Voltairine de Cleyre, “Owing to a misunderstanding…” (1895)

Aye, and deaf and dumb in Kansas! For what, save utter deafness to all justice, could lead a judge to so far forget the dignity of authority as to sentence any living being without first asking the question: “Have you anything to say which sentence should not be pronounced against you?” True, the question is often a farce. I venture to say that not once in five hundred times is the sentence altered thereby; but true also we are treading upon dangerous times when judges no longer respect even the form of justice. […]

EIGHTEEN or nineteen years ago, away out in a sleepy little Michigan town, there fell into my hands a tiny bit of a paper “no bigger than a man’s hand”; there were only four sheets […]

ALL readers of Mother Earth are familiar with the story of last February’s “riot,” and the subsequent arrest, trial, and discharge of H. Weinberg and myself. What they are not so familiar with is the […]