Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1884-01-23

am not sick?" Said i,"You have seen
Dukes today" and be said: "Yes,
grandma, | have, and be looked right
in my face and grinned at me-" And
then James shut his mouth and show
ed me the kind of face Dukes had made
at him
What else did you notice?
His mother would tell him to do
things and he would forget it, and
sometimes he said he no longer had
heart to do anything"
Did you ever hear him make any
outcry in the night?
Yes, sir | heard him cry "murderp'
one night. He cried it so loud every
one in the house heard it and woke up.
Was it talked of in the family in the
presence of James about Dukes meet
ing and following his sister,
| don't remember | often told
! James not to go to town any more
than he could help. l heard it said
that Dnkes had said he was afraid of
i that crazy Jim Mutt"
What occurred between you and
James before he started for town the
evening of the shooting of Dukes.
He had been working around, and
came into the house after he had
brought the cows up for his mother to
milk He asked his mother first if he
could bring them up, because it was a
little early. She said yes. He come
in and sat down to change his shoes
and looked to me and said, Grandma,
I'm going down to get the mail He
seemed to be quiet and calm, and
noticed nothing peculiar about him.
He did not come back that night?
No, sir. never saw him after that
until | saw him here to-day
Cross-examined-Do you know of
James being sent to town on any err
rand after Joe went off on visit and
previous to the killing?
He was sent to town on an errand
on the forenoon ofthe day of the killing
hing he was not with his uncle that
day He did not tell me that forenoon
where he was going On the evening
he told me he was going to the town
for the mail He told me so when he
was changing his shoes. He did not
change any other clothes.
Awful Railroad Disaster in Nc
Kean County.
One of those disasters peculiar to the
oil country occurred about three miles
from Bradford last Tuesday week,
resulting in the entire destruction by
fire of passenger train on the Brad
ford, Bordell and Kinzua Railroad. A
tank of oil on the Anchor Oil Com
pany's lease, on the Buchanan farm,
while being steamed, burst, its con-
tents coursing down the steep hillside
and running into the roadbed of the
railroad At that point the grade is
very steep, and the vagrant oil ran
down the track for fully half mile.
The morning train from Wellsville, due
here at 10 A. NJ, consisted of an ex-
press car and passenger coach. Every
| seat in the car was taken. The ex-
press car was also partly filed with
passengers. When the train entered
| the river of oil, the engineer, who was
unconscious of danger, was startled by
loud and deafening explosion, and an
instant after wards the entire train
seemed enveloped in q mass of flames.
| The gas in the oil had come in contact
with the furnace of the engine, firing
the oil. Engineer Patrick Sexton i'm
mediately applied the air brakes and
reversed his engine. For brief in
slant the train came to q halt The
| engineer said that he was surrounded
by seas of flames, and noticed with
dread that the waves of burning oil
| surged ahead Of him on the track for a
long distance. To remain in the midst
of the burning fluid meant certain death.
He opened wide the throttle and the
engine thunderel on at terrible rate
Of speed A sharp curve was ahead.
The engineer reversed his machine,
and with his fireman, Michael Walsh,
jumped into the deep snow bank which
lined both sides of the road. After
running n mile the train was finally de-
rallied and fell in heap in d tcb, when
the work of destruction was completed
IN TERRIBLE PLIGHT.
The passengers, at the sight of the
destruction, were terror-stricken, and
the scene that followed beggars de-
scription. Locked in and helpless in n
furnace of fire, travelling at the rate of
fifteen miles an hour, their anguish
knew no bounds. Men of nerve lost
their heads. Women fell to tie floor
in a swoon, and the cries and lamenta-
tions of little children pierced through
the hearts of iron There was q dash
for the door and windows through the
sweeping flames which cooked the flesh
and singed the hair on the faces and
heads Of the imprisoned passengers
within. 1t was everybody for himself
and men in their desperation jumped
from the speeding train and fell pros
trate to the ground, burned and
mangled to pieces So fierce was tho
heat of the flames that the windows
were almost instantly cracked. allowing
tongues of fire to lick the interior of the
cOhcD. " OnutIlul w lclhIt Ouiy bhtcc
lives were lost. There were many
miraculous escapes The victims were
all women Mrs l.. G. Fair, of Aiken,
was burned to death When taken
from the ruins the body was found
burned almost beyond recognition.
The ghastly corpse lay in the snow
with both hands extended Her hus-
band, who was in the baggage ear,
started to go back to rescue his wife.
AT the door he was met by wall of
flames, the passage of which was GER
tain death He was forced to jump
from the side door and escape with
hul..,.a,v /, ka