Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1886-11-03
NOTES OF THE WRECK.
Stories Told by Survivors OF the Wreck
Ghastly Relics,

Immediately after the crash man
was seen trying to drag himself from under
two heavy timbers which lay across his
breast. A dozen rescuers made every effort
to extricate him but without avail. They
made q succession of dashes to his relief,
but were each time driven back by the
flames, which rolled upward in huge ruddy
pillows. Seeing that he was doomed to hor-
rible death, he shouted to the crowd to kill
rim and end his suferiEgs. The flames
crept nearer and nearer until they reached
his legs and cracked above his head. With
clinched teeth and protruding eyes the dy-
ing man made a superhuman effort to re-
move the timbers which pinned him to the
earth. The sinews in his white face stood
out like whip cords, and the veins in his
forehead seemed ready to burst. He fought
for his life with the ferocity of wild beast,
but the battle was an unequal one. A mo-
ment later wave of fire rolled over his
head and killed him where he lay.
Conductor Hankey has turned up at
Portage. He is almost a raving maniac
and can scarcely talk intelligently mutter-
ing to himself al the time, ''Oh, why didn't
Wells (the brakeman tell me he didn't
close the switch" In his somewhat wan
dering talk, he claims that he attended to
two switches in front of the train, trusting
was 100 feet away and called out to him,
Everything is all right" 1t is believed
that Hankey will become a raving maniac.
Nothing has been heard from Wells.
Only three succeeded in getting out of the
day coach alive-one, Charles L. Smith, of
Charles City, Ia, who is now lying at a
hotel in Columbus in critical condition,
and two children-one, Emma Scherer,
aged years, and Louis Scherer, babe 8
months old, who were handed out through
a broken window by their heroic mother,
who was wedged fast In the seat, awaiting
death from the flames which enveloped her.
When the train left Milwaukee Mrs.
Scherer turned two seats face to face and
placed her children On them to sleep. Her
Delf and mother sat behind them on an
other seat, and when She crash came were
pinned fast by the collapse OF the cars, seats
and all. The manner in which the double
seats where the children were came together,
left them unframed.
The name of the switchman who is re-
sponsible for the disaster, is G. 81. Wells.
He formerly resided at Oconomowoc.
Engineer Thomas Little, of the wrecked
train, was a sergeant in Co. F., Twenty
fourth Wisconsin Infantry, and resides at
Portage. A Milwaukeean, who was one OF
his army comrades said to-day: He is a
good fellow. If he is as good an engineer Is
he was a soldier, he must be good one for
he was never afraid OF anything. His
nephew, Thomas Little, resides on the
South Side and is an engineer. His father
and brother are engineers in the employ OF
the ST. Paul road.
w. Fl. Keepers, of Keepers & Riddell, the
bridge-builders, was a passenger on the
wrecked train. He escaped injury, and
came back to this city to reassure his fam
lily, departing for Minneapolis last night.
Rough estimates place the pecuniary dam
age by the disaster, exclusive of personal
claims, at SIS 900.
STATEMENTS OF PASSENGERS.
Edward Petite, a commercial traveller
from London, Eng, who was in one of the
sleepers, says: ''As near as we could we
approached the coach in which the lated
victims were dying. The heat was intense,
and drove back those who sought to give
helping hand. Out of an open window
hung q little child. An old lady in the
burning car called on some one to save the
child. Already the woman's body was a
mass of flames, and her daughter, the
child IS mother. sat near by, burned nearly
so crisp. Her life was almost gone, but
the old lady chung to her grandchild until
some brave man made a dash toward the
burning car and caught the child in his
arms. People cried TO the old
lady to spring through the window, but je