The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-01-27

ANOTHER RAILROAD HORROR.
NEW Yonx, January "a
The two reaf cars Of the Atlantic express
from the West on the New York Central d
Hudson River Railroad were crushed ard
jammed together by tie Tarrytown local
train near Spuyten Duyyil Creek tonight
The wrecked cars were set on fire, and nino
persons are known to have persisted In ths
flames. It Is believed that at least three
others must have been burned State Senator
Webster Wagner Is supposed to have been
crushed between two of his swn drawing-room
cars, and to have persisted with the other vic
Tins. The Atlantic express left Albany at
800 p. M, nearly three-quarters Of an hour
behind time. The train was q heavy
one, comprising thirteen cars. Next to
the locomotive were two mail cars
and baggage-car. Behind them were three
ordinary passenger-cars. Five Wagner draw
ing-room-cars completed the train. They
were the Red Jacket, Sharon, Vanderbilt, Min
nehaha and Empire. The Empire was the
rear car. At Greenbush, on the opposite
side Of the river from Albany, the Wagner
drawing-room car Idlewild, from Troy, was
coupled to and became the last car of the
train. The train was in charge of Conductor
George Hanford, an old employee on the road.
The conductor of the drawing room-cars was
Mr.. Taylor. Two stops were made-One at
Hudson and the other at PoUghkeepsie. From
this last point the train began to make up
some Of the lost time. A speed of at least
forty miles an hour was maintained until the
Spuyten Duyvil Creek Station was reached
Here the engineer slowed down and
the train suddenly came to stop about
midway between that station and the
Kingsbridge Station. Something; it was
said by the train attendants, was
the matter with the air brake For some rea-
son it failed to work. 1t was then few min
utes past seven O'Clock. The delay must have
continued between five and ten minutes. Sud-
denly one shrill blast from q locomotive was
heard, when the sound of grinding wheels
from the rear grated harshly on the ear. The
next instant there was a shock which shivered
the Idlewild to splinters, drove its heavy frame
like a telescope into the Empire, and COM
pletely wrecked that car in an instant. Two
minutes later the Idlewid was on fire from the
stove in the forward end, which had been
thrown over by the shock. The flames leaped
upon the splintered Empire, and that, too, was
filed with fire and smoke almost before the
occupants could escape. At least dozen per-
sons who were in the 1dlewild were cut of
from escape, caught by the jagged tirnbers,
and there held to be slowly roasted alive.
Three Tammany Assemhlymen had just left
compartment at the rear of the Empire,
where they had been making merry, and were
going toward the front of the car when the
crush came, which splintered the very COM
partment they had just abandoned. Senator
Webster Wagner had passed them on his way
to the Idlewild. He was not ten feet from
the newspaper correspondent, and must have
just stepped upon the rear platform Of the
Empire when the Idlewild shot forward and
telescoped the Empire. The first indication
that the Empires passengers had of danger
was the single whistle of the locomotive Of
the local train, the Tarrytown express. The
shock hurled them from their seats: and they
were flung along the car floor. The swivel
chairs, wrenched from their fastenings, were
thrown after them and lay piled on top Of the
struggling occupants. A shower of glass
came down from over head and the roof of
the Empire was crushed in upon them by the
have been lifted bodily and shot forward upon
that of the Empire. To add to the confusion
the lights began to glimmer and the darkness
to deepen. Nearly all the occupants found
their way out through windows whose sashcs
had been shattered by the shock. The ladies
tracted without having received any severe
bruises. Assemblyman Monk was pinned be-
tween timbers close to the roof The roof
was pried of, and he was with great difficulty
released.
Nearly all of the Idlewild's passengers were
caught in the timbers, and were unable to
move hand or foot. Their shrieks were ap-
palling. The flames were gaining Roadway,
and there was neither hose, nor pals. nor
water at hand to quench them Water there
was enough in the creek, not two hundred
feet distant from the doomed cars, but in the
che of of d.
not be obtained Finally some of the neigh
bors, whose dwellings, fronted on the railroad
track, furnished few wooden pals. Falua-
bic time had been lost, and the flames were
now beyond control. The villagers continued
to throw water through the windows nearest
those spots where human voice could be
heard, until the heat drove them far beyond
q point where the primitive fire apparatus
could be utilized.
LATER.
NEW YORK, January fl a. m.
A survivor, speaking of the accident, says
the warning whistle had hardly effected
brake, and when her engine struck the Idle
wild, it cut through the car like knife and
burst into the Empire, till the glare from its
broken headlight streamed upon the startled
and affrighted passengers there.
The occupants of the last car were dashed
hither and thither; some made for the doors
and squeezed their way out; some burst
through the windows; some caught by the
crashing seats and struggled. to extricate
themselves. A few were crushed to death at
the moment Of the collision. But those who
were only disabled crawled to the openings
and strove-with what despa0ing efforts the
witnesses of that scene alone knew-to drag
themselves out of reach of the terrible death
that was coming upon them.
As the whistle of the Tarrytown express
sounded so fearfully close at hand, only one
person in the Empire gathered its significance.
IS Sit still" he called. The crash drowned his
words. They had scarcely been uttered be-
fore the cow-catcher of the locomotive was
cutting through the timber OF the car, and the
hot breath of the boiler was fearfully palpable
10 the affrighted passengers.
The group of men that found themselves
about on the soft ground in a mo-
and bewildered every one Of
them-were presently to be witnesses of .
spectacle dreadful beyond conception.
In breath fire had added its horrors to the
other dreadful accompaniment of the disas-
ter. The overturned stoves and the dropping