The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1906-10-14
ECHO
Of RAILROAD
TRAGEDY
How it Feels to Know You
Are Rushing Near to
Death.

~ pathetic echo OF the trasedy a.
lEddlngton, Pa, on Saturday when
the Easiest train running between
New York and Philadelphia crashed
into another train On the Pennsylyan-
la road, killing three women and in
juring many passengers, came yester.
day in the story of George Van AIRS
dale, the engineer OF the flyer, SAYS
the New York American.
His narrative of what happened
and the emotions he felt is intesely
dramatic-fraught with the sorrow
a man must feel when, after forty
three years of work at the throttle,
and at the age of sixty-nine, he meets
his first accident.
Van Arsdale might have retired on
pension years ago, with the repu-
tation of being such a careful engi-
neer that he never even ran into a
bumper in depot, and never had
been reported upon unfavorably.
So great was the grief of the aged
man, who for more than two score
years had whirled millions of people
hundreds of miles in safety, that af-
ter the crash he begged some one to
shoot him.
Now, coupled with the horror that
haunts him at night. Is that in his
old age he will be discharged in dis
grace from the employ of the COM
pany for which he worked on the first
day 1t began operations in 1872.
Mania For Speed.
'Its the craze for speed, the mania
for whizzing along like the wind that
is responsible for that wreck" the
engineer said to an American report.
er at the formers home, 1872 Sip
street, Jersey City. Since 1853 my
hand has been clutching the throttle,
and since 1868 | have been watching
the gradual speeding up in railroad
life and in general commerce. The
train I had yesterday could speed
along the steel ribbons at sixty.
seventy, eighty miles an hour, whisk.
ing through hamlets so that houses
looked like bfurs, laundering along
so fast that the perspective seemed
to be swallowed beneath the great
wheels that were flying around be-
meath my feet. Men wanted speed,
and they had to have 1t. But the cost
sometimes is great. In q great train
there are small contrivanees. the i'm
portance Of which none knows but
the engineer. Let one of these ap-
parently Insignificant pieces of ma
ehinery go wpng-well, you know
what happened"
Van Arsdale nervously paced up
and down, piercing together the mem.
cries of the awful minute before the
collision.
Working Smoothly.
when started out that morning
he said, 81 had no premonitions. My
locomotive was working splendidly
smoothly. Everything was IN grand
shape. The miles reeled behind us
without incident. We were to make
7 five stops-one at Trenton, and the
final one at North Philadelphia. AT
each station when ! applied the
brakes they answered in the old time
way. In point of years and service
l am the oldest engineer on the road
and thought that my experience with
trains certainly would help me If any
troubles arose. But / had not fig
ured on the little machinery that
would not work.
AT Croydon / saw danger sig.
nal glimmering ahead Of me. / threw
off the power, applying the air
brakes. There's long curve al
, Bristol that winds around in such a
way that high speed Is possible on
1t. l had taken that curve many
times. l knew every inch of it. and
had the old girl whistling along al