The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-07-17
A CIRCUS SMASHED.
one of Forepaugh's Trains
Ditched at Riverside.
Men and Horses Piled Up In
Terrible Confusion.
Horrible croans of Distress
from Writhing Animals.
a Circus Employe Hurled
Down an Embankment.
Miraculous Escape of
Sleeping HostIer.
Forepaugh Estimates His
Loss at SIS, 900.
What the Railroad and Circus
Men Say of the Disaster.
Miraculous Escape of a
Sleeping HostIer.
Forepaugh Estimates His
Loss at $I5 900.
What the Railroad and Circus
Men Say of the Disaster.
Especial to the PREss.l

Especial to the PREss.)
WATERvILLE, July 16.-Forepaugh's cir
Gus met with a severe disaster about mile
from Riverside station on the Maine Central
railroad early this morning. The circus
showed in Augusta Thursday and this morn
ing started for Waterville on two trains. The
first train left Augusta about five minu&s of
three o'clock. This train is called the Stock
train and carried the teams, horses and
wagons, with the laborers attached to the
show. The animals and performers were
carried on train No. 2, which followed later.
Train No. was composed of twenty-three
circus cars and caboose Conductor FL. A.
Toward, one of the most trusted employees
of the railroad, was in charge, and the train
was drawn by engine No. II, one of the
heaviest on the road. James Leavitt was
engineer, and his brother George. the fire.
man. There were three braKemen. Next to
the engine were seven stock cars filled with
horses, numbering in all more than one hun
dred; then there were two box cars, eleven
fiat cars, and three sleepers containing three
hundred laborers 1t was very heavy
train.
AT about twenty minutes past O'Clock it
had got fully mile past Riverside Station
and eight or nine miles above Augusta. The
train had been running at rate Of about
twenty miles an hour, but on striking slight
incline the speed was reduced, according to
the conductors estimate, to about fourteen
miles an hour. Mr.. Forepaugh estimates the
speed much higher, but the positions of the
wrecked cars confirms the conductors state
ment.
The railroad, at the scene of the accident,
passes by the side of the Kennebec, and
along a steep hill side. On the one side the
embanzment slopes up for some distance, on
the other down for thirty feet or more to the
river. As the train arrived at this point, the
second car from the engine became derailed.
1t was filled with horses, and in the forward
end were berths for two circus men. AS the
night was warm, one of these men had left
his companion in the car and come out on
top, where he was chatting with John Muir
ray. one of the brakemen. Suddenly they
felt a tremor and then the car began to
smash. Murray jumped for the embankment
on the upper side, and escaped unhurt; his
companion, who gives the name of Edward
Sharp, jumped the other way, and was hurled
down towards the river. The car was thrown
across the track, where it broke in two. In
it were nearly a score of horses and men.
Half of it remained on the upper side OF the
track, with seven dead or fatally wounded
horses, and their keeper, who was unhurt
but imprisoned. The other halfiwent down
the embankment, killing four horses and in
fiicting additional injuries on the luckless
employe who had jumped
The four cars next to this quickly follow
ed in the ruin. Two slowed lengthwise
down the embankment, sending the horses
into the lower ends. The end of the first
car burst out, and the horses shot down the
embankment to the river, where some OF
them were drowned. Fifteen horses perish
ed in the wreck of these two cars. The
next two cars were piled one upon another,
on the upper side of the track. All the
horses in them, strange to say, freed them
selves and escaped alive, except one that was
crushed to death.
The five cars were completely destroyed,
and twenty-seven horses in all were killed
or mortally wounded. One man, an employe
| of the circus. who had gone onto the top OF
| the car, was seriously, though not fatally IN
| iured, while his companion whom he left IN
| the car with the horses had escaped almost
| miraculously from the ruin that killed the
| horses all around him.
The scene at this time was most terrible.
| The early morning light revealed the broken
ears, the mutilated horses kicking and utter
| ing the most agonizing groans, and the two
keepers, the one senseless and apparently
dead, the other imprisoned among his
| slaughtered horses.
The rest of the people on the train, though
| somewhat bruised by the shaking up they
had received, were soon at work resculng the
| injured from the wreckage. All of the train
| but the five cars had kept the track all right.
| Meanwhile the conductor walked to the
nearest telegraph office and sent message
to Waterville. At ten minutes past hve
o'clock wrecking train left this place In
charge of General Eastern Agent Alden, and
having ON board Doctors Frederick Z. Ihaye1
and ]. Fred Hill. The injured man was at
tended to, and was able to be brought here
today By the time the forenoon passenger
trains were ready to pass the track was about
the same as cleared and by half-past one
o'clock the circus had arrived at this place
The large crowds that had come in to town
were disappointed in not seeing the parade
and afternoon show, but this evening the
performances have been given as usual.
Mr.. Forepaugh was seen this evening. HI
estimates his loss at about $4,000, and say
| that there was no insurance. twenty-five o.
the horses killed outright he valued at from
two to four hundred dollars EACH Besides
these there was stallion which he claims
was worth thousand dollars, and his owl
bay driving horse, which ''no man could hav
had for less than a thousand dollars" Th
cars, he said, were worth nine hundred dol
!, lars each. Then there were forty sets o
> | harnesses torn up in the ruins. The fore
} of the shock may be appreciated when 1t l
stated that the stout halters on every one
the horses in the five cars were broken. In
shock of the collision caused the chariots an
wagons on the flat-cars to collide, resultln
r in considerable damage.
9 AS to the cause of the accident Mr.. For'
I paugh is very positive that the rails spread
: thus letting the trucks of the car onto til
:, sleepers He had no hesitation in saym
e that the train was too heavy and runnln
= too fast for the road bed. The responslbll
e ty he lays to the railroad, as he says tn;
4; when his circus is put upon the track it
l, turned over to the railroad authorities, an
q the responsibility of his agents ceases.
Mr.. Alden, the general eastern agent
the Maine Central, was also seen here I'll
u evening. He says that the train was rul
ming slowly and with care, and that the su
= roundings show clearly that the first OF u
n five cars was thrown off by broken aXi
7. This axle broke and one end OF 1t dropp'
e upon the sleepers, leaving long scar as
dragged All the rails torn up by the EMU