Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1905-06-22
fOday's feiegraphic News

sehsation ia the state School Board.
Especial Dispatch to The Alexandria Gazette. ]
Richmond, Va, June % The SEN
sation OF the hour, is the action OF the
State Board of Education in severely
censuring j. A. McGilvraY and j. 2.
Thomas for wrong doing in connection
with the school registers matters. Nc
Gilvray and Thomas both confes ed.
The former resigned as clerk to the
board and will not run for superinten-
dent. The latter will not be candi-
date for principal OF the High School
which he has held for many years.
Wreck of Twentieth Century Limited
Cleveland, O., June 2.-Seventeen
lives were lost according to the report
given out by railway officials and at the
hospital this morning in the wreck of the
Twentieth Century Limited at 9 O'Clock
last night. The Lake Shore record
breaking train bound for New York hit
an open switch and in an instant the
monster locomotive and all but one OF
the cars behind it were piled in great
life-crushing heap. More than a score
of persons were injured. The limited
recently placed on the run to equal the
l8-hour schedule of the Pennsylvania
special WIS passing through the station
at Mentor, just west of gainesville, when
the wreck occurred. The operator had
been ordered TO give the train clear
signal. He did so. The flyer was going
perhaps 20 miles an hour through the
little Ohio town. But directly in front
of the depot the locomotive veered.
The train checked and then piled OF top
of the engine. The engine had plunged
into an open switch. Allen Tyler COLLEEN
wood, engineer, died at the hospital. The
station was practically wrecked and the
broken train staggered on until it struck
the freight house short distance away.
The heavy timbers stopped the engine
and it turned over on its side. The town
with its 900 inhabitants was awaken
ed by the terrific shock. The wreck
caught fire and the rescuers fought with
the flames to recover the dead and sue
cor the wounded. Few people in the for
ward car, a combination smoker and
baggage car, escaped death or injury.
Cleveland was quickly notified and a
relief train bearing doctors and nurses
was hurried to the scene. 1t it believed
by the officials that somebody tempered
with the switch. Vivid descriptions OF
the acciden. are given by survivors. The
combination car, partly on top of the en-
CINE, was soon a mass of flames, the
shrieks of the imprisoned passengers
rising above the roaring of the flames.
The Mentor fire department quickly re-
sponded but could do little to check the
flames. Many of the dead were so badly
burned as to make recognition difficult,
almost impossible The train was estab-
lished BY the Lake Shore at cost of
5000, 900, and represented the best in
railroad building.
Cleveland, o, June 22.-Was the
Lake Shore Twentieth Century Limited
train wrecked at Mentor, o., last night,
causing many deaths, going so fast that
il jumped the track of its own momen-
tum? This question is asked today, by
official investigators. The statement of
the railroad officials that the switch was
open is not thoroughly explained. The
engineer, according to the fireman,
jumped from the engine. Did he see the
switch light turned wrong or did he feel
the engine start to1eave the track? The
investigators seek an explanation of this
question.