Hartmann the Anarchist

It is also the case that Anarchists, especially Bakunin, writing in 1895 did advocate acts of violence. To most people anarchy needed no explanation - it was a replacement in modern terms for the Devil as a motivation for all behavior evil and heinous.

In the U.S. anarchy was never popular (compared even to Communism and Socialism), but made some headway in the I.W.W. Labor organization. However in 1901 an independent anarchist named Leon Czolgosz assassinated U.S. President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition (more or less a World's Fair) in Buffalo New York. The act was indeed a senseless one and had the opposite impact that Czolgosz intended - it deeply affected the American attitude insuring that even reasoned and intellectual anarchists such as Emma Goldman got little or no positive reception.

Given those facts, the depiction of Anarchy in Clarence is fairly typical for the day. The character of Hartmann was drawn from the novel "Hartmann the Anarchist," published in 1893 (well before the McKinley assassination). A former engineer of great skill and intellect, Hartmann tried to kill the German Crown Prince a decade earlier and was presumed dead. Instead, like all Dime Novel villians, he went off like Verne's Robur to build an airship. He returns and attacks London, showing his "total hatred of society." He is at least depicted somewhat sympathetically - a real human being who presumably thinks he can, through his hatred - accomplish real change. His crewmen however are simply thugs and butchers. They bomb London badly, and cause a great uprising of anarchists who riot across the city. A puerile sequence ensues in which the narrator discovers Hartmann's mother, killed by his bombing, and delivers her last letter, which causes Hartmann to repent an blow up his Airship.

It is unclear that Hartmann the Anarchist would have been familiar even to the typical dime novel reader of the day, and it may have been picked up by Bucher while he was assigned in London, as it would have been published during his tenure there and seems to have the sort of "Dang" that Bucher liked, along with plenty of explosions and the destruction of St. Paul's and Parliament which probably didn't distress Bucher as much as it would have a native Londoner and may have provided a few vicarious thrills, though Bucher could only approve of a law and order ending.

The character is written by Marsden, and it isn't clear whether he'd read Hartmann the Anarchist, or merely been assigned the character by the group. In any circumstances, he shows a much stronger grasp of narrative than most of the other GMs in laying the threads of the Hartmann story, but is short on background. It has been suggested that Hartmann was originally to have a background sheet written by Bucher, which was never produced (or potentially lost, though this is less likely). This would explain the character's rather jerky start.

Some of the treatment of Anarchy in Hartmann's sheet strongly suggests Dolores Cooke. Marsden was by no means ignorant, but was not politically well read, and Walker opposed any politics, though he was a libertine, and social libertarian. Dolores Cooke held social gatherings where she discussed Socialism with Ivan and Lena Collins, and some of the other "arts" crowd. Her own views were pronouncedly socialist, though very moderate, along the lines of her eventual mentor in the political field, Margaret Sanger. In the 30s, after her divorce from Marsden, she worked for EPIC in California, attempting to secure Upton Sinclair's election. Her affiliations would eventually cause Abraham Marsden to be called before the House Un American Activities Committee in 1956, where he was convicted of contempt of congress for refusing to name names of fellow LARPers who had been active in Left Wing politics in the 1930s. His conviction was reversed in 1958.

The "New Accelerator" drug is from the eponymous story by H. G. Wells of 1899, which first appeared in the collection Twelve Stories and a Dream in 1903.

Hartmann the Anarchist

It was to be death in a lethal chamber for you, but fate intervened. A notable German Doctor - Dr. Schultze - now practicing in America, had perfected a new surgical process, and needed a subject to test it on. In his surgery he would extract a gland from the brain which he believed caused "anti social" behavior.

You became friendly with the Doctor, who could not resist bragging to you of his new discoveries and processes. You slowly gained his confidence, and pretended remorse, and willingness to have the offending gland excised, showing your own native intelligence on matters mechanical, even to a suggestion as to how his rotating saw could be improved.

You learned that he had created a drug which he called "A New Accelerator." The drug was apparently brought by a man named Dr. Oliver Raleigh, who claimed to have visions of the future, and was given to Dr. Schultze as proof of his claims. Dr. Schultze admitted the compound was unknown, and had been working with the Swiss Dr. Frankenstein to analyze and synthesize it.

You waited until Dr. Schultze grew careless, and took to letting you stand up to be received by the orderlies. Feigning once a sudden illness or seizure he called the orderlies in and you took them unawares. You could never have escaped the room, and they instinctively moved to guard the door. You seized the Accelerator and downed it.

Superhumanly fast, you moved from the room, sliding between them. Moving at a brisk walk, your clothes were warmed by friction - at a run you might have burst into flame.

At large in the United States you had found a haven. The Anarchist movement in the U.S. was small but vital, nourished by the memory of the Haymarket Bombing. Though many Americans turned against Anarchy after the death of President McKinley, many secretly turned towards it. The movement had after all felled an American President, and shown that it had some power over men's imagination.

You have a dose of the Accelerator left, and you have a plan. Soon the U.S. will nominate political candidates, and one of those candidates will become President. You will assassinate the President, and his cabinet, and that surely will provoke a labor rising, in which the Anarchists will become ascendant. The Teamsters in Chicago, the Sugar Beet workers in California, and the miners in Telluride will not ignore this opportunity to set straight injustices. With the nation in chaos they will rise. *

You have some assistance in this matter from Lady Grey, another anarchist of great dedication. You trust her implicitly, and she has helped shelter you here in the U.S. She is an accomplished thief, and you have set her to obtaining an instrument which you desperately need - the improved Machine Gun invented by Thomas Edison, Jr. Only with the speed of the accelerator combined with the speed of the gun will you succeed in assassinating the new President and getting away. You fear that the President's agents may have the Accelerator themselves now, but with such a fast gun you will be able to strike before they can stop you and at greater range.

You could use the Accelerator to steal the gun, but then you would have no dose left for your crowning achievement. So you had best be conservative, and trust Lady Grey to obtain what you need.

At least you have eliminated one cause for concern. The Electric Elephant could have been a real crimp in your plans. With its great strides, it might catch you even with the Accelerator. You learned that it was being shipped to India for use by Dick Lightheart who was intriguing against Yen How, the Chinese Warlord. However the aircraft carrying it crashed. You bribed Dacoits to attack and destroy the marooned Elephant, and scatter the pieces to the four winds. You should think that Yen How owes you a favor if he only knew it.** You would have liked better to seize the aircraft Sky Courser, for a new aerial rein of terror, and you are still on the lookout to see if you might get a chance at her, or be able to aim Lady Grey at her.

So you prepare for your master stroke, carefully watching the elections, and preparing a warm reception for the next man who would challenge the forces of Anarchy. You will strike a mighty blow.

Yet you have some doubts. You wonder occasionally what your mother would think of your calling, and think of her untimely death. It is sad that you have to cause so much destruction, and use such imperfect agents. But it is necessary if a day is to come when men are free of the chains of tyranny and rulership - no less so in America than elsewhere.

So you prepare the black and red flag, and Marshal your forces in secret for the day when Anarchy shall be ascendant!

* One senses Marsden stretching to build a reasonable case for a Labor rising he must
have considered terribly unlikely. A draft copy in the possession of Dolores Cooke contains the notation "when pigs can fly" above "they will rise."

** Marsden builds a moderately reasonable story here, but it is clear this is an inserted element, and it is nowhere else supported.