Norwich bulletin., 1910-01-12
WESTERNS EARLY MORNING FIRE
Hole Burned in Roof of Pleasant Street House-A Day of Elections and Inssllations-Ohio Visitors Firs. View of the Ccean-Edward Avis Entertains in High School Course-Orrin E. Gardner's Death.

camp, Spanish War Veterans, were
 guests of Hancock Woman's Relief
 corps department of Connecticut on
 Tuesday evening, at the public i'm
 stallation of officers of the corps, the ceremonial taking place in the assem-
 bIy hall of the Public Library and
 Memorial building These officers were
 installed by Miss Flora D. Lester of New London, representing the Con- necticut state department:
 Mrs. Mary K. Dubuque, president; Lillian A. Slocum, senior vice presi- dent; Lillian Bromley, junior vice
 president; Mary E. Collins, chaplain; Hattie J. Coon. treasurer; Bertha F. Jillson secretary; Mary E. Moves, conductor; Isadore c. Moon, assist ant; Nancy Barber, guard; Mrs Am anda Chappell assistant; Ervilla J. Payne, press agent; Ruth F. Nash. patriotic instructor; Martha Eccle- stone, Susan Morgan, Estelle Taylor and Bertha Blackler, color bearers; Mable Slocum-Loudon, pianist
 At the conclusion of the installa- ton ceremony. supper was served in Grand Army banquet hall on Union street. Informal remarks were made by officers of the organizations rep resented and by others.
 Edward Avis, known in the field of nature study as the Bird Mimic, de- lighted an audience of four hundred in High School hall, at the second en- tertainment in the Teachers and Mem orial Library associations course. Mir Avis programme was An Evening Among the Birds illustrated by over one hundred stereopticon views. He gave an exceedingly interesting and instructive bird talk, interspersed with whistling and bird songs in iIni- tatipn of nearly fifty varieties of the feathered tribe.
 orrin S. Gardner, who died at his home in Ashaway Monday, age 76, was a brother of Mrs. Charles B. Coon of Elm street, Westerly, who is spend ing the winter in Daytona, Florida MT Gardiner after fifty-one years of service on the New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad and its predeces- sor, retired two years ago.
 Mir. Gardiner was in charge of the first fast mail train between New York and Providence, and was con- ductor of the Stonington boat train that was wrecked at Richmond switch, now Wood River Junction, while on the run from Stonington to Provi- dence in the early morning of April 19 1873. The train ran into an open bridge, washed out by a freshet. Sev- en lives were lost and twenty per sons injured. All the physicians of Westerly were taken to the wreck in a box car. a number of Westerly men accompanying them among the num- Der being Charles MaXon, who formed DuckeI DflSaQS 10 dlQ III SUDQu- ing the flames, and aided in direct ing the work of rescue
 The wreck at Richmond switch was one of the first serious railroad ca lamities. The steamboat train was the fastest on the schedule and was at great speed for that pc riod. In those days, there were no double tracks, block system, or tele- graph communication from station to station, and the conductors ran the trains according to orders and used their best judgment in emergencies, having no towerInen to aid them with modern appliances. MT. Gardiner knew that a mail train was following, and his first thought was for the safety oft that train and also to prevent in crease in the calamity at Richmond switch. He found a signal and made his way over the then rough roadbed and succeeded in stopping the mail train, which was afterwards used in the news of the disaster and