St. Paul daily globe., 1895-11-18
CHIEF CLARK Speaking tile ST. Paul Pa-hi pretty tough
medicine Mister McCardy will

there was a woman on the platform
and that she jumped safely away, but
Immediately cried out that her daugh-
ter was in the car. John Seriger re-
lated his experience as follows:
"On nearing the draw on the viadUct
I noticed the conductor leave the car
and pull chain which 1 supposed op-
Grated a safety device for the track.
The conductor waved his hand and the
car moved slowly forward. 1 first
heard a cry, Stop, STOP Then a little
man standing nearer the car step than
myself yelled, Jump I felt the rear
part of the car begin to raise up and
blindly jumped over the platform rail-
ing, not knowing how or where I would
land. l picked myself up about six
feet from the edge of the open draw
and picked up my hat from among sew
eral others lying about. There were
three other men on the pla tform be-
sides myself. One wore glasses and
another, the one who yelled Jump
had ON a macintosh. 1t came through
my mind that the car was going down
as I saw the iron gate moving the mo-
ment jumped. I was leaning against
the door jamb but turned my head
when some one ON the viaduct cried
Stop I knew no one in the car at
the time. I heard screaching and
screams as the car was going down.
There was an awful crash when the
ear struck.
MOTORMAN R-STRICKEN.
August Rogers, the moterman, is
still detained at the Central station,
though he is now held only as wit
ness before the coroner. He talked
about the accident today.
"It was my second trip" he began.
Just after leaving the Market house,
I looked into the car and from what
1 can remember, there were about
twenty Or twenty-five passengers. They
were mostly women and children 1
think. When my moter reached the
switch at the approach of the draw
in the viaduct, 1 shut off my current
and applied the brake. The car came
to a full stop and the conductor ran
ahead and threw the switch. He
motioned me ahead with g. wave of his
arm. put my lever at the first notch
and as l passed the conductor, who
always stands at the switch lever until
the car has passed, was running at the
rate of possibly four miles an hour
I looked back as 1 always do, and saw
him get on the rear platform. Look
ing ahead, l thought I saw the gates
at the draw closed over the track,
but as my lights were burning and
had current, the thought occurred to
of
fault. 1 was just in the act of giving,
and possibly gave the lever a slight
push forward when 1 was startled by
the gates just in front of me, and 1
heard some one yell jump l don't
know whether 1 reversed the current
or not, for 1 realized the danger and
leaped from the vestibule. AS I leap
ed 1 thought that 1 would plunge head.
long down into the river, but as the
car struck the gate I fell on it and
caught the iron frame and saved my
self. The car went down with an aw-
full crash, but I never heard murmur
or anything that resembled scream"
Here Rogers buried his face in his
hands, and cried:
MY God, it's an awful thing"
His wife who stood by his side, con-
soled him by saying:
Certainly it was nc fault of yours"
NO" he replied, but think of it,
Oh, my God. Just think of it,
Rogers then buried his head deeper
in his hands, and began to sob, moan
ing:
MY God, my God, it's too bad, too
bad"
yUla,, bo bo = rooo,ocol l,;,~,-o1f e-o,,,o
what. he continued:
when I was freed from the iron
gate, 1 scarcely knew what to do. I
was daZed. / finally concluded to run
back to the market house and tell the
police. I did this, and then ran back
to the scene of the accident. I hurried
down the embankment and began to
pull bodies out from the wreck. 1
worked there for fully an hour, maybe
an hour and a half Then 1 grew sick
and went home.
When you first saw the gates of the
draw. were your lights burning, and
did you have current?"
'I did have current and my lights
were burning. That's the reason why
/ thought of no danger. When the
draw is open the lights usually go
out, but 1t was not the case at the
time OF the accident as 1 can swear
AS 1 told you, I was surprised when
saw the gates and knew that l had
both lights and current, which was
never the case before when the gates
have been closed, as. the swinging
of the bridge cuts off the current and,
of course, when this is done, the lights
go out
How do you account for the strange
fact?'
81 can't account for it, but I swSar
that it was so. have never had an