Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1891 — MANGLED AND BURNED. [ARTICLE]

MANGLED AND BURNED.

Twenty-One Lives Sacrificed Through Carelessness. rrightful Railroad Accident at Ravena, Ohio—Cara Telescoped and the Oeewpaats Crashed and Burned. ~~~ ~ w ■ At 3 o’clock on the morning of July 3d, Erie passenger train No. 8, east bound, was lying quietly at the' station at Raygna. O. Something was wrong with the coupling of the special car, and the train crew gathered in a little knot about the md of the car, while the regular yardman whistled cheerfully as he tapped each dmoSlng wheel to be sure that all was right before Che train, heavily laden with human freight, was foreyer beyond his control. Meanwhile there was one upon whom all their lives depended, flagman Boynton, idling lazily toward the rear end of the car, and thence back into the night, with a flag and lantern, to ward oft dan—ger from that point. He was not long in walking to the end of the car; not longer than any one might take when there was no danger, and surely there was no ■death in the peaceful darkness that stretched away to the rear of the train. No; Boynton was not long in starting and be surely was not long in reaching a point far enough from the train he was bound to protect. No matter how long it took, it was too long; no matter how far back he walked, it was not far enough. There was some dreadful mistake or carelessness or fate. There was a dazzling flash of a locomotive headlightin the bewildered eyes of the rear flagman, a cry of warning when it was too late, a whirr of wheels, an awful crash, and deep silence, but only for a moment. Twenty -Qua.precious human lives were blotted out in a moment and twelve maimed and injured. A terrible rear end collision had occurred and the flagman, throwing away his lantern, oould only hope to save his own life. The passenger train consisted of an express and baggage car, three day coaches, two pullman cars and a special car, and was about ten minutes late, owing to trouble with one of the cars. The train, at the time of theaccldent, lay on the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio main track, just at the bottom of a steep grade, and, though the trainmen knew they were followed by No. 88, a fast freight, filled with Chicago fresh meat, no one seemed to think the freight was at their very heels, and, once on the down-grade, coming into the station, it would be a hard matter to stop, especially as the freight did not intend to make Ravena a stopping place. What might have been expected actually happened. The freight was making time and came down the hill with a rush, the engine and tender being hurled trough the passenger cars. When the correspondent arrived on the <cene a few minutes after the collision the •ieene beggared description. Piteous cries 'or help arose from the heap of wreckage, and willing hands were already tearing at the heap of broken and twisted timers and iron, when a scream of terror arose from beneath the ruins that sent a thrill through the hearts of the crowd that gathered about. Then here and there the darkless became gradually lit up with nogrdte.'ul or welcome light, as a tiny tongue of lame sprung up from the crevices of the wrecked train. Fire had added a cruel fear *nd terror to the wreck, and, fight as they would, the rescuers could not drive the leadly enemy back from the victims, who writhed and implored in vain for help that was willing enough, but, alas, far too weak io tear aside iron and timbers before wreck end flame had done their worst. There were very few injured who did tot die, and very few dead . who were not bruised, and broken, and blackened, and burned out of all semblance to the form of 4 telrMater 'ThomasHanley,ot Corning; E*te was in ttefctifi rear car witlr a score jf bright, lively fellow-glass-workers on ?helr way home to Corning, after a good reason's work in Ohio, says itwas maryelthat a single occupant of the car escaped to tell what followed the erash. “I was half asleep,” said he, “listening In a lazy way to the jokes and an occasional jhreerful growl from one of our friends in a corner vainly attempting to get some sleep, when I fancied I heard a man cry out in alarm. Too sleepy to fully Investigate I glanced up and around the car and sunk back into the seat. Opening my eyes the next moment It seemed as if I had fallen asleep and wakened in another world. I seemed to feel no shock—only a smothered crash and a dull sensation of pain, resulting probably from the terrific blow I received on the back of the head. Then a realization of what happened came only too soon, as the most horrible groans and cries came from every side from the poor fellows who an instant before had teen exchanging some marry remarks. “Then camb the fire, and with the first blaze I stopped my ears to the scream of pain and terror that arose. I was wedged tn by semeone, my friend probably, but he was so bent,twisted and doubled under the seat about my benumbled legsthatl could not tell what it was, except that it was hunuHi and living at one time but dying now, as I could catch the gasping breath and death knell coming from the poor fellow’s throat. Itwas terrible, but a merciful release, a painless death to what some of the others bad to suffer Many were caught and pinioned to their seats or squeezed against the walls of the oar, or against the engine that had dashed into and through the cars. Wherever they were, they stood or lay, pleading in vain for help, and seeing every moment the flames creeping closer and closer, winding about their limbs and licking their faces, and one by one their cries were stilled as they gave up their fight for life. My escape was simply marvelous, and came about through ho effort of my own. I was forced |or knocked towards a, break in the car, and, after hard work, extricated my legs from the mass of wreckage and human forms and found myself standing in the outside air, badly hurt, but alive.** WHAT DAYLIGHT BEVEAXJLD. There was no delay in ready assistance, but all efforts were fruitless until

the arrival of the city fire department. The flames could not be stayed on their terrible march of death until water had been poured in the wiheck for hours, it seemed to the agonized on-lookers, but in reality all that human power could do w&s done themAt daylight a snbdned crowd of several hundred people stood at the station gazing with tearful eyes upon a sickening sight, while all about them was a smothering, awful odor of burning human flesh, arising from a mass of (blackened, heaped up wreckage Now and then one’s eyes chanced upon little shreds of clothing or seared flesh and bones, of J little piles of what might have been human, each and all blackened and roasted to a horrible . Probably the most fearful sight, if any one could be worse than the other, was the appearance of the boiler of the freight engine. In the first shock the front end of the boiler was broken in,and as the engine ploughed itself through the mass of humanity four poor fellows were actually scooped up in the cauldron, wounded and helpless, and there they lay, slowly roasting to death before the very eyes of the spectators who would, but could not aid them. These were afterwards fished out piecemeal by the firemen’s hooks and mercifully covered with sheeting. Aid for the wounded was soon on hand, but for the dead, there was nothing but to hide them from sight as soon as possible. The handsome JStna building was transformed into a morgue, and as the masses or burned flesh were hooked out they were hastily removed there, and either stretched at full lengths, or huddled in little heaps. An enormous crowd had gathered about the morgue, but the doors were closed. Some morbidly curious persons crept up to the windows, only to fall back at what they had seen—nineteen remains of what had been human, covered with sheetings, through which a bare,blackened limb now and then protruded, while blood soaked through the white cloth and dripped on the floor. Coroner Sherman, with his assistants, could also be seen stepping from one to the other as the corpses, searching for letters or some other means of identifying one mass from the other. This was difficult. In half a dozen instances the entire head, had been burned off, leaving only the blackened trunk,grim and ghastly, defying all efforts at identification. Their names and other data could, only be secured from their surviving friends; no one could tell one trunk from the other ; all had become alike in their common fate. Among the entire nineteen beheaded, dismembered bodies but two had retained anything resembling the features of a human.

ANOTHEB FBIGHTFUTXT TOTAL ACCIDENT The greatest disaster in the history of that ccm n unity was the wreckage of a Kanawha <& Michigan railway train eight miles n< r h of Charleston, W. Va., on the 4th. There is a trestle there thirty-five feet high, which took fire some time during the night from some unaccountable cause, probable from a cinder of an engine passing about midnight. While the bridge was tet consumed, its foundation was so badly damaged as to render it unsafe to cross. No notification of the fact was received however, and the train, the first of the day, attempted to cross It as usual. The engine, tender and baggage car passed over safely, but the two coaches went through. Engineer Patrick Conner seem - ed to realize the silffation, and pullid open the throttle in the hope of pulling all over safely, bnt it was too late. Beth coaches were crowded and scarcely any one In them escaped injury. Ten penois were killed outright and tour others died later of their injuries. Fifty-eight of the pasengers were hurt, some of whom are so badly injured they will die.