The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1910-10-05
-FOUR KILLED IN
TERRIFIC RACE
OF Automobiles, But a
x New Record Made.
NINETEEN SERIOUSLY INJURED
GhaStlieSt Killing and Main
ing Ever Known in
Name of Sport.
DESPITE THIS, ANOTHER RACE

DESPITE THIS, ANOTHER RACE
New York, Oct. 1.-Two records
were gained by to-day's Vanderbilt
Cup race-one the most terrific
speed and daredevil driving ever
witnessed on Long Island course,
the other the ghastliest killing and
manning ever perpetrated anywhere
in the name of sport. The first was
responsible for the second.
Sixty-five and one-tenth miles an
hour was the speed maintained by
Harry Grant, who triumphed in an
Alec car, Just as he did last year.
Four deaths, four cases of fatal in
jury and nineteen affairs of serious
wounding were the results of the
speed mania that impelled Grant and
the other % drivers, and that at
tracted to the scene of their wild
flights some 49, 900 persons.
Matthew Bacon, mechanician of
the Columbia car, met instant death
while he and his driver, Harold
Stone were endeavoring to follow the
awful pace set by their foemen of
the wheel. Seeing a car overtaking
them near Meadowbrook, Bacon
urged Stone to do better than the
sixty-mile gait he was then maintain
ing. Stone did, and then, whether
his nerve failed or something went
wrong may never be known. he did
not turn quite accurately enough
while entering upon bridge which
carries the course over country
road.
The machine plunged through an
iron guard rail and shot out and
down a drop of 80 feet, whirling over
and over.
Bacon, flung clear, landed upon,
his head and broke his neck. Stone,
a mere boy of 20 and a bridegroom
of only a few weeks, was caught be-
meath the ponderous machine. His
leg was crushed, later amputated.
he may ulS. IL nc llNSo hS VIII al
ways be a cripple.
This was in the very first lap of
the race. Every driver passing the
spot during the next 10 laps was
Obliged to look upon Bacon's lifeless
body, with its dread contortions of
the neck. Heartlessly 1t was left
uncovered. The drivers looked, per-
force, but not a fraction of a mile
per hour did their speed decrease.
Matt Bacon dead! 1t was part of
the game.
Charles Miller, mechanician for
Louis Chevrolet, of the Marquette
Buick-this pair were the most dar-
ing Of all, sometimes averaging 75h
miles an hour-was killed near
Hicksville. He and Chevrolet had
been in the lead for lap after lap,
breaking all records for road rae
ing. Trouble put them out for a
time. Resuming, they worked like
fiends, taking the chances of mad
men.
Cutting a corner finally, they skid
ded off the cement course and crash
ed into a touring car that was stand
ing alongside the road. Miller, low
crouched over his pressure pump,
was hurled forward head first. The
racer overturned on top of him and
he was lifeless when taken out.
Chevrolet, with broken collarbone
and full of cuts and bruises, was
tossed 80 feet. He will live.
Ferdinand D'Vivua, general sales
manager in New York for the Pope
Hartford Automobile Company, died
for speed, too, but was not granted
the mercy of an immediate end. His
company had two machines entered
in the contest. Starting out from
town in his own touring car with
his wife and friends, to cheer his
entrants, he drove over to the course
speedily to gain a good position by
the grand stand. But the road was
strange to him. At Westbury he
encountered an unexpected turn. He
could not make it. His machine
struck telegraph pole and was
overturned. He was crushed and
mangled beneath it, and died in
agony in the Nassau County Hospital
80 minutes afterward. D'Vivua's
wife and friends were wounded,
some perhaps fatally.
AS race,the sixth Vanderbilt Cup