Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1871-02-15

In Foreign lands 50 far away
Ipray thee answer me?
sAt sea, waves toss and storms do howl;
On mountains forms the avalanche,
IN desert sands wild beasts prowl,
In thiczets satyrs dance
"But I've not sought 80 wide 20 roam,
Fhese are MOI what I've seen,
Tho fRr I've Strayed nom my home,
uve 70 tie PoJt Q1ies been"
HORRIBLE CATASTROPHE on THE
HUDSON RIVER RAILROAD.
An appalling catastrophe, which has
added the most sickening and bloody
page to the record of American rail-
way horrors, occurred on Monday, the
9th inst, on the Hudson River Rail
road, sixty-five miles above New
York. Unlike most Of the fearful ae-
/ cidents in which human life has been
Fated so chesply, this was not caused
/ by the mismanagement Of the cOmpa-
ny, and its employees are blameless.-
| Originating in the accidental displaee-
ment from the rails Of one 9f a long
train Of freight cars, 1t ended in the
violent death Of probably more than
fifty persons, against whom all the
elements of nature seemed to COM
bine. Fire blinded their eyes and
/ burned them in their sockets that
they might not see their way to safety.
| Water engulfed and stranSled them,
/ when by fearfnl blow they had been
/ dashed TO the floor of the car it had
| invaded. Fragments of splintered
| wood wounded them. More ponder
Ous fragments of iron crushed them.
I Torn, laeerated, burned, blinded,
/ crushed and drowned men, women
and children were hurried In agony
"Out of the world" There was no
time to weep, no time to pray, and
Z curses, ii there were any, were burned
on the breath that uttered them. The
Carr's Rock tragedy, with its seven
teen pallid and wounded victims and
its six crisp corpses, was traceable to
criminal human neglect, and it fades
before the terrible apparition Of this
Incarnation Of human suffering
From the ". Y. Herald we CLEAN the
following description Of the collision
and conhagration
At tWeaty-four minutes Rfter ten
O'Clock on Monday night, 8 special
freight train, or wild cat, - as such
are called in railroad phrase, laden
with petroleum oil, in tanks and bar
IIA1s Al1s1ENA ENAIlOA Vi LNGh LlhAAA-
burg. It consisted Of about thirty
cars. Some two or three rods below
the station one of the ears was thrown
from, or Jumped" the track. This
was not known till the marks its
wheels left on the ground and ties
were. discovered an hour later by the /
light OF lantern in the hands Of one
Of the hurrying passers-by. Yard
after yard it hurried along, jumping
from side to side, and marking its de-
Vious path till, when nearly quarter
Of a mile below the station and on the
draw bridge over Wappinger's creek,
the engines, F,dOnbtless feeling check
in the speed Of the train, drew out
the throttle. The renewed force threw
the car, which was already OFF the
rails, clean over on and across the op-
posite or up track, and q pell nell
packing of the cars ensued. At this
unfortunate moments a sight, always
grand but now terrible, greeted the
eyes Of the men on the locomotive
Twenty or thirty rods away lOomed
up amid a cloud of smoke flashes Of
fame and a shower Of sparks, the en-
CINE and train of the New York light.
ming express. The engineer of the
COllAAAE AAAAI saw ll4E ElA kAA0NA HOL
his track, and, with
STARTLING EYES AND BLANCHED
CHEEKS,
drew the valve and let the steam eS-
cape. It came forth in torrents and
with q kissing, horrible noise. The
fireman, noble man of great courage,
sprung the patent safety brakes; but
il was too late. On dashed the train
like a thunderbolt. The fireman leap
ing, saved his life. The engineer, |
pale but steadfast, held the valve wide 1
open. Then there was a erash-a
sheet Of fame leaping hundreds of
feet ia the air-the trembling and
thunder Of an explOsion-and half 8 /
hundred souls were hurled at the feet |
Of God.
The car struck by the locomotive of
the express train was surmounted by
two huge wooden vats, containing
non-refined explosive petroleum. One
tank was shattered, and the oil, rush
ing forth over the engine, was ignited
by the glowing Goals in the ash pan.
Escaping gas in the secOGd tank
caught the flame and the terrific ex-
plOsion ensued. The air for thousands
Of feet was filed with lurid fame of
the burning gas. It assembled 70 the
height of hundreds Of feet. 1t enYel-
oped an area of hundreds more, and
those who breathed in the fatal circle
had to inhale liquid fire. Then, be-
fore any had an opportunity to COM
pute the time, crushed by the weight
of cars, disjOinted by the shock, the
wooden dEaWbridge crumbled beneath
the weight upon il and sank with its
load through the ice into the water
Then came all the terrors Of Dante's
many hells to the sleeping passengers
and to the waking ones. The tide
was not vet at its full, and the water
not more than four feet deep in the
cars. It burst the doors, however, of
the baggage cars and came through
the windows of the palace sleeping
car with its thirty-three occupants
/ Mingled with it were fragments Of
broken ice, sharp, cold and cutting
/ It rushed along the passage ways and
I deluged the berths, freezing where il
/ touched. But in the space above was
nothing but lurid hame-the atmos-
phere was burning gas. One half the
person enveloped in liquid ice and the
other half in liquid FIRE! Such was
the catastrophe.
! A field Of ice stretching away to the
right for miles, calm and unrufied,
and the mountains rising dimly gray
beyond; another and lesser patch Of
| ice to the left, and at your feet an
abyss 200 feet across, filled with
/ CONFUSED HEAP
Of black and charred fragments. with
broken beams and with posts standing
still upright and firm, but grim,
/ burned and reeking with fetid Odor
and the fumes OF oil. And down be-
meath all this, under two fathoms Of
water, lies a sleeping car containing
THIRTY-THREE CHARRED AND NAN
| GLED BODIES,
which last night were brim full oflife
and hope. They were thinking then
OF happiness, Of Joy and love, Of busy
I dreams-of firesides where there were
4 anxious fathers, mothers, husbands,
wives or children waiting to welcome
them, and where they never will be
seen again. On the margin Of the
ice, and on planks planted on the de
] hris sturdv earnest and bagrimed