Connecticut western news., 1883-01-31
SAVED FROM THE FLAMES.
HORRIFYING SCENES AT THE WRECK
 ON THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC.
Passengers Hemmed in by the Burning WreckaGe-One Rescued after he had Given up all Hope
 Narrow Escape.

Passengers Hemmed in by the Burning
 WreckaGe-One Rescued after he
 had Given up all Hope
 Narrow Escape.
 A dispatch from Tehichipa says that in the Southern Pacific train disaster case the Coroner's jury found that the victims came to their death by reason of neglect on the part of Conductor Reed and Brakeman Patten. The verdict is not yet approved by the Coroner. Two bodies have been identified as those of Thomas Keegan and Ferdinand Grom- fort, discharged soldiers of Company H. Sixth Cavalry. John F. Cassell, one of the sleeping car passengers, arrived in the city yesterday. He says:
 1T think 1t must have been only few moments after the train started that awoke and realized that we were in danger. We were rushing along the mountain side at fearful velocity, and in few seconds the crash came. Over we went, and the thousands of splinters and pieces of debris completely buried US. Quickly as possible I was on my feet, endeavoring to save myself and the other occupants of the train. Everywhere I found myself hemmed in by masses of wreckage. My wife, I think, was killed by the first shock, as her hands were cold when I touched them and my calls were unanswered. I cleared a passageway along the hog chains for some seventeen feet, until reached the place near where Miss Souires was inn prisoned I heard her scream for succor. She told me she was not injured, but merely unable to get out of the window.
 ''The flames began breaking through where was working, and l was driven back to where I knew no hope for escape existed, and retreated merely to avoid being burned to death. went back to my wife for the fourth time, and now could only grasp her hair. Again and again I called to her for one sign of life, but all to no purpose. The gases and flames now drove me from her side, and as last resort, buried myself in the debris. When hope had left me, the men working from the outside, suddenly and accidentally came upon me, and drew half of my body out, but there lodged, our combined efforts proving unavailing to free me. At length I succeeded in dropping through hole made for me by the rescuers. was the only one who ever reached the light of day from under that heap of ruins.
 MT. Porter Ashe gives the following account of the disaster:
 "My wife, maid and myself were occu- pying the drawing room of the sleeper. We were awakened by the swaying of the cars going at the rate of about seventy miles an hour. We had just braced our selves when the crash came. Our maid was buried in the debris, my wife and I falling on top of her. The car immedi- ately took fire, and we were forced to take the timber and burning boards off the maid, piece by piece. The car be- came enveloped in smoke. By breaking the windows at the top of the car I suc- ceeded in rescuing my wife and maid, and pushed them through the window. We were climbing off the car nearly suffoca- ted by the smoke when I heard man calling for help and beseeching us not to leave him. I reached down through 8 broken window and got hold of Governor Downey's hand and pulled him out nearly strangled.
 "While helping her maid to the ground my wife stepped on the window and fell through into the car again. The car by this time was burning rapidly. It is i'm possible to tell how I got her out. I jumped with her to the ground and i'm mediately ran down the hill to avoid the flames. Before leaving the car I pushed through a window sealskin cloak and dolman lined with fur, two blankets, and one mattress. I had no other cloth ing except my night-shirt. The wind was blowing strongly, and the weather was intensely cold. Surrounding us lay the dying and dead. Governor Downey, MT. Cassell, my wife and her maid, MT. Howard Hilton, who rendered us great assistance, and who acted splendidly, the child of MT. Watterhouse and myself occupied the mattress, and were only protected by blanket until assistance came from Tehichipa."
 MT. Howard Hilton, of Yale, B. C., the freight agent of the Canada Pacific Railway Company, who was on board the train, gives the following account of the disaster:
 "I was asleep in lower berth when the accident occurred, and was awakened by the terrible speed and the rocking of the car. I threw up the curtain and looked out of the window, and saw that the train was dashing down grade with frightful rapidity at rate probably of seventy miles an hour. I realized that @ disaster was imminent, and lay down again to wait for the inevitable, with the felling man must experience when he is standing on scaffold in expectation of the fall of the trap. It seemed only an instant when the crash came, and I was hurled from my berth.
 "I had been sleeping on the left side of the car, which fell upon its right side, and I was covered to my waist with mattresses, woodwork and debris but found no difficulty in freeing myself. To the right and in my rear I saw MT. and Mrs. Porter Ashe perfectly free, but Miss Petersen, the maid, was buried under about six feet of debris, on the top of which was water cooler and wash basin. We soon succeeded in pulling her out. They were the only persons in sight. I pushed up the window, or what was then the top of the car, and found it to work perfectly, not 8 pane having been crushed. I crawled through, and drew Miss Petersen out, and Mrs. Ashe followed. Porter Ashe threw out some blankets, and then crawled through himself MT. Ashe, Miss Petersen, and myself had only our underclothing on, but Mrs. Ashe wore a sealskin sacque.
 "Deep stiffness followed the crash, and we heard only one scream while we were in the car. As crawled from the car I saw Mr. Hatch and his mother climbing out of another window. I ran along and found that we could reach the ground by means of the platform. I lowered Miss Petersen, MT. and Mrs. Ashe leaping to the ground. The upper part of the car by this time was in flames. Passing 1 along hY the sleener I SAW the leos of a