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Forge, and assisted in the repulse of the Hessians from the New Jersey towns.
His ancestors having proved their devotion to religious and political freedom in the two proceeding centuries, Albert R. Parsons may be characterized as a devotee to the cause of industrial freedom in the nineteenth century.
-Written by Gen. W. H. Parsons, his brother.
VIEWS OF GENERAL PARSONS
NORFOLK, VA., Sept. 16.—Gen. W. H. Parsons, the eldest brother of A.R. Parsons, the condemned anarchist, was interviewed today by your correspondent at Newport News, where he holds the position of inspector of customs and is much respected for his scholarly attainments and his high-toned deportment. The general has been much averse to being interviewed and until the present has declined to converse with reporters on the subject of his brother's sentence. On being asked to give a brief outline of the life of A.R. Parsons he said:
"A.R. Parsons was born in Montgomery, Ala., June 20, 1848, and is, therefore, just 39 years of age. He is of pilgrim-father parentage, his ancestors—five brothers—landing together in 1632 on Narragansett Bay, and their descendants of that name, according to John Mason of Virginia, who cites the authority of Berknap's "History of New England," were proverbial for good scholarship and honorable character. Gen. Samuel Parsons, from whom Albert's father was named, was a major-general of the revolutionary war, and his grand-uncle of the same name lost an arm in the battle of Bunker Hill. Theophilus Parsons, the judicial author, was the pivot of the law, not only of New England but of American jurisprudence in his day. It has been the boast of all of that name in all lands and states that no one who bore it was ever convicted or justly charged with a felonious offense.
"Albert R. Parsons, the accused anarchist, is not an exception. He is a political offender, and not a criminal. We assert this, because the incidents of his biography, upon which you interrogate me, will demonstrate this." His father moved to Alabama in 1830. A.R. Par-
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