"COUNTY JAIL, Nov. 11, 8 o'clock a. m.--_My Dear Comrades_: The guard has just awakened me. I have washed my face and drank a cup of coffee. The doctor asked me if I wanted stimulants. I said no. The dear boys, Engel, Fischer, and Spies, saluted me with firm voices. Please see Sheriff Matson and take charge of my papers and letters. Please have my book on "Anarchism: Its Philosophy and Scientific Basis", put into good shape. There are millions of Americans who will want to read it. Well, my dear old comrade, the hour draws near. Cæsar kept me awake till late last night with the noise, music of hammer and saw erecting his throne, my scaffold--refinement, civilization. Matson, the sheriff, tells me he refused to let Cæsar--the State--secrete my body, and he has just got my wife's address from me to send her my remains. Magnanimous Cæsar! Good-by. Hail the social revolution! Salutations to all." A. R. PARSONS. CHAPTER XIV. DESCRIPTION OF THE EXECUTION. THREATENING LETTERS. PITYING JUSTICE. OUTRAGED LAW VINDICATED. MERCY TO THE GUILTY IS CRUELTY TO THE INNOCENT. THE UNCHANGED EVERLASTING WILL GIVE TO EACH MAN HIS RIGHT. ABUSE OF FREE SPEECH. THE MILLS OF GOD GRIND SLOW BUT EXCEEDING FINE. CAPTAIN BLACK AT THE ANARCHISTS' FUNERAL. The following description of the execution is copied from the _Daily News_: August Spies, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, and A. R. Parsons, the four anarchists who were tried a year ago, and found guilty of the murder of Mathias A. Degan in the Haymarket square on May 4, 1886, were to-day hanged in the Cook county jail and paid the penalty of their crime with their lives. The drop fell at 11:53 and the four men died with words of defiance and scorn upon their lips. Parsons' last word was actually strangled in his throat by the hangman's noose. Seldom, if ever, have four men died more gamely and defiantly than the four who were strangled to-day. When the word passed around, about 11 o'clock, that the final hour had indeed arrived, men's faces grew pale and the hum of excitement passed through the crowd. They were quickly marshaled and marched down in a line to the gallows corridor. At 10:55 fully two hundred and fifty newspaper men, local politicians, and others, among them the twelve jurors to view the bodies after execution, had passed through the dark passage under the gallows and began seating themselves. The bailiff said a few words to the journalists, begging them to make no rush when the drop fell, but to wait decently and in order. Parsons was given a cup of coffee a few minutes before the march to the scaffold was begun.