The Rise and Fall of Anarchy in America: From its Incipient Stage to the First Bomb Thrown in ChicagoMcLean, George N.
History
The Rise and Fall of Anarchy in America: From its Incipient Stage to the First Bomb Thrown in Chicago
McLean, George N.
Anarchists -- United States; Haymarket Square Riot, Chicago, Ill., 1886
Fischer's last night was quietly spent. He talked but little, but was
restless. His death watch, Deputies Healy and Shomberg, said though he
did not sleep much, he appeared to take the terrible ordeal put upon
him with great composure--almost indifference. He, too, coldly repulsed
Dr. Bolton's proffered spiritual aid. Though his sleepless eyes stared
vacantly at the wall of his cell, he talked but little. No sign of
nervousness or fear could be traced on the hard, clear-cut features.
He was evidently prepared to meet his fate unflinchingly and to die
boldly. "Annie Laurie," sung in a fairly good tenor voice, broke the
the silence. It was approaching 12 o'clock. A dread silence overhung
all. All along the anarchists' corridor not a sound was to be heard.
The absence of any noise might be likened to the stillness of the
grave. Criminals were asleep. The indications were that the anarchists
were asleep too.
But hardly so. Parsons was awake, and the spirit of his wakeful hours
urged him to sing "Annie Laurie." Soldiers in a foreign clime have shed
tears at the strains of this song. It is a passport to the emotions
the world wide. And almost within the shadow of the gallows tree,
when life was to be registered by hours, Parsons' striking up this
song seemed certainly suggestive of the fate he felt to be close at
hand. There was in his tone a lonesome melancholy as he sung the first
stanza, then on the second one his voice wavered and finally broke.
He was cast down. The memory of his wife and little ones seemed to
rise before him, a sob, full of pathetic despair served as a period to
his further recitation. Once stopped singing, Parsons was in tears.
He cried within the quietness of his cell, not through fear of his
approaching death, so far as his demeanor indicated. Rather it was due
to recollection busy with scenes of the man's early life. His boyhood
came back to him as he sung that old song. He could not do else than
break down.
When Dr. Bolton called upon Parsons he was received with the same
courtesy which has always distinguished that erudite anarchist. The
condemned man, however, did not seem to take kindly to the proffered
ministrations of the clergyman.
"You are welcome, Dr. Bolton," he said; "pray, what can I do for you?"
The reverend visitor explained his mission, and the old cynical
expression stole over Parsons' face. "Preachers are all Pharisees," he
sneered, "and you know what Jesus Christ's opinion of the Pharisees
was. He called them a generation of vipers, and likened them to whited
sepulchers. I don't desire to have anything to do with either."
Dr. Bolton remonstrated a little, and finally Parsons appeared to be
relenting somewhat.
"Well, well," he said, "I will say that while I do not absolutely
refuse your kind attentions, I will impress on you the fact that I did
not want you."
A desultory conversation ensued, and the missionary, on leaving, told
Parsons that he would pray earnestly for him during the night.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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