The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 24, 1902, Page 1

> ad VOLUME XCII-NO. 2 4. SAN FRANCISCO, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1902. HEAD-ON COLLISION BETWEEN PA AT EAST OAKLAND DESTRO - Byron disaster expired in the hospital, increasing the total list of dead to twenty-five. ofe ” Engineer and Fireman of Passenger Severely | Injured. IFORE h ond shock of the Byron | d time to pa coilision on the Sacra- | mento division of the Sout ern Pacific occurred yesterday afternoc lock in East Oakland. It collision | between the west-bound Sacramento local | passenger train N and an east-bound San Jose freight tr smash-up, which ‘wrecked both locomotives and crumbled freight cars into splinters, be- sides damz the T traif, M gineer, after shutting and suffered severe ix Thomas Gilmart and had his s the freight train engines hurt, id Bd of whom jumped came The local was crowded with passengers, who were shaken up by the impact, but none of them were injured. The engines r with am shut off, and or ssenger 1e passe: off steam, His n, un- both crash aped ; man, s soon as the came tog neither was running at a high rate of speed w impact occurred. That a much more serious result not re- corded was due first to the fact that the freight train was not going more than ten miles an hour, while the passenger | was beginning to slow up for a stop at East Oakland station. The smashup oc- curred on the main line track near the foot of Fourteenth avenue, about five hundred feet east of the two tanks that stand near the station. It was on a slight curve that the two engines crashed into each other and this slso accounts for the absence of fatali- | ties. However, the crash, coming as it aid so soon on top of the Byron disaster, | unnerved the passengers, whq were thrown into great confusion }_\' wreck LAYS BLAME ON CONDUCTOR. Division Superintendent W. S. Palmer places the responsibility, for the collision vpon Edward Hahnlein, conductor of-the freight train, who, that official says, al- Jowed his train to go out from First street ‘and Broadway without properly checking the incoming train. The Sacra- mento Jocal was an hour late and should have passed in Jong before the freight | went out. Under the company’s rules the | out-bound freight should net have pro- ceeded until the incoming passenger had recorded its arrival at First and Broad- | way. Hahnlein looked at the record book | there, but through some oversight turned to the wrong date, noticed the train reg- jstered and started ahead. The belated padsenger showed up at East Oakland and then came the crash. Such is the ex- planation given by ‘the railroad officials. There is not much difference in the | stetements made by the trainmen, but | behind it all is the story of a hard pressed, unnerved employe, who was | awlmost: im @ state of collapse from his experiences of the past three or four weeks. Hahnlein, | the conductor, was in the wreck at cie. on Thanksgiving day, when En- | gineer Foster and Fireman H. W. Davis | were killed. On top of that Hahnlein was in charge of the train that took the dead and injured out of Bryon. The scenes there upset him and on Sunday night he | sponse to a call | superst! laid - off, sick and unnerved. So strenu- cus was the demand for men that he was summoned to work to-day. The accident occurred at 4:45 o’clock. With the smash the two engines piled up, | the tenders jammed in on them and the heavy were freight cars buckied, while two smashed ‘into splinters. . The first baggage car of the passenger traln was torn from its trucks and piled upon the tender. The freight engine, No. 2089, was also badly damaged. 1418, suffered less injury. T ENGINEER JUMPS. Both Engineers Dixon and.Shean saw that a collision could not be avoided and did their utmost to check the speed of their trains, but-the distance #as not suf- ficient.” Gilmartin, the ssénger fireman, saw his engineer’s peril and yelléd to him to save ~hims The veteran -shut- oft steam and reversed the -engine, then jumped. He was cut about the head and one foot was crushed and severely cut. He was also injured by the shock. Gil- martin was caught in the cab, but climbed out and ran to the prostrate engineer, He carried Shean to the depot, whence the veteran raflroad man was removed to his | 0 Adeline street. There he | was attended by Dr: J. P. Dunn, When Engineer Dixon Smith jumped were oply jarred. dore ©lm and Fireman they landed safely and Railroad Surgeon Theo- ead went to the scene in re- The - tracks’ were- lit- tered with wreckage from the smash-up, the oil tank of the freight train ’being hurled across the Seventh-street local tracks, and the wreckage of freight cars strewn for several hundred feet. Behind the first two boxcars were loaded coal They piled up and threw the coal in every direction. The wrecker arrived to find a complete blockade of both main line and local line tracks. The latter were cleared after two hours’ work, and the main line trains were run through Seventh street for the remainder of the night. The crews of both trains reported off after the wrecking outfit took charge and repaired to their homes. WARNED BY A DREAM. Engineer Dixon tells a strange story of presentiment of the accident that came to him last night in a dream. “It seems almost incredible,” 'sald Dix- on, after the collision, “that I should have felt that this very wreck would oc- cur to-day. But I feel as if it were a warping that I should have heeded. Last night I was thinking about the Byron Kisaster. I went to sleep and dreamed that I was in a wreck at the very spot this collision occurred to-day and that I suffered a bad crushing. Now, I am not fous, but this dream came to me with all the force of reality to-day when I saw the big engine pounding down cars. iahead of me at East Oakland this after. noon. “After we left First and Broadway this afterncon I ran along at a falr clip until we almost reached East Oakland. There I slowed down to run out to the main Line, the double track closing just a few feet from where we came together. We were running about ten miles an hour, I saw the approaching train, but it wag too late to avoid hitting it. The best I The passenger,-No. | FLAMES MGE INST FES Bl HOSPITAL |Probable Loss of Life | in an Albuquerque Conflagration. Special Dispatch i to The Call, | ALBUQUERQUE, N. M. Dec. 24, |8 m.—The large hospital of the Santa Fe-Pacific’ Railroad Company here is in flames and it is feared there has been loss of life. The fire started-shortly before 11 c'clock last. night and at midnight hope of saving the structure was abandoned. Twenty-five patients, some of them very in"the Institution. Superintend. ent Cutter hopes all were saved, but he cannot be sure; as the. fire cut off access to the wards in a brief time. The firemen are taking great risks in a hcpeless endeavor to save the handsome addition. Phere have bgen several hair- breadth s The fire caught in the roof, which was all in flames before dis- | covered. The loss will be well covered by | insurance. @ civiviieinininimimivleldnieieieinieiinioil @ could do was to shut off and reverse the | engine. land 1 jumped. When I saw the train I could not imagine what it could be, | because I had a check against the Sac- | ramento passenger from my conductor and, of course, belleved it had passed in.”” HAHNLIEN’S DILEMMA. Conductor Hahnlein, who resides at 1362 Eighth street, said: ~“In looking at the train register at First and Broadway I saw the record, as I supposed, of the passenger train that meant I had a clear track. There was a mistake made some- | where and unless the record was wrongly dated so that yesterday's train of the es day I guess it is my mistake; but there are other circumstances which do not appear on the surface. I was running with another passenger train only thir- teen minutes behind me 1 had to look be in front of me. At that time I did not know that the Sacramento train was an hour late, and that was, of course, one reason for the smash-up. To-mor- row morning I will have to report at di- vision headquarters for investigation, and until then it does not behoove me to say anything about the accident. ““Wrecks seem to have fated me of late. On Thanksgiving day my train was in a wreck at Benicia,' in Which both the en- gineer and fireman were killed. That that I had to handlé a trainload of in- jured and dead from the Byron wreck. for men is 80 heavy I had to go out to- day. Yet, aftér all, it's efther the record THE FIREMAN’S STORY. Fireman Gilmartin, who resides at 1381 Thirteenth street, said: “As soon‘as I saw, the engine ahead of Cc;nth:ued on Page 4, Column 1. 1 That I did and then the fireman | same number was registered as of to- | out for a passenger train that might | was a hard shock, and then on top of In that condition T Jaid off, but the jam | KEEN ANALRY | 70 o S, - BETWEEN HILL - AND HARRIMAN! Southern Pacific to | Spend Millions | in Fight. | e o { | Special Dispatch to The Call. | _WASHINGTON, Deec. 23—From New | | York to San Francisco in three days and | |@ Balf is the task E. H. Harriman has | set forth to accomplish. He it will {be achieved within three years. He has | taken the Pennsylvania rallroad as his | model and declares that as fast as men | nd money can make the change the | Union and Southern Pacific systems from Omaha to San Francisco will be in every respect equal to the magnificent Pennsy vania railroad from New York to Chica- Millions are to be expended in| ightening the road from Omaha west- | rd, and the work of rebuilding the | Suuthern Pacific from Ogden will follow. ie Sierra is to be tunneled so that the | | grade will be no greater than the grades found on lines east of Ogden. Harriman'’s declaration of his purpose | in pouring out millions on a central con- tinental highway was called out because of the struggle now going\on for the | lion’s share of the trans-Paclfic commerce between James J. Hill and the Northern interests on the one hand and'E. H. Har- riman and the Union-Southern Pacific on the other. The fight arose over the at- tempt of Hill gnd his allies £o wrest con- trol of the Gofernment transport business | from San Francisco and transter it to Se- lattle. As the outcome of the first round of the fight, which was decided by Sec- retary Root last week, the Government |ser s will be operated as usual from | San Francisco for the time being: But a contract has been awarded to the Boston Steamship Company, which has. close connections with Hill's interésts, whereby troops- and supplies may be transported from Seattle.. The quantity to be sent over the Northern route is left! entirely to the discretion of the Secretary of War, and this Is what angers Harri- mar, Harriman came here on Thursday, dined with the President and had two confer- efices with Secretary Root. He told the Secretary he was expending tens of mil- lions of dollars in the reconstruction of the Union Pacific. He sald the distance was being shortened, - curves reduced, grades cut, steel and stone culverts put in and the heaviest steel rails laid. The plans are being perfected for a tunnel |under the Sierra Nevada Range, near Truckee, Cal., which would, he said, per- | mit a descent into the Sacramento Valley on an easy grade. With these improve- ments completed the time from New York to San Francisco would be reduced to threc and a half days. Harriman has entered with vim Into the war upon Hill's roads and Is bending every effort to outpoint his rival. gt e il ol Bk 80, str. \ Mrs. George Henry Lewes. LONDON, Dec. 2.—The death is an. nounced of Mrs. Lewes, widow of George Henry Lewes, who in 1854 formed a-unfon with George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), \ while both locomotives were piled up in a twisted heap of iron, while a baggage coach was demolished and the wreckage of freig‘rli;- cars was strewn along the tracks. for several blacks. PRICE FIVE CENTS. SSENGER AND FREIGHT TRAINS YS BOTH ENGINES AND MANY CARS HEAD-ON COLLISION between a passenger train and a local freight occurred in East Oakland yesterday afternoon on the main livic_of the Sacramento division. The engineer and fireman of the passenger were severely imjured, Almost at the same hour two more victims of the | ‘l i MWG /) SCENE AT THE HEAD-ON COLLISION BETWEEN THE SACRAMENTO LOCAL AND ‘A SAN JOSE FREIGHT TRAIN THAT OCCURRED AT EAST OAKLAND AT 4:45 YESTERDAY AFTERNOON, BOTH E MANY CARS BEING WRECKED. NGINES AND e —y PRESIOENT 1S GTED T0 THKE h HAND IV LEGHL CONTROVERSY Woman Files Claim Against " the Estate of the Late Cornelius Roose- velt. ] ————— Special -Dispatch to The Call. \‘ NEW YORK, Dec.- 3.—President Theo- c‘u*c Roosevelt was one of the persons cited to appear before Surrogate Thomias to-day when an applicationt was made in the name of Mrs. Gertrude Beherley Mot- ley that letteks of administration be granted: upon _the estate of Cornelius Roosevelt, who died suddenly in this city on February 15 last. Mrs. Motley knew Cornelius Roosevelt for many years, having made his ac- quaintance in Paris, and has presented a claim against his estate for $25,000, which she is now seeking to collect. The execu- tors of the will deny that the estate is indebted . to . Mrs. Motley. Cornelius Roosevelt married in' France many years ago, displeasing his uncle, Cornelius V. 8. Roosevelt, who died in 1887, leaving an estate of $500,000. He directed in his will that under no circumstances should this nephew share in his property. Cornelius left a large number of cousins, including President Roosevelt. Mrs. Motley is a woman of independent means. She says that some years ago Cornelius Roosevelt induced her to invest in.100 shares of stock of La Caisse Finan- ciere Francaise. Later she gave the stock back to him and took his note for $28,000. He subSequently paid 33000 on this smount and’ up to the time of his death kad paid interest on $25,000. She believes that there is property here which may be applicable to the payment of this indebtedness and therefore askea the Surrogate to appoint an administrator for the estate. Surrogate Thomas re- served his decision. BABIES ARE STARVED 10 KL THE LOWER NATURE BORN N THEN Dr. Jerome A. Anderson Tells of Methods Practiced at Theosophist . Homestead. e SAN DIEGO, Dec. 22.—Killing the lower animal nature in children and babies by starvation and withdrawal of food until the child should come to its senses and its soul: appear was related in evidence to-day as one of Mrs. Katherine A. Ting- ley’s methods,-enforced at the Universal Brotherhood, or Theosophist Homestead, at Point Loma. This isithe essence of the deposition of Dr. Jerome A. Anderson, a physician of .San Francisco and once a member of Mrs.- Tingley's cabinet. The deposition was introduced by the Times- Mirror Cofnpany of Los Angeles, defend- ant in the trial of the pending action for libel brought by Mrs. Tingley. Dr. Anderson’s deposition also set fortir that Mrs. Tingley told him of withholding food for twenty-four hours from a l-year- old child and that one of her forms of discipline was to order cnildren to cease eating. Dr. Anderson deposed that it was a rule of the Point Loma Homestead that parents should see their children but once in two weeks, Mrs. Tingley's reasons for the promulgation of the rule being that parential love and favoritism were. things that interfered with the proper develop- ment of a child and to be avoided as much as possible. Dr. Anderson then described his initia- tion into the Soclety of the Lost Mys- teries of Antiquity. says all who were present sat on canvas and were supposed to' be taking part in a very ancient cere- meny. All were dressed in a light musiin costume and the right was solemnized in the open air. Dr. Anderson remarks that he has a distinct remembrance that it was AN WITH SHOTEL VPSETS CALCOLATIONS OF SOUTHERN PICI: Prevents Gang of Railroad Laborers From Closing an Alleyway in Sacramento. Special Dispatch to The Call. SACRAMENTO, Dec. 22.—A $ensational scene occurred in this city to-day, whem George Hunt, a citizen and taxpayer, armed with a shotgun, stood off several men employed by the Southern Paecific Company and defled them. to barricade what he declared was a public alley. “I had two charges in the gun,” said Hunt afterward, “and if the mqn had not quit T would have let them have them. I don’t blame the men, but they have no right to close the alley.” > The alley is located in the block bound- ed by Front and Second, H and I streets. At the north end it opens upon the ap- proach to the Yolo bridgewover which the railtoad trains run, while on the south it opens on I street, and has always been regarded as part of the system of public alleys of the city. Workmen sent by the Southern Pacifi this afternoon started to sink posts upen which to build a fence that would com- pletely barricade the alley at the south, or I street end. A property owner in the vi- cinity followed the men and dug up the posts as soon as they were sunk into the earth. This seemed to be amusing as far as the workmen were concerned, and they offered no resistance. Finally the citizen became jveary and the men proceeded with the erection of the fence. They were soon stopped, how- ver by the appeassmce of George Hunt with a shotgun.. Hunt Has an interest in the Dingley estate, whose property runs eighty-five feet down the alley and upon which the Dingley coffee mills are loeated. Continued on Page 2, Column 2. Continued on Page 2, Columa 3.