ANARCHISTIC LITERATURE AND WEAPONS.
Before I proceed to inspect the curiously decorated walls my attention is called to an assortment of anarchistic literature spread on a large table. The most extraordinary productions of fever-brained revolutionists from all countries are here exposed for sale. The works of Herr Most occupy the most conspicuous place, and titles like “Gottespect und Religrionsenche,” “Eigenthumsbestie,” and “Elements of Revolutionary Warfare” embelishembellish the title pages. I open the last book at haphazard and read:
“The best of all preparations to be used for poisoning is curaricurare.
“By heating a dagger and then tempering it in oil of oleander, the infliction of a light wound would be sufficient to produce blood-poisoning and death.
“The cheapest and least expensive way is to apply a mixture of red phosphorus and gum arabicum to the dagger, cartridge, etc.
“This precious stuff (dynamite), which is able to blast a mass of solid rock, might also do good service at an assembly of royal or aristocratic personages, or at an entertainment patronized by monopolists.”
Herr Most, who had eyed me sharply, asked at last: “Would you like to join our circle, or perhaps it is only a few of your private enemies you contemplate doing up? All necessary information can be had by studying my ‘Kriegswissencraft.’” The hint was a broad one, and I thought it the safest plan to spend a dime on the “murder pamphlet,” thus propitiating the tiger in his den.
The room might be considered at first glance an armory. There are revolvers of all constructions, daggers, rifles, infernal machines, and a big saber with a rusty scabbard. I could scarcely repress a laugh at this relic of the great French revolution, or some equally remote historic event.
“You make a mistake by laughing,” said Most, unsheathing the sword. “You will observe the blade is as sharp as a razor, and,” he added with a certain pride, “the point is, by way of experiment, coated with a solution of cyanide of potassium.”
The majority of the rifles are breech-loaders, formerly used in the United States army, and bought by Most in large lots at auction for retailing among his followers. On a shelf above the editor’s desk a variety of the most dangerous poisons, liquid and solid, are openly exposed. The anarchist chief remarked, with a grim smile, that he seriously contemplated breeding cholera and yellow-fever germs for the purpose of exterminating mankind, rather than suffer the present condition of society to perpetuate itself.