Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1894-03-12
VICIOUS DEVILTRY.
Practiced at Sears Saturday
Evening.
ATTEMPTED TRAIN wRECKING

the II. ]. & p, s witched on the SidetracL
at the Canning Factory-switch Op.p.a
| by Some Miscreant.
Saturday evening second section
OF freight train No. s, on the r. &,
I. road. ran into the sidetrack at
sears IN the vicinity of the canning
factory. The train is due to leave
Rock Island at 40 and il left on
time with engine 10. in charge of En-
gineer Wilson and Conductor Nelson.
When near the switch ut the canning
factory. Engineer Wilson saw thai
the switch was thrown, and he quick
y put on the air brakes on the five
cars which were supplied with it.
The first section had passed the
switch all right but a short time
before. and in the time Intervening
the switch lock had been pounded
open. the switch thrown and the lock
pounded shut.
Engineer Wilson. after putting on
air, jumped from the train. The
track is down grade slightly at this
point, and the train could not be
brought to standstill before if
dashed into car standing on the
sidetrack and ran off the track, the
engine sinking to the boiler in the
soft mud, and several cars in the rear
of the train jumping the track.
Among these were two cars of hay
and one car OF oats.
The work was without doubt that
OF some miscreant, and the ONLY
plausible reason is that the evening
passenger train, due here at 1855, was
the train for which the switch was
thrown, but the reason for wishing to
wreck that is mystery and will
probably always remain so. There
were 10 passengers in the caboose of
the train, but none were hurt, all re-
celving slight shaking up.
Clearing the Wreck.
The work of clearing the wreck
was begun yesterday, the wrecked
cars being cleared away and the track
repaired. Work was begun on get
ting the engine out of the mud this
morning.
Bold Robbery in Davenport.
A. j. Smith & Son, furniture deal
ers, and Sickles, Preston & Co..
hardware dealers, located on Third
street. in Davenport. were robbed
Saturday evening by professional safe
craftsmen and 1888 stolen from
them. Some time during the night
Sickles, Preston & Cos. store was en-
tered through a back window, and
the safe, which was of Halls manu-
facture, attacked. A s-inch hole was
drilled at the left of the dial and the
lock case punched over by the drill.
This left the safe open to the burg
lars. and they succeeded in getting
away with all the money which it
contained-aboutS 3S. The burglars
then climbed to the topmost story.
and going through the skylight in the
roof and climbing over to the build
ing adjoining, occupied by A. j.
Smith & Sons. and entered the sky
light there, and going to the ground
floor started to wage war upon the
McNeal & Urban safe in the office.
They first tried to force the dial, and
not succeeding in this the burglars
drilled hole in the door and
punched out the dog bolt.
The safe was then opened, and here
the burglars were more richly re-
warded as it contained $500. They
then made their escape through a
rear door which opened to the inside.
Here. as elsewhere, they showed their
familiarity with the work they were
pursuing. as they placed a log
against the door in order TO have il
slam shut and hold fast behind them
so that the watchman might not dis
cover the robbery until they were out
of the way.
FiebiS Sent For.
Lock smith Charles Fiebig, of Rock
Island. was sent for, and he went
over and looked ut the work done
by the burglars, and in giving
his opinion says that it was not
by any means the work of novices,
but of professional safe crackers. and
men who understood their business
thoroughly. AS yet there is no clew
to the burglars, although two men
answering the description given OF
two strangers seen hanging around
the stores Saturday, left the Peal
house, in Moline. early Sunday morn.
ing.