The Wilmingtonian., 1884-10-18
DEATH ON THE RAIL.
The Work Of Slaughter Goes Stead
iIy On.

distiust Of the citizens of Delaware.
On last Wednesday, as Messrs. Simmons
and Ashley were crossing the Railroad
tracks on Fourteenth street they had mir
aculous escape from death; the horse
attached to the wagon in which these mel
were seated were instantly killed, and if the
pole of the wagon had not been broker
Simmons and Ashley would have shared the
fate of the horses. Those who witnessed
the accident stated that the train gave nc
signal of its approach until within fifteen
teet OF the crossing, and that it was running
at rate of speed not less than thirty miles
per hour; and, as a proof of the rapidity at
which the train was running it is said that
it could not be stopped until it had gone
nearly two squares from the accident,
although the air-brakes We're, at once,
applied
There are NJ safety gates at the Four
teenth street crossing, although the danger
which attends this crossing has been fire.
quently commented upon by the press OF
this city-and at this identical spot the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company mangled a
man not yet year ago.
Only short true since THE WILMING-
ToNlAN showed by the records that the
tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad were
crimsoned with human blood almost their
entire length Of our city's boundaries, aud
we protested against this murderous
onslaught on human life, and for brief
season, while the blood of Hill and Osborne
were crying for redress the Railroad Com
ordinance, which requires that the speed OF
trains should not exceed rate of six miles
an hour; but for weeks and weeks the
express trains have Numbered into this city
at thirty miles per hour, in uitrr defiance Of
the mandates of City Council rhe writer
Of this, within the past week was borne
down upon at tile Twelfth street crossing
by an express train and barely escaped what
might have been calamtious accident.
The tendency of the management of the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company is. to
deilantly treat the ordinances of this city,
and it Is time that The Railroad Company
was held to a rigid accountability for its
transgressious.
The Fourth street crossing is flrst-class
death trap and, although City Council passed
an ordinance some niue months ago demand
ing that this crossing should be made safe
for yehcular traffic, the ordinance has been,
up to this date dead-letter, and the Rail
road Company, in the language of the late
MIR. Tweed, asks those of our citizens whose
lives are daily imperilled at this crossing,
"what they are going TO do about it ?"
About the same hour on last Wednesday
morning that the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company lad Simmons and Ashley trans
fixed with horror on the tracks at Four
teenth street, another train was crushing
the skulls and mangling the bodies of three
unfortunates at Elkton. The same old tale,
a dangerous crossing and no danger signals,
and The engineer of the train not blowing
the whistle until the train was at the cross
ing and on top of William Andrew Prior
and the two little unsuspecting children who
were travelling with him.
AT this same crossing by the same train in
August last team was demolished and its
occupants, man and woman, injured The
latter Mrs. Hoagland, lies in a hospital in
Philadelphia and is insane. The crossing is
a dangerous one, as persons cannot see the
railroad until they are within few yards OF
the track, A track hand states that the
whistle was not blown at the proper place
and that it was not until the train was
almost upon the crossing that the danger
whistle was given, and that the wagon had
been struck before the third toot.
Clarence Cameron, who was in charge OF
Red Mill, saw the train coming and, noticing
that it did not whistle at the whistling post,
said to a friend that Prior's wagon is noal
the crossing and he has not blown. Mr.
Cameron also states that half the trains that
pass do not blow for the crossing. There il
much Indignation expressed against thu
Railroad Company for not having a watch
man and for the negligence of its employees
in not blowing the whistle
The work of slaughter goes on and will
still 90 on until some one has the courage t,
institute suit against theRailroad Compan,
commensurate with the damages sustained
Every hour of the day the Pennsylvania
Railroad is inviting a carnage of death a
the Edgemoor crossing and we know of a
least score of persons whose escape fror
death at this point bOrdered on the miracu
lous. Only recently Mr.. Sellars was goin
to the station when south bound tiaiI
which had been obscured by north boun
one, just grazed the wheels of the carriag
as the horse bounded over the track.
The safety of the public imperatvel
demands an assistant at the Fourt
street crossing and that safety gates sha
at once be placed at the Fourteent