The Cecil Whig., 1878-07-06

| the following summary of the late railroad
accident on the Philadelphia, Wilmington
Il Baltimore road, for their benefit:
Last Saturday night, as the limited ex-
press, which passes Elkton about L p. NJ,
was speeding along the track at the rate of
forty miles an hour, it struck a cross tie,
that had been placed upon the track,
sholt distance south Of Claymont, Del,
which caused the engine to jump the track
and threw all the passenger and other ears
except the sleeping car at the rear OF the
! train, from the track. The engineer, Geo.
Babes, and his son of the same name, man
! fully remained at their posts and did all in
their power to secure the safety Of those
upon the train. Their mangled remains
were found among the ruins of the wrecked
engine, which ran il distance of 2G5 feet
after leaving the track and penetrated the
bank at the side of the road to the depth
OF six feet. The body Of the heroic but
unfortunate engineer was terribly mutt
lated. His son is believed to have been
scalded to death by the steam escaping from
the wrecked engine. TWO young men, one
of whom was from Chicago aud the other
from Baltimore who were stealing ride
upon the platform Of car. near the front
of tie train, were also instantly killed.
The agent on the Adams Express car
which was turned upside down and thrown
upon the opposite track, had a narrow es-
cape from horrible death, but he scram-
bled out of the ruined car as soon as posi-
Die, and mounted guard with drawn reYol-
yer upon the bottom Of it. Fortunately,
the passenger cars in the front cf the train
were comparatively empty, aud 20 others,
except the postal clerk Oh the mail car,
were injured.
Other trains We're nearly due when this
diabolical business was consummated, but
with commendahlc presence of mind, the
officers of the train succeeded i'll signaling
them i'll time to prevent Il double catastro-
phe. This, briefly told, is the story OF the
wreck. 1t was not an accident. Tor the
credit of humanity, it is to be wished that
it was.
One Harley G.. Brown, q former employe
Of the Delaware railroad, was found in the
immediate vicinity OF the wrecked train,
and was immediately arrested and taken to
| Claymont. He had passed Claymont a
short time before, and at first said that he
| found the tie which caused the accident
upon the track and was unable to remove
it, and was Fastening back to Claymont in
order to have the train stopped in time to
prevent the catastrophe. However, after
he had spent a night in one Of the cells
of the lookup, in Wilmington, he supple
mented the cock and bull story he told at
| first, by a confession to the jury Of inquest,
in which he says he had no malice against
the railroad company, nor any one on the
| train, but old not know Of that particular
train being due at that point, and intended
to hurry back to Claymont and report the
discovery of the obstruction, and thus in
gratiate himself into the favor of the com
pany and obtain situation, he having ap-
piled for one some time before, but failed
TO get it because there was no vacancy
then. In other words, this ttendSh fool,
with a reckless audacity chat Satan might
be proud OF, sought to lie himself into the
favor Of the company, and IN order II do 81
sacrificed the lives OF two valuable men,
and endangered the lives of many others.
We append description of Brown aud
the story Of his confession, as given in the
Wilmington papers:
Brown is a tall, gentlemanily man, we'll
s1f
hair of rather darker shade, thin on the top
Of his head, features rather long bat Tegu-
lar, and an intelligent c0untenance. He
was placed in front Of the clerks desk,
and answered most Of the questions put to
him, calmly, clearly anu uI..e@iUatiuSly.
Ny name is Harley G. Dtowu, l was
born in Saco Maine"
II now reside in South Whining ton,
Delaware: was in the city Of Whining
ton, on Saturday last until about 1870 =. NJ,
| think the train left about that time. !
went as far IS CheEtag, thUra / looked
around for young man that understood
was living there by the name Of Lufkin,
but did not succeed iii finding him: dit
rot stop III Chester great while, perhaps
it was o'clock when left, but | am not
certain as ! did not cnnSult my watch: |
then went to South Chester, that is what
the place is called believe; crossed the
iron bridge; ! then came on down towards
L4mokiu thinking to take the train there;
having considerable time, | concluded to
90 on down as far as Thullow! took the
main road, aiId while walking along n
wagon overlook me, and the person driving
hailed me, and asked me if would like to
take ride, and ! told him | would; do
not know on what part OF the road he
overlook me; / then got in the wagon, and
he took me nearly down to ClGynont; it
was bat short distance from the station
where he turned ol! of the main road;
then came down the track about half mile:
| came over too bridges, the railroad might
term them culyerts; as l crossed the last
one the idea just came in my head, that by
placing a cross tic on the track, and then
going back, and warning the train Of dan
ger, | might get situation; | then picked
up Il cross tie from the ditch. and put ii on
| the track; in the first place put it over
one rail and under the other. ! afterwards
| took it out intending to throw it on the
the rail, as / thought it might throw the
train from the track, | though; to lay it on
the track and stop the train, and thereby
get position; | intended to throw the tie
entirely off; | thought that ! would not
leave il there as it might wrGci. the train;
! took it Oft the track when heard the
whistle blow, and gave it Il fling, thinking
that had succeeded i'll throwing it OFF,
started to warn the approaching train; |
| thiull it Was the south bound tram that
blew the whistle; when the north bound
train passed | was just turning off the
| turnpike into the railroad; looked up and
saw the train coming SOUTH and started
north; signaled the train by waving my
| handkerchief, and when the train passed
hallooed.
| was perhaps 100 yards above the cul-
| vert when the train struck the tie. | did
not have any accomplices in the work or
any promptIngs; came back to the train
when the accident occurred; the first per-
son saw was the conductor, am not ac-
| Quainted with him; asked him if any one
was hurt, and he replied that his passengers
were all right, but he vas afraid that the
engineer and fireman were both hurt.
think he was right at the wreck; | had no
conversation with any other gentlemen
uutil met Mr.. Lawson, and Mr.. Pratt, l
think his name was; Mr.. Lawson,