references to Dr. Dever as being a witness whom we would like to call, are untrue. No such statements were ever made by me. The matter was not discussed at all. He came there for the sole purpose of requesting me to suppress evidence. I did that at his request, because I didn't consider it material at all where Mrs. Lincoln got the towel. I probably shouldn't have asked him the question if he hadn't come there, and I refrained from it. He asked me certain questions in regard to Mr. Brandeis, which I answered. He asked me if Mr. Brandeis should say to him, Didn't you say so and so?" in my office, what he should say. I told him to state the fact. And that is the extent of the conversation that we hadin regard to this case, with the exception of Mr. McCaffrey's testimony. I took the printed testimony of Mr. McCaffrey and read many of the statements and asked Dr. Parker if they were true. Many of them he said he did not agree with, and those things I asked him about when he was on the witnessstand. That is all I care to say about it. Q. (By Mr. BRANDEIS.) Mr. McCaffrey, you testified that during the whole time you were at Long Island you did not make to Mrs. Lincoln or to any persons not connected with the institutions or the City Government any complaints at all in regard to the condition of Long Island, and that the first statement which you made to Mrs. Lincoln was in pursuance of the letter of Father McAvoy in which he implored you to go to Mrs. Lincoln and to get her to act in the matter of Smith, of Smith's drunkenness. Now, I ask you, Mr. McCaffrey, whether before going to Mrs. Lincoln you had also a request from anybody else connected in any way, who had been connected in any way, with Long Island to report or to make known the condition of things at Long Island? A. I did. Q. Is this the request to which you have referred? A. It is. Mr. BRANDeis. - I will read this letter, Mr. Chairman. (Discussion, followed by reading of letter.) Q. And that letter you had, and the letter of Father McAvoy, when you went to Mrs. Lincoln to tell her about Smith's drunkenness? Is that a fact? A. Yes, sir. Q. And that letter you had when you afterwards went, in pursuance of Mrs. Evans' request, to tell the Board of Visitors what the facts were in regard to Long Island? A. Yes, sir. Mr. PROCTOR. Mr. BRANDEIS. Let me see it, Brother Brandeis. L Yes. It hasn't been the practice here, but I will show it to you. Mr. PROCTOR. I knew your well-known courtesy would allow me to look at it. (Examining letter.) Well, how is this rebuttal? Did you think I was going to eat it? Mr. BRANDeis. Yes, I thought you would like to, but that you wouldn't like the taste. Mr. PROCTOR. Mr. BRANDEIS. Mr. PROCTOR. How is it rebuttal? - I think you will see that it is. It is rebuttal. Mr. BRANDEIS. A charge is made here by Dr. Cogswell that this action of Mr. McCaffrey in coming forward and testifying, making known his complaint, was the action of a man who was disgruntled and who did it from malice. I desire to show Mr. McCaffrey's position; to show that, on the contrary, he acted as every good official should, and that so long as he was a subordinate officer at Long Island he did not breathe to a person outside a single word; that when he did come forward and act he did it in pursuance of a solemn duty; that he acted in the matter because Father McAvoy had told him to do so; that he acted in the matter also because Mr. Galvin had told him to do so and that is what I wish to bring before this committee. This is what the letter in part has brought out, and this is correct. Mr. G. H. MCCAFFREY: CITY OF BOSTON. HOME FOR PAUPERS, RAINSFORD ISLAND, You will remember, gentlemen, that Father McAvoy's letter was dated, I think, on the 21st. DEAR SIR: Yours of the 17th received, thanking me for kindness extended toward you during your short residence on Long Island. You received nothing from me but what you deserved, and I trust that the future will develop in you ability sufficient to exalt you to a higher position on the force. Part of the Advisory Committee was down yesterday. Mr. Ring wanted some points about the managment of Long Island. I could not from my own experience give him any. He ought to be made acquainted with how things are carried on. You have it in your power to give him all the points he wants. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year is the wish of your old friend, JOHN GALVIN, And that letter you had and the letter of Father McAvoy when you went to Mrs. Lincoln to tell her about Smith's drunkenness is that the fact? A. Yes, sir. Q. And that letter you had when you afterwards went, in pursuance of Mrs. Evans' request, to tell the Board of Visitors what the facts were in regard to Long Island? A. Yes, sir. Q. Mr. McCaffrey, Mrs. Lincoln testified that you were present on that March day when the two women came to Long Island who afterwards were sent over to Rainsford Island. Is that the fact? A. It is. Q. The fact is as Mrs. Lincoln has stated it? Mr. PROCTOR. objectionable. Pardon me - it seems to me that that is rather Mr. BRANDeis. Mr. PROCTOR. You mean the form of the question? Yes; I don't object to the matter, because she has testified to it twice or three times and Mr. Galvin has testified to it. Q. (By Mr. BRANDEIS.) What were the facts in regard to that, Mr. McCaffrey? 4. The facts of the case were that these two parties were sent from the City Hospital to the Long Island Hospital. They were to be left at Long Island. It was a very windy day and rough down there, and when they came to the wharf there was no ambulance to receive the patients. The question then was whether we should hold the boat there until they could get the ambulance ready to come down there or whether the boat should go to Rainsford Island and have the ambulance ready to meet it when it came back. Mr. Galvin said he would hold the boat if Mrs. Lincoln wished it. She said it wasn't for her to say. Captain Bowden was at the window and said he didn't care to hold the boat, that the weather was too rough, and that he could put over to Rainsford Island and back and then they could have the ambulance there and save time. These parties were taken to Rainsford Island, came back, and during that time the ambulance was hitched up and we brought them up to the institution, the hospital. I had the ambulance got ready there after finding that these people were coming, and even then there was no harness to place on the horse and we had to take the old buggy harness at the risk of the harness breaking, probably, and smashing the wagon and throwing the patients all overboard. But luckily it didn't. Q. Now, Mr. McCaffrey, Dr. Cogswell stated in his testimony, referring to the testimony which you had given in regard to the lanterns, the few lanterns that were in the hospital at night, and that the lantern had been taken from the priest who was there in order that the watchman might go down and give the clock a wind, that he had talked with Father McAvoy in regard to it, and Father McAvoy said he didn't remember that a lantern had ever been taken from him under those circumstances? A. Yes, sir. Q. Have you seen Father McAvoy since that testimony was given? A. I have. I saw Father McAvoy last week. I went to him and asked him how he could make such a statement to Dr. Cogswell? Q. What did he say? 4. Father McAvoy told me he never said anything of the kind to Dr. Cogswell, and that I could quote him as saying so. I asked him if he remembered the night that this thing took place in my presence I don't know how many nights it took place when I wasn't there. He said he did recollect it. Q. Dr. Cogswell stated that among the reasons which induced him to change the favorable opinion which he had of you, and which had led him to recommend you to the Board of Police Commissioners, was a report which had been made concerning you in connection with one of the night nurses. Is there any truth in that statement? A. Gentlemen, that statement is false from beginning to end. That party I never had anything to do with whatsoever; neither was that woman ever in my room, either at 8 o'clock in the evening, at 10 o'clock, or at 1 o'clock, as the doctor would have you believe she was. Anybody here who knows that woman or knows me knows that that statement was made with no other reason than to try to throw a blemish upon me, which they have been trying to do from the beginning of this hearing, but cannot do. That is false, and somebody will have to answer for it later on, but not before the Board of Aldermen. Q. Mr. McCaffrey, Dr. Cogswell also stated that a further reason which induced him to change that good opinion of you which he had at the time you left was that he heard that the vegetables which he desired to have sent to Dr. Heath had been actually sent by you to your own house. Is there any truth in that statement? A. Gentlemen, that statement is false, and I will tell you why. When you asked me here before on the stand, or the counsel for the opposite side asked me, "Did any of those vegetables go to your house?" you will find I told you they did. I told you how many times I thought they had gone, but since then I find I told you too many times. I said two or three times. I find I only sent vegetables to my house once. The other time I sent a parcel to my house was a bunch of bananas which was presented to me by the captain of the Vigilant." Dr. Cogswell bas told you that these goods went from the boat by an express team to my house. There never was a thing went from that boat to my house but what went by the Marcella-street Home Express, carried there by the Marcella-street Home Express, by a man by the name of Johnson, who was driver at that time. " Q. Where was your family during the summer of '93 in which these vegetables are said to have been sent? A. I didn't commence to send vegetables to Dr. Heath until sometime, I should say, about the middle of July. My family was away in Warner, N.H., from the 5th day of July to the 9th day of December. Q: December? 4. September excuse me. So, therefore. I had no reason to send vegetables to my family, aud if I did I had but two little children at that time, and one of those boxes of vegetables I was sending to Marcella-street Home would last my family for a year. Therefore there was never nothing that went to my home, and that that did go there was sent there with the sanction of Dr. Cogswell, and the stuff that went to Marcella-street Home went there because I spoke about it. How I happened to send that stuff to Marcella-street home, I was there one Sunday afternoon to dinner and they had no vegetables there but patatoes, and I said, "Gracious! we have plenty of these vegetables down to the island and I will send you up some." They had a young man bere to-day who I could call upon if I saw him now to bear out the statement, Mr. Pelletier, but I don't see him here now. I went to see Dr. Heath and told him that I would send vegetables every Saturday if he would send a wagon to bring them up. He said he would be glad to. After that I sent a variety of vegetables, everything we had on the island fit for use at that time, which wasn't much, and after that I sent him, I should say not every, Saturday, because sometimes he would neglect sending back the box. I had a box built, a square box, that I should think would hold somewhere around two bushels or more, and he was to return that box Friday or some day in the week, so that I could fill it for Saturday, and when he neglected to send it back they got no vegetables that week. Dr. Cogswell saw that box, saw it marked, B. Heath, Marcella-street Home," and he said the mate told him that the team that took the vegetables was an express team, and didn't know what team it was. That is false, because the mate of the boat knows that team, knows the driver on the team. I leave it for you gentlemen to decide how many vegetables went to my home. Q. Do you know that those vegetables or any of them reached the Marcella-street Home? A. They did, and I helped to eat them there. A. Sunday after Sunday. When my family was away, instead of going to a restaurant, I went to the Marcella-street Home and ate dinner there, and we used to laugh and joke at the table, and the officers there, Mr. Pelletier or Mr. Lonergan, can bear my statement out, where I said they ought to feel proud that the poor-house could feed them. Q. Dr. Cogswell denied a large number of statements which had been made by you in your testimony. Is there any alteration or correction in your testimony that you wish to make? A. None that I remember. I should like to say that if we bad the time I would like to go through from beginning to end with Dr. Cogswell's statement, and I could rectify a lot of the mistakes, but it is not worth while to bother with them, I suppose, they are so small. Q. (By Ald. LEE.) I understood you to say something about the harness that if it broke, the occupants of the carriage would go overboard? A. Yes, sir. Q. What did you mean by that? A. I meant if that harness broke, the trace broke, the whole thing would be apt to go over the bank there, especially at that time of year. Q. If what broke? 4. The trace or breeching strap, or any part of the harness might have broken, and that horse being a very flighty kind of a horse and with the heft, it being as much as the horse could do to get up to the building as it was, and if it had broken it would have been apt to go over the embankment. If the wheel had switched one way or the other they would have been apt to go overboard, and gone some distance, too. Q. Well, were those two women, Mrs. Reardon and Mrs. Taylor, carried up in a wagon? |