The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-05-04
Rail ROAD NEWS
Many Children Killed While
Playing on Railway Tracks.
Messages Received Daily at
Superintendent's Office.
HE WAS PLAYING ON TRACK
Three Year-Old Boy Struck by
Santa Fe Train in Illinois.
Other Items of General Interest
in the Traffic World.
HE WAS PLAYING ON TRACK
What a pityi"

That remark was made this morn
ing by Fl. r. Lake, chief clerk to r.
j. Parker, general superintendent of
1 the Santa F'e, as he looked up from
reading one of several kilograms which
reached his desk through the pneu-
matte tubes from the telegraph office.
reporter settled comfortably down
in an easy chair, lit his pipe, and
asked. Whats a pity?''
Mr.. Lake replied: why this-lis-
ten while L read a message that car
ries with its every word pang. a
heartache, even to you and me, out
of sympathy for the poor mother"
He then raid the message from
Chillicothe, ILL.,:
running so miles an hour, struck and
killed child, about years old, play
ing or tracks on public road crossing,
two and one-hslf miles east Of Macon,
A. c. Purcell, of Streator, was on train
and made examination of body
He then continued:
do you wonder, now, why I say,
it's pity. AS 1 read just such mes
sages as that, day after day, I picture
before my minds eye the details In
each case, 1 see little, flaXen-haired
baby of 8 years, dressed in a pair of
calico rompers, sitting in the middle
of the road, right on the track, build
ing frog houses with the sand piled
around it's little foot, having just
| lots of fun, and on comes, around
the curve, a ponderOus locomotive,
pulling eight or ten heavy steel cars,
running 60 miles an hour Then all
at once the engineer sees the child
too late, SlapS the air on, clear over
into the emergency, reverses his en-
CINE, all in the twinkling of an eye
and perhaps runs out over the rum
ming board to the cow catcher, but
cannot get there in time. The mother,
seeing from her kitchen window the
train stopping, which is unusual for
a fast mail, goes to the door Just as
L. -,
carry him to her arms Think of the
heartache, the pain, the agony that
poor mother must go through and,
worst of all, she can blame no one but
herself. If you lived alongside of a
II railroad track with so. trains passing
daily, would you let your 3year-old
child run wild and play on the track
No. of course not, but this poor
mother did.
Think of the shock to the engin-
eer. Perhaps he has little fellow at
home and because of that it hurts
him more than we can tell"
Nearly Every Day.
DO you get some such message as
that every day." the reporter asked
NEARLY every day.
Mr.. Lake then read one from En-
poria which he received last Friday.
Special O98 east, Minneapolis Sym
phony Orchestra, running as second
section of No. 4, struck and killed un-
known man who was sitting on track
| at mile post No. 9 near COrAiss station
this morning. Train picked body up
and took it to Holiday. Coroner mott
| fled"
In speaking of this wire, Mr.. Lake
said what picture do 1 draw from
that? Well, the message says 'un-
known man. and unidentified, not
even a letter or scrap of paper on
| his body to tell who he was. A wan
derer, a tramp, perhaps: yet a man
with a good old mother and father
| somewhere. possibly wife and
babies. He may nave been looking
| for work to keep them from starving.
He walked a long distance, probably,
on the track, that little narrow strip
with all the wide world around him.
| He became tired. no doubt, sat down
on the edge of the ties to rest a bit.
/ and fell asleep. OF course he did not
| intend to do so, but he did and never
| awoke. 1t was only a little after mid
night when this happened. 1t was a
| special, you will notice, with the or
chestra, Sd music makers who had just
/ left Topeka where they thrilled music
| lovers with their violinS, 'cellOS and
harps Did they know they had run
run over him? No; perhaps just as
well, because it might make them sad
| to know that their train had thrown
| into eternity the life of this poor
man.
Another From Illinois.
Mr.. Lake then read a third telegram
| which he received Thursday from
Chillicothe- 1t read:
Train No. II, running so miles an
hour between depot and stock yards
of Ormonde, struck and killed boy
named L. Wallace, age IL, son of sec
! ton foreman. Boy in company with
! Mexican boy walking down the track
on eastbound main and stepped off
! to the westbound track to get out of
way of extra east No. HAS, and was
struck by No. II. Conductor Carpen-
ter, whose train was on side track
nearby saw the boys and called to
them, pointing to No. II, and the
Mexican boy stepped off, but could
not reach the Wallace boy, who was
struck and killed.
Here we see another father and
mother grief stricken and whose fault
is it? Did they train their boy not to
walk the railroad track? No, they
never thought of such thing, and pay
the penalty.
do you know that in the United
States from 1901 to 1910, there were
killed 5O,025 trespassers on railroad
tracks and injured 81, 427, a total of
1O3,542 or more than ten thousand a
year? Isn't it a pity that people will
flirt with death they do every time
they treSpaSS on railroad track :?
Isn't it a pity that the laws of our
country are such as to admit of any
such thing and that such laws we