* * * * * Henry Coates, _sworn with the uplifted hand_: By Mr. Lindsey: Q. Were you a member of the fire department last July? A. No; I was a member of the police force. Q. What position did you hold? A. I was a lieutenant. Q. How many men did you have control of? A. I had forty men that night of Saturday. Q. Where were you on Thursday? A. Sleeping. We had no day force in the city at that time. Q. Were you not around during the day, Thursday? A. No. Q. Where were you on Friday? A. In bed. Q. During the night of Thursday, where were you? A. On duty from Eleventh street to Thirty-third street. Q. Taking in Twenty-eighth street? A. Yes. Q. Was there any disturbance--any overt act? A. No; but there was a collection of people. Sometimes there would not be over thirty or forty. Q. What class of people? A. Railroaders, particularly. Q. What was the conduct of the people? A. They were quiet. There was no trouble at all. Q. Did they remain there? A. They would pass up and down, talking among themselves. Q. Hid you have any conversation with them? A. No. Q. Did you ask them why they were there? A. No; it was not an infrequent occurrence to see men there. It is a principal street to go up to go to work. Q. On Friday night how large was the crowd? A. One hundred or so. Q. Were they railroad men on Friday night? A. Yes; principally. They appeared to be very quiet talking among themselves. Q. What were they saying? A. That they did not let me hear. Q. Did you report to the chief of police or the mayor? A. I made a report every morning. Q. You reported that crowd to him? A. Yes. Q. But received no orders? A. No; no orders to disperse them or anything else. Q. Were the saloons open in that part of the city during Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Were they closed at all? A. I ordered them to close on Saturday evening. Q. At what time? A. About eight o'clock. Q. During Saturday night, describe what took place? A. I do not know that I can. Q. You were not on duty during the firing? A. No; that took place before we went on duty. Q. How large was the crowd? A. They began to come--three or four hundred--or two hundred--squads coming from different places all during Saturday night and Sunday morning. Nearly everybody in the city was in that neighborhood--or the biggest part of them. Q. What time did the burning commence? A. In the neighborhood of ten and half or a quarter to eleven o'clock. A crowd had congregated around the fire-alarm box, and would not let the men pull it. Q. Where did the fire break out first? A. I was about Twenty-eighth street when it broke out. I should judge between Thirty-first and Thirty-second street on the railroad. Q. What was set on fire? A. Oil, from the appearance of the smoke. Q. What did they do with the cars after they set them on fire? A. They cut them loose and ran them. Q. How many men were engaged in that?