The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1877-01-29
[From the Cleveland Leader.l
THE LAKE SHORE SUICIDE.
Excellent Character Of the Dead Engineer
in-Chief.

Excellent Character Of the Dead Engineer
in-Chief.
Through all the successive changes
among the other officers of the company,
Mr. Collins has been retained because he
occupied q place which 1t was difficult If
not impossible for another to adequately
fill. He was not only IN accomplished en-
gineer, q master Of the whole art of rail-
way construction, but he was besides and
above all that a sincere and conscientious
man. lie knew every yard OF the road
over which he had control, and so careful
was he thai he permitted no one else to
even purchase the supplies used in his de-
partment. He was continually doing and
overseeing personally what other men in
his position would have left to subordi-
mates. He never permitted his own inter-
Gsts to stand in the way of his duties to the
public and the highest interests of those
whom he served. He twice refused to per-
init shops of the company to be built upon
or near premises of his own, which would
have been greatly enhanced in value by the
improvement. He seemed to feel, as not
many railway engineers have done, the full
weight of the responsibility resting upon
him as constructor and custodian of the
tracks and bridges along which thronged
night and day an endless stream of travel
and traffic, and 1t was the pride of his life
to have 80 borne this trust that the Lake
Shore system Of construction and manage
ment became a standard and o pattern for
other railways throughout the country.
While in the full zenith of his we'll
earned success there came news of the aw-
full calamity of the Goth of December at
Ashtabula. The principal bridge on the
Lake Shore railway had broken down in O
winter night under q passenger train, and the
chasm below had been made a scene of hor-
rible suffering and death. The relations of
Mr.. Collins to the fated bridge have been
accurately stated in evidence before the
subsequent investigation. He did not de-
sign or build it. 1t was an experiment with
which he was apparently not quite satisfied
but he apprehended no danger. 1t had
stood the usual tests 1t had borne up with
out developing weakness or flaw for ten
years, and had not apparently suffered in
jury from use. 1t was his duty to inspect
and protect it from deterioration by natural
causes, and this be undoubtedly did with
the sam fidelity that he gave to every
duty.
When the dreadful disaster happened Mr..
Collins hurried to the scene, a broken
hearted man. Day and night, almost with
out fosd or rest, for he could neither eat
nor sleep, he lsbored in the snow and ice
to recover what the wreck had left of
wounded and dead, and to repair the dam
age to the road. Although not held re-
sponsible for the disaster, 1t oppressed him
with a mountain weight that he could not
shake off. The scenes of that awful night
preyed upon his sensitive nature and drove
him, day by day, nearer to that condition
in which the mind breaks down utterly and
moral responsibility ends. His testimony
before the Legislative investigation commit
lee was given on Wednesday last. The
evidence, and the manner in which it was
given, impressed the committee so favor
able that the examiners announced pri-
vately, after the conclusion of the session,
that their report would entirely exonerate
him. With that testimony his life-work
ended.