“We have had enough of this. It is time it stopped. They were asked peaceably to disperse—peaceably to disperse—peaceably to disperse. The police had their clubs in their belts, their pistols in their belts, and the bomb was thrown. So say Bonfield, Wessler, Foley, Bowler, Hanley, Ward, Hubbard, Haas, Hull, Heinemann—and I want to suggest a word about Heinemann’s testimony. Heinemann said that when that bomb exploded he was getting away on the east side of the street, going south. What did he get? He got the whistling of bullets past his ear. Where did they come from? Where could they come from? Hull was on that platform up there, and Owen was there, and that is where Simonson was. Hull says firing began by the crowd. Well, Owen got hit up there. It had to come from over there. Dr. Newman says that all sizes of bullets were found, from twenty-two to forty-four, and the police did not have anything but thirty-eight caliber. That was a cruel thrust for counsel to make at men standing up as these men did that night—death in their midst—standing there so nobly—a thrust to save the lives or the liberty of the defendants—by saying that they shot each other in their fright and terror. As Wirt Dexter said in a speech about that matter—I wish I could deliver his words to you—in praising the act of the police in that transaction: How noble was their conduct! Instead of fleeing and running, they said: ‘Fall in, boys,’ and the city was saved. Supposing the police had fired first, after the bomb. The man who threw that bomb obtained it from Lingg or Spies, and threw it in accordance with the general plan of conspiracy, and death was the result. I cannot talk to you about families, about wives and children, but if I had the power I would like to take you all over there to the Haymarket that night, and with you, with tears in your eyes, see the dead and mingle with the wounded, the dying—see law violated, and then I could, if I had the power, paint you a picture that would steel your hearts against the defendants. Captain Black said, in argument to you, that the State had no right to do that. The State has all the rights that it could possibly possess through so weak an instrument as myself. He has no more right. Did Fielden shoot? I think so. If he did not, he is made of poorer clay than I take him to be. He has been saying for years: ‘The bloodhounds of the police should be massacred and killed.’ He it was who said that he would march with the black flag down Michigan Avenue and strike terror to the heart of the capitalist. He it is who has said, day in and day out, since living in this inhospitable country: ‘Death to the police and the capitalists—the despoilers—our despoilers—death to them!’
“Why, do you mean to say that he would not do what he says he would do? Dr. Epler swears that he told him when he dressed the wound that he was shot when he was down on the pavement, and he has not denied it. That was a significant fact, gentlemen; a very significant fact. The officer who was shot thinks it was by Fielden. It may have been by somebody else; nobody can tell.
“Another thing. One of the officers swears that he was wounded in the knee. I was not looking at Capt. Black when he motioned to you the place where the wound occurred. For the purpose of correcting myself and making no mistake about it, because the testimony of an officer or any witness who put his finger on the spot cannot get into the record; and I found by looking at the record that he pointed his finger ‘here and here.’ Of course there was no significance to that. So I saw the wound again. I had seen it once before. The bullet went in there (indicating), and came out above, going around up opposite the knee-cap, and was not from behind.
“That bomb was thrown in furtherance of a common design. No matter who threw it. But the gentlemen say there can be no conviction in this case because we have failed to prove, or cannot prove, who threw that identical bomb. That is not the law, as I explained to you yesterday. The other question is, Is there anything in this case showing who did? Gilmer says that he was in the alley, and a match was lighted, and that bomb was thrown by one man; Fischer stood by, and that Spies lighted it. Is that remarkable? Spies had been advising the doing of that thing for years; and in one of the articles that has been read to you, over his own signature, he says: ‘Take as few people into your confidence as possible; do it alone; in your revolutionary deeds, do it alone; but if you have to consult anybody, take your nearest friend, a man you can rely upon.’ Who is Schnaubelt? Schwab’s brother-in-law. Who is Fischer? A man who got the meeting up at Spies’ instance, and works for Spies. Now, gentlemen, I presume, and I have no doubt but what if they had raked a little more carefully, we would have found the man that said that that bomb was thrown from the top of Crane’s building; you could have found the man that said it came from away in the alley; any number of men probably would have put it north of the alley, and some south. The question here is, about where did it come from? The explanation of street warfare is, that it is to be done near alleys. Is Spies so craven now, after the deed is done, that he shall say, ‘I had no hand in it,’ when he had advised it for years? Gentlemen, men’s lives speak for themselves. He has advised it, said it, talked it, acted it. Why, the witnesses say, counsel upon the other side say to you, ‘Gentlemen, it is impossible that this man would do it, because no man saw the light which would have flashed up in their faces.’ Why, gentlemen, they put two witnesses on the stand to swear distinctly and clearly and positively that they had lighted a match and lighted a pipe, which would take a good deal longer than lighting a fuse. Spies says in one article: ‘It never goes out in a dry night; the Anarchist fuse never fails.’ It could have happened; it has been advised to happen] precisely as Gilmer states it. Ignore Gilmer, and the case is made. But they want you to ignore Thompson too. Why? What for? Because they heard Schwab and Spies talk together. Was there anything marvelous in that? Had they said anything there together that they had not been saying in public for years? But supposing you ignore Thompson’s testimony and say that Thompson is mistaken; then it was Schnaubelt, wasn’t it? Why was Spies so confidential with Schnaubelt that night? Where is Schnaubelt? He was the man that was arrested before the conspiracy was known, and let go; shaved his whiskers off, changed his appearance, and he has not been seen since. Why was Spies so confidential with Schnaubelt? He says he did walk with him; says that Henry Spies walked behind him.
“Gentlemen, let me show you the testimony of these people in pairs. It is the most marvelous thing I ever saw in a lawsuit. Ferguson and Gleason were together. They went in pairs. You remember it. Ferguson says that he was on the corner of Randolph Street when the bomb was thrown. Gleason says that was not so; they were away down next to the station, more than half a block away. Ferguson says that they heard a crash like the breaking of a plank or a pistol, and then the bomb exploded. That is when he was on the corner of the street. Gleason says that was not so; he didn’t remember of hearing anything of that kind, but they both distinctly remembered of seeing, after the bomb was exploded, the police fire from that way. The Anarchists fired south, the police north. Ferguson and Gleason were south of and behind the police, yet they say the police fired south, while facing north. Ridiculous. And one or the other of them, I don’t know—or it was Taylor—says that they, the police, fired clear down to Madison Street, and along Madison Street. Queer that nobody else heard of that. What were they shooting down there for? Richter and Liniger—you remember them—these are the two loving friends that went to that meeting pursuant to the notice that they saw in the Arbeiter-Zeitung—not only the notice of the meeting, but the Arbeiter-Zeitung contained the ‘Revenge’ circular. They went to that meeting and lovingly stood in the alley, midway between the edge of the walk and the building, arm in arm, for over an hour. Foster knew that that was ridiculous, and he tried to get them apart; he asked them questions to get them apart, but they clung together for over an hour, and finally moved up to the lamp-post, where Taylor had been standing before the meeting began, and they didn’t know where the meeting was to be.
“Again Krumm stood in the alley with his back to the wall all the time except when he lighted his pipe and walked backward and forward in it, Albright standing with him. Krumm had his back up against that wall, glued like a post for almost an hour, saving only at intervals did he leave it; and Krumm and Albright lighted their pipes, and they moved to the lamp-post. The lamp-post was peopled thick. Gentlemen, it is an insult to your intelligence to suggest a word about the truth of that Krumm and Albright’s testimony. Why, Krumm is the man that left his boarding-house, boarding with Albright at that time—left his house in search of a friend whose name he could not give; if he could it was indefinite—and that he was to meet him on the corner of Canal and Randolph Streets that night somewhere. He went down to Canal and Randolph Streets, wandered around there looking for his friend, or for somebody who said he would meet him there, and then walked back to the meeting and began to look for Albright, or at least he found Albright. Now, isn’t that a queer circumstance—that they neither of them knew that that meeting was going to happen, or knew that the other was to be there; left the house about the same time, and yet did not leave together, and happened to meet right in that alley, with their backs up against the wall? The next pair is Fischer and Wandry. That is for the alibi. Now, why doesn’t Spies, who was on the stand, who says he was in Zepf’s, say something about Fischer being there. Why wasn’t Waller, who was on the stand, asked by these men whether Fischer was there? The witnesses all congregate at this place, at Zepf’s Hall, after the meeting, and Fischer has not been seen by anybody, except Wandry. Even this respectable Nihilist from Russia don’t remember of seeing Fischer, and got Fischer in a great many different places, as they do Parsons. Finding Parsons had got to be in several places, and further, finding that they have got him down in the window, they get another man there that looks like Parsons—as they did Krumm, who lighted his pipe in the alley and looked so much like Spies. To digress a moment, Mr. Walker never said to you, gentlemen, that the defendants’ lawyers put up Mr. Krumm because of his resemblance to Spies and to account for a light in the alley. That was not fair. He made the declaration that the other side, or somebody, had put up the job.
“We have endeavored to try this lawsuit like gentlemen. I think we have succeeded on both sides. There was not that implication to be drawn from what Walker said, but it was rather ingenious and sagacious to allow you, gentlemen, to believe that we had been saying something that was unfair.
“The two men that saw Schnaubelt—Lehnert and Krueger. That was the queerest circumstance that I have yet come across. By the way, Krueger was in the conspiracy, was in both the meetings, with Schnaubelt, with Waller, with Engel, with Lingg; he was there, knew them all, and, although he was on the stand, the gentlemen upon the other side never asked him nor Grueneberg a question about the conspiracy. Neither did they ask Spies, or Parsons, or Schwab. They did ask Fielden.
“August Krueger and Lehnert got this man some twenty or thirty feet away from the alley and the wagon, talking in a quiet tone of voice about going home. They walk a little ways together. Krueger goes one direction and Schnaubelt another. Black tells you that the reason of that was because they could not go together any further, as their places diverged. It would not have done for them to have gone together any further, because Krueger went to Engel’s. There were too many at Engel’s—it would not have done.