Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1871-02-14
! HORRIBLE DISASTER.
Deadly Collision on the Hudson River
sir M Railroad. hgn si 81
Graphic DESCRIPTION.

From the New York World, Februarys. 81
One of the most terrible accidents
which have ever sent thrill OF horror
tb,ougbout the land occurred on Monday
nigbt on the line of the Hudson River
railroad, at New Hamburg eight miles
below Poughkeepsie. All the dreadful
elements Of other disasters in the past
were reproduced In this, intensified and
combined together, increasing the hor-
rors of each by the presence OF the
others. There were, the terrifying crash
of the collision, the fearful plunge down
into an unknown abyss amid shattered
cars and splintered bridge timbers; the
waters where some found refuge in an
icy death from the lurid hell of fire which
gave the browning horror to the awful
scene. Never before, in all the long
chapter of catastrophes on our lines OF
travel, has there been one to equal this
in its multiplicity of terrors.
A freight train, mainly made upof OIL
cars, started from Albany in the even
ing, on the down track, There were
twenty-five cars in this train. Before
starting they had been duly inspected,
and, SO far as human prudence could
guard against it, accident seemed impos-
sible. Almost at the end of the wooden
bridge over Wappinger's Creek, at New
Hamburg, an axle of the tenth car IN the
train. an oil car, broke, tipping it side.
WAYS, and letting /; down upon the ties.
For few yards further, to the entrance
of the bridge, it dragged, then striking. a
timber, was tossed over on the up-track,
and instantly all the cars behind it were
piled on it, mass of wreck. 1t was the
work of anrinstant and while the echoes
were still but half awakened by the awful
crash, upon this chaos glared the head
light Of passenger train-the Pacific
express-dashing onward with light
ming speed ON the up-track. Yards,
not even rods, measured the space
which it deyoured in a breath-before
there could be motion to check
rs advance, before even there
could be one warning shrek from the lo-
comotive; before one on the doomed
train could leap into the black peril of
uncertainty on either hand, or even see
the horrid fate ahead. Then, with ter
rible noise. as of an earthquake, the To-
connective at its furious speed plunged
into the mountain of ruin heaped upon
the track. Down on it came thunder
ing all the cars which followed in its
wake. each with an Internal crash,
mingled with the wild shrieks of its ter
ri6ed inmates. The locomotive had
burst open the oil tank of that fatal
tenth car the, instant of striking IT,.
From the fre-box Of the locomotive the
flames leaped up to the heavens. The
oil, dashed high in air by the shock, ig-
nited there, and, where it fell there lay a
sea of fire. Another and another oil
tank exploded and gave their boiling,
flaming contents to feed the swelling fury
Of the fire. Up, up, round the cars and
down over the timbers Of the bridge, lap
ping all with tongues ofAame, binding the
maddened ones who strove to escape,
shrouding the awful death-cells where,
from their sleep, the miserable ones had
no time for eny thought but wild alright
and agony, were hurled into eternity.
From the bridge into the waters OF the
creek, eighteen feet beneath, plunged the
engine Of the express train; down upon
it fell the tender, baggage-car and an
express car, then the Baffalo sleeping
coach, whence none escaped alive, and
over these poured the liquid fire rained
down from the bridge as it, too, fell with
its losd of the remaining cars of both
trains. So fierce was the fire that moth
ing could be done to save those SO In
stantly enveloped by it. 1t wrapped two
more cars so quickly that few escaped
from them uninjured by it. Down be-
meath the ice, drowned, lay some, for
tunate that their death had been less
horrible than that of those engulfed in
the fire; others, still more fortunate, had
known no pain, but in the sudden
crash had taken, all unconscious Of
its cause, the short step from mortal
life to immortality. In two OF the
sleeping cars Immediately following the
Buffalo coach the loss of life and injuries
we're great. From those behind, moot Of
the passengers escaped-few without Sc.
rious injuries, broken bones, burns and
bruises, but with life. and how fervently
they thanked God for that. Looking
before them they saw, wrapped in the
fire. the chaos of wreck; in their ears
mingled with the roaring and cracking
OF the flames, resouLded the shrieks OF
the poor wretches in their death agony,
far beyond all human aid, in that inter
nal furnace. They stood upon the ice
scantily clad, for most Of them had been
half undressed, preparing for sleep, when
the disaster came, and the eager wind
was down to zero, but they forgot
these things in their great thankfulness
that they had escaped with mere life.
As the ice melted, the cars upon 1t sank
down into the water beneath, and with
them the burning timbers Of the bridge.
This destroyed all faint hopes, which the
more sanguine had cherished, Of giving
any suecor to those in the cars which
had been 10 the flames. Nothing could
be done for even the resepe OF their re-
mains, thus preserved from total deSiE4e-
ton, until morning light, and how pain
fully long the night seemed can only be
appreciated by those who waited for the
grsy deyn 10 aid them in that horrid
search for the dead. For hours the furi-
GUS flames reveled ia aheiF york Of ruin.
Their lurid glare redeemed the skissi the
ice and snow brought out in keen reliei
the branches Of the tall pines, and made
blacker the shadows behind them on the
snow-clad sides Of this awful gorge, thi'
valley Of death. Near the wreck lay g
huBsp body upon the ice. It's entraili
we're torn 0gt is head and legs crushed
The gbastly horrors Of the scene could
have had no more vivid climax. Suei
an object in the foreground made com
plete a picture which viii never fad'
| from the remembrances Of those wht