The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-01
MANCLED BY WHEELS
MOTHER AND CHILD KILLED BY
 ELECTRIC CAR.
Motormen Were in Danger of Being Roughly Handled by the Indig- nant Crowd That Gathered.
 Bodies Identifeda

Birmingham. Aug. 3L-tSpecial.) .)--Mrs. Curry s. Norris and her 2-year-old child were run over and killed by a street car this morning at 70 o'clock on Twentieth The young mother was crossing the street with her baby boy clasped in her arms, when run down by an electric car, which was moving at nigh rate of speed. and both were crushed to death in a few mo- ments beneath the wheels.
 The speed of the car was such that it passed entirely over the bodies of the wo- man and child and ran almost half a
 The child was killed instantly, but the mother lived a minute or two after the car passed over her. though her body was horribly crushed.
 The accident was witnessed by large number of persons and thrill of horror swept over them at the awful sight. Be- fore the arrival of ambuiances a big crowd of people gathered and intense ex- citement prevailed.
 A number of those in the crowd started out to look for the men who had charge of the car and had they been found at that time they would have been roughly dealt with. The car was in charge of Conductor McGill and Motorman John Smith. The car was being run, however, at the time of the accident by a learner, Charles Courson. Officer vandiver and Street Tax Collector A. A Gambill took charge of Smith at once and hurried him to the city prison. where Judge Feagin ordered him to the county jail. telling him it would be safer place for him until the excitement abted some. Courson gave himself up little later and he, too con- senteo to remain at the jail until the ex- citement subsided.
 Thes bodies were taken to Gaudin & Loys undertaking establishment, where several thousand people were admitted to see them. At first the identity of the dead woman and child could not be es- tablished. but later it was announced that the woman was Mrs. Fannie McSweeney and baby. the wife and son of rolling mill man.
 This was denied and the identity of the dead woman and child remained mys- tery until little after o'clock this even ing. when Curry s. Norris. lumberman in the empioye of the Reynolds Lumber Company, went to the undertaking shop and identified the woman as his wife and the baby as hts child.
 Norris had been at work all day and had not gone home for dinner having home this evening the door was locked and his wife and child were missing. He lives on Thirty-second Street the extreme eastern part of the city. He came down town in quest of the missing members of his family. and, hearing that woman and child had been killed by a car, went to the undertaking shop. \. . Hundreds of persons were passing Tn and out of the place seeking to identify the dead Norris pushed his way in. He gazed for few moments on the bruised and blood-Shot forms and then recognized the dead as his wife and child. He col- lapsed when the awful fact dawned upon him, and, falling back into the arms of one of the undertakers. walled most piteously until he was taken from the room. The dead woman was a daughter of l.. J. Barnes a highly respected citi- zen of Tuscaloosa. and had been married to Mir Norris about three years.
 A charge of murder was placed against the regular motorman on the car and a charge of manslaughter against the man who was learning. The street railway people will make no statement as to the affair until full investigation can be made No accident has happened in Bkm- ingham in some time over which there was so much talk as this.
 Coroner Paris this afternoon organized jury for the purpose of making a thor ough investigation into the tragedy. Wit nesses to the accident say that the car which killed the woman and child was running at a high rate of speed. The wo- man evidently did not see the approach ing car and was in the middle of the track which she wac crossing when she was struck. She was knocked about five feet falling upon the track The car then passed over her and the baby, rolling them over and over as 1t went.
 The Birmingham News this afternoon editorially denounces the accident as criminal and says that the motorman is guilty of murder and that punishment to befit the crime should promptly be meted out to him in the Criminal Court.