Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1877-01-10


burned, Frozen or Drowned "A Tale
Of Horror.
CLEVELAND, Dec 80
At z: 80 o'clock last evening an iron bridge
over the Ashtabula River on the Lake Shore
4 Michigan Southern Railroad gave way I'M
der tue Pacific express, a train which con-
sisted of eleven cars drawn By two engines.
Tire forward engine had just cleared the
bridge when it fell, and, by the breaking of
coupling-pin, was left on the track. The
rest of the train fell q distance of seventy
1--WE feet into the water below.
The crash of the falling bridge and train
was heard at distance of a mile from the
scene, and was immediately followed by
brilliant illumination of the sky, caused hy
the burning ears, which took fire almost in
stantah Crowds of people were soon on the
ground rendering what assistance was in
their power, which was little enough. About
fifty were picked up from the wreck, and
taken to neighboring houses. OF these sew
eral have already died.
The most heart-rcnding incidents are told.
Several persons firmly wedged between
heavy timbers, yet not mortally hurt, were
burned to death before the eyes of helpless
bystanders. A man. a woman and child
are now known 10 have died in this way.
The man was roasted for full half an hour,
utterng the most pftful cries for aid mean
NhIe before death came. One of the most
remarkable escapes recorded is that of
gentleman one of party of four playing
whist in a double seat. Two of his compan-
ions were crushed and the third was MORALLY
hurt but he escaped uninjured.
Two babes were taken from the wreck alive
and not fatally injured. There is no one to
claim them
A special to the Chicago Tribune, of the
3lst, says:
The disaster was dramatically complete.
No clement of horror was wanting. First,
the crash of the bridge-the agoniZing mo-
ments of suspense as the seven laden cars
plunged down their fearful leap to the icy
riyer-bed; then the fire. which came to de-
your all that had been left alive by the
crash; then the water, which gurgled up
from under the broken ice, and offered an
other form of death; and finall.2, the biting
blast filled with snow, which froze and be-
numbed those who had escaped water and
fire. 1t was an ideal tragedy
The scene of the accident was the valley
of the creek which, flowing down past the
eastern margin of Ashtabula village, passes
under the railway three or four hundred
yards east Of the station. Here for many
years after the Lake Shore Road was built
there was a long wooden trestle-work, but as
the road was improved this was superseded
about ten years ago with an iron Howe
Truss built at the Cleveland shops, and rest
ing at either end upon high stone piers,
tlanked by heavy earthern embellishments.
The iron structure was a single span
OF l59 feet, crossed by a double track
seventy feet above the water, which at
that point is now from three to six
feet deep, and covered with eight inches of
ice. The descent into the valley on either
side is prccpitous, and, as the hills and
slopes are piled with heavy drifts of snow,
there was no little difficulty in reaching the
r.g.l- off. hn a i-rNnx
The disaster occurred shortly before eight
o'clock. 1t was the wildes: winter night of
the year. Three hours behind its time the
Pacific express, which had left New York the
night before, struggled along through the
drifts and the binding storm. The eleven
cars were heavy burden to the two engines,
aud when the leading locomotive brooks
through the drifts beyond the ravinc, and
rolled on across the bridge, the train was
moving at less than ten miles an hour. The
head lamp threw but q short and dim flash
OF light in the 'front.' so thick was the air
with the driving snow. The train crept
across the bridge, the leading engine had
reached solid ground beyond, and its driver
had just given it steam, when something
in the undergearing of the bridge snapped.
For an instant there was a confused crack
ling OF beams and girders, ending with
tremendous crash, as the whole train but
the leading engine broke through the
framework, and fell in heap of crushed and
splintered ruins at the bottom. Notwithstand-
ing the wind and storm the crssh was heard
by people within-doors half a mile away.
For a moment there was silence, stunned
sensation among the survivors, who, in all
stages Of mutilation, lay piled among the
dying and dead. Then arose the cries of
MANNED and suffering; the few who re-
manned unhurt fastened to escape from the
shattcredlcars. They crawled out of windows
-t-6n
women and children, with limbs bruised
and broken, pinched between timbers and
transtiXed by Jagged splinters, begged with
their last breath for aid that no human
power could give.
Five minutes after the train fell the fire
broke out in the cars piled against the abut-
ments at either end. A moment later flames
broke from the smoking car and first coach
piled across each other near the middle of
the stream. In less than ten minutes after
the catastrophe every car in the wreck was
on fire, and the flames, fed by The dry var
hished work and famed by the icy gale,
licked up the ruins as though they had been
finder. Destruction was so swift that mer-
cy was baifled.
Men who in the bewilderment Of the shock,
sprang out and reached the solid ice went
back after wives and children, and found
them sutiocating and roasting in the flames.
The neighboring residents, startled by the
crash, were lighted TO the scene by the con-
fagration, which made even their prompt
assistance too late. By midnight the crema-
ton was complete. The storm had sub
sided, but the wind still blew fiercely, and
the cold was more intense. When morning
came, all that remained OF the Pacific express
was winrow OF car-wheels, axles, brake
irons, truck frames and twisted rails lying
in a black pool at the bottom of the
gorge. The wood had burned completely
away, and the ruins were covered with white
ashes. Here and there mass of charred,
smoldoring substance sent up little cloud
Of siekening yapor, which told that it was
human flesh slowly yielding to the corrosou
of the f-e. On the crest of the western
abutment, half buried in the snow, stood the
rescued locomotive, all that remained Of the