The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-09-21
PARTY IF HUNTERS
 SAW A. t. 5. FLYER
 HIT OPEN SWITCH
A Beam of Light Sweeping Along, Darkness, a Mo- ment of Tense Waiting
 and Then the Crash


 q saw the train flash meteor-iilSe in what appeared to be an all consum- ing sea of darkness. The spot whereon stood was at such distance that a certain time was required for the sound. the terrible crash. to reach me, telling it's story of suffering and death. And following that crash. which re- sounded through the woods like the thunderous report of hundred can non, there was a moment of silence a moment of terrible suspenee in which tho imagination painted scene more terrible, perhaps. than that which had in fact been enacted.
 q stood there for moment spell bound, a cold precipitation bursting from every pore of my body, and my hair actually attempting to stand upon it's ends. And then I distinctly heard the sound of cries of despair and eroans of torture like the maddening moan of wounded on a battlefield, and knew that death and destruction had been wrought. that the threads of lives had been snapped. that bones had been crushed, and that horrid wounds had been inflicted.
 And next I heard. rising plaintive- ly, almost appealingiy, on the wing of the early morning air, the bray of a jackass. That bray came as cheerful news, for then knew that somewhere in the wreck which had occurred there was life, that the angel of death had not exacted his penalty of all who had been endangered"
 The above Is the story of man who saw from a distance the wreck of the Alabama Great Southern express at K,ondike spur Friday morning. He tells tue story but withholds his name because. as he states, he could offer no testimony of value to an investi- eating board and would escape the trouble which attendance at court and importuning prosecutors would pro duce. He is a well known citizen Of Sumter county and on the morning In question, along with others, was re- turning home from a coon hunt.
 eve were riding along" he continued, tired as we could be, for all durlng the night we had followed the hounds. Ana from the rear, miles perhaps, we hearo the rumble of the lightning express. we checked our horses and awaited the ap- proach of the mogul How smoothly seemed that mass of steel and iron to be running speeding along as thlng oi life, breathing, expanding, and ever ana anon with a shout from it's throat, eN- ulting in what appeared to be It's conn dence it's glory in it's strength. And next we saw the gleam of the headlight. Louder became the approach of the mogul, and then. turning a curve out of the wood- land, It's front appeared to view. It was a beautiful sight. that magnificent tram moving along like ball of white nght in the darkness of the early morn. We watched 1t without a word-watched It ny along, smoothly, rapidly, without an ap- parent tremor on the rails. And meteor like it flashed by. and on into the sea of darkness. It seems to disappear, ana as A matter of fact several of us were guilty of calculations of surprise before that sound came--that sound ever to be remem- mered. that crash which palmer than words told the story of the catastro- phe."
 The party of hunters, having been ap- prised of what had occurred, forced their horses forward and arriving eventually on the scene, aided to the extent of their little ability in relieving the injured and repairing the damage.
 The man who came to Birmingham with the story yesterday continued:
 And when morning came with iuii sun we found the jackass whose bray had followed the crash. There, less than 100 feet from the scene of the wreck, he grazed, occasionally turning his large, inouisitive eyes upon the splintered cars, the twisted steel, the impotent machinery, the hurrying men and women. evangels of mercy attempting to care for the in- iured The escape of this animal proved that a railroad wreck is as freakish as a cyclone, for the car in which he had rid den. the box in which he had been con- fined were crushed as if they had been pulp wood And there he ,stood grazing without hurt while all about us lay the dead and dying and desperately suffering humans"
 The opinion of this gentleman is that the accident was the result of the scheme of man or men who were actuated by a desire to wreck and despoil. It is considered probable that when the criminals were ap- prised of the extent of their damage they lost courage and skulked away in the pro- lection of the wood and the darkness. os--