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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday July 14, 1920
Atlanta Penitentiary – Kate Richards O’Hare Visits Eugene Debs
From The Butte Daily Bulletin of July 12, 1920:
DRAMATIC VISIT PAID ‘GENE BY KATE O’HARE
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Two Comrades Meet in Atlanta Prison
After Long Separation;
Think of Others’ Suffering.
—–(By the Federated Press.)
Atlanta, Ga., July 12.-In a visit full of dramatic incidents, Kate Richards O’Hare visited Eugene V. Debs in the federal penitentiary July 3.
Mrs. O’Hare, recently freed from the penitentiary, was ushered into the prison. The two comrades embraced.
“How glad I am to see you free, Kate,” Debs said.
“I’m not used to being free yet,” she answered. They sat down, facing each other across the table. It was a fair afternoon and the rays of the sun filtered through the steel bars of the visitors’ cell, and lighted up the features of Debs, who smiled a smile of joy to see his old friend.
“Your coming here is like a ray of sunlight to me,” said Debs. “Tell me of your prison experiences.”
“I am not thinking of myself,” Mrs. O’Hare answered, “but of little Mollie Steimer, who now occupies my cell at Jefferson City, and of her appalling sentence of fifteen years. She is a little 19-year-old girl, smaller than my Kathleen, and her sole crime is her love for the oppressed.” At Debs’ questions, Mrs. O’Hare related the story of the girl. Debs’ lashes damped and his eyes were tear-stained, his face showed the emotion in his heart.
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