Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1902-12-14
THE THE DANGERS OF DUTY.
HI---Perils OF Railroad Men

him until his life has gone out.
Frequently q collision drives the cab
IA ok upon the tender and catches the en-
sfneer or fireman. or both. between boiler
and tank.
Something Ike this was the accident
which bereli Chris. Leach, an engineer on
the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, some
thing like twenty years ago.
a change III schedule. perhaps misun--
derstood. threw two trains together at
Miilboro. Leach was caught between the
tender and the cab. and was crushed to
death. AS the trainrnen were lifting him
out he rallied to ask: We're we to
blame.
They answered him, No
-'.T'ilcn-I can die he said And lie died,
calm and brave TO the very last.
a trestle over deep ravine has peril
Gus air about it. Look at one some day
and try to picture a locomotive topping
over and dropping 10 the bottom. Her
b.rc McCal they, a Chesapeake and Ohio
engineer. died that way. on the Aiberne
branch in February of. last year.
McCartneys engine jumped the track
just before it reached the trestle, 1t kept
TO the ties for some distance, then pitched
: little to che side. rolled over in the air
and dropped a sheer forty feet to the
ground.
1ghe crash was terrific. Mccartney,
caught under one corner of the boiler,
Was terribly crushed. practically every
bone in his body being broken Charles
Clay, his fireman jumped just as the en-
sir1e toppled and landed at the bottom
Of the rayine. 50 badly injured that he
laid, off duty for nine months.
1t comes TO some men to die as Richard
Slaughter died, and no manner OF death
could be worse.
cold Man Slaughter. as his comrades
called him, was an engineer on the James
River Division of the Chesapeake and
Ohio His engine jumped the track
twenty-five miles west Of Richmond one
day, four or five years ago. The loco
motive tipped over and turned completely
around. heading the other way.
Slaughter. who had staid in his cab laid
under the engine four hours AS he lay
there pinned down by the wreck. while
the Worknlen labored almost frantically
to free him. the boiling water dripping
from the gauge-cocks fell upon him drop
by drop. He was literally cooked from
head to foot for the boiler, nearly red
hot lay upon his legs. while the steady
drip of the boiling water scalded the up
per part Of his body until it hardly re-
sembed human flesh. He died before
help could reach him.
On the York River road. in 1883, En-
Sineer B:nDs, a near relative OF Mayor
Taylor. ran into a washort: and he and
his fireman We're both killed.
Binns was pulling the local which left
West Point at $50 in the morning. The
tyair before him was the fast train which
left at 1850, upon the arrival of the boat
at West Point.
The engineer OF the first train was
Henry Beardsley. a veteran engineman,
now retired and keeping a restaurant in
Seventeenth street.
IL had been raining heavily, and the
men about the yard had spoken of little
signs of slides and washouts along the
line Binns mentioned this to the older
engineer
u hear the roads in bad shape this
morning." he said. 5.
head q hardly think SO. guess the
lines all right" And he mounted his
engine and pulled out tor Richmond. He
made the trip in perfect safety.
Binns followed an hour later. -Four
miles this side Of Vast Point ha ran