The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-12-06
TO VISIT THE SLIDE.
The Prosecuting Attorney Will
Next Investigate
TWO CONFLICTING STATEMENTS
MI. Miller Wants to See for Himself.
but the Coroner II Convinced No
Inquest 10 Needed.

Prosecuting Attorney Miller leaves this morn
Ing for Canton, to further Investigate the land
Side on the Northern Pacific railroad there. In
an interview with q PosT-INTELLIGESCRR re-
porter Mr.. Miller said:
Both the coroner and Mr.. Mcbride thought
tnat no inquest was necessary, but at q 81 bse-
quent consultation some questions were raised
whicn caused me to decide to go up there to-
morrow before concluding that an inquest
shou'd not be held. / shall examine into the
Wnols matter, and talk to all the men who have
any Information about IL. The policy OF the
railroad company seems 10 be one Of secrecy
IN TACT, that seems 10 be o condition OF employ
ment
IN yesterdays PosT-lSTELLIGEScER was OBJ
taine1 between and $50 o'clock in the after
noonp and Coroner Horton aud Assistant Prose-
cutting Attorney Mcbride left Immediately after
wards on the $50 o'clock train on the Columbia
d Puget Sound railroad for Franklin. They did
not return until yesterday morning. In an in
teryiew published in the Telegraph yesterday
morning Mr.. Miller Is quoted as saying that
Coroner Horton had not yet decided upon hold
Ing an inquest" thus implying that the coroner
had not yet decided not to hold an inquest
When his attention was called to the apparent
contradiction between this statement and the
eoroner's statement that at the conference they
had decided not to hold an inquest, Mr.. Miller
said that DR.. Horton had correctly stated the
facts as TO the conference, and that he himself
was correctly quoted in the Telegraph, but that
another consultation had been held before he
was interviewed by the Telegraph reporter. AZ
both Coroner Horton and Mr.. Mcbride were
absent from the city from $3.50 o'clock on Friday
evening until several hours after the publica-
ton OF yesterdays Telegraph, IL was impossible
for than TO have held another consultation in
the interval. Coroner Horton said last evening:
The first knew of Mr.. Miller's intention to
visit the scene OF the slide was when saw the
Telegraph on my way home from Franklin this
morning. Mr.. Mcbride and / both talked the
matter over in his presence on Friday afternoon,
and, Mr.. Mcbride, VINO, / suppose, was acting as
his deputy, said he did not see any necessity Tor
al inquest. Mr.. Miller did not say anything at
all then; he simply listened to Us. We had no
other consultation on the subject. The first
knew oi his Intention TO 90 up there was this
afternoon, when he came to my Office and LETT
word With my student that he was going, and
asked that l should hold the bodies until be re-
turned. then sent word to Bonney & Stewart
to hold the bodies and postpone the funerals.
Mr.. Miller has taken the affair into his own
hands.
do not see any necessity for holding an in
quest, and shall not got Canton again. l am
pretty well satisfied about the case, and do not
see any occasion to investigate 1t again. OF
course, IL the prosecuting attorney says i must
hold en- inquest shall have to hold one. did
not fnd any deposition among the railroad EN-.
ployes to preserve secrecy; they were ready
enough to give information, and did not seem
to have any strings tied to them.
The burial OF he remains Of D. Mclean and
A. Erickson has been postponed until Mr. Mil
ler's return.
The remains OF Charles Rodgers, who was
blown up with dynamite on Thursday on the
North Pacific track at Canton, are at Bonney d
Stewards. No arrangements for the funeral
have bsen made or any word received from the
dead mans relatives in the East
A dispatch from Tacoma TO the Posr-INrHLLT.
eKNcEa last evening reads:
OF this city, VINO boards the Northern Pacific
forces in the vicinity of Eagle Gorge and Can.
ton, was in the city today. Mr.. Roob takes an
unbiased view OF the Canton landslide, and
from the standpoint of q contractor OF expert
snce, says II was nonsense to suppose that any
large number OF men had been killed by the
slide. The whole matter wa: summed up by
Mr.. Roob with the statement that in addition to
the tive men killed, whose bodies were at once
recovered, together with the injured, IL was
known by the unbiased and Interpretations Ia
boryrs and bosses at the scene OF the slide, that
upwards of half dozen men were missing, as
was stated In the Posi- and other
newspapers at the time. Opinion was divided
as TO W neither the missing were under the slide.
or among those who quit work the day OF the
accident Pending the completion OF the time
keepers list and the expected receding OF the
water in Green river, men were employed to
watch the river bank In the vicinity OF the slide.
Mr.. Robb fails to understand how even persons
unacquainted with the real facts. but who exer-
else reason, could be led to believe that dozens
of bodies had been buried under the debris.
The bank which slid into the river was only
sixty feet long, Mr.. Robb says, sand q moments
cons Iteration" he continued, will convince
any unbiased and conservative mind that sixty.
two men, as one sensational report had IL, could
not be st work under tue bank when the slide
occurred Men do not work in one foot OF
space" Mr. Robb says the bottom OF the slide
could not be inspected until the water receded.
The two bodies that were recovered were not
found until the water did recede. telegram
received this evening from Canton states that
the water had reached its normal level, permit
ting an examination of the force OF the slide at
the side OF the river No more bodies were