BEDFORD WEEKLY MAIL BEDFORD, INDIANA FRIDAY, AUG. 24, 1900 RAILROAD RACKET Engineer Lev MONTGOMERY is now running engine 22 on the S. I. local. Charley RAMSEY, of this city, is Yard Foreman for the S. I. at Terre Haute. James RAE, formerly of the S. I. shops arrived here from Kansas City Sunday to visit for a few days. Frank KETCHAM, who is working on the S. I. went to Westport Sunday evening, to visit a few days. Brakeman Sam HUNCILMAN of the S. I., is spending his vacation with relatives at this old home at New Albany. The S. I. people Monday sent six bridge carpenters this morning to Lafayette to work for the Monon. The Monon people were short of hands, and had some very important work to do, and as the S. I. could assist them, they called for men to help rush the work, and they were sent at once. Orders fro the Superintendent of the B. & O. S. W. states that when cars are pushed off the end of spur tracks, the offender will be suspended 15 days; for the second offense, 30 days, and for the third offense, the employee will be dismissed from the services of the company. All checks sent here to pay off the B. & O. S. W. employees were made out at Baltimore, and were regular Baltimore & Ohio checks. On the back of each of the checks were printed a list of local banks along the line, where they were to be presented for payment. Samuel MOORE, who was injured last week while working on the Monon bridge, and who has since been in a precarious condition, is now thought to be out of danger. Otto HINKLE is also greatly improved and is now past all danger. The other two men injured are now able to be about. – Lafayette Call. A trip over the S. I. east of Bedford will convince one that the recent rains have spoiled all the little corn – by making it grow, and the crop is already assured. In the river bottom land along the track near Seymour, Jackson county, and also extending through Decatur county, the crop was never better. The many acres present a beautiful sight. Engine No. 30, one of the Big S. I. freighters, which had been in the shops for several months, was taken out Monday evening and is hauling a grout train to the extension. She has been thoroughly overhauled and every defect repaired and the entire engine repainted and polished while the new lettering shows up fine. The magic words "Bedford Route" on the side of the cab have disappeared and "Southern Indiana" placed in their stead. Clarence QUACKENBUSH left Thursday night for Oklahoma, where he had been offered a good position in a railroad shop. Henry WILSON has charge of the S. I. ticket office in place of Frank HATFIELD, who is taking a lay off. Shorty ROBERTS, who has been laid up with a badly burned hand, began work in the Electric Light Department at the S. I. Shops, this morning. Engineer Alex TOMS, of the B. & O. who has charge of engine No. 119 on the branch run to this city, is taking a lay off at his home in Washington. The S. I. people have two fireman named DUNCAN, and they both run on the same engine. One of them, Zack DUNCAN is a little fellow who weighs about 135 pounds, the other is Big Joe DUNCAN, who weighs over 200 pounds. John CUDDHAY, of Seymour, was in the city last Friday, and accompanied his wife to Ft. Ritner, where they will visit friends. Mr. C. has been a conductor on the B. & O. for many years, but is laid up now with some kind of muscular trouble, resulting for a broken leg which he received some time ago. Up to Thursday 208 cars of watermelons had been shipped from Oaktown, Knox county, 41 cars being the largest number sent out in any one day. Busseron has shipped 160 car loads, Emison 75 and the gravel pit 35, making a total of 478 cars. Fully as many more are yet to be marketed, which far exceeds the most liberal estimates made a month or so ago. Prices have been ruling from $70 to $125 a car until Thursday when the price slumped to $30 and $60. We obtained a day or two ago a most emphatic denial, from one of the highest authorities, of the story that Mr. Morgan might part with control of the Monon or that the property might be divided up, the northern section going to the Vanderbilts and the southern portion to the Pennsylvania railroad. This story, in one shape or another, has kept coming up notwithstanding more or less official denial, the latest denial, however, because of its source, is entitled to a good deal of consideration. The presumption is that Monon will remain a Morgan property and that its ultimate destiny is to form a Chicago connection for the Southern Railway. – Wall Street Journal. The big engine put in service last week on Carnegie lines at Pittsburg weighs, with tender, 13 tons more than the largest locomotive ever built, and exceeds all other in boiler capacity by 500 gallons. The total weight, fully equipped and ready for trip is 391,400 pounds. Its boiler capacity is 7,500 gallons. Exclusive of the tender the engine weighs 250,300 pounds, the weight on the driving wheels being 225,200 pounds. Its steam pressure is 220 pounds, its heating surface 2,564 square feet. In all of these points it challenges all competitors. These engines are not built for great speed records, but for power. The Southern Indiana ran a special train to Terre Haute on August 16th. Engineer KENNEDY had charge of the engine, and Conductor Scott HENRY looked after the comfort of those under his care. The party was made up of railroad officials and their wives, and some Terre Haute newspaper representatives. The following are the names of those composing the party: L. M. JONES, photographer; Will L. HALSTEAD; Mrs. Anna HAYMAN, society editor of the Terre Haute Tribune; W. W. BROWN, business manager of the Terre Haute Express; Miss Hallie LADD; Miss Elsie CRAWFORD, society editor of the Terre Haute Express, and Miss Jessie PURDUE. H. H. ROSEMAN, General Passenger Agent, accompanied the party. The staff photographer of the Express made over a hundred views of the picturesque scenery along the "Bedford Route," which will be used in a special write-up in that paper. The entire party were very enthusiastic regarding their treatment at the hands of the railroad officials. About 5 o'clock Aug. 16th in the afternoon the false work on the new bridge over the Wabash river on the Monon Railroad, north of Lafayette, went down, carrying with it four carpenters. Work was being done under the supervision of James CALDWELL, Monon Bridge Superintendent. Two men were hurled upon the track, a fall of 90 feet. Two were thrown into the river, 65 feet below. A freight train northbound had just passed over the structure, and ropes on the false work had been loosened to permit the train to pass. Superintendent CALDWELL had a narrow escape, having passed beneath the structure a second before it fell with a crash. Samuel MOORE, one of the workmen, sank beneath the water, and would have drowned, being unconscious but for his rescue by fellow workmen. The injured are Samuel MOORE, Paoli, Ind., hole in back of his head and left leg broken, serious; Otto HINKLE, Elston, Ind., right leg broken, side bruised, two ribs broken and injured internally; Frank STRAUSSER and Andrew LINDEMEYER, Elston, Ind., injured internally. The injured were taken to St. Elizabeth's Hospital. Coroner S. G. WRIGHT this morning returned his verdict in the case of the wreck on the Monon railway, which occurred at South Raub, 10 miles south of this city, on the morning of Aug. 7, in which Henry WHETSEL, passenger engineer, and his fireman, James H. HUDLOW, Lewis R. RAUB, freight engineer, and his fireman, Thomas M. CROFT, lost their lives. The document contains 68 pages of closely written legal cap and gives in minute detail the evidence of 11 witnesses, viz: Charles CAIN, Elmer WALTERS, John LUTZ, C. M. CORNWELL, Eugene McCOOL, Thomas J. McGUIRE, J. B. SUCESE, C. H. CALLAHAN, T. B. HUBERT, Victor BELSER and James KENNEDY. The verdicts are rendered separately on the deaths of the four unfortunate trainmen. The witnesses testifying on the condition of the switch immediately after the wreck occurred were Freight Conductor CALLAHAN, James E. KENNEDY and Victor BELSER, who testified they examined the switch and found it set for the side track, on which the freight stood. Their evidence was concise, to the point, and wholly in agreement. The verdict is as follows: "The men came to their deaths from injuries received in a wreck caused by a collision, which occurred about 1 a.m., Aug. 7, 1900, between a freight and passenger rain, owned and operated by the Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville railroad, commonly known as the Monon Railroad Co., on their line of rail at a point known as South Raub, about 10 miles south of Lafayette, Ind. The collision was caused by the carelessness and neglect of one Charles CAIN, of Lafayette, Ind., while acting as brakeman in the employ of the above said railway company, in leaving the switch open at the north end of the side track at the said point, known as South Raub, at a time when said switch should have been closed." – Lafayette Call.