The Washington herald., 1907-02-05
RIOTHEARING STARTS
No Excitement at Beginning
Of Brownsville Inquiry.
SERGT. HARRIS TESTIFIES
Negro, Called as First Witness, Fur
niShes No Information Of Value.
Frequently Answers That He Dis
renaeIn nbered"-Heard Nothing but
Firing on Night OF the Trouble.

The least exciting occurrence around the
Capitol yesterday was the investigation
Of the Brownsville affair. which was be-
gun before the Military Affairs Commit
tee
Contrary to the procedure In other
committee Investigations. the rule was
made promptly that but one witness al a
time should be in the room. and that no
spectators should be admitted. News-
paper men were made welcome The en-
tire commlttee-Senators Warren. chair
man; Scott, Foraker, Lodge. Hemenway,
Burkeley. Warner. Pettus. Blackburn.
TaliaferTo. Foster. and Overman-were
present In the corridor twenty or more
colored ex-soldiers waited until the com
mittee adjourned.
The first and the only witness. for the
day awas Israel Harris, second sergeant OF
d Company. Twenty-Afth Infantry. Tisr-
ris is "a Hght-complexioned negro. about
thirty-three years old. fully six feet tau
straight and solderly bearing. and
matter OF fact III his statements. in
speech De showed that his eleven years of
army service in the United States. Cuba,
and the Philippines had been something
Of an education to him. He gave his an
swers in direct and respectful manner.
often his reply would be that he "disre-
membered." His accent was Of the
South, and he said mo for more. %
and do for door
often the questions put to him were not
ineligible to him. because the Senators
Ia
he did OF military matters. The sergeant
always deferentially proceeded to get the
inquiry straight. and then answered il to
the point At one time he told how the
men formed I'm line and counted of. A
Senator thought that this was a count of
Ithe men 60 See who might be absent, but
Harris smiled family, and explained. po-
htely. that they were counting fours p"
For the most part the mans face was
cXpressionless.
Senator Warner, in putting his ques-
tions, assumed the manner of a keen
lawyer cross-questioning in court. Sena-
tor Hemenway finally Interrupted by
saying; Don't press the witness in that
way lie is a frank witness" To which
several Senators. in chorus. approved Of
Mr. Hemenway's Characterization by
saying: That's So
Harris Gives His Account.
In response 10 questions by Senator
Foraker, the witness said that he had
gone to bed about $50 on the night of the
shooting He was aroused by the firing
about y o'clock He got up and started
10 dress There was call to arms. and
the men fell in line in front Of the bar
racks. the witness taking a position in the
rear Of the company. When the men went
10 get their guns. the racks were locked
They were unlocked by Corporal Powell
The key was kept by the non-cOmmis-
stoned officer in charge for that day. The
witness described the gunracks. The FIR
ing was stil going on downtown when the
company formed in line The men were
counted off. and an were accounted FOR.
There were no lights. and when the roll
was called the officer used a lantern to
read the names. Harris said he heard all
the responses and recognized the voices
Of the men. He did not think it was pos
sible for one man to have answered when
the name Of another was called. After
the company WAS formed they went down
town TO look after soldiers: they found
none. and only saw one armed man. and
learned that he was an officer of the Law.
IN answer TO a question by Senator
Scott. the witness said that no men foil
in line with the company while it was
down town. They returned TO the bar
racks about l,30. replaced the guns in the
racks. and broke ranks For some time
afterward they sat about on the grass
but the witness persisted in saving =ybeo
cToss-eXamined upon what was done .ben
that there was absolutely no discussion
of the shooting among the men then. al
though the proceeding was very unusual.
At sunrise the next morning the com
pany was called up for inspection: all OF
the guns and ammunition were found in
proper condition. There was no ammuni-
tion missed. and all of the guns were
clean.
At this point Senator Foraker produced
as exhibits two rifles, one Krag-Jorgen-
sen and the other the latest pattern OF
Springfield rife
showed How TO Clean Gun.
Harris showed how the Springfield rife
was cleaned, and explained the method.
1t would take at least ten minutes. he
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