A Terrible Death.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XVIII, Issue 1771, 14 December 1885, Page 3

A Terrible Death.

The Brisbane Courier states that at Hendra, on the racecourse line, an accident occurred recently of a very terrible character. The scene of the occurrence was the Queensland Brick and Tile Company’s manufactory. Amongst the em ployes was a young married man, Robert Walker, who was respected by his mates, as a sober, industrious, and manly fellow should be. He was about thirty years of age, and lived with his wife and four children in a cottage in the neighborhood of the brickworks. His duty was to feed the clay and stone crashing mill. There are three stories or floors to the mill. Walker’s work consisted in receiving the waggons and emptying them into a capacious shoot or hopper surmounting the top rollers, and to keep shovelling the stuff on to the rollers. The accident happened at ten minutes past seven o’clock in the morning. There was no loud crash of breaking down machinery or any piercing cry of pain. The mill was going on with its work without let or hindrance, and a workman named Britton was quietly watering the clay, when a sight appeared that filled him with horror. The first he saw of it was two human hands, crushed into pulp as thin and flat as a penny, which were being disgorged from the iron jaws of the mill. These were slowly followed by long strips of flesh, blood, and bones representing arms ; and then came a mangled head and body, flattened out like the hands and arms, and all attached. Britton almost instantly recognised what had happened, and called out, " Stop the engine ; Bob is in the mill.” It is estimated that the nnfcrtunate man had been less than half a minute between the rollers when they were brought to a standstill. In that time, however, bis arms, head, and body down to the loins bad passed throngh in a mass of indescribable pnlp. Immediately the machinery was stopped, all hands hastened to the top storey, and there found Walker’s legs, the only uninjured poriton of his body, sticking up from the jaws of death. With some difficulty the rollers were drawn apart about an inch, and the mangled remains of the poor fellow were pulled up, and placed on the floor. No one saw how the accident happened, but the probability is that Walker, when at his work, tripped and fell head first into the hopper or shoot, was drawn in by the rollers relentlessly, and was killed instantaueously.