Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1891 — A HUNDRED KILLED. [ARTICLE]

A HUNDRED KILLED.

An Appalling Railroad Disaster in Europe. A Heavily Laden Train Goes Through f Bridge Near Bale, Switzerland— A City of Mourning. A fearful accident is reported iron Switzerland. A railroad bridge across th« Moenichen, a small affluent of the Rhine, at Stein, in the canton of Basel, not fa> from Germany, gave way on the 14th under the weight of an Excursion train, crowded with throngs of people who were on their way to a musical fete, Two engines and the first car, with all its passengers, first plunged into the river, while th« rest of the ears remained suspended ovei the stream. All the trainmen were killed, and every passenger in the submerged cat was drowned. Thirteen cars were saved. The number of cars was at least sixty, and of those injured not less than one hundred. The fearful calamity has caused a terrible shock in Switzerland and South Germany. Rescuers hastened to the scene and the injured were taken care of. Latbk—The number of people who losl their lives on the 14th by the collapse of J* railroad bridge on the Moenchenstein & hundreds more or less injured. Anothei account of the disaster says that fiftyseven bodies have been recovered and that forty persons are severely wounded. It is feared that many others are dead whose bodies have not been found. Scenes which were ?#nly heartrending were witnessed In Bale on Monday when the bodies of a large number of the victims of the Moenichenstein railroad disaster were bronght there from the place where the accident occurred, by sorrowing relatives who had gone in search of missing husbands, fathers or brothers, wives mothers or sisters, as the case might be, for representatives of a majority of the .best families of Bale left there to attend the music festival. Wives brought home the bodies of their husbands, and husbands brought home the bodies of their wives and of their children. Several families were practically wiped out of existence by the disaster, the full extent oi which is not known even at this hour. Bale is now truly a city of mourning. Nearly every family In thecity may be said to have been touched by the calamity, foe those families who have not actually lost one of their members, have dear friends or acquaintances, either among the dead on among those who are mourning the loss relatives. Those who are not afflicted in the manner described are either nursing wounded relatives or sympathizing those who have friends among the woundi ed. Almost each hour records a death, on a case in which the physicians give up all hope of saving the patient’s life. Everything that the local or municipal authorities can do to help the wqpndefl, recoveij the dead, or assist those who have been plunged into distress by the fearful railroad wreck, is being done. Clergymen, priests and physicians, a large force oj troops, firemen and scores of vehicles tq be used as ambulances, have been die-* patched to the scene of the wreck. Th«j troops and the firemen are busily engaged in removing the wreckage, recovering thej bodies of tbe dead and transporting the wounded to their homes in the city or tq the hospitals. The physicians and minls-i ters of the gospel of all denominations are doing noble work in ministering to thq wounded and in comforting the bereaved. The neighborhood of the collapsed bridge as this dispatch is sent resembleq in many features the after-episode of ai battle—the closing acts in some warlikq struggle. Still more so was this so in the past night,with the river banks illuminated in a ghastly manner by huge fires built of fir trees, and the troops and flremeq working unceasingly dragging the riveij for the bodies of the dead. Other detachments of troops were attending the bivouacs of their comrades, as if in actual war time, cooks and camp-fires not being wanting to complete a scene which most sadly picturesque. The flitting here and.there of soldiers, holding torches oq the river banks' and in boats or rafts, the warning cries exchanged, the sharp word of command, the moaning and groaning of the wounded, the horrible pile of wrecks age about which the soldiers and firemen were working, the blazing fires here, there and everywhere, the working railroad men on the redly lighted track above, the arrival and departure of friends of the excursionists, all of which was kept up during the night hours and throughout Monday morning, furnished material for a most realistic battle picture. The work of tbe soldiers dragging the river was greatly impeded by the fact that the steam was considerably swollen by reccnl rains. This carried the bodies a long way down the river, so much so that It is expected several days of such dragging work will be required before the soldiers’ work will be completed.