CHILD OF 4 KILLED
BY NORTHEAST CAR.
MANY FRANTIC MOTHERS TRIED
TO IDENTIFY THE BOY.
Each Woman Thought Little Leo
Cassidy, Decapitated and Mangled
Beyond Immediate Recogni-
tion, Was Her Own.
Leo Cassidy, aged 4 years, was run over and instantly killed by a Northeast car yesterday afternoon while playing in the street with two other small boys. The boy lived with his aunt, Mrs. Anna Reddick, at 613 Forest avenue. Excited mothers who thought the unfortunate child might be one of their own, thronged the street, pushed and crowded each other in a mad endeavor to identify the mangled body under the trucks of the car. The accident occurred at Independence avenue and Holmes street.
Mrs. Reddick was in the habit of leaving the child with Mrs. John Davis, 557 Holmes street, during the day while she was at work in Blake's restaurant at the city market. The child slipped out of the house unnoticed. Johnny and Teddy Trent, aged 5 and 3 respectively, who live in the same house with their parents, greeted Leo with a childish welcome.
RAN IN FRONT OF CAR.
Leo ran directly across the street in front of a fast approaching car, the two Trent boys behind him. As the car struck Leo, the others turned and ran screaming to the house. Within the shortest possible time every mother in the neighborhood was on the scene of the tragedy where a crowd had gathered.
Though several persons had seen the accident, none was able to give a concise account of the tragedy. Maud Mahoney of 543 Holmes street was an eye witness. She said that she saw the three children run across the street and a moment later one was run down by the car. Mrs. Gus Berkowitz, who lives over the grocery store at 706 Independence avenue, looked out of the window in time to see the children start in their chase. She thought one of them was her own and was in the act of leaping out the window when she was caught by her husband. All the witnesses said that the car was going at a moderate rate of speed.
POLICE TO CLEAR STREET.
When Mrs. Davis reached the scene her agony knew no bounds, and her screams attracted persons for blocks. D. M. Armstrong, the motorman of the car, was leaning back in the vestibule, his face deathly pale, and Charles Perkins, the conductor, was taking down names. The trunk of the body lay under the car. The head, under the trucks, was beyond recognition.
Passengers from the blockaded cars began to alight when Sergeant John Ravenscamp arrived with a squad of policemen. It took their united efforts to clear the street. Excited mothers would rush up and try to identify the child as their own.
The scene of the accident is one of the crowded parts of the city and is within a block of the proposed North End playground. The Washington school is a block away and all motormen are supposed to run their cars slowly at that point.
Immediately after the accident, the crew of the car were placed under arrest by Detective Ben Sanderson. They were arraigned before Justice of the Peace James Richardson last night, and were released on a $500 bond, furnished by the street railway company. Neither would make a statement.
