River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1885-02-26

It Illustrates the Uncertainty Of Ciroum'
stantia1 Evidence

It illustrates the Uncertainty Of Ctrcum-
stantial Evidence.
I'll tell you a short story" said the
engineer as he pulled leisurely at his
meerschaum, "to show you how any To-
connective engineer may get into tight
place. About five years ago the body
of prominent farmer of Shiawassee
county was picked up in broad day on
the Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwau-
kee track near Burton, almost literally
cut to pieces. But with the exception
of few scratches the face was not
touched. OF course there was no ques-
tion but that the man had been killed
by a train, and as but one train had
passed from the time the body was
picked up and the time he was last seen
it was decided that the east-bound mail
had run over him.
AT the coroner's inquest half doz-
en- people had seen him about the sta
ton at Ovid and one had heard him
ask the agent how the train was run
ming. This witness also testified that
the telegraph operator had informed
the deceased that the train was twenty
minutes late and that he heard the lat
ter say he would walk home; that he
used to do it in the old days and he
could do it yet.
Several trackmen who were sup
posed to have been at work on that
section of track were asked if they saw
the man and they testified that they did
not and knew nothing of it until they
were asked to go and help pick up the
remains.
After the trackmen had retired from
the witness stand the fireman was
was called up. He had looked for
| ward, he said, once or twice, but he did
not remember seeing anybody on the
track. But he did not have much time,
he said, as the train was behind and he
was kept busy at the fire-box.
| All this was very mysterious to the
people, who looked on, cycling the rail
road men suspiciously, and the not I'M
natural excitement attendant upon the
slaughter of prominent man in broad
daylight visibly increased.
| Finally the engineer was called:
"You were the engineer of the mail
| train bound east on such and such q
date?"
eyes, sir?"
"What was The state of the weather
on that date?"
"Clear and bright"
| "The sun was shining?"
''Yes."
"Did you have anything to occupy
your attention but running the engine
between Ovid and Burton?"
Nothing whatever"
Then you sat upon your seat and
kept constant watch ahead?"
| Almost constant; now and then a
| glance at the needle of the steam gauge.
cat what speed were you running?"
Between thirty-five and forty miles
an hour"
"Did you see anybody on the track
between those stations?"
Nobody but the trackmen."
"If a man had been on the track would
you have seen him? Your eyes are good
l suppose?"
"My eyes are perfectly sound. And
| if a man had been on the track l would
have been most certain to see him."
"And you did not see this man ?"
al did not"
"Well, to make long story short,
nobody took any stock in what the en-
gineer said and the excitement ran so
great that there were rot few who
threatened to lynch him. Under the
circumstances the company could not
keep the engineer so he was discharg-
ed"
"But the man might have been muir
dered, urged listener, land his body
thrown on the track"
"Then the engineer couldn't help see
ing the body" was the reply. mo,
the man was not murdered. On the
contrary, he was killed by the train
which was run by the engineer who
had been discharged. F"
"But how do you know? How was it
done? How did they find it out" was
asked by several IN breath.
Nov, l told you when | started to
tell it" said the engineer, deliberately,
that / was going to tell you story to
illustrate the point. ] am glad to say
it is only a story so far as the killing
and discharging is concerned, but it has
this foundation in fact. Last Friday
afternoon, the 10Th of the present month
of December, 1884, / ran the mail train
east on the Detroit, Grand Haven &
Milwaukee and pulled out from Ovid
oh Gffaa,, 10
pretty sharp, about thirty-five miles an
hour, and when about three miles from
Burton both the fireman and myself
were startled at man coming stag
gering down the coal heap in the tender
and into the cab He was intoxi-
Gated, and as he staggered against
the fireman he nearly knocked the lat
ter down. Then he staggered over to
my side and said: My name is Beck
with / live three or four miles south
of Owosso. I've got money enough to
pay my fare and I'll pay it to you if you
want it.
I told him l couldn't take his fare and
that he must get off at Burton. When
he got off at Burton he fell and rolled
over in the snow, he was too drunk to
hold himself"
"How in Caesar did he get out on to
the tender?" was the question Choir
used.
"Why, the old c1lss (he is a man about
55) got on the front end of the mail car
just back of the tender without being
seen by anybody, as he got on from the
opposite side to the station at Ovid and all
hands being sharp for time he was not
observed afterward. OF course the mail
car door was locked fast and he couldn't
make himself heard if he tried. So he
climbed over the icy end of the tender
as drunk as he was in safety. The
chances were only about one in hun
bred in his favor that he did not fall
through between the tender and mail
car and get cut up like any man in the
story. We tended to him on the train
and brought him home safely to Owosso.
but had he fallen through and got killed
the matter could scarcely ever be cleared
up satisfactorily"
Emerson's Quotations.
Every reader of Emersons works
knows that he made free use Of the