Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-10-13
HOW IT OCCURRED.
Engineer Cooks Story of the
 Mud Run Disaster.
HE DID ALL THAT MAN COULD

Fifty-six Identified and Five Unknown.
 WnKEsHARaE, Pa, Oct. 13.-Sow that the excitemcr; over the great railway dis aster has began to abate, the work of i'm partially Investigating the cause of the catas- trophe is being caS3Ged out iii earnest. An important statement made by Engineer Henry Co,?:, which will be used before the coroner's aury. 1t was Cooks engine that crashed into tie req" of the section ahead of him. The 4;.tt '.,en. is as follows:
 II left pc.ln Haven junction on engine 452 as the helper of engine 466, just ten minutes behind the section N Ei"h preceded us, expect ing to make as did ail other engineers on the excursion trains, the time of train No. 6 be- tween thc junction and Mud Run, which Is twentT-totr minutes for the l1un of about ten miles, winch Wuu;d bring Us to Mud Run at S.O3; and k: eIv, anI the men ill charge of the train Ghe.l of Ills must also have known, that the time uf No. must be made to enablc us 10 get out of the way ol train No 12, which is due at Penn Haven junction at 1:55, and at Mud Kun at SIP, a run If seventeen minutes. We were running al,:ig Gll right, and l was contlnu- ally on the alsrt for caps other signals that might ita placed for LIS. When we rounded the, carve belC.F Mud Run shut off steam, as ,,;lr i.s, ructionS were to come into all stat iu.:S wifh engine under full control, and allowed n.y engine to drift along. Tom Major, tnA eukiAeC of 46G, whose helper was, aul whO had charge of tne train, blew one bla>; cf his whistle for si nals at Mud Run, and nS the target showed white, all right" he immediately blew two blasts for 4'up brakes % ahead" l supposed of course that Too! lad applied the air brakes s'lft- ciently to co.l;rol the train, and don't know %ln& ho .lr,>f hut oil nN-pN fS w running at about twelve miles all hour. Il was on the alert for signals, as is customary when nearing a station, but saw none To see the station flag at the point where we should be able to see il, it was necessary for me to climb upon the ratchet, which dld, and saw no signal on the station signal pole where such signals should hang. Had there been flagman there with a signal lantern we should both certainly have seen 1t, and, II not both, it is reasonable to suppose that at least one of us would have seen it, as there is certainly no cause for excitement until there is a signal of some kind of danger ahead The trouble is there was no signal lantern, nor even a cap east of Mud Run station. When we were about 150 feet from the station was leaning out of the cab window, and saw white signal being swung on the station plat form in the manner usually employed to stop trains or engines The lantern was being swung much more violently than when brakemen are signaling for switching en- gines, and I immediately whistled down brakes and applied my steam brake. This extended no farther than my engine, as the other engine had charge of the train and the air brake. l again looked out for the cause of the signal, and saw the red signal lanterns on the platforms, and pulled my lever back as far as possible to reverse, but too late to avoid the catastrophe l had done all that l possibly could with brake and steam, and could only await the result, which l did, remaining on my engine until she stopped in the wreck, and then l started to pull the fire from under the boilers. Then Hughy came up, after having assisted in carrying the injured Brakeman Poyl to the station, and we both worked at the fire until we were driven from the cab by the steam, and l must have jumped out over the guard rail to have injured my ankle and neck as did. As the target showed at Mud Run station, and with no signal by lantern CT cap east Cf the station, we were right in running to two rail lengths beyond the station by our in structionsn
 The funeral of the twenty victims from Pleasant Valley took place this morn ing All the temperance societies at Wilkes barre went up on special train to attend the funeral in a body. Twenty-Five priests were In attendance
 The case of Michael Barrett, whose two sons were killed in the wreck is a particu- larly sad one. Two months ago one of his sons killed ill a mine two weeks later another son was accidentally killed on the railroad; shortly after that his wife died, and the two sons who lost their lives on Wednes- day night were the last of his family.
 Following is the revised official list of the killed: Peter Mulligan, Olyphant Cornelius McCue, Miners Mills; Ed ward O'Malley, Green Ridge; John Rogan Jessup; William Early, Pleasant Valley Palrick Curran, Pleasant Valley; Bernard Meehan end his daughter, Polly Meehan Pleasant Valley; John M, Coleman and hi. sons, Michael and Patrick, Pleasant Valley James Hart, Green Ridge: Mamie Atkinson Pleasant Valley; Michael Nc Andrews, Pleas ant Valley; William Kelly, Pleasant Valley Thomas Buddy, Pleasant Valley; Magg Hart, Hyde Park; Annie Curran, Minooka Lackawanna county; James Flynn, Miners Mills, Luzerne county; Mrs. Patrick Farrell Pleasant Valley; Benjamin O'Brien, Pleas ant Valley; Tim Finnegan of Providence Kate FeatherStone, Pleasant Valley; Levi and Abraham Deran, Pleasant Valley Annie Loftus, Olyphant, Lackawann county; Mrs Patrick Brehcny, Pleas ant Valley; James Jackson, son o HTank Jackson, son of Henry Jackson, Pleasan Valley; Richard Horrice and wife, Mi nooka; Festus Mulberin, Minnoka; Thoma TooIe, Mincoka; James Connohoy, Minooka John O'Hearn, Luzerneborough; William Cusick, Old Forge, Lackawanna county; Nor Quinlan, Scranton; Kate Quinlan, Scranton Richard Powell and wife, Minooka; Jams Lynstt Pleasa' Valley; James Brochon and wife, Pleasant Valley; Charles Gihts Pleasant Valley; Katie Clarke, Old Forge Oscar Gibbons Pleasant Valley; Mrs. II. ( Andrews and two sons. Pleasant Valley; Joh Welch, Pleasant Valley, died in the hospital
 Owen Killcullen, Scranton, died in the ho
 pital; Thomas Moore, Bellevue, near Scrar Ion, died in the hospital; Peter Kline, Prov dance; N. Sullivan, Pleasant Valley; Ii2zi end Mary Murphy, Minooka. This is a con plete list of the names of those identified
 Five bodies still remain unidentified. The are horribly mangled, and can only be reoos nized by their clothing One of them is III doubtedly a tramp, who boarded the trai at Penn Haven.
 The coroner's inquest has began. Enginet
 Major made some startling admissions.
 confessed that his train was running twelN