A short history of Pittsburgh : 1758-1908Church, Samuel Harden
History
A short history of Pittsburgh : 1758-1908
Church, Samuel Harden
Pittsburgh (Pa.) -- History
During Saturday night and Sunday morning the mob seemed to have taken
possession of the city. They broke open several armories and gun stores,
and supplied themselves with arms and ammunition. The banks were
threatened, and the city seemed about to be pillaged, the business part
of the city being filled with bands of rioters who uttered threats of
violence and murder. On Sunday morning the roundhouse and all the
locomotives which it contained were destroyed by fire. The Union Depot,
the grain elevator, the Adams Express building, and the Pan Handle depot
were also set on fire and consumed. The firemen who hastened to the
scene and attempted to extinguish the flames were met by armed men and
driven back. At half past twelve on Sunday morning a committee appointed
by a citizens' meeting tried to open a consultation with the mob, but
were promptly driven away. The committee found that they were not
dealing with dissatisfied railroad employees but with a mob of the worst
of the city's population, there being neither organization nor leader,
but each man or party of men doing what the frenzy of the moment
suggested. When it seemed as if the whole city was to be destroyed, some
of the original strikers were persuaded to attend a meeting of the
citizens at four o'clock and arrange to aid in suppressing the
incendiarism, and they did this with such a good spirit as showed that
the railroad strikers were not a part of the mob and did not countenance
its violence. At this meeting the mayor was authorized to enroll five
hundred police, but the accounts of the day show that the ranks filled
up slowly. The state of terror continued through all of Sunday night,
and on Monday morning the mob was still in an unorganized control.
Throughout the thirty-six hours from Saturday night until Monday morning
a most unusual state of public mind developed here and there which
seemed like a moral epidemic. There was almost a wholesale appropriation
of goods from the burning cars by men and even women who would at other
times have shuddered at the idea of robbery; and after the riot was
suppressed goods were for some time voluntarily returned by persons who
had taken them unreflectingly, having at length recovered their moral
perceptions, which had seemingly been clouded by the vicious influence
of the mob.
On Monday morning, however, the uprooted law seemed to be recovering a
portion of its dissipated majesty. During the night posters had been
placed conspicuously throughout the city, on which was printed the law
under which the citizens of Allegheny County were liable for all the
damage done by the mob or arising from its actions. At eleven o'clock
in the morning, a meeting of citizens was called at the Chamber of
Commerce, to form a Committee of Public Safety to take charge of the
situation, as the city authorities, the sheriff, and the military seemed
powerless to control it. This committee presented the following address
to the public:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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