The Portland daily press., 1892-01-18
JOHANN MOST.
At Present He Is "a blacksmith in the 4
BIackweii's Island Penitentiary.
lGnecini f,orreS M d ilenrnl


Blackweii's Island Penitentiary.
lSpeciai Correspondence.
NEW YORK, Jan. 14.-Herr Johann
Most, the New York anarchist and ed
itor Of The Freiheit, is at present serving
out his term Of Imprisonment in the
penitentiary on Blackwell's island. He
is employed in the blacksmith shop, his
duty being, with the aid of Chinese
helper, to punch holes in iron plates
He has still about six months Of his
sentence to serve. His appearance has
greatly changed, FOR his hair has become
almost snow white. Under the rules OF
the prison he should shave clean, but as
it is extremely painful to him to shave
his upper lip the rules are not enforced
in full, and he retains his mustache
This is gray in color, and will probably
be white, as is his hair, before long
Over his blue eyes this white hair gives
him wonderfully gentle and benign
look
shall never forget the first time l
saw Herr Johann Most. l boarded the
steamer at quarantine and found him in
the steerage. saw man of medium
height, with brown hair and beard, blue
eyes, a kindly look on his typical Ger
man face. introduced myself to him,
and we had a, long talk, pacing up and
down the deck by ourselves. l relnem-
ber the little children were very fond of
him, and one little tot would insist on
being carried in3 his arms. | found
Herr Most spoke excellent English and,
it may SO express myself, his talk was
educated, But what tqueer talk it was
I had never. seen an anarchist before nor
had ever read any of their platforms.
It therefore seemed wonderful to hear
man say, with the greatest earnestness,
that all men elected by the suffrages of
their fellows to Office were, by the ac-
ceptance of the positions, criminals;
that the president, senators, governors,
mayors, all members Of the national,
state or municipal governments should
few dollars more than the other, the
poorer had right to take them from
the richer, and if resisted to kill; that
all government should be abolished;
that the property of all corporations
should be confscated; that society as
we know it, that is, the social organiza-
tion under which we live, should be up
rooted, annihilated, destroyed; that all
laws should be defied that all men who
execute those laws, from Che judges to
the police, should be killed.
IF you will imagine these astounding
propositions, astounding to one with the
American reverence for the law, to
come from a man speaking in the gen.
tlest of voices, with an educated choice
of words, and who, as he spoke, played
with a little child, you may perhaps un-
derstand my amazement. Yet the mans
manner, and still more his record.
proved to me he believed these things to
be right. For Herr Most, when | met
him in 1882, had spent the greater part
of his manhood years in prison for his
faith.
was unable to get from Herr Most
any outline of the organization of soci-
ETY. which should succeed the present,
were all these things to be accomplished,
nor have l ever seen such an outline
from him. Since his arrival in this corn-
try he has succeeded in getting himself
imprisoned several times by his extraor-
dinary talk. Still, while l do not for
moment believe in his ideas-to me they
are worse than impossible--I shall al
ways associate in my mind the name
of Johann Most with the little blue eyed
German baby he petted as he talked.
ATEPFD RATCu