Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1887 — THE RAILROAD DISASTER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE RAILROAD DISASTER.

Scenes anti Incidents of the Terrible Wreck at Chatsworth, Illinois. Miraculous Escapes and Awful Experiences of Surviving Passengers. Plundering the Dead —The Railroad Company Bitterly Censured. At the Scene of the Wreck. A close inspection of the wreck causes one to wonder how a single person escaped death. The momentum of the train must have been appalling. The cars not only telescoped but in some cases were crushed down into the earth. On the flooring of one car the bulkhead of the rear car had torn the boards up for a distance of ten feet. Iron work had been torn and twisted to a formless mass, and chairs, partitions, and stoves crushed into fragments. It

was as if a cyclone had lifted the train up boldly, whirled it round with resistless force, and then dashed it to the earth in a chaotic heap. The Company Blamed. On all sides, too, the railroad officials are blamed for the accident. It is charged that the inspection of the road was neglected, and this in face of the fact that it was about to send a train of unusual length and weight over the line. People think that the officials should not have been content with the ordinary and regular inspection of the track and its supports. Knowing that hundreds of souls were about to go over its line in one long train it is argued that a more than usually careful investigation of the track should have been made. Again, the company is charged with almost criminal heedlessness and recklessness in allowing a train of such length to go over the line loaded to its full capacity with human beings. A Chicago Man’s Thrilling Experience. Thomas Trimm, a Chicago commercial traveler, tells the following story: “I was sitting on the coal-box in the rear of the fifth coach back of the baggage-car, and the first warning I had of the accident was a cracking sound from the front and realized at once that there was trouble. In a monent the car I was in began to sink and I jumped for the strap that holds the bell-cord, but missed it; and at that moment the car was telescoped. The lights went out, and instantly I found myself wedged in as in a vise betwen the door of the car at my back and car-seats, irons, beams, sticks, and a heap of humanity, dead and alive, all around me. I soon found that my legs were wedged in so that I could not get out. I was not hurt, and began to feel around near me to learn what was holding my legs. It was very darx, and I could not see anything. “My chin was resting on top of a dead woman and all around me were the bleeding dead and wounded. Under my right arm was a man struggling and crying for help, but in a short time I knew that he was dead. The air was filled with the most melancholy and heartrending cries, some calling out the names of loved ones, either in the wreck or left at home, and others begging for aid. For three hours I remained in that fix, and to add to the other horrors of tha situation I could smell smoke and see blaze and sparks, and of course I thought the cars were afire, and believed that if aid did not come soon we would be roasted. The dread of being wedged in there, with all my senses retained, and having a fire slowly creeping upon me to surely roast me was too horrible to be told—it must be experienced to be fully realized. “At first when I learned that I was not seriously injured I had hopes of getting out sooner or later, but when I turned my head and. looking out, saw sparks my heart sank, and I longed for my gun so that when the fire would be too close to be bearable I could end my life. I tried to get my pocket-knife out to use if I found that I was to be roasted, but could not get into my pocket. Great beads of sweat ran down my face, bnt my mouth and tongue were parched. Every one and everything in our car was confined in a space about ten feet square, aud about two-thirds of those

in the car were killed outright, while all were injured more or less. I was the least hurt of any in the car. Many men were oflering gold watches and 8100 to any one who would get them out. "The men were worse than the women. One. woman, although severely wounded, was trying with comforting words to soothe the agony of the wounded and dying around her. Fcr more than two hours no one came to their relief, and during that time many audible pleas and prayers were offered for divine assistance. When assistance did come the first thing asked for was water. That was an opportunity tor the selfishness of humanity to show itself. They would grab the water cup from the lips of each other, so eager were they to moisten their own tongues. A small piece of ice was given to the only living lady in that car, and she generously shared it with all within her reach. I felt resigned to my situation when I

heard men chopping below me and I knew tha I would not bum. I knew then I would be rescued. " Mr. Church's Experience. Mr. P. C. Church, a commercial traveler for a New York hardware house, relates many incidents of the disaster. ‘A friend and myself,* said he, -thought we would take a run over, but we never exi>ected to see what we afterward did. “At Chatsworth there was a row of dead bodies lying side by side upon the depot platform. A piece of paper pinned to the breast gave the name of each one. The first body we came to was that of a Chicago drummer, whose name I can't remember, but he was running for a large wholesale grocery house here. We had met him the day before, and I afterward learned that he got on the excursion train at a little town above Peoria, intending to save time by making another place that side of Chatsworth. But he went to sleep, passing the place where he was to get off. not being wakened, until by the accident he was killed outright. ■When we reached the place where the accident occurred, the first thing we saw was a pile of mashed-up coaches as high as a telegraph pole. The top of the second chair-car shot up on top of this, standing like a monument at least fifteen feet higher. We arrived just *n time to see Mr. Murphy, a hotel-keeper from Galesburg, climb out of a hole in the top of the first chair-car, which was just in view, upon a pile of broken timber at the top of the heap. He pulled out his wife and baby, uninjured but almost exhausted from having been penned up for nearly twelve hours. It was with great

difficulty they were assisted to the ground. Mr. Murphy then went back into the hole and brought out alive a little baby. He had torn it from the arms of a dead mother. After that he helped out an aged woman whose back had been injured. These five, together with two others, were all that were rescued from that car. “When the hotel-keeper came down I asked him how it happened that he was not killed, He replied that when the crash came his wife was sitting in one seat and himself and the baby were in the one just behind, near the front of the car. The baby was knocked off the seat and he stooped to pick her up as they shot into the mass of ruins ahead. Just at that moment, he said, a timber penetrated the car, shooting across the place where he had been sitting and struck a young lady who sat opposite in the neck. He was thus pinned down by the timber, which also protected him from being smashed and saved his life. He looked across the aisle and saw the young lady’s head

had fallen over on the back of her seat and hung only by the skin. “The sight of the dead and wounded lying in the adjacent fields was horrible. They were lying in little heaps of about a dozen, all having been killed in a different manner. The entire side of one man’s face would be mashed in, while a hole as large as your fist in the forehead of another would show where a timber had penetrated. Three-fourths of the dead never knew what killed them. It was a sight I never want to look upon again. There were young ladies in picnic dress, with their white skirts saturated with blood and the front of their faces mashed beyond recognition. One young-looking mother had held her baby in her arms, when a timber, striking the child in the back, impaled both victims in instant death. The mother’s face did not bear a scratch, but the expression upon it will haunt me to the grave." Mr. Church saidthatthe action of the railroad officials after the accident was condemned by almost everybody. Hundreds of people got as far as Forest on their way to the wreck but had to walk the rest of the distance—six miles. Officials rode up and down the tracks, and a few slow trains brought in the dead, but the wounded and dying were left on the ground, with no relief except that which their partners in grief could give them. They lay in the muddy fields all night, with the rain beating down, while their groans and cries went up in vain. As fast as baggage could be taken from the cars, no matter whose it was, it was tom open, and dresses and shirts appropriated for bandages to dress the wounds of the suffering. After the physicians and nurses had finished with the trunks thieves rifled them and carried off what was valuable. A Remarkable Escape. Mr. Murphy, a farmer living at Cuba, Fulton County, 111., in speaking of the disaster, says he felt a premonition that one would come to the train from the time it started. In the first place, he did not believe it wrs good rail, oading to place both engines in front. 'J he terrible weight would be almost certain to break down any frail bridge. The train started half an hour late, and stopped quite a while on the other side of the Illinois River. At another station at which the train stopped the brakes were not thrown off of one of the coaches, and when it started the coupling broke, whicn necessitated sending to Forest for anctner coach. All these delays threw the train over an hour late, and it was running at a terrific speed to make up for lost time. Mr. Murphy says the estimate of forty miles an hour usually given was too slow. When Mr. Murphv and his wife stepped on the train tuey entered the second car irom the steeper but finding no two seats together unoccupied they went forward two cars further ana teed t> get seats in it They failed, and to this failure they owe their lives, as every one in that enr was killed. Returning to the car which t. ey first entered, they so md two seats which had been turned so as to face each other which were occupied by E S. Harter and wife, of Peoria. On expr-ssing a wish to occupy one of these seats Mr. Harter ut once CJurte.’Usly complied, and they sat dJwn and were chatting pleasantly up to the tin e of tl;e disaster. These seats were in the rear, and ot the whole party occupying the car, about fortvfive, only five were saved—Mr. Murphy and

wife, Mr. Harter and wife, and one other, unknown. The first intimation of the disaster was a bumping sound, followed almost immediately by a sound resembling the hissing of steam, caused by the cars sliding over each other. The next minute passed as though in a dream, Mr. Murphy waking up to find that he was badly bruised and that the car was in ruins. There were few groans, as nearly all were killed as quickly as though struck by lightning. The roof of the car had fallen in with the exception of the little corner occupied by the party alluded to. In that corner, for some reason, it was still hanging, but vibrating back and forth as though it might fall at any moment. A bright light shone in through the roofless car caused by the fire on the bridge and probably from the reflection from the locomotive headlight, and Mrs. Murphy exclaimed, "My God! The train is on fire.’ Mr. Murphy, whose shirt was covered with blood, realized for the first time that he was badly hurt. Mr. Harter at once kicked out a window, crawled through, and was followed by his wife. The light by this time nad gone down, and in the midst of the almost Egyptian darkness that preceded the storm Mr. Murphy crawled through the window and stood on the outside, when he realized that he was at a considerable height from the ground. How far he did not know, but he told his wife he would jump, and. if he could safely, for her to follow. He then leaped into the unknown distance, found it about nine feet, encouraged his wife to do the same, and, being a strong, stalwart man, was able to catch her in his arms and hold her. Shocking Incidents. Both Mr. Kirk and Mr. Wadsworth relate many shocking incidents of the work of rescuing which came under their observation. The latter tells of finding a woman of singular hardihood who was caught in the tender close to the engine. Both legs were crushed, but she managed to sit up, and watched and advised the men who were sawing the timbers to release her. In the end of one car where Mr. Kirk worked among the bodies no less than twenty-nine dead were taken out. This car hod gone inside another car and its occupants had all been jammed together at one end. The car of Superintendent Armstrong was in the thick of the wreck and was crushed to pieces, yet none of its occupants were injured beyond scratches. This is accounted for by the circumstance that there was little in the car to hurt any one. Its slight contents did not make a crush so grinding and close that escape was unlikely. Mr. Divine, of Ellenville, N. Y., was in the second sleeper from the front. He saw much of the tragedy and his account is graphic. “I had not retired,” said he, "when the first shock came. I had just taken the button from my collar and was going forward with my undressing when I felt the car quiver aud divined at once that there was a collision. I dropped flat in the alley, and was scarcely jarred. The shock over, I got up and went to the front of the car, where the first thing that caught my eye was the burning culvert. I called all the men in the car to turn out as quickly as possible to aid those in the wrecked day coaches, and advised all the ladies to dress themselves. as it might not be possible to move the sleeper in the case of the fire extending. All this time, from the moment of the collision, the cries of the wounded came back in a perfect roar. I got into one car and found the little Snedaker boy, whose leg has since been amputated. I next found little Bertha Blandin, whose mother was killed. The first thing the little one did when I lifted her was to beg me to find her mamma, and I promised to do so, though I was hopeless as I could see three dead women in the car. I then stumbled upon a woman whose legs were twisted together in the timbers, though they did not seem to be broken. I leaned her back against a cushion while I helped a boy out, and when I turned back to release her she was dead. I subsequently found that mv sleeves were bloodied when I had reached my arm around her neck to raise her, and I suppose her head must have been crushed, though I did not notice it. There was simplv no end to such scenes and such experiences." Plundering the Dead. Mrs. Charles Carlton, of Oneida, one of the

survivors, corroborated the stories of robberies committed, and says that there were instances in which the vandals cut off the fingers o.f imprisoned women to secure the rings. Four men are stated to have swarmed to the front immediately after the disaster, and to have engaged in the awful sacrilege of stripping the desolate dead under cover of darkness ana confusion. That such impious pillage prevailed is not to be denied. Mr. H. D. Gould, General Freight and Passenger Agent of the road, caught one of the devils in the act and kicked him within an inch of his life, forcing him to desist. Another scoundrel caught in the act said he was merely securing a memento of the wreck. J. D. McFadden, one of Peoria’s dead, was robbed of SzOJ. Mrs. Deal’s rings were stripped from her fingers. Mrs. Potthoff, of Third street, was robbed, though unhurt F. D. Weinette’s pockets were turned inside out when his body was found and his watch and S',o were gone. The wife of Capt. Dal ve, the harbor-master, swears that her busbund was stripped of $4,755, and there are other cases. The entire Zimmerman family, three in number, were robbed. The Mysterious Suicide. Inquiries regarding the identity of the man who shot himself to be rid of his agony are without a-ail. 'The best information concerning him was obtained Sunday from a man from Bacon, 11l , Mr. E. Wadsworth He was a passenger in one of the sleepers. “I was awakened,” he said, “by a bump, as I was thrown against the end of the berth, and ot course was soon up and dressed and doing what I could to assist the wounded. I heard cries in the field, and going to the source found a young man of about twenty whose leg was so broken that the bone protruded and whose cries of agony were

dreadful. I went to him, and be said he had got out of a wrecked car himself and crawled to where he then was. I got a mattress and pillo’ws for him and some water, and a lady who had brandy gave him some of that. He talked reasonably for a moment or two, and then said ho was from Macomb, in Macoupin County. I asked him what more I could do for him, and his only reply was ‘Stay with me.’ He seemed to fear being’ left alone. Just then I heard a woman screaming and told him I must go to her. I had gone but a little way when I heard a pistol-shot. He had shot himself in the forehead.”