The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-04

A miraculous escape from frightfi1l
accident occurred at the Smelling ave-
nue. crossing of the street car line and
the Northern Pacific road yesterday
morning at 8:45 o'clock A freight
train on the Minneapolis & ST. Louis
road, which uses the Northern Pacific
tracks between ST. Paul and Mime
apolis, on its way to the latter city
collided with street car No. 361 There
were sixty persons in the car, which
was in charge of Motorman Holmes
and Conductor Reilly and attached to
this was trailer in which seventy
five persons were packed like sardines
in box. The railroad officials of the
Minneapolis & St. Louis road claim
that the street car ran into the freight
train which was passing, and the street
railway officials say that the freight
train ran into the street car. The won
der is that a score or more persons
were not killed and a like number
seriously injured. AS it was, eleven
people were severely injured, four of
them seriously hurt, and the other
forty odd received good shaking up.
The motorman in charge of the car
evidently became ratified and, although,
road for a distance Of five blocks each
way, ran his car a sufficient distance
on the track to have the front part or
vestibule of the car struck by the
train. The freight train must have
been seen by the motorman, who
Stacked the speed of the car and at
about the same time, according to his
story, the freight train also slowed up.
Thinking the freight would stop until
after he had crossed the track, the mo-
torman started ahead, and at the same
time the engineer of the freight pro-
ceeded to get under way again Motor
man Holmes saw his danger and
stopped the car about a foot from the
track, but not sufficiently far enough
away to escape being struck by the
train as it passed. A number of the
passengers on the street car saw the
freight train coming but supposed the
motorman would stop and did not
realize the danger until the train was
upon them. Some of the passengers
who were in the front part Of the car
which was struck called the attention
of the motorman to the coming train.
and one of them slapped him on the
shoulder and pointed toward the fast
approaching train. For some unex-
plainable reason the motorman failed
to turn off the current in time. and
the result was a crash which threw
the street car off the track and nearly
overturned it,
The force of the collision broke the
coupling between the first car and
the trailer, and threw the sixty pas
sengers all to one side of the car. A
DOR two nT- fhro foo IL Il
in the street car and through this the
passengers, who were piled up in the
front of the car, were eXtricated. For
ten minutes the confusion was great
Word was at once telephoned to the
police station and the fair grounds and
ambulances and a dozen of doctors
were hurried to the scene.
Conductor Reilly, seen immediately
after the accident, said the rule was to
have conductors of passing cars get
off at the crossing and run ahead to
see if the track was clear The car.
he said, did not slow up at ALL and
the crowd was so great on the car that
he could not get Off The motorman,
he thought, would not cross if there
was any train in sight, and he could
not understand why an attempt was
made to cross in front of the train.
George w. Pomeroy, one of the pas
sengers who was slightly injured, was
seen at the city hospital yesterday
afternoon He and his wife were on
their way from St Paul to Mime
apolis. and after waiting for nearly an
hour for chance to get on an interur-
ban car, concluded to take a car to the
fair grounds and then go from there
to Minneapolis. He boarded the car
on Robert street, and as the sun shone
in the right-hand side of the car, the
curtains in the front of the car were
pulled down on that side. His wife
sat on the first seat from the motor
mans box and he stood mp near the
front door. Other passengers in the
car saw the train coming, but sup
posed that the motorman would stop
He heard cries of What are you going
to do-run us into the train" and
stopped down to look under the curtain.
He saw the train coming toward the
car and then came the crash. He was
certain that the street car had come
to a full stop before the crash.
When the collision occurred, Mr..
Pomeroy says, there was the widest