The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-04-12
LOSS OF LIFE Is AVERTED In A
STATE STREET TROLLEY AC-
CdDENT.
BRAKELESS WRECKNG CAR
DASHES WILDLY DOWN THE IN
CLINE TO CONCORD STREET
CURVE.
Thanks to the Opportune Interven-
ton of a Pole in the Cars
MeteOric Course.

A runaway "wrecking'' car Of the
street railway company. plunging
through space down the State street
hill at the rate of sixty miles an hour
yesterday morning, with Motoneer
Rhisdedt clinging desperately to the
brake wheel, created a scene of excite
ment along it's course, which culmi-
mated in the car jumping the track at
the Concord street curve and dashing
into q telegraph post. The post, twenty
one inches in diameter, was broken in
three pieces, but the car was not dam
aged, and by almost miracle Moto-
neer Rhisdedt escaped injury. Several
children playing near the spot were
narrowly missed by the falling pole,
while the occupants Of Fritz Lehman's
saloon, within a few feet of which the
car stopped head on" likewise con-
graduated themselves upon a fortunate
escape.
The accident occurred shortly before
10 o'clock, when the wrecking car, in
charge of Motoneer Rhisdedt and Will
liam Grady, started down the hill after
having put derailed State street car
on the track. During this operation the
been broken by a slight collision with
the passenger coach, and it was neces-
sary to make the descent Of the long
hill with only the reverse current to
depend upon in the way Of a brake.
This method would have been safe and
adequate had not an unusually heavy
jolt of the car thrown the trolley from
the wire about half way down the hill,
leaving the operators perfectly helpless
to regulate or check the speed.
Free from restraint, the heavy weight
of the car rapiC ly accelerated its speed
down the inClir and in less than half
minute it was flying along at twenty
five miles an hour. Scarcely a block had
been traVerSed when the 'Wrecker" was
bounding along at nearly a forty-mile
rate, and at State and Dearborn streets
Grady jumped from the rear end. He
was thrown to the ground with great
force, but received nothing more seri-
Gus than a severe shaking up. The
motoneer did not leave the front of the
car though he could do nothing to stop
its flight. The trolley pole had been
broken at the first bracket after it
jumped the wire, and even had it been
intact it would have been impossible to
adjust it at the rate the car was going.
The last two blocks before the Con-
CCTO street curve the runaway Cdi
increased it's speed to fully sixty miles
an hour, and those who had watched
its course expected nothing short of a
fatality, when the corner was reached.
AS the car struck the curve it turned
slightly over, when its momentum lift
ed the front wheels clear Of the track
and sent it straight at Lehamis saloon.
The building is a small frame affair,
and had the car struck it full force,
some of those within would in all prob
ability have been seriously injured but
the telegraph pole was directly in the
path of the now swaying car. 1t fell
to the ground, broken off short. Part
of the pole fell dangerously near sew
eral children, but did no more than
badly frighten them, while Motoneer
Rhisdedt. whom the spectators feared
would be killed, was not even thrown
from the car. He chung desperately to
the brakeWheeel and while his arms and
shoulders were badly Wrenched, he was
perfectly able to assist in clearing away
the Wreckage. The car went about ten
feet on the sidewalk after striking the
telegraph post ripping up the boards,
but stopping within a few feet of the
saloon The State street hill is one Of
the longest of the street car system,
and with it's steep incline it was a mat
ter of comment that the accident was
not attended with more serious conse-
QuenceS.