ANARCHISTS. 



Another feature of permanent value, aside 

 from the bronze tablets, was the loan exhibi- 

 tion, which was open from July 5 till July 24. 

 This was by far the most interesting and in- 

 structive affair of the kind that had ever been 

 attempted outside of the larger cities; and 

 even there the success, both as to finances and 

 the merits of the exhibition itself, has rarely 

 exceeded that of the Albany exhibition. It is 

 a matter of congratulation, both for Albanians 

 and for all others who seek the preservation 

 of what is worthy in history, that the plan to 

 make the loan exhibition a permanent thing is 

 likely to be carried out. 



ANARCHISTS. The Anarchist riot in Chicago 

 of Tuesday, May 4, 1886, may be said to have 

 begun in the eight-hour movement on the pre- 

 vious Saturday, or, more properly, in the at- 

 tack on Monday, May 3, upon the McCormick 

 reaper-works. The labor agitation throughout 

 the country in the spring was more violent in 

 Chicago than elsewhere. On Saturday, May 1, 

 40,000 laborers struck work and demanded a 

 reduction of time from ten to eight hours. 

 Chicago on that day presented a peculiar ap- 

 pearance. In the manufacturing districts the 

 six and seven o'clock whistles were not heard. 

 The usual hurrying crowds of workmen were 

 not seen, and the streets did not contain half 

 the number of trucks commonly in use. Dur- 

 ing the morning, however, several processions 

 composed of the strikers were formed in the 

 streets. Peaceable furniture-workers and mill- 

 Lands paraded, displaying American and Ger- 

 man flags and banners, giving praise to the 

 firms that had conceded the eight-hour day. 

 A procession of 10,000 lumbermen, in front of 

 which a man carried a red flag, visited several 

 places and held meetings at which highly in- 

 cendiary speeches were made. The discon- 

 tented freight-handlers, to the number of near- 

 ly 1,000, marched around the depots and per- 

 suaded their fellow - workmen to join them. 

 The freight-handlers of the Chicago, Burling- 

 ton, and Quincy, and the Chicago and Alton 

 f Railroads, to the number of 300, had a brief 

 meeting and marched to the Wabash freight- 

 houses, where they persuaded eighty-five of 

 the Wabash men to join them. The proces- 

 sion swelled and, with great cheers but no dis- 

 order, moved from station to station, every- 

 where urging men to join, who seemed unable 

 to resist. The result was that every railroad 

 in the city was crippled. All the freight- 

 houses were closed and barred as for a pro- 

 longed state of siege, and all the industries of 

 the city were paralyzed, for nothing could be 

 delivered. These proceedings had here and 

 there a threatening appearance. The freight- 

 handlers who went to work were protected 

 by guards with drawn revolvers. One of the 

 processions was headed by a stout German, 

 who carried a big wooden sword, which he 

 had evidently fashioned with his own hands. 

 Several of them marched like soldiers, their 

 correct movements being cheered by the crowds 



on the sidewalk. These last had no doubt 

 profited by instructions received at meetings 

 such as were afterward described at the trial 

 of the Anarchists. It was observed by the de- 

 tectives among the crowds of Germans, Bohe- 

 mians, and Poles, that their talk was highly 

 incendiary ; but there was nothing to indicate 

 such bloody results as followed. Many of the 

 workmen appeared ready to accept reasonable 

 terms from their employers, and did not wish 

 to insist upon getting ten hours' pay for eight 

 hours' work. But the demands of other labor- 

 ers, particularly the lumbermen, were extreme. 

 On Monday a great crowd of strikers, mostly 

 lumbermen, inflamed by incendiary speeches, 

 gathered about the McCormick works. Their 

 quarrel with the workmen there was, that 

 they were supposed not to have insisted upon 

 the time-reduction. About half of McCor- 

 mick's workmen were dissuaded or intimidated 

 by them from going to work ; but the other 

 half, about 700, went to work as usual. Dur- 

 ing the day the company adopted the eight- 

 hour time, and gave the men a half-holiday. 

 The McCormick workmen, on coming out from 

 their building, were attacked by the crowd 

 with stones, and the men ran away or retreat- 

 ed into the building, the strikers meanwhile 

 breaking a great many of the McCormick win- 

 dows. The company's guard of a dozen men 

 fired their revolvers into the air, hoping to 

 frighten the strikers, who laughed at these 

 demonstrations. The crowd had begun batter- 

 ing down the doors with crowbars, when a 

 patrol wagon filled with policemen, dashed 

 into the midst of the strikers, who threw 

 stones and bricks at the officers. The officers 

 alighted and drew their revolvers ; but the 

 mob kept on throwing missiles, the police 

 dodging them as best they could. At length 

 the crowd, great numbers of whom appeared 

 to be armed, drew their revolvers and fired 

 on the police, and the police returned the fire. 

 The strikers being bad marksmen, none of the 

 police were hurt; but about a dozen of the 

 mob were wounded. On the arrival of re-en- 

 forcements, the police dispersed the crowd. 



On that evening and the next day a hand- 

 bill, printed in German and English, called 

 upon the workingmen to meet at the corner 

 of Des Plaines and Randolph Streets, on Tues- 

 day evening, the 4th. " Good speakers," it was 

 promised, " will be present to denounce the 

 latest atrocious act of the police, the shooting 

 of our fellow-workmen yesterday afternoon." 

 At Des Plaines Street. Randolph Street, which 

 runs east and west, widens out into a plaza, 

 called the Old Ilaymarket, about 2,900 feet 

 long by 150 feet wide. The crowd gathered 

 just off the northeastern corner of this plaza 

 in Randolph Street, 100 feet north of Des 

 Plaines Street. About 1,400 men, including 

 many who had been most active in the riot of 

 the previous day, responded to the invitation. 

 Half of these were driven away by a rain- 

 storm, while those who remained were ad- 



