TERRIBLE FATE. LINEMAN BURNED TO DEATH BY AN ELECTRIC CURRENT.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 420, 16 November 1889, Page 4

TERRIBLE FATE. LINEMAN BURNED TO DEATH BY AN ELECTRIC CURRENT.

Ax electric lineman met with a honible death ab the corner of Centie and Chambers streets, New York, from contact with an electric light wire. He was employed by the Western Union Company, and presented a touible sight as he died on the network of wires in midair, while the deadly fluid actually made his body sizzle and his blood pour out on the sidewalk and over the clothes of the horrified spectators. The accident, occurring in the middle of the day in one of the busiest parts of the city, was witnessed by a large ciowd of people. The man's body lay limp and motionless over a mass of wires attached Lo the crosstree of a pole. The firemen brought out a ladder, and one went up with a pair of shears to cut the wires. The lineman uas found to be dead. Hi» face was turned toward the walk. The wiie in fifteen minutes had burned oft half the face of the victim, his left arm was also seen to be burning, and every few seconds blue flames spuited out trotn various part 3 of the body. Hundreds of people stood shivering aa they looked at the awful sight overhead. No one daied to go near. Even the h* lemon's tace^> blanched with horror. Lineman Benson, the dead man's companion, was asked why he did not go up, but he simply said : " It's no use ; he's dead. I don't know tho electric wires. T can t help him. I was on the other pole, and don't know anything about it."' All tint, was said in a catching, halting voice, as of a man completely oveicome with hoirorand emotion. Immediately after the accident Mayor Grant was notified. The Mayor gave orders that the wires that caused the accident be cub at once.