The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1884-09-03
Terrible Disasters. Many Lives
LOST by Burning and Orown
ing.

The town of Evansville, Indiana, Hone
ofthc most unfortunate IN the Union. Ii
occupies a low, marshy situation, and has
been several times depopulated BY over
flows, and deadly tevcrs. 1t was the great
| est sufferer by the floods last spring and
a week ago was shattered by a cyclone.
Now comes a new horror. The steamer
which conveys passengers from the Nash
vile l.. r., was ferrying a large fat-boat
on which was a train of cars loaded with
people. A sudden storm upset the steam
or, and drowned all on board except four.
The iat-boat fortunately was too heavily
ladened to oyerturn, aud was driven
ashore. Had it also sank, the catastrophe
would have been far greater. The total
| loss Of life Is not YET Known, but Will run
70 Is or %, it is said. Ten bodies have
| been recovered. One was Miss Hattie
! Murray of Brook6eld, Alabama, Four OF
the leading business men of Evansville
were drowned, and the affair has cast a
gloom over the entire city. The passen
gers in the cars we're horror stricken at
the spectacle presented by the overturned
steamer, but as they had no boats, and
were expecting a similar fate momentum
ly, they could do nothing.
Milwaukee, August % The schooner
w. w. Brigham was to-day found capsiz-
ed in the lake. Her crew VI five Is be-
lieved to have been lost.
Carmel, Ill.,. Aug 29.-The dwelling Of
William Seigler, a farmer, was struck by
lightning and consumed. Two OF his
children were stunned by the shock, but
will probably recover. Mrs. John Haffa,
who wa in the house at the time, was
instantly killed.
SIXTY f IN = BURNING CAR
DENVER, Col, Aug, 20 The burn
ing of a circus car nine miles Of Greeley
was attended with indcscI liable horrors.
The car was mex; to the engine, IN a train
OF seventeen cars, containing orion ;
Anglo-American circus, which left Fort
Collins about midnight over the Salt Lake
and Pacific Railroad. The train was run
Mug at the rate of about twenty-five
miles an hour when the Engineer dlscov
the car to be on fire, and at once reversed
his engine. There were sixty men in the
car, arranged in three tiers Of hunks on
either side. The forward side door was
closed, and men Ia buuks, sleeping
against it. The rear side door was also
closed, and the men who awoke discover
ed the lower uuoccupied berth next TO it.
containing rubbish, on fire, filling the
car with smoke and cutting off escape in
that direction. The only means of cgress
was through a small widow between the
car and the engine. John Edgcrton and
Elmer Mlllct crowled through this open
IN. aud tired to pass III water from the
engine. Owing to the suifocating gases,
it vas difficult to rouse the sleepcrs, aud
some were kicked and bruised in a shock
ing manner and pitched out Of the win
dew. The screams of those unable to get
through the blockade to the aperture
were terrifying. The wild glare of the
flames and the sight of the burning vic
TINS outside. who lay writhing in agony
on the cactus beds, caused the wild beasts
in the adjoining car to become frantic
with terror, making the scene appalling.
The performers, who occupied the rear
cars, gazcd with white faces on the awful
spectacle. In the midst of the confusion,
two or three heroic souls appeared.
Equal to the occasion, they bravely cut
their way to their companions to find
them already IN the agony Of death Al
bert Lake and his friend, kent, walked
over cactus IN their btre feet, pouring
buckets Of oil on the o'iotcred unfcrtu-
mates and wrapping them IN blankets.
An old Pacific Co,>t soldier, named
Mcdonald. formerly OF Forepaugh'sShow.
was terribly burned The heart-rend
ing cries Of the men on the prairie, the
smothered appeals Of the dying within
the car, the roaring flames and the howl.
ing of the animals, made the situation
terrible beyond description. The odor OF
roasting flesh and the distant cry Of the
coyote added to the general horror.
Many of the rescued. in being pulled
through the small window of the car, had
their limbs broken and Joints dislocated,
At daylight a Tat car carried the charred
bodies into Greeley for interment. The
county commissioners buried the remains
in q coffin seven feet wide and ten feet
long.
The coroner ~impanclicd a jury, but they
were unable to learn any important facts,
as the managers, with the remainder OF
the company, left immediately for Golden
to hill an afternoon engage meGt.
A number OF the rescued agree that IN
the cars were two barrels of gasniire.
which exploded either from sparks from
the engine or from the naked torch with
which the men were accustomed to light
themselves to bed.
London, August pa terrible acci-
dent occurred to day at the Blackstone
coal pit near Paisley. Seven persons
were killed.
\ despatch from Nusserabad. India.
states that the barracks there had been
struck By lightning. and that six soldiers
had been killed.