so strangely that his attention was attracted to them.
This fact made him attach much weight to the story he had been told.
The Judge wished me to conduct the investigation, but the suspects all
lived in Inspector Bonfield’s district, and I urged that the inquiry
should be made by him, of course promising to cooperate as heartily
as I could. After this Bonfield, the Judge and I had a conference in
which we went over the whole ground. We had all the facts in the case
pretty well in hand. On the morning of July 17th, Bonfield was ready
to strike, and the arrests were made. On the evening before warrants
were sworn out for these three men, and at 4 A.M. Bonfield drove Lieut.
Elliott past Hronek’s house, 2952 Farrell Street, so that he might
know it. Officers Rowan, Miller, Nordrum, Murtha, Styx and Meichowsky
assisted in the arrests.
In describing what followed Inspector Bonfield said:
“We had reason to believe that Hronek, who only occupied the two rear
rooms of a two-story frame dwelling, had dynamite, a revolver and a
formidable-looking dagger, which we had been told was poisoned. We
had also been given to understand that Hronek was a reckless fellow
of the Lingg type and would offer a desperate resistance, and for
that reason, in order not to jeopardize the lives of any of our
men, we thought it prudent, instead of entering the house, to catch
him unawares when he came out early in the morning. At the side of
the house is a covered stairway leading from the ground to Hronek’s
rooms, and about seven o’clock we saw our man come down these, and he
was immediately arrested by Officers Nordrum and one or two others.
Leaving one or two men to watch the house, we took the prisoner, who
appeared utterly indifferent, and astonished perhaps, to the nearest
patrol-box, called the wagon, and sent him to Deering Street Station,
whence he was removed to the Central Station later on.
“We then searched the house, and in a sort of closet we found a small
quantity of dynamite in the original Ætna No. 2 packages. In the
bed-room we found our information to be true, for under the pillow
on which Hronek had a short time previous been sleeping we found
a vicious-looking dagger, in a leather sheath, and a revolver. In
addition to these we also found in the rooms several bombs, some of
which are empty and some of which are loaded. The bombs are made of
cast-iron piping, plugged at each end. The pipe had been made for some
other purpose and turned to that use, and the bombs were four or five
inches long and about an inch and a half in diameter.”
Frank Capek was arrested at his home, 498 West Twentieth Street, at the
same time as was Frank Chleboun, who was found at Zion Place. Capek’s
house was not searched, as it was known that he had made away with the
dynamite that he had had there.
The arrests caused the greatest excitement in the city as soon as it
became generally known what was the charge.
About the truth of it there could be no doubt. Hronek was a desperate
fellow, quite ready and willing for any violence. He was an
enthusiastic Anarchist, and a great admirer of the “martyrs,” as he
called them, and he had a regular arsenal of explosives and weapons.
Chleboun’s story was a singular one. He was a tailor who had come from
Bohemia to Chicago in 1882. He met Hronek shortly after the Haymarket
riot, and the two struck up an acquaintanceship. With Frank Capek they
discussed Anarchy and the trial of the leaders, and all went well as
long as they confined themselves to theory and beer.
[Illustration]
Chleboun was one of those weak-minded people who like to play at
conspiracy, but he soon found that he had allied himself with desperate
and dangerous men and that the chances were altogether in favor of his
own neck paying the penalty for his comrades’ work. This alarmed him,
and he seems to have tried to draw away from them. But they would not
let him. For a time he lent them money and tried to get along with
them, but they made his life a burden to him. In October, 1887, he
wanted to visit the old country, and desired to take out citizen’s
papers before he left. It shows the relations between the men, that
Hronek and Capek would not help him to get naturalized until he had
formally agreed to the plot to kill Grinnell, Gary and Bonfield. They,
also demanded $25 from him, and he paid it. He returned from Europe
in December, and they at once pounced on him again. The poor fellow
did not know which way to turn, and he finally did the wisest thing by
making a clean breast of the whole plot.
[Illustration]
The trial of the would-be assassins came on in the November term, but
the prisoners secured a severance, and only Hronek was tried, Capek’s
trial being deferred until the next term. On the stand Chleboun told
the story of the conspiracy at great length and in detail, and a very
severe cross-examination failed to shake his testimony in any way. He
showed how Hronek had planned the murder of the three men coolly and
deliberately; how he had provided dynamite made up into tin bombs, and
in other ways, and had secured a poisoned dagger, as well as a pistol.
Capek seemed to concur in what the others did, but Hronek was the
undoubted leader. Among other things Hronek told them was that he had
met Inspector Bonfield, and had had a safe chance to kill him, but that
he had had no arms with him and could not do it. Hronek was very angry
over his disappointment. Chleboun described the visit of the three
men—himself, Hronek and Capek—to Judge Grinnell’s house in Aldine
Square, and the reconnoissance they made.
[Illustration]
Dynamite was in the possession of all the parties, and on one occasion
a man named Janauschek tried to get Chleboun to give him an order on
Mikolanda, one of the open leaders, for some of the stuff. This was not
done, however.
Hronek, in his own testimony, steadily denied any purpose of
killing either of the threatened gentlemen, but under the skillful
cross-examination of Mr. Elliott he failed to convince the jury that
his possession of the bombs, which he claimed had been left at his
house by a man named Karefit, was innocent. In fact, the testimony
against him was too strong, and it was corroborated in many places even
by his own admissions, and the jury found him guilty. He was sentenced
to twelve years in the penitentiary.
[Illustration: JOHN HRONEK’S PORTRAIT AND DESCRIPTION—I.
Showing the New Method of Recording Criminals for Identification.]
The trial was watched closely by the general public as well as by
Anarchists, and among those of the red fraternity who found admission
to the court-room there were many curious characters. Some of these
were sketched by an artist of my acquaintance, and three of his
sketches are given on page 678. They are truthful representations of
men who have not yet sat for our rogues’ gallery photographer, but
their associations warrant the fear that they will some day have their
pictures taken at the expense of the taxpayers.
[Illustration: JOHN HRONEK’S PORTRAIT AND DESCRIPTION—II.
Showing the New Method of Recording Criminals for Identification.]
Portraits of Hronek taken by the police photographer are shown here,
and a slightly reduced _fac-simile_ of the form now used by the
Police Department for identifying criminals. Formerly only front
view photographs, as a rule, were to be found in rogues’ gallery
collections. The new method is a vast improvement, and the reader will
note from the details of the blank that it provides all the necessary
data for perfect and unmistakable identification.
The case against Hronek was conducted by Judge Longenecker, the State’s
Attorney, and by Mr. Elliott, and was followed with the closest
attention by the people of Chicago, as it displayed in unmistakable
colors to what a pitch of desperation the Anarchist conspirators in
this city can bring themselves.
Let us hope that the lesson will prove a salutary one.