The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1870-05-19
TERRIBLE DISASTER.
Collision on the Missouri Pacific
Observation-Disclosures Persons
Killed and Thirty Injured.
st. Louis, Nav -.

OF. LOtslS, may IL.
At six o clock this morning the night ex-
press strain on the Missouri Pacific Railroad,
which left Atchison, Kansas, yesterday
evening, collided near Eureka, twenty eight
miles FROM here, with an extra teight train
gong west. Sixteen persons were killed
outright and twenty wounded, two of whom
VIII Ole. No names are known at present
The wounded will be brought here. Fur.
thcr particulars will be obtained as soon as
possible. The dead will be brought here
as soon as the coroner reaches the scene of
disaster and holds an inquest.
"A special train left here early this morn
ing with physicians and all necessary ap-
pllances for the relief of the wounded and
care OF the dead. Another train will leave
at noon with Il coroner, reporter, and an
other relief pity.
Both locomotives are completely wrecke ed
and the trains badly smashed.
The collision occurred through the mis-
apprehension of orders given to the con
ductors.
Hudson Z. Bridge, president, and Thomas
Mchesseck are on the spot, doing every
thing for the relief of the sufferers and to
clear the track.
ST. Louis, May H.
The train containing the wounded ar.
rived about three O'Clock. The sufferers
were taken directly to the hospital. A great
crowd was at the depot, and as the wound
cd men were borne on mattresses to proper
conveyanceS much sorrow was manifested
The whole number Of killed is now re-
ported at nineteen. The wounded are
about thirty, OF whom fifteen are seriously
and eight dangerously. The report that
the engineer Of the freight train had not
y. L. jackson, engineer of the passcn,
ger>traln, states that his train was over
half an hour late at Eureka met the reg
uar freight at that place, tagging. The
extra was told that they had twenty min
uteS OF the express train s time, when CON
ductor Dubois, who was on the engine, said,
Ali right so ahead" The train left
Eureka slow y, and proceeded only about a
mile when they saw the extra freight dash
ing around Z bluff under full headway, only
from four to five hundred yards off Jack
son whl,tled down brakes reversed the
engine, gave her sand, told the conductor
and fireman to jump, and an instant after
the two trains came together with frightful
force, and an appalling result. Jackson,
III jumping from the engine, was hurled
over wood Pile, and found himself lying
thirty feet the other side'ofa fence. He
did not lose consciousness, and was not SER
iously hurt.
The collision occurred on ell about fif.
teen feet high.
The blame of the collision seems to attach
to William Odor, conductor of the extra
trelght-train, who should have waited at
the gravel switch until the express passed
but misapprehended his orders or thought
he could reach Eureka before the passenger
train went on
The Republican reporter gives the follow
Ing description Of the collision and wreck ::
The express train had five passenger cars
and a baggage car. and the freight train
was long one. At the point of the coils
Ion there Is an em5ankment Is feet high,
where the road curves so sharply that two
approaching trains cannot see each other
until close together. A boy standing be
SIDE the engineer, Mr.. Jackson, was the
hrst to descry the smoke stack of the ap>
preaching freight engine entering the
curve at the east Just as the express enter
ed the west. HIS directed the attention
OF MIR. Jackson 10 the danger. The brakes
were immediately whistled down, and the
speed OF the train somewhat checked, but
no application of human power could brake
up the freight tram and bring it to halt
under half a mile. The two engines rush
ed at each other like malignant and chrag
ed monsters with tremendous crash,
reared from the track in mortal wrestle
and tell into diSjointed fragments on the
ground. The shock was terrible; the ten
der, baggage car, and the two forward pas
senger cars OF the express train on one side,
and the tender and several box cars of
freight train on the other rushed into the
crash with their respective engines, leaving
frightfui ruins spattered with the blood of
iorty human beings entrapped and mutiat-
ed beneath Its shapeless mass The two
engines were driven with such force into
each other that it was almost impossible
after the collision to distinguish the parts
OF one from the other The crushed trains
were damned together. The cars shivered
into long sllvers, and seats, wheels, trucks
and irons blended into an indescribablc
heap, that rolled off down the embankment.
lie three rear cars of the express train
shared the conclusion, but escaped the fate
OF the two forward ones. After the collision
they were found standing stiff and still on
the track, with their brakes close up.
showing that the brakeman had done their
duty Eell III responding to the engineers
whistle before they leaped from the train
Ihe spectacle was one impossible to view
without absolute horror; as a soldier
passenger said, Il have been through
many battles, but never saw such sicken-
inS slsbe. 1t vas chaos aud death CON-
elnec- The engines, both on the same side
OF tie EN- hankmeIt, were hut a heap of
CATERED fragments, while around on alt