Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1893 — MANGLED IN A WRECK. [ARTICLE]

MANGLED IN A WRECK.

HORROR ON A CHICAGO'STREET CAR. , , , ■■■ ■ < Four Passengers Killed and Fourteen Badly Wounded—Run Down by a Fort Wayne Engine The Watchmen Not at Their Posts—Six Arrests Made. Death In the Darkness. Four people were killed and more than twice that number injured early Thursday morning by the collision of a Fort Wayne train with a crowded streetcar of the Chicago City Kail way at the 47th street and Stewart avenue crossing. The train which wrought such great disaster was made up of three cars containing laborers on their way to Colehour. The dead are: John Blaha, crushed to death; Archibald MeAndrews, Instantly killed; unidentified woman, supposed to be Mrs. M. Carson, address unknown; unknown man, horribly mangled. The accident occurred at 6:10 o’clock, When the street cars were crowded with workmen. Car 197 going east on Fortyseventh street had at least fifty passengers on board. As it neared the tracks of the Fort Wayne and Wabash roads there was no warning of an approaching train. Within the ill-fated car sat the workroon smoking their clay pipes and chatting pleasantly, wholly unmindful of their impending danger. All at once there was a wild shriek of the engine, a clanging of the bell, ana a construction train running at a high rate of speed crashed into the car, creating fearful havoc. There was no previous ringing of the bell, no oonspicuous light on the engine which was moving backward, and the gateman and towerman at the crossing had failed wholly to do their duty. Neither was at his post. The wreck occurred while it was still too dark for the driver or conductor of the street car to see 100 feet down the track. No one expected the construction train, and the first known of the danger was when the engine shrieked and the crash came. An instant later the killed and wounded were strewn along the frozen ground, the street car was a complete' wreck, and the tra ! n rushed by, leaving a frightful scene of death and confusion behind. The horses broke loose £pom tho car and ran away. Early risers in tho vicinity rushed to the rescue of the passengers, and the alarm -fras turned into all the neighboring police stations. Three hundred yards south of the crossing the train came to a standstill, and the half a hundred workmen who were on board en ronte to work down the track hurried to the assistance of the injured. AVildest Confusion Reigned. Wild confusion reigned for the first few minutes. Those who had come to the work of rescue could hear the pitiful cries of the wounded and see the body of one dead man. Where to begin was a question which ptffleled them. Five police patrol wagons arrived on the scene soon and policemen took charge pf the work. At first Uttle u ,attention was directed to the train which had done the damage, but after those about the car had been picked up it was found that the bodies of two men were under the tender. These were recovered. The police at once placed six persons under arrest. These are Conductor Bernard O’Connor and Driver Patrick Stanley, who were on the street car; Engineer Bosscup and Fireman Meager, of the construction train; “Old John” TJllbright, gateman,and Peter Scßwartz, towerman at the crossing. “Old John" was indicted last January for alleged carelessness when the freightful accident of Jan. 14 occurred at his crossing. Both the gateman and the towerman were in what is known as the ground house by the stove when the construction train came down the track.