The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1854-09-01
FrightfuI Railroad Accids nt.

At half-past eight O'Clock en- Thursday morn
ing, Mr.. Vandusen's passenger train, which
left Cincinnati at A. NJ, met " ith most
serious accident when some three miles west of
this place. The train was passing around
curve in an excavation, beyond which was
heavy embankment. and just as it get within
view ofthe terminus of the excavation, COW
appeared on the track, and before the cars
could be stopped she was under the wheels
The most frightful result was the consequence.
The engineer was so much alarmed that he was
about jumping heedlesSly into the trestie bridge,
through which he would have inevitably fallen
dead, bad not the fireman, with great presence
OF mind, caught bin and held him secure
The locomotive jumped over the COW. at the
same time breaking loose from the tender, and
alightIng square on the track, ran safely on.
The baggage car was thrown down an en-
bankment of about forty feet, turning twice
over before reaching level ground. In this car
We're some half dozen persons, excepting two
OF whom, strange to relate, all escaped with but
slight scratches. Two Of them were seriously
injured Mr.. Hartwell Locke, the express
messenger, was, by several physicians, who
soon arrived, pronounced in dying condition,
and such intelligence was borne throughout the
country by the passengers who left on the train.
He was lnsensble, and up to eight O'Clock this
morning has remained in that condition. His
injuries are not flesh wounds nor broken bones,
but what is worse, they are internal, and per-
haps chiefly in bis head. MIR. Kenan, the mail
agent, was the other person who was badly
hurt.
The newsboy, lad of some fifteen years of
age, was extricated from beneath the top of the
baggage car, which had slid of, with scarcely
scratch npon him. The baggage master, Mr..
Gardiner, escaped with slight injuries to an an
Gle end few cuts on his forehead, and George,
the colored strain boy" came out yet better,
for he complains of nothing but little stiffness.
That all who were in this car Were not killed
outright, is the greatest wonder of all who
have seen the wreck, which is the most COM
plete smash-np that ever occurred in this region
OF country.
The first passenger car was next to 90 Off
1t pitched endwise down the hill, and WAS
completely rdded BY the trucks, which passed
through the floor, tearing the seats loose, and
throwing them. together with thirty or forty
passengers, into one great heap.
Such sight of bloody noses and limping peo-
pie were perhaps never seen in one company
before. One man had shoulder joint displaced,
dnotneT ndu i severe SaS0 cut IN MS lace; one
had his finger smashed, another foot scraped,
but fthe whole number, not one was seriously
injured. Cincinnati Times, Aug 10.
FATAL EFFECTS OF LIGHTNING.-A corre-
spondent OF the Detroit Free Press, writing from
Pecatonica, Winnebago county, H., on the
18th ult., says:--I witnessed, yesterday, one
of the most melancholy scenes ] ever beheld.
In the town of Lysander, one mile south of Pc
catonica depot, there lay enshrned ii five cof-
fins Mr. Merchant, two sons and two daugh-
terS, all of whom were struck with lightning
during thunder shower, about two O'Clock, A.
M.-leaving in the family only the wife aud
one son about eight years old they both being
much injured by the shock, the woman remain
ing mentally deIanged, continually hemoaning
the loss OF her family. The circumstances OF
their deaths ought 10 be caution to the public
TO manage differently from what they did. The
night being very warm, they took off their beds
and placed them on the tloor in cool room,
where stood a stove, and the lightning, coming
down the stove pipe, divided on the stove
hearth, and struck the whole family of seven,
OF whom only two survived.