The New York Times, 23 June 1903 RUNAWAY TRAIN'S WILD DASH SPOKANE, Washington, June 22.--On the Spokane Falls and Northern Railroad, a part of the Great Northern system, a short distance from the centre of this city, a runaway train of sixty cars loaded with coals and without an engine rushed four miles down grade through the town to-day, demolishing a dwelling house, wrecking the Crystal Laundry, killing at least four persons, injuring eight others, and piling up a tangled mass of debris nearly fifty feet high. The train began to slip while standing on a heavy grade and soon gained a terrific speed. An empty box car in which W. H. Thomas, a workingman, and an unknown tramp were sleeping was first struck and demolished, both men being killed. Then the train crossed the street, ran over a rock pile and crashed into a six-room dwelling 300 feet from the end of the track, occupied by the families of John Slee and Mrs. Meyer. The house was smashed into kindling wood. Two hundred feet further on the frame building occupied by the Crystal Steam Laundry was struck and wrecked, and the force of the train was spent. Nine persons were sleeping in the Slee house. James Slee, the father, was pulled out of the ruins uninjured. The dead body of his nine-year-old sonElmer was found near by. Another son, Clarence, and the baby were injured and were taken to the hospital. Of the three children of Mrs. Meyer who was sleeping in the house, only one was injured. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Dennis Ahern | Middlesex County Massachusetts Newspaper Abstracts Acton, Massachusetts | http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/MA/Middlesex/ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -