The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1909-01-14
Brakeman Crushed to
Death by Train Had
PremOnitiOn.
WIFE WARNED HIM
TO BE VERY CAREFUL
Something Always Happens on
Pay Day." Declared Nor
gan j. Cunion.
SAID "PHONEY" SIGNALS
WOULD CAUSE HIS END
Survived by Young Widow and
Two Little Chill.
dren.

Three hours after Morgan j. Cunion
left his home at 10 School street today
with the prcmOnition of death in his
mind he was killed by a fast passenger
train In the Hamburg place yards Of
the Central Railroad of New Jersey.
Az he stepped from his home his wife
said to him.
"Be very careful today; you know
il is your first day mt day work. and you
might not be familiar with the signals
"Oh. I'll be cautious, all right al
though I'm going to get IL there some
time, all right, with their 'phoncy' sig
mails. But I'll be cautious today, for
this is the faiefui pay-dsy, una some-
thing always happens then"
There is superstition in the yards
where Cunion was a, brakeman that
payday is unluclsy and that accidents
occur then more frequently than on
other days.
Cunion, who was only 26 years old.
had been a night brakeman and switch
man in the yards and this was his first
day on day work He was riding on
the front footboard of drill engine No
II in the yards and the engine was
coming down a track which ran parallel
and close to the through passenger
track
He did not know that coming east
on the passenger track and moving in
the same direction with the drill engine
was a fast express. He leaped from the
footboard onto the passenger track TO
turn a switch just as the fast express,
making forty miles an hour. came tear
ing through.
Pilot Hits Cupion.
The pilot smashed into Cuuion and
hurled him twenty-five feet ahead. just
as he landed on the track the engine
was up with him again and the pilot
again hurled his now limp body ahead
of ith this time fifty feet.
The mangled body was sinking into
the snow between the rails when the
fast engine again raced upon it and
this time the lfeless body was thrown
twenty feet ahead and again landed
between the rails, a shapeless mass.
And again the racing engine came up.
perhaps in the same second, and this
time lifted it far from the tracks into
a heap of snow-covered scrap iron.
The body was sent to Mullins
IliofSuts III IdIdNPIte street. ana q COM
nittee of sxitchmen informed the
young widow. who lives with her
nother, Mrs. Frederick j Smith. In the
School street house She said that she
had feared something would happen TO
him today. and that he had had the
same fear
Only a few days ago they had been
talking about accidents to railroad men,
and then Cunion had told her brother.
George B. Smith, that he would get
it some day because Of the 'phoney'
signals they had been giving in the
yards" What he meant by "phoney"
signals could be only conjectured, but 1t
was believed that he meant wrong or
careless signals, which were not ac-
cording to the adopted code for opera
ting trains in railroad yards.
The fact that this was his first day
at day work is believed also to have
had something to do with his death.
At night the cars and trains are
handled in the yards by lights and
during the day by arm and semiphore
signals. These might have been con-
fusing to him on his first day.
Cunion was the father of two chill
dren, one a girl. Anna. wears old,
and the other. a boy, s months old