Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1872-07-11


ness.
Mr.. Robert Nelson Roddy, who wit
messed the recent railroad accident near
Belleville, makes the following state
ment to the Toronto Globe:
" reside in Peterborough, and am
manager for Mr.. Watson, who has the
contract for building the Dominion
telegraph line from that place to Bar
RE. On the night of Friday last | took
the train ut Port Hope for Brookville,
having with me eleven men, who had
been working for me, and to whom |
had granted four days leave of alb
scnce. to allow of their visiting their
I families, all of whom lived in the lower
province. | was IN the smoking-car,
and after remaining n short time, |
( went INTO the second class and asked
my foreman to come with me into the
! frst-class part OF the train; bat he
I declined TO do so. returned there alone,
and lay down upon the seat, when /
suddenly felt a jar, as il some Of the
cars in the fore part of the train were
/ tipping over. | tried to open the win
( dow of the car | WAS in, but il appeared
i to be iammed, aud ! got out Of the
door and ran 10 see what was the mat
I ter, but for a short time could not do
! So for the dense cloud Of steam. After
a moment or two, | managed to get to
the front of the train, and from there
INTO the uppermost side Of the second
class car. | tried 10 open the windows,
but finding | could not do so, ran
round to the platform side OF the
smoking ear. and got a crowhar out of a
number belonging Co om men. | saw
that the two ears were "telescOped. |
/ then commenced to break the windows
Of the second class car, and several of
the men came ont through them. |
smashed in the door, and, as the steam
had pretty we'll dispersed, l went in
and found some Of the men sitting in
their seats, apparently stunned and
unconscious. Conductor Nelson, the
/ Pullman car conductor. and two volun-
teers from Port Hope--one of them
/ was named Skltch-thcn came in, and
we went TO the middle of the ear and
saw that the side was completely
smashed, and there were many
of the passengers buried among
the ruins. WcImmediately commenced
lifting them out. and as | was thus en-
gagged, found two little children lying
IN the bottom of the car, quite dead.
The clothes of all those | touched We're
SO hot that | could hardly bear to ham
die them. one woman, who | believe
to be Mrs Calender, died just as she
was lifted out The safety valve of
the engine pertruded right into the car.
aud | do not think there was particle
of water two minutes after the engine
went over ON ITS side When all the
passengers had been got out, | went to
look at the engine. aud saw HILBERT.
the driver. living between the eugl
and the broken truck Of one OF the
ears. quite dcad. Five of the others
died before they could be removed.
The sight was an awful one. As soon
as the men got into the cool night air.
they began to suffer 3readtully, and
their cries were trlghtiul to hear. They
tore their clothes OFT and many of
them jumped the fence and fled across
the fields, crying ont the same time
most piutullv. One man got away at
least quarter Of mile before could
catch him. and another was half a mile
oil when he WAS found. Belleyille was
communicated with, and a tram vas
soon upon the spot. but before it ar
rived the >caldctT people began to com
plain OF cold, $50 with some of the
loose plauks we made fires, and rugged
mp shelters from the wind. The peo-
pile were then placed on the train aud
taken 10 Heilyylis. Most OF my
mon lg8 plu~f.l .IsIbia SuinS ,f money