Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-08-29
Another Railroad Murder,

NEW YORK, Aug. 28.-A collision occur
red on Long Island railroad this morning
about 10 o'clock, near Jamaica. The two
engines, Gen. Grant and Gen. Sherman, at
! tached to the respective trains, were smash
ed, The engineers on both trains escaped
uniDjured. Four or five persons werekiled
and quite number injured. The water
boy was badly crushed. fAH''
The. following particulars are furnished
Dy passengers :. At 545 A. NJ, the Green
port train, which should not leave the ia
lnalca station unless the Hunters Point
train had arrived, was started from Jamaica
ten minutes before time, and met.the other
train at full speed eight miles west of that
village. The signal of the approaching
train from Hunters Point was heard by
se> eral passengers on the other train, and
one gentleman, who was standing on the
platform of the smoking car, looked out
saw the danger and leaped off without sus-
tanning any injury. The Hunters Point
train was under full speed as the
conductor doubtless felt secure of
his right of way; but the other
conductor, whose name we understand is
Sands, had begun somewhat to slacken the
speed of his train, as he was well aware of
the Insecurity of his position. There was
sufficient time, indeed, for all the engineers
liremen and conductors to jump off which
they did without serious injury. The east
ward bound train was completely run down
and crushed to pieces by the superior
weight of the other.
The scene was so frightful to those who
escaped injury that some tainted with ter
ror at the appalling sight. Men were hang
ing suspended beneath the wreck by the
lacerated tendons of their legs, both of
which had been torn away in the collision.
Others were suspended by the throat,
across which strong iron tenders had been
crushed. Others were lying beneath tons
of the wrecked cars and moaning out the
few brief moments of life remaining to
them on earth. Atfirst it seemed as though
few could have escaped from the dread
ful catastrophe alive, but in few
minutes one and another of the .unfor-
tunate victims crawled from beneath the
awful mass of broken timbers and crushed
and dying human forms, until it was ap-
parent that not more than fifteen immortal
souls had been hurried to the presence of
their Maker. Three of the Hunters Point
cars were torn to pieces or wedged into
each other, and on these the largest loss of
life occurred. The shock was so great that
the trains rebounded from each other 200 or
300 feet.
The number OF passengers on the train
lTOln Jle EdSG was so great tllat manV were
standing on the platforms, and as the fronts
of two or three of the Cars were crushed,
most OF these passengers were either Killed
or wounded. One of the astonishing cir
cumstances attending this appalling muir
der is the fact that while the smoking car
OF this train was crowded with passengers,
not one was seriously injured, though on
the next car two men were killed, and in
other cars behind more or less injury was
done.
When our informants left one man was
still hanging by his crushed legs between
two cars, and the employees of the road,
although importuned by the passengers to
take measures for his relief, set to work
repairing the engines. This man was still
alive. and the passengers were prevented
from prying the cars apart by some of the
employees, who pretended that if one car
was lifted from the other the last would
fall upon its side, and this reason was
given for their own inattention to the
poor dying man. The engineers and
tiremen grouped together soon after the
accident, and, as one of our informants
asserts, were cheerfully congratulating
each other on their own escape, and even
indulging in little laughter over some of
the incidents. One of them observed in a
nonchdldnt tone, snow | suppose we shall
have hell of time made over this" All
this occurred while the dead and dying
were strewn on the green grass around
them. These stories come to us from the
passengers, but let us hope, for the sake OF
human nature, that there is some eXaggera-
tion. 90