Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1887 — THE ANARCHISTS. [ARTICLE]

THE ANARCHISTS.

August Spies, Albert R. Parsons, Louis Lingg, Adolph Fischer, and George Engel, the dead anarchists, were buried at Chicago on Sunday, the 13th inst. It was the occasion for a large gathering of their friends and sympathizers, but the event passed off very quietly. The funeral procession that followed the remains to the depot was managed in strict conformity with the order of the Mayor. Many of the men and women in line were decorated with red ribbons, but no red flags were visible, and there were no disorderly demonstrations of any kind. The number of people in the procession was not so great as had been anticipated, and it was noticeable that hardly any Americans took part in the ceremonies. A Chicago paper, describing the funeral ceremonies, says: Ths dead anarchists were buried with pomp and ceremony. Early Sunday morning crowds of curious persons gathered about the homes of the dead men, but they came simply to see and made no demonstrations of disorder. The funeral procession grew in size as the remains of the deceased, with their friends and the attending societies, joined it. Two hours were consumed in forming it. Nearly six thousand persons were in line, and probably thirty thousand people looked on. Down town the procession, after crossing the river at Lake street, proceeded east to Lifth avenue and south to the Wisconsin Central depot at Polk street. Two hours before the cortege entered Fifth avenue the sidewalks along that thoroughfare were packed from building line to curbstone. Cordons of police held back the crowds that gathered about the depot. A wall of bluecoated officers stood at the edge of the platform on both sides of 1> ifth avenue at the Polk . street crossing and across the avenue a block south of the depot, A picket a block north kept the crowd up-town from surging down on the depot. Roofs in the vicinity of the station were covered, the windows occupied, and the vacant lot across the street was filled with a mass of human beings. Polk street back to the bridge and east to the railroad tracks was alive with people. Men and women stood in two inches of mud in the gutters and good-naturedly waited. Then the procession came. Captain Buckley whirled his club and shouted his orders. His men, backs to the crowd, braced themselves against the swelling tide. The Defense Committee, wearing red roses-with sprigs of ever* green and bits of crape, appeared and forced their way through the crowd inside the depot. The five coffins were placed in a baggage car, and the coach reserved for the mourners was opened. The gate swung back, and a rush for the train was made. Fifteen cars were speedily filled. A train of thirteen cars had gone before, and another of fifteen coaches followed the funeral train. Throughout the six hours of forming the procession, its march to the depot, the journey to the cemetery, and the ceremonies at the sepulcher, the utmost order prevailed. The "Marseillaise” was not sung. The red flag was not flaunted. No incendiary speeches were made. The friends of the dead men buried their dead. The exercises were simple, quiet, and solemn, The police were apparently impressed by the silent mourning, and were as decorous toward the friends of the anarchists as if no feeling between them had ever existed. No expressions cf malice or triumph were heard. Everybody seemed in sympathy with the sorrowing friends and relatives of the dead. The throng that followed the remains of the anarchists to the cemetery was almost wholly German in its make-up. At the cemetery fifteen or twenty thousand people had congregated. After the bodies of the dead had been deposited in the vault four speeches were delivered. Capt. Black and Thos. J. Morgan spoke in English, and Robert Reitzel, of Detroit, and Albert Currlin, of St. Louis, spoke in German. The last mentioned two are rank anarchists, and their remarks wore extremely bitter. Both reproached the workingmen for permitting tne death of ;their friends, and Reitzel concluded with the following quotation from Herwegh, familiar to all socialist speakers: “We have loved long enough! Let us at last hate I” Captain Black’s address was an eloquent and feeling tribute to the dead anarchists.