“I am in the detective branch of the police force. I arrested Spies and Schwab in the neighborhood of nine o’clock. I found Spies in the front office. He was to the left of the door as I entered. My recollection is, he was talking to somebody. Schwab was over to the right, and was sitting down. That was on the second floor. I think I went up two flights of stairs. There were three or four men in the office besides those two. There was no resistance by either of the gentlemen. Had no warrant for their arrest. I don’t know of any complaint having been made against them before any magistrate. While I was talking to Spies and Schwab Spies’ brother came in. I placed him under arrest too. I took them with me. I took them to police headquarters. We went on foot. It was in the back part of the room that I found that revolver. The main part of the room in which I arrested them was perhaps twelve feet deep, and then there was a wing that ran back further. The box I mentioned was on the floor, and against the south wall. One could see it readily on entering the room. I found that box on my third visit. I don’t remember having seen it on my first visit. That third visit was some time in the afternoon, perhaps two or three o’clock. On my second visit I went over to the printer, to pick out the type similar to the one in the ‘Revenge’ circular. I went to the composing room. The printer’s name is John Conway. That was near twelve o’clock. On my fourth visit I took away a lot of red flags and such stuff as that. When I made the arrest of Spies and Schwab that morning Mrs. Schwab was present. I should think, by the looks of things, they were transacting business, or ready for it. When I was in the composing-room there were several men there. I found the red flags principally in what they termed the library in that building. It was, I think, in the rear part, on the second floor. Twenty or twenty-one compositors of the Arbeiter-Zeitung were arrested during that day. I was not present at the time. I found that copy of the ‘Revenge’ circular on one of the desks in the front room. I was there when the form and the type of the circular were found. We had no search warrant at the time any of them were taken. I do not know to whom that revolver belongs. I took Spies and Schwab into the front room of the Central Station. Lieutenant Shea sent out for the key. In the meantime we searched Spies and took the personal effects away from him. I took Mr. Spies’ keys out of his pocket—everything I found, little slips of paper and the like. I literally went through him. I had no warrant for anything of that kind. I took those reporters to see Spies down to the cell-house in the basement of the Central Station. The cell-house is very near the center of the building, and fronts on the inside court between the county and city building. I went down with the reporters about eight or nine o’clock. Spies, Schwab and Fielden were in separate cells. Spies said the action taken at the Haymarket was premature. It was done by a hot-head that could not wait long enough. I cannot use the words. That is the sentiment, and perhaps the words. Fielden said the police came up there to disperse them, and they had no business to. He claimed that they had a right to talk and say what they pleased, under the Constitution, and they should not be interfered with. I don’t think it was ever questioned whether the meeting was a peaceable and quiet meeting. I don’t think that he ever claimed that it was either quiet or disorderly. The fulminating cap which I found in that box did not look fresh and bright. It looked as though it might have lain there a good while. When Chief Ebersold came into the office at Central Station he was quite excited, and talked to Spies and Schwab in German and made motions, and I got between them, and I told him this was not the time or place to act that way. I took the liberty to quiet him down a little. He used a word which I understood to compare a man to a dog or something lower.”
The incendiary speeches that were made by some of the defendants at the riot at McCormick’s were testified to by different newspaper men, and the scenes at the riot described by officers and others, the whole showing very distinctly the direct connection of Spies with the outrage, and the manner in which he incited the mob to violence.
CHAPTER XXII.
“We are Peaceable”—Capt. Ward’s Memories of the Massacre—A Nest of Anarchists—Scenes in the Court—Seliger’s Revelations—Lingg, the Bomb-maker—How he cast his Shells—A Dynamite Romance—Inside History of the Conspiracy—The Shadow of the Gallows—Mrs. Seliger and the Anarchists—Tightening the Coils—An Explosive Arsenal—The Schnaubelt Blunder—Harry Wilkinson and Spies—A Threat in Toothpicks—The Bomb Factory—The Board of Trade Demonstration.
DURING the progress of the trial the court-room was thronged daily. The prisoners sat radiantly throughout the whole proceedings as if supremely certain of acquittal, and they manifested great pride in the boutonnieres which were handed in every morning by admiring friends. As the testimony of the State’s witnesses proceeded, the defense raised innumerable objections to the admission of parts particularly criminative, and at times hours were consumed in arguments on the points involved. The objections were almost invariably overruled, and exceptions taken. Having finished the evidence then at hand with reference to the McCormick riot, the State resumed the Haymarket massacre.
William Ward, Captain of Police at the Desplaines Street Station, a member of the force since 1870, a resident of Chicago for thirty-six years and a veteran of the Rebellion, was subjected to a long and interesting examination. He first stated the facts with reference to marching to the Haymarket and his order to the meeting to disperse, corroborating the testimony of Inspector Bonfield in every particular, and then concluded as follows:
“As the speaker was getting from the wagon he said, ‘We are peaceable.’ That was this gentleman (indicating Fielden). I heard some utterances of the speaker before I addressed him, but could not understand them—quite a noise there. Our men had their clubs in their belts, pistols in their pockets. A few seconds after Fielden said, ‘We are peaceable,’ I heard the explosion in my rear. I turned to look and see, and pistol-firing began from the front and both sides of the street by the crowd. I did not recognize anybody firing. Then the police began firing, and we charged into the alley, Crane’s alley, and north on Desplaines Street. Seven policemen died from the effects of wounds; one was brought dead into the station—Mathias J. Degan. There were in all killed and wounded sixty-six or sixty-seven—about twenty-one or twenty-two out of Desplaines Street Station; forty-two in all out of my precinct. It was only several seconds from the time that Fielden said, ‘We are peaceable,’ and the time the police charged down the alley and up Desplaines Street.”
The cross-examination resulted as follows: