Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1891 — RAILROAD WRECKS. [ARTICLE]

RAILROAD WRECKS.

V f AiUV'l&U* -A_. A Disaster in France by Which - Fifty Lives Were Lost And More Than a Hundred Injured—Three Killed Near Cincinnati on the C. 11. « D. A Paris cable of the 26th says: A terri-’ ble railway accident occurred to-day near the village of Saint Mande, in the department of the-Seine. Two excursion trains collided, owing to soroo error on the part of the driver of one of the trains. Both were loaded with people out for a holiday. The collision was followed by a scene of frightful confusion. Three carriages were utterly demolished, and many persons were crushed and injured in the ruins. The second train crashed into the preceding train before the latter had left the St. Mande station. The guards’ van and the three rear carriages of the fast train were wreck and caught lire. The injured occupants were shrieking in despair, and the other passengers hurriedly-left the train and assisted in extricating the victims. Soldiers also aided the fire brigade ln qucncliing tbe fire aniirescuiDg thepassengers. The rescue of the injured was carried on by torch light. Later reports make fifty persons killed instead of simply injured. A dispatch from St. Mande, dated 1 o’clock this morning says that sixty persons were injured and fifteen dead bodies have been thus far recovered, including those of twochlldren that were mangled beyond recognition. Mostofthe dead victims are legless, their limbs having been crushed off through the jamming together of the seats. Fully twenty thousand onlookers are at the scene. Many relatives of the victims are assembled at the railway station and heart rending scenes are witnessed as the victims are extricated from the wreck. The driver and fireman of the second train were burned alive. It is reported that the station master has gone mad and decamped. • _ v ' A late dispatch says that the search iu wrec and that thirty bodies have been recovered. Later—lt is now known that forty-nine have been killed and one hundred injured.

ox thk c. n. * ». A frightful wreck occured on night of the 35th at Middletown, Ohio on the C. H. &D. An excursion train returning to Cincinnati stopped at Middletown to make repairs. A freight train following crashed into the rear coaches, killing three persons outright and injuring forty others, several of whom will die. The scene following the accident was as follows: The excursion train was pulling out on to the main track, and all but the two hind coaches had left the siding when the mogul engine, with the heavy train behind it, went plowing through. The two rear cars and their human freight wer* hurled into the ditch, and the next coach was struck fairly in the end, and the locomotive, pushing under, elevated it to an angle of forty-five degrees. There it stood, filled with shrieking people. This car caught fire, but engineer Sehwind and his fireman were able to extinguish the blaze by use of hose from the locomotive. Two cars lay crushed in the diteh with a mass of maimed and mangled people moaning in agony, pleading for help. The rescurers set at work at c nee to extricate them. Legs, arms, and heads conld be seen through broken Windows, or pinned under the wreck. Moans of the helples s sufferers and the moans of the dying, mingled with the frantic cries of mothers, seeking husbands and children. Many had been cut by glass and timbers in the rush to escape and bloody faces and hands bore testimony to the great number who were injured.