Norwich bulletin., 1914-06-25
FAMOUS TRIALS
THE CHICAGO ANARCHISTS.

The spring of 1886 saw an unusual amount of agitation among labor or ganizations looking to higher rates of wages and schedules of fewer working hours. The revolt was mostly in the west. Chicago was storm center. In May 10000 workmen struck in Chi cago to enforce the demand for an eight-hour labor day. In the early part of the month several workmen had been shot by police and by de- tectives.
 On the evening of May was an- nounced g. public day in Haymarket square, at which good speakers would be in attendance. About 1,500 work men assembled on May 4. Most of the addresses were comparatively mild in tone, but about 10 o'clock, after the mayor had gone and part of the audi ence had dispersed, Samuel Ffelden gave utterapce to vehement incendiary remarks, referring with derision to such men as Washington, Jefferson and Patrick Henry, and concluded rebels against it.> You have been rob- bed and will be starved into a worse condition"
 At this point . body of about 1s0 policemen marched up. Capt. Ward addressed the crowd:
 T command you. in the name of the people of the state of Illinois to inn mediately disperse."
 They arrested Ffelden. As the po- lice were carrying him off a deafening explosion occurred and a third of the policemen fell wounded, the result of Q bomb.
 The policemen still on their feet dashed against the mob. Over fifty fell, the rest fleeing. A storm of wrath fell upon the anarchists, who had thus for the first time tried their methods in America. The actual thrower of the hnYT1h fhOnRhf hoan Rn dolph Schnaubelt; but by shaving off his beard immediately he avoided identification, though twice arrested, and finally escaped to parts unknown.
 Efforts were made to bring the heads of the Chicago conspirators to justice. The bomb used was probably the production of Louis Lingg. who all the afternoon before the riot had, with his assistants, been filling bombs sim liar to the one thrown
 Lingg was arrested, as we'll as seven ether men connected with the snar- R. Parsons and August Spies. The prosecution was based mainly upon extracts from these papers. An acces- sories before the fact, equally guilty with the unknown principal. having by speech and print advised the com mission of murder. August Spies, Michael Schwab. Samuel Fielden, AL bert R. Parsons, AdoIph Fischer, George Engle and Louis Lingg were, on Aug. 20. 1888. sentenced to death, fifteen years imprisonment at hard labor.
 The trial had consumed a number of weeks, having been begun early in July. It was with much difficulty that a jury was obtained. On Aug. IT, counsel for the anarchists. began his closing speech. He claimed that the whole of the murder rested on the shoulders of the man who threw the bomb, and he argued that the defend ants could not be convicted as acces- sories before the fact.
 On Aug. 19, Judge Gary, before whom the trial had been held, charged the jury, setting out that all conspirators were equally guilty. concluding his speech at 9: 50 p. m., after which the jury retired. and had completed and sealed their verdict by Il o'clock
 With the approval of the judge and the states attorney. the sentence of Schwab and Ffelden were changed to life imprisonment Lingg escaped the gallows by suicide, bomb. his chosen weapon. being exploded in his mouth. Engle failed in an attempt to kill him. self by poison.
 In November, 1887, Engle, Parsons, Fischer and Spies were hanged. re- maining defiant to the last Their bodies were buried two days later. A procession of anarchists followed them to the grave singing the "Marseillaise'' and wearing red ribbons.
 There were many people of intelli- gence standing, patriotism and high courage who believed that it was a mistake to administer capital punish ment under the circumstances Be- tween eight and nine years after the Haymarket riot Gov. Altgeld pardoned the three anarchists still in the peni : tentiary. claiming that the murder was not upon se1itious advice of those ob- cure anarchist sheets but was an act of personal retaliation for some of the several instances of police and Pinkerton shooting and brutality which he alleged,