The Portland daily press., 1880-08-13
RAILWAY COLLISION.
Particulars of the Atlantic City
Disaster.
A FRIGHTFUL SCENE GRAPHICALLY
DEPICTED.
Fifteen Persons Already Dead.

ATLANTIC CITY, N. j., Aug. 12.-At mid
night dispatch was sent to Camden for thir-
ty-ive stretchers, which would indicate that
the number of injured was larger than at first
supposed. News of the accident caused great
excitement here, and when the DELAYED
express arrived, at about midnight, large
crowd assembled at the depot When the
train arrived there were calls for the excursion
train hands, but it is reported that they had
prudently changed their uniform Owing 10
the excitement prevailing Ibut few names Of
victims could be sobtaned. 1t was learned,
however, that a man named Sweeny, of West
Philadelphia, and boy died soon after the
accident, and that a lady named Smith is ex-
pected to die,
PHILADELPHIA, Aug. Eat Las this morn
ing ambulances began to arrive at the hospital
in this city, carrying those who were wounded
in the accident on the Atlantic City road at
Mays Landing last night. All the sufferers
seemed to be either scalded or burnt, and very
few were injured directly by ithe wrecking of
the train. 1t is impossible to say accurately
how many are hurt, as the confusion at the
time of the accident was so great. Many of
the passengers in leaping through the windows
jumped directly into the river, and others
sought refuge in the shouses of the villagers.
1t appears now as though only one was killed
outright and forty-one injured Nearly all
the passengers were living in the northwest
part of the city. A number of those supposed
city. james Sweeney of Philadelphia was
killed..
The following description of the scene at the
time of the collision was telegraphed from At
antic City this morning: Of the persons on
the rear platform of the first train some
jumped to the ground and then rushed panic
stricken back into the cars. The locomotive
came bounding on and crashed into the rear
Car, still standing on the bridge. So terrible
was the force of the collision that the engine
f,fr1 v11N fun half f,,t<,
the roof of the latter being lifted over the
smokestack of the locomotive. The shock
broke one of the cylinders ofthe engine and in
stantly scalding water was poured out upon
the terror-stricken occupants of the car The
rain had been pouring down heavily, and con-
sequently all the windows of the car were
down, and the steam filling it instantly, added
to the terrorS of the occasion by concealing
everything beneath an impenetrable cloud.
The scenes that ensued are described as SIM
vapor were heard the agonized shrieks of wom-
en-, the piteous walls Of children, and the
yells of suffering men. The panic-stricken
thousands in the cars of the first train ran
pall-mell from them. or jumped through the
windows and rushed they knew not where,
in their uncomfortable fright, and it was
some time before reason prevailed and earnest
efforts were made to rescue the injured and
relieve their sufferings.
As there were nearly two thousand people
from Philadelphia on the excursion, the ex-
element among those looking for their friends
at the wharf as the wounded were brought
over from Camden was intense. Some of the
women had gone down to the seaside in light
summer costume, which furnished but slight
protection against the steam jets, and the only
difficulty is to see where they are not burned.
They were carried. from the cars mass Of
flour and cotton, under which the human
form was scarcely distinguishable, and but for
their low means they seemed to be dead. AT
2 o'clock this morning 10 ambulances were
full, and as theR number of stretchers
proved inadequate several of the victims still
remained in the cars.
MAYS LANDING, Aug. 1.-THE conductor
and engineer of the second section of the ex-
cursion train have been arrested charged with
manslaughter and held in $1,000. One more
victim has died and three more are not ex-
pected to recover. There are % of the injured
at the Penn Hospital, Philadelphia. Many
are very badly scalded and internally injured
There are Is others who were hurt but not bad
ly enough to be taken to the hospital, and 3
children are missing. At latest accounts the
number of deaths are Is.