Life of Albert Parsons

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ADOLPH FISCHER.

WRITTEN IN COOK COUNTY JAIL IN THE SUMMER OF 1886 WHILE AWAITING THE EXECUTION OF THE DEATH SENTENCE.

On the banks of the Weser, in Germany, about seven miles above where its waters lose themselves in the North Sea, lies the old city, Bremen. In the middle ages Bremen was one of the free cities which formed the Hanseatonic Union-a combination famous because of its constant wars against the freebooters and for its wealth and power. These cities monopolized the trade of the world in those days. Bremen is still one of the most important commercial centers of the European continent, and has today a population of about 140,000. This is the place of my birth. It will be of little interest to the reader were I to extensively describe the history of my childhood. It is the same as that of the average child. Therefore I may only state that 1 attended school eight years and a half and that I sailed for the United States when a lad of fifteen years. Soon after my arrival on these shores I entered apprenticeship as compositor in the printing office of my brother, William B. Fischer, at Little Rock, Ark., at which place he published a weekly German journal. Since the termination of my apprenticeship I have been working at my trade in different cities of this country. In June, 1883, destiny landed me in Chicago, where I have resided with my family since, occupying a situation as compositor in the office of the Arbeiter-Zeitung until my arrest on the 5th .day of May for alleged participation in the Haymarket affair. I am a member of the German Typographical Union, which organization I joined in 1879 in St. Louis, Mo. At the latter place, in 1881, I also entered into a matrimonial engagement, the result being three children-one girl and two boys-who are with my wife in this city.

Being familiar with the doctrines of Socialism from my earliest youth. I have held it my duty to spread these principles so dear to me, whenever and wherever I could. What induced me to become a Socialist, you may ask? I will relate in a few words.

It happened during the last of my school days that our tutor of historical science one day chanced to refer to Socialism, which was at that time beginning to flourish in Germany, saying it meant "division of property." I am inclined now to believe that it was a general instruction given by the Government to the patriotic pedagogues to periodically describe Socialism to their elder pupils as a most horrible thing. It is a customary policy on the part of the respective monarchial Governments of the Old World to prejudice