Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-07-23

nation regarding the accident he might be
able to impart and from that gentleman
and other employees of the company he
learned the following PARTICULARS
Late on Wednesday afternoon train of
twenty three loaded freight cars approached
the high bridge which spans the Tippecanoe
river near Monticello, Ind, the engine be-
ing headed eastward. The cars contained
wheat and corn. The engineer slowed the
train up as it was nearing the trestle-work
connecting with the west end of the bridge.
AS he did 80 the bridge-tender mounted the
steps of the locomotive and remarked that |
he would ride to the east end of the struc-
ture. A few seconds later the whole of the
west span of the bridge, with the engine and |
twenty-five cars,
WENT CRASHING INTO THE RIVER.
The forward brakeman gives the following
account of the descent into the river:
The engine and several cars had passed
on to the span, when the fourth car appear
ed to jump the track, and plunging off the
bridge, carried tee next car with it. The
couplings did not break, and, as the cars
commenced to fall, the locomotive was
dragged back along the rails. The engineer,
Louis Beam, opened the throttle to its full
capacity, thinking to save his engine by
severing the couplng-pi Din. But the fasten-
ings did not break, and the cars went piling
over the side of the bridge one after another,
until the locomotive was pulled into the
river. Think of an engine and twenty-five
cars falling ninety feet through air, and
striking in six feet of water. The brakeman
says that he was standing on the fifth car
from the engine when the car ahead of him
dropped from the bridge. He ran back over
the top of the cars with all possible speed,
each one plurging into the abyss before his
heels had hardly cleared it. When he had
run this race for life over the tops of thirteen
cars, and had seized the brake of the four
teenth, he felt that sinking under his feet.
possible. With firm glip on the brake,
and an eye to the chances for life, he stood
still until the car had fallen fifty or seventy
five feet, when he jumped. Among the cars
that had preceded him was one which was
resting on the bottom of the river in slant
ing position. The brakeman struck feet
foremost against the inclined surface of the
side of the car and shot off into the water
as if he had been fired from Columbiad
He ploughed the bottom of the river for n
moment and reappeared on the surface. AS
he opened his eyes he saw car or two fall
ing through the air, and his ears were
stunned by the deafening crash Of timbers
and boards.
BY the time the man had made his way to
shore five other persons were discovered by
him scrambling out of the wreck in TIT
river. Their escape from death had been
not less wonderful than his own. One OF
these was the fireman, who had clu ny
to the tender until within few feet
of the water, when he jumped anc
fortunately for him, alighted in heap of
corn, the contents of one of the cars, which,
in striking against the rest Of the wreck had
been split open. The freman's injuries
consisted of cash on the scalp, a confusion
on the face, and some bruises about the
body. The other four men who emerged
from the wreck were tramps. They hao
| been stealing ride, and were clinging te-
the trucks when the accident happened.
The car upon which Trey were riding turned
bottomside up in the fall and they we're
hurled from their place of concealment into
| the water. One of the four had two fingers
cut of, but, with this exception, the whole
gang escaped comparatively unhurt. Beam,
the engineer, and Jerome Durphee, the
| bridge-tender, who, contrary to his custom,
had boarded the engine to ride across the
river, were buried under the wreck.
The bodies of the two men who were
killed were recovered late on Wednesday
night. That of the engineer, Beam, was
frightfully mangled. he having been crushed
under the locomotive, which had struck in
the river with the pilot pointing upward
The brakeman who rode part way down the
abyss and jumped the remainder of the dis
lance, striking upon car and afterward
roofing up the bed of the river, was we'll
enough to walk about the streets of Logans-
port on Wednesday evening.
But thrilling episode of the accident is
yet to be described. The twenty third car
OF the train was the conductors ''caboose;'
in this car were seven passengers, travelling
from one local station to another. The
brakeman in charge of the rear half Of the
train was man named Barney Moran. He
was near the centre of the train when he
heard the bridge crashing and saw the for
ward cars and locomotive plunging into the
river. He ran back to the 'caboose" and
it and the freight car, applied the brakes
with all his might. Had he made false
movement or been moment later, the Cal
would have gone to mingle with the rest Of
the train in the bottom of the Iippecanoe
But it stopped within seven feet of the pre-
cipice. The passengers occupying this Cal
did not know what had happened until afte
the wreck had settled into perfect quiet a
the bottom of the river. The fireman say!
that the last he saw of the engineer, he wa
holding on to the throttle liner and bendint
forward in his cab. He never finched from
duty as he followed his ponderous machin
through that fall of ninety feet.
1t should be borne in mind that the bridg
did not break down until after several of tn.
cars had been thrown from it. It was tn
wrenching of the train that produced tn
! strain that broke the bridge. The spa
which fell was $50 feet lon,. The structur
is of tho Howe truss pattern, and it's safet
9 has not been questioned heretofore. lively
' car loads of timbers, to be used in the con
struction OF new span, were shipped fror
c this city to Monticello last evening. Th
a frame work of the old span is SO badI
: broken as to be hardly worth fishing out &
the river. The twenty-five freight cars al
g totally wrecked.
d The remains of Louis Beam, the enginee
s will be received in this city this morning
and sent hence to Marshall, Mich, for ii
terment.
= HO,c to Get Rid of Strait.
y Red Wing Argus.
1t would be amusing if it was not sad |
n notice the sickly smile that illumines tt
? faces of the recent candidates for Strait
Il position on the Republican ticket, and no
bravely they talk when they say they wi
o heartily support the nominee. They all b
!, lieve that death will come to their assistant
. sometime, but as each two years rolls by tt
hope deferred really makes them heart sic
:. The best way for them to bring about Il