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“I Will Kill Any Ruler You Select” Said Czolgosz
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CHICAGO, Sept. 7.—Czolgosz was in
this city a short time ago with Emma Goldman, in whose teachings
he professes belief. That he made an impression upon the Chicago
group is known from the fact that breakfast was arranged for him
on the morning of July 12. He was to be questioned closely and a
decision was to be made as to whether he was a spy or an anarchist.
Where this breakfast was to be given is a secret. Those invited
to the breakfast gathered, but Czolgosz did not appear.
From that time on, Chicago anarchists
did not see him. This tended to strengthen the suspicion that he
was a spy. Ccolgosz [sic] had been an inveterate reader of
“red” literature. When in Chicago he declared that he had had a
surfeit of reading.
“I have had enough books,” he said,
“telling of what others have been doing.” He ate at a lunchroom
in Halstead street, and frequently talked of injustice to the masses
of the people. He disappeared the day Emma Goldman left the city.
Abe Isaak, Sr., was among the men
captured in raids by the police today. He occupied a cottage at
515 Carroll avenue, and is editor of Free Society. He came here
last January from Portland, Ore., where he conducted a sheet called
the Firebrand. He was prosecuted by the Federal authorities for
illegal use of mails and moved to San Francisco. He has been nine
years in America and is a Russian Pole. Upon establishing Free Society
here he jumped into leadership among the radical local Reds. He
entertained Emma Goldman when she was here in July.
The prophetess of anarchy was far
from bloodthirsty in her Chicago speeches. Policemen present assert
that she said nothing that could be called a threat against the
President. Following her about at the time was a man believed to
be the assassin. Isaak says he was known both as Niemann and Czolgosz.
“W [sic] denounced him in the issue
of Sept. 1 of Free Society, as a spy on anarchists,” Isaak said.
“He was a follower of Emma Goldman’s lectures. He was here when
she lectured last July. I believe that she was here about July 12.
Well, this man introduced himself to us, came to Emman [sic] Goldman
after her lecture to the anarchists about July 12 and asked her
if she would not teach him more and if she could not help him join
the secret societies of anarchists where the plots to do violence
and exterminate rulers are hatched. She was too busy and put him
off. The next day, early in the morning, when I went to the depot
to see Emma Goldman leave Chicago, he was at the station talking
to her. She introduced me to him and told him to see me concerning
more of our principles. He said that he came from Cleveland; that
he was poor and had no money. I talked to him, but suspected he
was a spy. He wore good clothes and yet said he was penniless.”
Sixteen-year-old Marie Isaak said:
“The man who shot the President came to my father’s office several
weeks ago and tried to get acquainted, but father thought he was
a spy or a detective, and so he was turned aside. Whether he succeeded
in getting into the society the next day or so I don’t know, for
I went away from the city then. What the man or the man’s errand
was I do not know, but it had something to do with the work of the
order.”
By others the assassin is reported
as saying: “I want to kill. I have been on the outside long enough.
I hear anarchistic talk. I hear theory. I hear what ought to be
done. But I know that there is a circle where there is more than
talk. I know this circle is represented in every large city in the
world. I am anxious to take part in the real work of the order,
and have always suffered rebuffs at Cleveland.
“Let me come into the inner ring here
in Chicago. I am willing to give my life to the cause. I will kill
any ruler that you select.”
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