Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1855-11-15

The wonder is expressed on every hand
that the loss of liie and personal injury was
mol greater tn n IL has turned out to be. II
war a fearful scene. Car after car following
each ether in lightning-like succession, it
seems miraculous that 30 many escaped with
out .he loss of life, although badly bruised or
seriously injured. Great as has been the
calamity to the city and to families, we
ought to feel thankful that, out Of five hund
dred passengers, so many should have failed
to receive lasting injury.
II any one befur the disaster visited the
bridge ut GascOnade, and after due obserya.
tons of the locality, made an estimate of the
probable loss Of life attendant on the temoi-
tion of ten cara densely filed with passen-
gers, in the manner the catastrophe occurred,
we venture 10 assert that one hundred would
have been the lowest number fixed upon.--
When we take into consideration the fall of
thirty feet in front, to the we'd Of the river,
and the high embankment either side of the
track, covered with stone-the ponderous
cars themselves c,pabe of grinding euch
other into frsgments-the wonder ncreas-
ed that so few were killed outright or fatally
wounded. There is hardly position in
which car could be precipitated from the
track ai the point named, that gives rea-
son.hIe hope of escape; and yet, with seven
out Of the ten of which the train was compos-
ed, plunged h'sdlong down the abutment,
and then others rolled over the grade, con-
,airing five or iix hundred passengers, we
have only the report OF twenty-five killed and
mortally wounded.
The rails for rod or two on the obut-
msnt were strained from their position by the
cars that passed over, and this gave to those
IN the rear difiert mt directions. A few !
plunged directly over the precipice, and then
followed the balance, some on one side OF
the abutment and some on the ether. The
first and second cars fell nearly straight with
the road, we suppose; the third in a more
diagonal direction, while around this last
others were Precipitated sideways.
With the fastsnings all wrenched away,
II was impossible to tell the relative posi-
tions the cars had occupied in the train. ln
some instances they were piled one on the
other, and this position m'st likely conduced
TO the greatest amount Of injury. We OBJ
served one car, lying at righ, angles with
the bridge, the bottom nearly knocked out,
w tHc tpuCu tUuh usue bouits
were observed by those on the outside. An
other had been crushed by the pondsrous
wheels of one in the rear but whether im-
msdiately behind Il, ills impossible to say
and In this heavy loss OF life occurred
The ceiling by the overriding ear was crushed
fer half ils lsngtb to tho floor, and when the
top was removed, we counted five lifeless
bodie,, one With wheel resting islly on the
breast.
As soon as the crash was over, momen.
of painful silence ensusd, and ,hen issued
from the wreck around Us the grosns Of the
wounded, hesupplications Of the Imprisoned,
the screams of the sgonlzed. while here and
there might be observed the up-,urned face of
The dead, psngled and clotted with blood or
The hslf-buried forms of others whose spirits
had passed away forever To add'to the
horrors Of the scene, a storm Of lightning,
thunder, and rain arouse Of the severest de-
ssyip.lon. The lightning appeared to be Of
a blood.r and the pesls of thunder, quick
as the flash, resopnded on the hill and through
the valleys or,he dresry forests with terrific
grandeur.
Several OF ihe party Immediately started I
on fvos fos s5ermsnn distant eight or nns
nearly accomplished the journey
rf,re The train which had left the latter