Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 November 1884 — SOUTHERN. [ARTICLE]

SOUTHERN.

A frightful railroad accident occurred at Hempstead, Texas, on the Houston and Texas Central Railway. The northbound express crashed through a bridge and into Clear Creek, drowning twelve of the passengers and wounding forty. Many of the dead were mangled beyond recognition. A dispatch from Austin, Tex., gives the following particulars of the shocking affair: “About two miles south of Hempstead the road crosses Clear Creek, where the embankments are high and the water deep. Here, about I o'clock in the morning, as the train came tearing along, the bridge gave way just os the engine and tender had gotten across, and the entire train, consisting of the express, baggage, and smoking cars, two coaches, and two sleepers, plunged into the river. The train was crowded with passengers, and the scene which ensued was horrible in the extreme. As the trembling timbers gave way, a dreadful shriek of horror from the terrified passengers was soon followed by the heartrending moans and cries of the wounded and the dying. The baggage and smoking cars were plunged beneath the water, the former twenty feet below the surface, while the others were almost submerged. Those who were unhurt joined in the work of rescuing women and children and the wounded, but in spite of the most heroic efforts more than a dozen were drowned. Darkness heightened the terrors of the scene. Many perished within easy reach of help. At the last accounts the bodies of twelve dead victims had been recovered. Forty persons wore wounded. Many of the dead were mangled beyond recognition, but none of their names were remembered. The fireman jumped the moment he saw the bridgo was falling, and landed on the embankment. His leg was broken. The engineer remained at his post and escaped unhurt. The conductor did not receive a scratch. Most of those Who were drowned were in the baggage nnd smoking cars, and among them was the baggage-master.”

Director General Burke, of the World’s Exposition, has issued a circular advising all exhibitors to ship exhibits at once, in order to guard against delays in transportation and be in time for the opening, Dec. 16. President Diaz, of Mexico, has notified the Director General of enormous shipments of tropical plants for the Exposition. The office of the Texas Express Company at Bryan. Tex., was burglarized of $10,850. The robbers escaped. J. Hadeker & Son, merchants, Canton, Miss., failed, with liabilities amounting to $75,000. A fire at Petersburg, Va., destroyed 1,200,000 pounds of sumac. The mill and building of the Eureka Cotton Seed Oil Company at Arkansas City, Ark., were burned. Estimated 1068, $200,000; partially insured. Twenty-five leading business bouses at Goldsboro, N. C., were wiped out by fire, causing a loss of $250,000. The fire resulted from a number of boys smoking cigarettes near a lot of cotton. When leaving the court-room at Dallas, Tex., a lawyer named Frank L. Irvine was stabbed In the back by a local politician named Fred Cullen. It appears tl r\t the latter was an unwilling witness in a murder trial.