The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1882-10-05
Death ON THE RAIL.
a FssEhtful Collision On the santa re
Road Near NIekerson.
Engineers Xyestlako and Fisher, Three
FIremen and Two Others KILLED.
Fun Particular. Of the D,.o.,or


On last Tuesday morning various
rnmoIs were aflaat regarding wreck
ON the Santa Fe railroad about a hun.
drtd and forty miles west of EmDoria nj
a side track called Salem, five miles east
OF Nickerson. About .halEpast 0 O'Clock
to-day the regular night passenger train
which should have reached here last
| evening ut IL O'Clock, arrived at the
dispatcher's Office. A representative of
The NEWS was present and gained sew
eral interviews with the passengers of
the iil-fased train. Salem switch, the
regular meeting point of the eastern
bound passenger train and the cannon
ball' going west, is IN, rely q
side track, NO house or station being
near. The cast bound :Tain had head
eG" into the side track and was await
ing, about fifty yards from the east
switch, the cannon ball, which passes
without stopping. 1t was al 6 80, Just
before dark, and the fast train came
laundering along at the rate of forty
miles az hour. Suddenly it plunged
onto the switch, causing
FRIGHTFUL COLLISION,
and instantly ushcring into eternity
three human beings: Ed. Wcsllake, the
engineer of the cannon ball locomotive,
No. /; his fireman, Pat Hayes, and
Fireman Krambaugh, of locomotive No.
149. at the head of the awaiting
train. RcsIlakc WAS mutilaitd al
most beyond recognition. One hand
seems to haVe been on ihe throttle,
the other on the whistle valve. In the
wreck one palm could be seen extend
ed above the dcbIis as if implCring the
aid HhiCh could never come. His fire
man, Hayes, was literally cut in two
and horribly dishgured. Krambaugh.
the other fireman. was cut to pieces and
buried in the coal OF the tender One
foot sticking out disclosed the location
of his mangled remains Samuel Fish
eF, The other engineer, vas taken from
the wreck horribly Gcalded and other.
wise injured. He died in about ten
minutes. No one on the east bound
passenger except the engineer and FIRE
man were killed or much injured. The
express car was thrown from the track,
the messenger Jumping out, but the pas
Ecngers in the forward coach were only
shaken up little. Not SO on the can
non ball. The two engines came to-
gether with fearful crash and Imme-
mediately were pile of ruins. The
baggage car of the cannon ball train
was smashed into kindling wood, the
trunks crushed into fragments and
Harry Holiday, the baggageman, and
brother of a member of the drug firm OF
Swift & Holiday. Topeka, was fatally
injured. He was dragged out of the
wreck and cared for. His groans, an
eye witness tells US, were heart-rending.
Nothing gould easP his misery but
death and he expired AFTER great suf
fering, within an hour and a half
The next Car was the smoker, and as
near as we can tell must have contained
about fourteen occupants. most of whom
were more or less injured. The car
was total wreck, aud its condition is
described as If huge knife had cut it
just at the windows from end to end
and the sections crushed together. One
man came out through the floor, and
most of the passengers do not seem TO
know just how they did get out alive.
II. j. Wilson, of Coal Creek, Colorado,
had his head badly cut. Another
passenger on his way from Eimira,
New York, to Colorado, was hurt more
OR less severely. But NJ. J. Shaver,
who formerly lived here, but lat
terly at Newton, and who held
the position of foreman of the
bridge service, was fatally injured
about the head and body so that he died
this morning. This completes the list
OF the dead as far as We know.
THE VICTIMS.
Edward Westlake was trusty