Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-06-15
NORTHWESTERN NEWS
1hs Commissioners Appointed to In.
vestigate, the. Iowa Railroad
Disaster Report.
Meeting Of tile Dakota KNIGHTS Templar
at Aberdeen-Another Railroad for
Nebraska General.
IOWA NEWS. NOTES.
A. Das.ardly Outrage.


Al Dastardly outrage.
!. The smooth course of. q most prosperous
college year was broken at Ames the other,
evening by one of the most shocking out
RACES which has ever occurred In the his
tory of the Iowa Agricultural College.
Under the administration of. President;
Chamberlain the greatest harmony between
the faculty and students has existed and
oil the departments of the college have
peen enjoying success, and until. lately no
murmurs of INSTRUMENTATION have been
heard from any quarter. But the ma
llclous tongne of few doubtful chnrac.
ters which are to be found in the best Of
institutions, jealous of the success of rival
students who, in mental contests. had
SHOWN their superiority, and who were
members OF secret society, had been ST..
lently circulating.false reports, among the.
newer and less experienced students.
which eliminated one day last week. The
members of gentleman's, secret society
gave reception to their lady friends in
their hall situated in the third story of the
chemical laboratory building Mt this time,
and, melted by wild rumors, a. masked
mob of about sixty students, who were
principally members of the lower classes
of the college. gathered about tne
building armed with. rocks and rotten
eggs and were prepared to- assail the
building. Previous to this, a generator of
most poisonous gas (cyanogen) was set
in action just inside of the building, where
its noxious vapors would rise'to the society
room and the doors of the. building were
very securely barred. The. gas pouring
into the society hall alarmed the party and
the male members at once rushed down the
stairs to ascertain the cause. They We're
nearly suffocated by the gas. and rushing
to the windows were greeted by volleys of
rocks and rotten eggs. Breaking through
the windows without serious injury. the
besieged boys, numbering about a dozen,
engaged in a combat Of words with the
desperadoes, and unfastening the doors
the half suffocated and fainting ladies
were taken from the scene. After yelling
themselves hoarse, and shouting. like an
archists for a few hours the mob dispersed,
and once more quiet reigned. The faculty
will meet the matter promptly. A few Of
the leaders will probably be handed to the
civil authorities and the remainder ex-
PEELED. Great indignation exists among
the law and order students that such
despiseable affair should have occurred,
again dragging the I. A. G. into publicity
in the newspapers of the state. The lead
ers in the affair have been apprehended,
and all are anxiously awaiting the decision
of the faculty. Mob law cannot dictate to
the officers of an institution of learning.
Commissioners Report.
Report has been made to the governor
by the railroad commissioners in the mat
ter of the collision on the c., B. & O..
railroad between Creston and Cromwell on
the morning Of the 18th of April last. The
accident occurred at 4:25 in the morning
and at the time attracted consider
able attention. In the accident both en-
gines We're thrown from the track. Charles
! Fl. Sharp, the fireman Of the freight train,
seriously injured. After reviewing the
case briefly the commissioners conclude
| their reports as follows:
The responsibility of this accident rests pri-
marily with the engineer and conductor Of
freight train sixth number twelve. The fact
| that the engineers wat Ii hnd stopped is no
excuse for his failure to know that ore time
had elapsed Than he wus entitled to as against
number five. The conductor knowing that he
was running closely on the time OF an opposing
train, was negligent in going to sleep, and
should have in any event directed his raken1an
to have called his attention to Cromwell sta
ton when reache The telegraph operator at
Cromwell is responsible in not calling tho
Creston Office until answered, when a train
passed his station without stopping while on
the time of an opposing train, particularly as
the conductor tailed to throw Oft the soup tick
cts required by the rules. The management
that directed these men &, be kept in contin-
uous service without rest for thirty and thirty
six hours respectively, until the men We're UNI
able to keep awake, and physically untitled for
places where every faculty is needed to be
active and awake to avoid accident, is certainly
censurable. The safeguards thrown aro@nd the
service by the rules of the company would have
made this accident impossible, if my OF the
three parties directly resp nsible had obeyed
them. It is tn wish of the commissioners to
have it fully understood that they regard the
work ng of men without rest or sleep for long
periods Of time hazardous in the extreme,
and not justifiable, even if the men do not OBJ
ject to the extra hours. The engineer and con-
ductor in charge of the passenger rain they re-
gard as free from all blame, while there was
some expert testimony to the effect that the
trains might have been stopped quicker, there
was not enough to satisfy thenothat the short
distance between these two trains when first
seen that they could have been stonped before
coming together. The commissioners find moth
ing in the testimony to indicate iucompetency
in any of the parties responsible, but u failure
to obey rules that if lived up to would have
made this collision impossible