Show I 1 MATTOAX U III th 19 a I 1 FOR THE AWFUL WRECK has I 1 not 4 L been seen since an hour hou L r after th the e I 1 disaster did not ask for a clear rk I 1 I 1 track for number 33 f I 1 I 1 1 lyn lynchburg chberg nov 3 30 the tae cause of the awful wreck near lawyers labye rs sta tion ten miles south of this city I 1 yesterday morning in which president samuel spencer and ills hla party of new york and baltimore nien men lost their lives is lau laid absolutely at the door of C D mattoax Matto ax the operator who was in charge of the block telegraph station at rangoon mattoax who ho disappeared after being ballif relieved less than an hour after tho the accident has not been found despite the fact fac that railway detectives have scoured a the country an examination by an associated press representative of the telegraph sheets kept at Rangoon nana and lawyers block offices allow that mattoax allowed train no 33 the jacksonville express upon the block the train pasing his bis station getting a clear barck from him at the operator at lawyers tile the next station ahead declared that mattoax did not ask him for a clear track for no 33 and he therefore did not know this train had passed rangoon the block sheets at lawyers bear out this claim if mattoax had reported train no 33 on the block to lawyers there would have been no accident because tho the operator at lawyers would have held the southwestern limited at rangoon until the jacksonville iraln had bad cleared the block to lawyers I 1 I 1 superintendent W S andrews of danville division late this aft afternoon ertho erthe explained that the report that the i engine of the forward train had gone I 1 some distance ahead of its train when I 1 it became detached was erroneous and the fact is that the engine did not 1 leave tho the train more than twenty feet I 1 the air brakes applying immediately on the engine as well as the th e train the trouble was the breaking ot of a knuckle of the on the front end of the forward car the trainmen were i repairing this when the collision per burred assistant general superintendent coapman stated today there is not the sligh doubt that the flagman made every possible effort to protect the rear of the train but he coule could not get around a sahra urve curve in time to prevent the collision |