Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-06-13
WEEK IN FREIGHT CAR
Free Traveller Tortured by
Thirst end Hunger.
DELIRI0US WHEN RESCUED
Tautalized by Sounds of Voices and
Water on Fearful Journey.
SUFFERED GREAT AG0NIES
He Is Near Death in Hospital Now,
But Physicians Say He
Will Recover.

NEW YORK. June l3.-The medical
staff of the Lincoln Hospital. the Bronx.
has a patient of whom it is proud. He is
Chester A. O'Connell of Bath Beach.
twenty-five years old and i'll with typhoid
fever in a virulent form.
The doctors agree he Will not die he
cause he came TO them after a seven-day
ride in a freight car. with neither food
nor water. Compared TO that experience.
they say. his typhoid is merely an episode.
OConnell is a machinst. with an iron
constitution and rowing disposition.
Last winter. work being slack in his ma
tive Brooklyn. he betook himself south for
the season. He Travelled by easy stages.
principally on the trucks OF freight cars.
and aJout the first OF the year brought up
at Jacksonville. Fla. where he found
steady employment and a climate that ap-
pealed TO him.
Journey of Torture Begins.
On May 81 he decided to leave there.
so went to freight yard and inquired
about train schedules. He learned that
train to his liking would leave in three
hours. In the meantime. with a night
ride on the bumpers" ahead of him he
decided to sleep.
ator car full of potatoes with an inviting
open door. He entered IL, found il cool
and comfortable and so stretched himself
on the floor and slept The car had re-
frigerator installed at one end. and. except
for a gateway partitioned off by heavy
wire screening, was otherwise full OF po-
tatoes.
When OConnell awoke he found himself
locked in, the car pitch dark and the train
moving. Concluding that the train might
make run of few hours. perhaps a
day. he lay down and slept some more.
When he awakened the train was still
moving and he was hungry.
OConnell began to lose track of time
from that on. There was not "A ray OF
light in the car all the food there was,
raw potatoes. was on the other side of a
stout wire partition that he could not
break down. Water. there was none.
OConnells recollection OF his long and
horrible ride before he finally beheld day.
light again is blur relieved by worries Of
tortures.
Sounds That Agonized Him.
Sometimes the train stopped. and the
imprisoned man could tell that he was in
a city or in country. Often he was tor
tured by the sound Of brakemen running
over the top Of his car. by the voices
of passengers on platforms. and. worst
Of all. by the splash of water gushing
from water tanks.
oOileti.Hcs. nOuTS, tneTc WOULD DC
nothing but the roar of the train lumber
ing, with caterpillar slowness II seemed
to O'Connell, over endless leagues Of
track Generally. though in a kind OF
stupor he dmly conscious OF being
alive and of wondering why he continued
to live.
O'Connell had knife, and with il. &C.
| casionally, he was able to obtain minute
pieces of potato through the wire mesh.
| These he sucked TO their last globule OF
moisture. and then swallowed in little
bites. When he was not spearing at po-
tatoes he was lying in half delrium on
the floor.
Rescued at Last.
The car in which O'Connell was locked
got to Jersey City June in the morn
ing. OConnell did not know where he
was nor care. He was aroused by the
beat of waves and the sensation of sailing
aboard . boat. Long afterward. in the
dark. men entered his car with lanterns.
The men were freight handlers at the
Hudson River freight yard. They were
astonshed at the apparition on the floor
of the Car. 4 creature, seemingly hui
man, that babbled in Eighty sentences.
and whose lands and feet were a mass
of bruises and open wounds. He had
come by them. they learned later by
beating and kicking at the walls OF his
car prison
OConnell told his story four days after
he reached the Lincoln Hospital
OConnell says that he is not going TO
Bath Beach. and that then he will stay