The Florence tribune., 1899-12-02
A sIDE-TRAckeD RUNAWAY.
Arthur H. Elnott's Exciting Experience at
 Casa Grande.
[From the Phoenix Republican. l

owner, is in the city. After the vicissi- tudes of twenty years, involving some perils and many discomforts, Mir. El- liott now finds himself in the way to wealth. and ease. He is the owner of the Golden Palisades property in the yekol country, which is being operated by the Kansas City Consolidated com pany under bond. The development of the property so far as it has pro ceeded indicates that it is all the owner claimed for it, and that WAS great deal.
 As agent and telegraph operator for the Southern Pacific iu 1883, during the construction period, Mir. Elliott had an experience which he will never forget and which all the older railroad men now iu the service of the company in Arizona remember quite well.
 One morning shorty after midnight switchmen wece juggling with lot of freight in the yards at Tucson. Four cars were left standing on the main track, the first car of steel rails. The other three were laden with lumber, ties, etc. Somethiug started them, perhaps only night wind, for the yards at Tucson are, or were then, on grade which is steadily downward al- most as far west as Maricopa. The cars moved of slowly, but every mo- ment faster than the moment before. They had passed beyond the jurisdic- | tion of the switches before their move ment was discovered. A light engine cut in after them, but by the time the pursuing engine was gotten under way the fugitive cars had acquired speed beyond competition by the engine. The runaways gradually passed out of sight and at Rillito, seventeen miles this side of Tucson, the engine stopped and its crew listened intently, but not sound rose out of the western desert. | The next station that could be reached by telegraph at that hour of the morning was Casa Grande, where Mr. Elliott was the agent. Shortly be- fore o'clock he was startled by a messages: Hold special. There's hell on the track" There were no other in- structions, but none were mmediately needed. They were following and when they came the operator knew what to do. The special bore a party of off, cials, among whom were General Man. 1 ager Towne and J. A. Fillmore. Mir. El- iiott had hardly received the telegram before the special ran in. Mr. Elliott held it in spite of the protests of the engineer and conductor, who said there was no use lying there; if there was hell on the track they would know it when they came to it. Pretty soon the east wind bore in 8 low and unusual sound. It grew into 6 rumble and then . roar. Then something fiery was seen in the distance. Mir. Elliott knew that whatever it was it had no business on the main line. He accommodatingly turned the switch and waited. The roar became terrific and the track seemed to be burning up. The runaway was coming and sparks were flying in long streams from beneath the wheels. Two carloads of wood stood on the i sidetrack. The car of steel, backed by ninety thousand pounds of lumber, struck them. The heavens were filled with sPiiHters and millions of sparks flew from the steel rails, which were l broken like pipe-stems or twisted like 1 wire. The crash was enough to dis turb the dead, but it never awoke the sleeping railway officials until after breakfast in Tucson. The special i passed on, the engineer and conductor glad that they had waited for the hell and had not gone to meetit When the special returned day or two later it stopped at Casa Grande again and Gen. eral Manager Towne effusively thank ed Mir. Elliot for the manner in which he had preserved the integrity of the official list of the Southern Pacific. During the life time of that admirable general manager nothing was too good for the agent at Casa Grande.
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 THE people of Santa Cruz county are