Saw Czolgosz Fire the Shots [excerpt]

[Denver Republican.]

     Two paces behind the assassin, Czolgosz, when he fired the fatal shot, was G. S. Wedgwood of Denver, who lives at the Brown Palace hotel. Mr. Wedgwood merely happened to be in Buffalo on that day. From there he went to Chicago, and through his acquaintance with Mayor Harrison obtained the privilege of being present at the rigid cross-examination of Emma Goldman behind closed doors by the police.

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     Mr. Wedgwood was much impressed by the magnetic personality of Emma Goldman. He describes her as a woman of a type capable of wielding a wonderful influence over all with whom she comes in contact. “She is not pretty,” he said, “but her eyes and her voice have a mesmeric power which when taken with her incendiary doctrines make her a dangerous person to be allowed at large to preach her creed of violence and assassination. Yet there was something to inspire a fearful respect of the woman in the way in which she alone met and parried the inquisitorial cross-examining of Mayor Harrison, the chief of police and several of the crack detectives of the force noted for their ability to force confessions from prisoners. With irony, sarcasm, flashes of wit, and veiled humor, she held her own against them all for two hours, during which they tried in every way at their command to cause her to incriminate herself or some of her confederates, but she turned all questions, and the officers came out of the sweat box decidedly warmed up by their experience, while the woman anarchist was perfectly calm, unruffled and quietly smiling.”