Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877: Read in the Senate and House of Representatives May 23, 1878Pennsylvania. General Assembly. Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877
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Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877: Read in the Senate and House of Representatives May 23, 1878
Pennsylvania. General Assembly. Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877
Q. They were the spokesmen for the crowd, were they?
A. One of them was the spokesmen. We asked for the spokesman when we
went there.
Q. Who was that man?
A. I don't remember now who he was.
Q. An engineer, conductor, or brakeman?
A. I think he was a brakeman.
Q. What is Mr. Garrett's first name?
A. His name is David Garrett.
By Mr. Means:
Q. At Twenty-eighth street, did the mob of men stop the train going
east?
A. They stopped everything.
Q. Who did that?
A. I don't know whether it was by employés or others.
Q. They prevented the engines from connecting with your stock trains?
A. Yes; sometimes they told the engineers to go on back.
Q. They sent the engines back?
A. Yes; they were sent right back on going out the track, and sent in
again on coming out the track.
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. Describe the crowd during Friday night?
A. I was not there during that night.
Q. Were you there during Saturday morning?
A. Yes.
Q. Describe things then?
A. Early in the morning there was not such a very large crowd, but
towards evening, just before the soldiers came up----
Q. How large was it in the morning early?
A. I don't suppose there were over two hundred people.
Q. What time was that?
A. About seven o'clock--that is outside of the soldiers. The Fourteenth
and Eighteenth regiments were there then, I believe. In the evening
along about five o'clock, at the time the firing began, in the
neighborhood of the railroad, and in the streets there were from five
to seven thousand people.
Q. Who composed that crowd then--what class of men?
A. They appeared to be all classes.
Q. Railroad employés?
A. Railroad and mill men, and I guess a few of every kind.
Q. When you refer to the crowd of five thousand, do you mean to say
that all of that crowd were riotous or engaged in riotous conduct?
A. I don't mean to say that.
Q. You say that a portion of them were lookers-on?
A. Yes.
Q. How many were actually engaged in the riot at that time?
A. I cannot say. They were scattered around here and there and
everywhere.
Q. Was there any division or separation between the rioters and the
crowd that was looking on?
A. I guess they were scattered through the crowd everywhere around the
railroad.
Q. Down on the railroad were any persons looking on--were they along
the railroad track, or were they back on the hill?
A. They were standing on the hill and on the railroad track, too. Some
of them might be railroad men of other roads, and I never know it.
Q. Were there any women and children mixed up with the crowd?
A. There were some on the street and hill-side.
Q. That crowd had been accumulating all day I suppose?
A. Yes.
Q. How was it in regard to any boisterous or noisy demonstrations?
A. I would say that some of them were pretty boisterous. Some of them
would be about half tight, and were raising a little excitement here
and among themselves.
Q. When did the crowd begin to get demonstrative or boisterous, at what
time in the day?
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