The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-02
THREW TRAIN
 FROM TRACKS BlOOdhOundS Pursuing the
 WreckerS. NO ONE WAS KILLED L. & N. Passenger Train De-
 railed at Sparta. Company Offers Liberal Reward for Perpetrators of Deed-Escapes
 of Crew and Passengers
 Were Miraculous.

Bloodhounds are on the trail of the mis- creants who wrecked Southbound Louis Vile, and Nashville passenger train No. 5 near Sparta, eighty-five miles south of day morning. The railroad company has offered a. reward of $500 for their cap ture,
 Although rail was taken up from the crossties and several cars left the track. not, single person was seriously in- Jured. ..
 Mrs. M. Church, of Birmingham, a passenger who was ill in one of the sleepers, was shocked greatly. She was brought to Montgomery yesterday after hospital.
 That score or more of innocent peo- pie were not dashed into eternity was not due to the incarnate fiends who passengers and crew was miraculous.
 Souhbound train No. 3. duN to leave Montgomery. for New Orleans at 9t35 D. m, left here one hour and thirty min Dougherty and Conductor Ed Markle were in charge. It was the regular run of Conductor Felix Mullens, but Conduc- tor Markle doubled out for him.
 Engineer Dougherty had Engine 259 with eleven cars as follows: Louisville and Nashville postal car No. 76: express car 2l7. baggage car 231. second class day coach s5s. first class day coach 5f2 and
 
 ular Tuesday night tourist sleeper oper- ated between New York and San Fran cisco. The five Pullman cars were the Carlsbad. Hawaii. Cheyme Veronna and the Pensacola sleeper Midland. The tourist car was No. B.
 About six miles north of Castleberry is the little station of Sparta, and pretty deep curve forms the approach tos tho station. As the train was behind its schedule time and there was bit of down grade. Engineer Dougherty was letting his machine out In the effort to try and get back some of the shy time by the hour the train ran into Mobile.
 Suddenly the big locomotive staggered, almost fell from the tracks, and by a monster effort climbed back on the rails, as cars behind 1t went into the ditch.
 An entire section of one of the rails had been taken up, the threads cut, and the spikes pulled out. Then the rail had been carefully spiked in place several inches out of plumb, showing conclu- sively that the work was done by an experienced railroad man.
 The speed at which the train was run ming made the front trucks of the engine jump back on the rails as soon as the broken section was passed. Engineer Dougherty stopped the train as soon as possible, put by that time nearly every car in the train had found the broken rait and there was scene Of wreckage and confusion that caused message to flash into Montgomery at 3, o'clock yes sterday morning with the startling news that several lives had been lost.
 In the postal car just behind the engine were two mall clerks, w. w. Forward letter clerk, and Bob Campbell, paper clerk, both white men and both living in New Orleans. The next car was the ex- press car, Messenger Tom Ridley being in charge. This car, like the postal car, was practically uninjured. The next car was the baggage car with Baggagemaster Dave Burns of this city in charge. The heavy trunks tumbled about his ears. but MT. Burns escaped with a few bruises, the glad news of his escape being flashed to his anxious wife yesterday morning early.
 Conductor Markle and Flagman Bob Weaver were in one of the coaches. neith- CT being scratched.
 The nearest telegraph office was Gas tleberry, six miles away, and starting off on a record-breaking run Ed Markle sprinted to Castleberry. He astonished the operator at the latter place by bound ing into his office about 3 o'clock and in a very few seconds after that the ticker in Train Dispatcher Young's office on the top floor of the Union Station In Mont gomery. was telling about the wreck
 Superintendent J. I. Mckinney, Master of Trains Mizell, Chief Dispatcher Young and the Louisville and Nashville surgeon in Montgomery were hurriedly notified. Then the yard office was hastily called up and in a remarkably short space of time the hoarse roar of the wnecking whistle was tumblng sleepy members of the wrecking crew out of warm beds.