'At 6.30 p.m. the meeting was declared open. The chair was taken by Ginger Yates, whom I have had under suspicion for some time but against whom I have been unable to obtain evidence. There were also on the platform three miners from this district. About seventy-five men occupied the auditorium. I could not recognize many of them nor was I able to identify those joining in the subsequent discussion, as my hiding-place did not afford a good view of the hall, but the majority must have been men from this district. The names of those recognised and in any way concerned with the meeting are given in attached appendix.
'The meeting was addressed by a man unknown to me. He is a newcomer to Nugget and may have come in from the outside.
'The chairman introduced the stranger as 'a friend of all miners and especially of those who had led the rush into the country after the big strike.' The unknown man then spoke for a period of fifteen minutes. I could not record his remarks in full but, in general, they were directed against the administration of this Territory. The speaker said there were far too many people in the country now and, in his opinion, the Government should have held at the border all those attempting to enter after the first big rush went through. (Cheers.) In his opinion, the first comers had a right to all the wealth of the country, but that men who came in later had struck it rich before them and had been permitted by the administration to carry off what really did not belong to them under the noses of the old-timers, many of whom, like themselves, had been thus compelled to shift to poorer fields, there being no room for them along Discovery Creek. He also stated that the laws governing Black Elk Territory should be made by the miners, irrespective of nationality, and not at Ottawa. (Cheers.)
'The speaker then repeatedly cautioned his hearers against reading his remarks as an incitation to violence. He did not advocate violence. But he thought they should respectfully petition the Government to allow them to make their own laws. And one of the first laws should compel all late-comers to hand over their claims to those who entered Black Elk before them.
'The speaker then said that the meeting was not secret, in the strictest sense, but had been called quietly together so that it might not be interrupted by non-sympathizers. The same consideration had induced him to select for an audience those known by Mr. Yates to hold his own views. It would, at the same time, be necessary to organize quietly, lest their purpose be misconstrued and their prospects wrecked.
'He then sat down, amid applause.
'The speaker was evidently a man of some education and talent. He spoke excellent English and was apparently not of the criminal class.
'The chairman calling for the audience to state their views, several members rose in support of the speaker's remarks. Two were especially extreme, abusing the Premier, the Lieutenant-Governor, the Mounted Police and yourself, and favouring violence to gain their ends. Yates suppressed these remarks. Others, whom I judged to be foreigners, insisted in demanding that the privileges of British subjects be extended to all resident in the Territory. I gathered that the audience was of a low moral character and somewhat hostile to the Force.
'A resolution was then passed, sympathizing with the speaker's stand and pledging all present to work quietly towards awakening the first-comers to 'a proper appreciation of their grievances.'
'I am having search made with a view to discovering the whereabouts and identity of the man who addressed the meeting and am also keeping O'Brien, the proprietor of the hall, and Ginger Yates, the chairman, under observation.