Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1869-07-22
THE ERIE RAILROAD MURDER.
A Horrible Affair.
A Sleepy Engineer Gets In the Way
of an Express Train,
Massacre and Burning the Liv-
ing and the Dead Follow.
From the New York Herald, July 16 I


From the New York Herald. July 1871
The long, dismal and bloody
catalogue of disasters that mark the
history of the Erie Railroad, is made
again to bear another burden of
human slaughter, in the record of
one OF the most unmitigated rail
road murders the public has heard
of for some time. AT midnight of
Wednesday over a dozen human
beings were rushed headlong into
eternity through the awful living
portals of fire, at place called
Mast Hope, twenty eight mules west
of Port Jervis, on the Erie Rail
road, by the downright carelessness
of the engineer in charge of freight
train, against which the mail express
from New York, at half-past in
the evening, came in collision The
facts in few sentences are these ::
The freight train backed on a switch
at Mast Hope depot to get out of
the way of the passenger train, but
failed to get out fast enough or far
enough to avoid being struck by
the passenger train, for which the
track should have been always kept
clear. The engineer Of the freight
train was, of course, responsible
1t is generally stated he was asleep
at the time. A terrific collision oc-
Cured, three or four cars were
burned, and in the laconic dispatch
of the Associated Press. furnished
by the railroad authorities, "some
emigrants in the smoking car, some
five or six in number, were burned"
Such is the skeleton of this fearful
tale. making even in it's faintest
recital the blood of men run cold
| who know how to realize ever so
vaguely the unpainted hcrrors of a
railroad butchery. The battle field
is mercy itself to such scene. The
soldier sinks on the sod with little
to indicate the agony of death, but
the poor victim of q collision re
ceives no quarter, even after the
soul has lett the body. ~With his
limbs torn asunder, and perhaps
some little spark of tortured vitality
still remaining, the fatal stove pours
out its contribution to the work of
death and destruction, and leaves
no vestige of humanity behind save
charred and blackened bones. AS
usual, there was little thought of
danger or Of what lay in store for
them some one hundred miles ahead.
on the Erie track, among the large
and lively load of passengers that
left the long dock, at jersey City. at
a quarter to Z O'Clock on Wednes-
day evening. The train was full
one, consisting, with locomotive
and tender, OF a mail and baggage
car, smokirg-car, two day and tour
sleeping coaches, nine rs in all,
carrying nearly four hundred pas
sengers. Perhaps not one in all
that large number Of voyageurs
recurred at the moment of starting
to Carr's Rock, Miltown, the gorge
at Elmira or any of the other
bloody landmarks thickly strewed
along this modern Golgotha Not
one, to all appearances, and least OF
all the amable, learned and ever
genial gentleman, Rev. B. B. Hal
leck, of No. 329 East Fourteenth
street, who in few short hours
thereafter was transformed from
flesh and consciousness into a black
and burnt mass of lifeless homes
In the forward part of the smoking
car over score Of emigrants seat
ed themselves i'll the latter part OF
the evening, after most of those
gentlemt who had sleeping -berths
retired Tor the night and threw
their cigar stumps away. Several
Of the emigrants indulged them
selves in short clay pipes, while
others threw the selves into an at
titude of sleep and others kept tell
ing stories to pass portion of the
night away The stay at Turner'S
Station for supper was no longer
than usual The switch between
the tracks at Miltown, a place ol
unhappy reputation, was passed by
in safety The conductor went u,
and down few times, to see thai
all was right, from the smoking cal
to the rear and sleeping coach
The train was speeding on its
course at the rate of from twenty tc
twenty five miles an hour. With {
double track, wide, strong cars
new couplings, a powerful locomo
tive running at a steady, splendit
pace. the passengers felt that there
was nothing to apprehend but !;
broken rail. Little reflection, how
ever, was given to that matter. The
sleepers in the rear coaches turnet
r around for a moment and fell ava,
to slunber again Every berth wa
:. occupied. Governor Walker, o
Virginia. and his wife had stat
room, both bound for Binghamton
While all were wrapped in sleep, 0
in light, uneasy slumber, on boar,
! the train, the emigrants in tn
smoking car even ceasing to talk
and the doors opening only at lon.
l intervals for the conductor or som
restless member of the baggag
corps to pass through, and whil
the train was rushing along witt
: ths speed of motion which leave
the sensation on the ear of tn
passenger that the wheels dane
with delirious revolution on th
rail, the Pickering light at the depo
of Mast Hope hove in sight aroun
: a long and easy curve and on
$ heavy grade. The engineer ha
t his practised eye on the elert at thi
s particular point of the road, no
tb.+ If ic in onvuioa nc Jopr,ro,, !,