Q. It was either the 17th or the 24th--which was it now? Do you think
Tuesday, 24th?
A. I could not say positively which it was. I know it was summer. The
latter part of the month, or getting that way.
Q. Go on, then.
A. I was on the night turn, and I just got up about two o'clock, and I
came over that afternoon a little early, and had a little work to do,
and when I was going out mother said to me, "Where are you going? Going
to work?" She said she heard they had struck. There was a meeting that
night up on the hill. I left the dinner-pail in the house, and went up
to the meeting, to see what was going on there. When I got there, Mr.
Scranton came about the same time, and he asked what was the matter,
and they told him. He said he could not do anything, and he drove away,
and that is all there was about it until the 1st of August there was a
meeting called to be held at the silk-works. So we went there to hear
what it was. We understood it was a report from the miners and other
different trades, in regard to what they were going to do, whether they
were going to stay out or resume work, or what. After the meeting was
called to order, before any committee had a chance to report, or
anything of the kind, this letter was produced, and read there.
Q. That was at the silk-works?
A. Yes.
Q. State how the letter read. What the subject of it was. The subject
matter, as near as you can remember.
A. The substance of the letter was, Mr. Scranton said he would have the
men working if, I think, it was thirty-five cents a day and living on
mush and molasses, or he would bury himself in a culm-dump. That was
the statement of the letter.
Q. How was the letter signed?
A. Workingmen.
Q. These workingmen stated in the letter that that was what Mr.
Scranton had said?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did the letter state when and where Mr. Scranton had made that
declaration?
A. No, sir; not to my recollection.
Q. What did the letter advise the meeting to do?
A. It didn't state. That was about the substance of the letter.
Q. Who read the letter?
A. I could not tell you what his name is. I wouldn't know him if I
would see him.
Q. Did you come up, then, with the crowd that came up to the shop?
A. No, sir. After the meeting adjourned, part of us came up the
railroad towards the L.S. crossing, and I stood there conversing about
fifteen or twenty minutes. The crowd had gone towards Lackawanna
avenue. After they had dispersed from there, I thought I would walk to
town, and I went up, and when I got up to the top of the hill the crowd
and I walked through the crowd, and I met the mayor coming down. He
seemed to be quite excited. He was going to McKinney's office. I met
him a little this side of there. I passed on to Lackawanna avenue, and
stood there.
Q. Your recollection of it is the same as that given by Mr. Brown this
morning as to what occurred there on Lackawanna avenue?
A. No, sir.
Q. Go on and state, then, how it was?
A. I walked first towards Lackawanna avenue and then I walked back
again to Washington avenue and stood down there. The mayor came up,
supported by two men, one on each side of him, and the crowd following
up. A party says, What is this coming down the avenue? I stood up and I
saw it was vigilantes, as they call them, coming down with rifles. They
had just about passed about the time the crowd came there. The crowd
filed in right behind them. Mr. Boltry stepped back and told them to
keep back. With that they turned around again, and with that the first
I heard was "crack," "crack," "crack" of the vigilants. They fired
right into them.
Q. Was the crowd throwing stones?
A. I had not seen any.
Q. Did you hear any pistol shot from the crowd?
A. No, sir; not there, nor anywhere in that section.
Q. Whereabouts was the crowd when the vigilantes fired?
A. They were right on Washington avenue, from Lackawanna avenue.
Q. Going which direction?
A. They seemed to be facing down Lackawanna avenue.
Q. In this direction?
A. Yes.
Q. When the firing took place?
A. Yes; they were right abreast there.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. How large a crowd was that?
A. I should judge from five to six hundred.
Q. What wages were you getting at the time of the strike?
A. One dollar and twelve cents.
Q. As boiler tender?
A. Yes; I looked after boilers there.
Q. Was that what your wages were about the time of the reduction or
before?
A. After the reduction.
Q. How was it before the reduction?
A. Before the reduction it was one dollar and a half.
Q. When was the first reduction?
A. I think it was in March.
Q. How much was it after the reduction in March?
A. One dollar and twenty-five cents.
Q. Then after the last reduction it was one dollar and twelve cents?
A. One dollar and twelve and a half cents.
Q. What were engineers getting in the works where you were at that
time?
A. One dollar and a half they were getting before the last reduction.
One dollar and thirty-five cents, then, after the last reduction. There
is one of the engineers here, who can state that.
Q. What were the men, generally, getting? What wages in the shops?
A. Laboring men were getting eighty cents a day.
Q. What kind of work were they doing?
A. All kinds of work round there--that is, laborers.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. You mean repairing men--truckmen?
A. Truckmen, such as that.
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. Get eighty cents a day after the first reduction?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. How much were they getting before the last reduction?
A. I think it was either ninety cents or one dollar, or one dollar and
five cents.
Q. How much were they getting before the reduction in March?
A. I could not say what they were getting. Puddlers were getting three
dollars a ton.
Q. Three dollars a ton before the reduction?
A. Before the reduction.
Q. How much were they getting before the reduction?
A. Two dollars and seventy cents I think it was, and that had to be
divided between two.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. They had a helper?
A. At this time two puddlermen were in together.
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. How much would they puddle per day, on an average?
A. A ton was about all they were allowed to puddle. Twenty-two hundred,
about that--twenty-two hundred I think was allowed for a ton.
Q. What then did they make per day, on an average?
A. Between one dollar and thirty-five cents and one dollar and fifty
cents.
Q. Was this reduction of wages that was made in July general?
A. Yes; it was a general reduction--stated so.
Q. Among all the men?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did it apply to you?
A. The notice read that it would be a general reduction.
Q. Did the reduction apply to officers of the company--book-keepers and
so forth?
A. That is something I could not state.
Q. Is a ton a day all that two men can puddle?
A. Yes--about that.
Q. Don't they puddle more than that some days?
A. They may perhaps--two hundred over that.
Q. Two hundred over? They are paid for all they make over, are they
not?
A. That is something I cannot state. They are only allowed a ton.
Q. Did other companies here reduce their wages also?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. At the same time?
A. Well, somewhere around there. This company was the first that struck
here.
Q. In the meetings that you attended among the men who struck, was
there anything said about interfering with those parties of men who
were willing to work?
A. No, sir; they were committees appointed to go and wait on them, and
ask them civilly whether they could work. There was no violence of any
kind.
Q. Committees appointed to visit them, and ask them to quit work?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Until they got the wages they want?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did they fix upon any definite price per day that you would demand?
A. Yes; we asked them twenty-five per cent.
By Mr. Larrabee:
Q. Twenty-five per cent. advance?
A. Yes; there was a committee appointed between boiler tenders and
engineers of the company, to wait on the former and demand it.
By Senator Reyburn:
Q. Were you on that committee?
A. No, sir.
By Mr. Lindsey: