TRADING IN BLOOD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13501, 27 July 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

TRADING IN BLOOD.

THE IDAHO MURDERS. Great interest, continues to be shown in the trial at Boise, Idaho, of William Haywood, • secretary of the Western Federation of Miners, .'who with others is accused of procuring the murder of exGovernor Steunenberg and others. -The active agent in the matter was Harry Orchard, who has been called as a, witness, and whose callous 'revelations of, a series of cold-blooded murders- has astounded the whole world. He has been subjected to a severe crossexamination, and for the first time since the trial began he recently showed that there was some feeling left in him. This was ".when, one of the counsel for the defence, questioned him on his antecedents and: his family. . There was a perceptible tremor in his voice as he admitted that his parents were living, and that he had a brother and sisters. Yet, immediately afterwards this strange man admitted that he had quarrelled with his brother. " I stuck » pitchfork into him," he said, in much the same tone as he might have ordered a fiigar. ..;.•;. Orchard also admitted .that. for years ' before he became a member of the federation he lived a roving life, thieving, gambling, and. getting his living without .work. .-. . £40 FOB' 50 LIVES. When he broached the subject of blowing up the Vindicator mine he knew there was a car-load of'powder in the mine - ,' because he had stolen some and sold it. He was offered £40 to touch off": the powder, and consented to do so, although he knew there were fifty men in the mine and the explosion meant death to them all. ..At. the time the mine. was guarded by militia, but one passage was left unattended, and he and Scholtz got in that way. But the "eager" discovered them and shot at them, and the attempt to fire the powder had to be abandoned. Two" months later the plan was taken up again. This time a pistol was attached to the lift bar at the seventh level in such a manner that the cage should lift the bar and discharge the pistol into a box of Giant caps, which, in turn, would fire the powder.' The deaths of the minesuperintendent and another man a week after the contrivance had been rigged up were, witness believed, due to it. Regarding the plot to wreck a train conveying 218 persons, at Cripple Creek, Orchard stated that his only reason for saving the train was that he was a little jealous, because he had not been employed on the job. V * orchard's evidexck uxshakxx. Try as they would the counsel for Haywood were unable to shake in the slightest degree the testimony of Orchard. The latter held tenaciously to his story, though he appears to-be paving his own path to the electric-chair by his horrible admis- . sions of the committal of fiendish crimes. It was put to Orchard that the railway detectives .had .arranged to draw spikes, as. an apparent attempt to derail the train at Cripple Creek, and charge him with :r attempted train-wrecking, but lie declared ho had not heard the story. In the cross-examination of Orchard ...~"a fruitless endeavour was made ■ to show that his evidence was manufactured and that the Independence station . - outrage, instead of having been procured by the Western Federation of Miners, was a "plant" arranged by the enemies of the federation and Intended to be comparatively harmless, but which was con- . verted by a mischance into a great tragedy. . ~ -Orchard admitted that he had burned down. his cheese .factory near Brighton, in Canada, and collected 600 dollars for the insurance...... , ";' ' _, ~ ' : .. Questioned • regarding the attempt to murder Bradley he said :—" At the time I put. strychnine in Bradley's milk, I was that desperate that- I did not care if I killed the whole familyfather, mother, baby, .and three servants." "Cross-examined upon his various ifteinpts -on '- Bradley, Orchard said 'i tihen the milk plot failed he went ahead and manufactured a bomb. He declared that his object in continuing his career of crime was to get a ranch which the leaders of the Western Federation of Miners had promised him. ; . .;-. ... 1 J.HOIOEOUS BELIEF.;-■■ , ■ ''■"'■ ''■""'' ■Welcome, indeed-was a moment of merriment, which came when Mr. Richardson asked. Orchard where he got fresh meatwhile he was living at Globevillc, and if he did' not steal sheep from .the stockyard, because he had no money to purchase meat. Orchard admitted the imputation of stealing sheep, but said,..." I did have money." ••> .• •" »" Then you found it easier to steal a sheep than to go down and make Haywood give one up." said Mr. Richardson. " It wasn't very hard to do either," replied t Orchard, amid la lighter. Later Orchard testified that he had planned to blow up the boarding-house at" Globeville, where 150 non-unionists were living. He actually stole the powder with which to execute his plot, but * 'when he told Haywood what he was doing the latter would not stand for it, and the . plan was abandoned. Ho was not offered a price for,the job, but was willing to do it to oblige his friend Max Ma rich. r. Witness' cross-examination was devoted to incidents connected with attempts on Governor ~ Pea-body, Judge Gabbert, and Judge Goddard, more particularly with regard, to the difficulty experienced by the • conspirators in "getting" their intended victims. , • . ', " Then ~ questions were put as to the Steunenberg < crime. -Orchard first saw Mr. Steunenberg in the hotel at Boise, and planned to explode a bomb in his room. . He did not care whether he blew up "the whole -hotel,' but he abandoned his plan because he feared that he was suspected and might be unable to get away after carrying out the murder.