Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1893-04-05
GEO. B. RICHARDSON'S DENIAL
Never Admitted 0bstructing the
Union Pacific.
REPORTER EXAMINES HIS WOUNDS
An Able Review OF the Case as to
His Guilt or Innocence.

When the soutb bound overland
train pulled into the depot last evening.
q CAPITAL JOURNAL reporter sprang
aboard, and rapidly made his way
through the day coach and into the
smoker, looking for George e. Rich
ardson, the man who saved the over
land from destruction at the trestle be-
low Rice's Hill last Friday evening.
In rear seat sat Richardson, In Gus
tody OF Sheriff Miller Of Roseburg.
He was not bandcuffed, and acknow-
ledged being well treated by the able
and experienced sheriff Of Douglas
county.
"Is II true, as alleged by today's Ore
gonian, that you confessed putting a
boulder Oh the Union Pacific track, and
then stopping the train In hopes OF q
reward?" asked the G. J. man.
mo. Most emphatically no." re-
piled Richardson. ~ never made any
such admission though WAS pressed
hard to do it; and / did not obstruct
the track"
"But the track was obstructed?"
"Yes. And not only was there a
rock on the track but there was car
load. II was sort of landslide, and
q section hand told me right afterward,
that 1t was nothing uncommon for
stones and gravel to slide onto the track
at that place."
AN INNOCENT MAN.
The train stopped but few minutes
and Sheriff Miller seemed averse to his
charge doing any talking. Still he
only interfered when the e. J. reporter
asked, "Have you anything to say
about the attempted wreck at Rice's
Hill, last Frlday?'
~ don't think he wants to say any.
thing" said the sheriff.
"Only this" remarked Richardson,
"that am an innocent man; and hope
you do not take the side of the railroad
as too many seem inclined to do"
The reporter lifted the brown Derby
he wore, which had replaced the soft
felt hat he had on when smashed over
the head with some blunt weapon, and
asked: "How Is your head getting
along?" at the same time parting the
thick mass of heavy black hair which
concealed the wounds. This was nc
liberty, for the same hand had helped
wash the blood and sand from Richard
sons face, and had bathed and kept
cold cloths on the gaping cut last Fri
day morning.
ut Is better, thanks, but still very
sore"
"And the knife wounds In your breast
and side ?"
"They hurt me some; but have been
well looked after"
Here the voice of the conductor, cry
ing IAN aboard" gave the signal for
the reporter and the cluster of curios-
ity.seekers who crowded the aisle to
disembark, and the train was well un-
der way before the last one alighted.
SOME PROS AND CONS.
at is singular thing" said gen
tleman, at the Willamette Hotel, last
evening, Remarkably singular, that
the community at large. should spend
three hundred and sixty.fve days a
year damning the Southern Pacific
railroad, and yet, at such moment as
this, aud In such an emergency, should
side with the road In condemning a
man, who. whether he tried to wreck a
train, or was one Of gang who tried,
was at least, the man who stopped the
train and averted one Of the most terri
BILE disasters Oregon has ever seen."
There Is food for thought In that
text. A train was running down grade,
thirty miles an hour, and toward a
curved trestle from which a rail had
been removed, In such a manner as TO
have sent that train, like bullet from
a rifle, out into space, over trestle
forty feet high, and then down an in
cline, sleeper than the roof of a house,
one hundred feet more. The conse-
quenoe could only have been q holo-
eansi. Not u passengers life, aud
hardly dollars worth OF property,
would have been left la existence.
Now, II Richardson, as he claims, dis.
covered the displaced rail, encountered
the miscreants who removed it, was
stabbed and beaten, thrown from the
trestle and left for dead. aud then
crawled up the rsvine aud down the
track in time TO save those lives aud
that property, eneomium would ex,
hsnst itself In praising his bravery aud
and the Southern Pacific
railroad corporation would owe him a