The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-08-29
Special to the rarmer.)

(SpeCfl 70 the FHTmeT.)
 New Haven. Aug. 2s.-The death of Ephriam Slayback as related in the Farmer of Ang. 26, and the funeral ceremony in New Haven Saturday aft ernoon, recalls to mind some addi- tional details as to the accident In Bridgeport 25 years ago, also some railroad history of thaH time in which Col. William H. Stevenson. then super intendent of the New York and New Haven division. prominently figured.
 At that time the New York and New Haven road had but a single track through Bridgeport. The north end of this track was connected by a switch to the double track at the north end of the old depot The track ran along down the docks close to the rear of the Water street stores and few feet be- nected by a switch to the double tracks for New York At each switch was stationed a signal man whose duty 1t was to hoist to the top of a pole a red ball--when the balls were up the down trains had the right of way, when the balls were down the up trains had a clear track. On the day of the accident Engineer Slayback was running the up express due in Bridgeport at 1z:3o. There was a down express which left Bridgeport at 12:25. These trains usually passed be- low the lower signal about at Main street.
 To digress a moment to explain En- gineer Slayback.s position It seems Superintendent Stevenson had a fol- lowing among the engineers known as Stevenson men. There were other en- gineers known as Kettendorf men. MT. Henry Kettendorf was master me chanic and had up to the Stevenson regime full control Of all the engin- eers. This attitude of Mir. Kettendorf Supt. Stevenson objected to. as he had an understanding with Vice President full control of all the engineers. This control in the end Supt. Stevenson had. and it resulted in the displacement of Mir. Kettendorf and the substitution of John Henny-Vice President Reeds protege.
 During the internal evolution of this disagreement between Supt. Stevenson and Master Mechanic Kettendorf, the former devised the plan of giving runs from New York through to Spring field of engineers. The runs had for merly been from New York to New Haven. In making this change the services of number of engineers could be dispensed with, thus economizing. All of the men laid off were Ketten- dorf men. All the through engin- eers" were Stevenson men, and anon g them was Ephriam Slayback. He ran from New York to Springfield and back one day. and the same run was made the alternate day by Engineer Dan Olds. It was long. tiresome round trip. About the time of the accident at Bridgeport Dan Olds was taken i'll and Engineer Slayback un- dertook to make his own runs and Dan !. Olds' as we'll.
 After about a week of this Engineer Slayback was pretty well used up and in other words was doing more than an Engineer should. He was en- deavoring to do all the work of this run so that the superintendent should not have to put on another man and thus please Master Mechanic Ketten- d0rf.
 On the day of the accident the down express passed SlaYback as usual near Main street. He naturally supposed the single track up the docks was clear for him so kept up his pace around the curve in front of Eaton. Cole & Burnham's old factory. In the mean time signal man "Old John" at the upper end of the depot let pass after the down express a gravel train and proceeded to hoist the signal ball