Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1912-12-03
has been his constant companion all
during his trial.

] has been ms constant eoiii's'tiioii a.
during his trial.
The Jurors were each questioned al
length but it was apparent at first
that there would be no difficulty III
securing the 16 talesmen and only 81
were examined out Of the rs who
were summoned. Among those who
were selected as jurors was Arthur
Herbert, of Alexandria, and he was
ordered in the jury room but after
some time was brought back into
court and after some further questi-
oning was excused.
The jury as finally selected con-
consisted of the following, number
of whom are we'll known in AleXan-
dria:
S. Brock Pierce, Culpeper county;
R. P. Gill, Orange county; Thomas A.
Williams, Fairfax county; G. T. Long,
Page county; James Madison, Orange
county; R. Buckley, Fairfax coun-
ty; C. H. Ford, Fairfax county; c. r..
Graves, Page county,; c. c. Geiner,
Orange county; Amber Yowell, Gull
pepper county; C. H. Hunter, Fairfax
county; E. B. Hopkins, Rockingham
county.
Only three hours were taken in Sc
lecting the jury and arrangements
were made to leave Wytheville at ESQ
yesterday afternoon. The party was
in the waiting room when w. c. Sci
bert, of Luray, one of the veniremen,
dropped dead in the depot just as heo
purchased his ticket. Apoplexy is
said to have been the cause of his
death. Mr.. Siebert had been selected
as a juror, and as he was about to
retire to the room Informed the judge
that he had been troubled with an or
ganic affection from which he had
been relieved, but which might in
terfere with his duties as a juror.
Another juror was selected from the
panel. 1t was a great shock to ali
of the men who had been his COM
panion during the day.
No more difficulty was experienced
and the excused jurors were con-
graduating themselves from their
having escaped disagreeable duty
when they retired to their Pullman
berths at Roanoke last night. Only a
few hours elapsed from the time the
train left Roanoke, when at 4:25, the
train on which they were passengers,
No. AZ of the Southern Railway en-
tering the yards at Charlottesville,
and while running at high rate of
speed, ran through an open switch
and crashed into freight standing
on the side track. The impetus with
which the train was running, drove
the engine through the caboose at the
end Of the freight train and then
through two refrigerator cars load
ed with oranges, smashing the three
cars into kindling wood and complete
~ covering the engine with the de-
bris. On No. AZ a woodenbaggage
car was telescoped between two steel
cars.
The most marvellous thing about
the wreck was that not single per-
son was injured. The engineer, r. l..
Ponton and the fireman, ". G. Wells,
both of Alexandria were completely
covered by the wrecEage, escaped
without scratch. All of the freight
crew had left the caboose on arrival
at Charlottesville and thus escaped
injury, and even the baggage man in
the demolished baggage car managed
to escape without being hurt. None
of the passengers suffered any injury
except a severe shaking up.
The wreckage was covered with
oranges which had been hurled from
the refrigerator cars and hundred sof
children had feasted this morning as
the news spread about Charlottes-
vile and the wreck was crowded with
youngsters who enjoyed pre- Christ
mas feast at the expense of the rail
way company.
1t is believed by some of the au-
thorities that the switch was tamper-
ed with as the conductor of the freight
claims that the switch was closed as
soon as his train had taken the siding