THIS BROUGHAM RAN AWAY.
Unoccupied Electric Machine Scatters
Crowd on Walnut Street.
A crowd which had gathered at Twelfth and Walnut streets was scattered yesterday about noon when an unoccupied electric brougham belonging to Mrs. R. N. Simpson of 109 West Armour boulevard ran away. After it had run a block, however, the fractious car was stopped by a daring chauffeur who leaped from his own machine into the runaway.
The trouble began at Twelfth and Grand by a collision of a west bound Twelfth street car with the brougham, which narrowly missed inflicting serious injury. Mrs. Simpson, who was driving the electric, had with her a woman and a little girl. In her southward course along Grand avenue she had stopped the machine at the intersection of Twelfth street to await the passage of an eastbound car.
In the meantime a westbound car came along. The motorman failed to stop in time, and the front part of the brougham was struck a heavy blow. It was not overturned, however, and a policeman asked Mrs. Simpson to steer it to Twelfth and Walnut to avoid the gathering crowd. She did so, and with her companions, stepped out of the electric to use a nearby telephone.
The impact of the street car had loosened the mechanism of the machine and it caught fire from two crossed wires. In his eagerness to stop the blaze, a bystander inadvertently pushed forward the controller and the brougham started off by itself and got nearly to Thirteenth and Walnut before the chauffeur stopped it.
