The semi-weekly messenger., 1906-07-27

4
Hamlet. July a4-It vii be weeks
| perhaps before & complete list Is made
of those who met death in the head-on
collision here Sunday night 1t was
an easy matter ID keep count OF the
| bodies that were pulled from under the
! tangled mass. - iron and wood and
+, stretched out side b. side on the led
| enbankmenr But there IS no COM
| pleIe list or the injured. Many of
| these were rescued from tins Jim Crow
car BY friends and hurried &c doctors
| before the railroad officials could make
note OF them Some q these may die;
it was reported hero last night that
two negro men. badly cut up, had been
carried through the country to farm
house, where they succumoed 10 their
| injuries.
! The list o. dead will swell daily"
! said q railroad man, who had helped
| in the rescue work. 1t will not sur
prise me, If, by Saturday night, 1t has
reached 80 or 35." All day Yesterday
plain pine boxes, each containing
| coffin and mutilated body, were Strewn
around the depot here. Relatives and
friends of the dead negroes gathered
around and moaned and wept. 1t
| could not have been more cherries.
| II is a wonder TO me that every liv-
| ing soul in the Jim Crow car was not
mashed into jelly" said Clerk Leigh
| of the Seaboard hotel force, who was
among the first at the scene. 1T look
| ed like a cyclone had struck the car,
| hurled it about for bit and then
| tossed it up on the passenger engine.
| But it was bad enough as it was.
| When we got there, about Is minutes
after the collision, so or so negroes
were pinned in the car. Only few OF
! the uninjured got out without assist
| ance''
We began with the ones who SEEM
| ed by their screams to be in agony.
| It sometimes required the strength of
, fOTr or fVe men to move one. One
negro woman, whose head was all that
| could be seen, begged that her leg be
| chopped Off. The debris was remov-
ed from her body and the reason for
| her cry was evident. A splinter as
large as your arm, had been driven
| through her leg and held her fast The
| splinter was broken off from below and
| she was carried out. A couple OF us
! caught hold OF the shoulders Of
| negro man, whose body was hid. We
| managed to pull him out, but his legs
were missing We went back and
| found one OF the legs, but never found
| the other.
The screams and the cries and the
! horrible stencil sickened many Of the
rescuers, and they were compelled to
/ get away from the scene. Awhile after
| daybreak the clouds darkened and a
! drizzling cold, cneerless rain began TO
| fall on the bodies strtched out on the
red cley This. I think, was the most
| dismal sight of it ALL
| WHERE THE BLAME LIES.
1t can now be said with almost GER
| tainty that the blame for the wreck
lies in the GispaTcher's Office at Ra-
| leigh. This is the opinion of the two
most prominent Seaboard officials in
| Hamlet yesterday. Superintendent
! jerks said confusion Of orders; but he
! is a railroad man.
The dispatcher at Raleigh first or
| dered the operator at Rockingham to
| hold No. A. and then for some un-
| known reason annu1led the order, CT,
| so Operator Luther who was on duty
| at the time, says, claiming that he has
| the annulilng order in his possession.
| It was at first denied that a light
| engine was sent out from Hamlet, af-
| ter the freight train had left, with Or
/ decs to Overtake and stop it; but it is
| the truth. | talked with a man who
was on the engine. It made all posi-
BILE speed as long as the track was
| straight. but when it came to the
| curves it turned back: the risk was
| too great.
BURIAL OF ENGINEER LEWIS.
! The remains of Engineer Lewis were
put on a special train yesterday af-
| ternoOn and his family and relatives
| accompanied them to Lumberton, his
| bOvhOOd home. where the funeral ser
vice was conducted and the interment
made.
/ Everybody here says that Engineer
Frank Lewis was the most popular
man on the road. He was held in the
i highest esteem by his officials, and
within so days would have been pro-
; noted. This was his last trip before
] his vacation. He spent Sunday in
| Charlotte with Captain Baskerville,
| his brother-in-law, and left at 1
o'clock. A fellow employe gabe him
cigar at the depot before he left. This
is too good to smoke now" he said
| I'll smoke it when | get to Hamlet"
| The cigar was found. all crushed. in
the inside pocket Of his coat.-Char-
lOtte Chronicle, oath.
| The twenty-third victim Of the hor-
rible wreck on the Seaboard Air Line
near Hamlet Sunday evening, died al
the Good Samaritan Hospital this
| morning at CclOc.