The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-10

of the right of way, with wagon roads be-
side them; pictures of complicated track
crossing and switches; interior views and
pictures of the company's shops, of places
where there have been wrecks, form a part
OF the big Wabash collection and have all
played part before judge and jury. One
set of pictures shows large machine in
the shops, photographed from every point
A man is operating the machine in each
plcture,t the entire set showing the different
positions he was obliged to assume. They
were used in a suit to recover damages
Tor an injury received by one of the opera
tives in the shops
The claim agents have a rich fund of
strange stories, which developed in their
work. Two of the oldest came from de-
reefs IN overhead wires. In one case a
telephone wire, which crossed the track
OF road in Iowa, sagged down, so that
Wheh an engine came along the smoke
stack cut the wire in two AT lust that
moment the fireman was leaning out of
the cab window, the end of the broken
WIRE sWished around, caught him on the
right side of the face, gouged out his eve
ana spllt open his cheek. Another odd
WIRE accident was when the conditions
We're the same, except that the sagging
WIRE was caught by brakeman got twist
ed around him and, catching a man who
was walking alongside the track, pulled
him under the Wheels
one OF the oldest claims made against a
railroad company was that of a farmer
VINO wanted damages for haystack de-
stroyed by lightning. 1t appeared that
Two employees of the road had taken refuge
under the track, and when it was struck
by lightning they were stunned, The
farmer and his son pulled out the men,
ana commended that they were entitled to
damages because if they had used that
time in attending to the fire in the stack
they could have saved a portion of the
straw from the flames. They also wanted
the modest sum of $50 for keeping the men
over hlght. The company fought the
claim.
One of the strange cases developed bv a
railway wreck was that which grew our
OF the killing of eight men and a score. or
more fast horses, rear Warrenton. Mo.
a lew years ago. That was the big wreck
IN winch HuntreSs was killed shortly af
ter she had made a new trottIns record
her owners asked for 5000 damage. in
consequence of her death. Col. lack Chinn
Hau numDer OF valuable animals in the
wrecked train Most of the claims were
ADJUSTED promptly, but some weeks after
the wreck letter was received from Chi
cago, asking damages for injuries received
py James Fitzgerald, jockey The claim
agent visited Chicago with the roads ply
slclan, and interVie wed the injured man
wreck and showed his injuries, which the
roads physician examined. The man said
ne was the rider of Uncle Jeems. one of
the horses in the wreck, and claimed that
after the wreck he had talked to Col. Jack
Chlnn before being placed on the relief
train and sent to a Kansas City hospital
~ the main, the mans story was a plaus-
ibfe one, but the claim agent happened to
know that Chinn did not reach the wreck
until after he did, and at that time all of
the injured had been removed. This made
the agent suspicious, and he decided to
investigate before deciding what to saw
to the claimant The investigation brought
out the fact that there was horse called
Uncle Jeems," but he was at the Sleeps
head bay track when the wreck occurred.
and not on the train. 1t also developed
that there was a James Fitzgerald and
that he was still with Uncle Jeems and
he was not the Chicago Fitzgerald. With
the showing made by these facts the
claimant broke down and admitted that
he was an impostor.