Attempt to wreck the trolley.

A dastardly and determined attempt to wreck the electric car due at Newmarket at 7.30 last Saturday night [Nov. 11, 1899], was made between Bond's Lake and Aurora, and it was a great wonder that a catastrophe did not occur. At Bond's Lake the road runs over a series of hills which terminate in the pinnacle, the divide of the watershed of Lakes Ontario and Simcoe. Just about a mile south of the pinnacle, Yonge street runs along a ridge—in fact the road is an embankment there, with a drop of forty feet on each side and two ponds at the bottom.

At this point some miscreants laid four gates, taken from someone's enclosure, across the track, and when the car bound for Newmarket passed along it struck them squarely. Fortunately they were not sufficiently solid to resist the impact, and the heavy machine crashed through or went over them and kept the track. Had the car left the track an awful tragedy would have resulted, as every seat was taken and nothing could have prevented the descent to the bottom of the embankment.

On one of the gates, which the car had gone over, a whole row of picket ends had been neatly cut off by the wheels. The track was cleared, but on the return trip a similar obstruction was found, the gates and rails having been replaced. The attempt is one of the most coldblooded and deliberate affairs known to the police. The fact that the obstructions were there on both trips shows that the wretches placed the things on the rail and waited in the vicinity to see the result of their villainy. When it failed they obtained more material and again repeated their attempt. The police are working on the case, and if the criminals are caught it means a penitentiary sentence for them.

The attempt has significance owing to the difference between the railway and some of the county people over the running of freight cars.

Enquiry into the cause of the death of John Charlton, who was killed by a Metropolitan car at Bedford Park on Friday night [Nov. 10, 1899], was held Saturday [Nov. 11, 1899] at the Bedford Park Hotel, by Coroner Nelles and a jury. The enquiry occupied six hours, and the verdict rendered by the jury was: "That the death of the said John Charlton was caused from injuries sustained in collision with a Metropolitan Railway car; that no evidence was given to show that the motorman did not do all in his power to avert and accident, and the motorman and company are therefore exonerated from all blame."

The Ry. Committee of the Privy Council, on Wednesday [Nov. 15, 1899], ordered that the Metropolitan Electric Ry. be allowed to connected with the C.P.R.

Railways: Met.Ry.

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