Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1893 — MANY LIVES IN PERIL. [ARTICLE]

MANY LIVES IN PERIL.

Northern Pacific Car Eeavea the Track Near Rockford, N. D. A car attached to a Northern Pacific train, containing a hunting party from lowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, was derailed two miles south of New Rockford, N. D., and twenty persons injured, several of whom may die. The train was bowling along at the rate of twenty miles an hour when those in the forward cars felt the coaches jump and apparently jolt along the ties. Before the cccui ants of the rear car could move they were thrown into a heap and pinned down by broken timbers and car seats. To add to their terror redhot coals flowed from the stove in the car, which had broken from its fastenings, and in a moment the splintered coach was on fire. By the time the trainmen, who were forward and had escaped injury, reached the wrecked coach, it seemed as if every one of the passengers who lay helpless amid the debris must perish in the flames. Two of the victims of the disaster were so close to the fire that their clothes were scorching by the time assistance first arrived. The party was bound for the hunting grounds south of New Rockford and were in the highest spirits. They occupied a private car, which was attached to the accommodation train. The manner of the disaster was such that had the speed of the train been greater, nearly all of the occupants of the car must have been instantly killed.