Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1886-10-30
STORIES OF SURVIVORS.


i'tStiIpiIbH VI tHt tdihEnitN--
HeartrendiDg Scenes Witnessed.
MILWAUKEE. Wis, Oct. 30.-Conductor
Searie, of the passenger train, was badly in
Jured about the chest He tells the following
story: I'VE were running at speed between
forty and forty-hve miles an hour | had
gone through the car for tickets, and was
seated in the baggage-car at the time the ac-
cident occurred. James Phillips, the brake
man, Wade Clark, the baggageman, and
we're seated i'll the car, talking together,
when there came a sudden shock and then l
knew we were on the ties. l started to get
upon nv feet from the chair when there was
terrific jar, and was thrown to the floor
along with Phillips and Clark with great
force, and all the trunks in the car were
thrown around in disorder on top of us, and
we were all three pinned down to the floor
There was u terrible noise, all kinds of sounds
mingled at once and to make it more awful
it was less than u minute after the crash that
the flames commenced their work of destruc-
ton. When saw the flames at the other
end of the car / thought, Well, is
this going to he my end after all, and am l
going to I've burned to deathi' 1t was sick
ening thought, can tell you. Phillips, the
brakeman, was lying beside ma, and at last
he said that if ] could give HIM little more
room he believed he could get out. | ac-
cordingly squeezed myself into as small a
space As possible, and by desperate effort
he managed to get out between the trunks. !
then escaped through the same aperture by
working myself under the trunks to the spare
where he had occupied. The brakeman at
once climbed out through the window I fol-
lowed him Clark, the baggageman had a
leg broken, but he managed to extricate
himself, and dragged himself over the trunks
and escaped with the rest of us. The fire
started ut the east end of the baggage-car
and the west end of the coach, where they
came together. When got out, which must
have been in less than five minutes although
it seemed an age, the women were yelling in
side the coach and the fire had enveloped the
whole car. The coach was right side up, but
the seats seemed to be broken up inside, and
the passengers seemed to I've pinned to the
seats, There was a light load in the coach.
can't remember more than dozen per-
sons
CHICAGO, Oct 29-Mr. T. Pettet, an Eng
lish commercial traveller who was on the
wrecked train, arrived at the Grand Pacific
Thursday He said II was in the sleeper
next to the day coach. ] was awakened by a
terrible crash and an awful, despairing wall
of human voices that still rings iii my ears.
We ran out into an open field and dressed
there. Scarcely had we reached the field be-
lore the day coach caught ON fire, and il
tazed up almost as suddenly as powder The
one thing that most Mortified us all was q
woman hanging halfway out of window
with baby in her hands A gentleman rar
up and took it and brought it toa lady stand
Ing in the field. Before he or any one els
could go to the poor woman's assistance the
flames seized her, and we saw her burned
alive We could see others of the poor Great
ures wringing their hands, and their shrieki
were blood -curdling. Why more of then
did not escape through the windows was
| marvellous. am told there were more thar
fifteen and less than twenty people in th'
car. Bishop and Mrs. Whipple, of Mime
sofa, were in the same car with me, and they
escaped with but scanty clothing. We were
obliged to remain in the frosty air in th'
| open field for over an hour aud half
Amos Black, of this city, who was one o.
the passengers on the train, told a CORE
spondent this story: II had just retired il
one of the lower berths of the first sleeper
when was startled by blast from thu
whistle of our locomotive The next instan
heard crash and felt our car sway on tbs
| rails, leaped from my berth and hnrriee
sit af The car IN my unie.elsthesi The nigh
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