Sworn to before me this 6th day of September, 1900.
GEO. P. HAMMOND, JR., Notary Public (164), N. Y. County.
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_City and County of New York, ss._:
William Lemoine, residing at 68 West 43rd Street, being duly sworn,
deposes and says that on Wednesday, August 15th, 1900, he started at
7:55 P. M. to attend a meeting of Odd Fellows being held at
29th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, and had reached 7th Avenue
between 35th and 36th Streets, when he met two white men, who said
to him, "You had better not go down that way, you will get mobbed."
I said, "Mobbed! for what?" They said, "Why, they are having a riot
down there." I continued on, however, until I reached 34th and 35th
Streets on 7th Avenue, where I met two white women, who said to me,
"Do you want to get killed? If you don't you had better go on back."
I thereupon went no further in that direction, but turned back up 7th
Avenue, and went as far as 483 7th Avenue, and saw a crowd coming down
7th Avenue from about 41st Street, and another from about 34th Street.
Both of the crowds were composed of boys and young men who were in
the lead shouting and yelling, while in the midst of them were two or
three police officers. The boys would stir up a colored man and begin
yelling, "There he goes! There is one of them!" and the boys would
immediately run after them, and the police follow. I saw them overtake
two colored men, and saw the police take them down 37th Street towards
8th Avenue. While I was standing in front of 483 7th Avenue a friend of
mine, Mrs. Harriet Ann Bruna, who now resides at 152 West 27th Street,
called to me from her window, and told me to come upstairs, which I
did. She then said that I had better go into the hall bedroom and stay
there overnight, as I might get hurt if I stayed outside or attempted
to get home. This was about 8:30 P. M. I then went into the
hall bedroom aforementioned, and remained there looking out of the
window for about one hour and a half, during which time the blinds
were closed or turned down; I then undressed and went to bed, and was
in bed about an hour and three quarters, or until about 11:45 P.
M., when I heard a crash at the front door downstairs and heard
some one coming upstairs; when they reached my door they knocked at it
with their clubs, and broke in the central panel of the door, when I
said, "Don't break in the door, gentlemen; I'll open it," which I did.
Four officers in uniform and two men in citizens' clothes came in, and
exclaimed, "Here is the d----d nigger; kill him!" One in citizen's
clothes came over to me (I had fallen on the bed) and, striking me
on the hip with his club, said, "Come, get up out of there, where is
that gun?" I said, "I have no gun; there's my clothes; search them and
the room. I have done nothing; I have been asleep." The officers then
searched the room, my clothes, and myself, and found nothing. The one
in citizen's clothes then said, "He has no gun; we can't do anything."
The women in the house commenced to scream, and the officers then
broke in the door of Mrs. Elizabeth Mitchell, on the second floor,
frightening her so that she has been unable to leave her bed ever
since. I was hipshodden for a couple of days, and I rubbed it with
liniment for a couple of days until the misery got out of it. Deponent
further says that he has resided in San Francisco for the past eight
years, and had just arrived in the city the day before the riot, and
did not create any disturbance at that or any other time; and further,
that he did not fire any shot from any firearm on that evening; and
furthermore, never owned a gun, and never carried one.