Semi=weekly graphic., 1899-11-18
OF THE DEATH OF HOOVER WHICH HAPPENED NEAR
 WALDEN MO.
A SOLIPHONE REPORTER
Interviews a Passenger About the Affair, Also Conductor
 Tucker.

$. c. Taylor, a laboring man who says his home is at Harris station, near Union City. Tenn, was a pass enger from Cairo to Paragould on thesCotton Belt train No. 3. Sunday and yesterday told a Solophone re- porter q story concerning q fight which took place between Conduc- tor Tucker and a passenger on the train between Maiden, Mo and Ko- mo. the station just above.
 The passenger boarded the train at station immediately above Ko- mo, ,and wanted togo to Maiden, but liked five cents of having. sufficient money to pay his fare He told the conductor that he was a bridge car penter in the employ of the company and rendered him all the money he had, in payment of his fare to Mall den. The conductor refused to ear ry him to Maiden for the amount, and returned him the money above his fare to Komo, instructing him to get off the train at the latter place. Whether the man got off the train or not is not known. but after the train passed Komo and the conduc- tor again came around, the man was still on board. The passenger insisted that the conductor carry him the number of miles all his money called for, while the condue- tor told him he had ordered him to get off at Komo. and asked him why he had not done so. An altercation between Che carpenter and conduc- tor ensued, and the conductor seized the man by theshoulder and dragged him to the platform. The man re- sisted. and was struck over the head with the conductors lantern. He elung to the iron rods on the plat form, and the conductor returning to the ear, secured the heaCy fire shovel, and again struck the man, knocking hIm from the train.
 The passengers aboard the train are said to have made indignant protest against the conductors treatment of the man, and finally so warm dId matters become that the conductor consented to back the train and endeavor to fDd the eject ed parsenger. The train was run ba K five or six miles, and the car penter was finally found laying be- side the track on the embankment. Either his head struck 8 tie which was lying near the track, or the blow from the fire-shovel fractured his skull, for he was found to be bad lIv injured, and an examination was made by two physicians who hap pened to he taboard he train. Be- sides the fracture of the skull, his leg " as broken ia two places above the knee. and he sustained other in iuries which are pronounced fatal. He was picked up and brought to Maiden, and the train proceeded though almost an hour late.
 Since the above was written, the man died at Maiden a few hours after being injured. Conductor Tucker's account of tie affair puts very different face on the matter and if true the man h as only himself to blame for his death. Conductor Tucker is quoted as saying that the man was badly intoxicated when he hoarded the tram, and that when he tend cred him his fare he accc m- panied 1t with abusive and insulting language. He says that the man lacked five cents of having enough +o nay his fare to Nj alden, and he mt Lim off at Komo. The man got on the train again. and paid his lare to Maiden in full; but while the tram was in motion he went to the plat form and instead of being knocked
 ar nushed off, he fell off, and sus-
 tained the injuries which resulted Tn h,s death. The conductor admits having an altercatiOn with the man when he first collected his fare, but denies that he struck him, or pushed him from the train. He says inc man was in such an inebriated con ] aition that he. scarcely knew what he was doing, and he sincerely re- oreta the many erroneous tt"rles
 afa+ing statements which