Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-17
THE COHONER'S LAW.

A Dead Mother and Her Sorrowing Chill
dren Left by the Side of a Railroad
Track in vireinia-A Sight That Affected
Congressman.
One day last week the limited express on
ored woman near Hancock, Va 1t was a
very pathetic case but an unavoidable acci-
dent. The unfortunate woman with her
two little children was walking on the
track, and in getting out of the road of one
train was caught by the express and killed.
The children crouched down between the
two tracks and were saved. 1t was sup
posed that in her auxietv to protect the
little ones the mother had lost her life
The train was stopped Immediately and
went back to the scene of the accident. The
passengers, who didn't know what was the
matter, were startled by the cries of the
children, two bright girls, aged about and
years. They were weeping as If their
hearts were broken, and their sobbing
touched everybody on the train. The poor
mother was lying, face down ward, in ditch
alongside the railroad, and the children
were wailing and praying over the body.
They had evidently been to Sunday school,
for the eldest girl kept constantly saying,
'Oh, Lord, have mercy.
Couldn't Move the Bodies.
But it was too late. No human power
could restore the mother to her children. A
surgeon was on the train and he gave it as
his opinion that nearly every bone in the
body had been broken. The skull was
crushed in and the face was half buried in
the soft mud. Ex-Congressman Frank
Worlds Fair and other sympathetic men on
the train, who were not acquainted with
Virginia laws stepped forward and offered
to remove the body to the baggage car.
The conductor was big, stalwart man, and
with tears in his eyes said: Gentlemen,
this is one of the saddest accidents ever
witnessed, but it is against the
laws of the State to move the body
until the Coroner has seen it. 1t is brutal,
cruel law, but it must be obeyed. l can't
allow the woman to be put on the train, but
l will gladly take the children.
The passengers admitted the conductors
position was correct, but everybody con-
demned such an idiotic regulation concern
ing the dead. Frank Lawler said he was
surprised that Virginia would allow such
law to disgrace its statute books.
Naturally the children refused to leave
their dead mother, and nobody wanted to go
without them. The accident occurred in
the open country, some miles froma town.
and a telegraph station was not near at
hand.
The Conductor in a Quandary.
The conductor was in quandary. He
couldn't remove the body, he couldn't hold
the train and the little girls wept SO bitterly
when the passengers talked of taking them
to Martinsburg that everybody agreed it
was best to leave them with the body. Sev-
eral farm hands, however, soon appeared on
the scene, and they promised to provide
for the children until the Coroner could be
notified.
The eldest girl told her sad story. They
lived in Richmond and their father was
dead. The mother had taken them North
with her in search of work, and not faring
very we'll she decided to return to her old
home. She was without money, and with
the girls had started to walk home. They
were plodding their weary way. along the
railroad when the terrible accident oc-
CURED. Frank Lawler headed a subscrip-
tion for the children, and in short time
S35 were collected. A DISPATCH man was
on the train, and had seen the accident.
In this connection it would be we'll to
refer to the laws. governing Coroners in
some States. Frank Lawler said it was
ridiculous not to remove the body until the
Coroner arrived, and in this instance it ap-
peared cruel The time was when such a
law existed in New York, Pennsylvania
and most of the States. 1t PENNSYLVANIA it
was repealed as inhuman and brutal If
the person is dead nothing can be gained by
keeping the body on the spot until it is
viewed. 1t is the cause of a great deal of
inconvenience, and in the case referred to
puzzled the passengers and the train crew
to know what to do.