A. That was not the man. That man I could never find afterwards. He was
a tall man, a thin spare-faced man, a very active man, he seemed to
have some influence over them. One of the strikers gave me that,
[indicating paper.] I understood it was from a principal one of them,
at the time.
By Mr. Engelbert:
Q. How long did it take you to raise that force of yours?
A. It took me all day. 1 never saw such apathy or cowardice among the
citizens.
Q. They did not appear to be anxious?
A. Men that should have done their duty, as citizens, were promenading
Fifth avenue, and it was very difficult to get citizens. I must say to
the credit of the bar, that they did their duty.
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. Will you give us the names of some of the lawyers that were members
of that company?
A. Colonel Haymaker was one of them, Mr. Harper was another--there was
quite a number, Dr. Sutton was one, he was second in command. I have
the names of most of them.
Q. I believe you find lawyers and doctors among the best citizens, as a
general thing?
A. We do our duty, if we can.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. Could you have got fifty or sixty good men, with rifles and
ammunition, at the time that you and Bishop Tuigg went up to
remonstrate with the mob?
A. We could not--not at that time. We had been ineffectual all day to
organize a company, and there was no arms to be had yet; there was
troops at the old city hall, but there seemed to be nobody in command
to do anything, to take the responsibility, there seemed to be really
no person at the head of anything.
By Mr. Means:
Q. This whole machine appeared to have no head?
A. Yes; it appeared, as I said before, it appeared that the mayor was
indifferent. He said that it was the railroad company that was running
this thing, and he would let them run it.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. You say there was troops at the city hall. How many, and who were
they--what organization?
A. There was part of a company of the Nineteenth regiment--a company
there of the Nineteenth regiment. I forget who had charge of them. I
know the gentleman very well, but I cannot think of his name. He went
out afterwards in command of one of the regiments to the east from
here. A tall, nice-looking young man. He had charge of the regiment.
Howard, I think it was--Hartley Howard, I think, was the gentleman.
By Mr. Means:
Q. Had the mayor intimated to you that the railroad officials had taken
this matter into their own hands?
A. They had interfered with him in executing an order. They had
interfered in arresting some man. He had not acted as promptly as they
thought. It appears that Mr. Hampton and Dalzell--I think he used the
names jointly--had taken these writs from him and given them into the
hands of the sheriff.
By Mr. Means:
Q. And that he would not interfere?
A. Yes, sir.
By Mr. Engelbert:
Q. You said a while ago that the sheriff had run away. How did you know
he had run away?
A. He was not to be found anywhere. I had not seen him that day. I
heard he had left. They had threatened to burn his house, and he had
left the city. As the sheriff is a man subject to heart disease, I
presume it was his duty not to risk his life amongst them. I heard
there was a strong feeling against him, and he had left. I had not seen
the sheriff after that day.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. What day was this you were speaking of?
A. That was on Sunday.
Q. Did you see him there on Saturday with the troops?
A. No, sir; I did see the sheriff on Saturday.
By Mr. Larrabee:
Q. You stated in your speech to the people that you had been informed
by those who led the strike that they would manage the matter
prudently, so as to have no trouble. Who were those parties that
informed you they were leading the strike? Can you give us the names?
A. I can ascertain the names of some of them, but I don't know the
names now. I don't remember them. There was one little man very active.
His brother keeps a drug store at the corner of Twenty-eighth and Penn
streets. He seemed to be very active amongst them.
Q. Do you know his name?
A. No, sir; I can find out his name. I can find out the names of
several of them. I think I have them written down. This gent--I thought
his name was attached to that paper--was a city man, very active. He
seemed to be the leading spirit amongst them, but I found he was the
man that brought that document there.
Q. He is not the one that signed it?
A. No, sir.
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. How do you account for the apathy or cowardice that existed in the
city about going out to take steps to stop this?
A. The only way I can account for it is that there was a feeling
amongst the people that these men had been treated very unjustly by the
railroad company; that it had reduced their wages down to a starvation
point, and that they had been treated unjustly. There has been a
feeling here more or less ever since I have been in Pittsburgh--twelve
years--since the war, against the railroad company, on account of its
unjust actions against the mercantile interests of Pittsburgh. There
has always been more or less of that kind of feeling against the
company, as I told the Governor in my interview with him on the Sunday
night that he was here. That feeling has existed against Tom Scott and
the railroad company. The overbearing manner of their officials, and
their want of making any compromise whatever, or showing any
disposition whatever to compromise with their employés; that has been
the feeling engendered in this city for years.
Q. How extensive is that disposition?
A. It is amongst almost the whole class of people, intelligent as well
as ignorant, that feeling has existed.
Q. The business men and professional men?
A. The business men--many of the business men--have been bitter enemies
of the road on account of the discrimination in freights that has
existed. That feeling has permeated the whole community--it permeated
the whole community, and I had that same feeling and that same
antagonism to the road myself. As I told the Governor, Tom Scott should
come down from his empyrean and mingle amongst the people, and he
should assert his right of being Governor of the State, and not Tom
Scott.
Q. What reply did the Governor make?
A. The Governor made one of his bland smiles.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. He is a good listener?
A. Yes; that was up in the hotel where he stopped the Sunday night.
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. In your negotiations, mingling with the strikers and endeavoring to
adjust matters, did you ascertain the reason or the cause of the
strike?
A. This was the cause that I stated, just what is set forth in this
paper, [indicating paper,] that was the cause, and that was what they
wanted, an adjustment on that basis.
By Mr. Larrabee:
Q. Did any one sign that paper setting forth their grievances?
A. Only I had a meeting with them. I wrote down what they wanted.
Q. You wrote that down yourself?
A. They would not permit anybody, they had confidence in me or they
wouldn't have entrusted me. They saw I was disposed to do what was
right. I acted prudently with them.
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. Were any of the strikers, that is the railroad employés, who first
struck, engaged in this arson, burning, and pillaging?
A. The persons whom I saw engaged in this arson business, and the crowd
that I addressed on Sunday were rioters. They appeared to me to be all
strangers. They were not really citizens of Pittsburgh. They appeared
to me to be all strangers. There was no strikers. I saw none of the
strikers that I knew, whose countenances I would remember amongst the
rioters. They appeared to keep aloof. They appeared to keep away, and
when we wanted to find them or have any conversation with them, we had
our meeting down at their place. The bishop and the delegation of
citizens from this committee of public safety, went down to meet them
away down at their head-quarters, at Twenty-eighth street, where we had
a conference with them. They were perfectly powerless, yet disposed to
do all they could to save the property and suppress the riot.
Q. Who were the men engaged in this arson and burning?
A. That is more than I can tell you who they were. They appeared to be
a class of men I had never seen before.
Q. Were they mill men?
A. Many of them looked like laboring men. Most of them were young men,
reckless young fellows, half drunk, and of a class you would call
roughs, which you will find always around cities and places where there
is anything going on, you don't know who they are--they appeared to be
all young men.
Q. From the works about the city?
A. They might have been; I don't know. I couldn't recognize them.
By Senator Yutzy: