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Show 186 Al'PE~'DIX, inquiries, which have led to the following information. When the arrange· ment was made in the building with the Managers, the keys were not at hand i they are supposed to have been in the care of one of the two watchmen in the service of the Managers. Afler the Mayor had left the spot, the two gentlemen whom he had charged to remain there to watch the crowd, (Captain Thomas Hayes, and Mr. Olmsted, the City Solicitor,) were accosted in the street, (near the corner of Mulberry and Sixth streets,) by llir. Barry, (the silent watchman, whose family were to be accommodated in the Hall,) who tendered to them the keys. Captain Hayes RECEl VED THEM, and told Mr. Olmsted that lte would tnke tltem down to tlte llfayor. Mr. Barry informed him that the keeper of the H all was locked up in the building; there were five keys handed to him, four iron ones, which he .<>;upposes were the keys of the front stores, and one brass one, which he thinks was the key of the main entrance to the building; he went to the office of the Mayor, wlw !tad not arrived there. About ten minutes after Captain Hayes had been there, the Mayor came in; Captain llnycs pointed to the four iron keys laying upon his o,ffice tctble, and told him, that LIS the keeper was locketl up in the lJ all, he would keep the brass key to relieve him in case of need. 'l'lte Alctyor assentetl to this proposition. Neither then, nor at any time since, has he ever had tlte key C!.f tlte main door. Captain Hayes ltas always retained it, aml ltas it yet in his possession. Captain H ayes informed the Mayor, that when he left the H all all was quiet. They remained together at tb.e office. It was then quite dark. The Mayor began to entet·tain a li1'ely lwpe that all would pass off quietly, and that late as was the hour at which the arrangement for closing the Hall had been adopted, it might still prove s ufficient to save the building from attack. Soon afterwards, however, messengers arrived with information that the crowd was gathering; and that large collections of persons coming in from the northern districts had reinforced the mob. Mr. Olmsted came in, and stated that they had commenced an attack on the Hall, and that all tlte public lig hts in the neighborhood had been exti11guisl1ed. Others came in with information that they were battering down tlte doo1·s. The Mayor in· stantly rang his bell, ordered his men to form on Fifth street,• and marched . with them with all speed up Fifth to Cherry street, and up Cherry towards the building; finding, however, the crowd very dense in Cherry street, and believing that their assistance would be more elrectual if they could come up in front of the Hall, he turned back by the advice of his friends, to get into Cresson's alley, which is directly opposite to it. T aking in his ltands a watclunan's rattle, he directed his party to keep together, and as he ap· preached the crowd, he spran~ the rattle, and his men all shouted out at once to " &:upport the Mayor.' The crowd opened, and he passed with the police men through it, until he approached the building, where the work of destruction was making rapid progress. H e then exclaimed to the crowd: "Shame! is there nobody here to support the law?"t No answer was given; for the first time certainly since the foundation of our city, the voice of her Chief Magistrate called upon his fellow citizens for assistance in support of the law, without receiving a hearty and encouraging respond. It was evi· dent that those who were bent on evil were in force and resolute; and that the thousands who surrounded them looked on with deep interest, but with no desire to arrest the progress of destruction. The mob began to close upon the police, and to assail them. Several were knocked down ; among these Mr. Miles, a very stout police officer, was knocked down and so sc- • Why was til is not done berorc, when tl•c peAceable little mob of" three hund1·cd " '1 boys :md stl·ipliugs ,, wc1·e there npplAulling their Yaliant l\hym·? t Not C\'Cil a Maym'-a pollee officer- o1· :1 police committee } RF.l'ORT OF Til F. POJ.ICF. COMi'IIITTF.F. . 187 verely bruised! that his life was at one time beiieved to be in danger. Not an arm was ra1sed, not a voice in that large as8emblage was heard in sup~~~ t of the cit!/. aulltori~ies. H ~rctoforc the cry of u support the Mayor " always ra1sed, as 1t were, Instantaneously a powerful auxiliary force from among the bystat~ders. I~ see ~ed now of no avail. The Mayor might lllldoubt~d ly have continued w1th Ius few, faithful police officers, to make fight agatnst the thousu,nds that surrounded him. But what effect could it have had? could he have saved the building 1 could the few have checked tl~e work of ~he "?any? \Vh~n abandoned by all who might have assisted h1m, when lu~ vo1ce had _lost 1ts wonted influence, it seemed to !tim evident that any exertwns to contmue the s truggle on !tis part, could not have saved the Hall, but would h_ave ended in the annihilation of his small party. The contest appeared_ to hun too unequal, and the Mayor did not deem it his duty to prolong 1t.• _The only persons tha~ succeeded in enteri n~ into the building were Cnp· tam H ayes,, and Mr. M11ler of the police. They became separated from the Mayor _m the ~rowd , an~ pushing for the entrance of the Hall, they pe· netrated with constderable d!llic~l ty through its dark passages. They found the doors a~ the ltea_.d q( tlte sta·trs locked; and being foiled in their attempt to proceed m that directiOn, they went out of the building, turned up Haines' street, and e!llered the 1/all by tlte back door,· they made their way to the room _up sta~rs,_ '~here three fires !tad already been kindled. Those who we~e m the ~U1ld1ng are supposed to have retired by one of the staircases, while Captam Hayes and Mr. Miller ascended the other; but ICl'" FINDING HOW FEW HAD GONE UP, they RETURNED to the room, and addressmg Captain Hayes by name, they advised him to withdraw. He refused to do so, and _was pulling ~ut the fires, when he was seized by one of them, wl_lo gave huu a sudden JCrk, and threw him down. Mr. Miller was served 111 the same way. There were in the room, as he supposes, from tw~lv~. to twenty personst-they were neither disguised nor disfigured, but Cap~atn Hayes d'td not recognise among tAem any one that lte knew, though he himself seemed to be known to them. Their treatment of him indicated that while_ they did no.t_wish to do him h3rm, they were resolved not to be in· ter.fered wt~h 111 the Ooject they hat! undertaken. Captain Hayes and Mr. Mtller, findmg themsel~es unsupported by their friends, and overpowered by numbers~ rel'!"ctantly wttlulrew from the building. ~~l ~omg mto the street, they saw the engines playing on the property adJOliun_g to the Hall, and they heard ~any in the crowd directing the fire compan1es not to play upon the H all llself, or el!:!e that their engines and hose would be destroyed. ~erhaps no circumstance so powerfully displays the extent of the feeling wh~eh prevailed in the immense assemblage, as the fact that the firemen, whose zeal and undaunted courage have long been the boast of our city we~e, ~or the first time within our remembrance, pre'Dented from Iendin~ thelf atd to rescue the Hall from conflagration. Had they been permitted to play upon it, ~h.ey v:obably might have saved it, as they saved all the property that a~ljOill?d It; but the deep excitement which pervaded the mob was made mant~est tn the control which they exercised over the efforts of the fire com pames. Such is, as far as the Committee have been able to ascertain, and, as they "' Quite fin overmatch fm· the i\rnyor and his "one humh-ed and sixty m<:n! 17 t" Discretion i11the bcttel· pnrt of valor." For "He who Ught1 11nd ruus nway ~fny iil'c to light another tin)'· llut he who is in battle tiAin Sball ne1·cr ritf' to light ngaln.'l |