Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 November 1883 — WESTERN. [ARTICLE]

WESTERN.

The Phoenix block at Mount Vernon, 111, was consumed by fire, causing a loss of $50,000. The Methodist Episcopal church and two dwellings at Youngstown, Ohio, were burned. A train conveying an excursion party from Minneapolis to Southern California was wrecked near Jamesport, Mo., and seven persons were seriously Injured. The trial of Ker, the individual charged with having robbed Preston, Kean & Co., of about $45,000, was concluded at Chicago last week. He was found guilty and given ten years in the penitentiary. The shipments of iron-ore from the Northern Wisconsin mining regions continue to show a decided falling off. AS compared with last year the decrease so far is 562,913 tons. Jacob Netting, the murderer of Ada Atkinson, was taken from jail at Fowler, Ind., by 300 citizens of Oxford, and lynched. A terrible railway catastrophe occurred near Streator, 111. The incoming noon passenger train on the Burlington road, at Otter creek, two and one-half miles from town, had been flagged by a man from a freight that had stuck on the grade this side of the creek, and had stopped just by the north bridge. Another freight was following close behind the passenger. A flagman went back, but he had not gone far before the train was upon him. The grade is very heavy, and before the freight could be stopped it plunged into the rear coach of the passenger train, crushing the car Into fragments. A scene of wild confusion ensued. Four of the passengers were killed outright, while the cries of the wounded could be beard on all sides. Two other passengers died shortly after of their Injuries, and nine were badly wounded, some fatally. The locomotive exploded after penetrating tho cars, half the victims being scalded to death. A passenger, who was one of the slightly Injured, says it all happened so quickly that he could not describe it. There was a crash, the car filled with steam, and then in a few moments all was still. He did not hear any cry or call from the two women who were killed. They were in the seat in front of him. He found them breathing their last. Pearro, one of the men killed, was sitting just behind him. If it had been a flash of lightning that struck them it could not have come more suddenly. A dispatch from Norway, Mich., says: “Nearly 1,000 iron miners are on a strike here. They formed a procession, secured a band and some flags, and paraded the streets until thoroughly chilled. They then made a demand upon the Superintendent of the Ludington mine for an advance in wages, and assaulted and threatened him until he complied. The chief officer of the Chapin mine took a train for Milwaukee, and the strikers say they will stop the pumps unless they are givon more wages. The Sheriff has been sent for, and militia will probably be called out.” v Dr. J. H. Finley and Ed. Smith, injured in the railroad disaster near Streator, 111., are dead, making eight victims in aIL The balanoe of the wounded are on the road to recovery.' The wrecked coach was literally splintered to pieces, and the only wonder Is that any one could have been in there and come out alive. The engine drove more than

half way through the ear, crushing the floor into the smallest possible fragments. All around lay portions of the wreck —wheels, cars, fragments of doors—all attesting the fearful force of the shock. Several pieces of skin, with nails attached, from scalded, shriveled hands, were picked np. The Jury of inquest found that the coming train could not have been more than 400 feet away, as it came down ' from the north. The passenger train had been driven forward perhaps 200 feet by the force of the collision. Conductor Mat Kennedy, of the fated passenger train, gave a straightforward acoount of the accident. He was flagged about forty rods from where the accident occurred. When the train slacked up for the flagman, Conductor Kennedy went to the engine to find out whaMhe obstruction was. The train ran along slowly until it had approached within tea car-lengths of the gravel train, in front, which the switch-engine was unable to move. Seeing this, he ran to the rear end of bis train and ordered his brake' man to flag the freight which he knew to be behind him. The brakeman got the flag, but had gone but about four car-lengths when the freight came crashing down the grade, and the engine was buried in the pas-senger-coach. The freight was a wild train, and should not have run faster than eighteen miles an hour, and should not have been closer than five minutes behind the passenger, which it was not.