The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-08-13
DEAD UNDER ENGINE
Unknown MangIed and
Caught in Machinery.
Tragedy Attended Arrival Of Early
Morning Southern Train at Raj.
eigh---Body Interfered With
Running of Locomotive.

An unknown negro man was killed
early yesterday morning by a South
ern Railway train in the deep cut near
the State penitentiary.
When the engineer Of Southern Rail-
way train, No. 112, which arrives in
Raleigh in the early morning hours,
reached the deep cut near the State
penitentiary, he felt that there was
something the matter with the locomo-
tive and stopped the train O investigate.
When he peered beneath the engine
he saw a horrible sight--a dead man
tangled in the machinry! The body
was wedged up under the boiler and
had been evidently dragged along the
track for some distance yet unascer-
tanned.
Horribly mangled. one leg severed
at the hip and held to the body by
shreds of clothing, the skull and body
crushed to a pulp, the remnants of
the man were finally disengaged from
the machinery, placed on the side of
the track and covered with strip OF
canvass.
There the remains lay exposed for
the greater part of yesterday, while
throngs of the curious came and
looked with morbid satisfaction. No
one, however, could identify the body
and the negro is supposed to have been
one of the waits of the road, either
beating q ride or asleep on the track
when his death rushed upon him.
With the characteristic effort at
mystery which is so dear to the rail-
road heart, the few people who could
know anything of the meagre facts re-
fused to have anything TO say, except
that the man was dead and that they
did not know his name.
1t is understood, however, that the
engineers report states that he saw
no one on the track and that the rail-
road theory is that the body is that
of a tramp who was stealing ride.
This theory has the almost fatal
defect, however. that if the man had
been stealing a ride. he would scarcely
have been concealed about the engine,
unless he had perched upon the cow
catcher and fallen off the side and I'M
der the wheels. On the other hand,
| it is difficult to see how the BODY
could have gotten into the position II
occupied if the man had been struck
while on the track, in which case he
would either have been thrown aside
by the cow-catcher or upon the up
per works of the engine.
The most reasonable theory would
appear to be that he was asleep beside
L
rail, which was caught by the WheelS,
the body being thus drawn upward
after the passage Of the coW-catcher
/ and the man crushed against the rams
and ties
| The railroad authorities telephoncd
Yesterday to DR.. Jordan, the County
| Coroner. requesting an inquest but~the
latter took the position that as there
was no allegation or suspicion of foul
play, the matter was not one Tor the
attention of the county authorities.
The body will. therefore be buried
| by the railroad and the history OF the
dead man will go merely towards max
| ing another chapter in the untold
| tragedies of life on the road.
A popular superstition-that 1t Is
against the law to touch the body OF
| one who suffers a violent or sudden
death until the coroner arrives vas
we'll illustrated in the case or TINS man
THE bloody mess of the body lying
undisturbed by the track Tor many
hours.