Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1886-08-18

PASSOo'
course, some innocent people will be killed"
she said, but can not afford to waste our
sympathy upon them. You cannot make an
omelet without breaking eggs" In speaking
pistols were all well enough, but he
advocated the free use of the knife ana dagger,
as they made no noiso and did their work
effectudlly Fielden remarked that while he
knew they must use dynamite without hesita-
ton in destroying property, he believed in
throat-cutting the surest and best way of re-
moving the capitalists. He fully agreed with
Grief. Spies calmly listened to all that had
been said and then remarked that what they
proposed all we'll enough. but he had some
thing better to offer them. MY scheme, sai0
he lis the best in the world. have given
good deal of time to it, and have studied it out
carefully and closely Ny plan is this: Let
every man arm himself with a little syringe
just large enough to be concealed in the closed
hand. The point of the syringe should be Just
as small and fine that of q needle, so that it
can easily penetrate the clothing and skin, The
bulb of the syringe mus5 be filled with prussic
acid, and then it is all ready for business.
Armed with this, you can walk up alongside or
the capitalist to be removed, quickly insert the
needle point through his clothes and into his
flesh and at the same time squeeze the bulb,
sending the prussic acid into his veins. The
victim would not mind the attack any more
than he would notice q slight prick of a pin or
the bite of fsya, and the poison would kill him
in very few minutes, and his death would be
q horrible one He would not know, and If he
did he could not tell, what had been done to
him." This ingenious, death-dealing scheme
was greeted with acclamations of approval by
ALL
Fielden had joined Parsons Spies, schwab,
and Fischer shortly before that. At that time
he the driver of stone wagon. He IS an
Englishman, and was born at Tormorden of
poor parents In this country he worked
upon the farm of Long John" Wentworth, and
in stone-quarry. Without exception he
the worst throat-cutting advocate who spoke to
the anarchists at their meetings. Fielden
brought with him another agitatOr named Cor
such. The whole precious lot of thugs then
began systematic organization in dead earnest.
The anarchist organization was divided up into
groups, each holding regular meetings twice a
week under the general name of the Il. U. w.
P. A." The Germans, Poles, and Bobemians
of the city focked into the groups. and
listened delghtedly to the fiery talk of prop
erty and life destruction Everything was
to be accomplished by force. and that in its
most barbaric and inhuman forms. They
never spoke of building up anything, it was
nothing but destruction. In a very short time
there were five or six anarchist groups in the
city. They had as their banners, very natural
| struction and death The Arbetter Zettung was
| their organ. In the fall of 1884 the principal
| group, known as the American group No. 1, was
| formed by Parsons. Fielden, Spies, Holmes,
| Barker, Keegan. and John A. Henry. Homes
was young man connected with an insurance
agency. Barker was expressman and great
| dynamiter. Keegan blatherskite sort of
| chap while Henry was smooth-talking villain
| of printer.
Henry always delighted in stating at the
| meetings that the public called him blood
| thirsty, and seemed anxious to appear Zero
| cious anarchist, all the rest did. Henry was
| out Of his group, and was not very we'll known
One of the first to join the group after its orga
| nization was a man named Doucey, stair
| builder by trade, and property owner him
SELF and in addition, one of the worst landlords
| in the city of Chicago. Doucey was O French
| Canadian, and a very mean man. He was the
| first to call upon the anarchists to abjure the
| ballot. This was unnecessary, so far as the
| German, Polish, and Bohemian groups were
concerned, for none Of the members We're cit-
| Zens
The American group, which was the principal
| one, as I have stated, met every Wednesday
evening and Sunday afternoon, on the third
| floor of No. So Lake street (west). The man
| named Holmes was elected permanent treas
| urer and Eielden permanent secretary. These
were the only permanently appointed officials
connected with the group. About all that
| Fielden had to do was to note the subject dis,
| cussed at the meetings, and the speakers, in q
| little book, and to give out the subject to b<
/ spoken on at the next meeting. The treasured
| initiated new members and collected dues and
| private Subscriptions He paid the expense
bills. No bonds were demanded from him as 8
| guarantee of his honesty. All surplug
money divided between Parsons, Spies.
| Fielden, Holmes, Henry. and the saloon4
| keeper Grief. For his share of the
| surplus, Grief supplied the meeting with Wild
| beer and worse cigars The leaders secured
most of their living from these surplus fundsl
The secretary usually called the meetings td
order, and chairman was then elected TO act
during the session. The principal speaker was
allowed one hour in which to give his viewsI
and was followed by others who were confined
to fifteen-minute speeches. At the conclusion
of the speaking Fielden would announce to the
audience that as they were not millionaires it
would be necessary to take up @ collection to
defray the expenses of the gas and hail. Nearly
all generally responded to this request, and sub
scriptions ranged from five cents to 81. After
the cash was safely taken care of. Fielden would
announce that anybody could join the group by
signing their names in a book and paying fee
OF ten cents. If any one didn't happen to have
the ten cents, why it made no great difference
During the fall of 1884 and the spring of 1885
the organization of anarchists thrived wonder
fully, and the little meeting hall was packed
always. 1t soon became a great resort for
tralnps, who could air their grievances enjoy q
good ire, and get an occasional glass of beer
from Grief for nothing. Women were as eager
~ welcomed to the organization as men, and
some of them We're the most earnest and hard
est workers OF the lot. Among the most promi-
Dent female anarchists was, quite naturally
Mrs. Parsons. the colored wife CT the leader
Mrs. Schwab came next to her, and was o very
active worker for the organization. Both were
as homely as sin, and it was toss UP as to
which was the prettier. Next came Mrs.
Arnes, who was the 1,ext most enthusiastic be-
lever in dynamite to Mrs. Parsons She be-
Heved in the use of the dagger, pistol and
other weapons we'll Anything that would
cause death suited her perfectly, no matter
what it was. She perfect vixen and g.
decidedly dangerous person. A Miss Moore,
who had turned the shady side of 30 unmar-
ried and disguised with the world and society
in general and herself in particular, also took q
prominent part in the work, and never failed
to make herself heard with the rest at every
nle0C1ng.
Apparently all that was being done or said
transplred at these meetings, which were open
to the public, but in reality all important bust
ness was transacted at secret meeting held
after the public one had been adjourned. None
but true blue" anarchists were admitted
to these secret conclaves All the
women were admitted to these how
ever, for no stancher supporters of the
doctrine of anarchy than they could be found
They We're desperately in earnest in all they
said and did. 1t was at these secret business
meetings that ways and means were discussed
The principal scheme was to raise funds enough
to procure the services of thoroughly skilled
professor OF chemistry, one who was away UP
on the subject of explosives in general and
dynamite in partiC ular. This professor was to
take q class Ct anarchists and instruct them
fully in all the mysteries of explosives SO that
they could in turn instruct their fellow anarch-
lists and prepare them for the revolution which
was to arrive in time. This matter of q reyoIu-
ton was openly agitated at all the meetings
and preached to the people constantly.
Attempts to raise the necessary amount of
money to advance this scheme failed, SO it was
given up, and the members asked to de-
wise methods of destruction of their own which
they could carry out individually The man
Barker got Disguised because nothing was ac-
comp1ished, and, being thoroughly earnest in
his ideas of anarchy, he sold his express
business and started for Europe, with the
avowed intention Of studying the ways and
means OF the European anarchists more es-
pecially those of England, where he said they
were all ready for a revolution.
ffYY1,so 49,