The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1886-08-10
SPIES ON THE STAND.
The NOTED ANARCHIST GIVES HIS
TESTIMONY FOR THE DEFENSE

His Speech at McCormicks and the Writ
ing of the Revenge" Circular-Schwab
Also Testifies and Tries TO Prove an
CHICAGO, Aug l0-The rumor current
that August Spies would take the stand in
he Anarchist trial Monday morning,
served to attract the largest crowd that has
thus far visited Judge Gary's court Among
hose present was Gen w. II. Parsons,
brother of one of the defendants
Michael Schwab was the first witness
called He testified that he left his home,
II Floremond street, the evening OF May
1t : 40, and went TO The Arbeiter Zeitung
office. There q communication was received
over the telephone requesting that a
speaker be sent to Deering Spies was the
speaker wanted, but he was at the Hay
market, and Schwab hastened there to find
him. and saw his brother in law, Rudolph
Schnaubelt, then took car east to Clark
street and boarded another going up ely
oonrn avenue 10 Deering AT the factory
ne spoke 10 the strikers for about twenty
minutes then stopped in saloon, had
glass of beer and some lunch and got back
| uome about ! O'Clock. The witness further
| testified that on May ! he saw Spies for the
last time in the afternoon; and did not
| see him until the next afternoon; did not
walk west on Randolph street with Mr.
Spies; was not in cranes alley with him,
and did not see Spies hand his brother in
law a package that night in the alley at
Crane Bros
Schwab was cross questioned sharply at
| considerable length, but he stuck to his
story In reply to The question, Are you
| an Anarchist the witness said, That is a
question on which there rs good deal OF
difference of opinion The court held that
he was not compelled to answer yes" or
no"
August Spies was next called to the wit
ness stand The noted Anarchist held up
his hand and was sworn. The witness tes-
tiled that on May he was one of the ed :
ttors OF The Arbeiter Zetung aud had held
| that position for six years lie was also a
| memher OF the Soclalistic Publication society
which is organized under the laws of the
state of Illinois, and by which The Ar
better Zeltung was published The society,
the witness said exercised complete control
| over the policy of the paper, and he was
| under their control as editor The witness
attended the meeting on the Black road by
invitation from some trades union dele
| gates When he got there there were some
very poor speakers addressing the crowd,
and the witness was almost PROSTATE from
| speaking continually two weeks previously.
He told the men in as calm voice as be
could to stand together, and if not, their
t4rN. A. -r,-rtI ba To- A
| ,peaklng, continued the witness, Il heard
some one cry out III language that did
not understand, and Immediately some ~
tnen detached themselves from the group
and ran Off | did not know where they
we're goIn.,, but after short time heard
some firing / stopped speaking and
asked what it was about
was told that part of the
crowd had attacked the 'scabs'
1t McCormick's and that the police had
been dispensing them Then tho police came
up and / saw them chasing people round
some freight cars They were blind with
fear, aud the police were bring after them.
As matter OF course my blood was boil
ing, and | think at that moment could
have done almost any thing. | saw, how
over, that | could do nothing, and took a
ear and came down town
| How soon after that WAS it You wrote
the editorial in The ArbeIter Iei,uug of the
next day.
| Il wrote 1t that evening
"Hou wrote thu revenge circular, sup
pose
| Yes"
-Were you still laborins under the ex
rItemen OF the scene and the hour
Il was I was very indignant, and |
knew by the experience had in the past
that the hutchery OF the people was for
the express purpose of defeating the eight
| hour NOV enIuet i'll the city. | can't account
Tor how the word revenge came into it
| Spies then told about his arrest, and
added. Inspector Bontield and his asso-
| Ciates were at the station, and they at
tackled us by saying: You dirty Dutch
, we viii choke you we will
kill you, and they knocked us down and
| jumped upon us, ana dragged us from one
aud OF the apartment to the other They
went through cur pockets aud took oul
money and everything, and ev en- refused t.
return our handkerchiefS. Mr. James Bon
field told MI Ebersold that this wa
hardly proper, AMI that this wa
not the place for IT. lie treated us il
a rather g.ntleiuau'y way. We were ther
put into The cells and kept there evel
Sine.