Ross Winn

Voltairine De Cleyre

1903

Retrieved on March 13, 2012 from en.wikisource.org

Originally appearing in Winn’s Firebrand , Vol. II No. 1, January 1903.

Most of my readers are doubtless acquainted with the sad and terrible news of the shooting of our beloved and gifted comrade, Voltairine De Cleyre. We of The Firebrand office are so far from telegraphic communication that, as our paper goes to press, we are yet in ignorance of our strickened comrade’s condition. But we hope for the best.

We are indebted to Comrade James Myers, of Philadelphia, for a report of the sad affair, and for newspaper clippings.

Herman Helcher, the assailant of Comrade De Cleyre, seems from the account, to be an unfortunate victim of one of those false and vicious ideas that form the basis of Christian ethics. The idea of love-ownership, which is the foundation of the present system of legal marriange, was the logical motive that impelled this weak-minded boy to commit his terrible deed. Thousands of similar cases have occured and are constantly occuring. Much as all of us would deplore the death of our gifted, grand and gloriously intellectual Voltairine De Cleyre, we can only pity her slayer as the victim of false and fatal teachings, which it is the mission of Anarchy to destroy.