“As the speaker was getting from the wagon he said, ‘We are peaceable.’ That was this gentleman (indicating Fielden). I heard some utterances of the speaker before I addressed him, but could not understand them—quite a noise there. Our men had their clubs in their belts, pistols in their pockets. A few seconds after Fielden said, ‘We are peaceable,’ I heard the explosion in my rear. I turned to look and see, and pistol-firing began from the front and both sides of the street by the crowd. I did not recognize anybody firing. Then the police began firing, and we charged into the alley, Crane’s alley, and north on Desplaines Street. Seven policemen died from the effects of wounds; one was brought dead into the station—Mathias J. Degan. There were in all killed and wounded sixty-six or sixty-seven—about twenty-one or twenty-two out of Desplaines Street Station; forty-two in all out of my precinct. It was only several seconds from the time that Fielden said, ‘We are peaceable,’ and the time the police charged down the alley and up Desplaines Street.”

The Court—“If men are teaching the public how to commit murder, it is admissible to prove it if it can be proved by items.”

Mr. Black—“Well, does your Honor know what this teaches?”

The Court—“I do not know what the contents of the book are. I asked what the book was and I was told that it was Herr Most’s ‘Science of Revolutionary Warfare,’ and taught the preparing of deadly weapons and missiles, and that was accepted by the other side.”

Mr. Black—“Does that justify your Honor in the construction that it teaches how to commit murder, or of stating that in the presence of the jury?”

The Court—“.... I inquired what sort of book it was, and it was stated by the other side what sort of book it was, and you said nothing about it, so that in ruling upon the question whether it may be shown where it was to be found, where it had been seen, I must take the character of the book into consideration in determining whether it is admissible; whether it is of that character or not we will see when it is translated, I suppose. I suppose the book is not in the English language.”

“Where were the picnics at which you have seen this book sold?” asked the State’s Attorney.

“I saw this book sold at a picnic at Ogden’s Grove, on Willow Street, on the North Side, in July of last year. There were present Spies, Neebe, Parsons and Fielden. Also at a picnic at Sheffield, Indiana, last September, where were present Spies, Neebe, Parsons and, I guess, Fischer.”

“‘Revolutionary Warfare has arrived, and is to be had through the librarian, 107 Fifth Avenue, at the price of 10 cents.’

“This appears among what I would call, as a newspaper man, editorial notices in the local column. These translations here (holding typewriter copy, purporting to be the translation of certain articles), are correct translations. There is an editorial here in the Arbeiter-Zeitung of May 4 headed ‘Editorial.’ ‘Blood has flowed’ is the first phrase of it. There is another article on the fourth page of May 3, headed ‘A Hot Conflict.’ In the local column of May 4 a report headed, ‘Lead and Powder is a Cure for Dissatisfied Workingmen.’ All these articles were also translated by Professor Olson, of the Chicago University. We compared notes and found the translations correct.”

“I am a carpenter. Have lived in Chicago three years and a half. Before that I lived at Charlottenburg, Germany. I was born at Eilau, near Reichenbach, in Silesia. On May 4th last I lived at 442 Sedgwick Street, in the rear of the lot. I occupied the second floor. Louis Lingg, the defendant, boarded with me. On Monday, May 3, I worked for Mr. Meyer. Quit work at half-past 4 P.M. In the evening of that day I was at Zepf’s Hall, at a meeting of the Carpenters’ Union. I was recording secretary of the union. I stayed there until half-past eleven. I was not at the meeting at 54 West Lake Street that night. I heard somebody call upon us, that all that knew should come to 54 West Lake Street. This here (holding paper), ‘Y—Komme Montag Abend,’ means that all the armed men should come to the meeting at 54 West Lake Street. The armed men were divers ones—all the Socialistic organizations. There were several organizations in existence which were drilled in the use of arms. After I left Zepf’s Hall I took a glass of beer in the saloon and then went to 71 West Lake Street and took another glass of beer. Then I went home with several other parties. I saw a copy of the ‘Revenge’ circular at Zepf’s Hall. Balthasar Rau brought it to the meeting about nine o’clock.

“On Tuesday I did not work at my trade. I got up at half-past seven, and after I got up Lingg came. I had previously told him that I wanted those things removed from my dwelling. He told me to work diligently at these bombs, and they would be taken away that day. I took some coffee, and after a time I worked at some shells, at some loaded shells. I drilled holes through which the bolt went. A shell like this (indicating shell introduced in evidence). I worked on the shells half an hour. Lingg went to the West Side to a meeting. Got back probably after one o’clock. He said: ‘I didn’t do much. I ought to have worked more diligently.’ I said I hadn’t any pleasure at the work.”

“What did Lingg reply?”

“Lingg said, ‘Well, we will have to work very diligently this afternoon.’ During the afternoon I did different work at the shells. In the morning I had a conversation about the bolts. He told me he had not enough of them. He gave me one and told me to go to Clybourn Avenue and get some that he had already spoken to the man about. I got about fifty. I worked at the bombs during the whole of the afternoon at different times. Hubner, Muntzenberg, Heuman, were helping. I worked in the front room, also in Lingg’s room and the rear room. Lingg first worked at gas or water pipes, such as these (indicating). There were probably thirty or forty or fifty bombs made that afternoon. The round bombs had been cast once before by Lingg, in the rear room, on my stove, probably six weeks previous to the 4th of May. The first bomb I ever saw was in Lingg’s room. That was still before that. At that time he told me he was going to make bombs. I saw dynamite for the first time in Lingg’s room, about five or six weeks previous to the 4th of May. Lingg said every workingman should get some dynamite; that there should be considerable agitation; that every workingman would learn to handle these things. During that Tuesday afternoon Lingg said those bombs were going to be good fodder for the capitalists and the police, when they came to protect the capitalists. Nothing was said about when they wanted the bombs completed or ready. I only told him that I wanted those things out of my room. There was only a remark that they were to be used that evening, but nothing positive as to time. I left the house at half-past eight that evening. Hubner was at the house probably from four to six o’clock. I did not see what he did. He worked in the front room with Lingg. I was in Lingg’s room. Muntzenberg was there as long as Hubner. Thielen was there half an hour—quite that. I did not see what he was doing.

“The Lehmans were at the house for a little while. I did not see what they were doing. They were in the front room. Heuman also worked at the bombs. I left the house in the evening with Lingg. We had a little trunk with bombs in. The trunk was probably two feet long, one foot high and one foot wide. It was covered with coarse linen. There were round and pipe bombs in it. They were loaded with dynamite and caps fixed to them. I don’t know how many there were. The trunk might have weighed from thirty to fifty pounds. We pulled a stick, which Lingg had broken, through the handle. That is the way we carried the trunk, which was taken to Neff’s Hall, 58 Clybourn Avenue. On the way to Neff’s Hall, Muntzenberg met us. He took the package into the building through the saloon on the side into the hallway that led to the rear. After the bombs were put down into that passageway, there were different ones there, three or four, who took bombs out for themselves. I took two pipe bombs myself; carried them in my pocket. We went away from Neff’s Hall and left the package in that passage. The back of Neff’s Hall is known under the name of the Communisten-Bude. Different Socialistic and Anarchistic organizations met there. The North Side group met there. I heard that the Saxon Bund met there. I don’t know any others that met there. When I left Neff’s Hall, Thielen and Gustav Lehman were with me. Later two large men of the L. u. W. V. came to us. I believe they all had bombs. We went on Clybourn Avenue north towards Lincoln Avenue, to the Larrabee Street Station, where we halted. Lingg and myself halted there. I don’t know what had become of the others. Some went ahead of us. Lingg and I had a conversation, that there should be made a disturbance everywhere on the North Side to keep the police from going over to the West Side. In front of the Larrabee Street Station Lingg said it might be a beautiful thing if we would walk over and throw one or two bombs into the station. There were two policemen sitting in front of the station, and Lingg said if the others came out these two couldn’t do much. We would shoot these two down. Then we went further north to Lincoln Avenue and Larrabee Street, where we took a glass of beer. Webster Avenue Station is near there. After we left the saloon we went a few blocks north, then turned about and came back to North Avenue and Larrabee Street. While we stood there a patrol wagon passed. We were standing south of North Avenue and Larrabee Street. Lingg said that he was going to throw a bomb—that was the best opportunity to throw the bomb—and I said it would not have any purpose. Then he became quite wild, excited; said I should give him a light. I was smoking a cigar, and I jumped into a front opening before a store and lighted a match, as if I intended to light a cigar, so I could not give him a light. When I had lighted my cigar the patrol wagon was just passing. Lingg said he was going to go after the wagon to see what had happened, saying that something had certainly happened on the West Side—some trouble. The patrol wagon was completely manned, going south on Larrabee Street. We were four or five houses distant from the station. Then I went into a boarding-house between Mohawk and Larrabee Streets and lighted a cigar; then we went towards home. First Lingg wanted to wait until the patrol wagon would come back, but I importuned him to go home with me. We got home probably shortly before eleven; I cannot tell exactly. On the way home Lingg asked me whether I had seen a notice that a meeting of the armed men should be held on the West Side. I said I had seen nothing. Lingg wanted to go out. I took the Arbeiter-Zeitung; tore it into two parts. He took one, and I one. Thereupon he said, ‘Here it is,’ and called my attention to the word ‘Ruhe.’ This here is the same that I saw in my house. I did not know the meaning of the word ‘Ruhe’ until the time I saw it. Lingg said there was to have been a meeting on the West Side that night, and he was going to go at once to it. ‘Ruhe’ meant that everything was to go topsy-turvy; that there was to be trouble. He said that a meeting had been held at which it was determined that the word ‘Ruhe’ should go into the paper, when all armed men should appear at 54 West Lake Street; that there should be trouble. After that talk we went away. Lingg wanted to go to the West Side, and I talked with him to go with me to 58 Clybourn Avenue. Lingg and I went there. There were several persons present at Neff’s Hall. I did not speak with Lingg at Neff’s Hall. A certain Hermann said to him, in an energetic tone of voice, ‘You are the fault of it all.’ I did not hear what Lingg said to that. They spoke in a subdued tone. Somebody said a bomb had fallen, which had killed many and wounded many. I did not hear what Lingg said to that. On the way home Lingg said that he was even now scolded, chided for the work he had done. He got home shortly after twelve. We laid the bombs off on our way on Sigel Street, between Sedgwick and Hurlbut, under an elevated sidewalk. I laid two pipe bombs there. I saw Lingg put some bombs there. I don’t know what kind. The next morning I got up about six o’clock. I don’t know when Lingg got up. On Wednesday evening, when Lingg got home, we spoke about the Haymarket meeting. He said if the workingmen only had had the advantage of it they would have gained the victory. Then we went together to a meeting on Fifth Avenue, at Seamen’s Hall.

‘On Friday, I believe, before that Tuesday, the 4th of May, Lingg brought some dynamite to the house in a wooden box about three feet in length, about sixteen to eighteen inches in height, and about the same width. Inside this box there was another box. The dynamite with which we filled the bombs on Tuesday was in that large wooden box. We handled the dynamite with our hands and with a flat piece of wood which Lingg had made for more convenience. This here (indicating) is the pan to cast those shells in. (Same offered in evidence.) Lingg used to cast shells in them. Lingg once told me he had made eighty to one hundred bombs in all. The bolts which I got on that Tuesday were something like this (referring to bolt about two and one-half inches long).

“I am a member of the North Side group of the International Workingmen’s Association. During the last year I was financial secretary. My number was, at last, 72. Two years ago the members began to be given numbers. I heard Engel make a speech to the North Side group last winter at Neff’s Hall. He said that every one could manufacture those bombs for themselves; that these pipes could be found everywhere without cost; that they were to be closed up with wooden plugs fore and aft, and that in one of the plugs was to be drilled a hole for the fuse and cap. He said they were the best means against the police and capitalists. I never heard him make any other speech.

“I saw two bombs at the Arbeiter-Zeitung last year at the time of the car-drivers’ strike. Rau showed them to some one. I don’t know precisely who were present. Spies was there. It was in the evening. There was one round bomb and one long one—not very long. I was at the Arbeiter-Zeitung as a delegate from the North Side group to the meeting of the general committee of all the groups of Chicago.

“I know Schwab and Neebe. They were members of the North Side group of the Internationale. I know Fischer. He is a member of some group, but I don’t know positively. Lingg belonged to the North Side group. Engel belonged to a group, I cannot tell to which one. The North Side group met every Monday evening. There were speeches made, or a review of what had happened during the week. On Sundays some members exercised with rifles. I don’t know how many members had rifles. Every one took his own rifle home with him. I had a rifle. I kept it at my dwelling. This book here (Herr Most’s book) I saw at public meetings of the North Side group. Hubner had charge of them latterly. The North Side group bought them and sold them. Hubner was the librarian. This here (indicating photograph) is Rudolph Schnaubelt.”

“I have lived in this country two years. Am the wife of William Seliger. We lived at 442 Sedgwick Street from the 12th of October to the 19th of May. I have known Louis Lingg since two weeks before Christmas. He came to us to board with us. He boarded with us until May. He took his meals with us and slept in the house. We occupied the middle floor of that house. His room was next to the front room, and there was a door opening into a clothes closet. Shortly before May 1st I saw some bombs as Lingg was about to hide them—about half a dozen lying on the bed. They were round bombs and long ones. After Lingg had left the house I did not see any more of them; they were all gone. On the Tuesday on which the bomb was thrown at the Haymarket there were several men at our house. About six or eight. Perhaps more. Those I knew were Hubner, Heuman, Thielen, Lingg and my husband. I think they were there until past seven o’clock. They were going and coming during most of the afternoon. They were in the front room and in Lingg’s room, working at bombs. I saw Heuman working and filling at them. What the others were doing I don’t know. I was in the kitchen, and when supper was ready I went into the bed-room. I was so mad I could have thrown them all out. I frequently saw Lingg make bombs. I always saw him cast. I did not pay any particular attention. I simply saw him melt lead on the cooking-stove in my house—twice with Heuman, once with my husband and Thielen, and frequently he worked by himself. He said to us: ‘Don’t act so foolishly. You might do something too.’ On Monday, the day before the bomb was thrown, Lingg was away. In the morning some young fellows had come and had their names entered on the list of the union, and then he was writing pretty much all day.

“On Wednesday, the day after the bomb was thrown, Lingg was at home in the forenoon. That was the day on which he wanted to hide those bombs in the clothes closet, and Lehman was with him. I heard some knocking, and I went in, and I said to him: ‘Mr. Lingg, what are you doing there? I will not suffer that,’—and he was tearing everything loose below, and he sent that man Lehman after wall-paper, and he wanted to cover up everything afterwards—nail up everything afterwards. He had the wall-paper already there, and he said to me: ‘I suppose you are crazy. You ought to have said before you wouldn’t suffer that, that I would have looked for a place where I am allowed to do that.’ He was tearing up things all around about in the closet, and he had loosened the baseboards and taken out the mortar. He said if he needed something he couldn’t first go to the West Side to get it. On the Friday following, on the 7th of May, he left my house. Lingg had a trunk which he kept in his bed-room. This instrument (referring to ladle identified by William Seliger) Lingg was always casting with.”

“I have been locked up on account of this bomb business—on account of Lingg—by Capt. Schaack. The first time I was there from Saturday to Tuesday. Of course it was Lingg’s fault that I got locked up. I talked with Capt. Schaack about this matter several times. I was locked up twice. Capt. Schaack paid my rent. I made no memoranda of the money I received from Capt. Schaack. He gave me money at different times, from the time I made my statement down to the present time. He paid my rent and gave me so much money with which to live. When I said to Lingg that I wouldn’t allow that wall-paper to be put into the closet, and ‘what would the landlord say when he comes,’ Lingg said, ‘Well, then, I will say to him that I will not dirty my clothes.’ Those boards were about a foot high from the floor. The closet did not reach up as far as the ceiling. He intended to put those things in the wall. There was nothing in at that time. I stopped him at that juncture. I don’t like Mr. Lingg very well, because he always had wrong things in his head. I blame him for me and my husband having been locked up. My husband and myself talked this thing over together. I said to my husband, ‘I will tell the truth, and you tell it also.’ Capt. Schaack told us we had better tell it. I am forty years old.

“I was locked up in the Larrabee Street Station, and my husband was in the Chicago Avenue Station. I never occupied the same cell with my husband while under arrest. I only heard after I came out again that my husband was arrested in another station. While I was arrested I didn’t see my husband. No one came to see me. I told that story, and then they turned me out. When arrested the second time they kept me from Monday until Friday. I made the same statement as at first and signed it, and then they turned me out again. The second time I was arrested they brought a statement, which they said my husband had made, and asked me to sign it, and I put my name below that of my husband’s, and then they turned me out. My husband was a Socialist before he got acquainted with Lingg.”

“The first of these meetings I attended was about two years ago. I wrote reports of those meetings, which I think were published in the Daily News in each instance the day following, in the morning edition. The circulation of the Daily News, about a year and a half and two years ago, was, I think, 121,000 per day, as claimed by the paper.

“When I went to the meetings at 54 West Lake Street I had no trouble to get in. The meetings were held in the front rooms on the top floor. There were no guards at the door. I simply went in and sat down and took my notes publicly. Fielden and Parsons learned very soon that I was a reporter on the Daily News. Those speeches of Parsons and Fielden which I related were made at the first meeting I attended. When Fielden suggested the five cents’ worth of dynamite carried in the vest pocket, he gave no instructions whatever on the subject of how to carry or use it. The proposal to go out to Marshall Field’s and some clothing store was a proposal for immediate action. He did not start, however. After he got through with his talk and proposal, he sat down until the meeting was over. The meeting quietly dispersed and went home. I did not see that army of less than twenty-five men start for Field’s that night, or upon any subsequent occasion. I heard that same proposal at every single meeting I attended at 54 West Lake Street and 700 and something West Indiana Street, and various other places. I do not think there was ever over twenty-five present at their meetings in halls. I have seen larger numbers of people at open-air meetings. Sometimes the attendance did not exceed about ten men. The same proposition was made when there were only ten persons present.

“In that procession on the night of the opening of the Board of Trade I marched at the head. After Mr. Parsons had finished his speech from the window of the Arbeiter-Zeitung office that night, in which he proposed to lead the multitude against those stores, he quietly went back into the room, and I entered into a conversation with him. Mr. Fielden, after he had got through proposing, joined in the conversation with Mr. Parsons and myself. He didn’t go down to the street and lead anybody anywhere, either. The proposals that night, both by Fielden and Parsons, were proposals for immediate action, but they simply proposed to, and then gracefully retired from the window. There were about twenty people in the room. Among them, I think, was Mr. Spies. There were two reporters besides myself there. I think both Fielden and Parsons knew me as a reporter at the time. I presume they knew I was connected with the Daily News. Parsons never manifested any reluctance in detailing to me what he did; but in one conversation he refused to reveal the remainder of their plans. I saw some three or four revolvers in that procession. I don’t know who had them. There were not to exceed five hundred people in the procession. I saw two revolvers in the right-hand side coat pocket, and two more in the hip pocket, carried by four persons. I have informed various police officers of what I have seen and heard regarding these people. I had frequent conversations with police officers of Chicago. I think there were about four women in that procession carrying banners. There were about half a dozen women in the room while they spoke from the windows. I think some women spoke from the same windows to the same mob. I think the meetings which I attended were regularly advertised in the Daily News.”

“I know a man that is called Rudolph Schnaubelt. He was in the station a couple of days after the arrest of those other gentlemen. This here (indicating photograph) I recognize as Schnaubelt’s picture. When I saw him he had a mustache. I had a conversation with Mr. Spies at police headquarters, in my office, after he was arrested. We had a conversation about that manuscript referred to by me. I asked Spies if he was at the meeting at the Haymarket. He said he was; that he opened the meeting; that Schwab was there, but that he understood he went to Deering. He said Parsons was there, and Fielden; that both spoke there—Fielden at the time the police came. He said he spoke at a meeting on May 3, near McCormick’s factory, and some of the parties there in the rear had commenced to halloa, and said, ‘Let’s go to McCormick’s,’ and they had started, and most of the crowd had started with them. Spies said he had heard later what had happened at McCormick’s; that he had got on a street car and come down town. I asked him if he knew anything about that circular that was circulated on the street. I don’t remember that I had present with me the circular which I referred to during that conversation. He said he did not know anything about the circular, but heard that it had been circulated. I asked him if he wrote this manuscript (indicating manuscript previously produced). Mr. Grinnell was sitting in the office at the time. Spies said, ‘I refuse to answer.’ Then Mr. Spies said he was the editor there. I said, ‘Now, would not anything of that kind be likely to go through your hands before it would go to print?’ He said, ‘I refuse to answer.’

“I had a conversation with Fischer the next day. He said that on the night of May 4 he and several others, Schwab, Fielden, were at a meeting in the Arbeiter-Zeitung office; that Rau brought word to the meeting that there was a large crowd at the Haymarket, that Spies was there and very few speakers; and they immediately started to the Haymarket. He said he didn’t hear Spies, but heard Fielden and Parsons. That pistol and dagger he had had to protect himself. He had not had it with him that night. It was in the Arbeiter-Zeitung office. On Wednesday morning he had put it on because he didn’t intend to stay. He was going away. That fulminating cap he had got from a man in front of the Arbeiter-Zeitung office some three months before that. He had never paid any attention to it. He had made the sharpened dagger himself for his own protection.

“In the conversation with Spies, my recollection is that he said he got on the wagon, and said something to Parsons or Fielden about its going to rain, and left the wagon. I don’t recollect where he said he went to. Fischer said he was at Zepf’s Hall at the time of the explosion.”

“I am a retired officer of the United States navy. Live at 274 North Clark Street. Lived in Chicago for three years. Have seen the defendants Spies, Neebe, Parsons, Fielden and Schwab on the occasion of their Sunday afternoon meetings during the summer of last year and the year previous. I heard some of them speak there, namely, Spies, Parsons and Fielden, in the English language. I can only designate particularly two meetings, one previous to the picnic they had last year, and one on the Sunday directly after it. That was in July of last year, I think. I cannot say that I saw Mr. Spies at either of those meetings. Mr. Parsons I remember at one of them.”

“State what he said,” put in the State’s Attorney.

“He was speaking in a general way,” said the witness, “about trouble with the workingmen and the people, what he called the proletariat class, and spoke about their enemies, the police and the constituted authorities; that the authorities would use the police and militia and they would have to use force against them. He advised them to purchase rifles. If they had not money enough for that, then to buy pistols, and if they couldn’t buy pistols they could buy sufficient dynamite for twenty-five cents to blow up a building the size of the Pullman building?”

“What, if anything, did you hear Fielden say at that meeting?”

“The speeches were very nearly alike; they spoke about dynamite and fire-arms to be used against the police, and any one who opposed them in their designs; they wanted things their way and to regulate society. The speeches were alike Sunday after Sunday. I heard Spies speak on the lake front before and after the meetings I mention; he represented, as he said, the oppressed class, the workingmen, as opposed to the capitalists and property-owners; the latter were the enemy of the workingmen; if they couldn’t get their rights in a peaceable manner they must get them in a forcible way. I heard that talk about ten or fifteen times; the meetings were held there every Sunday until late in the fall. After the picnic, Mr. Parsons, I think—I won’t be sure of that—spoke about the young German experimenting with dynamite at this picnic; that this young German had a small quantity of dynamite in a tomato-can; it was thrown into a pond or lake, and he spoke of the force this amount of dynamite exerted, and what could be done with it in destroying buildings and property in the city.”

“On Thanksgiving Day, last year, I heard Mr. Parsons speak on the Market Square. He advised the workingmen who were present (there were several hundred there), to stand together, and to use force in procuring their rights. He told them that they were slaves; that out of a certain sum of money the per cent. they got was too small; it ought to be more evenly divided with the man who employed them. I don’t recollect that he said at that time anything as to the means or manner of force to be used, or against whom.

“Last January I had several conversations with Mr. Spies, probably half a dozen. I first saw Mr. Spies a few days after the 1st of January of this year in regard to the matter published in this paper (indicating copy of Chicago Daily News of January 13, 1886). I wrote up the result of my talk with Mr. Spies for that paper; it was not all published. I inquired of Spies about an explosive which had been placed on Judge Lambert Tree’s steps, and one that was placed in the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad offices, and he emphatically denied that those machines were either made or placed by Socialists or Anarchists, and proved it by showing me that they were entirely different in character to those used by the Socialists. He showed me this bomb (indicating), which he described as the Czar; I took it with me. He spoke of the wonderful destructive power of the Czar bomb; said it was the same kind that had been used by Nihilists in destroying the Czar. I told him that I thought it was a pretty tall story, and he became somewhat excited and produced this, and said that there were others, larger than that, run by mechanical power—clock-work bombs—and he gave me that in a small room adjoining the counting-room office of the Arbeiter-Zeitung. He denied that those things were made at the Arbeiter-Zeitung office; he said they were made by other persons and that there were several thousand of them in Chicago distributed, and that at some times they were distributed through the Arbeiter-Zeitung office; that those who could make bombs made more than they could use, and those that could make them gave them to those that could not; that that one was one of the samples. I asked Mr. Spies if I could take that (the bomb) and show it to Mr. Stone, and I took it over there and didn’t bring it back. On another occasion, Mr. Spies and Mr. Gruenhut and myself went to dinner together, and he told us there about the organization of their people in a rather boastful manner; how they had gone out on excursions on nice summer mornings, some miles out of the city, and practiced throwing these bombs; the manner of exploding them; that they had demonstrated that bombs made of compound metal were much better than the other kind, and that a fuse bomb with a detonating cap inside was by far the best; and how at one attempt made in his presence one of their machines had been exploded in the midst of a little grove, and that it had entirely demolished the scenery; blown down four or five trees.

He further described to me some very tall and very strong men, who could throw a large-size bomb weighing five pounds, fifty paces; and stated how, in case of a conflict with the police or militia, when the latter would come marching up a street, they would be received by the throwers formed in the shape of the letter V in the mouth of the street just crossing the intersection, illustrating this by taking some little toothpicks out of a vase on the table, laying them down and making a street intersection. He stated the militia would probably not stay to see a second or a third bomb go off. If the conflict should occur at any of the principal street intersections in the city, some of those organized men would be on the tops of houses ready to throw bombs overboard among the advancing troops or police. All these matters had been investigated; the men were all thoroughly trained and organized. The means of access to the house-tops of street intersections was a matter of common information among their adherents. He said they had no leaders; one was instructed as well as another, and when the great day came each one would know his duty and do it. I tried to find out when this would probably occur, and he did not fix the date precisely or approximately at that time. At another of those interviews he said it would probably occur in the first conflict between the police and the strikers; that if there would be a universal strike for this eight-hour system there would probably be a conflict of some sort brought about in some way between the First and Second Regiment of the Illinois National Guards and the police, and the dynamite upon the other hand. In trying to get at the probable number of them, I understood him that there were probably eight or ten thousand.

“He spoke of other larger bombs, as large as a cigar-box, to be exploded by electricity, which would be placed under a street in case they decided to barricade any section of the city, that they had experimented with. That certain members of the organization had in their possession a complete detail, maps and plans of the underground system of the city. That these machines would either destroy everybody that was above them when they went off, or so tear up the street as to make it impassable. He told me that the ordinary dynamite of commerce was about a 60 or 66 per cent. dynamite; that they made a finer quality by importing infusorial earth and mixing it themselves; that was about a 90 per cent. quality. He showed me no dynamite. I don’t think he gave me any information about Herr Most’s ‘Science of Revolutionary Warfare.’ I understood that the object of all this was the bettering of the workingmen’s condition by the demolition of their oppressors. He vaguely spoke of a list of prominent citizens who might suddenly be blown up one at a time or all at once. I frequently said that I didn’t believe much in the story he told me. He simply uttered the renewed declarations.

“I had this conversation with Spies in the Arbeiter-Zeitung at his own desk, on the left-hand side as you entered the door in the editorial room. Mr. Schwab was there once or twice when I was in. I was not acquainted with him personally. The conversations which I have chiefly detailed here took place in the Chicago Oyster House and in a little room detached from the counting-room down-stairs where he kept those specimen bombs. He got this bomb from one of those little pigeonholes in that room.

“He particularly mentioned the Market Square, and that it would take a very few men to fortify that street against all the police and militia in Chicago, and that they would have the tunnel at their back for a convenient place of retreat for those who were not engaged in throwing the shells, or for women and children whom they might care to take there. They were to receive the police or militia with their line formed in the shape of a letter V, the open end of the letter V facing toward the street intersection. Then there were to be others to reinforce them, as it were, on the tops of houses, at those corners. The plan here in this copy of the Daily News of January 14th, I drew from one that he made right on the table cloth as we sat at dinner together, except that he did not put in these little squares, but explained to me where these would be, and laid toothpicks to make these lines. Those dotted lines and the other dotted lines are to represent the dynamiters on tops of houses.”

“I got leave of Mr. Spies to carry the bomb off and show it to Mr. Stone. I am now twenty-six years old. Have been in the newspaper business about four years. I came to Chicago in September of last year. I was assigned to this work with Mr. Spies by Mr. Stone personally. I advised Mr. Spies of that fact. The circulation of the Daily News, according to its official statistics, was about 165,000. After that conversation in the presence of Joe Gruenhut, I had also an interview with Gruenhut. Mr. Gruenhut said that the conflict to which our conversation referred at the table would occur probably on the 1st of May, or within a few days thereafter, and that it might extend all over the country. He spoke of the conflict between the workingmen who were to strike for eight hours and their natural enemies, the police and militia. I don’t remember that anything was said about the capitalists. The Haymarket was not mentioned.

“I did not take any notes while the conversation with Mr. Spies was going on. I wrote them up the first opportunity I afterwards had. Spies said, as near as I could calculate, that they had about 9,000 bombs. As to those tall men who could throw a five-pound bomb fifty paces, my recollection is that it was a company referred to, without number. There were four or five only of that company, as I understood, who could throw a five-pound bomb—that is a large-sized shell—and fifty yards is a long distance to throw a shell. He described the character of the organizations; that if there were three the first would know the second and the second the third, but not the third the first; that it was Nihilistic in its character, and that they were known by other means than names. I don’t think I asked Spies about how many men were interested in this project that were drilling and getting ready. I don’t recollect his saying anything about that, but I concluded that there were as many men as there were bombs, or more. There was some delay of about three or four days in the publication of my article after it was prepared.

“I did not believe all Spies said. I believed about half of it. The article written by me is wound up by the suggestion that when dressed to cold facts it was like a scarecrow flapping in the corn-field. I did not write that. That was edited by some one who told me he didn’t believe as much of the matter as I did. I remember a communication from Mr. Spies in the Daily News, after this article. I think I helped ‘fix it up,’ put a head-line on it. The original was then used as copy. I never saw it afterwards. Joe Gruenhut is a Socialist.”

“I cannot tell whether Lingg was in the basement, but he went home with me. We had a little quarrel. Lingg came up to us from behind, on the sidewalk, and said to us, ‘You are all oxen, fools.’ I asked him what had taken place at the meeting, where we were just coming from. Lingg told me that if I wanted to know something I should come to 58 Clybourn Avenue the next evening. There were present Seliger, my brother, and one other man. The next day I worked on Sedgwick Street. After I quit work, at three o’clock, I met a gentleman, Schneideke, and we went to Lingg’s. Got there about five o’clock. I saw there Lingg, Seliger, and a blacksmith, whose name I don’t know, and Hubner. I stayed there about ten minutes. They did some work in the bed-room. I couldn’t understand what they were doing. I did not work at anything. Lingg and Huebner had a cloth tied around their faces. I had gone there because my countryman wanted to buy a revolver. After I left I went home with my countryman. At about seven o’clock I went back to Lingg’s, and stayed there perhaps ten minutes. They were still busy in the bed-room. Hubner was cutting a fuse, or a coil of fuse, into pieces. I saw something like that fuse (indicating a coil of fuse) and caps. I didn’t do anything there. They were making these fuse and caps in the front room. That afternoon Lingg gave me a small hand satchel, with a tin box in it, and three round bombs, and two coils of fuse and some caps. This here (indicating) is the box which he gave me. It was said that dynamite was in it. It was nearly full. This box of caps (indicating) I found afterwards in the satchel. Lingg said to me he wanted me to keep these things so that no one could find them. I took them home with me, to the wood-shed; got up at three o’clock that night and carried them away to the prairie, about Clybourn Avenue, behind Ogden’s Grove.

“After supper on that Tuesday evening I was about to go to Uhlich’s Hall, but there was no carpenters’ meeting there. Then I was about to go home, but we went to 58 Clybourn Avenue, Neff’s Hall, because of what Lingg had told us Monday night. Schneideke was with me. We stayed at Neff’s Hall about ten minutes. We got there about half past nine. I did not see anybody there whom I knew but the barkeeper. After leaving Neff’s Hall we went up Clybourn Avenue to Larrabee Street. We had no special place in view. I got home about eleven o’clock. We met Seliger and Lingg standing together on the sidewalk on Larrabee Street, near Clybourn Avenue. We stood there with them, but one—I don’t know whether it was Seliger or Lingg—remarked: ‘We four should not keep together.’ Then we went towards North Avenue, along Larrabee Street. Near North Avenue we met Thielen. I afterwards went to the prairie with a detective, about May 19th or 20th, to find the things that Lingg had given me. The bombs and the dynamite, the fuse and the caps were still there.”

“Have you ever been a member of any Socialistic organization?”

“I have been a member of the North Side Group of the International Workingmen’s Association. I belonged to the group about three months prior to the 4th of May. The group met at 58 Clybourn Avenue, regularly, every Monday evening. We talked together there, advised together, and reviewed what had happened among the workingmen during the week. We had hunting-guns and shot-guns with which we drilled. I kept my gun at my house.”

“Did you ever attend a dance at Florus’ Hall?”

“Yes, about March of this year. It was a ball of the Carpenters’ Union. Lingg was present there. There was about ten or ten and a half dollars’ profit on the beer. The money, according to a resolution passed at the next meeting of the Carpenters’ Union, at 71 West Lake Street, was handed over to Lingg, with the instruction to buy dynamite with it, and experiment with it to find out how it was used. I heard Engel make a speech at 58 Clybourn Avenue, about January or February of this year, before the assembled workingmen of the North Side. He said those who could not buy revolvers should buy dynamite. It was cheap and easily handled. A gas-pipe was to be taken and a wooden plug put into the ends, and it was to be filled with dynamite. Then the other end is also closed up with a wooden plug, and old nails are tied around the pipe by means of wire. Then a hole is bored into one end of it, and a fuse with a cap is put into that hole. I was chairman at that meeting. Engel said some gas-pipe was to be found on the West Side, near the river, near the bridge.”

“I live at 58 Clybourn Avenue, known as ThÜringer Hall, also as Neff’s Hall, since seven years. I keep a saloon there. Back of the saloon is a hall. The North Side group used to meet there. I know all the defendants. On the night when the bomb was thrown I was at my saloon. Louis Lingg came in, in company with Seliger and another man whom I had not seen before. This stranger carried the satchel. It was a common bag, probably about a foot and a half long and six inches wide. He put it on the counter, after that on the floor. Lingg and Seliger were standing by, and Lingg asked me if some one had asked for him. That stranger, whose name I afterwards found out to be Muntzenberg, carried the satchel on his shoulder; that was ten or fifteen minutes after eight. I told Lingg that nobody had inquired for him. Then Muntzenberg picked up the bag and went out the side door, in the rear of the room, followed by Lingg and Seliger. I have not seen the bag since. There was a large meeting of painters, probably two hundred, in the hall that evening. For this reason I opened this door in the rear of the saloon, so that people going to that meeting would not be compelled to go through the saloon. I saw Lingg and Seliger again that night about eleven o’clock. Nobody had inquired in the meantime for Lingg. I saw Hubner there before Lingg came. I saw Thielen on the sidewalk in front of the saloon, but not inside. The two Lehmans were there after Lingg had left. They were out on the sidewalk, not inside. The first time Lingg stayed about five or ten minutes. He went out through the saloon. I did not see Seliger and Muntzenberg go out through the saloon. Before Lingg and Seliger came back, at about eleven o’clock, several individuals had come into the saloon, among them the Hermanns, the two Lehmans, the two Hagemans and Hirschberger. Lingg and Seliger dropped in a little later. They were all talking together. I didn’t pay much attention to it. I heard one of them halloa out very loud, ‘That is all your fault.’ I heard them also say that the bomb had been thrown among the police and some of them had been killed. They came from the meeting.

“Engel addressed the North Side group in my hall in February last winter. It was a public agitation meeting of the North Side group, advertised in the Arbeiter-Zeitung.”

“What did Engel say?”

“He wanted money for a new paper, the Anarchist, started by the Northwest Side group and two of the South Side groups. He said the Arbeiter-Zeitung was not outspoken enough in those Anarchistic principles; therefore they started this paper. They distributed some of these papers. Later on he gave a kind of history of revolutions in the old country, stated that the nobility of France were only forced to give up their privileges by brute force; that the slaveholders in the South were compelled by force to liberate their slaves, and the present wage-slavery would be done away with only by force also. And he advised them to arm themselves, and if guns were too dear for them they should use cheaper weapons—dynamite or anything they could get hold of to fight the enemy. To make bombs, anything that was hollow in the shape of gas-pipes would do. That is all I heard him say. I wasn’t present all the time. I bought a copy of the Anarchist that night for five cents. This here (indicating) is one of the copies, dated January 1, 1886. This is one of the copies distributed that night. Engel did not distribute it himself. Two other gentlemen who were there did that.”