Life of Albert Parsons

WHAT A WELL-KNOWN WRITER ON POLITICAL ECONOMY HAS TO SAY.

My DEAR MRS. PARSONS: I have read your "Life of Albert R. Parsons" with an interest that increased from the beginning to the end of the volume. It has corrected some false impressions that I had in regard to Mr. Parsons' supposed responsibility for the throwing of that fatal bomb. I had never thought that that occurrence was the result of an actual conspiracy on the part of those who called the Haymarket meeting, deliberately planned as a part of the demonstration should circumstance favor it but I confess that I did think until the reading of this book that it was a natural consequence of your husband's teachings. I am glad to acknowledge that I now believe I was mistaken. At a public meeting in Minneapolis, on November 11th last, I thought it my duty to protest against a resolution denouncing the execution of your husband and his fellow-sufferers as a "judicial murder:' Should such a resolution be again offered in my presence you may depend that I shall not make the same mistake, but shall, instead, give it my support. It seems to me that every one with the same prejudices that I had, who reads your book, must reach the same conclusion, and on this account, if for no other reason, I earnestly hope that it will be widely read by all persons who are honest enough to wish to be just. But, although I have erroneously thought Albert R. Parsons criminally responsible for public utterances calculated and intended to incite to deeds of violence simple-minded men engaged in strikes and thereby already excited by their sufferings and wrongs, I have never doubted his honesty of purpose or his loyalty to his own convictions of duty. Therefore I have revered him as a martyr; and his voluntary surrender in order to share the fate of his comrades, his dignified conduct during the memorable trial, and the sublime heroism of his death, place him, in my mind, among the noblest of that highest aristocracy of human nature-the "noble army of martyrs." This is irrespective altogether of the rightfulness or wrongfulness of the cause for which he died. His children need never be ashamed of their father's life, and they ought to be proud of his glorious death. And as for you, his wife, his companion, and comrade, I do not wonder at your devotion to his memory and to the cause he so earnestly and ably espoused.

Respectfully yours,

W. G. H. SMART.

SOME OF THE NUMEROUS COMMENTS OF THE PRESS

The "Life of Albert R. Parsons," published by Mrs. Lucy E. Parsons, his widow, is just from the press, and furnishes the reading world a volume full of interesting narrate, and material matter for thought. The mere story of Parsons' life is a stirring tale, and the problems presented in his sayings and doings, and especially in his death, are worthy any man's considerations. * * *