The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-02-02
Mr.. Frank A. Daniels, of Goidsboro,

Mr.. FRANK A. IJameiS, OF IOtuSUoioy
said:
1.-The track at the place of the accident
seemed to be in very bad condition, many
of the cross-ties were rotten and though
the road was ballasted with rock, it could
be easily seen that it was unsafe. one
gentleman told me he had gone over the
space torn up by the train and that he
punched the end of his umbrella into
many of the rotten ties walking up the
track. There were many expressions of
Indignation as the passengers saw the
rotten ties and felt that they had caused
the accident
J. w. o. Garrett, of Henderson, a
teacher in the colored Presbyterian school
said
Il think the rotten ties caused the
wreck, by allowing the rails to cut in and
spread
The following day, May 21st, the News
and Observer, in a news story, had the
following:
Practically every one who viewed the
track yesterday and examined the old ties
agreed in condemning the road for allow
ing such rotten ties to remain in place,
and so many of them. BY an overwhelm-
ing majority the people yesterday still
considered that nothing but the spreading
OF the rails or unsound ties had caused
the disaster.
ION all hands the News and Observer
was being praised for printing what was
considered the cause of the wreck All
the papers were sold out in the morning,
and demands for more came from up and
down the line, and all over the city. 1t
was impossible to serve everybody, for
the supply gave out.
"Mr. L. w. Hullinger, of Springfield,
one of the passengers slightly injured in
the wreck, said yesterday at the depot,
The News and Observer certainly gave
magnificent account of the terrible affair,
telling the truth as things were. You
can't say too much about the rotten ties.
l never saw anything before so criminal
" careless
'Rumor had it yesterday afternoon that
an employee had two weeks ago called the
attention of the section master to the
bad condition of the cross-ties. 1t was
impossible to confirm this rumor.
THE Southern Railway has given out
no official statement of the cause of the
wreck, although officials of the road were
asked for such statement on Tuesday
night and again on yesterday
On May 26th, an an article headed, "a
Farce Follows the Rotten Ties, the fol-
lowing appeared in the News and Obser
yer:
Coax ties by the hundred are being
hauled to the place where the wreck oc-
Cured. In the $50 yards about the wreck
235 new cross-ties have been put in, and
on this side and beyond the wreck there
had been placed for use as late as Satur-
day 146 new cross-ties, both these num-
bers being given by actual count.
Is The rotten cross-ties did not cause
the wreck, it was a spike or some other
OBSTRUCTION feloniously placed there by a
party or parties for whose capture we
offer $500 shouts the Southern Railway.
(" L counted 1863 rotten crosS-ties at the
place of the wreck and in space of some
thirty yards the ties were SO rotten that
there must have been over thirty mashed
to powder there says North Carolina
State official I could grind some pieces
OF the rotten ties to powder in my hands,
says a prominent citizen of Raleigh. l
took pieces of the rotten ties as big as
my leg and broke them in my hands,
says another. I pulled out numbers OF
spikes with my hands from ties at point
below where the wreck occurred says
another. Criminal carelessness caused
the wreck say thousands
"A member of the News and Observer
staff, who was in Clayton on Saturday,
said:
while walking a distance of about a
mile on the Southern Railway track near
Clayton last week in company with a
prominent citizen of that place, we count
ed sixty-tive rotten and worthless cross
ties on the roadbed in this short distance.
There were probably many others we did
not see. as we were walking rather hur
riedly.
On May 31st this paper had the fol
lowing report:
Representative H. B. Parker, Jr., of
Goldsboro, one of the severely injured
in the rotten-ties wreck on the Southern
Railway, near here, left for his home yes
terday, accompanied by his father, Mr..
w. K. Parker.
MIR. Parker said that his back was
still giving him trouble, but that he felt
able to travel. He has been in Rex Hos
pital since the time of the wreck when
ha yr,ar cavaro1v i,irod ,,