Q. Did he set fire then to the elevator?
A. Oh! no, sir.
Q. Who did fire that?
A. I do not know.
Q. Did he take any part?
A. No; he didn't seem to take any part. He seemed to know and
understand what was going to be done, though.
Q. Was he leading or giving directions in any way to the crowd?
A. No, sir. He stood with me in the crowd back. He seemed to know
certain parties that were in it, although he mentioned no names.
Q. Did he say where the parties were from that were in it?
A. Yes; he made that remark--said he, "Our shop boys came home this
morning tired out with the night's work."
Q. With Saturday night's work, did he allude to?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Our shop boys?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What shop was that he alluded to?
A. Jones & Laughus, I believe--the American iron works.
Q. How many men do the American iron works employ, do you know?
A. I can only give an estimate of the reports--from one thousand five
hundred to two thousand. They are very large works. I have been through
them.
Q. When he said, "our boys came home tired out from last night's work,"
what work did he allude to?
A. The conversation was on this burning altogether--on the destruction
of the property. My inference was that it was the work we had
witnessed.
Q. Were you talking about any other subject at the time?
A. No, sir; nothing but the disturbance then in progress.
Q. Did you see any attempt while you were there to destroy or set fire
to individual property?
A. No; I did not.
Q. When you arrived at the scene of the riot, how large a crowd was
there?
A. On the streets--it would be impossible to judge the number.
Q. Engaged in actual burning and rioting?
A. I think twenty-five good men would have cleaned the crowd out.
Q. I asked you how large the crowd was?
A. Averaging from three to five hundred, not over that--boys--young
fellows.
Q. Did you see any efforts made by anybody to stop the burning?
A. No, sir; not an effort.
Q. See any policemen around there?
A. I saw two or three policemen about two squares below, but none in
the immediate neighborhood of the burning.
Q. Did you see the sheriff or any posse about?
A. I did not--no person in authority, or any person using any
authority.
Q. When you attempted to make the connection, were you interfered with
in any way?
A. No, sir; not in the least.
Q. When you undertook to stop the rolling down of barrels, what seemed
to be the feeling in the crowd?
A. They just stopped and let me have my own way.
Q. Obeyed orders?
A. Obeyed orders.
Q. Did you make any effort to stop those that were setting fire to
property and burning?
A. No, sir; I did not; I held back from them on account of not being a
citizen of the town.
Q. The crowd that was standing around, of whom were they composed?
A. They seemed to be composed of the better class of citizens of the
two cities, you could see--quiet, orderly.
Q. Were there any women and children among them in the crowd?
A. Yes; there were a great number.
Q. Did you see any business men of the city standing about?
A. No, sir; I can't say that I did. I am not well enough acquainted
with the business men of the city to know whether there was any in the
crowd or not.
Q. Did you see the mayor?
A. I haven't seen the mayor to know him since 1860; I probably would not
know him on the street.
Q. Did you find any difficulty in getting into the city that day, from
New Brighton, Beaver county?
A. No, sir; I found no difficulty at all. Trains came in on time. At
the Allegheny depot the strikers boarded the train and run it to
Federal street station, and said they would not run it over to
Pittsburgh.
Q. Did the trains go out on the roads leading west?
A. Yes; they went out whenever Boss Amnion, as he was called, said that
train should go.
Q. He allowed the passenger trains to run?
A. No interference, so far as I know, in regard to passenger trains. I
had no trouble at all in getting home.
Q. Did you see anything of General Latta that day?
A. I did not; I am not personally acquainted with him: probably might
have seen him, and not known him.
Q. Were you at the city hall that day or any other day?
A. I was at the city hall at seven o'clock, Monday morning.
Q. Who was there?
A. I can say that the mayor was not there, as I heard him inquired for
half a dozen times. The rest were strangers to me.
Q. Did you see the chief of police or any of the officials there?
A. Not to my knowledge--there was not. I made inquiry for the chief of
police--if the chief of police was in, and I was told he was not.
Q. What class of people were there?
A. They seemed to be employés around there, or some persons that seem
to be well acquainted with the office; they were sitting there.
Q. Tell us what you heard said there?
A. I went into the chief of police's office--the left hand entrance
going into the city hall--and seen one gentlemen that I was slightly
acquainted with, Mr. Carrigan, and spoke to him. He got up and went
out. There were two or three gentlemen--strangers--I got into
conversation with them about it, and one of them, a large, tall man,
with heavy black whiskers, says he, "We won't be satisfied here until
this track is torn up to the point." He brought his fist down; says he,
"We have been imposed on long enough."
Q. Until the track was torn up to the point--what track did he refer
to?
A. He mentioned the Liberty street track?