A Pinkerton Operative’s Adventures—How the Leading Anarchists Vouched for a Detective—An Interesting Scene—An Enemy in the Camp—Getting into the Armed Group—No. 16’s Experience—Paul Hull and the Dynamite Bomb—A Safe Corner Where the Bullets were Thick—A Revolver Tattoo—“Shoot the Devils”—A Reformed Internationalist.

THE examination of witnesses continued from day to day before a crowded court-room. At times tilts between the attorneys and long arguments on knotty legal points varied the proceedings. Every coigne of vantage occupied by the State was stubbornly contested by counsel for the defendants. But the prosecution maintained its position and brought out all the material evidence it had accumulated. The theory of the State with reference to conspiracy, murder and “accessory before the fact” was gradually being developed with force and effect. Newspaper reporters proved important witnesses and rendered the State great service.

The greatest interest at this stage of the trial was taken in the testimony of Andrew C. Johnson, a Pinkerton detective, who became a member of the International Workingmen’s Association February 22, 1885, or rather on March 1, 1885, a few days later, for it was on that day that he got his red card of membership, bearing his number, and began his series of reports to the agency.

Among a number of minor particulars, Johnson told how the blowing up of the Board of Trade was proposed on March 29 by Fielden, and indorsed by others. The most interesting part of his story, however, is the description of his admission into the armed group. This took place on August 24, at Greif’s Hall. Said Johnson:

“There were twenty or twenty-three men and two women present. It was Monday night. Among them Parsons, Fielden, besides Walters, Bodendick, Boyd and Larson, Parker, Franklin and Snyder. After having been there a short time, a man armed with a long cavalry sword, dressed in a blue blouse, wearing a slouch hat, came into the room. He ordered all those present to fall in. He then called off certain names, and all those present answered to their names. He then inquired whether there were any new members who wished to join the military company. Those who did should step to the front. Myself and two others did so. We were asked separately to give our names. My name was put down in a book, and I was told my number was 16. Previous to my name being put down the man asked whether any one present could vouch for me as a true man. Parsons and Bodendick vouched for me. The same process was gone through in regard to the other two. The man then inquired of two other men in the room, whether they were members of the American group, and asked to see their cards, and as they were unable to produce their cards he told them to leave the room. Two others were expelled. The doors were closed and the remainder were asked to fall in line. For about half an hour or three-quarters we were put through the regular manual drill, marching, counter-marching, turning, forming fours, wheeling, etc. That man with a sword drilled us. He was evidently a German. After that he stated he would now introduce some of the members of the first company of the German organization. He went out and in a few minutes returned with ten other men dressed like himself, each one armed with a Springfield rifle. He placed them in line in front of us and introduced them as members of the first company of the L. u. W. V., and proceeded to drill them about ten minutes. After that a man whose name I do not know—he was employed by the proprietor of the saloon at 54 West Lake Street—came into the room with two tin boxes, which he placed on a table. The drill instructor asked us to examine them, as they were the latest improved dynamite bomb. They had the appearance of ordinary preserve fruit cans, the top part unscrewed. The inside of the cans was filled with a light brown mixture. There was also a small glass tube inserted in the center of the can. The tube was in connection with a screw, and it was explained that when the can was thrown against any hard substance it would explode. Inside of the glass tube was a liquid. Around the glass tube was a brownish mixture which looked like fine saw-dust. The drill instructor told us we ought to be very careful in the selection of new members of the company, otherwise there was no telling who might get into our midst. After that a man named Walters was chosen as captain, and defendant Parsons for lieutenant. We decided to call ourselves the International Rifles. The drill instructor then suggested that we ought to choose some other hall, as we were not quite safe there, and added, ‘We have a fine place at 636 Milwaukee Avenue. We have a short range in the basement, where we practice shooting regularly.’ Parsons inquired whether we couldn’t rent the same place, and the drill instructor said he didn’t know. Then the time for the next meeting of the armed section was fixed for the following Monday. Parsons and Fielden drilled with us that evening. They were present also with a number of others at the next meeting, on August 31, at 54 West Lake Street. Capt. Walters drilled us for about an hour and a half. Then we had a discussion as to the best way of procuring arms. Some one suggested that each member pay a weekly amount until he had enough to purchase a rifle for each member of the company. Parsons suggested: ‘Look here, boys; why can’t we make a raid some night on the militia armory? There are only two or three men on guard there, and it is easily done.’ This suggestion was favored by some members, but after some more discussion the matter of the raid on the armory was put off until the nights got a little bit longer.”

The witness, whose testimony was very lengthy, refreshed his memory from copies of reports which he had made at the time. On cross-examination he was asked why the reports were countersigned by L. J. Gage. He replied that he did not know why they were so countersigned, but he found that they were. The history he had to tell bore chiefly upon the facts leading up to the riot at the Haymarket.

Joseph Gruenhut, a factory and tenement-house inspector of the Health Department of the city, had known Spies for six years, Parsons about ten years, Fielden and Schwab about two years, more or less.

On cross-examination Mr. Gruenhut stated that he had heard no reference to any attack to be made on the first of May, and in the re-direct examination he said, with reference to Spies’ attitude on the eight-hour movement:

“At the start he said he did not believe they would get it, and then it would not amount to anything anyhow; it was only a palliative measure—not radical enough. As I recollect, I brought him a list of the different organizations in Chicago, and we were trying to pick out those which needed organization, and the packers and a great many others were directly organized by these men for the eight-hour movement. We were in constant consultation about organizing those trades which had not been organized before. I don’t suppose he ever said that he was in favor of the eight-hour movement. I don’t know that he was ever enthusiastically in favor of the eight-hour movement, but he was enthusiastically in favor of the eight-hour movement that we had talked about on Monday. There never had been a general eight-hour mass-meeting. There had been a mass-meeting representing the great assemblies, at the Armory, but not the Central Labor Union. It was a Socialistic organization; was not represented there. In October, 1885, there had been a mass-meeting of the Socialistic organizations in favor of the eight-hour movement at West Twelfth Street Turner Hall. I was not there. At the time I had that conversation with Mr. Spies and the others present about a mass-meeting to be held, we did not know where the meeting was to be held at all. We only considered the advisability of holding a mass-meeting on the question of the eight-hour movement in the open air. There are only three or four places where you can hold such a meeting; either the lake front or Market Square or the Haymarket. At that time I am sure I saw Spies, Rau and Neebe almost every day, but I could not tell whether the meeting was agreed upon on Saturday or Monday, night or day; but there was a general agreement upon having one general mass-meeting in the open air. It was not sure whether the meeting was to be in the forenoon, afternoon or night, but at last we came to the conclusion it ought to be at night. My recollection is that Spies said to Wilkinson, at the time of that conversation, that the military associations were open and free to everybody; that they meet, advertise their meetings, have picnics and advertise them, and meet in halls, even in open ground, at Sheffield, or out on the prairie. That proposed mass-meeting was to be an eight-hour meeting and an indignation meeting over the killing of men at McCormick’s at the same time. Parsons and Spies, during conversations within the twelve months before the bomb was thrown, said that arming meant the use of dynamite bombs by individuals; all men should individually self-help, as against a squad of policeman or company of militia, so that they need not be an army.”

F. H. Newman, a physician, attended some of the officers wounded at the Haymarket, and identified an iron nut extracted from Hahn. He had also examined some ten or twelve officers, and had found some bullets and fragments of a combination of metals much lighter than lead. “The fragments were also much lighter,” he said, “than the bullets, varying very much in size, from perhaps what we would call 22-caliber up to 45-caliber. The bullets also varied in size. This piece of metal I took from the heel of Officer Barber. It made a ragged wound and was buried in the bone; crushed the bone considerably, fractured it in several places. I examined the wounds of one officer who had a large ragged wound in the liver. He died within a few hours. It could have been a wound produced by a bullet, if the bullet was very ragged, spread out considerably, as they do sometimes.”

Maxwell E. Dickson, a newspaper reporter, had had several interviews with Parsons. He said:

On cross-examination Mr. Dickson said:

“Parsons said to me that when the social revolution came, it would be better for all men; it would place every man on an equality. He pictured me personally as a wage slave, referring to my position as a newspaper reporter, and that all reforms had to be brought about through revolution, and bloodshed could not be avoided. I frequently heard him give expression to such ideas in friendly conversation, in which the social outlook of the country was talked over, and Parsons frequently insisted that any method would be justifiable to accomplish the object which he advocated as the intended result of a social revolution. Parsons once stated to me that if it became necessary they would use dynamite, and it might become necessary. Parsons never expressed any distinct proposal to inaugurate the revolution at any particular time, or by the use of any particular force. He simply spoke of the social revolution as the inevitable future. I am not certain as to whether the paper which Parsons gave me, which contained those diagrams, was a copy of the Alarm or of some other paper. This article here in the Alarm of July 25, 1885 (indicating), under the title, ‘Street Fighting—How to Meet the Enemy,’ is, to the best of my recollection, the article to which my attention was called by Mr. Parsons at the time. I am positive these diagrams here (indicating) are the same as in the article given me by Parsons.

“The position of these parties in meetings that I have attended, since January 18, 1885, when they spoke of the industrial condition, was that they predicted a social revolution, and they also advised the workingmen to bring about that revolution. It was Mr. Fielden on the lake front—I cannot fix the date—who used language of that import, advised the men to go forward and get that which did belong to them by force.”

Paul C. Hull, a reporter of the Daily News, attended the Haymarket meeting and heard Fielden speak. He testified as follows:

On cross-examination Mr. Hull said:

“The firing of the revolvers startled me. I considered my position dangerous and tried to get around the corner. A few moments before the explosion of the bomb a threatening cloud came up, and Mr. Spies said the meeting would adjourn to 54 West Lake Street, I believe. At no time during the meeting was I as near as eight or ten feet from the speaker. I don’t believe I heard Fielden say, in a loud voice, ‘There come the bloodhounds! Now you do your duty and I’ll do mine,’ when the police were coming up. I remember that Mr. Fielden said ‘in conclusion,’ after I got my position on the stairs again, and when the police were forming and marching below. I was confused at the time I wrote my reports. (After examining his report in a copy of Daily News of May 5th, 1886:) I have said nowhere in this report that the crowd fired upon the police. I did say that the police required no orders before firing upon the crowd. I wrote this up about an hour after the occurrence. After describing the explosion of the bomb, I used this language in my report: ‘For an instant after the explosion the crowd seemed paralyzed, but, with the revolver shots cracking like a tattoo on a mighty drum, and the bullets flying in the air, the mob plunged away into the darkness with a yell of rage and fear.’ My recollection is that the bomb struck the ground about on a line with the south line of the alley. The bomb apparently fell north from the point where I first saw it in the air. I judge it came from the south, going west-northwest.”

Whiting Allen, another reporter, was present at the Haymarket meeting in company with Mr. Tuttle, another newspaper man, and heard some of the speeches. Said the witness:

“Parsons was speaking when we got there. About the only thing that I could quote from his speech is this: ‘What good are these strikes going to do? Do you think that anything will be accomplished by them? Do you think the workingmen are going to gain their point? No, no; they will not. The result of them will be that you will have to go back to work for less money than you are getting.’ That is his language in effect. At one time he mentioned the name of Jay Gould. There were cries from the crowd, ‘Hang Jay Gould!’ ‘Throw him into the lake!’ and so on. He said, ‘No, no; that would not do any good. If you would hang Jay Gould now, there would be another, and perhaps a hundred, up to-morrow. It don’t do any good to hang one man; you have to kill them all, or get rid of them all.’ Then he went on to say that it was not the individual, but the system; that the government should be destroyed. It was the wrong government, and these people who supported it had to be destroyed. I heard him cry, ‘To arms!’ I cannot tell in what connection. The crowd was extremely turbulent. It seemed to be thoroughly in sympathy with the speakers; was extremely excited, and applauded almost every utterance. I staid there some ten or fifteen minutes. I then left and went to Zepf’s Hall. Later I came back again, when Fielden was speaking. When the bomb was thrown I was in the saloon of Zepf’s Hall, standing about the middle of the room at the time. I did not see any of the defendants there. They were not there to my knowledge. When I was down at the meeting, I pointed out to Mr. Tuttle Mr. Parsons, Fielden, Spies, and a man that I presume was Mr. Schwab, but was not certain. The general outline was that of Mr. Schwab. I could not get a full view of his face. That must have been half past nine.”

Charles R. Tuttle said he did not remember much of what Parsons spoke:

“Parsons made a series of references to existing strikes—one was the Southwestern strike—and to Jay Gould, the head of that system of railways, and the winding up of the peroration in connection with that created a great deal of excitement and many responses from the audience. He then spoke of the strike at McCormick’s, and detailed the suffering of the people who had wives and children, and who were being robbed by one whom I took to be Mr. McCormick, although I cannot say that was the idea; who were being robbed, anyway, by capitalists. And he said it was no wonder that these persons were struggling for their rights, and then said that the police had been called on by the capitalists to suppress the first indications of any movement on the part of the working people to stand up for rights, and he asked what they are going to do. One man—I believe the same one who had spoken when he referred to Gould—stuck up his hand with a revolver in it, and said, ‘We will shoot the devils,’ or some such expression, and I saw two others sticking up their hands, near to him, who made similar expressions, and had what I took to be at the time revolvers.”

Edward Cosgrove, a detective connected with the Central Station, was on duty at the Haymarket. He gave the substance of some of the speeches, and, referring to Spies, said:

“Then he talked about the police, the bloodhounds of the law, shooting down six of their brothers, and he said: ‘When you are ready to do something, do it, and don’t tell anybody you are going to.’ A great number of the crowd cheered him loudly. The enthusiastic part of the crowd was close to the wagon. Sometimes there would be some on the outskirts. I did not hear all of Spies’ speech and only part of Parsons’. Parsons talked of statistics—about the price laboring men received. He said they got fifteen cents out of a dollar, and they were still on the hunt for the other eighty-five. He talked of the police and capitalists and Pinkertons. He said he was down in the Hocking Valley region, and they were only getting twenty-four cents a day, and that was less than Chinamen got. And he said his hearers would be worse than Chinamen if they didn’t arm themselves, and they would be held responsible for blood that would flow in the near future. There was a great deal of cheering close to the wagon during his speech. I was in Capt. Ward’s office when the police were called out. I came down the street at the time the police did. When the police came to a halt, I was on the northwest corner of Randolph and Desplaines. I heard no firing of any kind before the explosion of the bomb, but immediately after that. I can’t tell from what source the pistol shots came, whether the police fired first or the other side. I reported at the station from time to time what was going on at the meeting.”

On cross-examination Cosgrove said:

“I was twice at the station reporting. My second report was that Mr. Parsons said they would be held responsible for the blood that would flow in the streets of America in the near future. The police remained at the station after this report. I didn’t hear any part of Fielden’s speech. When I came out before the police quite a number of the crowd had gone away. When I saw Schwab he was about forty feet south of the south sidewalk of Randolph Street, on Desplaines. I saw Schwab about half past eight, or a little later, at the wagon. My impression is that I saw Mr. Schwab near the close of Parsons’ speech, but I am not sure. When I saw him at the wagon it was about the time Mr. Spies came back the second time to speak.”

Timothy McKeough, a detective, was present when the meeting opened.

“Spies got on the wagon and called out twice: ‘Is Mr. Parsons here?’ He received no answer, and said: ‘Never mind, I will go and find him myself.’ Somebody said: ‘Let us pull the wagon around on Randolph Street and hold the meeting there.’ Mr. Spies said: ‘No, that might stop the street-cars.’ He started away then, and Officer Myers and myself followed him as far as the corner. There was a man with him who, I think, was Schwab, but I am not very sure about that, and in about fifteen minutes he returned, and when I got back he was addressing the meeting, talking about what happened to their brethren the day before at McCormick’s. He had been down to McCormick’s and addressed a meeting, and they wanted to stop him; tried to pull him off the car because he was a Socialist; that while he was talking a portion of the crowd started toward McCormick’s and commenced to throw stones, the most harmless amusement they could have; how wagons loaded with police came down the Black Road and commenced firing into the crowd. Somebody halloaed out: ‘Let us hang him,’ and he said: ‘My friends, when you get ready to do anything, go and do it, and say nothing about it.’ About that time Parsons arrived and Spies introduced him, saying Parsons could talk better English than he, and would probably entertain them better. The crowd in the neighborhood of the wagon appeared very much excited when Spies spoke about the shooting down of workingmen at McCormick’s. Parsons quoted from some book on labor statistics, which he thought his hearers probably had not read, because they didn’t have the money to buy it or leisure to read it, as they had to work too much. He said out of every dollar the laboring man makes for capitalists he only gets fifteen cents, and they are on a still hunt for the other eighty-five. He had been down to the coal mines, and, according to labor statistics, they received 24½ cents for their daily labor on the average during a year. That was just half as much as the Chinaman would get, and he said: ‘If we keep on we will be a great deal worse than Chinamen. I am a tenant and I pay rent to a landlord.’ Somebody asked, ‘What does the landlord do with it?’ Parsons said the landlord pays taxes, the taxes pay the sheriff, the police, the Pinkertonites and the militia, who are ready to shoot them down when they are looking for their rights. He said: ‘I am a Socialist from the top of my head to the soles of my feet, and I will express my sentiments if I die before morning.’ The crowd near the wagon loudly cheered him. Later I heard Mr. Parsons say, taking off his hat in one hand: ‘To arms! to arms! to arms!’ Then I went over to Desplaines Street Station and reported to Inspector Bonfield. When I came back Fielden was speaking. He criticised Martin Foran, the Congressman that was elected by the working people. Speaking about the law, he said the law was for the capitalists. ‘Yesterday, when their brothers demanded their rights at McCormick’s, the law came out and shot them down. When Mr. McCormick closed his door against them for demanding their rights, the law did not protect them.’ If they loved their wives, their children, they should take the law, kill it, stab it, throttle it, or it would throttle them. That appeared to make the crowd near the wagon more excited, and I made another report to Inspector Bonfield. I saw Spies, Parsons and Fielden on the wagon. I saw Schwab on the wagon in the early part of the evening, and a man named Schnaubelt.”

Henry E. O. Heineman, a reporter of the Chicago Tribune, testified: