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The Nihilistic agitators, Spies, Fielden, and their fellow-conspirators, remained in the cells beneath the detectives’ quarters last night. This morning they will be committed to jail. At midnight Chief Ebersold permitted reporters to see the prisoners. All were willing to talk, and answered all questions put to them except those more pertinently connected with the horrid deed committed the night before. Fielden was lying in his bunk when the reporters entered nursing his wounded leg and vainly trying to lose consciousness of the thrilling scenes he had just passed through by falling asleep. When the reporters entered he arose, rubbed his bloodshot eyes, and came to the bars. Fielden is rather below the medium height, thick-set, and muscular. His swarthy features, well covered with a thick growth of black hair and beard, are repulsive, and his low brow and catlike eyes do not improve his appearance. His clothing was well worn and of the poorest quality, and his blue hickory shirt gave him the appearance of a countryman. “I was 39 years old last February,” he began, “and was born in Todmorden, Lancashire, England. My parents were poor, but I succeeded in obtaining a fair education. The first memorable event in my life was when I lost my mother. I was then only 10 years old. At the age of 18 I attended an old-fashioned revival meeting, at which I was converted to the cause of Christianity. Then I converted to the cause of Christianity. Then I joined the Methodist Church, and subsequently preached the Gospel in my immediate neighborhood. In 1869 I decided to leave England and emigrate to the United States, and reached here in July, 1869, going first to Onleyville, R.I., where I obtained employment in a woolen mill. The following July I went to Ohio and worked on a farm a short time, when I came to Chicago. On arriving here I was employed by “Long John” to work on his farm at Summit, Ill. When winter came I found employment in stone quarries, and have followed that class of work most of the time since. “Soon after my arrival in America I began reading the works of [|Tom Paine], to which I became a convert, though I am now what is termed a materialist. My Socialistic career began five years ago, when I joined an organization called the Chicago Liberal League. I at once became an active and prominent member of the organization, and it was principally owing to my efforts that the National Liberal League was compelled to adopt the labor platform. My connection with the organization brought me into intimate relations with well-known Socialistic agitators, and I soon became an enthusiastic disciple of their cause. In 1884 I joined the Working-People’s Association, with which I have ever since been prominently identified. I believe that I have attained considerable celebrity as a public speaker, and especially as an advocate of the laboring people’s rights. I have assisted in building up Socialistic organizations in Chicago, and am proud of the fact that we are now 3,500 strong in membership, not including several thousands of known sympathizers. Carter Harrison ought to know the strength of our organization, as it was the Socialists that elected him Mayor of Chicago.” August Spies is a pale-faced, intellectual-looking German, 36 years of age. He was born in Hessia, and came to this country in 1873. He has been a Socialist all his life, and started a newspaper in support of that cause in 1879. He says he at first refused to speak at the Haymarket meeting because handbills had been issued requesting people to meet with arms. He afterwards consented to speak, as he wanted to defend the Socialists against the attacks of “capitalist organs,” who had held the Socialists responsible for the affair at McCormick’s factory. His speech, he says, was the most temperate that he ever delivered. He strongly deprecated the throwing of the bomb, which he denounced as an “ill-timed and outrageous affair.” It was, he thought, the impulsive outbreak of the people, and not prearranged. Regarding the quantities of explosives found in his office he says that he was ignorant of their presence there. He thinks they were probably placed there by the police in order to make a case against them. He had two cartridges in his desk, which he kept to show reporters, but they were perfectly harmless.
 * Excerpt from the May 6, 1886 Chicago Tribune article " In the Grasp of the Law: Spies, Fieldman, and other Socialists Behind Bars."**
 * Fielden and Spies Talk**.