The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-12-31
Is FIaEMAN KILLED INSTANTLY
nglneer John Robertson Was
Also Very Severely
Injured.
gHER TRA1NMEN SHAKEN UP
dhounds Put on the Track of the
sceeants Yesterday But it Be-
came So Damp That They Had
10 be Called Off--Third
Attempt to Wreck
the Vestibule
the vestibuIe

Had that inscrutable Providence, which
shapes the destiny of men, not been on
|5Ikuard yesterday morning to confound
A8e plans of the wicked and protect the
noSent. there would to-day be half
hundred, perhaps more, nang1ed corpses
u Raleigh, instead OF one.
But for delay OF one hour and ten
sninsptes in the Seaboard vestbuie, due
8here at 1:26 a. m, every person on y,
;ncluding train men and passengers,
zIwould almost certainly have been killed.
q And yet ii was this very delay that caused
s. Fireman Alex Overly to be lying dead
and disngufea this morning in his home
on Tseace street, and Ersirleer John
Roberson to be suffering from broken
ribs and severe bruises.
y The Inflated train was through freight,
3 No % running from Hamlet to Raleigh,
i with II cars, loaded principally with
compressed cotton. 1t was running on
the time of the belated yestibule.
The scene of the accident is high
anabankment, just two miles west Of this
city, and one mile east of Method -out
i beyond the Fair Grounds. All day long
yesterday great crowds went out to view
1.-THE scene. And sorry sight 1t was. Inc
s. engine Law ON the embankment with its
lScab broken off, its wheels in the air and
lie smoke stack buried in the earth. Cars
g were niled on cars-ten of them-all but
81 three in splinters, and these so badly
wrecked as TO be of no further use: Bales
OF compressed cotton and packages OF
merchandise were scattered leyerywhers
land the track for a hundred yards or
#more was Sorn up.
q 1t was about 1890 yesterday morning
wihen the catastrophe occurred, and 1t
was an hour later before the news reach
ed this city. Engineer Robertson brought
81. Bareheaded and suffering intensely
from bruises and broken bones, he walked
the two miles to the block house that
the three freights behind him might be
warned.
The news spread rapidly yesterday
morning and all day long the people were
going out and coming back from the spot
marked by the little spires Of smoke and
steam from the wrecking engines. They
walked, rode in street cars and IN private
conyeyances-men and women. Several
the day and gossiped about the disaster,
its cause and the narrow escape of the
vestibule with its human freight.
WRECKERS' TOOLS FOUND.
The concensus of opinion seemed to be
that the catastrophe was the work or
train wreckers. There are many facts
4 TO support this theory. The train was
4 derailed by what is known as "a jack
knife switch" This was made by draw
81 ing the spikes and showing inward the
end of the rail toward the coming train.
A Bolts. nuts and fish plates, which had
8been taken off were found Immediately
after the accident, lying by the side Of
khe track Later crow bar and wrench
were discovered in the broom sedge
NEARBY and tracks Of persons, evidently
= running, were found in the field. These
were followed up for some distance and
carefully measured by the officers. The
tracks led from the scene of the wreck
toward the county road, some 250 yards
away.
On reaching the road the officers
abandoned the trail until late yesterday
mafternoon when two blood hounds, which
m had been telegraphed for, arrived from
Huntington. They were at once put on the
#tracks in the leash, and followed it be-
#yond the road, across another Held and
into the wood beyond. The dogs follow
led the trail two and a half miles further.
HIwhen, on account Of the fog and damp
#ness, they had to be called off.
Mr. VIII Brown, who lives about 300
yards north of the wreck, says that he
heard a carriage passing along the road
from the scene of the accident just be-
3 fore it occurred. 1t is suggested that
this may have some connection with the
wreck, and it is hoped that it may lead
the discovery of the guilty parties.
|# The train wrecking theory is further
Imported by the fact that only three
ours previous to the accident Engineer
Walter Harden came along with a local
#freight from Sanford and found the
#track in good condition.
At the point where the rails were un-
jointed there were evidences on the