The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-05-12
A TERRIFIC SMASH uP.
AN INDIANA ROAD THE sUFFERER-sEyERAI
WOUNDED AND CARS DRSrRnYRn

AN INDIANA ROAD THE sUFFERER-sEyERAI.
WOUNDED AND CARS DESTROYED.
A dispatch from Plymouth to the Chicago
Tribune gives the details of terrible acct.
dent. Says the report As the eastern
bound Atlantic express which left Chicago
at o:Io Saturday afternoon, was within two
miles anda half of Plymouth. Ind. where
it was due at $50, the locomotive. running
at about twenty-five miles an hour, was
thrown from the track by misplaced switch.
The train consisted of three sleepers, a first
class coach. second-class coach, a refrlgera-
tor car, Adams express car, and two bag
gage cars. All but the three sleepers and
the hrst-class passenger went off the
track, the rear cars, being heavier, break
ing the connecting-rod of the switch and
stopping short. The engineer, Keplinger by
name; the fireman Whose name could not
be learnedl; Barney, the express messenger;
Hoover, the baggage master, and two bag
gagemen, Gray and Mclean, who were
dead heading ride with him, were all more
or less injured. The fireman and express
messenger were badly hurt, the former be-
ing found some distance away in an lnsensi-
bic condition, while the express messenger.
who was badly burnt, was found with the
heavy iron safe piled on bis back and was
extricated just in time to escape suffocation.
Hoover, the baggage. was more or
less mixed up with the trunks but was not
so badly hurt but that he could 90 on with
the train. The cars were piled on top of one
another, and the shock caused the upset
ting OF the stove in the second
and burned so rapidly that nothing could be
done to check the flames. The baggage car
and contents were almost wholly DESTROYED
by ire, only five pieces of baggage being
saved. Most of the contents Of the express
car were saved, though the canvas burned.
The locomotive, No. 2l9, almost a new one,
was completely disabled. The three Sleep
ers and the passenger coach were drawn
away by freight locomotive and saved.
The loss to the company is heavy, especially
In the matter of baggage. The general bag
gage agent, Mr.. Starring, left last eve-
ming for the East, to adjust these losses.
I So far as our informant could learn.
none of the passengers were seriously in
jured. Among the passengers on the train
were Mr.. Peach, the secretary of the Stats
Zeitung Company, Mr.. William Westlake
OF Dane & Westlake, with mis- wife and child,
on their way to Europe; Frank Lawlor and
F. V. Misch, who received some slight
bruises, he being in the forward berth
of the foremost sleeper Several
European capitalists, who have been out
West ON tour of inspection, and a number
of ladies were on the sleeping-csr. A spec
cial train was sent out yesterday morning.
for the purpose of taking the pas
sengers to the East. Engineer Keplinger
when he first noticed the open switch,
clutched the reverse-lever, but too late to
save the train. When the engine left the
track KepliDger was thrown violently
against the cab and rendered unconscious,
The next thing he knew he was standing up
alongside of the track, having only sustained
slight bruises. The fireman, Harvey Slagle,
had two ribs broken, and other injuries.
The baggage master, VIM. Hoover, and ex-.
press name unknown, received
painful bruises. Remarkably, no one of the
passengers sustained even scratch. The
wreck was cleared away in about seven
about s this morning, Fright side up with
care" and much pleased at their miraculous
escape from ante-mortem cremation.