Q. Were you in the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in May last on the last day of May, that is, the day of the big flood?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. How were you employed?
A. I was hauling local freight: running engine 1021.
Q. You was an engineman?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Where did you start from?
A. Conemaugh.
A. We left Conemaugh about six o'clock on Friday morning. We went to South Fork after a good deal of detention; we w ere [sic] detained a good while about the deep cut and Mineral Point; we finally got to South Fork, and there was orders there to hild [sic] everything for orders on account of a washout at Lilly.
Q. What time did you get to South Fork?
A. I suppose it was in the neighborhood of eight o'clock. There were trains on the middle siding and a train back in behind the tower there on a% [sic] little siding, and we got on Mail's time, and there was no place else for us to go, se we backed in on Stineman's coal siding up at South Fork station, and laid there until the flood came.
Q. What was the condition of the track between Conemaugh and South Fo [sic]
South Fork as to safety, when you went up? Was the creek washing in on it?
A. There was nothing with the track only east of Mineral Point there was a slide down. We were flagged there going east. We followed what we call the beef train, a train of fresh meat, a\up that morning, and they were laying at Mineral Point. We caught them there, and they were laying at Mineral Point. We caught them there, and we were alying [sic] there a good while.
Q. What was the condition of the water at Conemaugh when you left there, as to height?
A. It was middling high, and rising very rapidly.
Q. How was the water in the north fork when you crossed the bridge and went to the other side?
A. They were both very high when we went ---- across. Where we laid, we couldn't see much of the South Fork stream although we were down almost opposite the stream, but we couldn't see for the buildings there; but the Conemaugh was very high.
Q. When you were at South Fork, did you hear anything said about the condition of the dam? Whether it was running over or not?
A. Yes, sir, there was at least three, and I think probably four messengers came from the dam before the flood; they came right down the ro ad, [sic] and we were aying [sic] right opposite them; and I used to go over to see what they had to say. The first (two) or three didn't think it would amount to much. Finally along about dinner time, I think it was, a man came down, and said it was going over the top fo [sic] the dam, and that there was a hole about twleve [sic] feet from the breast that it was running through, and I heard them say there was another one came about the time the flood came, but I didn't see him. When I heard the flood was coming, I got the train out of --- there.
Q. Did the flood strike where yourtrain [sic] had been standing before you pulled it out to a place of safety?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Do you know any of the people that brought these messages down from the dam?
A. No, sir.
Q. They didn't seem to be alarmed about i t? [sic]
A. No, sir, noen [sic] of the people around there appeared to be alarmed about it. They just laughed and asked them to give "Then [sic] something new", and things of thatkind [sic]. Everyone showed that they didn't believe it excepting a few that shook their\ [sic] heads.
Q. Was you on the engine when the flood came?
A. Yes, sir, I wasn't off the engine much only whenever there was a crowd--whenever [sic] anybody came down from the dam, there was a crowd congregated around there.
