Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1869-07-27
The Last Railway Horror.

AAo Aonb 4edl1Wuy AUIlOAs
All accounts received of the terri
BILE affair on the Erie Railroad at
Mast Hope station, at midnight on
Wednesday, intensity the horror Of
the scene:
at appears (the special reporter
of the Sun says that James Griffin,
engineer of the freight train on the
switch, though he had been less than
four hours on duty, had fallen asleep
at his post. The conductor Of the
freight train, J. D. Brown, was in his
caboose, forty or fifty cars in the
rear. At this juncture the $50 P. NJ.
express train from New York, Chas.
E. Coffey engineer, came sweeping
around the curve at thirty or forty
miles an hour, fastening to make up
lost time. The noise of its approach
startled the sleeping Griffin. He
thought the Waterman had called to
him to go ahead, and go ahead he did.
Dreamily Selling his lever he turned
on steam, and moved a cars length
or SO, till his fore wheel caught in the
frog of the unopened switch, just far
enough to thrust the side Of his en-
CINE across the path of the express,
and in a moment the lightning train
was upon him, striking the outer rim
of his left cylinder head. The shock
to the freight engine threw it off the
track, while the express flew in the
opposite direction, ran couple Of
hundred feet, and swinging around
the outer verge of the depot platform
till her head lay east, she turned over
bottom uppermost, the steam bursting
from her broken pipes and the fiery
Goals from her ruptured furnace, form
ing an inviting pyre for the sacrifice.
And the sacrifice came; a dreadful
sacrifice. The postal car, with its
combustible cargo, leaped upon the
blazing pile, followed by the express
and baggage cars behind, the latter
"teleScoping" into the smoking car i'm
mediately in its rear.
In the smoking car, asleep and
awake, were some fifteen or twenty
people, old and young, mainly men,
though at least one woman was there
with her three children, immigrants
bound for the glowing, bounteous
West and liberty, to live and thrive
They found a haven nearer and more
heavenly than they dreamed.
The inburst of the forward car
swept the seats from their fastenings
and hurled the wakeful and the sleep
ing in one vast heap toward the rear
The shock was terrific; the scene
that ensued beggars all language tC
tell. The strong and the weak alike
were helpless, bound down by the ru
in of iron and wood that overwhelmed
them. The cries of strong men fol
help, the shrieks of the woman, the
wall of her babes, made mournful the
midnight air.
Men rushed to aid with bars anC
axes. From within and without they
worked with will, but a mightier ell
ement than human strength was oppo
sing them. On both sides Of tn
track were two monstrOus engines
with bursted valves, roaring like de
mons, the escaping steam rolling bacl
into the cars in scalding Volumes
From the overturned one, too, rose
fire that, kindling the mail-ba9s ant
wood work of the postal car, swep
under the doomed train mighty flames
that licked up and soon deyoured al
but the three rearmost cars.
Before this terrible onset the strong
est had to quail. In vain the poo
mother strained her babe to her be
som and struggled to free herself anC
, her little ones; in vain the clergy
man, uninjured, but helplessly trans
fixed by the superintendent mass, ap
) pealed to Heaven for succor-in vain
: all, all in vain. The helping friend
fled weeping before the fiery blast, t.
which now the blazing depot was add
ing force and volume, and in a few
seconds all that was mortal within
the superheated furnace had ceaset
to be.
When the flames subsidized, and tn
sun came out upon heap of molder
ing ashes, only few charred bone
E and a few shapeless masses that hel,
human hearts and human hopes. bu
yesterday pulsating with strong lif
and happiness, now blackened cinders
were gently gathered together anC
placed in boxes, for sorrowing friend
to claim or strangers to entomb.