Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1896 — Boy Train Wreckers. [ARTICLE]

Boy Train Wreckers.

An epidemic of train wrecking seems to have broken out among the boys of the Eastern States. One day last week a New York policeman saw a gang of about ten young boys In Douglas street They went directly to the Brighton Beach railroad cut. Then they scaled the bill and began rolling down rocks. When the stones reached the raih-oad tracks the boys arranged them carefully on the tracks iu a solid pile aud then braced them on each side with nails and sticks of wood. Next they placed an oil can on the top of the pile. The policeman chased them and followed Thomas Plunkltt, aged 16, to his home. /The next day he obtained a warrant for the boy's arrest. In court Plunkltt swore be did not mean to wreck a train, and ns the policeman’s testimony was uncorroborated, Justice Steers discharged the boy with a reprimand. The corporation of Mayence will celebrate the five hundredth anniversary of the birth of John Gutenberg in 188 Z.