Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1893 — NINE PERSONS DEAD. [ARTICLE]

NINE PERSONS DEAD.

TERRIBLE WRECK ON THE BIG FOUR NEAR MANTENO, ILL. Three Sleepers Telescoped by the Bear Section Crowding Into the ForwardTwenty Persons Injured—Victims World’s Fair Visitors—A Scene of Horror. Tito Trains Collide. Nine people were killed and twenty injured by a fearful rear-end collision between two sections of the Big Four train, known as No. 45, near the village of Manteno. a few miles north of Kankakee, on the line of tho Illinois Central Railway. A special train left Chicago at 9:20 o’clock at night over the line of the Illinois Central railway, but conducted by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Company. Tho train was in two sections and was fillt d with World’s Fair visitors from Indiana and the Southeast. At 10 o’clock the first section stopped at Manteno, a town of 000 inhabitants forty-six miles from Chicago. It is reported that the fiagman did not go back the proper distance to signal the other half of the train, approaching at a high spaed. The locomotive of tho rear section struck the roar of the sleeping ear ahead when going at tho rate of almost a mile a minute. The eugineer saw the impending calamity and jumped with the fireman after doing everything possible to check the speed of the engine. Doth wero badly bruised, but escaped with their liVes. The three rear sleepers on section No. 1 were telescoped, the powerful engine of the second section driving its way into them, and every person in the crowded cars was killed or injured. Scene of Horror. The scene about the accident was one of almost infinite horror. The engine plowed its dreadful way literally through tho bodies of sleeping men and women. Blood besmeared tho iron and wood of tho shattered cai s, that taking on tho force of the locomotive added to the disaster. The night was dark and the shrieks of the injured and dying mingled with the hiss of the steam from the broken boiler. The Eassengers on the coaches of the train ehind escaped with nothing more than a shock, which in somo cases. was sufficiently severe to throw them from their sleeping berths. Many of them dressed and hurried forward to assist in the work of rescuing the unfortunates who were still pinioned in the wreck. They were hardly on the ground before the residents of Manteno had reached the spot. Houses near the place of the collision were hastily thrown open,.and oaeh became an .improvised hospital. Several physicians were on tho cars and they passed among the wounded, alleviating with the few resources at their command tho sufferings of the wounded. Sheots and table cloths were torn into bandages and wounds skillfully dressed while brave and kindly women ministered to their wants with coffee hastily prepared and with cups of water. Help Arrives. Somo of the trainmen hurried to Manteno and then wired to Kankakee and Chicago for assistance. A dozen physicians from Kankakoo arrived at the scone of tho wreck as rapidly as as they could be convoyed in a hurriedly made up train. As soon as the injured were rescued from the wreck they were taken to Manteno to be cared for prior to their removal to Chicago. The arrivals wero timely and their efforts much appreciated by tho terror-stricken passengers, many of whom, otherwise uninjured, were suffering from tho suddenness of the shock and were going about wringing their hands and crying. Tho cries of those who were caught by tho broken timbers and twisted ironwork of tho shattered sleeping cars were pitiable and t ho work of getting them out attended with tho utmost difficulty, so thoroughly had tho engine dono its work of destruction. As tho labors of the relief party proceeded, deal and dying wero found mingled with the sometimes unconscious bodies of these whoso lives wore providentially preserved. The worst of it all wus in tho rear car, where the ponderous locomotive had struck with unchecked force. But so tremendous was the impact that each of the three rear couches contributed its quota to the list of casualties. Several wore hurt by being hurled from up] o • berths to (he Boor below, who oseapqd further damage, but all these were able to bo about, and somo of thorn aided afterward in the work of me cy. The wreck was tho worst that has on urrod on tho Illinois Central system for twenty years. Several of the injured are- beyond recovery, and it is probable ihat tho list of futalitios will be swelled to fourteen.