Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1870-05-20
RAILROAD sLAUGHThR.


About 8 o'clock on Thursday morning,
May IL, the night express train on the
Missouri Pacific Railroad Collided near
Eureka, % miles east of St. Louis. with
an extra freight train going west The
express train had FIVE passenger cars and
baggage car, and the freight train was
a long heavy one. AT the point of the
collision there is an embankment fifteen
feet high, where the road curves so
sharply that two approaching trains can
not see each other until close together.
A boy standing beside the engineer. Mr..
Jackson, was the first TO discover the
smoke stack Of the approaching freight
engine entering the curve at the east Just
as the express entered at the west. He
pointed and directed the attention of Mr.
Jackson to the danger. Brakes were i'm
mediately whistled down, engine re-
versed and the speed of the train some
what checked, bus no application OF hui
man power could break up the heavy
freight train and bring it to a halt under
half a mile. The two engines rushed at
each other like malign and cnraged
monsters greet, with a tremendous crash,
reared from the track in mortal wrestle
and fell into helpless and disiointed frag-
ments on the ground. The shock was
terrible. The tender, baggage car and
the two forward passenger cars of the
express train on one side, and the tender
and several box cars of the freight train
on the other, rushed into the crash with
their respective engines, leaving fright
fui ruins spattered with the blood OF for
ty human beings eEtrapped and mutu-
lated beneath its shapeless mass. The
two engines were driven with such force
into each other that it was almost irnpos-
sible, after the collision, to distinguish
the parts Of one from the other. The
crushed cars were jammed together, the
cars being shiVered into long slivers, and
the seats, wheels, trucks and irons
blended into. an indescribabIe heap that
rolled off down the embankment. The
three rear cars Of the express train shared
the conclusion, but escaped the fate of
the two forward ones. After the coils
ion they were found standing stiff and
still on the track, with their brakes close
up, showing that the brakesmen had
done their duty well in responding to the
engineers whistle, before they leaped
from the train. The spectacle was one
impossible to view without absolute hor-
ror. As a soldier passenger said, [ have
been through many battles, but never
saw such a sickening sight. twas chaos
and death combined. The engines. both
on the same side of the embankment,
were but heap Of battered fragments
while around on all sides was the con-
tusloE of ruin twice contounded The
baggage car and the one next to it were
shlvered as if by an internal explosion.
and the mass Of broken timbers, iron
rods, wheels and other portions of the
car looked like the frantic work of some
Internal agency.
The coroner's jury have been taking
evidence IN the case most of the day bu.
nothing new has been elected. The body
Of Andrew w Stratton, New Brighton
Pa, was claimed this morning it will |
be sent home for interment. All bodies
not claimed will be buried in Bellefon
taine Cemetery. Frank Holt and his lit
tie daughter, who were killed, were or
their way from Kansas to Westfeld
Ohio, to see sick wife and mother in
response to a telegraphic summons.