Drunken Buggy Driver Kills Woman

Mrs. Mary Durning, who kept a lodging house on South C street, while out on the Geiger Grade for a drive last Sunday was thrown or jumped from the buggy in which she was riding and was killed. It is thought her neck was broken. She had been to the Miners' Union picnic, and after returning rode out on the grade with Dennis Crowley, who was under the influence of liquor, and was in no condition to manage a team. Somewhere in the neighborhood of the Sierra Nevada Crowley fell or was jolted out of the buggy, and it is supposed that, seeing herself left in the vehicle with the lines trailing on the ground and the team running, Mrs. Durning attempted to save herself by jumping out. Had she remained in the buggy she would have escaped, as the team finally brought up at the toll-house with neither buggy nor harness injured. The accident is supposed to have happened about 9 o'clock.

At 10 o'clock 2 Utah miner named Ike Haley found Crowley and Mrs. Duming lying in the road and sent word to the Polke Station. Chief Brown and others proceeded to the spot at once and found Crowley sitting upon the ground holding the lifeless form of Mrs. Durning, whose neck had been broken by the fall. Crowley at that time was too much intoxicated to give any intelligible account of the accident.

No one appears to know just how the accident occurred. Mrs. Durning was about 43 years of age and has two children - a boy, Frank, aged 16, and a daughter younger. --Mark Twain

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