Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1909 — WE SHUDDER TO THINK WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN. [ARTICLE]

WE SHUDDER TO THINK WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN.

Mr. and Mrs. F. E- Babcock were in Chicago Sunday and took the boat trip to Milwaukee on the big steel whaleback excursion steamer Christopher Columbus. The trip takes about five hours each way, and was very pleasant going. On the return journey the lake was more rough and the boat rocked considerably and a few passengers got seasick. To add to the strenuousness, when about 20 or thirty miles out from Milwaukee and some five to seven miles from shore there was a sudden severe jolt like two freight cars coming together, and the engines stopped very suddenly. Just what caused the crash we were unable to learn, but everyone in the main saloon where we were seated, rose to their feet and waited with bated breath for the next development. They were reassured, by the cooler headed, and sat down again. It was perhaps a half an hour before the engines were started and then the, speed was much slower and the boat arrived in Chicago one hour late, and evidently a part of the machinery had been broken. It was also learned that fire had broken out down in the boiler rooms immediately after the crash, an<J, it was some little time before it was gotten under control- Rumor of the fire was kept from the passengers as much as possible, and only a small portion of them knew of it. One idiot on the deck immediately above the flames, started to yell "fire,” but only got out a gasp, for an officer or member of the crew jumped onto him and choked off the frightful cry and beat him up so that his head was swathed in bandages after he had had his injuries dressed. % No further trouble resulted, although the passengers who knew of the Are were very thankful when they saw the lights from the lighthouses in the harbor at Chicago, and more so when they were once more on dry land. It is very difficult for the passengers to get an official information of this kind, which is probably just

as well, for had the 4,000 passengers known the' truth a panic would surely have resulted beside which the Slocum disaster at New York a few years ago would scarcely have been a circumstance. No mention of the trouble was made in the Chicago papers, that we saw, and the general public will know little of how close a terrible calamity was averted.