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  • Arbeter Fraint's Take

    Hello All. Here is the Arbeter Fraint's take on the "Double Event."

    Note:

    1. The TOD.

    2. The grapes story.

    3. Complete absence of the Schwartz story.

    Cheers.
    LC

    [No. 40, P. 2, col. 3 bottom]
    Murder and Murder
    The Fruits of Today’s Society
    _______
    Not long ago, the blood of the slaughtered women dried up from the Whitechapel streets, and once again the cold stones of this neighborhood were warmed by the fresh blood of two other women
    ================================================== ====
    [No. 40, p. 3, col. 1]
    sacrificed by the hand of an unnatural person. These two unfortunate women were cut up in the same way as the first four.
    What interests us most about the latest double murder is that the first of them occurred near the door of our club and that many of us saw the still half-warm body of the unfortunate woman. Here we will give an account of everything that we know about the double murder and mainly about the first one, which was the closest one to us.
    The first murder occurred on Saturday night about a quarter to one. That evening there was a discussion in the club: “Should a Jew be a Socialist?” The hall was packed and the discussion was very lively. The debate went on until approximately eleven o’clock. At about 12 o’clock all the non-members scattered, and about twenty of the members remained in the club. These same [members] created a choir and sang various songs, for the most part, Russian.
    [P. 3, col. 1 cont’d]
    At about one o’clock the steward of the club, Comrade Louis Dimshits, came with his cart from the market. He was the first to notice the dead body. His horse became frightened as he drove into the gate and shied to the right, and this caused Dimshits to bend down to see the reason for this. He noticed a black object on the ground. He touched it with his whip and felt that it was a body. He immediately struck a match, but that was insufficient and he wasn’t able to get a [good] flame, he was nevertheless able by the light of the first match to see that the object was a woman. From excitement he jumped off the cart, ran through the back door into the club and raised an alarm. Immediately Comrade Gilyarovsky ran into the printing shop and editor’s office that are located in the same building as the club, but separated in the back by the yard.
    There was no one in the printing shop. Comrades Krants and Yaffa were busy in the editor’s office.
    “Don’t you know that a murdered woman is lying in the yard?” Gilyarovsky breathlessly called out. At first the two comrades did not want to believe him. “What, don’t you believe me?” Gilyarovsky quickly asked: “I saw blood.” Yaffa and Krants immediately ran out and went over to the gate. The gate was open and it was very dark near the gate. A black object was barely discernable near the brick building. Once they got very close, they could notice that it was the shape of a woman that was lying with its face to the wall, with its head toward the yard and with its feet pointing to the gate. Comrades Morris Eygel, Fridenthal and Gilyarovsky were standing around the body. Eygel struck a match and shouted to the figure lying there: “Get up!” “Why are you waking her?” asked Yaffa, who noticed that the woman was lying in a liquid. “Don’t you see that the woman is dead?”
    [P. 3, col. 2]
    In the meantime, there was quite a to-do going on inside the club, and everyone ran out into the yard. Dimshits, Eygel and Gilyarovsky ran to look for a policeman; ten minutes later they had found a pair of peace-keepers.• One of the policemen ran for a doctor, and Morris Eygel ran to the police station on Leman Street to report the murder. In the meantime, the commotion about the murder drew people, and the street that had been asleep began to become lively.
    The doctor arrived ten minutes later along with a lot of policemen. The doctor began to examine the body, which was still warm. He lifted the head, which a policeman illuminated with his night lantern, and a horrific picture appeared before his eyes. The pale face was green, the eyes tightly closed, the back hair disheveled, the neck sliced wide-open [and] bathed in blood. In one hand, the murdered woman held a bunch of grapes and in the other a box of candies. She was dressed in black: poor but clean. She wore a red flower on her breast. The doctor continued to examine her and found no other wounds other than the broad gash on her neck.
    After a while the gate and the club were closed and the whole house was guarded. The members who remained inside the club couldn’t get out, since no one was permitted to go in or to go out.
    [Regular] police and secret police arrived en masse. Everyone who had been in the club was examined, their hands and their clothing inspected, to see if there were blood stains. Everyone’s names and addresses were taken, and everyone was questioned as to whether they had seen anything unusual. During these examinations the police inspector received a telegram [saying] that in Meyter Square near Duke Street Oldgate, another woman had been murdered. This one had been cut into pieces just like the murdered Annie Chapman. Once again there was a commotion among the policemen and people began to run—out of the club, into the club, out into the yard, back from the yard. It went on like this until 4 [o’clock] in the morning. They searched everywhere; they looked for the murderer in all the neighbors’ houses, in the editor’s office, in every corner, under the tables, on the tables and in every pocket.
    During the examination of the members of the club, the Police Sergeant wanted to show, through his coarse behavior, that he was also somebody, therefore one of the members took him over to Parsons’ picture, which was nailed to the wall and explained to him that this is was Parsons the anarchist, who had been murdered in Chicago and asked him if he wanted to see the others, [if so] he could go upstairs to see [them]. Everyone laughed, and the poor policeman bit his lips.
    [P. 3, col. 3]
    The headman of this group also wanted to create difficulties for the club. Pretending that he was in a hurry, he asked if he could buy several cigars. Dimshits responded with a question: didn’t he know that the law, which he protects, forbids strangers from selling cigars in a club. If he wanted [however] they could give him two cigars. The police big shot did not refuse and asked to be given [the cigars].
    At about 4 [o’clock] in the morning a handcart was brought to take away the corpse. It was a terrible scene. The darkness was so dense that one person could not see another person near him. The high gate and the narrow path between two dark brick buildings without any kind of illumination seemed like an underground cave of [one of] the old crusaders’ castles where abominable scenes took place.
    When one got a bit used to the darkness one saw large, dark figures with secret lamps in their hands moving around an object—the wagon, on which the corpse had been placed. The doctor examined her once again. The tall figures, the policemen, then wrapped the corpse in a white cloth and bound it to the cart. At about four thirty the sad train [sic] began to move.
    Early Sunday morning all of Berner Street was already besieged, and every one looked at number 40 with the greatest curiosity. The club door did not close the whole day. Police and newspaper reporters ran around like poisoned mice.•
    Seeing that it was impossible to have any amusement that evening and therefore the club would lose money, the members decided to charge the reporters an admission fee if they wanted explanations [descriptions?] of the murder. This is what happened and the reporters willingly paid the donation to Socialist propaganda.
    After lunch, all the representatives of Socialist clubs came to Langdon to find out what was going on in the club, because many of them thought that something had happened inside the club itself.
    It was very interesting to see how many people streamed to the club like the sand of the sea and stood there the whole day looking at the gate as if the murdered woman and her murderer were painted on it. The crowd of people stood there like that until late at night.
    On Monday morning the world once again turned upside down in London and especially on Berner Street. The big daily newspapers already had the whole report of the two horrific murders. The newspaper sellers’ shouting about the murder in Berner Street and the other one in Meyter Street resounded through the streets, and people [continued] to stream to the club like dumb Jews to tashlikh.•
    At about ten o’clock they came to get Comrade Eygel, Louis Dimshits and Volf Vess [to bring them before] the grand jury, so that they could tell what they knew about the murder.
    [P. 4.col. 1]
    The grand jury consists of 12 men, who are selected from among respectable members of the community.
    It wasn’t until Tuesday that anyone knew who the murdered woman was. All that was known was that she belonged to the unfortunate street women and was known as “Tall Lisa.”•• On Tuesday she was identified by her sister, Maria Malcolm, the wife of a tailor.
    Her sister, the woman murdered, was 38 years old and had been married to one, named Vots [Watts?]. This person was a son of a wealthy wine merchant in Bath. They [he and his wife] did not get along and he left her. They had two children: one boy and one girl. The girl died and the boy is in boarding school. Since she had been separated from her husband, approximately eight years ago, she began to drink and later also began to lead a licentious life. For the last three years she visited her sister every Saturday, and she [her sister] used to help support her with a few shillings. During those three years, the murdered woman did not fail to visit her sister for [even] one Saturday. The last Saturday she did not come. That made her sister uneasy. On Sunday, when she heard about the murder, she went to the morgue to see the murdered woman and she identified her as her sister.
    * * *
    This is the story of the first martyr. Now we will give a brief glance at the second one, who was treated much more tragically than the first.
    One hour after the first murder, a second murder occurred in Meyter Square near the Duke Place Synagogue, a much crueler murder than the first.
    As a policeman was walking by the Square he noticed a dark human body lying on the ground in a dark corner. As he got closer to the body, he saw a gruesome scene. Before him lay the figure of a woman with her belly slit open. Her heart, lungs and liver were outside [her body]. Her throat was cut open wide and her innards were wrapped around [it]. Her face was disfigured and her nose was missing. The cut up body was lying in a lake of blood.
    The policeman raised an alarm. More police arrived as did a doctor, and the latter confirmed that a bestial crime had committed. The body was taken to Golden Lane Morgue.
    Until Tuesday night, no one even knew who the second martyr was. During this time a man named John Kelly recognized her. He recognized her from a mark on her arm, where the initials T. C. had been burned [into her skin]. The man had lived with her for 7 years without being married to her and they had had a good life together. The lived at Floyer and Din [Dean?] Street. The name of the woman was Katie. She had been married once before. Her husband’s name was Tom Conway, with whom she had several children. Her husband, who had left her a long time ago, was a soldier and must still be alive, but his whereabouts are unknown. Of all their children, only one married daughter is still alive. Her husband is a canon-worker. They live on King Street, Bermondsy.
    Last Saturday, the unfortunate [murdered] woman had gone out to pawn a pair of her husband’s boots, because they didn’t have anything to eat, and she never returned. She was horrifically murdered.
    ____________
    Yet that is not all. Tuesday at about 5 in the evening another dismembered woman was found not in East End but in West End near Westminster. The body was found among wood that must have been lying there for some time since it had already begun to rot. More parts were missing from this body [than from the other]. To this point there has been no trace of the murderer.
    * * *
    When one thinks about these horrible and cruel scenes, one involuntarily asks oneself: are we living in a forest with wild animals or among people? What is the meaning of these slaughters in public streets in the most illuminated quarter of the large, civilized city of London?
    Many are pondering this and must ultimately come to the conclusion that robbery was not the motive for these crimes. In any case, all doubt disappears [everyone must agree] that these cruelties did have a purpose. There is much more to consider; the murderer must be a maniac, a person whose strong imagination determinedly led him to follow these poor, unfortunate women street women. This maniac must also not be impoverished.
    All doubt also disappears that there must be more than one murderer, otherwise they would not be mad men and would have to have a reason for these murders.•
    One can also not accept the opinions of our little Jews•• who
    [P. 4, col. 3 top]
    began with the first murder to assert that G-d••• was doing this to punish the Socialists, because they gorged themselves on Yom Kippur. Unfortunately for them, the second murder, even more gruesome than the first, occurred near the Duke Place Synagogue, where Dr. Adler gives his vacuous sermons.
    Of all these opinions the unfortunate fact remains that poor women, naked, who do not have a home in which they can hide from murderers’ knives, are murdered in the streets as they try to earn their sad bread by selling their bodies.
    It is very sad and heartrending to hear that a few people, very late at night did ask on of the women why she was walking around in the street all alone, when murders are committed against her kind. She responded: “What should I do? I have no where to sleep.”
    Who does shudder upon hearing these words in which one can see [sic] whole volumes endless suffering and pain, much despair in the human condition—that people are sentence to bear the enormous burden of today’s thieving society.
    Not even seizing the murderer will stop these cruelties [from occurring] nor will it change by a hair’s breadth the lamentable condition of these unfortunate women. Only the destruction of today’s murderous system will stop the wild murders for money and salary etc. and will also at the same time stop the suffering and troubles of the working people.

  • #2
    Hi Lynn,

    Thank you. A great find.

    "The Fruits of Today’s Society."

    Indeed.

    What date was the article?

    Regards,

    Simon
    Last edited by Simon Wood; 03-20-2012, 12:34 AM. Reason: Question added.
    Never believe anything until it has been officially denied.

    Comment


    • #3
      October 5, 1888

      Hello Simon. Thanks.

      This is "Der Arbeter Fraint" October 5, 1888.

      Cheers.
      LC

      Comment


      • #4
        Thank-You for that Lynn. THAT was cool....Robert

        Comment


        • #5
          you are welcome

          Hello Robert. Entirely welcome.

          Cheers.
          LC

          Comment


          • #6
            Hello All. Here are the translator's footnotes--didn't copy last time.

            Cheers.
            LC

            • They are policemen, but that term is not used right here. [Trans.]
            • Like poisoned mice looking for an antidote. This is a common Yiddish expression. It means they ran around helter-skelter. [Trans.]
            • The custom of Jews on the first afternoon of Rosh Hashona, the start of the High Holidays, to go to flowing water preferably with fish, turn their pockets inside out or to throw bread into the water (casting their sins into the water) and recite prayers asking for forgiveness. [Trans.]
            •• Lange Lisa in Yiddish . Literally ‘long Lisa’ meaning she was tall. [Trans.]
            • I’m not quite sure what this means. [Trans.]
            •• Pejorative. [Trans.]
            ••• Fully spelled out in the original. [Trans.]
             This is not to be taken literally. It means they barely have anything to wear. [Trans.]

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by lynn cates View Post
              Hello Simon. Thanks.

              This is "Der Arbeter Fraint" October 5, 1888.

              Cheers.
              LC
              Hello Lynn,

              Wonderful. Congratulations and well done!
              There is much of interest in there.

              Best wishes

              Phil
              Chelsea FC. TRUE BLUE. 💙


              Justice for the 96 = achieved
              Accountability? ....

              Comment


              • #8
                Great stuff, Lynn.

                Comment


                • #9
                  More good stuff Lynn...thanks!

                  Dave

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    This is very good, Lynn.

                    Thanks for sharing it with us.
                    Best Wishes,
                    Hunter
                    ____________________________________________

                    When evidence is not to be had, theories abound. Even the most plausible of them do not carry conviction- London Times Nov. 10.1888

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      the same

                      Hello Dave. Thanks for looking.

                      Cheers.
                      LC

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        pleasure

                        Hello Cris. The pleasure is all mine.

                        Cheers.
                        LC

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Fascinating

                          Thanks Lynn, plenty to think about there.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            no Schwartz

                            Hello Phil. Thanks. Sorry I missed you before.

                            What do you make of the lack of the Schwartz story?

                            Cheers.
                            LC

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              sorry

                              Hello Robert. Sorry I missed you too. We all get old.

                              Cheers.
                              LC

                              Comment

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