Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1889-10-03

e. L. Huston, who operates the signal
tower at W. e. N. junction, testified that
he was employed by the w. u N. railroad
solely and was forbidden to give any in
formation about the movement of B. IL 0.
trains. They transmit messages from 3.
4 0. employees il made in writing On
Saturday last the Grew Of extra No. ~ did
not ask for any information.
Superintendent MoUausland OF tho
W. IL N. railroad gave even more ex-
olicit testimony on that point. He said
that the W. d N. and b. Il o. railroads
had general interchange of business at
w. ~ N. junction. Tho signal tower
there is operated by the W. ~ N. rail
road and they only operated the switches
for the passage of trains. The men are
emphatica,ly forbidden to give any
verbal information relative to tho move
ment Of Il. ~ 0. trains, but they have
instructions 10 transmit or receive any
Is, X o. telegraph business when in writ
ing. Then they must only send and re-
ceiye and deliver such messages.
j. L. Spurrier, the Is. ~ o. trainmas-
ter, explained the book OF rules very
fully, and showed c0nclusively where
Engineer Cooper and Conductor Carroll
erred in going in on the single track
without making any inquiries about tho
regular trnina. He said that No. ~ had
three methods of making its passage safe.
They could have held their train ut w. "
N. junction until No. 2ll passed out; or,
IL they did not know that No. 211 hal
passed out, they could have inquired tor
information either at w. u N. junction
or East junction, or, when No. 2l4 went
in they could have sent ilagmsn in with
her, who eoud have had No. 2l1 detained
until No. " was reported at the west
yard.
Conductor Carroll was recalled and he
said that he thought TINT No. 2ll had
passed out and that ne had arrived too
late at W. d N. junction to see her pass.
From the testimony it was evident that
the original order from lrainmaster Hart
man was all right and was such an order
as is issued every day on every railroad
in the country, aud has been issued by
the same trGinmaster since the accident.
It ia equally evident that Conductor Oar.
roll and Engineer Cooper jumped to con.
illusions, which every railroad man knovc
is very bad railroading. The duty OF
railroad man i3 TO knuW and
not to guess. The crew of No
"a thought they had failed to sec No. I'll
when she passed out, 30 when they saw
No. Gid regular west bound scheduled
train, go in, they followed soon after
ward in her wake. No. 2l4 had the right
OF way even over No. 2lI and the two
trains had instructions TO meet at tho
weat yard. Whether the train hands had
sufficient facilities for obtaining infor-
nation about the condition of the track
or not is mooted question, hut on
the question of facts as presented
in the testimony to the Jury last
night, every railroad man present
land there were number of them) ex-
pressed himself freely that Engineer
cooper and Conductor Carroll were the
ones at fault.
The jury thought differently and
adopted the following verdict:
The Jury In the case OF Edward Lyle, who
was killed by negligence on this part OF the
b. 4 o. Railroad Company on September
2Sth between East junction and west yard,
would unanimously agree to the following
After hearing ali the testimony In the case
we believe that the said Edward Lyle came
to Ills death through gross negligence on
the part Of said company, and we exoner-
ate from all blame and responsibility the
conductors, engineers and train hands OF
trains Nos. al and 81.
That is the verdict as it appears on the
secretary's minutes, but the verdict as il
appears on the ooroner's certificate, which
is the legal papsr in the matter, reads as
follows: " That Edward Lyle came to his
death through the gross negligence Of
the b. Il o. Railroad Company and Its
employees"