Mrs. Bergen Has Few Arrested.

New York, 1895

Frank H. Few, of Smithville, was arrested on Tuesday by Constable Ashmead, on the complaint of his mother-in-law, Mrs. Sarah Bergen, upon a charge of grand larceny. Mrs. Bergen says that several years ago she gave Few $2,500 with which to purchase a house and ten acres of land at Smithville South for her, Some time ago she engaged Counselor Stanford to make an abstract of the title from the records at the county clerk's office, and it was found that the title to the farm was in Few's name. She says he has since neglected to correct the matter. Few was arraigned before Justice Hendrickson at Jamaica on Wednesday, and gave bonds in $2,000 for examination.


Construction Train Accident.

There was a big smashup on an unballasted section of the new Long Island railroad at Easthampton Thursday morning. An engine, six platform cars, four freight cars and the caboose were overturned.


1895 Advertisement

A healthy appetite, with perfect digestion and assimilation, may be secured by the use of Ayer's Pills. They cleanse and strengthen the whole alimentary canal and remove all obstructions to the natural functions of either sex, without any unpleasant effects.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 14, 1895, p. 5.

LET HIS FEET HANG OUT.

New York, 1895

An Italian Railway Laborer Killed in a Peculiar Accident.

An Italian laborer, whose name is not known, was killed at Farmingdale on Sunday in a peculiar manner. He was one of 250 who had been employed on the new extension of the Long Island railroad at Amagansett and was being conveyed to Long Island City to be paid off. The men were in a train of box cars.

Just before the train reached Farmingdale the man who was killed sat down in the doorway of the car he was in, allowing his foot to hang out. The train was going thirty miles an hour. The man's feet struck the freight station platform and several heavy pickle barrels that were standing on the platform. The man held on to the iron rods that support the door of the car and was not pulled out.

The force of the collision demolished two of the barrels and swept several others from the platform. The man was not killed instantly, and when the train was stopped he still had hold of the iron rods. He died two hours later.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 14, 1895, p. 4.

Would-be Train Wreckers.

New York, 1895

Frederick Vassar, Eugene and John Duryea, Daniel Kasulkie and Frank Remsen, arrested by Detective Sarvis of the Long Island railroad for placing obstructions on the track of the Southern railroad near Locust avenue, Jamaica, were discharged on Tuesday by Justice Hendrickson with a reprimand. The boys range in age from 10 to 8 years.


Campion-Callakan Trouble.

Edward Campion of Jamaica was fined $5 by Justice Detheridge for assaulting Margaret Callahan's son. They are neighbors. Mrs. Callahan thrashed Campion in a fair fight, and he has sued her for $5,000 damages. He has also brought an action against her for letting her cattle run at large.


Hay! Hay!

Best timothy, eighty cents a hundred; mixed hay, seventy cents. J. & T. Adikes are receiving large quantities direct from the West and are offering it at low prices from cars.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 14, 1895, p. 8.

The Train Stopped For Mr. Polhemus

1895

Mr. Polhemus was very fond of duck shooting, and he used to go to a point near Chesapeake bay where the Pennsylvania had a flag station. He was always left off or taken on, whatever the train that passed might be. One day Mr. Polhemus got on a train with a new conductor, and after leaving Philadelphia he said to him, "I want to be let off at such a station." "Can't let you off. I've had no such orders," the conductor said. "Well, whether you let me off or not, the train will stop there," said Polhomus. "The train will not stop there," said the conductor and went on.

At Wilmington Mr. Polhemus interviewed the engineer, who knew him, and he said to the engineer, "I suppose you are going to have a hot box when we get near my flag station," and he slipped a $10 bill into the engineer's hand. As they neared the station the train slowed down, and when it came to a stop the engineer got off with his oil can and waste. Mr. Polhemus also got off with his gunbag and bade the conductor an affectionate goodby. A few days later an order was issued that Mr. Polhemus was to be let off or taken on at that station whenever he desired.

That at least is the story which is told at the Brooklyn club, and Mr. Polhemus has told it himself, although he said that he had no other influence with the Pennsylvania officials than that which was due to mutual respect and esteem.

Repelling Train Robbers

1895

A New Plan of Defense Outlined by an Army Officer.

It may safely be assumed that the "point of attack" is the engine and then the express car, writes Lieutenant Wright in The North American Review. Why, then, not separate them as much as possible by putting the express car the last in the train? Have alarm bells on each coach and sleeper, which can be rung by the express messenger when he is directed or requested at this unusual time and place to open the door of his car. In each coach and sleeper have, in a glass front case similar to those now in use for the ax and saw, two repeating shotguns, each magazine containing live buckshot cartridges, thus giving from 6 to 12 most effective weapons in the hands of the train crew and passengers. The alarm bells should be electric, though it is believed that the ordinary bellcord could be made to serve the purpose. When the messenger sounds his tocsin of war, there would soon be a sufficient force of brave men at the express car to give the robbers a warm welcome. For the latter to cover the engine cab and each door and side of each coach or sleeper would require a force of men too great in numbers to make "the divide" profitable. Besides the greater number of accomplices or principals the greater the chances of a capture and the possibility of some one turning "state's evidence."

Under such an arrangement in the makeup of a train, should the rear or express car be the sole point of attack, then the first step would be to cut this car loose from the train and then loot it. The automatic airbrake would give the alarm to the engineer, and he, in turn, to the coaches, or, better still, the concealed electric wire could be so arranged as to sound the alarm when the car parted from the train. Should the engine, as in the past, be the first point of attack, then the crew and passengers (armed) have the advantage of being between the forces of robbers, and with every probability can throw the greater number in the fight, and, Napoleonlike, repulse or defeat in detail.

Under the present order of things the crime of "holding up" trains has become one of almost daily occurrence. And why? Because two, three or four men can successfully effect it, and the ill gotten gains are large. Render the act one more difficult and dangerous of accomplishment, and the attempts will be less frequent. It matters not how invulnerable the car, so long as it remains in the train near the engine it will offer but slight resistance to the robber and his stick of dynamite.

Fun for Engineers

1895

The Stories Written About Them by Reporters In Search of Heroes.

"Old railroaders smile frequently when they read in the newspapers the accounts of alleged thrilling adventures of engineers," said a member of the craft. "For instance, I noticed a story in some Chicago paper not long ago of the terrible experience of a man whose hair was turned white in 15 minutes or something of that kind by the close call he had for going through a bridge. There had been a heavy rain, the supports had been undermined, and the whole business would have gone down under the next train that struck it.

"All this would have happened if the 'eagle eye' of the man at the throttle hadn't taken in the situation about half a mile back on a heavy down grade and reversed his engine. The queer part of the story was that this 'eagle eye' — that's what we call 'em on the road — daren't reverse his lever until he had nearly brought the train to a standstill with the airbrake. 'Otherwise,' said this story writer, 'the engine would have jumped the track' — that is to say, if he had put on his air-brake and reversed his lever at the same time the sudden stoppage and reversal would have thrown her off.

"Now, all this reads very well, I suppose, to the general public, who don't care whether a thing is true or not just so it interests them. It amuses a railroad man for another reason. He knows that an engine won't do anything of the sort. Whenever there is danger ahead which compels a man to stop right quick, he doesn't have any time to waste setting the brakes and then waiting for his train to slow up before he throws his lever. He gives the air-brake a shove with his foot and throws back the lever, all by the same motion, you might say. It's all done in a second.

"Then, if he has a chance, he looks out for himself. He has done all he can, and he jumps. As a general rule, if the accident which he has prepared for really takes place, he doesn't have time to jump, and although engineers are as brave as any set of men alive, because a man takes his life in hand whenever he goes out on a run, they often get the credit of being heroes and sticking to their engines in the face of danger when, as a matter of fact, it was the only thing they could possibly do. When a man discovers a washout or another train coming toward him on the same track, it is usually too late to get out of the way before the smash takes place. The heroism comes in in holding a place year in and year out which is liable to cost him his life at any hour of the day or night through the blunder of some one else or some accident that nobody could foresee or prevent." — Chicago Tribune.

Fell Through an Eel Hole

New York, 1895

Edward Sands, a bayman of Roslyn, narrowly escaped drowning in Hempstead harbor Friday afternoon. Sands was engaged in spearing for eels through a hole in the ice, when he fell into the water. When he endeavored to pull himself out of the hole the ice crumbled. The man fought desperately and was nearly overcome by the cold when three men who had witnessed his struggles arrived on the scene and pulled him out by means of a rope.


Threw Stones at Trains

Edward Hicks, aged 17 years, who was arrested at Wantagh on Tuesday evening, charged with throwing stones at Long Island railroad trains, was held for examination by Justice Seaman. For several months trains passing the wood, near Bellmore have been stoned, and it was a common occurrence for stones as large as eggs to crash through a car window.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, March 1, 1895, p. 1.

A Fat Woman's Dilemma

1895

Among the passengers on a Bryn Mawr accommodation train a few days ago was a very stout old lady. She occupied an entire seat, because there was no room beside her for any one else. She looked worried. Finally, when the train was nearing Haverford station, she leaned over and tapped the shoulder of a young man in front of her.

"Pardon me, young man," she said, "can you tell me what the next station is?"

"Haverford, ma'am."

"Well, young man," she continued, "when we get there, will you help me off the train?"

The young man expressed his willingness to do her that service, but he looked so surprised that the old lady made an explanation.

"I wouldn't ask your assistance, young man," she said, "but I tried to get off two stations back and couldn't. You see, I am so stout that I have to get down the platform steps backward. The conductor saw me unfortunately, and thinking from my position that I was just boarding the train he helped me on again." — Philadelphia Record.

A Train in a Snowdrift

New York, 1895

When a quarter of a mile east of Southhold Tuesday morning the early Greenport express, bound for Long Island City, butted into a nine-foot snowdrift. The train came to a standstill with a shock, and the locomotive was thrown from the track.

The passengers were shaken up. The pilot of the locomotive was bent double and the air brakes were wrecked, while the forward truck of the passenger car next to the locomotive was also badly shattered. The thermometer was 5 degrees above zero. It took three hours to clear away the drift and get the train back on the track.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 8, 1895, p. 1.

Mr. Tonge's Narrow Escape

New York, 1895

Henry W. Tonges of Flushing had a narrow escape from being crushed to death Saturday. Mr. Tonges is a commuter on the Long Island railroad. He was late and the train was pulling out of the station when he arrived at the platform. In attempting to jump on the cars he fell and came near falling between two coaches. He escaped with a few slight bruises.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 1.

Hot Boxes

1895

Those who have traveled much by rail are more or less acquainted with the hot box. A hot box, as it is commonly called, really means a hot journal bearing or a hot journal, or both. It arises sometimes from the use of poor material in the bearing, sometimes on account of imperfect casting and sometimes from too great weight upon the bearing, producing friction and heat.

There are now far fewer hot boxes than formerly. Some of the heaviest cars are now carried upon six wheeled trucks, thus distributing the weight of each end of the car upon six journal bearings, instead of four, and reducing the danger of excessive friction. Better materials are used, and the workmanship upon them is better, weights to be carried are calculated more nicely, and greater care is exercised in operation, so that the hot box is not what it once was. A man thoroughly familiar with railroading, who made not long ago a trip of 10,000 miles, which included points as far apart as the City of Mexico, San Francisco and Chicago, said that he did not encounter a hot box until he was within 20 miles of New York on his return. — New York Sun.

Railroads of U.S. To Advance Rates

1920

WILL ADD BILLION AND HALF TO YEARLY EARNINGS.

Fare to Cost One-fifth More; Freight 25 to 40 Per Cent, Pullmans 50.

WASHINGTON, D. C. — Authority for the railroads of the country to increase their revenues by approximately one and one-half billion dollars has been granted by the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Freight rates will be advanced about one-third, passenger fares one-fifth and Pullman charges one-half.

Coastwise and inland steamship lines and electric railway companies also were granted permission to increase their freight rates in proportion to the increase granted to the railroads serving the same territory. No estimate of the aggregate amount to result from these advances has been made.

May Go Up September 1.

The new rates, which are to continue in force until March 1, 1922, will become effective upon five days' notice by the carriers to the commission and the public, and they must be in operation before January 1. Since the Government guarantee expires September 1, the carriers are expected to bend every effort to put the advances into effect by that date.

Increases granted by the commission are designed to offset the $600,000,000 wage advance awarded by the railroad labor board and to provide the 6 per cent net income on the aggregate value of the railroad properties as permitted under the transportation act.

The aggregate value of all of the railroads was estimated by the commission at $18,900,000,000 as against a book value of $20,040,000,000 given by the carriers.

Increase Is General Thruout U. S.

The 20-per-cent increase in passenger fares, excess baggage charges and milk transportation rates and the 50 per cent surcharge on Pullman fares authorized by the commission will be general the country over.

Freight rate increases will vary according to territory, with 40 per cent in the East, 25 per cent in the South, 35 per cent in the West (from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains) and 25 per cent in mountain-Pacific territory (from east of the Rockies to the Pacific coast, not including Alaska).

The commission held that the increases were justified in view of the rapidly changing conditions as to prices and the necessity for providing adequate transportation facilities during and after the period of readjustment

NEW RATES EASILY FIGURED.

Travelers will have little difficulty in calculating from the present fare rate the amount of the new fare, With no surcharge complication, the new fare is simply one-fifth more than the old fare.

The following table illustrates the difference which the new rates will make in travel between Chicago and other cities:

To New York — Present rate: $29.40; New rate: $35.28; New rate with surcharge and Pullman: $45.00.

To Milwaukee — Present rate: $2.75; New rate: $3.20; New rate with surcharge and Pullman: $4.02.

To New Orleans — Present rate: $30.38; New rate: $36.45; New rate with surcharge and Pullman: $47.39.

To San Francisco — Present rate: $72.12; New rate: $86.54 2-3; New rate with surcharge and Pullman: $[*].

The freight rate increase means a levy of $12 per capita a year for every man, woman and child in the country.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 2.

Note: [*] Missing information. The other San Francisco rates are pretty certain.

Train Passes Over Baby; She's Unhurt

1920

BUTLER, Pennsylvania. — Agnes Deamore, 2-year-old daughter of Antonio Deamore, has the movie picture actors beaten a mile when it comes to realities.

Agnes' home is near the Bessemer railroad. She wandered out of the back yard of her home onto the railroad. She was sitting between the rails of the main track playing when a double header freight train came along. The first locomotive struck Agnes, and she fell face down between the rails. The two locomotives and ten freight cars passed over her.

Witnesses who rushed to the scene expecting to find a mass of mangled bones and flesh found Agnes much alive and yelling for her mother. She sustained a few abrasions of the scalp and face, but was not seriously hurt.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 1.

Unpaid Accounts Drove a Woman to Suicide

1901

Not so very long ago a woman threw herself before a New York elevated train and was instantly killed. Her sister testified afterward that she was a "fashionable" dressmaker and had over $15,000 worth of outstanding accounts which she could not collect. The people from whom she bought her goods were persistently asking for their money, but she could not pay them because her customers did not pay her for her work. It so preyed upon her mind that after weeks of sleepless nights she determined to kill herself. And she did. — Ladies' Home Journal.

Note: If you owe someone money, pay them back today. Tomorrow might be too late.

Engineer Stops Train to Do Some Fishing

1916

Lumber Dealer Files Suit for $2,000, His Alleged Loss by Railroad Man's Act.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana. — Admitting that fishing is alluring, but contending, that business is business, Edgar Wright, lumber dealer, has filed suit for $2,000 against an engineer on the Baton Rouge, Hammond & Eastern Railroad.

In his petition Wright alleges he lost a lumber contract worth $2,000 because the engineer halted his train two hours to try his luck at fishing in a pond along the line.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 11.

A Lost Freight Car

1901

It Disappeared From the Middle of the Train

The mysterious disappearance of freight car No. 4849 from the center of a moving train between way stations on the Santa Fe road made a lot of trouble for two train crews in last March and puzzled the officials of the road not a little. The car was loaded with fruit for the eastern market and dropped out of sight midway on the journey without damage to the rest of the train and without any one having seen it go. Tracers were sent out, but the car was not to be found on siding or in depot yard.

The tracers' reports showed that the car had been loaded with select oranges on a spur leading to a well known fruit packer's establishment in the San Gabriel Valley, California. It was a new car, equipped with all the modern cold storage appliances. It was joined to a train of cars of the same class, all loaded with fruit and all destined for the same market.

The heavy train had wound its way without incident over the Sierra Madre and the Sierra Nevadas, up the gradual slopes, across the continental divide, through many villages and over sagebush plains and sandy deserts. It had toiled through eastern California, Arizona and a part of New Mexico, it had climbed the rugged steeps of the Rockies, plunged into and through the, great tunnel at the crest of that range and started on its downward flight to Trinidad.

That was as far as the tracers had been able to track it, for in Baton, a division station on the Santa Fe, No. 4849 had been noted in the conductor's report when the train was turned over to a new crew. Yet when the train reached Trinidad No. 4849 was missing, and no trace of it could be found between Trinidad and Baton. For all that the tracers knew, No. 4849 might have been whisked up into the air by balloon and transported to some foreign land.

A lot of discharges had been made out for the members of the two freight crews, and there was trouble in the air, threats of strikes and all that sort of thing because of the injustice done to the men, when suddenly the mystery was cleared up. A cowboy reported a strange find on his range, and it turned out to be the missing freight car. No. 4849 was lying at the base of a precipitous cliff in a thicket of underbrush, with its sides distended, its roof bulging and a confused mass of choice oranges appearing through the clefts of its wrecked outlines. The car was on its side, dismounted from its trucks, a mass of ruins, with its contents preserved by the crisp mountain air under a cloudless sky.

The train, in its rapid descent at sharp curve, had broken the flanges of a set of wheels, and the car was thrown from the track.

Bumping over the rough roadbed and ties had detached the couplings at either end, and the disabled car rolled down the stoop embankment to the valley, hundreds of feet below. The train being on the down grade, the rear section soon closed up the gap, and by means of the automatic couplers had again become attached to the front section, all unknown to the train crew. Thus No. 4849 dropped out of account, leaving its disappearance a deep mystery. — New York Press.

The Dilatory Woman

1901

When women have an appointment to meet down town at a certain place, each lingers in her own apartment until the hour set for the meeting so that she won't have to wait an unconscionable time for the other at the rendezvous. Femininity is almost invariably late, even for business engagements, and any excuse it offers, however trivial, it thinks should be accepted as valid.

At catching trains and boats the dilatory sex is nevertheless unusually adept. It is said by those who are fond of gathering such statistics that one woman misses a train to about ten men. Madam, however oblivious she may be of time in other matters, if she is going away is sure to be at the station bright and early and with 20 minutes to spare. Whether this proves that the sex is selfish or merely that it is, in the language of the times, "long headed" is a question for consideration.

An Engineer's Experience

1902

"The superstition about owls is a wonderful thing," said an old railroad engineer, "and if I had not been inclined to be superstitious about the birds the engine I was riding one night would have been knocked into smithereens and the passengers in the coaches might have fared very badly. I am not always superstitious, but I am particularly so about owls. But I like the creatures, for one certainly saved my life.

"The incident occurred on a very dark night. The train was running at full speed. We were running on a straight line, and there was nothing for the fireman and myself to do but to look directly ahead and let her run. I had been looking intently for an hour, when something flew into the cab. It struck the coal pile and fell back dead. It was a great gray owl. Within less time than it takes to tell it I began to think that the owl was a bad omen, and I stopped the train immediately. I cannot say what made me feel so, but I was sure that death was ahead. I descended and walked to a switch that was a short distance ahead of us. It was open and a long train of empty freight cars was on it.

"I had the owl stuffed, and since that time he has had a place in the cab of my engine. I owe my life to the superstition about owls, and if another one strikes my engine I will close the throttle at once." — New Orleans Times-Democrat.

To Test New Mail Device for Trains

1910

WASHINGTON. — After a series of tests continuing since February the Postoffice Department has arranged for a formal six months' tryout of an invention for delivering and picking up mails by fast trains. As a demonstration of the practicability of the system a live pig, weighing 85 pounds, was recently delivered without injury at Carrollton, Ky., the home of the inventor, without the slightest injury from a train running 25 miles an hour.

For years the Postoffice Department has sought an improved method of picking up and delivering mails over the old catcher-hook system, and the new device was the result of four years' advertising by the postal authorities, urging inventors to produce something that would meet the requirements.

It is 40 years since the catcher hook came into use, and in spite of the progress in railroading and the tremendous improvement in the mail service along other directions no forward step is recorded in the matter of exchanging mail sacks by moving trains. Under this system only one small sack could be picked up at any one station, and it is a matter of official history that not infrequently, instead of catching the suspended sack of mail, the hook, operated by a mail clerk standing in the open door of the car, would snatch up a chicken coop or something else not to be found in any classification of mail matter.

The delivery of mail from moving trains is still more primitive, consisting merely of having the clerk hurl or push the sacks out of the car as the train rushes past the platform. Great numbers of persons have been injured and some killed by being struck by the whirling and rebounding sacks, thrown with the force of a catapult.

In a number of instances the bags of mail have rolled under the wheels of the train and have caused wrecks or have been ground to pieces and the mail destroyed. And these defects do not take into consideration the tremendous wear and tear on the mail bags and pouches, one of the largest items of expense to the railway mail service.

The new device has passed through a successful test of six months at Burnside station, and this decided the government to give the more extended trial.

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Note: In 1910, back in that general time, "post office" was one word.

Flora of Railroad Yards

1910

It has been noticed that many plants not natives of the locality are to be found growing in the neighborhood of great railroad yards.

Sometimes the seeds of these plants have been brought thousands of miles from their natural habitat. Often they flourish amid their new surroundings and gradually spread over the surrounding country. Thus trains carry unsuspected emigrants, which travel to and from every point of the compass.

In the Mississippi valley are to be found plants which within a few years past have thus been brought together; some from the Atlantic seaboard, some from the gulf region, and some from the other side of the Rocky Mountains. — Harper's Weekly.