The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-12-19
ELECTRIC SHOCKS FROM LIVE
WIRES.
Three OF the Street Railroad compa-
ny's Big Grey Horses Killed.

Yesterday morning the street railroad
company's snow pillow, with SIX hoises az
tached, started from the stable near the IN
ion Station to 60 up Congress street. A
broken wire was hanging down
from another wire, on which it was crossed,
and struck one of the leaders of the team
The horse jumped into the air and fell dead
instantly without quiver. His fall broke
up the other horses more or less, and in an
instant, it is supposed, the wire touched the
other leader, and he, too fell, followed by
one CT the pair next behind. All three of
these horses were the large and valuable
greys, which have been so much admired.
The first horse as has been stated, died In
few minutes before they expired. The other
three horses were not touched by the wire,
and hence escaped injury.
During the night of the storm the electric
light wires in that vicinity appear to have
been in dangerous condition, and it is a
wonder that some one was not killed by
them. When the car from the IL o'clock
train was proceeding up the hill Wednesday
night, one of the horses stepped on a live
The driver Jumped of and attempted to'pull
the wire out of the way with his heavily
gloved hand. He got severe shock, how.
ever, and was glad to drop it. He then got
stick aud poked it out of the way. If the
current had been as strong as the one that
the big greys encountered, the result would
have been fatal either to horses or driver.
At 2 o'clock yesterday morning the West
ern Union people notified the electric light
station that their wires were crossed some
where. The telegraph instrument on the
Bangor line caused trouble. and then it was
known that some electric light wire had
crossed over it, The electric light people
were told that they ought to shut off the cur
rent, but not realizing that their wires
were in position to cause loss of life they
kept the current on so as not to leave that
quarter of the city in darkness.
AT the time the horses were killed, sparks
Of fire were seen running along the over
head wires. Telephones In the vicinity kept
up perpetual ringing. One gentleman un-
hooked his receiver, but the telephone then
commenced to hiss, and-he preferred the
ringing. As soon as General Manager New
man learned of the accident, he notified
City Electrician Cummings. who ordered the
current shut off. After that the bodies of
the horses were removed. The driver who
had charge of the horses feels very badly,
for he had much pride in the team, and was
sorry to see the splendid animals killed in so
sad a way. These six horses were really a
matched team of greys, and were noble fel
4 Tho afrin Iiuhtc MT hY,r ,iprr
at the time of the accident. but the current
was still terribly powerful The driver re-
ceived portion of the shock which killed
the horses. but not any great amount of it.
The driver, Ia conversation after the acct
dent, said that when he saw the horses fall
he supposed they had simply slipped On the
frozen track. He at once jumped from the
plow and, with the other men, ran to the
PROSTATE animals. As he began to unbuckle
the harness, he saw that the horses legs
were being convulsively drawn ND and down
and blue flame was playing about them.
He warned the other men of the danger and
they left the stricken animals where they
were, removing the other three.
There seems to be a question whether the
current was transmitted to the horses
through broken electric light wire or tele-
phone wire which had fallen over the electric
light line. A lineman who looked over the
situation yesterday morning reported the
electric light wires all right.
Last night the street lamps were not
turned on. The electric light company said
their lines were all right but the city cleo
trician was afraid that other broken wires
crossing them might make trouble. The po-
lice signal system has not been working
since the storm.