Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1884-08-30
A GLIMPSE AT HELL'S
Flaming Horrors Seen in a Burning
Car
ON A WESTERN RAILROAD.
YeIls From Threats Seorched to a
Crisp
In Flames That Roasted Flesh From
Crumhllng Bones.
From the Glare of the Circus to the
Lurid Light Of Pluto's
Torches.
A WESTERN RAILROAD.

GREELY, COL, August 29.-The burning
of a circus car nine miles north OF Greedy
WAS attended with indescribable horrors.
The burned car was next to the engine, at
tached TO a train Of seventeen cars con-
tanning Orton's Anglo American circus
which Fort Collins, about midnight fot'
Golden, over the Greedy Salt Lake and
Pacific road. When nearing Windsors s
station, near Greedy, while rum
ming about twenty-five miles an hour,
the engineer discovered the car was on
FIRE. He reversed his engine and threw
open the whistle valve. There were sixty
men in the car arranged in three tiers OF
berths on either side. The forward side
door was closed and the men in the hunks
were sleeping against it. The rear side
door was closed and the men who awoke
discovered the lower unoccupied, the berth
next to it containing rubbish on fire, filling
the car with smoke, cutting of escape IN
that direction. The only means OF
egress was through a small window
between the car and the engine John
Pine, of Edgerton, Wisconsin, and Elmer
Miller, of Iowa, crawled through the open
ing and tried to pass in water from the en-
CINE tank. Owing to the sufocating gases
it was difficult to arouse the sleepers. Some
were kicked and bruised in shocking
manner and pitched out Of the windows
The screams of those unable to get through
the blockade were terrifying. The wild
| glare Of the flames and the light of the
burning car showed the victims outside who
were
writhing in Agony
| on the cactus beds, and caused the wild
beasts in the adjoining car to become fran
tic with terror, making the scene appalling
The performers who occupied the rear cars
| gazed white faced at the awful spectacle.
| In the midst of the confusion two or thret
heroic souls appeared equal to the occa
sion, and brayely cut their way to theil
companions to find them already in the
agony Of death. Albert Lake, in charge Of
the animals, and his friend Kent, walked
over the coaches in their bare feet, pourin
buckets of oil on the blistered unfortunate:
and wrapping them in blankets.
An old Pacific coast sailor named Nc
Donald, formerly of Forepaughs show, was
terribly burned, the
Flesh Hanging to shreds.
The heartrending cries OF the men on the
prairies smothered the appeals of the dying
within the car. The roar of the flames and
the bowling of the animals made the scene
terrible beyond description. The odor oi
roasting fesh'and the distant cry Of coyotes
added to the general horror Of the scene.
The voices Of the dying grew fainter and
soon ceased. Meantime the engine had
| gone to Greely tor assistance, returning
with Dr. Jesse Hawes, President of the State
Medical Association. Many Of the rescued,
on being pulled through the small window
had their limbs broken, or joints dislocated.
Hands and feet were found burned of.
Roasted trunks OF bodies were found in one
place and legs in another and piles Of
Roasted, Shriyeled Carcasses
we're pulled out Of the ruins. At daylight a
Hat car carried the charred bodies into
Greeley for interment. The County Com
miSsioners buried the remains in a huge
coffin, seven feet wide and ten feet long, in
the Greeley Cemetery. Rev. Mr.. Reed, Of
the Presbyterian Church, conducted the
funeral services. The Coroner embsnelled
jury who were unable to learn
the cause Of the ERE or any i'm
portant facts, as the managers with the
remainder of the company left Immediately
for Golden to gil an afternoon engagement.
1t is impossible to get complete list Of
dead as many were engaged but for day
or two. A number Of the rescued agree
that in the car were two barrels Of gasoline
which were exploded either by sparks fro IN
the engine or from the naked torch with
which the men were accustomed to fgh'
themselves TO bed.