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
afternoon. I was at Thalia Hall, Northwest Side, where the Lehr und
Wehr Verein met, on Wednesday, May 5, in the forenoon. I saw Fischer,
and he said Spies and others had been arrested. I always knew that
Fischer was one of the leaders in this affair—the riot. Fischer said
the riot was a failure. It was botched, and nothing could be done any
more. On Tuesday afternoon there was a tall young fellow at Lingg’s
room about six o’clock. He had a smooth face and was about six feet
tall. The tall man and Lingg were working at the bombs and dynamite.
The tall man, I think, worked at Brunswick & Balke’s factory.”
The foregoing was read to Thielen and its correctness acknowledged
before Mr. Furthmann, the officers and myself, and his signature
is affixed to the margin of each sheet of the paper on which it is
written. Thielen’s stepson, William Schubert, confirmed the statement
of his father with reference to the dynamite bombs and the cigar-boxes
filled with dynamite, and added:
“I went under the house and dug a hole in the ground, and father and
myself put those things in the hole and then covered them up.”
ABOUT the time of Thielen’s arrest Officers Hoffman and Schuettler ran
across FRANZ LORENZ on North Avenue near Sedgwick Street, in the very
stronghold of Anarchy, and as the man seemed to be suffering from an
over-dose of Anarchy and liquor, they took him to the station. This
was on the 10th of May. He was a German, 48 years of age, and lived
with a man named Jaeger, at No. 31 Burling Street. He did not seem
to be known much in Socialist circles, and no one seemed specially
interested in him. He was locked up at the Larrabee Street Station, and
for four days he was as stupid as an owl. He would eat and drink very
little, but managed to sleep every day. On the sixth day he was taken
to the Chicago Avenue Station and remained there two days longer before
he recovered his normal condition. When brought into the office, he
told me that he had been drinking very hard, and, being asked for the
reason, he said that he had attended many Anarchist meetings, had heard
all the speeches and had learned that soon they would all have plenty
of money. Whenever such assurances were given, it always, he said,
made him feel so good that he would go and get one more drink. Between
speeches and drinks, he said, he had come near dying. He assured me
that if he was released he would go right to work and give Anarchy and
all meetings a wide berth. On being questioned as to his acquaintances,
he said he knew “all the boys”—the leading Anarchists—and had admired
them warmly.
“I heard Lingg speak,” said he, “and he is a good one. I tell you he is
a radical.”
“I suppose,” said I, “you took two drinks on his speech?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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