The Russellville Democrat., 1881-12-15
A TERRIBLE PLUNGE.
Again the St. Charles Bridge Gives Away Under Its Load and a Whole Train PIunges Int" tbe Water Below
 Graphic Doecripsion of


 this cvcnine.the people ot st Chafie nstinctlye 1 ly strained their eyes in the direction oi the great Wabash bridge. The people here have lived for years in the expectation of something happening to that bridge
 At the dizzy altitude it looks exceedingly frail. The best of experts have given 1t character. but the burghers at st. Charles have always shaken ! their heads dubiously There are people living 1 here who when they want to go to St. Louis, l cross the river on the ferryboat and take the train at the east end of the bridge.
 It is the one thing about which past assooia- tons cluster here. When 1t was building boom gave away; dozen men went down. to be taken out of the wreck dead or maimed Few months have passed without some casualty to finnish town talk. Men by the score have tunbled of the shifting channel of the fckie Missouri has made the piers more dreaded than sawyers by the Big Muddy nayigators; boats have gone to pieces there. or emerged below shattered and dis abled
 How often the wall of the lost has gone up through the network Of irestle girders no one can tell; enough. however. to cause the structure to be looked on with almost superstition
 Two years ago the Sth of November, at S:20 in the evening, span gave way and freight train went down. Then people of St. Charles all shook their heads and said they knew it. So tonight.
 
 looked toward the bridge. Dimiy outlined in the gloom stood the dread structure. span No. 8, nearest the St. Charles side of the river the one which went down before, stood intact; so did No ?, but where No. had stood there yawned a great gap.
 The bridge Is downl passed from mouth to ward toward the approaches. The first news made the ill-faied train, the Warrenton accommcda- ton, which brings the people living along the nearer towns on the Wabash out of St. Louis to their homes in the evening. It is the train which St. Charles people most often take on leaving the city. While the impression prevailed that this was the il-fated train there were hearts that all most refused to palpiate and limbs that refused 10 sustain. But feeling of relief came. THE ILIrFATED.TRATN
 was freight No l2 eastward bound By schedule 1t crosses just before the Warrenton accommoda- tion, meeting the latter at Brotherton, and pass ing. Engine and tender, thirteen cars loaded with live stock. and eighteen with other freight | and the caboose went down. Three of the six men on the train when it started over the bridge accompanied t on that wild leap of sixty-ive feet into the nyer chan nel: That two of them escaped to tell of the awful experience seems a miracle. Five of the six are accounted for, and one is miss ing.
 | His body may still be in the cab, with his hand on the throttle, or 1t may have been washed away. That is a mystery yet unsolved. Fireman H. Chamberlain was beside Kirksby, but somehow he was forced through the cab window and upon top of the wreck, just above the surface of the water. where he clung calling l for help until Charles Spinks and X. Dolson, the 1 latter bridge watchman, had manned a skifI | and rescued him. He was fit subject for the surgeon. Both bones of the left leg below the knee
 sds b fortabie as a'a and he a | put into the best bed in the Gait House. l Brakeman Charles H. oblinger lives to Dc | pointed out as the other of the two men who went down into that awful abyss. He was on | the third car from the tngine, and he felt all giving way beneath him. He dropped flat on tor | Of the car and touched the footboard. Then tho car he was on doubled over the one in front and l stood out of the water half its height His cries brought one of the numerous skiffs manned a' soon as the alarm was given, and he was brought | ashore Half dozen cuts and some aggravated bruises composed the extent of his Injuries He too, was cared for ct the Gait House, and there is every prospect that he will be ou soon
 These were the only men who accompanied tht train to its destruction. Oblinger has family al | Moberly. Chamberlains home Is at Tyremo Kirksby's body, if found, will be taken back tC Moberly.
 It was a long train-entne and tender, thirty two cars and the caooo.e' When ,t the engine Wal Wal was away back on span No. 3, just leaving the St. Charles side of the river The span which went down did so in it's entirety.
 The escape of ". c. Anderson, of Pattonsburg Mo, and Pat Crane, of Howard county, tive stockmen, and Conductor Durteld, who were ir the eaboose, was almost a miracle. The success sion of jerks warned them, and they jumped of the rear platform upon the bridge and stood look ing at the slowly disappearing train.
 Durheld says that simultaneously with the un even motion of the train came the cry of Mid cap, who shouted to the occupants of the ca boose, For Gods sake, jump; she's going down the wreck b it it was impossible to do anything Skifs had already taken off the surviving tram men, and the utter hopelessness of any search for poor Jack Kirksby was apparent at the firs' glance
 Just above the surface of the water could be seen the corner ofthe cab. Piled in and around all shape, and ready to be washed away in frag ments; others were almost intact. Perhaps scant third of the tram is left above the surface of the river against the piers On either side o the break arc masses of rolling stock These par tially submerged portions contain some of tht stock cars. and at midnight the squealing of the lmprisoned swine and the hoarse believing O. the cattle could be heard up town, a mile away l from the wreck.
 Most of the live stock consisted of hogs It i. | all dead freight
 But those eighteen cars which were denomi ted before the accident contained grain and mis sellaneous produce and machinery.
 THERE IS NO THEORY | to account for the accident When the span fell two years ago, it was argued that the engine left the metals, struck the trestlwork and broke sup l ports enough to weaken the structure beyond ifs | sustaining strength. This can hardly be presumed to account for to-nights eatasirope. Since the | accident two years ago the bridge has been | equipped with guard rails, making 1t simply i'm possible for the ears to leave the metals. | Inen, loo, tnere IS & snrViNOr rom the engine | cab, a. q, with the brakeman, unite in saying there was no wayering, only an instantaneou. | collapse.
 Halt an hour after the calamity all was iu | action, people stood in crowds along the bank gazing at where there had been bridge span l nothing could be done, and nothing was done
 The Warrenton Accommodation drew up al Brotherton, the passengers clambered out, looked down and shuddered, as they thought what might have been. The old expedient of trans ferring passengers by ferryboat bRs already been | adopted. People coming west Nave the cars al Bretherton, walk q quarter of mile through the bottom, take the ferry, climb the St, Charle' Levee, and re-enter another train to continue their Journey
 IL is tedious transfer, but one that VIII have to be made for several days. at least until tenn | porary structure can be erected. The accident in all its phases, was a subject O. | discussion in St. Charles until most unseason | able hour for such steadygoing community | Ali unite in saying that the railroad company has exercised the greatest care in forestalling such an event as has occurred. They were con stantly employed replacing every bit of metal that gave evidence of strain. A waichman passed over the structure every hour and hail day and night
 | St Charles people have been suspicious of tn. bridge, as is we'll known, but more Orr. genera | principles. Thus, the Journal, which issues an extra tonight speaks of it as the | "sPIDER-wrB STRUCTURE. l The belief seems to have beed almost universal here that the bridge unsafe, and yet no spe- citc reason Is given for the impress sion. A month the State Railroad n afeafn