The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1900-08-03
BLOODY TALE
Told In the Accident Record of
the Railroad Systems of
the Country.

the Country.
Old Mr.. Iron Horse is still roaming
up and down the land seeking whom he
can devour.
A murderous old chap is he. He is
| ever grinding the lives out of human
beings. He mains those he does not
kill. He leaves as many victims in his
wake as a victorious army. With all
the force of mechanical science arrayed
against him; with men and money and
modern improvements doing every
thing possible to stay his murderous
march, old Iron Horse continues to pile
up a list of casualties appalling to con-
template.
Out of the usually dry adm dusty files
of Pub. Docs. one can follow the CORY
pathway of this great assassin. The
story of his conquest for the railway
year which ended on June 80 has just
been gathered together by the official
statisticians Of the interstate COM
merce commission. The awful details
have been put in type and are now in
the hands of the bookbinders. They
show that old Iron Horse is still on the
war path. And there are many, many
scalps hanging at his belt.
In round numbers, says the New York
Journal, there were 81, 743 casualties to
persons in the year just rounded out,
resulting from accidents on railroads
within the ken of the Interstate COM
mission. This includes the dead, 7,123,
and the injured, 44,62O.
1t would be great, bloody battle,
and one long to be remembered, which
would pile up such figures as these.
Why, the total casualties to the British
army in the war in South Africa to date
do not make up so bloody list, there
being but $4,000 of them.
Glancing down the list of the Iron
Horses victims, one finds that the
leading item reads as follows: Tres
passers-killed, 4,O40; injured, 4,73O
Who are these 1000 trespassers who
have been hurried to their long ac-
count? A large proportion of them
doubtless are tramps stealing rides on
the tops of freight cars, or on the
trucks of passengers and freights.
Some of them have fallen. or rendered
so helpless by the cold of winter that
| they could cling no longer to their
dangerous perches. others-how many
who can tell?-have been hurled off by
train crews in fierce battles, or per.
haps with out the train mems excuse OF
battle, their deaths are cassed as acci-
dental in the records of the coroners
along the lines where they perished.
Doubtless some among the great to-
tai of alleged trespassers killed and
MANNED were not trespassers at ALL
Sometimes the evidence that a man
killed on railroad had a ticket and
right to be on the train is destroyed.
OF admitted passengers killed thei e
was comparatively small number
The statistics say 259, and place the
number Of injured at 3,442. This is
more than the corresponding figures
for the year previous, when the killed
were 221 and the injured 2,945.
Railroad men like to print figures
showing how much safer 1t Is to travel
than to stay at home. For instance,
only one passenger was killed for ev-
cry 2,1S9,032 carried. And, II you put 1t
on the basis Of miles. one had to aver
age 6l,051,5S0 miles in order to get
killed.
With employees much bloodier tale
has been told. One out of every 420
employees was killed last year, and one
out of every ~ was injured. OF train
men-and the men working on locomo-
tives had to bear the brunt of these
casualties-one was killed for every los
employed and one in ei,S en- injured.
In New York and sorie other states
new laws compelling the use Of safety
brakes and couplers Ln freight trains
were put In force, yet the number killed
and injured coupling cars remains
startlingly large. OF the former there
were 26O killed, as against go the pre-
ceding year, and S,i25 injured, as
against 6,988 the year before.
The use Of automatic .ouplers and
brakes operated from the locomotive is
now very extensive. Practically all
passenger cars and locomo .ives are SO
equipped. and Of the 1896 $40 cars in the
freight service on June 80, 1893, 730.cIO
were fitted with train brakes and l.
1888 with automatic couplcrs.
The casualties from coupling and un-
coupling cars are assigned as follows:
Trainmen, killed 1870, injured, 5.055;
switchmen, fagmen nnd watcbnen,
killed "a, injured 1883, employees killed
9, injured III. The casualties resulting
from falling from t-alns and engines
are assigned as follows: Trainmen,
killed, 1887; injured, 1885; switchmen,
fiagmen and watchmen, killed go, in
jured 377; other employees, killed so,
injured $40. The casualties to the same
three groups of employees caused by
collisions and derailments were as fol-
lows: Trainmen, killed $50, injured,
1,713; switchmen, fiagmen and watch
men, killed IA, injured 115; other en-