Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 January 1877 — The Ashtabula Horror-Story of a Lady Passenger. [ARTICLE]

The Ashtabula Horror-Story of a Lady Passenger.

Miss M. Shepard, iff Ripon, Wis., one «f the survivors of toe Ashtabula disaster, gives ths following accountof her experience to the Chicago Tt ibune: “ I hada berth fa tea sleeping car ’Paltrtioc. There were twenty passengers on the car; two ladies when we started and two more afterward. A very severe snow storm set in at Rochester, and we all expected to be snowed in. At Ashtabula bridge we were three or four hotup behind; this was between eight and pine o’clock in the evening. I think we were running faster than we dida few moments previously. The people in the car were •talking, eating, or playing cards, and the first warning of any impending danger was given os by a candle being knocked •down, the glass in the lamps being shattered and the bell-rope breaking. The other lights fell, there was a bump, then -A horrible crash. “ A gentleman near me said, 4 Oh! my •Ood, we’re going down.’ Then we commenced to fail, and we went down, down, down, down. Some remained in their •«eats, grasping them, while others rose, tit vm quite dark now. I stood up in the eentre of the aisle, holding on to the seat, SQu tliflllL IfkH I be lew liable to be we warn down everything was as silent as the grave, but when we had struck a ter-

tibia shriek arose from the wreck. There was another crash at the same time, but notwo load as the first. -.When we went down, splinters, glass, etc., were whirling around In the car, the berths were slipping down, and there was general confusion. Something fell on me, but it was nothing very heavy. It was dark and I could not see. Some gentleman also fell over me, but recovered himself a moment afterward. I could not toll who it was as it was dark. Some man said the car would be on fire in a minute, and we must hurry out. Another said, * the water fa coming in, and we will be drowned.’ On my way out, a perfectly uninjured man grabbed me as 1 groped my wire along on hands and knees, and said, ‘ O kelp me: don’t leave me; save me,’and ever so many snch things as that, but I couldn’t see his face. A woman wanted me to help her husband, who was jammed in between the floor and a berth. I tried to get him out, but could not. Some men called cut and said they would come and help him. Then I went to the door, walking over the furnace in my course. There was no fire caught in otir car. “ How to get out alive I could not imagine. The cars around me were either ablaze or covered with such masses of rubbish as to almost completely hem me in. But I saw a man climbing up the rubbish, and I followed him. I got on the side of the car, which had turned over, and crawled along on it. It seemed to be filled with people, jammed together, screaming and crying for help. There was another man behind me, and both tried to help me along, but it was too slippery, and I found I could do better crawling along by myself. WTien we got to the end of the car these men—Mr. Tyler, of Bt. Louis, and Mr. White, Chicago —helped me down. When I got down I found myself in the water, snow and ice up to my knees. Mr. Tyler was bleeding about the head, face and hands, with a dreadful gash over his eve. Mr. White was unhurt, and he told me it was his eighth railroad accident. Under the corner there was a man whose head lay lower than the rest of his body, and his limbs were all crushed by the car. Ho asked us to help him, and we did so as best we could, until others came and carried him away, suffering intensely. I do not know who he was. All this time the Ashtabula fire bells and the bell ot the engine that had passed over were ringing furiously. The blinding snow fell around us, illuminated by the light of the fire which had attacked the wreck. The banks looked as high as those near Niagara at first. The bridge had broken off short at each end, leaving nothing but the abutments. “ By this time there were plenty of men around to help us, but there was a perfect panic, very few having any presence of mind at ail. Many who could have saved themselves as well as not had to be dragged out of the care, or they would have been burned to death. The women really showed the most courage, and yet there were few ot them saved. We were heiped up the hill to the engine-house, pushing through the snow and ice, and clambering up the steep, rugged banks of the creek. The injured were brought in, some of them horribly mangled, but very few of them unable to speak.- There were three ladies there —a Mrs. Graham of New York, Mrs. Bingham of Chicago, another lady and myself. My escape was most remarkable, my only injury being no more than a scratch upon my wrist. Mrs. Graham was only slightly injured. Mrs. Bingham had her left leg ana spine hurt, and the other lady, whose name I don’t know, was also terribly injured. “ Before we had got up the hill the whole train was on fire; we heard the shrieks of the wounded and dying, and the whole scene was as bright as day. Men were working as hard as they could to help the sufferers out of their fiery prison. A physician came in about half an hour, ana we took ’buses and went to the village. We were drenched through and through, and our clothes,froze to us."