“Mr. Spies asked me, before I commenced, to mention that the Chicago Herald had advised the labor organizations of this city to boycott the red flag. I briefly touched on that, and told them not to boycott the red flag, because it was the symbol of universal freedom and universal liberty.
“I was just closing my remarks about that point, when some one said it was going to rain. There was a dark, heavy cloud which seemed to be rolling over a little to the northwest of me. I looked at it, and some one proposed to adjourn the meeting to Zepf’s Hall. Somebody else said: ‘No, there is a meeting there,’ and I said: ‘Never mind; I will not talk very long; I will close in a few minutes, and then we will all go home.’ Then I advised them to organize as laboring men for their own protection—not to trust to any one else, but to organize among themselves and depend only upon themselves to advance their condition. I do not think I spoke one minute longer when I saw the police. I stopped speaking, and Capt. Ward came up to me and raised his hand—I do not remember whether he had anything in his hand or not—and said: ‘I command this meeting, in the name of the people of the State of Illinois, to peaceably disperse.’ I was standing up, and I said: ‘Why, Captain, this is a peaceable meeting,’ in a very conciliatory tone of voice, and he very angrily and defiantly retorted that he commanded it to disperse, and called, as I understood, upon the police to disperse it. Just as he turned around in that angry mood, I said: ‘All right, we will go,’ and jumped from the wagon, and jumped to the sidewalk. This is my impression, after being in jail now for over three months, and I am telling, as near as I can remember, every incident of it. Then the explosion came. I think I went in a somewhat southeasterly direction from the time that I struck the street. It was only a couple of steps to the sidewalk. I had just, I think, got onto the sidewalk when the explosion came, and, being in a diagonal position on the street, I saw the flash. The people began to rush past me. I was not decided in my own mind what it was, but I heard some one say ‘dynamite,’ and then in my own mind I assented that that was the cause of the explosion, and I rushed and was crowded with the crowd. There were some of them falling down, others calling out in agony, and the police were pouring shots into them. We tried to get behind some protection, but there were so many trying to get there that little protection was afforded. I then made a dash for the northeast corner of Randolph and Desplaines Streets, turned the corner and ran until I got to about Jefferson Street. Seeing there was no pursuit, I dropped into a fast walk. I turned on Clinton, intending at that time to go home.
“Immediately after the explosion of the bomb—I had possibly gone three or four steps—I was struck with a ball. I didn’t feel much pain at the time, in the excitement, but as I dropped into a walk down on Randolph Street I felt the pain, put my finger in the hole of my pants and felt my knee was wet. Then I concluded I had been shot. Walking down Clinton Street and intending to go home, I began to think about those that had been with me. Remembering about Mr. Spies being on the wagon at the time the police came up, I thought surely that some one of these men must have been killed from all of that shooting. I concluded to take a Van Buren Street car and ride down past the Arbeiter-Zeitung building and see if any one was there. I caught the car on the corner of Canal, but found that it was a car that runs directly east to State Street. I left the car on Fifth Avenue and walked down Fifth Avenue to Monroe Street. Of course, I was near the place and could have walked there, but I thought I was so well known in Newspaper Row by the reporters that if I should walk I should be known. So I jumped on the car and stood in front of it. I intended to go up to the Arbeiter-Zeitung building if I saw a light there; but there wasn’t any. I alighted near the corner of Randolph Street. Intending to go up to Parsons’ house, I took an Indiana Street car. When we got to Clinton Street the driver said: ‘Why, there is firing going on up there yet,’ and I saw a couple of flashes up near where I thought the Haymarket was, and I said, ‘If there is, I am not going up there.’ I then walked over on Jefferson Street north to Lake Street, and I saw a terrible crowd of people around there, and thought there might be a good many detectives there. So I turned back again, caught a Canalport Avenue car and rode down to the corner of Canal and Twelfth Streets. There I got my knee dressed by a young doctor who was on the stand here, as it was becoming very painful at that time.
“I feel sure that Mr. Spies was at my side when Capt. Ward was talking. I did not see him after I had spoken to Capt. Ward; I did not see him leave the wagon. I jumped off at the south end of the wagon into the street. While I was speaking I did not pay any attention to the people in the wagon, but I think I noticed four or five there a little previous to the police coming up. Mr. Snyder assisted me in getting on the wagon. He got on before I did. When I got down from the wagon Snyder was on the ground. I think I saw him on the sidewalk there. Of course I don’t remember everything as distinctly now as I did the next day. I had no revolver with me on the night of May 4th. I never had a revolver in my life. I did not fire at any person at the Haymarket meeting. I never fired at any person in my life. I did not, after leaving the wagon, step back between the wheels of the wagon and fire behind the cover of the wagon; I did not stay there. My whole course was from the wagon south, without stopping, except, perhaps, for the smallest perceptible space of time, when I was startled by the explosion.
“I first heard of the word ‘Ruhe’ having been published in the Arbeiter-Zeitung, and about any significance of that word, when I had been in the County Jail for some days. I never had seen or heard of the word before, and did not hear of it on May 4th at any time, and, as I understand it is a German word, I would not have known what it meant if I had seen it. I do not read German. There was no understanding or agreement to which I was a party, or of which I had knowledge, that violence should be used at the Haymarket meeting, or that arms or dynamite should be used there. I anticipated no trouble of that character. I did not use, upon the approach of the police, and did not hear from any person that night any such expression as: ‘There come the bloodhounds; you do your duty and I’ll do mine.’
“The first I heard of the Haymarket meeting was after I got to the American group meeting on the night of May 4th. I heard, for the first time, about a meeting held by certain persons on Monday night at 54 Lake Street, after I had been from ten to fourteen days in the County Jail, when I read a paper that the police had got track of some such a meeting. I wish to say, however, that I spoke to the wagon-makers on the upper floor of 54 Lake Street on that Monday night. I was never in the basement of that building, except to the water-closet under the sidewalk. I did not go down-stairs there at all on that Monday night, and did not hear of any meeting being held there until much later, when I read about it, as stated before.
“We drilled not over six times at 54 Lake Street, but nobody ever had arms there. I think it was proposed to call the organization the International Rifles, but I don’t think it was ever decided to call it so, as the organization was never perfected, never became an armed organization. We began to meet in August, and the last meetings must have been very near the end of September, 1885. There was no drilling during the winter and spring of 1885-’86. Once a few men belonging to the L. u. W. V. came in with their guns and shouldered arms, but they did not belong to the American group, and that is the only time that I ever saw any arms at any meeting of our organization.
“The shots that were pouring in thick and fast after the explosion of the bomb came from the street—I should judge from the police. I did not hear the explosion of anything before the explosion of the bomb. As I was rushing down the sidewalk, I heard no explosion of any arms among any of the citizens who had attended the meeting.
“I remember the testimony of the detective Johnson. I did not have the conversation which he testified to as having had with me in the presence of the older Mr. Boyd at Twelfth Street Turner Hall, nor at any other place, nor at any other time. I knew that he was a detective long before that, and I would not be fool enough to advocate anything of that kind, if I was a dynamiter, to him. The American group was open to everybody. It was not even necessary to have ten cents admission fee, but the fee was set at ten cents per month to cover the expense of paying for hall rent and advertising. On May 4th I returned home from my work about half past five. I bought the Evening News on the sidewalk just before I went into the house.
“On May 3d I took several loads of stone from Bodenschatz & Earnshaw’s stone dock, Harrison Street and the river, to different places in the city. I have worked for that firm three or four years. I owned my team and wagon, and they hired those and my services, and paid me by the day. I only worked three-quarters of a day on May 3d. Business was not brisk at that time. I have been a teamster for at least six years. I was arrested at my home at ten o’clock on the morning of May 5th. I was never before arrested in my life. I was taken to the Central Station by four or five detectives in citizens’ clothes, and have been confined ever since.