Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1885-04-23

| Drowned-Eis Body no: Yet Recover
| ed-The Engine Sunk in Twenty Avs
Feet OF Water.
About o'clock yesterday morning freigh
engine No. 3 OF tho SunfoweT road; johr
Mcdaniel engineer, William STROBE, fire
man. snd james Knightley. brakeman o
the train. ven; through the Sinnescst
bridge about mile southwest Of Clearwater
snd the engineer hss not been seen or heard
1 Of since and TO doubt exists "a to his fate
! This Fras the construction train and thew
had been loading stock at MileTton, small
station about four or five miles west Of the
river, al night The water running low in
the tank they concluded To run 10 Clear
water for water. In consequence Of being
up all night the boys were sleepy, but claim
that the track looked to be in line and al
right on the bridge There is moderate
Grade coming down to the bridge and prob
ably they were running pretty fast. They
moved fesrlessly upon the bridge and when
abou; the center it gave way and
the engine and tank plunged headlong into
the fosming stream. After sinking beneath
twenty feet of water, the cab, with Strobe,
the fremsn and knightley the brakeman
rose 10 the surface and was whirled down in
the raging current. the two men hanging on
for dear life AtOu: one-four:h Of n mile
below the bridge tho fireman grssped the
over hanging Breaches of tree and climbed
to the trunk wet and cold, leaving the brake
man still ciiHgiHg TO the cab. About one
hundred yards farther down the brakeman
caught tree against which the cab had
struck and like his comrade, half drowned
and benumbed with cold he succeeded in
reaching the trunk Of the tree. In the tree
tops on their poriiou- perch. their dripping
garments hanging 20 their benumbc9 bodies,
and the rsgin:. torrents beresth filing their
ears with lis ich.ful snurmurincs, sat these
two poor 70 lroad boys until they were
tsken to - . il 5os; about in the
morning. Z, .h9ir companion, poor Nc
Daniel, was ghere 20 be found Diligen;
search ~as made :o- him all day
yesterday b.: to no purpose There
vas Q rav Of hope in the hearts Of his
companions that he might possibly have
gotten 3ut Of the water, aud IS much dead
IS alive be living somewhere in the ncighbor-
hood. but diligcn: search oil ;he day long
dispclled that hope and failed 10 discover
any trace Of tie poor fellow, dad or alive.
The cause @: the sad accident wa- tina. the
ao2d had wsshod away the the center beat
Of the bridge leaving the strinGer5 in place
which held up The cros= ties and track 50
that in the darkness il was impossible 70 zee
anything wrong, thus It was that the engine
reached the middle of The stream. the men
oblivious .. danger until the track .nnk
beneath them, and the iron stood plunged
into the angry current.
An EAGLE representative saw tho fireman
Al the Fer, SCOT: depo: las; evening, looking
none the worse for the lis terrible exrer-
;ence. lie i smooth lool,in. young man
shout 20. lE answer 20 ovF questions he
said: you see We were up al nigh, and
We're very sleepy The first thing that a.
traciei rny attention. was tie ol5i apron rat
Ting and before hsd time to think she
went siz, into the water. next felt my
head hu.ting sgsins! tho cab couple of
times and tsen we rose 20 The surface. AT
,er getting on 20 tho tree could have
reached the shore easy enough bu. tn water
va, 80 cold t could not bring riy mind up
t. the pitch # trying the water again. !.
know -ctLiug nj ali about McD4uicis. he has-
ng disappeared s. thoroughly p, il; landed
in another world. think the tank mus:
have struck the cab and Knocked it loose.
caa't conceive. for the life of me, why We
Were no: sll crushed BIZ III tank falling up
IN the cab
Up TO this writing the engineers body las
not been found.