The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-05-15
INTO A DITCH.
Santa Fe Passenger Train
Wrecked Sunday Morning.
Was the Result of Miscreants
Who Pulled Spikes.
SIX MEN ARE INJURED.
One Died in the Hospital Last
Night.
Company Offers $4,000 fOrc.Ar-
rest Of Wreekers.
Officers Believe 1t to Be Work
of Strikers.
SIX MEN ARE INJURED.

a reward of $1,000 has been offered
by General Manager J. E. Hurley, OF the
Santa Fe railroad, for Information
which viii result in the arrest and con
viction of the person or persons impIi-
Gated in the wreck of passenger train
40. II at Emporia Junction early sun
day morning.
The reward will also apply in event
other attempts at wrecking trains are
made at any point on the line at any
future time.
The Santa Fe officials regard the at
tempts at wrechng passenger trains as
the work of the strikers who went out
a year ago. and who have so far been
unsuccessful in their efforts to force a
settlement of the matter, but this may
not be true.
The attempt on train No. II Sunday
morning was the fourth of d series of
attempts near Emporia. Three times in
as many months, a pile of ties has been
- placed on the railroad track for pas
senger train to run into. Sunday morn
ing the spikes were pulled from tWen-
ty-fOur ties and the bolts which hold
the ends of the two rails together were
taken out. 1t resulted in ditehing the
train and six persons were injured. The
engine got over the rail safely, but the
cars which followed were sent into the
ditch
One week ago Saturday night it is re-
ported an attempt was made to wreck
train No. 9. the fast evening west bound
train, in the Topeka yards. This is also
attributed by Santa Fe officials to
strikers. A heavy drag chain was
stretched across the main line track a
the curve in the Topeka yards at Sec
ond street The chain was anchored on
each side of the track.
Train No. makes a fast schedule and
comes into Topeka at a high rate of
speed. If the purpose of the chain across
the track had been fulfilled, the Santa
Fe would have had a bad wreck. 1t so
happened. however, that the pilot of the
engine did not catch the chain, and the
wheels of the engine caught the chain
and broke it,
General Manager Hurley announces
that he will ask Governor IIoch to also
offer a reward upon the part of the
state of Kansas for the arrest of the
guilty parties
Governor Hoch has stated to newspa-
Der men who saw him in regard to the
matter that he Will render all aid in
his power to apprehend the guilty par
ties and to prosecute them.
There is no room in Kansas for train
wreckers," he said, and the sooner they
find out the better"
Six men were injured in the wreck
at EmpOria early Sunday morning
One man, James Eaguer, died at the
Santa Fe hospital at Topeka last night.
The dead and injured are:
Dead.
James Eaguer, 79 years old, from
the old soldiers home, LeavenWorth;
right leg fractured below knee in two
places, head and hands cut and back
injured; was brought to Topeka last
night, where he died later at the rail
road hospital.
The Injured
Mate" Hendricks, Roswell, n. NJ,
cattlemen; back and hips sprained. long
cut across forehead and scalp wounds;
dangerous.
j. o. Rice. Shawnee. Ok. an Atcbison
Topeka & Santa Fe car repairer, return
ing home from the Santa Fe hospital at
Topeka; left ear partly torn of: bruises
T. A. Taylor, Argentine, conductor:
several deep cuts on scalp, four teeth
hands cut.
F. A. Grover, fireman; thrown from
cab, back and shoulder sprained
j. L. Cooper. Spickard No, farmer;
left hand cut, elbow fractured.
Mate" Hendricks. the ranchman.
and q. a. Taylor are both at the Santa
Fe hospital having been brought to
Topeka from the scene of the wreck
at Emporia last night Both Hen
dflcks and Taylor will recover.
How 1t Was Done.
The spikes and hshplates of two
rails on the inside of curve were re
moved by the wreckers The engine
OF NO u. Thomas Grady, engineer,
and Frank Grover, fireman. passed
over the loose rails safely. The next
car, a mail coach. left the track and
was dragged 100 yards along the en-
bankment and track before the en-
glne was stopped.
The next five cars, two express and
baggage cars, smoker and two day
coaches, broke loose from the mail
car, Dlowed through the ground across
the right of way fence and piled up
In zigzag line down an embankment.
me end Of one baggage car stood in
ehe air, high enough to ground four
telegraph wires. The last two cars in
the train were Pullman sleeping cars.
One remained on the track. but the
forward one had one truck off.
All the passengers were asleep when
the wreck occurred. No women were
injured. The passengers in the over
turned coaches became greatly eX-
cited, but the attention of some of the
cooler heads was turned to men inn
prisOned i'm the overturned smoker.
Fireman Grover who was thrown
from his engine and received a sprain-
ed shoulder and back, climbed on the
side OF the smoker in spite OF his in
1uries and broke out a window glass
81 +AlG passengers COutQ get Oul- VI
seven men in the smoker six were in
5ured. Car doors were used for
stretchers and the wounded were car
ried to pasture nearby.
Relief Sent Promptly.
relief train sent from EmpOria ar
rived about an hour after the wreck
with four doctors aboard. The pas
sengers and injured were taken to
town ana the injured taken to the Le-
land hotel a work train with 100