Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-02-09

DETAILS OF THE DIsAsTER-A LINE OF
| FIRE-THREE SLEEPING CARS IN.
sTANTLY DESTROYED.
The little town of New Hamburger on
the Hudson has suddenly acquired fame
as lasting and uneuviable as that OF An
COLA, Carr's Rock and Mast Hope, the
very msntion of which is yet sufficsent to
cause shudder of horror. In the dead
of night, while sleeping in fancied secur-
ity, and being whirled along at the rate
of thirty miles an hour, over one of the
safest and best managed roads in the
country, twenty men, women and chill
dren are hurled to instant and most ap-
palling death, crushed, broken, mangled
and burning, husbands with their wives,
and mothers with infants in their arms.
The scene has been TOO often repeated in
this country TO need any new description,
though the frequent recurrence of such
calamities does not strip them Of any of
their horrors, but rather adds some new
story of appalling agony to the rapidly
lengthening account. And the occur
renee of such an accident on the Hudson
River railroad shows how inadequate the
best system of IA ilrcad management still
is for the proper protos sion Of the travel
ing public.
| The details of the dpaster as repeated
in this mornisgt al tpatches, do not differ
materially from u account of yesterday.
The story in btisf is that freight train
from Albany, ldpied with oil, had reached
Wappingers Greek when broken axle
threw one of the oil cars from the track
and laid 1t a wreck ACROSS the bridge. At
this instant the Pacific express train
bound North came dashing along at the
rate of thirty miles an hour; its engine
was thrown by the wrecked car over the
bridge and fell crashing through the ice
into the water below; the oil tanks were
set on fire by the engine and threw their
flames far over the tender, the two bag
gage cars and the sleeping car which
came dashing along, and these in quick
succession followed the engine. falling in
| DIdZlLE DudhSCb iltJ LuC CIc5h
Some of the passengers in the sleeping
car succeeded in leaping out in time to
save themselves, but twenty-five went
down, and of these at least twenty are
known to have persisted. The news was
instantly telegraphed to New York, and
| superintendent Toueey with large body
of men at once came up and commenced
a search for the lost. In the morning the
wreck of the sleeping car was cleared
away upon the ice, when in corner a
heap of charred and blackeued bodies
were found, but so disfgured that identi-
fication was impossible. 1t was evident
that these passengers had rushed to the
rear door, and then persisted in despair.
Three bodies, apparently those of a moth
er and two children, of which the arms
yet remained, were found, closely embrac.
ing each other.
Behind this car (which was the Buffalo
sleeping car were two other sleeping cars,
| which alsn hnrnad mp, bat the pas
sengerS all succeeded in escaping. many
of them only partially dressed. The noise
oceasioned by the explosion of the oil was
heard a great distance, and the flames
] could be seen for many miles The bridge.
which was a wooden structure, two hun.
dred feet long, was completely destroyed.
| The Inhabitants of Poughkeepsie were
active in assisting the search for the dead.
In the morning a baggage car was turned
into temporary Morgue, and as fast as
the mutilated bodies were removed from
the wreck they were carefully transferred
to the car and q gnard placed over them
HEROIsM OF THE ENGINEER-EsCAPE
OF THE FIREMAN.
A. soon IS the escaping pa: sengers
were able 20 comprehend the nhture of
the calamity, immediate attention was
given to the unfortunate victims in the
first sleeping car, and to the engineer,
but as all those cars were saturated with
oil they were in flames in far less time
than it takes to write this paragraph.
The flames enveloped the car so that no
part of it could be seen, and in ten min
utes every particle of the wood work was
consumed, and all the passengers were
dead and crisped by the intensity of the
devouriug element. When the collision
was seen to be inevitable by the engineer
aud fireman of the express train. the
latter urged the engineer to jump with
him from the engine. The fireman did
Jump and escaped with his life, but the
engineer, Mr.. Simmons, refused, remark
ing that he would go through or goI
down at his post" And he did So He
was crushed to death when the engine
was thrown from the bridge.-The fire.
man was entirely enveloped in flames at
one time, but some of the passengers
rolled him over in the snow and put the
fire ont with only severe burns on his
face and back part of his neck.
PoUeHKERPsIE, NY. Feb. 8.
| Up to midnight no more bodies had
been recovered, and nothing new in re-
laticn to the disaster bad transpired.
THE BRIDGE RECONSTRUCTED.
The bridge has been reconstructed at
New Hamburgh, and trains will run re-
gularly on the Hudson River railroad to-
morrow.
CoRoNER's INQUEST.
The Coroner's inquest into the circum-
stances of the recent accident commenced
here to-day, upon the body of JAS Stafford.
The first witness was ex-District Attor-
ney VIM. ]. Thorne of Poughkeepsie, who
testified that he was in the rear car of the
train and asleep; the first / heard was
crash. Great confusion ensusd and l got
up and walked outside of the car on the
river side. The engine of the oil Car had
passed nv train before the accident, and