WHY ANARCHISTS KILL RULERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 101, 27 April 1912, Page 17

WHY ANARCHISTS KILL RULERS.

QUEER BELIEFS AND FANATICAL BRAVADO. Judging from the revelations contained '•The Anarchists. Their Faith and Their record" (John Lanei, it would seem that •Anarchists are often weak-minded men whose minds get into a muddled state through reading Anarchist literature, rather j than --self-sacrificing hereos" who slay mon ' archs because of the greivances— real or imaginary- of their fellow-men. Take, for instance, the riso of Leauthier, who nearly killed M. Georgevitch, the Servian! Minister to France, in 1593. I This fellow was nineteen years of age, a shoemaker, and highly industrious, but his education had been defective and his mind was week. He hud read much Anarchist literature, aud thought himself a "martyr of the cause." When he read also that the hated bourgeoisie "consumed but did not produce" he really thought it concerned people who fed at cafes and restaurants. He made up his mind, therefore, to kill a bourgeois "consumer." So one day he put on his best clothes. went to a famous restaurant on the Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle, and ordered a good dinner, with the best of wines. He had with him his shoemaker's knife, and he was going to kill a "consumer." But his manner was suspicious, the waiter watched him, and, -when Leauthier refused to pay his I bill, he was put outside. "LONG LIVE ANARCHY!" The next evening he went out again. Going to the Avenue de l'Opera, he ordered ! dinner at the Bouillon Duval, and had ! j barely finished it when it happened that a well-dressed customer began putting ou his coat near Leathier. The latter sprang up. stabbed the man. and rushed from the place hatiess. He was asked afterwards why he had stabbed a complete stranger. "Because he was well-dressed and: wore a decoration." And on being told who his victim was, he replied. "An Ambassador! Well, so much the better." The fanaticism and determination of Anarchists who have been guilty of assassination are futhcr illustrated by the •manner in which srante of them have ' gloried In their foul deeds after sentence | has been passed upon them. Take Luccheni. who killed the Empress Elisabeth of Austria at Geneva in 180 S. When *i)e was arrested he exclaimed, "I dealt : her a good blow. I hope I have killed her. ilt will be (Tungi Humbert's turn next, and other Sovereigns will follow. Long live Anarchy! Long live the Revolution!" HIS DUTY And when he was sentenced to solitary confinement for life, Lucchenl cried, as he was led from the court, "Down with all the aristocrats! If there were only two hundred brave men like myself all the thrones would soon be vacant."

And then, in a striking account of how j President McKinley was assassinated by Leon Czolgosz, Mr Vlzetelly tells how the assassin, after his arrest, was alternately callous and defiant, and failed to exhibit the slightest sign of remorse. .He even refused the assistance of counsel, and at the outset of the proceedings he pleaded 'KMlry."

"I ant an Anarchist," he said, "and I have done my duty."

And even when seated in the electric chair, while the warders were strapping fhrm. he said, "T killed the President because he was an enemy of the good people the working people, and I am not sorry I did so."