The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-07-31

1t is too late to reason out how the col
| lision might have been averted, and yet it
/ seems iRexplicabie that on that broad
| stretch of marsh land. in the early twi-
| light when the eye can see miles of dis
tance two trains should go crashing into
| each other without single chance of
| escape.
Travel between Atlantic City and
Philadelphia and intermediate points in
this State is maintained by three lines of
railroad They are West Jersey and Cam
den and Atlantic, Incorporated in the
/ Pennsylvania Railroad Company's system
| of Jersey lines and the Atlantic City Rail-
| road Company, controlled and operated
| by the Philadelphia Railroad Company.
| All three lines run out of Atlantic City
/ on two approximately parallel tracks the
! two Pennsylvania lines going out of one
! depot and crossing the same thoroughfare
bridge, and the Reading line making its
start about eight blocks below and cross
ing bridge of its own few hundred
| yards below the other. When once across
| the drawbridge a diverging single track
| swings the West Jersey trains off to the
/ left and carries them out In an oblique
| course to a point about a mile and a
| half from the Reading drawbridge, where
! they cross obliquely and at grade the
] double tracks of the Reading Railroad
| Company. This intersection is marked
by a single tower, passing which the
West Jersey tracks parallel with the
Readings and go on to the main. Watch
ing trains approaching the shore at dis
| tance it is difficult for the inexperienced
eye to determine Upon which tracks they
will enter the city and possibly while
| laundering shoreward last evening Read
| ing Engineer Darr could not tell whether
the special was coming out upon the West
Jersey or Camden and Atlantic tracks.
An excursion party of about 400 peo-
pie of the laboring class. men. women
and children, We're brought down in the
morning from Bridgeton. Millyille and
Morris River It was the one day of
outing in the year for Them, and they had
! a merry time They represented four
| tribes Of Red Men, and on account of
their numbers two trains were made up
for the evening return one TO depart at
$50 and the other few hours later. The
$50 was a few minutes behind in
starting and after crossing the bridge was
halted on the meadows to wait for a
couple of downward trains. 1t was this
delay that brought the collision and
death and the solution of the action falls
upon George Houser, the man in the tow
| Ell. and john Griner the engineer of the
Inflated excursion train.
Edward Fairs, the Reading engineer
remained at his post while his engine
plowed her way through the special train,
and was killed outright. His mistake,
if he made one, meant his death and
his lips can never tell the story. Butt
the living who were in the awful wreck
furnish a reason for the accident which
goes to indicate that Fairs disregarded
| the red signal when 1t was flashed his
way. He was running the express which
leaves Philadelphia al $40 P. NJ. and IS
due here at s55. He thundered across
the meadows at the rate of from forty
to fifty miles an hour and came in sight
of the excursion train just as the latter
pulled ahead in the direction of the
crossing. He doubtless was unable to
distinguish upon which track the special
was running. His only source of infor-
nation as to what he should do was the
light in the tower
At the City Hospital every cot and mat
tress is pressed into service. It is still
crowded with thirty-four patients,
three of whom, it is expected, will die
One of these is William Spaulding, Union
Transfer Agent of the Reading He is
suffering great agony. Mrs. Faunce Fral-
niger, of Philadelphia, is in a precarious
condition. She will have to suffer the
amputation of leg which was broken
and crushed. She is a sister-in-law of
Manager Fralinger of the Academy Of
Music of this city.
| Tn tt,a -
O'clock this morning the scene was shock
ing beyond description. In passing down
The corridors and entering a room open
/ ing upon it, there were to be seen those
who had been injured in the collision
stretched out their couches in all de-
grees of suffering. The air was filled
with the groans of strong men, the cries
/ of women and the sobbing of little chill
dren. A boy. some eight years DID, lay on
a mattress placed on the floor dying Of
internal injuries. The ashy whiteness OF
death was on his face, and as the re-
porter stood in the doorway the lad gave
a cry as though in terror, sprang up a
little from his couch and then sank back
motionless. in a dead faint
A man also internally injured was lying
on cot in the throes of DEATH In his
agony he groaned so piteously that te
hear him was anguish. Others stripped
half naked were smeared with blood and
lay quietly moaning in their pain Ev-
erywhere was the most intense suffering
and death, though kind hands were do
r ing all that was possible to allay the
agony of each. Gentle women Offered
themselves freely in the cause of mercy
. physicians gladly gave up every other