The Portland daily press., 1892-04-22
ON A LIVE WIRE.
One Horse Was Killed and Another
Badly Injured.
HACKMAN ROsS'S TEAM DROPPED
IN THEIR TRACKS.

| A Pair of Valuable Horses Owned by Fer
nald g. Sawyer Stepped on Fallen
/ Wire on Oxford Street-Driver Ross
and His Passenger Shocked in Trying
to Help the AnimaIs-The Trouble was
Caused by the Breaking of an Incan-
descent Light from the Pole.
At shortly after two this morning, Mr..
Eben Ross, who drives one of Fernald &
Sawyer's hacks, was driving along Ok
ford street with his team. He had taken
| two passengers who arrived on the Pull
man train to their homes, and was about
to stop at the corner of Cedar street to
leave Mr.. G. L. Stone Of Augusta, who
has friends living there. As
they reached the crosswalk on the east
erly side of Cedar street, o3e of the
horses fell, and second later the other
also tumbled to the ground. Ross
jumped from his seat, supposing the
horse had stepped in hole, and Mr.
Stone got out of the carriage. Mr.. Stone
took one of the animals by the head, but
he let go with an exclamation of pain
Ross, in the meantime, had attempted
to unfasten the harness. AS it was all in
tangle where the horses had fallen. He
took his knife to cut them loose. The
knife came in contact with the pole and
Ross, like Stone, uttered cry and sprang
4 !, n11
trio shock of sufficient power to cause
a moments acute pain.
Then they looked about and found that
the off horse was lying on an incandes-
cent light, which had fallen into the
road. The wires attached to the light
passed under both of the horses. The
animals made piteous outcry, and their
cries soon aroused the neighbors, many
| OF whom came out to learn
the cause of the trouble. Mr.. E. B. Winslow
who was among the bystanders, had
word sent to the central station of the
electric light company, and after time
the power was shut off. But there was
nobody at the station apparently who
could come to the spot, and naturally
the bystanders did not care to fool
with the wires which had so quick
ly downed the horses. The poor animals
| gradually lost consciousness and their
cries ceased. Then, and by this time it
was after o'clock. as it became known
that the power had been turned off, an
axe was procured and two sharp blows
severed the wires. AT this
time, one of the horses appeared to be
alive, the other lying motionless. The
pole was removed from the hack, the
harness unfastened and one of the horses
moved far enough to get him away from
the other.
| Finally the horse which fell last recov-
cred sufficiently to be helped to his feet.
He was very lame and on his side the
marks of the wire could be seen in two
cruel lines where the hair was oinged off
and the flesh badly burned.
| The other horse was partially paralyzed
and was killed by Cruelty Agent Sawyer
at the request of the owners. The horses
were q pair of valuable bays.
| The light which had broken from its
fastenings was one of the ordinary
street incandescents. 1t was attached
to the top of an iron pole on the
lower side of Oxford street, at
the corner of Cedar. The two wires
which led to it, came from the other
side of the street. So when the light
broke from the pole the wires, in falling
with it, dragged it to the centre of the
street, where light and wires lay on the
ground when Ross drove through the
street. One of the gentlemen of the
neighborhood said that once before this
year this light. had broken from its fas-
tening in the same manner.
At the electric light station, the man in
! charge said that he was first notified of
the accident by telephone message
from the police station. But he was
told it was not certain whether or not an
electric light wire was the cause of the
| trouble, so he did not Immediately shut
off the power. Soon after, however, a
man came to the station with particulars
of the affair and then the current in the
section Of the city where the accident oc-
Cured was shut off. The lineman who
was on duty last night, at the time of the
accident, had gone to Munjoy Hill to at
tend to some trouble with the lines
there. Consequently there was no one
at the station who could be sent to the
scene of the accident. The light which
caused the trouble, it was said
at the station, was one of a
series of incandescents supplied by an
arc circuit so the current in the wires
was a powerful one.