Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-04-24
F. THOMSON. ' sec'ys.
The Appalling Accident the Erie Rail-
way,

u. t.. DLANO, I Soo'vC
T. THOMSON. 0o' -
The Appalling Accident on the Erie Rail-
way.
A correspondent of the New York
World gives the following description
Of the scene of the recent appalling acct
dent on the Erie railway:
First let me describe the scene of the
disaster, SO that your readers may under
stand its details. Had it been necessary
to select a place for this devils work, d
more fitting or appropriate spot could not
have been chosen than Carr's Rock. The
road here runs along an abrupt and shelly
ing precipice. TO the right there is q
wooden height at an altitude of 100 feet,
covered with spare shrubbery. To the left
| the beautiful Delaware, a quarter of q mile
wide, chanting unsteady over it's rocky
bed, which lies equidistant between Pike
county, Pennsylvania, and Sullivan coun-
| ty, New York. There stretches the gigan-
tic shelf or gallery over looking a sheer pre-
| ciplce Of 100 feet on the Delaware, and
showing along It's narrow edge enormous
natural abutments of scanned and riven
rock, as though they were placed to sup
port the fearful pathway traversed by the
trains The passenger in looking out o.
the car windows must naturally feel a SEN
sation of awe as he looks down in the STU
pendous depths below. The river is sub
lime, but terrific. 1t was at this point that
this accident happened this N orning which
has deprived twenty persons of their lives,
and has seriously injured sixty others. 1t
was 1926 O'Clock. The night was dark, the
heat i'll the train oppressive. In the three
sleeping cars hundred persons were slum-
boring, a few in the passenger cars awake.
or doing uneasily, and shifting about,
as is common in a long railway journey.
Many Of those asleep in the berths were
IL their night attire-youug and strong
men, weak women and trusting children.
In the smoking car a score of men putting
at their cigars or drawing consolation from
pipes. The steam engine tears through
the threatening space Of the night, its iron
front all agl0w like the furnace of hell, its
brazen throat emitting steady, painting
scream, and tie silvery Delaware, one hun
dred feet beneath, sings the same romance
it did three hundred years ago to the Len
mis- Lenape, when locomotives were not
The train was travelling thirty-fve miles an
hour. Suddenly death bursts in with the
speed of lightning upon those 200 men,
women and children. The engine and the
five first cars have passed safely over the
culvert which crosses a quiet little creek
that empties from a plateau eight feet
above the river into the Delaware. The
day car crosses rotten rail, which snaps
asunder, and, loosening from the five first
cars and locomotive, is precipitated Over
the embankment, followed by the three
sleeping cars, to the plateau above the Del
aware The grim terror, Death, is now
busy reaping his harvest. The four cars
tumble over each other down the sloping,
rocky wall among the loose masses Of gran
lite and quartz boulders. Every rocky
boulder takes a life. The cars are smash
ing and jumping from rock to rock,
and heads and faces are riven of beauty
and life, smashed, battered, crushed and
defaced. Few are spared Disagreement or
deformity, and thirteen lives are beaten
out instantly. The air is freighted with
groans, sobs and signs of the quick and
the dying; and the smooth Delaware flows
quietly along, while it receives as tributa-
ries the oozing, trickling riyulets Of blood
and hquifed brains.