Los Angeles herald., 1906-09-11

throttes wide open and the tracks
fairly quivering and bending under the
awful strain of the leaping monsters
two modern engines of the latest pat
tern came together in a headon col
llslon at Agricultural park yesterday
afternoon in the greatest spectacle OF
modern times. about 40. 900 people wit
Messing the event. At the last moment
just before the monsters met, the en-
glneers leaped, barely escaping with
their lives. Both engines were totally
demolished. Extract from press
agents story.
But really 1t was worth the time and
money to see the two engines crash
together, and the $4,000 who Witnessed
the spectacle, for there were at least
that many, went away amply satisfied
and many of them carried chunks of
iron and brass from the wrecks.
Late last night a complete list of the
fatalities of the wreck were announced
as follows:
"Dead-none."
"Injured-none."
"Gate receipts, about 100000"
Crowd Good Natured
The crowd began to arrive early
yesterday at Agricultural park. There
ed in their best, and lending sort of
pink tea air to the collision. There
were neatly groomed chappies who had
managed to screw up enough coura ge
and the necessary one dollar to witness
the performance, standing side by side
with grizzled keen-eyed men who
talked of exhausts and feed burn ers
and calculated to a nicely just what
would happen to the two engines.
But everyone was good natured and
not single fight or disturbance oc-
Cured to mar the spectacle.
One of the most spectacular sights
of the event was a squad of 100 men
furnished by the Pinkerton agency to
help as gate keepers and protect the
crowd. These men were mostly hay
seeds selected from the byways and
hedges and they had been led to a big
room before the performance and there
turned loose on a number of ancient
and antiquated police uniforms which
might have ben properly used in the
might have been properly used in the
early days of the last century, Most
of the finished product, when they
emerged clad in their uniforms. re-
sembled the "supes" generally used at
the Grand opera house or the Burbank.
Some of them looked intelligent, and all
received SO a day for their work.
A squad of deputies from the sheriff s
and conSta bles' Offices served under the
direction of Bill Treager, deputy
United States marshal. These, with a
squad of mounted officers from the
University station, kept the crowd in
perfect order.
Band Plays Funeral March
The two doomed engines, politely re-
ferred to as great moguls" by some,
and called "busses and junk wagons
nv 0fhaTS Stpaunad G1nXVlU I'm and down
the track and one of them, engine ''23, j"
managed to get up a speed Of fourteen
miles, whereupon the spectators be-
came greatly excited.
Back and forth moved the engines
and the band played the death march
to emphasize the solemnity of the oc-
cason.
At O'Clock Megaphone Cook was
marched out before the public The
star announcer of the Pacific coast
was mounted on a fine specimen of
white horse and, it's owner having been
a shorter man than Cook the legs at
tached to the human fog horn doubled
up and crinkled along the saddle flaps,
while Cooks feet w1ggled frantically to
keep hold of the stirrups.
The management wishes me to an
nounce.'' thundered the megaphone,
that there are ample officers here to
protect the management and the peo-
pie, and that the spectators will not be
allowed to go onto the field until ten
minutes after the collision"
The announcement was received with
cheers, especially the clause to the
effect that the management would be
protected, and then Cook, troting down
the line to the lower edge of the crowd,
sang out his warning a second
time. He evidently thought he saw
some junk dealers in the crowd, for
he announced that the people would
not be allowed on the field for fifteen
minutes after the wreck
A few minutes later the signal was
given and the engines, changing their