Execution of Chicago Anarchists.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 233, 17 December 1887, Page 8

Execution of Chicago Anarchists.

Four of the seven convicted anarchists— Spies, J 'arsons, Fischer, and Engei — were hanged in Chicago at noon on Friday, November 12th. Louis Ling escaped the gallows by suicide the previous day, blowing his head oil' by fulminate cap or small bomb, which he put between his teeth and lighted before the "death watch" could present him. Tne remaining two, Samuel Fielden and Michael Schwab, had the death sentence commuted by Governor Oglesby to imprisonment for life. The men who were hanged died "game," as the saying is, and the expected outbreak by their friends and attempt at rescue, did not occur, owing to the excellent precautionary arrangements of the police. While the victims were being prepared for the gallows, i Adolph Fischer nodded to Spies and asked j him in German how he felt. Spies smiled goodnaturedly, and replied that he felt firdt-rate. All tho prisoners were calm and &elf-posbessed to an extraordinary degree, even to controverting the propositions on religion made by I.)r. Bolton, who had visited them to administer the consolations of the Church. When the caps were drawn, just before the drop fell, August Spies was heard to say, " There will come a time when our silence " — the sheriff did not allow them to address the crowd— " will be more powerful than the voices they are strangling to death." Engel raised his voice and cried, wildly, "Hurrah for Anarchy!" Fischer repeated it, adding, "This is the happiest moment of my life !" The necks ot the hanged men were not broken by the drop— they .strangled to death. Ever since the Supreme Court confirmed the judgment of the Court below, that the prisoners must die, Governor Oglesby has been besieged with prayers, threats, and arguments in their favour. Petitions came not only from all parts of the United States and Canada, but from the United Kingdom, and all the cities on the continent of Europe. Even on the day of the execution the sheriff delayed the fatal moment, while Captain Black, one of the counsel in the case, was at Springfield pleading with the Governor, and it was nob until he had received a telegraphic despatch from the Chief Magistrate that he saw no necessity for further comnaunation with him on the subject, and he must perform his duty, that the sheriff knew there was no longer hope for mercy. Thee was so little sympathy for the unfortunate men that the Governor i 3 generally censured even for the questionable motcy extended to Schwab and Fielden ; but it is understood that a close review of the evidence in their cases justified the clemency. The London press generally expressed approval of the verdict in the anarchist trials, and the " Times " spoke of the sternness of the Americans in dealing with the present offenders against law and order as a lesson for Ireland and Gladstone. The same paper confessed that ib did not agree with the opinion of the American legal journals that the decision is a vindication of the supremacy of the law, and ib condemns tho tedious succession of appeals from court to court, which allowed a considerable volume of sentiment to accumulate in favour of the prisoners. The " Pall Mall Gazette " opened its columns to an expression of sympathy with the Anarchists ; bub, editorially, it has not gone further than to hint that the sentence was one of vengeance. The interment took place on the J.3th, after what one of the Chicago papers calls the most wonderful, but decorous, demonstrations over seen in the city. Miiwaukie Avenue, the great German thoroughfare, where most of the dead bodies lay, pre sented a strange spectacle all the morning. Ib is estimated that 100,000 foreigners thronged the streets during uhe procession, which started for the dep6t, on the way to the graveyard, about noon, with bands in Prussian uniform playing dirges. Most of those in line were members of aift'erentTumvereins, with a small body of Internationalists. What with speeches and cere; monies at the cemetery, the funeral did not break up till ib was dark, and only then by Captain Black stopping an Anarchist speech by Ijhe editor of the "lArbeiter Zeitung," as the people* were being'wroughfc up to a high pitch by the ,oratoty and the surroundings. The papers congratulated the public that the affair f passed l off as 'j quietly as it did, but insist that'the offidiate, ought to have given the bodies direct inter" • ; went. l " ' ' • J ~