Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1883-01-24
THE TEHACH0Pl SMASH.
Broiled Animal Flesh Taken
for Human Remains.
seven Boxes Contain Charred Nut.
ton and Beef-The Coroner Among
n Caicined BOnes-OpiniOn of
n Railroad Officers rs to the
On OF the Disaster.

Ga y of the Disaster.
ESPECIAL TO THE sENrrNFL.I
SAN Francisco, Jan. 23.-A bakersfield
dispatch says The Coroner, who went up
to the scene of the railroad disaster on
Saturday morning, returned to-day. He
arrived on the ground at 2 P. NJ. A large
crowd was there, and they had already
pretty thoroughly investigated, as the
heaps which represented the human re-
mains we're disposed Of in seventeen piles,
each one of which was supposed to repre-
sent a human being. Some of them prob
ably did, but the most Of them were bits
of calcined bones that might have repre-
sented several. He thinks the destruction
of human life was greater than is supposed.
Tho leader of the two sleepers, in its down
ward flight, from which no one escaped, is
believed to have been pretty we'll filled,
and it would have accommodated 81 per-
sons. In it were placed the way passen-
gers, and many such always get on. Some
coin and jewelry was turned over to his
keeping.
BOXED MUTTON AND BEEF.
Los ANGELES, Jan. 23.-Yesterday after
noon DR.. Ross commenced the work Of
carefully examining for the first time the
bodies which had been picked up at the
wreck. The word bodies, as here used,
signify portions of q human frame. In
many instances a handful of whitened bits
of bones being all that remained Of what
had been q form. DR.. Ross made the dis
covery that some of the boxes, in which
tUnrn nlonoI uhot yyad ctr,,0SaI 10 hova
been human remains, contained the
charred and cooked flesh, either of beef or
mutton. After a careful examination he
concluded that six Of the boxes positively
contained no human remains, and OF one
more he was in such doubt that he and
DR.. Krutz this evening made an examina-
ton of all the supposed human remains,
which resulted in their ~pronouncing abso-
lutely seven not Of human flesh.
DEAD AND LIVING ALL TOLD.
The duplicate chart Of the passenger
sleepers shows every one who took passage
accounted for. Four bodies, Charles E.
Pierson, Wright Porter and the men who
are killed, named Ferdinando Brumford
and Thomas Keegan, were killed without
any %disfiguring mutilation, and hencs
were readily identified. The remains Of
Col. Larabee have been identified, also
those of Miss Squires, Mrs. Downey, Law
renee and the porter of the through
sleeper. Enough has been brought to
light to identify the remains OF l.. Weth-
cred and FL. A. Oliver. These, added to
the recognized remains, make the number
dead accounted for twelve. Two bodies
are still u~nrecognized. The clues for
Identification are SO slight that it is posi-
Bile they will never be known. The re-
mains may have been those OF tramps,
stealing a ride. AT all events, every pas
senger on the chart of the sleepers has
been accounted for as living or dead. The
supposed bodies OF seven persons burned
have been pronounced flesh and bones of
non-human animals, and what strength
ems the positions taken by medical men, is
the fact that the remains pronounced hu-
man were taken from the ruins of the ex-
press and baggage cars.
ORIGIN OF THE CATASTROPHE.
SAN Francisco, Jan. 23.-As the result
of some of the evidence taken at the in
quest on the victims of the Tehachopi
disaster, and of inquiries by detectives,
the railroad officials state that they are
now convinced that the accident was not
due to carelessness on the part of their
employees. but was the result of an attempt
v AcO thC CAPlOoo Suis IhUy Slnlii tuau
the hand brakes were properly set by the
brakesmen before getting Off the train;
that one brakesman escorted a lady to the
station and returned towards the train,
which was still in position; that his light
went out, and after he had re-entered the
station and lighted it, he found the train
gone. 1t is held that on such a grade a
train could not have stood a moment if
left unbraked, and that furthermore, the
engine and air brakes could not have been
disconnected unless the train had been
held by the hand brakes to ease the strain.
They express the belief that the brakes
were properly set and the train was tam
pered with. It is known that when the
train drew into the station two men were
seen there who were subsequently found
dead in the wreck, and who are as yet
unidentified. These men, it is thought,
were part of a gang that attempted to rob
the train, and, in order to effect their OBJ
ject, let off the brakes and started it down
grade in order to get away from help and
in position where the express car could be
robbed. Being inexperienced, they lost
control of the train, and the accident
occurred. Further evidence is adduoed
that no tramps were on the train before
reaching Tehachopi, while two were found
amidst the wreck, and two more on that
portion of the train that kept the track.