Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 May 1917 — WAR LORDS’ TRAIN DERAILED [ARTICLE]

WAR LORDS’ TRAIN DERAILED

Engine and Three Cars Leave Track Monday Night. Arcola, Illinois, May B.—Members of the French mission to the United States were severely shaken up, but otherwise uninjured, when the special train aboard which they were returning East from their middle Western tour, was derailed one and one-half miles from here at 7:25 o’clock last night. William Nye, in charge of the United States secret service detail attached to the party, made a thorough investigation of conditions surrounding the wreck and announced as his opinion that it was entirely accidental. • Rene Viviani, French minister of justice,'rand head of the mission, Marshal Joffre and other attaches of the party were dining at the time of the accident. Only the forward truck of the dining car, however, left the rails and the jar was comparatively slight. The train, composed of five steel cars, drawn by tw‘o ‘engines, was running at a fair speed when the tender of the second engine jumped the track and tore up the rails for a distance of about 200 feet. The day coach, which was used for a buffer car, was thrown from’ the track and turned on its side in a ditch. The trainmen riding in the. Coaches were uninjured. | The second car in which the newspapermen attached to the party and the staff of the mission were traveling, also jumped the track but remained upright and none of its occupants were injured. The dining car was next and the two other cars of the train were undisturbed.