The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-10-26 00:00:00

THE RECENT RAILWAY EISASTER IN

AMERICA.

Details of the sad disaster to a railway train in
America on Tuesday, the Bth inst., have now been
received. The train was returning from a rowing
match at Silver Lake, near Boston, and consisted of
20 cars and two engines, and there were nearly 1,500
passengers. The train was running at about 20 miles
an hour, when, after leaving Wollaston Station, it came
into contact with a freight car, which ran from a
siding into the main track. The engines were thrown
off the line, and, with several of the carriages, were
thrown down an embankment. Five of the carriages
were completely wrecked. The rails were torn up for
about 10 yards and twisted into every conceivable
shape, while trucks, pieces of boilers, sections of
machinery, and the miscellaneous debris incidental to
a general accident formed a heap of ruin and disorder
that cannot be described. Around this nondescript
pile were congregated some 500 people, mostly pas-
sengers of the ill-fated train, with about 200 people
who hurried from their houses in the vicinity of the
disaster. The first object which met the eye was
the corpse of a man whose face was mangled beyond
all chance of recognition. Further along were three.
more dead bodies laid out side by side. Here
and there on temporary stretchers lay some half a -
cloven or more wounded men. The physiciansnainistered '
to these, giving brandy and applying chloroform, 143.
the same sad pictures continually met the eye. About
Passing still further along toveard the wrecked cars,
a score of men had organized themselves into a gang
of workmen and began searching for more bodies.
One man was taken out with both legs broken and
horribly bruised, but he was alive, after remaining in
the wreck some forty minutes. The bodies of Charles
H. Morgan, and Mr. Hazey, of the Boston Express,
were next taken out, both terribly mutilated. On the
other side of the track the body of Patrick Reagan,
the defeated oarsman of the day's regatta, had been '
found. The wife of Faulkner, his partner in the I
sculling business, had also been killed, and both
bodies were removed to an adjoining house. and soon
after taken to the city ins carriage. A train of cars
arrived from Boston bearing a large crowd of anxious
people, policemen, and "wreckers." A. midi was
• made to identify the bodies stretched out on the
grass, and men and women hurried ~dlither
and thither in search of -friends and; relatives::
The telegraphic -operators were ,equal to ,tbe;.emer• I
'lwo men, Who 'had 'been down to the races
gweenrceYin the train; and laikk.their instrnmenta,..oth
them. As soon 'a h,ey• get out of the wrecic,Oey
climbed up a telegraPht•ole;,ent a wire, drevOklosiin;
and, splicing it to this instruments, at once epened
communication with Oesten,.tmd eat there in the open-
air all night, sendinieinetitages- for the railroad gom-
ps.ny and for these who 'wanted to allay the fetus of
anxious relatives: The scenes around the depOt
baffled all description. Women were struggling 4fcT
admittance within the cordon of police and lamenting
over the real or imaginary loss of friends.

Addressing his constituents at Inverness on Monday
night, Mr. Mackintosh, M.P., said it was high time the
people should have an opportunity of expressing an opinion
on the critical state of our foreign relations. Re condemned
the Government for entering the Congress tied down with
conventions with Russia and Turkey, but he believed Con-
gress was useful in that it checked Russian influence in South-
Eastern Europe,
The German Government has sent through Count
Munster, in recognition of valuable assistance rendered by
the coast-guard belonging to the Folkestone station on the
occasion of the wreck of the Grosser Kurfiirst, a splendid
Berlin vase to Captain Osborne It N., gold watches with
the Emperor's monogram to 74r. Young, the divisional
oillcer, and Mr. O'Connell, the chief boatman in charge oL
the station, and £2OO to be divided among the men.
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