Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1881-12-29
A SORRY SCENE.
At the Wreck of the Broken Bridge
Over the Missouri River, Near st.
Charles.

AT the wreck OF the Broken Bridge
Over the Missouri River, Near st.
Charles.
81. Louis GlObe'Democrat
When the morning trains had ar
rived and departed, a reporter, in COM
pany with Mr.. Johns, editor of the st.
Charles Journal, chartered a skiff, and
steered for the scene of destl uction.
The cab of the submerged locomotive
that loomed up in the moonlight of the
night before was not to be seen, for it
was being swallowed up in quicksand,
carrying down in its iron grip faith
full man, who died with his hand upon
the throttle. His grave grows deeper
hour by hour, for the bed of sand is
seventy feet deep. twenty-five feet of
water engulfs a great deal of what
could be plainly seen after the plunge.
Piled up In a conglomerated mass
against the pier thatsupported the wes-
tern end of the span, was mass of
flesh, iron, wood, hay and corn. Climb
ing to the top of the heap, the reporter
looked up to where the telegraph wires
were being replaced on top of the pier.
The stately stone column was broken
and battered. 1t had lost its SYM
metrical outlines by reason of the scars
received from upwards of thirty cars
that bumped down over the 'cap-stones.
-Four heavy floor beams close to the
pier were shattered into fragments,
and hung supported by frail splinters
in the air, while the ends of the track
were bent down and twisted over the
crown. Car after car, as it plunged
down, rubbed and broke the column.
making, as an eyewitness said, can
incessent blaze of fire until all had
gene in" In among the bent, broken,
and crushed rods of iron, the car
wheels, axles and truck beams, the
hogs were wedged, seemingly all dead,
until one on the very summit made a
savage bite at the reporters legs when
trod upon. There were hogs cut
through the middle, dacapitated hogs.
hogs without legs, and legs and heads
without bodies in a sickening mass.
Close up to the pier, standing on edge,
was the floor of a stock-car that had
been stripped of everything above it,
and the running gear beneath. On the
upper side there was box-car filed
with hogs that had kept pretty well
together in the fall. One end of it
was sticking out of the water, while
down in the submerged portion the
drowned animals made a foundation
that kept four or five hogs above wa
ter. One of these was cut out but
sank before it could swim to shore.
Just alongside of this car lay the caboose
on its side, down in the river, and on
top of it was gang of wreckers fishing
down in it with wires for such cloth
ing and other things as they might
haul to the surface. A short distance
east of this heap, there was space
over which the water flowed without
obstruction, then two sections and
part of another section of the broken
span stood up with the girders out of
water. Close under one of these was
the end of freight car with brake
attached. sticking up as it had de-
scended. 1t was there that Oblinger
was rescued. From this place on to
the next pier there was nothing to be
seen, for the locomotive was buried
there. a st. Louis photographer
sketched the scene.
In the forenoon a small force of
workmen made their way out in yawl
and commenced the clearing work. A.
l.. Bassett arrived with wrecking
gang in the afternoon from Moberly
with engine No. II and derrick car.
which was run out on the barge to the
open span. The carcasses of the ami
mails and pieces of cars were loosened
from the mass and allowed to drift
down theriver. Numerous skiff-crews
below caught the porkers as they float
ed down. The wreck was diminished
about two feet. A boats crew were
searching all the afternoon, with
twenty-foot poles, for the engine, but
no trace of it could be found. It has
already sunk beyond reach in the
quicksand, and poor Kirkby's body is
with ii.