The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1891-12-26
DUE TO CARELESSNESS.
A Trainman's Neglect Caused the
Hastings Horror.

NEW YORK. Dec. 26.-The latest devel-
opments regarding the crash near Has
tings station. on the Hudson River Divi-
sion of the New York Central Railway, on
Thursday night show that by careless
ness almost beyond the mind of man to
understand, seven men and women were
slaughtered outright, four more so horribly
scalded, burned and mangled that they died
n few hours later and half dozen others SIS
fearfully injured that if they survive they
will carry TO their dying day the fearful
traces of the ordeal they went through
And all this because an employee who was
sent back TO signal train preferred TO sit
in a station and smoke cigar instead of
standing at his post on the tracks and
attending TO his duty.
If the railway company's version is to
be believed there Is not even for him the
miserable excuse that he was drunk. He
just deliberately left train loaded with
passengers standing unprotected on
track while another close in its rear was
bearing down upon il at over forty miles
an hour. Albert Il. Herrick is the name
of the villain of this adventure, and il is a
name which deserves TO be made histori-
cal in the annals of railroading. The list
of his victims is as follows:
Mrs. A. y. Baldwin, Thomas w. Policy,
Abram Knight Miss Libbie Van Ars-
dale, Miss Mabel Slocum, Miss Gertrude
Moore, Lizzie Ford, j. w. White, Miss
Lillian Baldwin. DR.. Stephen +. Best and
Homer Il. Baldwin, Annie Ford, ID. b.
Murphy, Harry a. Jacobsen, j. X. Bag
nell and ID. &. Livingston.
Herrick was the rear trainman of ahe
Niagara express. AS soon as the conduc-
tor in charge learned there was a block
ahead of him, ne sent Herrick back to flag
the -. Louis train. The brakemen
started toward Hastings with his signal
lantern, and though it was not neces-
sary for him to go as far as the
station, he did not stop until he reached
the place At the Hastings station, il is
said, he went in to talk with the OPERATOR
forgetting all about the train which he
was TO signal, and while he was in the
place the St Louis train shot past the
station. IL did not stop until il crashed
through the Wagner sleeping car Gibral-
tar, the rear car of the Niagara express,
which left the Grand Central Station at
New York at 1:3O o'clock
This train was standing on the track
where the accident took place, being un-
able to go further on account of collision
which had occurred two hours or so be-
fore, near Sing Sing. All the trains along
string of passenger and freight trains sew
eral miles long along the track by the time
the -. Louis express was due
The st. Louis train left the Grand Cen
tral station AT o'clock, and as the con-
ductor had not been informed of a block
ahead the train was tearing along at the
rate OF fifty miles an hour when the
engineer, James Donohue. discovered the
train ahead of him within fifty yards
He promptly reversed his engine and
jumped, but his heavy train of six cars
ploughed its way through the sleeping
car, carrying death and destruction ON all
sides The fireman remained in the cab
of the engine until IL came TO a stop and
was severely cut about the head and
badly scalded about the face and legs