Q. Was it the engineers that had been discharged—the idle employés of the railroad here that first started this disturbance?
A. It appears so, that is, some parts of them—not all. There were some men of their brotherhood implicated in these troubles from the first start-out, others did not appear to have much to say or do as far as we know.
Q. What class of men, so far as you could judge, were engaged in the actual destruction of property, and burning of the bridge?
A. I have knowledge of two of the party that I had caused the arrest of. One of them was a railroad man employed by the company, and the other man had nothing at all to do with the railroad company, so far as I knew; who used to boat on the canal, and perhaps he would be brought into their employ in that way. I believe he was a boatman.
Q. Was this one employed by the railroad company at the time?
A. He was one of the men that quit the employ of the company.
Q. What in your judgment was the actual cause of the riot here?
A. I do not believe we would have had a riot in Reading, if the troubles had not started in Pittsburgh. That is my opinion of it, and I would judge to the best of my knowledge, and from what I know, that the troubles originated in this city from the dispute between the P. and R. engineers and the company. That seemed to be at the bottom of it, because some of their men participated in private meetings, held in this city previous to the outbreak which we knew of.
Q. And the news from the city of Pittsburgh from the outbreak there stimulated the movement?
A. That stimulated the movement, or give it a start. That seemed to start them up, and made them quite lively on having some disturbance.