The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-07-11

bell was ringing and that h,
locomotive whistle.
Mrs. Clayton Parker on the stand
testified that she overheard chauffeur
Blay describe the condition before the
accident as follows: "I thought l
heard whistle and | started to jam
on the brakes but the Governor said,
It's alright, go ahead JIM, so | let
her 60" This story is corroborated
by Mrs. Dean, mother of Mrs. Parker.
The Parkers occupy a tenement in
Blay's house and overheard Blay's
description some time previous to the
trial. ia
Freight Conductor r. Jendron, of
Richford went over the Government
crossing at 10 p. M, on the evening
before and was positive that the bell
was ringing and that he saw red
warning light over the bell.
Section Hand Duval, who works on
! a section near by testified that when
he arrived on the scene of the acci-
dent shortly after that the warning
bell was still ringing. He said that
the bell was tested twice daily by an
iron guage placed across the rails.
He also stated that the constant ring
ing of the bell might be accounted
for by the fact that work train was
continually moving back and forth
within the closed automatic bell cir
cult. 1t has been attempted in the
trial to prove by the skidding marks
in the road that the Prouty car was
travelling at high rate of speed. In
todays testimony Supervisor of Sig
nails for the Grand Trunk, Elson Ii
son testified that the skidding marks
were twenty PAGES long and came up
to within nine feet of the crossing.
The first witness of the day, o. H.
Rolston, an insurance agent said that
the American Mortality Tables ap-
| piled only to insurable risks and that
the life expectancy of Ex-Governor
Prouty was seventeen years. Dr. D.
B. Longe of Newport stated on the
stand, giving DR.. VIM. Osler as
authority that diabetis with which
Mr.. Prouty was said to have been
suffering was hereditary.
! Atty. Ward Prouty for the plaintiff
introduced blue print of the cross
ing, to which Atty. Redmond for the
Grand Trunk strongly objected, say
! ing that the print had not been iden-
tilted as a faithful representation of
the condition of the crossing and
should not be used as evidence. Judge
Howe overruled the objection.
Later, Atty. Redmond proposed to
read part of Chauffeur Blay's depo-
sition which was made at the time of
the inquest.
Atty, c. A. Prouty insisted on read
ing all or none of the deposition
There was hot dispute between the
two attorneys. Prouty stated that
he was willing to have the case tried
solely on the facts of the deposition,
adding however "It is imperative
that the whole deposition and not
few sentences be read"
Judge Howe stated that the case
would go to the jury by 10 a. m. Sat-
urday.
At yesterday afternoons session F.
S. Windgrove, munition worker of
Sherbrooke, P. G., positively declar-
ed that the Packard twin-six in which
ex-Gov. Prouty was speeding to his
death was travelling at sixty miles
an hour. Windgrove testified that he
himself in a Chevrolet car, moving at
20 miles an hour, safely traversed the
dangerous government crossing on
the early morning of August 10,
1918.
Leaving the crossing about $50
feet to the rear, Windgrove said that
the eX-Governor's car hove into view
at a hair-raising rate of speed. If
the witness had been an ineXperienc-
ed driver, the Packard would have
inevitably collided with him. He was
certain that if the big machine was
going one mile an hour it was going
sixty.
Because of it's enormous burst of
speed, could the Packard have stop
ped in time to allow a train to pass
over the crossing?" demanded Attor-
ney Redmond.
"No sir" was the munition work
er's response.
Much of the forenoon session was
occupied in the cross-examination of