Mexico weekly ledger., 1890-04-17
KILLED IN TIE alton.
A Fatal Wreck Near Farber
Early Tuesday Morning.
TWO ENGINES MEET AND
DEATH Is THE RESULT.
THE EAST BOUND vEsTIBULE TRAIN
coLLIDEs WITH A FREIGHT AND
sMAsHEs THINGS UP.
Gus. Howard, who Lived Ten Miles North
OF this City, Crushed to Death by
the Wrecked Baggage Cara
Number Injured.

At LAO o'clock a. m. Tuesday the
east bound Alton train for st.
Louis pulled out of Mexico with.
among the other passengers, Mr..
and Mrs. Frank Hart of Kansas
City, on board. While the passen-
ger was running at a high speed, it
struck the second section of a west
bound freight. just two miles east
OF Farber. The fremen and en-
gineers of both trains sprang right
and left into the darkness. The
freight engine fireman, Gus How
ard, jumped a little too late and the
combined baggage and express car
crushed him to death. The engines
struck with such terrific force az to
throw the heads Of each southwark
from the track, where the mangled
monsters lay as if embracing each
other. The baggage and express
car t~elescoped, the frelght's tender
passing right into the middle of the
car with a fiat car loaded with steel
rails Oh top Of it. Another fat car,
also carrying rails, was smashed
up against the pile of wreckage.
To the westward of where the n
gines lay was the first coach, which
was torn from the trucks but did
not leave the four foot embank-
ment. the two other coaches kept
the track. When the baggage car
teiescoped and turned over, the
express messenger vas thrown
through the side of the car up
ward, breaking both lower limbs.
The baggageman, John X Moore,
formerly OF Mexico, stated to a
LEDGER representative who was on
the scene shortly after the disaster,
that he was sitting on atrunk when
he heard the engineer put on the
air brakes, but hadn't time to
move before there was a crash and
he was in close connection with a
pile of trunks. He complains of a
stiffness in his back, but is not
seriously hurt. This is his seventh
wreck in twenty-four years that he
has run on the Alton.
Fl THE CAUSE.
,, Lane, the freight engineer, re-
ceived orders which he evidently
misunderstood. He remained or
the sjde-track at Farber until two
, trains had passed, and thinking this
was all, pulled out on the mair
track for Laddonia. Stephens, thu
other engineer, seeing the head
:. light in front, thought it was OF
the sidetrack until 1t was too lat
to avert the danger. Why it wa
i that Lane didn't see the passenger
t light is hard to understand. If h,
e had seen it there could have beef
no mistake as to its being on tn
main track, as there was no side
track within several miles ahead
s Mr.. and Mrs. Frank Hart, o
Kansas City, were on the train
bound for Chicago, pid St. Louis
but were in the rear coaches ant
|. were uninjured. The body of fire
man Howard was brought to Mex
leo, as his parents, Mr.. and Mrs
A. H. Howard, live IA miles mort
of town.
n At 1890 O'Clock the track hal
been Invested of all the wreckag
c and trains began to move. Anon
a the expressage were six crates {
fat hens, about half of which wer
killed, but the remainder complt
Gently perched themselves unde
is the wrecked car until it was moved
l. when they joined the fowls of
% neighboring barn yard.
~ The funeral of the dead firema
took place at Godfrey, ILL.,. Wedne'
day, that being his old hom'
t. The Brotherhood of Locomotiy
# Firemen will conducted the funera
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