The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-06-14
Stamford, June 14.


 (By Special Staff Correspondent.)
 It was a pathetic sight, that. crowd ed court room at Stamford yesterday, where a young. engineer on his near maiden trip, and after an almost sIeepless night spent in revolving the dread scenes of disaster and death be- fore his tired vision, appeared to tell the State what caused the loss of life of six human beings entrusted to his care-
 A woman's tears are unnerving, but to see a. man in the prime of life, who but yesterday was able to hold his own in feats of physical prowess, bow his head and shed tears as he recall ed the fatefuI incidents preceding the awful crash which since has travelled by wire over land and under seas to the remote ends of the world, is a sight long to be remem bered.
 With the hot flush of shame at times Inantling his cheeks, later to be replaced by pal1or and determine ton that the world shall not think him guilty of having wilfu1ly or negli- gently sacrificed half a dozen fellow beings and maimed others, Charles J. Dougherty, driver of the second sec ton of the Springfield Express, told clearly and concisely and with a mem ory for trivial details seldom encoun- tered in a witness under such condt- tions. to Coroner Phelan, the inner workings of a great railroad.
 Trem bling as he began his ordeal, and with hands twitching from the stress of mind under which he had been laboring he related his expert ence as a freight engineer and the conditions which had placed him in charge of fast express from his na- tive city to the big metropolis He told with picturesque vividneSs and apparent franknIess, the fears he en- tertained and the great responsibi1ity ling a monster of iron and steel which was not fully comfortable.
 He told of the time when coming down grade at a speed of sixty miles an hour. he approached the signals with all confidence that he would stor his train; how this confidence was ] changed to apprehension as he did not l diminish his speed satisfactorily; the 1 fear he entertained as he found his | emergency brake, a, last resort wa. not working properly; the awful feel l ing that came over him as he realized 1 the train was beyond control and hun dreds of human lives jeopardized be fore him; and the horror of the sit l uation as sticking to his post and us 1 ing every means at his command tc I warn those ahead he emerged from l the wreck to witness the scene O. l death and carnage.
 This he told under the almost fath er1y questioning of Coroner Phelan and the appreciative, sympathetic l glances of his hearers who with in | tentIy painful silence listened to catcT 1 each word of the narrative. At thu conclusion many eyes were wet, a. bowed with grief and suffering h, wept unrestrainedly.
 And this is the substance of tha 1 narrowing tale as recorded for pos l terity yesterday partially corroborat ed by the fireman, baggageman ant conductor who had travelled witl him.
 But 31 years of age, he had riser l from a fireman in the employ of tn, New Haven road until he had attaine, an engineers position one year ant three months ago. He was upon tn | spare board'' for a regular srun o1 1 the passenger line. With but a cou l pie of small runs at odd times befor Tuesday, he had never been in charg of a passenger train. Circumstance and destiny conspired to put him il control of the Springfield Express. t l New York on that day and upon