The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1871-01-31 00:00:00

A YOUNG WOMAN KILLED ON
THE RAILWAY.

A very sad accident happened on the Portland Rail.
way on Wednesday afternoon. The 550 train from
Weymouth to Portland hid genie up and shunted, and
was just about to go on the viaduct over the Backwater.
Near this point is • crossing over the line, the gates of
which are of warm shut against the road when • train
is about to pass. The line therefore ought to have
been clear ; but at that vary moment a yeunr woman
was walking on tho railway to the northward. Firemen
Grainger, by the reflection of the white light on the
engine, saw the young IroallMl immediately facing him
between the rails, and close in frost of his engine, and
In an instant he applied the break. shouted
is his mite. driver Tildesley, and the (implies
were revsrsed and the train brought to a stan.l•
still bitween 100 and 150 yards further on. Tli
. . .

sues of a confused bunale of clothes, and like that dee
vanished from the horrified firma an's sight. Weise ,ho
1730—r
;i-otirn—herboen—st-ru-o-k- instantly isito the appeer•
train was stopped, teey fount the unfortunate girl
with her lop projecting between the leg guard of the
engine. Some mea from the Railway station, eeeing
the train stop. rushed instantly to the place, and the
deceased's body was extricated. It bore fearful marks
of injury, there was a terrible cut in the region of the
jew, and it seemed as if the jawbone Wee brawl, the
injury was continued further b stireen the Jew and the
neck, and there were marks as if her chest hat been
crushel. It seemed that the buffer had streak her
down, and the guard iron, after pulling over her and
A CORNISH TRAGEDY.
dimmed her along the line till the train was stopped. 1
aQiulu.ethwe,,
The poor creature was already dead; but Dr. Rhodes It was a wild dark evening. an I the wind oil seb.
mating her cheek neck, URI caught her clothes and ,
bine round the house in fitful gusts that told of a risisg
body was
phaeWydereTeiladeliattryr,waeandt ' storm for the morrow. Dread and nameless noise
along the line, and pinked ups brindle, some boots, and , within doors—witteoet, gloom, desolation. and the
one slipper, and some money was also scattered aloog , awful signs of a sernieg storm. The wind was moan*
the fats track. Tile train was then despatehed to acmes the toqs.ug 'stretch of waters; the seabird,
lawmen" sent
ftotire
Portland, there being no purpose to serve by delay. It wheeled low, and .lariek.el and screamed as if in pain;
was found that deceased was named Upshot! •. she WWI the will Woven. stashed against the sounding beech,
• servant to Mr. Blackmon, of Redipole Mills, and had and tare &owe the shingles as they were sucked batik
been taking tea with her cousin in one of the houses into the vast world of seething waters; the heavy sky
liming the Railway station. After tea she had started hung low and I twering—ah! it was, indeed, a threaten.
to walk to Radipole, and must have ja.t come on the Me evenine on that will Cornish roast, sad
crossing, and that rather suddenly before the train , even the hardy fi•hermen themselves felt the foreboding
114. Wed and killed her. She Wan a fine young woman, intluences, aul were saddened though they did net
' 27 years of age. tremble.
The inquest was delayed till Thursday night, when Within the atark•house the men were working by
It was held before IL N. Howard, E.g., as deputy iQ I the fitful lig',t of a few lanterns set on the floor, and
Giles Symonds, Req. the candles which, miner like, come carried in their
Mr. Target% appeared for the Soath•Westlrn Coin. Cap, There were three sturdy fellows from the
patty, Mr. Humphreys, district sup:rink-Indent, Mr. hanad ; the master wdAtnen froua the neighbouring
Reynolds, Weymouth stationmaster, and Mr. lnipec:or
, town. came to take inueureasents when the pleas
Morrison for the Great-Western. sod Mr. eat."'" "8 sheuli be cleared ; and Jim Penreath, haggard, anxious,
the Portland Railway Conpeny. desperate-looking, facing Walter Garwood who stood
Mrs. Elizabeth Turner. of 8, Rechmend Terrace, said with his hands in the pockets of his shootisiejaeket
deceased had been a echoulfellew of hors, ant that
„ looking on, every now and then pausing in his work le
611".°,°°,° she °6,°lolu" "e 3 "" '16'176°3i 6°3 6`116,1 gaze full at the young matter, with something in hie
ins little atter Bed, as she WAS returning to nor Oliver 4. face not plealint to hehohl. lie hat tried to 'serenade
Witness got her to stay to tea, and she left the bous- a him to leave the work alone, but Walter would not,
1 little before six. She was then in rise spirits. an-1 in . end ell the more bezatese the in an was so strange and so
general was of a quiet disposition. Witness, keo win; pereistent, It was noticed at the time, and spoken
that she genereli• went to Itatlipole Meng thl till ty 111110 U of afterwards, how Jon stood doggedly to one
wall and the Backwater, persuaded her to go by the I side of the house where the heaviest stakes were :-.
Dorchester road; but she made no answer. Witness . why did he look go often at Walter, balancing that
did not think she had anything on her mind, or that i heavy club across his palm, and with • kind of specula.
there was any reason for thinking ehe would put AU end tion in his eyes, is kind of preparatory spring in his
to her life. Sho did not remenabar her going home feet ?—and how he wrought there, not so diligently as
alone after dark, as she had generally the company of • 1 „Aso..y.
moving about the loge and stakes and brush.
young mau to whom she was engaged. I wood piled up in that corner with a great show of
Mr. T. Downton, miller, of lisdipole, sail deceased I motion, but doing so little that the other men had
was his sister.in-lew. Her father was Michael Upsball, turned out all the rest whilst his part was still no.
of Haselbery Bryan, farmer. Witness considered finished. And it Was notindi too, how fierce he looked
deceased in good health and spirits, and there was .
, toward; the young mister, ant how, ones or twice,
nothing the matter with her hearine. . still balancing that heavy stake across his palm, he had
Thomas Grainger, fireman of the 5.50 train, said just I edged a step er two nearer. And yet, whet ill had the
as the train got on the Backwater bridge there young man done? and what cause had they to be afraid
appeared something like a woman 10 or 15 yards in that Jain would do him a mischief? Bat one of them,
front of the engine. She wet directly between the I somehow or another, Overt wronged to get between
rails, 'sideways to the train. She did not seem to be i Walter and Penreath ; mil just as they came up to his
moving, and he palled to his mate, the breaks were side of the plat*, and began to clear away the rubbish
applied, and the whistle blown. The train was stopped thence, Alice, wild and white, stood in the doorway,
about 100 or 150 yards on, when Mr. Tidesley got off , ant calling his name aloud, rushed forward to her
to see what had happened. When witness new the , husband.
woman she was 15 yards past the crossing.
Ili the Foremen : There is no light at the crossing. He turned at the heat of tier hurrying feet at the
and it was very dark. The small gates are not locked; sound of her frightened vit. and the turn saved him;
ice
but he never had occasion to pull up at the crossing on for as he stepped aside, • heavy beam came down on
account of people being in th i way. They did not blow ' tee very
al m
spot where he had stood, and at f k
the eame
the whistle at the crossing, except to the man at the i moment aloud exclamation broke f o from one the man.
gate. No one has • rigly. to walk on the line. There I A loose b0a.,,! it el rotted, and the heavy fall of His
was • red light and • wbite light on the engine, both beam broke through the crumbling wood—broke through
' burning brightly. on to a battered mass of earth, which it stirred and
, Henry Tidesley, driver. corroborated Grainger, but I
' nattered, 'M./Will(' the handle of something that looked
, reckoned the engine pulled up about 200 yards from ' lik tl d stiffened f darkened
e • cu •61,.an . a end o
1 cloth-
-Bk. crowing. He went back and behind the train found 1 some parts a lightish grey, others • blackened red.
I bundle, • hat, • veil, slipper, pocket, and a bottle ,
. • " Way, what's this?" said the master workman from
I I the town stooping down.
Ilk, a medicine bottle. He could not find the body 4 ' . . .
" Leave nu alone," hissed Jew, laying his broad hand
there; but on ecaminlng the engine found it lying in I the '
front of the engine sticking on the lifeernsid, lying fiat on ,6 '' _
yi,,,,
tan s shoulder • "leave un alone, 1 say, or It
on her back, with the legs stretched out. She was I may "
e the worse for t .
mite dead, death must have been instantaneous. The t . . '
" Hey man ! what's this ve lay? It do look like
engine was going 8 orknowing more about a dark job than ought to be,"
10 miles an hour; it was very I
answered
we . . back, _.
dark, and the wind was blowing sharp. On Thursdai ' to man thrusting bim emits at
morning he went to examine the place, ant found
the same time e , .
handle, and brought out
some teeth, halfpence, • bunch of keys, and part of rusty cutlass, with one deep hack in the blade.
a"
There's 'here that c f "he shouted; f
s niers W Me. I'M. . Of deoeased's dress. 91 yards from the crossing. They .
do not whistle to were people at the crossing ; they had ' .
he was excited Rod the find was suggestive.
had several narrow escapes of knocking people down " Lower the lights, men, and work away !" cried
there, but he had not given notice to the company. He •
Walter. "Mother, look to Alice," he added, she too
considered the creasing a dangerous one.
pressing forward with the rest.
Dr. Rhodes, went to the Backwater Railway Bridge i
' But Alice was not to be kept hack. Her eyes wild
a little after deceased, and saw deceased lying On the I d strangely
her lips apsrt, her young fn. bt Lech° I, an
side of the metals. She was quits) dead ; death pro- ! 8 .
tiffeneel in all her limbs, she stool close by Joe
bably was instantaneous ; the bones of the heal were ' Penreatb, despite her horror ot the wen, holding her
r. I
terribly (sutured. He had the body removed on • Ilm ,ther b
b I they
spadefulw "t • a° forcing
they uncovered what her to look too.
abetter was to the Queen's Hotel, found a lacerated eratod wound , idealying
a
en the abdomen, and extensive injuries all over the ! under the cent—slowly as it seemed to those
who,
heed. This morning he examined the line, and found [ excited. Worm 1, half-maddened, according to tbeir
the first trace of blood, about 80 or 90 yards from the '
' degree, waited for that which was to be rerealel. And
he they u e d what ? The crumbling bodies of
creasing, and after that there were marks of blood on '
•t n ithasehoor red—rk, l locks.and of • woman
each sleeper, where deceased had evidently been dragged , doTanntwWwho
short,
tlfell all: y of motion hair. aomill
along. The cause of death was from the injuries men. 7 " w • gold 7 • f dim
Cloned. ; the man's breast hung a thick go chain n a pre
I pattern, to which was attached • locket that had been
. _

Mrs: Tamer, in answer to the Coroner, said the
bottle found had been given by her to deceased. It
was empty.
The Coroner called the jury's attention to the p3lnt
that deceased was off the crossing when she was struck.
Why did she go there? The evilenci was dead against
the assumption that she want there to destroy herself,
and it was probahle sae did so btcanse of the dirt on
the other side of the croiiint.

13, SO WOIOII WY, ••••••••• • • ..... ---
forced open, and the locket held the miniature likens's
of Mn. Mackenzie, and on the fleshlesa hand glittered
• diamond ring.
A piercing striek bunt from the or widow. It
needed no second glance to tell her who and what she
a. 'My buibsni ! Charles ! Oh, Coarles !" she
sobbed. flinging herself on her knees by the terrible

Toe Jury oonitiltelin private for about half an hour,
sod then retaronf a vershot of " Aooklantal Death."

grave.
"And this is his murderer!" cried Alice, as she
clutched Jew Penreath by the arms arid held him.
Strong man an be was—none stronger in all the
country round—that slight girl's touch held him. He
0.00.1 for a moment paralyze I and lost. His memory
went back to this very day ten years ago—almost at
this same hour—when he had stolen on the traced of
Mary Mainfote and her gallant lover from Truro, as
they took 'MAW in this des-rted outhouse from the
storin, and ended both their lives together. There hivl
been no struggle, no outcry, irr pleadin4 for life—only
woman's haul had grasped his arm, •earcely knowing
what it did in the terrible suspenic of the moment.
quietly, as they sat there in the deepening gloom, he
; had stolen up in them from tli•• other side, and one
blow had struck the life out of him who had gained
I what he had been refused, another had finished the
I work on her, and avenged his denial in blood. The
whole scone, so swift and bloody as it had bees.
! wrought itself again before hi.; e 5.... so that he had not
felt the tight hand which grasped his um ea
. ringers braced to Mender oars of steel as Mrs tad
boon. .

adding— --reoommoodatioo that mwe precautions be
used than it presout exult for tho.sarety of passengers

at the Part Well level erotaing of the Weymouth Lad

Portland Railway.

Mr. Humphreys and Mr. T.irgatt ua lertook to convey
ths reoommentation to the proper quarters.
The jury two thair feei to Inc Tura er, whose
husband lost his sight some time ago, by the explosion
of a steam boiler. .

_ __.._..
The inquest teas not over till after ten &cloth at
night.

But when the men came forward, his sense§ were
aroused. The touch of the woulee's listid had lades
only a continuance, • put of the vision that hid bee,
cuijured up again before him ; but when the mess
iouii creep Klilo4 him, he woke back to himself. teem
manhood, to his strength, and with • IsuAh of oontecipt
he shook them ud, and stood at bay.
" Ah, bays, its Come at last!" he said, and ye all
it before ye. I swore it, she should never be line,
man's if not mine ; end I kept, my oAtth ; end I kept it
well. She and idin, they lie there where they cloned.
•nl where I watched them,
boys, and west mai bat
not so mad that I could not strike—that I amid not
end it all before the day came when she wee to do
with him—to her abeam. Now, ye have it ill, and
do your worst."
;