New-York tribune., 1880-01-12

unequal to the stress Of this terrible
gale; and the whole mass, piers, glrders engine,
carriages and a hundred human beings tOpplcd
over together into the furious food beneath
Not One human being escaped. 1t is this com
pleteness of the catastrophe which makes i so
tragic. Sudden it was, ALSO but railway disasters
are always sudden. But here was a train ont of
which no one came alive and one had any more
chance of coming ont alive than if the earth had
opened and swallowed it up. The speed was
probably about twenty-five miles an hour.
At the moment of the collapse the tram
was in an iron cage and train and cage together
were precipitated more than one hundred feet sheer
down into a raging stream thirty feet deep. For a
little while the people the Dundee side who waited
for the coming over of the train, and who knew
that something had happened because it did not
come, fancicd that the driver might have pulled MP
before the bridge went down. Two or three men
started TO walk over to see, but cameback IN panic
at the fury of the tempest. All they could mako
out was that part of the bridge gone but nobody
knew positively that the tram had gone with the
bridge until some of the mai-bags had been washed
ashore some miles away. The crowds who swarmcd
into the Dundee station on the first TumOr of an
accdent-the husbands and wives brothers and
sisters, relatives and friends Of the passenger
were kept fer hours IN suspense by what on" paper
by what should call the crnel callousness common
to the official mind on such occasions. So fierce
was the storm that all communication between
the opposite shores was suspended. No steamer
dared leave port. BY and by one came over
from Newport TO Dundee. and the gale having
aba,c ed, the Provost, the harbormaster. the rall-
way people and some citizens OF Dundee, embarked
on voyage Of discovery at about 10 o'cloca. AS
they reached the bridge the moon came out, anl BY
her light they first saw the ghaStly rent III tine
BRIDGES 600 feet cut clean out of it 10y the storm.
4 boat pulled through, bat nothing could be seen
of the wreck save q huge grdcr or two. The lay
had swallowed the whole and down to this mo-
neut two days aferward, but one body has been
recovered. Divers have been down, but they
came up again with the report that notA-
ing can be seen OF tho wrecked carriages.
There are quicksandS all about and IT is doubtful
whether anything viii ever be seen, except the bits
Of splintered wood, and various waits and sirays
which floating ashore from hour TO hour.
Nobody, we are assured, from London was among
the victims. There were no through passengers. II
was a local train. 1t tilicl moreover mainly or
wholly, with third-class passengers persons in
whose lives and fortunes the superior classes
can be Supposed to take, as rule, but
n lukewarm interest. Yet / can only end a'
began by saying that all London is aghast at this
calamity. You see strangers stop each other IN the
streets TO ask for news. The papeIs.cOme ont with
their neagrc bulletins from hour TO hour and are
Just as eagerly bought as if they had some
thing 10 tell The Queen has tclcgraphcd
10 the Provost of Dundee that she IS mex
ressibly shocked, and feels most deeply
for those who have lost friends aud relations.
The manager of the North British Railway an
nounccd at first that the number OF dead was 200
or 500. How the blunder happened is not known,
but lie has since said that the whole number will
not exceed ninety; and he is heartily cursed for
adding needless horror to the story. Public in
dignation takes odd shapes sometimes. In conse-
quence of the disaster. North British Railway stock
fell 10 per cent. | heard moro than one man say
he wished it would fall 20; if only to punish them
for exaggerating the number of killed. But these
Justly angry persons IT is perhaps needless to add
are not owners of North British stock. q. w. 8.