The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1907-10-12

supported his cont ention. Colonel f1n-s
gersoll, with characteristic courage
declared that the hanging Of the men;
would be judicial murder. /. Mr.. will
liam Dean Howells and many other
kindly ana broad minded men protest.
ed on humanitarian grounds William
Morris from London uttered a vehe-
ment denunciation. George Francis
Train broke the rule of silence that
for more than ten ears he had imposed
upon himself and went, to Chicago to
speak against the hanging. = Meetings
We're held and petitions were circu-.
lated to the same interest. OF all the
condemned men Parson had the larg-
est share of sympathy. The magnani-
nifty of his surrender and the sincerity
Of his motives made deep impression
in his behalf. Governor Oglesby un-
derstood the peculiar position in which
the man stood and desired to save
him; an intimation was made to Par
sons counsel, Captain Black, a man
Of very high character and much es-
teemed by the people of Chicago, that
If Parsons would sign petition for
clemency the governor would grant it.
In spite OF every argument and appeal.
Parsons refused to sign such a docu-
ment." One reason that he made pub
lie was that he was an innocent man
entitled not to communication of his
sentence but to his freedom. Another
reason that he confided to his counsel
was that If clemency were extended to
him it would seal the fate of his COM
rades and be on his part an act of
desertion Of which he would not be
guilty"
The Hanging.
"On Thursday, November 10, the
day before that appointed for the
hanging, the governor committed to
life Imprisonment the sentences of
Fielder and Schwab and left Parsons,
Spies, Fischer, Engel and Lingg : to
their fate. On the same day Lingg
committed Suicide by exploding a
small dynamite bomb in his mouth.
meantime, outside, the nervous
strain upon the public had become al
most intolerable. The stories circu-
lated, printed, and believed in those
days seem now to belong to the liter
allure of bedlam. There were 10000
armed and desperate anarchists in
Chicago, an assault upon the Jail had
been planned, all the principal build
ings were to be blown up, the streets
were filled with anarchist spies, the
city was in imminent danger, the
Central Labor Union had decreed a
holiday that all it's members might be
present and take part in the attack
on the Jail, innumerable anarchists had
Ia ho
hanged. The newspaper offices, the
banks, and the board of trade were
guarded night and day. Most citizens
carried weapons. I remember finding
at 10 o'clock at night a gun store still
open in Madison street and crowded
with men buying revolvers, and the
spectacle did not strike me then as in
the least strange but wholly natural
and laudable. The dead of some
catastrophe impending was not alone
in mems talk, but in their very face
and In the air.
ITO the spectacle that on the morn
ing Of that 18th Of November Chicago
presented, there has been surely no
parallel in any American city in time
of peace. One block in each direction
across the streets and traffic was sus-
pended. Behind the ropes were lines
Of policemen with riot rifles. Thence
to the Jail the sidewalks were patrolled
by other policemen similarly armed
The Jail itself was guarded like a pre-
| carious outpost in critical battle.
| Around 1t lines of policemen were
| drawn, from every window policemen
| looked forth with rifles, the root was
black with policemen. The display of
strength was overpowering, the place
| was like a. fort.
1.-THE word came at last, we
marched down the dim corridors to
the court appointed for the terrible
thing, we saw it done, we saw the
four lives crushed out according to
There was no mine exploded, there
was no attack, the Central Labor
Union did not march it's cohorts to the
jail nor elsewhere, no armed or I'M
armed anarchists appeared to menace
the supremacy of the state. In all
mems eyes, was told, was something
Of the strain and anxiety that made
| all the faces I saw about me look
drawn and pallid; but there was no.
where the lifting of a lawless hand
that day. It sounds now horrible
and cruel thing to say. yet visibly,
most visibly, all other mems hearts
were lghtened because those four
mems hearts were stilled.
Tho Truth About 1t,
| And yet what was it Of which we
had been so frightened? Six men in
buckram, no more. Humiliating as it
Is, even now, to admit, yet so stands
the fact. cannot see that any good
can come to any cause by obscuring
the truth, and the truth is that Chi
cago was at no time in more danger of
an outbreak of violence, in more dam
ger of destruction by dynamite. than
any other American city was then and
is now. Soon after the hanging, GER
tain events not essential to this MARIA
tive made 1t advisable for the New
York World, with which I was then
connected, to determine whether the
story we, had all accepted had any
actual foundations. The investigation
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