SENTENCED TO DEATH.
Decree of the Court in the Case of the Chicago Anarchists.
The trial of the eight anarchists held responsible for the massacre at Haymarket,
Chicago, has at last been brought to an end. Seven of the prisoners- A. R. Parsons,
August Spies, Samuel Fielden, Louis Lingg, George Engel, Michael Schwab and
Adolph Fischer- have been sentenced to be hanged, and Oscar Neebe has been condemned
to undergo fifteen years' imprisonment at hard labor.
The scene in the court room was, according to a Chicago dispatch, a most impressive
one. Judge Gary, who has always been considered the coldest and hardest man
on the Bench, showed more emotion than he every thought capable of. His voice
faltered and he was much affected. The prisoners all took the sentence calmly
and coolly, except Schwab, who is a broken and nervous man. He grew pale and
gasped for breath. The others had apparently long ago given up all hope of being
looked upon hereafter as martyrs to a great cause.
The closing scenes were watched with the profoundest interest by the public,
and for more than an hour the street in front of the Court House was thronged
by an eager crowd, not one-tenth of whom could possibly hope to gain admittance.
The police were in full force all over the court room, and there was more than
the ordinary large attendance of ladies. The prisoner Parsons was the last of
the prisoners to address the court in response to the Judge's demand whether
they had anything to say why sentence should not be passed. He spoke continuously
five hours and forty minutes.
When the sentence was passed, all the prisoners rose and began slowly to walk
out of the court room with the bailiffs who had them in charge. As they rose,
Mrs. Parsons came up and kissed her husband. Mrs. Ames also kissed Parsons on
the cheek. The relatives of the other defendants wrung their hands, but none
of the women shed a tear. They aimed to cheer up the condemned men by a show
of fortitude. The condemned men passed slowly out of the court-room to the jail.
As Parsons passed some police officers he drew his hand across his throat in
a significant manner.
A daughter born in the West Polk street at the same hour that her father, Samuel
Fielden, in Judge Gary's court, began giving reasons why sentence of death should
not be passed upon him. But few who listened to Fielden's plea guessed the cause
of the added bitterness in his bitter speech. The knowledge of the scene being
enacted at his little home made his burden harder to bear. The mother was heartbroken
at the thought of the improbability of the new-born babe ever seeing her father. | 
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