Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 1 (1961).pdf/79

 64 on its Williamsburgh track. Notwithstanding all these gestures of appeasement, the opponents of steam operation continued their agitation to drive the railroad from the streets.

One of the best arguments in their arsenal of weapons against the road was the toll of human life taken by the dummies. It was easy to pillory the railroad corporation as a souless monster ruthlessly monopolizing the public streets and crushing out the lives of golden-haired innocents under the wheels of its iron juggernauts. Such stories were charged with emotional potential and could be profitably exploited by politicians looking for an issue.

The facts were often quite different. The dummies, because of their low power and gearing ratio, could go no faster than eight miles per hour, and their bells and flagmen easily warned carriages and passers-by of their approach. Their very slowness, in fact, made them an irresistible attraction to boys of the neighborhood. Groups of lads often ran after the freights as soon as they pulled out of the ferry terminal, and grabbed the many handles and rungs on the cars for a free ride up Broadway and Boerum Street. The brakemen, busy at the front and rear of the train, were physically unable to watch each individual car and the boys could play on the platforms and in the interiors unmolested.

It was inevitable that eventually someone would be hurt. The first dummy City of Brooklyn began running on July 31, 1869 and three months later, on November 3, cut off the leg of a nine-year old boy who was playing in Boerum Street. The little fellow, George Smith, was attracted to the iron brace under the car, and in trying to catch it, missed his footing and fell across one rail, the car wheel passing over one leg. President Fox, though he felt no blame attached to the road, visited the needy parents and presented them with a purse of $50. Again on April 30, 1870 a child named Charles Fuchs, three years old, was playing near the track, and when the dummy stopped to let a wagon pass, grabbed the tension rod for a swing. The sudden starting of the dummy threw the child on the track and the wheels beheaded him.

The company was horrified when a third accident occurred within two months' time. On July 8, 1870 a twelve-year old boy named Louis Heim, who had sneaked a ride on a flat car, fell