The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-09-30
H MUILET ROAD.
Companies Seeking Priv-
Ieges-Record Of Half a Century.
The Old Covered Bridges-As a
Law of the Modes and Persians.
Especial to The Messenger.)

unique oIStlnctlon enjoyed Dy the At
lantic and North Carolina railroad is
that it's not undo contract with m tel
egraph company. The Western Union
has always used the line IN maintain
ed the Offices on the road, but recently
its contract expired and has not been
renewed. though the Western Union has
made repeated efforts to that end. IN
Postal Company, taking note Of this sit
uation and wishing to gain a foothold
in Eastern Carolina this week sent a
man from the Washington office to in
vestigate the situation. He went over
the road and will make a report to the
head Office on which it is understood a
contract will be submitted. The peo-
pie along the line generally seem to
prefer the Postal company and are hop
ing that such a proposition will be made
as will be acceptable to the railroad.
The Western Union. on the other
hand, Is quite as active. 1t too had a
man down here today comforting with
the officials of the road with a view to
amending the contract which 1t recently
SUBMITTED. but which was rejected. 1t
is evident a the Western Union is
in no humor to abandon the territory
it has SO long held.
- 0RRNOA 40 III VI liz SotIl
the railroad has against the telegraph
company is that sufficient facilities
have not been afforded for the handling
of certain orders and other necessary
railroad business. AS a result, a tele-
phone line has been put in from Colds
boro to Morehead City a distance of a
hundred miles over which much of the
railroad business is now being trans
acted.
The Atlantic and North Carolina is
one of the few railroads.&c. not the
only one-in this country that uses the
telephone for giving train orders. But
the. plan has worked so admirably that
other roads are considering large ex-
tensions of their telephone system with
a view to superseding the telegraph
for dispatching trains. One of these
roads is the Northern Pacific which
is contemplating putting In a phone
system for this purpose on the st. Paul
and Portland route.
Certainly the use of the phone along
with the telegraph, as on the Atlantic
and North Carolina railroad, increases
the safety of their management. I'm
der SUCH circumstances, if the telegraph
fails the telephone can be called into
service, or if anything happens to the
operator who alone knows the secret
alphabet, any m can give notice of
a danger over the telephone line. In
fact, a case of exactly this sort recent
ly occurred at a Southern station. The
dispatcher was shot and killed by train
Wreckers, whereupon a boy who real
lied the danger to the Oncoming ex-
press ran to a nearby telephone and
sent q timely warning to the next sta
ton.
Another remarkable thing about the
Atlantic and North Carolina railroad
is that although it has been in opera
ton for nearly half a century, it has
never, up TO a month ago, had an accl-
dent resulting in the death of a human
being. But at the close of the military
encampment at Morehead City in Au-
gust this record was roken Two
drunken soldiers, riding on top of a
train were struck by a covered bridge
near Goldsboro and killed. Two others
were hurt. Though. from he facts as
they now appear, the railroad was in
no manne responsible for the death
of these men, suits have been brought
by their relatives to recover damages.
Covered bridges are known in this
section as dark houses" Formerly
all the bridges on the road were. cover
ed, and two of them are still covered.
One of these is near G~oldSboro, where
the two soldiers were killed and the
other is above New Bern. In It's day
the Trent river bridge at New Bern
was the longest covered railroad bridge
in the state, and it is today our longest
railroad bridge. being 1880 feet Cor one
third of a mile) long.
Though a dark house" in name, the
Trent river bridge was not dark. On
the contrary, with arches and other
architectural ornaments, ii presented
Il rather attractive appearance and i'll
anJe-bel.um days the broad walk-wayS
though il moved a popular eVenlns
promenade. The bridge was burned
during the war, as the cOnfederates
evacuated New Bern to Brunside's
army. As TO who burned IL, there -
dispute. Some contend hat the con-
federates did il and others that it was
the federals. At any rate there APP
pears to be no dispute OF the fact that
il was set on fire by a raft OF resin ana
turpentiue foated down against 1t.
Many funny things come into the gem
erlI Offices of a railroad. Letters that
abound in humor, for the. most part I'M
conscious, out none the less laughaole
for that The cow c~oroners' depart
ment-that which handles claims for
stock killed by trains-is perhaps most
favored in this respect, as the follow
ing sample received by the former ad-
miniStrati0n of the Atlantic and North
Carolina railroad shows:
We the undersigners being person.
ally acquainted with Mr.. IS stock
killed by said train No. 3 engineer be-
Iieve aid cow 10 be worth $4,000 and
said OK to be worth $500" Then fol-
lows the names of nine prominent Cit
liens who acknowledge themselves
personally acquainted" with "salG
COW and OK"
General superintendent Dill has one
principle about the killing of cattle
that he always contends for strenuous
ly: That the railroad is not r~esponst-
bic for cattle killed at night when the
engineer cannot see the cattle. A case
of this kind anne up some years ago
at Core Creek and there the principle
was. in the language of Attorney Guion.
written III the law"
4 farmer a had his COW killed
his only cow. The tragedy occurred at
night. The farmer demanded $50, testf-
flying that the train that did il was run
ming sixty miles an hour. He knew