Q. I believe you are called to give us some information as to what was done to suppress the riot on Sunday night?
A. The trouble is to know where to begin and not detain you with unnecessary ideas. I came in on Sabbath morning, when I heard of it. As I came down street, William Smith, the pipeman, proposed we would hold a meeting, and I went down street, and as I went down every prominent man I met I announced it to them, and went on down at the meeting—down at the old market-house.
Q. Citizens' meeting?
A. Citizens' meeting, Sunday. When the meeting was called to order, James Parke was called to the chair, and he assumed to run the whole meeting. He didn't want any one else to speak but himself, and he had been managing the strikers for twenty-five years, and cut me out entirely, and I felt, perhaps, a little personal disgust with how it was managed. I went up to the depot. Citizens came to me and pleaded with me to take part. I went among the railroad men I knew, and asked, Where are the leaders—where is the man that has this thing in charge, where can we go to get parties to prevail on them to stop? They would say, That man over there, pointing to some man; and the first answer he would give would be a rebuff, very harsh generally. I would tell them, That is no use—I don't want to be treated in that way. This thing is disgracing and injuring you and all of us. I treated them as railroad men. Railroad men would send me to those parties. They were invariably strangers. Those that took command were men that were not known here—that is, gave the hints to stand along and managed the guards that were keeping the citizens back that were interfering with them firing the cars.
Q. Railroad men seemed to know who they were?
A. Railroad men knew who they were. At first they denied me any conversation, then I would get and talk with them, and after awhile they would say. So far as I am concerned we will consent to have the thing stopped. Then here was a crowd that I did see some among—I knew the faces of a large number—that would not permit the fire to stop. Told them to burn, apparently, through spite they had of the employers. About the time the fire got round to Seventh street, they had exhausted the line of railroad there—it goes into the tunnel—and we heard the remark, "Now for the point depot." They were quite drunk. There was a car of whisky behind the elevator—they had broken open the car—high wines—and it was perhaps the saving of any further destruction—had made them dead drunk. We gathered up five or six and started with them, explaining to them what districts would be burned, if they didn't furnish assistance. One or two men set fire to cars and in a short time we prevailed on the citizens. I made a speech on a barrel, and we found we had backing enough to call in the police officers and have one of the men arrested, and to stop the riot there. They made declarations that have come before the courts here—that the attorney who has been attending to these courts will recollect—how they were going to proceed to burn the railroad property on the south side.
By Senator Reyburn:
Q. Did these men tell you how they were going to proceed?
A. They said they would not stop until they would burn the cars that were standing on the south side, and the different depots—they were going to burn these depots, and so forth. Some of them made remarks, and some of them did not, on that question. I was treated with perfect respect—announced myself, and we discussed it there. I was one of those unfortunate men that thought I could stop that riot with fifty men.
Q. You mean by remonstrances?