The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1919-04-08
esssssssssssSsss$$sss$sss$*&as$$s
How Long Is
Five Minutes?
G><9.
By BEN wINsLow
NtVNWN|N9SV7
(Copyright)

significant could be Visited by catas
trophe of sufficient magnitude to war.
rant an application of the word icon.
Migration may seem paradoxical, but
In view of the fact that every splinter
of its thirty-nine buildings was con.
sumed in the blaze, no other word
would fit.
Therefore the newspapers of West
valia chronicled the fire that wiped
out its little neighbor across the river
as "a great conflagration."
The facts, although given in painful
detail in the columns of the press the
day after the fire, were brought out
more entertainingly during the legal
proceedings that followed several
months later.
The people of the late Ardeola
blamed the Usage Valley railroad for
the calamity, and. they were so firmly
convinced that the soulless- corpora
ton was the cause of their loss that
thirty-eight of them brought suit
against the railroad. The one ex-
home owner who did not seek redress
at the hands of the court was John
Lester, although his home was among
the first to go.
Lester was lawyer and had been
referred to by the press on several
occasions as promising" The other
thirty-eight losers intrusted their case
to him, and in order that he might
go into the battle as the legal repre-
sentative of the people, with no inter-
ests other than those assumed in that
capacity he entered no claim against
the railroad.
II was very generous act indeed
considering that the people he repre-.
sented having lost their all, could pay
no retainer; in fact, the amount he
could recover, If any at all, being en-
tirely problematical. no promises of
compensation were given.
That it was to be a bitter fight was
evident. The railroad company, not
satisfied to let its legal representative
at Westvalia defend it, sent down
three of the shining Zig, It's of the law
department to assist him. They were
on the ground the second day after
the thirty-eight petitions were filed,
whipping their case into shape for
trial.
The thirty-eight petitions were iden-
teal, with the exception of the name
of the petitioner, and they set forth
that the Usage Valley railroad owned
a bridge extending across the Grand
river from Westvalia to Ardeola, the
said bridge being a drawbridge, and
the said draw being, operated and con
trolled by employees of the said rail-
road company.
On the day of the fire-in fact, at
practically the instant the fire start
ed-the draw of the bridge. having
been opened by employees of the rail
road company to allow the passage of
a tugboat, also owned by the said COM
pany, became clogged, and by reason
of the said clogging of the said draw
the fire-fighting apparatus from West
valia was delayed in reaching the
scene of the fire, the bridge being the
only means Of communication between
the two towns; and furthermore, that
by reason of the aforementioned de.
lay the fire gained such Roadway that
the Westvalia fire department was I'M
able to check it,
1t was upon the facts set forth III
petitions that the homeless inhabi.
tants of ArdeOla hoped to recover
The first move of the railroads attor.
neys was to secure a consolidation of
the petitions, agreeing to pay full dam
ages in each individual case if they
lost the case that went to trial.
When Lester agreed to that propo-
sition the petitioners became uneasy
lest they had made a mistake in in
trusting their cases to the young man.
and when he called only two wit
nesses-one plaintiff to establish the
fact that the fire had occurred and
the driver of the fire engine to prove
that the open draw had caused con-
siderable delay-and then rested his
case, a majority of them were quite
sure that they had made mistake.
The railroad attorneys were taken
off their feet by Testers procedure.
They expected to see the entire mem
bership of each of the thirty-eight fam.
HES on the stand; but they recovered
quickly and began calling witnesses.
The only point they made was that
the draw was open only five minutes.
The operator of the draw testified
positively as to the time, and he was
followed by the bridge fiagman with
testimony. equally positive They both
stated that they fixed the time by the
arrival and departure of passenger
train No. 95.
They testified that the train came
into the bridge block at the Westvalia
end at eight-twenty-fve and crossed
the bridge at eight-thirty, and the en-.
gineer, fireman, conductor and. brake
man on No. 95 corroborated their ties
timony.
The petitioners were disappointed In
the cross-examination conducted by
Lester. The only questions he asked
tended to establish more firmly the
fact that the draw was open only five
minutes.
"How much time do you desire for
argument" inquired the court.
81 am satisfied with what time the
other side desires" replied Lester.
The railroad company's Westvalia
representative thought he saw an op
portunity to gain an advantage He
knew Testers ability as a court ora
tor, end even before the trial he had
intimated to his assistants that to
choke off Testers talk would be a de
cided advantage.
A hurried consultation was held by
the four railroad lawyers, and as a
result the Westvalia representative
stated that FIVE minutes was sufficient
II am satisfied with that, also" said
Lester dashing the remaining hopes
of the thirty-eight petitioners. They
had counted not u little on Testers
argument to the jury, and they knew
that 1t took him more than five min
ntes to get warmed up.
Mr.. Stansbury was selected by the
railroad attorneys to do their talking.
and he devoted his five minutes to
driving home the fact that the draw
had been open only five minutes, and
that five minutes was too short a time
for the fire to gain enough Roadway to
be beyond the control of the fire de
partment.
Therefore the total destruction of
the town must have been due to other
causes with which the railroad com
pany had no connection. Though short