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
History
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
were in the round-house and in the carpenter shop. The crowd was there,
and probably thirty men were jeering at the soldiers. I did not know
any of them; but I went in among the men and I said, "boys, if those
men come out you will have to go away, as you do not have any business
here." I said, "these men are strangers, and you ought to treat them
differently." They said, "we will have them out if we have got to roast
them out." I felt some interest in the Pennsylvania Railroad Company,
and in the interest of good behavior I come down the street, and tried
to find some railroad officers to communicate my belief that there
would be a fire and trouble. I tried to find some of the railroad
officers, but could not do it. It was then after dark--after night. I
went towards my home, and I met the crowd on Liberty street going to
Union depot. I went up to one man I knew, who was tried in court last
week, and I said "the railroad company has conceded to the demands of
their employés." I had understood something of that sort. He said "it
was too damned thin," and went into the depot, and a short time after
there was an alarm of fire. At the corner of Twenty-fifth and Penn
avenue the Independence apparatus was stopped by men pointing pistols,
and saying if they proceeded any further they would kill their horses.
I spoke to the parties that did that loud talking, and they said it did
not make any difference--that they had no right to go up and throw
water on the railroad property. I said: "These men are responding to a
call, and they must obey, and you should not interfere with them." I
then went away to see the extent of the fire. I went to Twenty-eighth
street, and between there and Twenty-ninth, on Liberty, I saw the
burning cars running down the grade towards the Twenty-eighth street
crossing. But a switch was turned wrong or something, and the cars ran
off the track. They set fire to what is known as the sand-house, and
that is the first building that caught fire, and from that the fire
communicated to the upper round-house, I think. The fire burned very
slow. It appeared to me to be started by people that wanted to plunder,
which they did, for they carried out great quantities of goods that day
and the next day. The fire burned very slow--I never saw a fire burn so
slow in my life. I did not see whether the fire department went into
service that night or not. Next morning I saw the troops as they came
up Liberty street on to Twenty-fifth, and marched out Penn avenue. I
did not see much of any mob at that time. Then the fire department went
into service. I saw no person particularly setting things on fire, but
I saw two men coming from under a car off the track, in front of the
round-house, just at Twenty-sixth street. The car was loaded with
liquor, and just shortly after they came out and went away the car
caught fire, and then the round-house and the shop and the offices and
all caught fire.
By Senator Reyburn:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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