The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1892-06-30
TWELVE LIVES LOST.
Awful Result of the Railroad Col
| lision at Harrisburg.

Harrisburg, Pa, June 26.-Twelve lives
we're lost by the wreck of the Western
express on the Pennsylvania railroad
early Yesterday morning, at Harrisburg. !
Prof. George l.. Smith, OF the Maryland
State Normal School, Baltimore, was SO
badly injured that he died Saturday al
ternoon. His left leg was cut off at the
thigh and he sustained a fracture of the
left shoulder joint His home was at NO.
1914 North Calvert street, Baltimore city.
His remains were sent to Canandalgna,
n. Y, where he was born. lie was a
graduate of Cornell University, and
made speciality of botany, becoming
an authority in that branch of science.
He accepted position in the State Nor
NAL School at Baltimore seventeen years
ago, and while pursuing his work there
took special courses at Johns Hopkins
University. He had also planned spe-
cial course at Harvard College for this
summer. When the Normal School closed
this years session Prof. Smith took his
wife and daughter to Canandalgua to
spend the summer months and went
himself to Easton, Md, to take part in
the opening of the summer school there.
| At the time of the accident he was on
his way to rejoin his family. The wife
and brother of the deceased came for
! the body.
| HOW IT HAPPENED.
The story of the accident is brief. The
first section stopped within q few hun
dred yards from the Union Station and
was just starting when the second sec
| tion a heavy train, made up of Pull
man sleepers and one express and bag
gage car combined, plunged into the
handsome private car of General West
inghouse and drove it forward, crushing
the three day coaches ahead into kind
ling wood. A flagman who had been
sent back from the front section when it
stopped was called in.
HI. S. Hayes, the telegraph operator at
the Sreeiton Tower, practically admitted
before the coroner's inquest yesterday
that he was responsible for the wreck.
Hayes, who is a young man of twenty
two years, was arrested tonight at the
| instance of Coroner Hoy on charge of
manslaughter He is now in Jail and his
mental distress is terrible to witness.
Fears are expressed that he may lose his
mind. The young man has not been in
the service of the company more than
few months, and has been an extra ope-
rator, going wherever he was ordered.
Friday night he was on duty at the Steel
ton tower as substitute for William
Goode, the regular operator. He al
lowed the second section of the express
to enter the block before the first section
had passed out at the western end,
against the rules of the company, and
the disaster is the direct result of the
violation of the rules. When informed
of the wreck and loss of life he became
almost frantic, and the day operator
was ordered on duty. He simply as
sumed that the first section had passed
the block, without troubling himself
about any notification from the Dock
street tower to that effect Hayes was
closely questioned and during his exam
ination was greatly agitated, frequently
breaking down and weeping bitterly.
He is an unsophisticated youth and but
lately left the farm in York county. He
frankly admitted that he gave Engineer
Kelly the white signal to go on without
first having been notified that the block
was clear but thought he was not wholly
responsible for the accident. He said
other operators had made the same mis-
take of which he had been guilty, but
the consequences had not been so terri
BILE. Hayes also admitted that there had
been two other persons in the tower with
him, and that in that he had broken an
other rigid rdle of the company. He
withheld nothing from the jury, and
cried as though his heart would break
as he finished his testimony.