The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1913-07-18
SANTUC NEWS LETTER.

some creeks drying up in the day
time, especially west of here. Corn
especially old corn, is poor, being
ravaged by worms yet. Some cot
ton is showing squares in the top
and blooms are very near the top
Farmers know what that indicates.
All cotton is small for the season,
and does not set forth much for op-
timism, as l see it, despite the fact
that the condition is reported as high
as "a per cent, and that it has had
no set back. What about the cold
weather in June and grass?
| When l reported the near head-on
collision between passenger train.
No. a, and a freight train, one mile
above here about two weeks ago, I
said that the railroad authorities
would try to fix the responsibility.
Since then the agent, Mr.. Ellis, has
been discharged, also the boy tele-
graph student, Carlisle Myrick. 1t
is talked that Mr.. Ellis was fond of
crowd of friends in the office, and
this may have sometimes caused
some forgetfulness, or carelessness
on his part. 1t is reported too, that
the girls, or some, were very fond of
hlm, would go to see about some ex-
press matter and would "while"
away pleasant half hour or so with
him, and on this particular day some
girls were at the office whom he was
talking with, and when the train
crew of this freight train went into
the office and asked if he had any
orders for that train, and extra, he
said, "No," and then young Myrick
gave them a clearance card, and the
train moved on. After it had got
ten beyond hearing, Mr.. Ellis remem
bered, and said, az have given the
wrong orders, and those trains are
going to meet" Then it was the
people around proposed to telephone
along the railroad for some one to
go and flag down the first train, but
they met, and the collision was avert
ed by prompt and quick work by the
engineers, l guess. Young Mr.. My
rick, it is said lost out by trying "to
cover up" for Mr.. Ellis. Mr.. Ellis
was very popular. Often when an
agent is sent here he cannot get
board, and has to leave, but Mr.. Ellis
was populal from the start, and two
many chums may have caused him to
forget.
l noticed the report of the killing
of Mr.. Oscar Lancaster, at Union, by
a Southern passenger train, in the
State, and fixed in my mind that
neither the train crew nor Mr.. Lam
caster was to blame, but the road
management, at some place may
have been, and the city ordinances
may have been contributive in a
way. Now for instance, those hox
cars as an obstruction to the view
of both Mr.. Lancaster and the train
crew. And the city ordinances wont
allow the blowing of locomotive
whistle within the corporate limits
of the city, / am told, and the engine
crew could not give any warning of
its approach-so there IS some blame
but every other kind of steam
whistles and all other kinds of noises
are allowed. Now whether the en-
gineer on that train would have
blown the whistle if he had not been
restrained by the city laws, depends.
know that some of them are very
careless about blowing the whistle at
road crossings. They will run over
several In a stretch, some around
curves and never blow. Just Sat-
urday morning I heard a freight
train pass Carlisle and it went ou.
of hearing towards Union and never
made a sound of the whistle. not
even in passing through Santuc, for
anything, not even the station signal
have noticed fast running passen-
ger trains pass over crossings and
never whistle. If then those trains
would catch somebody crossing and
Kill or hurt them, every railroad man
for miles around would swear that
they heard the whistle blow. Almost
everyone travelling along the line of
railroad depends on the whistles tc
warn them of the approach of a
train. A freight train came up be-
hind my brother and me, in buggy
in very narrow place and so fright
ened the horse, which was not afraid
of trains usually, but this time it
came right upon him, and above
never safe to drive along a railroad
after that. There was a crossing
just behind us, and we were expect