The Jersey City news., 1898-12-16
Costly Coaches on the Erie
and Pennsylvania Roads
Mysteriously Mu-
tilated.
PENNSY'S LOSS ALONE IS OYER 81, 900
Detectives Working to Dis
cover the Miscreants or
Supposed Anarchists.

The Jersey City police and the detec-
tives of the Pennsylvania and Erie Rail-
roads are working on mystery that thus
far has completely baffled them. They
are searching for mysterious vandal,
whose sole object in life seems to be 10
destroy the property of railroad corpora
tions What his object is in doing 50 no.
body has yet been able to discover. Il IS
probable that he is a crank with anar-
chistic proclivities and that he has some
real or fancied grievance against the
railroad companies. Thus far he has
caused the railroads the loss of property
valued at over $1,000.
He first made his appearance in the
yards of the Erie Railroad on Saturday
evening last, when he mutilated NUM-
ber of passenger coaches. He did not
steal anything but merely contented him
self with destroying everything he could.
He slashed the plush on the seats, carved
the ceilings and walls and broke tne
windows. Everything that he could do to
mutiIate the cars he did. The cars thus
damaged were ordinary day coaches, but
the loss amounted to several hundreds of
dollars. Chief Detective John Brown of
the Erie Railroad, learned of the vaadal-
ism early Sunday morning. He at once
set to work on the case. He had not
gone far when he recognized that 1t was
not the work of ordinary tramps or rail
road thieves Such men would have taxi
en- only what was worth stealing He
was, and is TO this day, sorely puzzled to
know what object any person could have
in malciously injuring the cars. He
thought that it must be some person who
bad grudge against the Erie railroad.
While he was working on the case and
the Erie yards were being closely watched
for fear the outrage would be repeated,
the vandal was at work elsewhere. The
Pennsylvania Railroad Company recently
fitted out a new train to run between
Jersey City and Chicago. Four new trains
We're put in operation for that service,
three being on the road while the fourth
was in the Waldo avenue yards, Jer-
sey City, being cleaned and repaired. One
of the trains, the most magnificent in
existence, was in the Waldo avenue yards
on Monday might 1t was to have left
the .nnsylvania depot at 10.15 o'clock on
Tuesday morning. When the hands re-
ported for work in the morning the
first thing they noticed was that the win
dows Of the Chicago Limited were all
broken. They investigated further and
found that the entire interior Of the train
had been mutilated. The leather backs
and plush fittings had been cut from the
seats the ceiling had been mutilated and
all The ornamental work destroyed. The
dining car and the Pullman observation
car had been completely wrecked and
could not be used. The same state of
things existed in the ordinary day coaches
attached to the train.
Detectives Peter Morris and George Ry-
erson were put on the case. They put
themselves in communication with De-
tective Brown of the Erie and decided
that the same man must have been guilty
of both crimes. They decided to work
together Ever since Tuesday morning
the detectives have been working day and
night on the case and have had very lit
tie cest AS yet they have no positive
clue to the vandal although they have
come to the. conclusion that he is some
enthusiast who Is mentally deranged. De-
tective Ryerson, when seen this morn
Fit is the most mysterious case we
have ever had to deal with. 1t IS a
common occurrence to have cars mutt
lated. but there is usually some object
in it, The persons who do 1t usually
hope to gain something by it. We have
MANY cars nutihated for theft, but have
never before had amy deliberately mutt
lated for no apparent reason. There mas
been no trouble among the men, af1q an,
Personally, ] believe that it is the work
Of am anarchist or anarchists. There has
been over $500 worth OF damage done
10 the Pennsylvania Railroad coaches
alone. We are working hard on the case,
but as yet without result.
At the Office of the Pullman company
the matter was made light of. The idea
seemed to be to keep it from the public
as much as possible.