The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1879-10-24
A Travellers Story Of the Late Rail.
way Disaster.

Rev. Neil M'Dermott, Scotch Pres
byterian minister, who was on his way
from Guelph, Canada, to Elmira, ILL.,,
to supply congregation, said he hoped
never to look upon such q scene again.
The picture of the horrors he had wit
messed was indelibly impressed upon his
mind. 1t would be easier, he said, to
write it in tears of blood than in or
binary ink. He said: 81 was seated
in the third car, which was crowded
with sleeping passengers. as were the
two cars preceding it; men and women
lying upon and across the seats in all
positions and directions, and all or near
ly all of us were wrapped in sleep. The
an hour, should Judge. The collision
came without moments notice or
warning. was sitting near the end of
the car. My last impression was of the
crowd of sleeping people all around me.
The next instant, as it were, saw
only half dozen around me.
The rest were all buried in
mass of debris before my eyes. The
cars had been telescoped. The outer
edge of the car was smashed by the edge
of the one preceding it coming in and
forcing it outward from the inside al
most the entire length of our car. Men
were grOaning, women screaming and
shrieking, and children crying. The
mass of ruins, splinters and fragments,
with the engines piled upon each other,
was only half visible. The only light
was from a lantern that was hung to the
extremity of one Of the sleepers, but the
darkness was full of horrible cries of an
guish and suffering. l should suppose
there were $50 or 200 people crowded in
the three first cars which were wrecked.
1 was thrown out of my seat, the edge of
the car smashing like kindling-wOOd.
Looking around me, could see blood
flowing from almost every face. The
faces were contOrted with agony, and
looked up at me with an ex-
preston can never forget. Arms and
limbs had been torn off, and lay scat
tered around. 1t looked like a huge
human slaughter-house, erected on u
mass of blacEened and splintered ruins.
AS soon as we and the men in the Sleep
ers got up and aroused we began to ex-
tricate the poor, suffering creatures,
who were crying pitifully to Us for help,
or cursing. Some of them spoke in En-
glish, but mostly in Canadian French.
We pulled two men ont of the wreck,
who had sat close together and been
killed side by side. But the women,
God help them! One of them had lost
her little one, and wandered up and
down distracted and not knowing what
to do, except to cry, "Oh, God! save
my child" We pulled one little fellow
out of the wreck, who had lost his father
and mother and sister. He had broken
his leg, too, but he bore his awful calam-
ity like man. There were many wom-
en- on board, and We were very thank
full for that, too, before we got through.
Most of the passengers were young
men Observation-Disclosures, bound
for the lumber regions. They could
speak English, many of them, and 1
had talked with several of them in nv
simple way during the evening about
the Savior. You know I'm minister
of the gospel. and 1 have the love to
carry my tidings to every creature
wherever l 60. In many cases the
bodies were fastened in by the timbers
We had to take axes and
cut them out. They were dead before
we could reach them. l guess we were
at work an hour before any help ar
rived. 1t was $50 in the morning by
my watch when the accident happened.
and it was most when the doctors
came from Jackson. They did every
thing they could, and the railroad hands
and officers worked like troopers. The
wounded were placed in the houses near
by. One house had six-two men and
four women, and another had nearly as
many. 81