The copper era. (Clifton, Graham County, Ariz.) 1899-1911, 1906-03-29
THE INFAMOUS MCFARLAND.
Past History of Man Prominent in Idaho
Labor Troubles.
From the Irish World.

ton agent sent many an innocent
man to the gal]ows or to prison
thirty years ago. is again plying his
nefarious trade in Idaho. Several
New York papers with anti-labor
leanings have been devoting much
agent of the Pinkertons. He is
represented as a hero deserving of
all praise, whereas according to his
own confession he was an unmiti-
gated william who deliberately melted
his victims to the commission of
crime. If they yielded he played
the part of the informer and so en-
HANGED his value in the estimation of
his employers. 1t is well known that
the Pinkerton detectives are recruit
ed from the offscourings of cities. An
utter lack of conscience is the pre-
requisite for the candidate who
would become a Pinkerton man.
MCFARLAND, a North of Ireland
Orangeman, seems to have been
fitted by nature for the criminal
work he engaged in. 1t is some
thirty odd years since he made his
first appearance in Pennsylvania IN
der the assumed name of McKenna.
In two and a half column article
which tine New York Sun devotes to
him we find the reason for his going
to Pennsylvania thus stated: "He
80, =, i
in 1872. When arrangements were
made with that agency by Franklin
B. Gowan on behalf of the Pennsyl-
vania and Reading Coal and Iron
company to undermine the Mollie
Maguires, MCFARLAND was selected as
the operator" In this way McPar-
land was launched upon his career of
crime inciter. His role was that of
rollicking, reckless desperate who
was always ready to applaud any act
of violence. He gave out that he
was a member of the A. o. H. in
Buffalo, who had killed a man in a
fight and had sought safety in flight.
His lying assertion in regard to his
being a member of the A. o. II.
nearly brought him into serious trou-
BILE as is thus told in the newspape
article from which we have already
quoted: ga member of the A. o. H.
not friendly to the detective began
to question him about the ritual of
the organization. MCFARLAND pre-
tended to be drunk and finally rolled
to the floor as if in a stupor. n
1t was finally decided that he was
really drunk and was not accountab BILE
for what he said. All the time he
was listening and he heard enough
about the inner workings of the A.
o. H. to become familiar with the
titles of the officers
In the course of time MCFARLAND
worked his way into the Miners
Union. A man of his moral makeup
would have no hesitation in Turing
thoughtless young men into the COM
mission of acts of violence. In a
lengthy notice of him in the New
York Evening Post we are told that
his enthusiasm waxed high at each
killing, as he exclaimed between
drinks AN may the devil fly away
with his SOUL ~ If the truth was
known it, would be revealed that he,
by his indictments, was morally, if
not legally, guilty OF the crimes for
the detection of which he received
blood money from his paymasters.
He always took good care not to ex-
pose himself to the risk incident to
acts that he was in the habit of APP
plauding. How he succeeded in do
ing this is thus told in the New York
Evening Post article:
"To save himself from being de-
puted to remove an Objectionable
liberately acquired the reputation of
being a druukard, who had no physi-
cal or moral capacity to withstand
| the effects of the wee poteen. Fever
frequently laid him low, and he lost
his hair, and substituted a disrepu-
table looking wig for it. His con-
stitution was severely shaken, but he
stuck to the job and sang, danced,
drank and fought whenever neces-
Sary. He was the pet of the Mollie
Maguieres, and all the time lists of
members and notices of plots against
life and property were constantly
going east by mail"
The article from which we have
just quoted furnishes convincing evil
dence of the part MCFARLAND took in
stirring up Pennsylvania miners to
lawless acts. We haye this picture
of his leading a mob of striking
miners:
"McKenna (McParland) helped to
lead mob against the West Shenan-
doah Colliery, where was force of
armed police and the secretary of the
Mollies (McParland) was in imminent
danger of being. shot down by his
own people (Pinkertons), some of
whom he knew, and the commander
of whom knew him. There were six
teen bullets in every rifle, and Nc
Kenna (McParland) suggested to his
pals that twenty times sixteen wur
three hundred an twenty, an that
was the number that must fall before
them WinCheSterS were exhausted!
An wur it all worth even fifty lives?"
The Mollies allowed that it wasn't"
Here we have Pinkerton's agent
acting in the open. 1t is reasona BILE
to suppose that long before he under
took to lead that mob against his