A. Hear my statement, then, for your own guidance.
Q. I understand you to say that you didn't receive any dispatch from Mr. Watt, calling for fifty men, nor it was not communicated about in that form?
A. No, sir; it was not. Nothing of that kind occurred. He may have sent a dispatch, but I think I can very conscientiously affirm that I never saw it.
Q. Do you allow your clerks to act upon intelligence received at the office, without instructions from you?
A. Most undoubtedly. When I am away a riot or disturbance ought not to be going along until I come back. They know the general rules I act upon.
Q. Communications, in the shape of letters and dispatches, are they placed on file in your office, when received in your absence?
A. No, sir; not placed on file at any time. They are attended to and thrown away.
Q. Attended to by your clerks?
A. Yes; the chief of police and the clerks. If I am up in the Eleventh ward, they would have to wait an hour and a half until I got down.
Q. If a dispatch was received at your office, notifying you of a disturbance in one part of the city, and you are in another part of the city?