Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 November 1884 — THE SOUTH. [ARTICLE]

THE SOUTH.

A frightful railroad accident occurred at Hempstead, Texas, on the Houston and . Texas Central Railway. The north-bound express crushed through a bridge and into. Clear Creek, drowning -twelve of the passengers and wounding- forty. Many, of the dead were mangled beyond recognition. A dispatch from Austin, Tex., gives the following particulars of the; shocking affair: “About»two miles south of Hempstead the road crosses Clear Creek, where the embankments are high and the water -deep. Here about 1 o’clock in the morning, as the train came tearing along, the bridge gave way just as the engine and tender had gotten across, and the entire train, consisting of the express; baggage, and smoking cars, two coaches, and two sleepers, plunged into the river. The train was crowded with passengers, and the scene which ensued was horrible in the extreme. As the trembling timbers gave way, a dreadful shriek of horror from the terrified passengers was soon followed by the heartrending moans and cries of the wounded and the dying. The baggage and smoking cars were plunged beneath the water, the former twenty feet below the surface, while the others were almost submerged. Those who were, unhurt joined in the work of rescuing women and children and the wounded, but in spite of the most heroic efforts more than a dozen were drowned. Darkness heightened the terrors of the scene. Many perished within easyreach of help. At the last accounts the bodies of twelve dead victims had been recovered. Forty persons were wounded. Many of the dead were mangled beyond recognition. but none of their names were remembered. The fireman jumped the moment he saw the bridge was falling, and landed on the embankment. His leg was broken. The engineer remained at his post and escaped unhurt. The conductor did not receive a scratch. Most of those who were drowned* were in the baggage and smoking cars, and among them was the baggage-master.” Five laborers who were engaged in Chicago for railroad construction in Guatemala, write from New Orleans that on arriving at Port Barrios they were ordered to work as slaves under a guard of soldiers. These victims managed to escape to the United States, but left IGS other dupes penniless. ... The D i rec tor Gene nil of th e No w Orleans Exposition gives notice that exhibits should be shipped at once to be ready for the. opening Dec. 15.... The mercantile house of J, Stadeker & TSon/at Canton, Miss., has been closed on executions. The liabilities are $75,000 or moreGardanne Casanave, a member of the Louisiana Returning Board of 1876, died at New Orleans last week. .. .Twentyfive houses in the business part of Goldsboro, N. C.. were destroyed by fire-, involving a loss of $250, - dicate has been formed to build the Texas Central from Albany, Tex., north to a connection with the Denver and New Orleans .Rail way..... An old negro named Johnson, living at Jackson, Miss., cut his throat on account of the election of Cleveland.. ..A late census of Memphis. Tenn., shows an increase of. 29 per cent, in the population since 1880. ... .The safe of the Texas Express Company at Brvan was unlocked and robbed of SIO,BOO.