Gave Czolgasz [sic] an Atomizer

Assassin’s Mother Says a Woman Was the Donor.
——
Dates Back Murderer’s Troubles to This Gift.

     A special dispatch to the Plain Dealer last night from Milwaukee stated that Vincent Slawski, editor of the Kuryer Poleski, returned from Cleveland last night and brought with him a queer machine, apparently a steam atomizer, which he says the mother of Leon Czolgasz gave him to give to the assassin’s counsel. She told Slawski that a woman gave it to Leon and immediately thereafter he became insane and started to go around with Anarchists. Slawski will probably send it to the Buffalo police. The machine, Mrs. Czolgasz claims, is the root of all the trouble in the family, as after using it Leon was imbued with Anarchistic ideas. Slawski thinks that the machine may play an important part in the trial, as the question naturally comes up as to who the woman is who was careful enough of Czolgasz’s health to go to the expense and trouble of buying medical apparatus for him. Slawski thinks this woman is Emma Goldman.
     In speaking of his visit Slawski said: “I talk Polish, and by sympathizing with the Czolgasz family I got them to talk. Both the old people acknowledge that they thought their son was connected with a plot to murder the president. The machine may be intended for some kind of an infernal machine, for all I know. I told her I was going to Buffalo soon, and she gave me this contrivance to give to the counsel. She said a woman who thought a great deal of Leon gave it to him when he was sick, and that she was very careful of his health. Leon was careful of the machine, she said, and kept it in a sachel [sic]. Who the woman was Mrs. Czolgasz did not know, but I am confident it was Miss Goldman. Who else but Anarchists would be so careful of Leon Czolgasz’s health, especially if he was the center of a plot?
     “I could not learn much from the old man, as he would not talk a great deal, but he did say that the police couldn’t and wouldn’t connect Leon Czolgasz with any plot. He said Leon would not tell, anyway. After this he didn’t say much. Someone has taught him to keep his mouth shut.
     “I talked also with Zwolski, whom Mrs. Czolgasz told me, taught her son Anarchism. He would not say much. If the right spies were set upon the Russian and Polish Anarchists in Cleveland, I am sure they would unearth a great plot. I know something about there Anarchists, for I have lived in Winnipeg, where there is a nest of them.”
     The machine is a queer contrivance. It is set upon a tin plate base, which supports an alcohol lamp, the flame of which heats a copper vessel placed just over it. From the vessel a glass tube runs to meet at right angles, another tube, the bottom of which runs down into a glass jar. Both glass tubes are drawn down to a small point, pierced by a small hole at their junction, and the steam from the vessel evidently by its force draws up liquid from the jar which, together with the steam, rushes into a larger glass tube with a flaring end, intended to fit the mouth.
     The parents of Leon Czolgasz are endeavoring to procure a local attorney to defend him in the trial for his life at Buffalo. A brother-in-law of the assassin, by the name of Bandowski, held a two-hour conference with Attorney Henry Du Laurence early last evening, endeavoring to get him to act in that capacity. So far Du Laurence has refused to render his services no matter what the compensation be.
     A Plain Dealer reporter called at the Czolgasz home on Fleet street late last night. He found Paul Czolgasz, father of the assassin, his wife and son John, preparing to retire for the night.
     “Is it a fact,” asked the reporter, “that Leon had some sort of a machine?”
     “Yes,” replied John, who could speak English better than any of the others. “It was a sort of a sprayer to be used for the throat.”
     The assassin’s brother gave the name of a Broadway attorney, who he said had been engaged to assist the two Buffalo men in the trial of the case. The only Polish attorney with a residence on Broadway who could be found last evening was Du Laurence. He admitted that he had been approached on the subject, saying that he thought it would be unwise for him to take the case with the universal feeling so great against Czolgasz.
     DuLaurence’s Polish name is Niedzwiedzki. His home is at No. 2028 Broadway. The Czolgasz family declared last evening that the machine and all the evidence which they intended to introduce on behalf of the assassin member of the family was in his hands, but DuLaurence denied all. He said he didn’t know what the nature of the machine was—yet he heard some gossip to the effect that Leon had spent much time at work on something, being taken up entirely with the invention.
     “Do you think that Paul Czolgasz and his wife will go to Buffalo to attend the trial of the son?” was asked of Du Laurence.
     “Most certainly,” he replied, as if knowing all of the facts in the case. “They won’t let that lad die without assisting all they can to give him a fair trial. I wouldn’t be surprised that when they reach his side he will break down and reveal all—possibly the reason why he committed the terrible deed, and if there was an Anarchist plot to do away with the chief executive of this country it will probably leak out at that time.”
     In conclusion, after summing up the whole case, Du Laurence declared that neither John D. Rockefeller nor J. Pierpont Morgan had money enough to procure his services to fight the case in connection with the appointed Buffalo attorneys.
     “To be sure,” he said, “it would be quite an advantage to the man to have an attorney who could speak his native tongue.”