Let no one think that all London Anarchists are mere talkers who have not the courage of their convictions. It is a fact that many of the outrages which have taken place on the Continent were arranged beforehand here in London, within the four walls of the Club Autonomie. In the month of November, 1891, the following advice was given to the “companions” by a London Anarchist newspaper: “A knowledge of chemistry is very useful, and all young men should join a chemistry class at once. There is no need to proclaim the fact that you are an Anarchist, but study diligently and quietly till you have mastered all the secrets of modern explosives.” And it concluded by suggesting that a result of such a knowledge might be that the rich and the rulers of the country would be “swiftly translated to Paradise.”

MURDER!

Workmen, why allow yourselves, your wives, and children, to be daily murdered by the foulness of the dens in which you are forced to live?

The average age of the working-classes is some 29 years, and the average age of the rich 55 years.

It is time the slow murder of the poor, who are poisoned by thousands in the foul, unhealthy slums, from which robber landlords exact monstrous rents, was stopped.

You have paid in rent the value over and over again of the rotten dens in which you are forced to dwell. Government has failed to help you. The time has come to help yourselves.

PAY NO RENT

to land-thieves and house-farmers, who flourish and grow fat on your misery, starvation, and degradation.

A MASS MEETING
WILL BE HELD IN
VICTORIA PARK
(Near the Band Stand)
On Sunday, July 26th, at 3 p.m.,

When the following Speakers will address the meeting in support of a No Rent Campaign:—

D. J. Nicoll, W. B. Parker, S. Mainwaring, C. W. Mowbray, J. Turner, R. Jane, and E. Hall.

Hurrah! for the kettle, the club, and the poker,
Good medicine always, for landlord and broker;
Surely ’tis best to find yourselves clobber,
Before paying rent to a rascally robber.

An Anarchist Handbill.

This advice was acted on largely by the “comrades” in London, and classes for the study of chemistry were instituted in various parts. Some Anarchists even joined the chemistry classes established by the various institutions in and around London. Following on this came the publication of a series of dynamite manuals. Johann Most (who, it may be remembered, was in 1881 sent to prison here in London for a violent article in Die Freiheit applauding the assassination of the Czar, Alexander II.) wrote a bomb-manual entitled “Revolutionary War Science.” This was published by the German Anarchists of London in their native tongue, and circulated largely in and around the German colony in West London. The book was afterwards translated into English and published in America, whence large quantities were imported into this country and distributed among the English-speaking “comrades.” In this book Johann Most explains exactly where bombs should be placed in churches, palaces, ball-rooms, and festive gatherings. Never more than one Anarchist is to take charge of any attempt, so that in case of discovery the Anarchist party may suffer as little harm as possible. The book contains also a complete dictionary of poisons, and preference is given to poison from dead bodies. Poison is advocated for use against politicians, traitors and spies.

Among the French Anarchists in London, “Le Anarchiste Indicateur” was the Bible of the bombists. This work, it is said, was written by an ex-member of the French Detective Service. Another dynamite manual was entitled, “Advice and Warning to the Commercial Classes,” by “Father Gavroche,”—the nom de guerre of a certain Irish-American revolutionist—and contained instructions for the making of every kind of bomb known, as well as for the mixing of a composition known as Greek Fire, which it advocated as useful for throwing over policemen and setting them afire. These publications explained the use and manufacture of all kinds of explosives—gun-cotton, dynamite, roburite, woodite, fulminate of mercury, picrate of potash, besides endless explosive mixtures, of which a common one was chlorate of potash and sugar. This latter would be mixed in about equal parts, and a small glass tube containing sulphuric acid inserted. When the bomb was thrown, the tube would break and an explosion result.

A curious advertisement once appeared in the Commonweal. It was as follows:—

“Special Notice to Emancipator Groups in Scotland and England. The ‘Emancipator’ (the new holey Bible) will shortly be published.”

This “holey Bible” was in reality a manual of instructions for the making of every kind of explosive known, and was partly set up in type when the police raided the offices of the Commonweal. But our smart police were certainly out-witted by the Anarchist compositor in charge of the place. The type, for safety, had been placed near the ceiling, on top of a number of shelves. Having, as they thought, ransacked every nook and cranny in the place, the police officers were about to depart without having giving this place a thought. One of them, however, on reaching the door, noticed the omission, and carelessly asked the “comp” to bring down the contents. Placing a small pair of steps against the shelves in such a way as to render them totally unsafe to stand upon, the wily “comp” rushed up them, and, to make believe of saving himself from falling, purposely clutched hold of the type, dragged it to the floor with him and “pied” the lot; or, in plain English, broke it completely up. And the police lost a “find.”

The second time the police raided the Commonweal they discovered a manuscript of explosive recipes hidden behind a loose brick in the wall. This formed part of the indictment of the compositor who was convicted at the Old Bailey soon afterwards for seditious libel, incitement to murder, etc.

In August, 1891, a Revolutionary Conference was held at the Jewish Anarchist Club, in Berner Street, E., to consider the advisability of “action.” Representatives of Anarchism from various provincial centres, as well as from different parts of London, attended. The Conference decided that a number of bomb outrages should take place in this country at an early date. One of the delegates present from Walsall happened to be employed in an iron foundry in that place, and, it being thought that an order from an employee would disarm suspicion, it was agreed that he should get his firm to make a number of iron castings for bombs. Of course, orders were not given for bomb-shells, but for “electrical lubricators.” The matter was placed in the hands of a prominent member of the Commonweal Group. A letter was sent to Walsall by this individual, containing a sketch of the kind of bomb required. This was to be a large, pear-shaped, shell, with a hole at the top for receiving the explosive matter, and three holes at the bottom for the insertion of detonators. The object in having the bombs pear-shaped was so that, when thrown, they were bound to fall on the detonators and thereby cause an explosion. When the scheme had thoroughly matured, the bombs being safely stowed away in the cellar of the Anarchist Club in Goodall Street, Walsall, the police, who had all along known of the conspiracy, pounced down upon the conspirators and conveyed them to the police station. It turned out during the trial that the “comrade” of the Commonweal Group to whom we had entrusted the London management of the whole affair was a police informer!

One curious fact in connection with these Anarchist chemistry classes was that they were made up almost entirely of mere boys. One of these took home some explosive substance given him to experiment with, but the stuff was found by his father, who, not liking the look of it, buried it in the garden in his son’s absence. Next day the police raided the house. This incident raised the “comrades’” suspicions—there was evidently a spy somewhere in the camp. Following on this came a number of police raids on the Club Autonomie, and many private houses in London. As a result many of the schemes the Anarchists had decided upon were hastily abandoned.

Mingling with the Anarchists I have been greatly amused at the numerous brilliant schemes of revenge proposed by the breathers of fire and slaughter—for, after all, most of their propositions are mere talk and talk only. Conceited beyond belief, the average Anarchist delights in impressing the “outsider” with his supposed bloodthirstiness and daring. Most Anarchists I have met harbour schemes of outrage of some kind or other, but are prevented from carrying them out by a wholesome dread of the law. One has designs on the King or the Prime Minister; another proposes to blow up the Stock Exchange or the Bank of England; a third, misanthropically inclined, hates the working-classes more bitterly than he does the makers and administrators of the law, who are his natural enemies, and would, if he could, kill them by thousands. Why this hatred of the working-classes it is easy to understand, for the workers are the great obstacle between the Anarchist and the carrying out of his crazy crotchets.

An original, if not altogether brilliant, scheme, was that the “comrades” should invade the galleries of the large theatres, armed with bags of lice, which were to be emptied on the occupants of the parts below. Another scheme was to fumigate with sulphuretted hydrogen the carriages waiting for their rich owners outside the opera houses. A “comrade” once proposed to me a scheme whereby we were to cause a number of explosions in one night. The idea was this: Armed with strong catapults and several small bombs made of thick glass (I was shown one), and filled with chemical explosives, we were to mount an omnibus passing through the West End, and fire the bombs, by means of the catapults, through the windows of the mansions as we passed. Needless to say, I did not fall in with the idea.

Perhaps the most important things captured by the police as a result of their raids were a number of secret manifestoes. One of these was headed: “Death to the Judges! Death to the Jurors!” and concluded with the significant words: “Comrades, you shall see us at work!” Another secret document captured by the police was an English translation of a French document—“The Manifesto of the French Anarchist Soldiers.”

As everyone knows, in France military service is compulsory, even Anarchists having to serve. The “French Anarchist Soldiers” conclude their manifesto as follows: “We are the revolted—the judges! We will be the avengers! When they give us orders to fire, we will turn the muzzles of our firearms upon the dressed-up scoundrels who command us! Hurrah for Anarchy!”

At the Revolutionary Conference before-mentioned several “comrades” volunteered to join the army, with the object of “permeating it with revolutionary ideas.” Accordingly, a special manifesto—“An Address to the Army”—was published and circulated largely among the soldiers. Its watchword was “Revolt! Revolt!” and the soldiers were asked, “What shall yours be? Several of our comrades are in your midst.” It continued: “Will you answer their signal, or obey the commands of your officers? Let us hope when our comrades cry ‘Revolt,’ that your answer will thunder forth, ‘Revolt! Revolt against tyranny and robbery! Hurrah for Anarchy and the Social Revolution!’”