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Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 18, 1910
Lucy Parsons Recalls Terrible Day in 1887 When Chicago Martyrs Were Murdered
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of November 17, 1910:
A LOYAL WIFE AND LOVING MOTHER
——-(Extract from “Liberator.”)
So the fatal day at last arrived. It was a sad, quiet, chilly November morning. I had not seen my husband for three days. We had two children then. I felt that I must take them to see their father, to look into his noble face once more, and to receive his blessing. I took them by the hands and led them to the jail. When I arrived there I found the accursed place where the slaughter of the innocent was to take place. all roped in for one whole block around, and police with rifles marching up and down all around. I entreated them to let me see him just once more! I was gruffly ordered away. I then begged them, the brutes , to take the innocent children to see their father; certainly they had done no wrong to deserve punishment; but the reply was a patrol wagon was called and I and the children were tumbled in and carried off to the station house and locked in a cell while the murder was being committed.
About noon the matron came to my cell and said in a cold-hearted manner: “Mrs. Parsons, it is all over; your husband has been hanged.” I remembered nothing more until I realized that my little girl was patting me on the cheek and saying. “Mamma, are you asleep?”
Arouse, ye slaves! Would you read the above from the pen of Fellow Worker Lucy Parsons (who is today a fighting member of the I. W. W.) and still sit down the sleep? Be up and doing. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.
Don’t have it said that old women like fellow Worker Parsons, who has always been on the firing line and has given no quarter, has to do the work in her old age that you lumberjacks, shingle weavers, miners, etc., should be doing.
Do one-half the work that is daily being done by the loyal wife of Albert Parsons, and we will have no fault to find; and, at that, you can only say that you have done your duty.
Avenge the crime that was committed in Chicago in 1887 by organizing in the one great revolutionary union, so that every day may be a day’s march nearer to our freedom. That is all that Albert Parsons asked you to do in 1887. That is all his loyal and loving wife asks you to do today.
Let us resolve to smash every “SACRED CONTRACT” in the year 1911, and establish a universal eight-hour day for every man who labors in America. There was more agitation for the eight-hour day in Chicago in the year 1887 than there is today. Can it be that we are getting cowardly and more subservient as the master gets stronger? Let us prove that such is not the case.
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[Photograph and emphasis added.]
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SOURCE
Quote Albert Parsons, Chicago, Nov 11, Alarm p1, Nov 19, 1887
https://www.worldcat.org/title/alarm/oclc/10478576
Note: article reprinted in full here:
The Agitator of Nov 15, 1911, page 1
“Day of Martyrdom” from The Alarm of Nov 19, 1887
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/agitator/v2n01-nov-15-1911-agitator.pdf
Industrial Worker
(Spokane, Washington)
-Nov 17, 1910, page 4
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iw/v2n35-w87-nov-17-1910-IW.pdf
IMAGE
Lucy Parsons, Life of AP, pub Chg 1889
https://archive.org/details/lifeofalbertrpar00pars/page/n11/mode/2up
See also:
Lucy Parsons, wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Parsons
Tag: Lucy Parsons
https://weneverforget.org/tag/lucy-parsons/
The Liberator of Chicago, ed by Lucy Parsons, 1905-
https://www.worldcat.org/title/liberator/oclc/30761236
“Comrades, let us all unite.”
“Devoted to revolutionary propaganda, along lines of anarchistic thought.”
Published by: The Liberator Publishing Group,
Editor: Lucy E. Parsons.
The Liberator of Sept 10, 1905, wiki photo
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Liberator_(Chicago)_front_page_1905-09-10.png
_front_page_1905-09-10.png){kind=link}
Note: re above photo of Lucy Parsons, see:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/ds.10459/
Contributor Names
Brauneck, A. (August), photographer
Created / Published
[1886]
Notes
– Title from item.
– Photographer’s name written as A. Braunach, N.Y., on verso. Listed as August Brauneck in New York City directories for 1888, 1894, and 1898.
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Annie Laurie – John McDermott
Sung by Albert Parsons for Lucy Parsons
on the eve of his execution: