The true Democrat., 1855-11-13
SATURDAY, l, o'clock A. NJ. Our City,s Great AttiictiOn.

| Up to the hour of o'clock last evening, we had received no additional tidings from the scene of the Gasconade railroad disaster. The names of the persons killed and wounded, and the particulars of the accident as far aS furnish ed by the morning papers, were but little chang ed by further accounts. Those of the wounded and uniuiHred who came into the city on the night train, but corroboratcl by their several detailed statements, the particulars set forth in our columns. All agree in representing the af- fair terrible beyond belief and the general impression was, at late hour las. evening, that but the half Of the tcrrors of the fearful catas- trophe had been told. As far as heard from, we onl Y record the deaths of seventeen persons It is now the belief and wretched expectation of us all that more than double that number of lives have been sacrificed It seems an impos- slbllty that out of so great number of passen- gers, precipltated as they were and crushed with the ruins of the broken cars, so few were killed. It is easy to conceive how the pitching of one single car, heavily laden with human beings, from height of thirty feet might occasion the death of fifteen or twenty persons, and how then shall we escape the conclusion, that doubly greater mortality than is represented, must have occurred in this instance, when not only one, but two, three, four, six, ten ponder ous carriages crowded with persons, at least seventy to the car, where in an instant precip- tated over an ahutment, and one upon the oth- CT, each shverlng to atoms as 1t fell, and scat erlng thousand spllnters and jagged fragments of iron and wood above and beneath and on all sides of the persons who went down in the gen. eral wreck. We have the testimony of nearly every one of the passengers, wounded or hurt, that returned to our city by the night train, that the extent of the disaster is by no means fully comprehended by our citizens The accident took place about half past one o'clock, and the train with the wounded left the scene about five o'clock. So, it will be seen impossible, in the short space of three hours and half-amidst the most fearful con- fusion, while tempest was pouring down its wrath, and where no means were available to the hundreds of willing hands to eXtricate the suffering and dead from the ruins-that the re- allties of the calamity could even be guessed at. In view of the probabilities of the case, our fears increase in terror with every succeeding hour. Our hearts have all been bleeding and our coun- tenances sorrowed by the losses we have al- ready sustained, but there is much yet to be known even of greater anguish to our spirits. Yesterday, the gloom of the disaster spread itself throughout the entire city. A general numbness seemed to have struck all branches of business. Men were seen collected in small knots on the streets listening with anxious faces to recitals of some one of the fortunate saved, or giving language and discussion to their mu- tual fears At the Seventh street and Four teenth street depots large crowds of men and women were collected, all day fong awaiting the arrival of the next train The rain began again with some severity at nightfall, but could not disperse the numbers gathered so anxiously together. The certainty respecting the deaths of some and the uncertainty surrounding the faies of many others-the thousand contradic- tory rumors that prevail with such alarming ef- fect-all combine to give depth of feeling to the general bereavement which cannot but be observed wherever throughout the city one's footsteps may lead him.
 Many are the inquiries, and much specula- tlon Is lndulged in respecting the cause of the accident, and upon whom the chief blame should rest The bridge from all accounts was of the llightest material, and as stated by those who were on the spot, seemed little better than a work of scaffolding from which heavier struc- ture might have been reared. The strongest timbers were but six by nine scantling, upon which were laid strips of pine lumber and to these were nailed the rails. Previously to the day of the excursion the bridge had been tried