Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-05-25
AUTOMOBILES RACE
First Stage In Paris to Madrid
 Contest.
MANY ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

scfOus = Government FOrb1ds
 Further Racing In France. PARIS, May 25.-The first stage in the Paris-Madrid automobile race from Versailles to Bordeaux, 343 miles,
 was finished at noon Sunday when
 Louis Renault dashed at a furious pace into Bordeaux, having made a record run of Sh. 27m.
 An hour later M. Gabriel arrived, with still better record of Sh. I'm. It is estimated from the times made l that these automobiles covered sixty two miles an hour on the road outside the cities.
 ed by a series of accidents, having in one case at least a fatal result. At least two cars were wrecked, and Mar eel Renault, the winner of the Paris Vienna race last year; Lorraine Bar rows, very well known automobilist, and Renault's chauffeu. were serious ly and, 1t is believed, fatally injured, while Barrow's chauffeur was killed. Moreover, an uncondrmed report says a serious accident occurred near Angouleme, in which the two occu- pants of an automobile, the owner of which Is not yet known, were serious l ly injured and two spectator were killed. This number of accidents has ] not caused any great surprise here in view of the number of contestants in the race and the great speed and pow CT of their machines.
 The name of w. K. Vanderbilt, IT,, disappeared from the reports along the route after Rambouillet, where he l passed twenty eighth in order at 8 1 quarter to B this morning going in fine form. The omission of his name from the dispatches from Chartres, the next l town on the road, caused some anxiety and brought forth number of inqui-
 ries. It was learned later that he,
 Henry Fournier and Baron de Forest l withdrew from the race together be- fore reaching Chartres. All of them suffered breakdowns, and, having lost three hours, they decided that it was useless to continue.
 Mr. Vanderbilt and Baron de Forest returned to the Hotel Ritz at Ii o'clock | Sunday morning. They laughed and made light of their withdrawals. Fox l hall Keene, Tod Sloane and w. J. Dan- I nat, the American artist, did not ap-
 pear at the starting line when their turn was reached and consequently did
 not take part in the race. c. Gray l Dinsmore is thus the only American 1 left in.
 Versailles passed night of wild ex- | @S& Se %esG &Ho%
 dred thousand persons crowded into
 the little town to witness the start of l the race. Soldiers with fixed bayonets l lined the track for some distance from I Versailles.
 1 A bomb was exploded at 3:36 a. m. as
 g signal to get ready, and immediately Charles Jarrott's car drew into place.
 Another bomb was fired at quarter l to for the start, and then the enor-
 nous machine shot forward amid the shouts of the thousands of spectators. l The other cars followed in quick sue l cession.
 l Mime. de Cast, the sole female com
 petitor in last years Paris-B Berlin race,
 was again the only woman to partici-
 pate in the present contest. Her ma
 chine was decked with flowers, and
 her departure was the signal for q l great ovation. She made a splendid
 run, passing five of her competitors be- fore reaching Chartres.
 The crowd around MT. vanderbilt's B
 machine prevented him from reaching the starting line in time, and he was l further delayed by a controversy with
 the judges, finally starting two min utes late. The last departure was at a quarter to Sunday morning. The reports along the route soon showed that Louis Renault was mak- l ing great race, and before Chartres he had overtaken and passed Charles l Jarrott and M. Rene de Knyn and gained a lead which he never after lost
 Dispatches from Vendome, Tours and Poietiers told of his passing through ahead, and Bordeaux sent the an-
 nouncement of his arrival first at 12:14:45. He had beaten Heri Four nier's record of Sh. 44m.
 l Charles Jarrott finished second at 12:3O, having covered the course in l Sh. Aim. M. Gabriel arrived third at los, bis time being Sh. I'm. The other contestants who made fast time were J. Salleron, Sh 40m.; Baron de Craw- her, Sh. 53m.; J. B. Warden, Sh. 5om.. and M. Voight, Sh. Som.
 During the afternoon word of the ac- cidents began to arrive and cast cloud over the event. A dispatch from Bor- deaux announced that Lorraine Bar rows had met with shocking accident
 near Libourne, seventeen miles from Bordeaux. It appears that MT. Bar rows had tried to avoid a dog which was crossing the track and his mon- ster car, No. in the race struck tree with terrific force His chauffeur was
 killed outright. Barrows himself was l picked up unconscious, but still breath ing, and was taken to a hospital, where
 his condition was declared to be crit. 1 cal. His car was dashed to pieces.
 Shortly afterward news came that Marcel Renault had been overturned in
 deep ditch beside the road near Couhe, twenty-one miles from Poietiers, and that he was dangerously Injured. The Automobile club of Bordeaux re-