By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. Where do you reside?
A. Thirty-second street.
Q. What is your occupation?
A. Coal business.
Q. Where is your office?
A. Liberty street, between Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth.
Q. Were you at your office on the 19th--Thursday, 19th of July last?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. How large a crowd of men was there gathered about there during
Thursday?
A. There was quite a large crowd there during Thursday morning. Towards
the afternoon a great number had come up to see the strikers. There was
very few railroad men among the crowd.
Q. What class of men were there?
A. Parties that lived around the railroad there, just come up to see
the excitement.
Q. Where they demonstrative?
A. No, sir; they were not. They were all talking about double-headers,
I do not know what they meant, and I asked them, and they told me about
putting two engines on a long train.
Q. How large a crowd was there at any one time during the day,
Thursday?
A. I guess three or four hundred--in the afternoon about four o'clock.
Q. Did they remain there during the night, Thursday?
A. Yes; I was up there about twelve o'clock, and there was a few men
there--about thirty remained there during the night waiting for trains
to go out.
Q. How many on Friday?
A. There was seven or eight hundred. They were expecting the soldiers
in that evening. Were also expecting the Harrisburg men up that
evening. They did not come up. I went down Saturday morning and went
down the railroad from our house. I saw the Harrisburg soldiers there
on the side of the hill and also down by the railroad.
Q. How large was it Saturday?
A. I don't know how large it was; the streets were just jammed and the
side of the hill on Twenty-eighth street.
Q. Was you present when the firing took place?
A. Yes; I was up on the side of the hill about seventy yards from where
the troops were.
Q. Did you see troops as they marched up?
A. Yes; I saw them before they left the Union depot. Saw them get their
cartridges before they left there.
Q. Did you go up ahead of them?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you have any talk with the mob?
A. Yes, sir; I talked with some of the railroad men.
Q. Tell them that the troops were coming?
A. Told them that the Philadelphia troops were coming.
Q. What did they say?
A. They said that they were not afraid of that; as long as they didn't
hurt them, they would not hurt them.
Q. Was the sheriff's posse ahead of the line?
A. Yes; I recognized a few of them, I believe the sheriff was ahead,
and, I think, Deputy Sheriff Steward, and, I think, Mr. Pitcairn was
also ahead of them. He was walking beside Sheriff Fife.
Q. Did you see any stones or missiles thrown by the crowd at the
soldiers?
A. Yes; about the time they were charging bayonets.
Q. Was there any pistols fired by the crowd?
A. There was one or two fired. A pistol about the center of
Twenty-eighth street; held it over, and shot down the road. By that
time there were stone throwing. There were two cannons, and there was
some boys started to throw stones, and one of them hit a soldier
against a car, and the moment he fell they started firing. He threw up
his arm about the time they charged bayonets--the crowd was throwing
the bayonets up. The crowd catched hold of the bayonets, and threw the
guns up to save themselves.
Q. Did you hear any command given by any of the officers to fire?
A. No, sir; I did not. I heard them charge bayonets. I heard that
command, and I heard them give their military manoeuvres, but I heard
no command to fire at all.
Q. Did you remain there during the night--Saturday night?
A. Yes; I was there until Sunday, at dinner time.
Q. What time did the mob begin to fire the cars?
A. At half past ten o'clock.
Q. Do you know who set the first on fire?
A. No, sir; I could not say, I heard them say it was small boys done
it. It was right back of our office it first started. The time I saw it
there was first one car on fire, and they started to run oil cars down
against it.
Q. Were you there during the time, Thursday or Friday, when the police
force came out?
A. They were there. I did not see them come up, they were up there when
I was there.
Q. How many policemen?
A. I do not know how many there was, only about ten or twelve, I think.
I think there was only three or four on Thursday.
Q. Did they make any efforts to disperse the mob?
A. Not as I saw.
Q. Did they assist in trying to start the train?
A. I did not see them trying to do that at all.
Q. Do you know who was in charge of the police?
A. No, sir; I could not say.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. You heard the command given by the officers to charge bayonets?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you remain in the same position after you heard that command
until after the firing commenced?
A. No, sir; I did not, after the first volley was fired.
Q. But from the time you heard the command given to charge bayonets up
to the time of the firing, were you still in the same position?
A. Yes; I was in the same position.
Q. If there had been a command given by the officers to fire, you think
you would have heard it?
A. I think so. I heard most of the other commands and the manoeuvres
they went through before they charged bayonets.
Q. You heard that distinctly?