The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1890-08-30
INSTANTLY KILLED.
Two WOrkmeO in tho chapIine
Hall Tunnel
RECEIVE DEADLY SHOCKS
Ny Contact With the Uninsulatcd
Wire Which Suppllcsthc Current
to tho Arc Lights In tho
lIcadins...Work Ceases.

A douhly fatal accident occurred al
fifteen minutes past o'clock last even.
Ing, In the south heading OF the Wheel.
Ing Bridge aud Terminal Railway Com.
pany's long tunnel, now being construct
ed ander Chapline hill by Paige, Carey
& Co. The victims were two OF the men
employed in driving the heading, a
co!ored man named James Solomon,
aged eighteen or nineteen, and an Aus.
tFian OF middle ogs, whose name was
not known TO any OF the other work.
men, and who appears on the time books
OF his foreman by number only. Both
died in tho twinkling Of an eye.
At about quaileI past seven a blas.
wa, discharged, and the men were lust
returning to their potts In the heading
or smaller tunnel at tho top OF the main
one, which In driven frat and kent
always considerable distance ahead Of
the other work. Access to the shelf of
rock on which the heading drivers work
is had by rude ladder and narrow
plank scuiIo!d. A number OF the men
had aacended and reached the end of the
hole, ana were at work. James Solo.
mon, n gtalwnrt young negro, was max.
ing his wav al7pg the plank, closely fol.
lowed by the Austrian.
HOW IT HAPPENED.
Exactly how tho accident occurred Ia
involved in some confusion, owing to
tho rapidity with which all was over.
The most collected of the eye-witnesses
says, however, thut Solomon and the
Austrian were nbont five feet apart. The
Austrian. stumbled or slppcd, and
started TO fall. To save himself he
thrna. his left hand up among the tim.
bcrs overhead, and gras?ed the first
thing his band came in contact with,
which proved to be loose piece OF the
wire which conducts the current TO the
lights. AT thesane moment, the colored
man came close enough to the Austrian
TO be within his reach, and in his fsl|
the latter caught hold OF the negro.
Both fell, and in his fall Solomon struck
the lower wire, WHICH completes the
c!rcnit, the wire striking him across the
bacl: OF the neck just at the base OF the
brain.
A gigantic colored man was lust at the
tob OF the ladder. He saw both lying on
the ground below, but just before his
head came above the edge OF the rocky
ledge, he declares, he felt decided
shock OF electricity. When he saw the
two men stretched on the ground he in.
etinctively realized that they had re-
Ceived the current from the wire, and
shouted back to the men on the lower
work to turn oil the current. This was
done, and the men We're carried out to
the mouth OF the tunnel.
Their fellow wofkmen in the heading
deserted the tunnel, and an hour later,
when IN lETELMGENCEE reporter visit.
ed the scene, the b'g hole wRs still dark,
aud not man WGR at work.
Policeman Stanley and several other
people were standing on the Woods
street bridge when the men were car
ried out, and they supposed when they
saw the hands l3ck out OF tho tunnel,
and observed the commotion at the
mouth, that there was fight in
progress.
DIED INSTANTLY.
The pelice patrol wagon was sum-
mened, and Dr.. Charles Frissell called,
an impression prevailing among the
men that as there we're no marks OF in.
jury about the bodies, the man might be
only rendered unconscious. The bodies
were still warm. but when the physician
arrived he pronounced life extinct, and
it ia evident that both men were dead
when they touched the ground. Neither
probably felt the current which caused
their death.
TIE WORK OF THE CURRENT.
Tho bodies were lifted into the patrol
wagon and removed to Mendel 4 Co.'s
undertaking establishment. There Dr..
Frissell made n more thorough cxami.
nation. When the bodies were laid out
in the undertaking room, Chief Del
bruege said TO the Doctor:
Doctor, those lnen arc not dead.
They are warm yet"
Or. Frissell said aiterward that on n
casual glance the men did not seem
dead, even 10 his experienced eye. Not
Il feature was changed. They lay as il
peacefully sleeping.
The Austrian still had in his left
hand the deadly piece OF wire. His
hand where it had closed over the wire
was burnt to the bone. There wGs no
other mark on bis body to indicate the
presence OF tho deadly fluid. The col
ored man was burned black across the
back OF the neck, plainly showing
where the wire had touched tho ekin.
Both the corpses had number Of cuts
and coniusions, as If in falling from the
plank they had struck on the projecting
points OF rock on the wall OF the head.
ing. IU.
TIE MEN rRlGnTsSED.
A reporter talked to brother Of Solo
mons shortly after tho accident. Ht
said jim, the dead man, was ninete, Z
years old, and had been away from home
for four years and half. Their mother
lives in Rockingham county, Va. and
tho boy came back there Il few month";
ago, and when lie left to come here
his older brother accompanied him
They had been working for Paige, Carey
& Go. only a few months. The brothel
was much affected by Jin,'s death, and
was very anxious to know II he coult
not have the body sent homo for burial
All the men seemed awe.stricken BY
tho accident. A man who has seen
good deal OF the tunnel hands said las
night that men who would stand side
by side with others who were crushed
by falling stone, and only stop the
own work long enough to help lit th!
stone and take tho niured man out
were pauic,s,licken by this accident
There was something mysterious abon
the sudden visitation that impressed
them as deuth by any ordinary yiolen
means never would.
Theeo deaths arc the first that hav'
occurred in Wheeling from electri
shocks. Indeed, there has not preyi
ous,y been even serious shock by th
electric light or railway currents. Al
attempt was made last night to find ou
how much OF q current was on the wire
but without success. The current /
Iro.,r from thc wires leading from tn