Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1907-08-29

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jury viewed the body before its
interment, and then adjourned to
last Monday, hoping to secure the
attendance of Rust by that time.
But he has completely disappear
ed, with not a trace of his route
except an indistinet rumor that he
was seen passing through the old
negro cemetery on the afternoon
of the tragedy. A phone message
from Flat River Saturday to the
effect that he had been arrested
there is said to have been received
by somebody, but upon investi-
cation it was found that the wrong
man had been Appended. The
coroner's jury met Monday, and
again adjourned; SO no report has
yet been made. There is conflict
ing opinion as to whether the kill
ing was accidental or purposely
done, those holding to the former
belief explaining Rust's flight in
the knowledge of his being of an
extremely timid and nervous dis
position. The men were close
friends, working together as house
painters, and no sign of dispute or
disagreement between them was
ever noted by those most inti-
mately acquainted with them.
Until Rust is apprehended, the de-
tails of the affair must remain n
known. Mr.. Newman was an es-
Unable young man, capable, in
dustrious. and thoroughly honest.
To his relatives-and especially to
his widowed mother--I beg to ex-
tend my earnest sympathy. God
help her to bear this direst of af-
Elections!
The Railway Commissioners
passed through here last Thurs
day, inspecting the track of the
Iron Mountain. A representative.
of the Kansas City Post desired to
accompany them from st. Louis,
but the railway officials refused to
permit him to ride upon the special
train. Thereupon he bought a
ticket and came as far as Arcadia,
whence he wrote to his paper, and
ono or two excerpts from his article
follow: "All | got to SCI of the
Iron Mountain tracks between st.
Louis and Arcadia was from the
rear end Of one of it's fast trains,
which on this particular occasion
was not so fast. But what | saw
was enough, as | shall presently
show. The i'll luck which forced
me to ride on that fast train or
walk, gave way to good luck when
the block system got to working
and the dispatcher got to firing in
orders to pass other trains at GER
tain points. | was also favored,
either by slow orders over bad
track or by heavy grades, 1 could
not learn which, from the train
crew. This combination of cir
cumstances gave me a chance to
look closely at the track in a num-
Der OF places, sometimes with the
train going at the rate of ten
miles an hour and sometimes with
the train at a standstill. The old
railroader, whom | had met on the
train, was of some assistance,
while members of the train crew
inadvertently gave a good deal Of
information. For the greater part
of the trip, the train was going at
a high rate of speed for this part
of the country. Little opportunity
was offered to gain an idea of what
the track was like. But one thing
[ did observe in the track after we
had gone some little distance out
of St. Louis. | saw a great num-
Der of tie ends p%rotruding from
under the rails at an angle of
something like 80 or 45 degrees.
This meant Just one thing. Those
ties had become so rotten that they
had broken square in two beneath
the rails. The pressure upon the
rails had then forced the ends OF
the ties up into the position in
which they were observed. Ties
in this condition plainly cannot
hold rail spikes. They are worse
than useless. There were a start
ling number of such ties between
st. Louis and Arcadia. In no place
did many of them occur within a
few feet, and if the ties which were
thus plainly rotten and worse than
useless were the only defective
features of the roadbed, the track
might be considered fairly safe,
although by no means in that con-
dition which could be described as
fine But had this part of the
track received recent attention, the
ties, the ends of which stood up
outside the rails, would have been
removed along with any other de-
fectiye ties which might have been
in those stretches of track. The
fact that the ties described re-
manned in the track indicates that
the track has been neglected.
Moreover, according to railroad
men experienced in track work,
most ties do not break under the
rail and stand up at the ends.
They usually rot and crumble.
Several railroad men told me that
the fact that there were ties such
as those under discussion in the
track, Indicated that there were
others practically as bad which
could have been detected by a per-
son walking the track. AS
the train approached Summit the
block signal got in it's work. The
train came to a stop and ! got off,
l had time to look at the first few
hi1ndrad feet Of track lust hAhind