Anarchy and Anarchists: A History of the Red Terror and the Social Revolution in America and Europe; Communism, Socialism, and Nihilism in Doctrine and in Deed; The Chicago Haymarket Conspiracy and the Detection and Trial of the ConspiratorsSchaack, Michael J.
History
Anarchy and Anarchists: A History of the Red Terror and the Social Revolution in America and Europe; Communism, Socialism, and Nihilism in Doctrine and in Deed; The Chicago Haymarket Conspiracy and the Detection and Trial of the Conspirators
After several days’ ineffective search, Mrs. Seliger received a letter
from her husband asking her to call and see him. She hastened at once,
with a throbbing heart and a light tread, to my office. I asked her
if she would work under my instructions, and she promptly consented
to do everything in her power to help the police. I had come to the
conclusion that it would be no easy matter to find the slippery
Seliger, but that, if he was not discovered that day, we might at least
get on his track.
Mrs. Seliger was accordingly told to wait in the office a few minutes.
Two men were sent for, men whom the woman would not know. I instructed
them to slip through a side door and get a good view of her while
unobserved. A carriage was then ordered, and the driver directed to
take the woman to whatever place she might desire, and remain with her
even all day and all night, if required. Mrs. Seliger stepped into the
carriage, and the horses were soon in a sharp trot. But the conveyance
was not alone. No sooner had it started than the two men I have spoken
of jumped into a buggy and followed the carriage south, keeping it in
good view all the time.
The first stop made was at a place on West Thirteenth Street. There
Mrs. Seliger had to identify herself first, and thence she was directed
to a place some four blocks away. Arriving there, she was sent on to
Sixteenth Street, and again sent to Twelfth Street, near the limits.
She was here subjected to a great many questions, and after she had
fully proven her identity she was taken to the next house and led into
a dark bed-room, where she found her husband. She remained there about
three hours, and then, under direction of her husband’s friends, was
told to drive to several other places in order to throw any detectives
that might be watching off the scent. She did so, but the two men had
kept a close watch and were not to be baffled.
When the carriage had started for home, one of the officers returned
to the place where she had tarried so long. He represented to the
occupants that he was working for Salomon & Zeisler, attorneys for the
imprisoned conspirators, to whom Seliger had written a letter, and that
in accordance with the request they had decided to protect him and his
friends.
“Seliger,” said the officer, “is here, and I want to talk with him.”
The occupants admitted that he had been there and had had a talk with
his wife, but that he was at the time on his way home with her.
Mr. and Mrs. Seliger called at the station the next afternoon (June 8).
Both entered smiling, but it was quite apparent that Seliger was very
nervous.
“Captain,” said Mrs. Seliger, “we are both here.”
“Yes, madam,” I replied; “I am glad you are both here—on your own
account.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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