Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1872-03-07
The Terrible Accident on the Louis.
vile l. Cincinnati ShOrt.Line
Railroad.

When our reporter reached the seen
the wounded had been partially removes
from the wreck and laid upon the ground
awaiting surgical aid. but the spectacle
even then was heart-rending and pitifu
In the extreme Every face was covered
with blood, and meanings and wailing
Of pain filed the air.
The calamity was sudden and over
whelming Not even the engineer, whose
conduct is designated by the wounded
passengers IS noble and heroic, had any
premoniiion or warning of the fatal dan
! ger. The train running at a moderate
rate of speed reached bridge, and in q
momentum the twinkling of an eye
+ crashed through the span and lay in the
/ bed of a creek twenty-five feet below, an
almost indistinguishable mass of smashed
timber, horribly mixed up with nearly
seventy human beings shrieking and
struggling for life
This terrible smash occurred at half
past eleven o'clock yesterday forenoon,
at point on the railroad four miles be
yond Verona, and one and half miles
this side of Zion station, where the rail
road crosses Ten-mile Greek over a
Finck suspension truss bridge, :of
sixty feet span, resting on two
stone piers. The train was the reg
ular passenger, which left Louisville at
100 a. III. and due at Covington at
1920. 1t consisted of two passenger
cars, one baggage, and one mail car, Cap.
tain ID. b. Voris, conductor; Dallas Pull
man, engineer The speed of between
eighteen and twenty miles per hour was
checked as usual in approaching bridge,
but after the whole train was on and the
locomotive had reached the solid and near
the end OF the structure the crash came.
The tender and four cars went down.
The front passenger car was smashed to
pieces; the mail and baggage cars of
stronger build, were not SO badly wreck
ed, and the hindermost partially escaped,
having lodged with one end up against
the far stone pier. The seats, how
ever, were torn from the fastenings, and
were piled up at the lower end, with the
unfortunate passengers, in shocking,
mass. The scene of the disas-
ter is distant from Covington about thirty
miles, and is wild and rugged in the cx-
IRENE. The country around is mountain
ous and very sparsely settled. There was
only one human habitation in sight, and
hat wretched cabin into which few
only of the wounded could be crowded |
the day was bright and the
genial.
When the crash occurred the engineer
umped from the locomotive rushed down |
o the wreck and extingushed the fires
With water scooped from the creek This |
orethought was executed with GOODNESS /
nd dispatch which the injured passen. |
ers praised and were grateful for. since
he act undoubtedly saved many from a
cath at the bare contemplation of which
he face blanches and the heart sickens.
The spectacle of the wreck, when the
mokc from the locomotive and extin-
uished fires cleared away, was sincularlv
hrsh and shocking. There was the
inextricable mixture of wound.
e and bleeding human beings, and shat
teed bridge tihbers, railroad iron, shreds
0 clothing, unaccountabY torn from the
warers and scattered an around. the
inviting creek, the desolation and silence
O the rugged hills, and the sudden hor.
n, all flashed upon the consciousness at
oce, and leaving the problem of the
tusc to be worked out without a single
'ue or key, while humanity shudders at
ne recital. and the moor victims endure
re pain.
The wounded were carefully removed
the relief train, and brought to Coving- ,
m, where they arrived at seven O'Clock
st evening.
AS already limited, the cause of the ac- ! !
dent is, and will probably remain, a !,
ystery, although those who can recall a .
mliar disaster on this very road, soon .
Ter II was opened, will not be without q
rewd guess. AT that time bridge of
same pattern and construction gave l.
ny, nine miles from Co,ington. and nre- I
pltated passenger train into the creek Il
ling two, and wounding ten or twelve p
rsons.--CsncineaH Commercial, FEB. "a. Il
ny This accident two persons-John G. el
ock, OF Sparta, KY, and Harrison .Ju. m
r. the colored porter of the train-were NJ
!ed, and fifty-three others were injured q,
pc of them badly. OF