The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-02-02

SET FOR TO- MORROW
In Goldsboro Before Judge Brown
Mr.. Parker Not Yet Recovered
From Effects OF His Terri
bIe'lnjuries---Asks DAM
ages of $4,000

Seventeen Raleigh folks have been sub
poenaed to go to Goldsboro tomorrow
and tell what they know about the rotten
tie wreck on the Southern Railway Just
southeast of this city last May; for to-
morrow is the day set for the trial of the
suit of Mr.. II. B. Parker, Jr., against the
Southern Railway, for s25, 900 on account
of the serious injuries he sustained in
that wreck.
The Raleigh folks summoned are:
Messrs. Ivan Proctor, w. z. Blake, r. B..
Lacy, John Duckett, r. G.. Reid, w. H.
Hood, Carey j. Huner, j. T. Pescud, j..
s. Wynne, A. C. Hunter, ]. H. Robbins,
r. Stainback, Len II. Adams, Burt
Wilder, w. A. Linehan, p NJ. Pearsall,
and DR.. r. S. Rowland.
Mr.. Parker, whose injuries to neck,
back and lung incapacitated him for
many months, and who has not even yet
recovered from the effets of his terrible
hurts, was unwilling to compromise for a
song, and, as the road failed to pay what
he asked was obliged to institute civil
action to recover anything like recon-
pense for his time lost and his horrible
sufferings
It will be remembered that Mr.. Parker
lay in Rex Hospital here for weeks after
the catastrophe before he could be moved
10 his home in Goldsboro. 1t was days
before he could so much as turn his head.
Mr.. Parker was in Raleigh week or SO
ago and 1t was plain to all who had ever
known him before, that ne had by no
means regained his health. He is still un-
able to endure full days work in his
office
Mr.. Parker is one of the best known
young men in the State, a prominent
lawyer of Goldsboro, and representative
from his county in the Legislature of 1903,
where lie made a record for himself upon
all of the great questions that came be-
fore that body.
The following are some extracts taken
from the report of the rotten tic wreck
in the News and Observer of May goth:
"And the condition of the track. 1t is
simply beyond any description. For a
hundred yards and more there was no
sembiance of railroad track. Tricky
scattered over the top of the embank-
ment were pieces of cross ties and broken,
bent and twisted rails. The pieces of ties
were nearly all rotten, so rotten that
many of them could be broken with the
hands, or e cane or umbrella could be
thrust through them.
s"People were saying it was the worst
they had ever seen, that nothing but
criminal negligence was responsible for
such condition of affairs
1.-THE concensus of opinion yesterday ev-
ening among those who viewed the scene
of the wreck was that rotten cross-ties
had caused the rails to spread.
1.-THE ties were splintered and broken
into kindling wood, and very many of
the pieces could be crushed in the fingers,
SO rotten and decayed was the wood.
Canes and umbrella tips were thrust
through many of the broken pieces of
cross-ties.
Conc gentleman said he counted two
hundred rotten ties from where the en-
CINE first went off the track to where it
was brought up, some two hundred yards
away
Much indignation was expressed by cit
izens at the scene of the wreck that the
company should permit track to remain
in the condition it was"
rome theory of the cause of the wreck,
advanced by railroad men and others, is
that the new heavy locomotives that are
being used on this line are too heavy for
the track. The engine pulling the train
yesterday evening was one of this class.
known as the 'MoguP type
"The injured ones whose condition gave
most cause for alarm yesterday evening
were Representative Parker, Sheriff
Sharp and Mr.. Fleming At about three
o'clock this morning DIR. Hubert Register
stated that it was still impossible to tell
just what was the extent of Mr.. Parker's
hurts. This could not be ascertained, he
said, until the muscular soreness and
swelling had passed off. Fear was felt of
ihjury to the spine"
Here is what Mr.. o. C. Gregory, of
Louisburg, buyer for the American To-
baeco Company, said to News and OBJ
server reporter on the night of the wreck:
1.-THE ties opposite to where the cars
lay were torn all to pieces and seemed to
be very rotten"
Here is what Mr.. Ivan Proctor said the
same night:
when saw the track it was in mighty
bad condition The cross-ties seemed to
be rotten. sort of dry rot, so much so
that whenever the wheels struck they just
seemed to break up and splinter to short
pieces
Rev. j. w. Settle, Baptist preacher of
Smithfield, said that night:
'.All the ties / saw seemed to be per-
fectiy rotten. l never before in my life
n
at the wreck was talking about these rot
ten ties to which they ascribed the
wreck. I think the rails spread. We
were going along fast, at least fifty miles
an hour. and I know I've never ridden on
that section so fast before. Just as the
wreck occurred Miss Kirk asked me if
the road was bad and as she did so the
car began to jerk and over we went"