Chariton courier. (Keytesville, Chariton County, Mo.) 1878-current, 1879-11-15
THE ST. CHARLES DISASTER.

THE ST. CHARLES DISASTER.
The Stories of the Survivors of the Late
| Terrible Bridge Accident.
From the ST. Louis Globe -Democrat.I
JOHN SUMMERS
| lay on his back i'm bed, and i'm low voice
said: 81 live at Malvern Junction, Iowa, and
was on my way to Buffalo with some stock.
/ was asleep i'm the caboose at the time. Twas
awakened by loud noise; saw by the roof
of the car that we were falling; then came a
crash, and the side Of the 'bOOse caved in;
something hit me on the head, and the next
l knew some people had me out on the bank.
went to sleep again then and when / woke
up it was in this room, and they told me my
leg was broken in two places. L amt dead
yet, and l calculate to pull through"
FRED DAVIS,
a youth Of %, halls from Malvern juno
tiOn, Iowa, and was John Summers's
"pardner." Fred told his story to the re-
porter in a free -and-easy manner: 81 was
on the outside platform of the caboOse hold
ing on the railing and looking at the bridge.
/ was holding on to the railing; Jack, my
'pardner,' was sleeping inside. All of a sud-
den there was kind of jerk; just one little
jar, and then l could hear the cars a going
down, making an awful noise. Pretty soon
the cabO0se began to go too. 1t was kind of
smooth and easy. / couldn't tell how long
it took to fall. 1t wasn't pretty long, can
tell you. was just cool as / am now, and
l can remember how i felt; but / can't ex-
plain. l felt kind of like was gone. / didn't
get excited, but held on to the rail until
got down. There was a crash, and got
knocked down fiat. You know how the ca
so, didn't remember any thing until heard
Jack Summers groaning. The stove had got
upset, and a lot of the fire fell on me. l re-
member how it burned at the time. There
-I,oI, Lot f1fI 10, a.1s, hut
crawled out and crawled over to where
jack was, and / staid with him until they
took us off. 1 thought last night was
goner; felt sick, like WANTED to vomit;
but am all right now, and am going home
in day or two"
From the st. Louis Times.
sTRAHAN's MIRACULOUS ESCAPE.
The seventh occupant of the caboose was
j. NJ. Strahan, whose escape from the ca
boose, as it was about to go down, was eX-
ceedingly narrow. In conversation with
Times reporter yesterday he related his eX-
perience as follows:
81 am farmer and reside near Malvern,
Mills County, Iowa. / had five carloads of
cattle and five of hogs IN the train. When
the train started got into the caboose and
stood in the rear end rs it went on the
bridge. Barnhart, one of the brakemen,
came in, got drink of water and a chew of
tobacco and then went up on the top of the
car. The train was moving along very slow
ly. There were four drovers in the car be-
sides me, and Charley Irwin the other
brakeman who died here little while
ago. When the train got well on the bridge
MIR. Hyde was asleep on his seat
and so was Mr.. Summers. MIR. Wearen and
the young man Davis were sitting down, but
don't know whether they were asleep or
not. After we had been going along on the
bridge few moments heard a strange noise
in the front of the train. L couldn't describe
it but it was peculiar kind of a noise that
go lad aIfhorIOh did think af the
time that an accident was about to occur.
But it seemed such q strange noise that /
thought would try and see what it was.
stepped out on the rear platform OF the ca
boose and just then / heard a crashing and
splashing in the water. As 1 stepped on the
platform looked off and saw good chance
to get onto the timbers of the bridge. / did
so and looked around and saw the car neXttO
the bridge. Almost instantly the caboose
followed and went crashing down on the
other cars. was startled, Of course, and
knew in an instant that something terrible
had happened, but 1 could do moth,
ing at that time, so l. walked
back over the bridge into town. When | left
the car and went out on the platform didn't
say any thing to the other men, because did
not think that an accident was going to nap.
pen, and even when got off the car did
not know what was going on until saw the
train going down, and then it was too late to
do any thing to save the others. Before the
train went down it was moving along steady
and nice ,and when L heard the noise had no
idea what it was"
Mr.. Strahan, whose manner indicated that
he was possessed of remarkable degree OF
self control, is tall, plainly dressed man,
who had evidently spent the greater portion
of his life on a farm. While he seemed to
feel that he had Il very narrow escape he
treated the matter rather indifferently as
though it had been an everyday occurrence.
HOW IT HAPPENED.
From information CLEANED from various
sources the following appears as a correct
statement of the accident and its attendant
circumstances: The train was special one,
and was made up at Malvern, Mills County,
Iowa, of II cars filled with live stock for the
st. Louis market and a caboose. Eleven OF
these cars contained cattle and six contained
hogs. At Moberly it was taken charge of by
Conductor o. c. Kinley. The conductor
registered at st. Charles at $40 O'Clock and
stepped into the locomotive. When the
train started to cross the bridge there were
five drovers and a brakeman in the caboose,
and another brakeman on the, roof
of the car. Ten minutes are allowed
in which to cross the bridge = that
is, il must not be crossed in
shorter time than that, but more time may
be consumed in transit if it is thought nee
essary 1t was exactly 500 O'Clock when the
treIlised portion of the bridge was reached,
and Conductor Kinley stepped from the en-
yine to the bridge to watch the train as 1t
passed over, intending to Jump on the ca
boose as it came along. The engine and one
car passed the western span in safety, when
suddenly the conductor was startled by a
crash, and the second, third and fourth cars
sank into the river, breaking the coupling OF
the first and second cars. The rear portion
of the train remained on the bridge an in
slant, and was then drawn into the yawninS
4 IL, II,