St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-08-20
CAUSE OF THE CATASTROPHE
Either a Break in the Engine or
Spreading Rails, or Both.


in Quincy had heard of the accident,
but soon after people began to ar
rive from all directions, and at
about o'clock. when a gang of
Boston policemen arrived under charge
of Sergeant Thomas, of Station 4, they
found an enormous crowd about the
wreck, tearing the remnants of the
cars to pieces and securing memen-
toes The officers drove the entire mob
beyond the fences above the embank-
ment, and kept them there with ropes
and guards. This patrol remained on
duty until p. H., when Mayor Porter,
of Quincy, announced that he had Sc
cured sufficient men to take charge,
thanking the Boston contingent, served
them with coffee and sent them home.
There are various theories as to the
cause of the accident. For several feet
back along the track there is sort OF
furroW, which seems to indicate that
something about the engine broke and
ploughed into the soil for some distance,
finally derailing it. The general i'm
preston. however. seems to be that the
engine was thrown from the track by
spreading rails, and it is stated that
gang OF workmen had been repairing
that portion of the track and may have
left some of the rails
InsufficientIy Spiked.
There was no switch near by on that
track, so that the disaster could not have
been caused by misplaced switch, as
was first rumored. The first injured
person taken from the wreck was Miss
Martha B. Chase, of Santa Rosa. Cal,
and Rev. f. NJ. Dimmick and wife, of
Los Angeles, CAL, her travelling
companions were the next two. Mean
while Judge r. w. Edwards, of Louis
vile, KY, was having narrow escape
from death. He sat two or three seats
behind the Fennely party from Louis
vile, of whom three have already died
and a fourth is expected to die. the
seat between being unoccupled. When
the crash came, the forward truck,
rising through the car floor, pushed
this intervening seat against him. and,
as he Jumped to avoid it, caught one leg
and held him down. Instantly the car
became filled with smoke and escaping
steam, so that it became too dark
to see anything. 1t was very hot.
too, and, fearing that he would
be burned alive, Judge Edwards
broke the glass in his window and
thrust out his head. Even then the eS-
Gaping steam and smoke was so thick
could neither see nor be seen by the
few rescuers who began to help the in
iured At last the smoke cleared, and
the party outside helped him through
the window, when he found his only III
iuries to be cuts on his wrists, caused
by breaking glass. For time he as
sisted in saving others, out soon, 1eel-
ing
Faint From Loss of Blood,
he was obliged to go to the city hospi-
tai, where he is now. G. r. Brodish, of
Washington, d. c., sat in the second
rear seat in the fatal car, and when the
crash came, jumped to the door, and
sprang out upon the ties without injury.
Eleven bodies were afterwards taken
from the corner opposite this seat.
| When the work of rescue commenced
| the scene was a strange one. The ten
| der on the side of the embankment
| headed the train. the baggage, Pullman
| and smoking cars were piled over both
tracks, and the fatal car, 236. was
crushed upon the engine, and half
| covered with steam and smoke. A man
| laybreathing in agony in the midst of this
| burning mass, and brandy was poured
down his throat to keep him alive.
while many willing hands tore away
the instructions to reach him: but when
| at last he was taken out a mangled
corpse was all that was left. Mrs.
George NJ. Snow, of Winter Hill, sat in
the forward part OF the fatal
| car. with her son, Chester A.
Snow. five years Of age, when the car
| truck burst through the floor and passed
between mother and child without in
| turing the child. The mother was after
wards scalded in the face and hands
and received internal injuries from the
| shock of collision. Conductor B. +.
| Benson, of the Pullman 'Puri-
TAM" had a singular experience.
He stood on the platform of his
car when he felt the jar of the cars
leauing the track. Rushing into the
car the final shock threw him head first
| directly through a window upon the
outward track. His only injury con-
sisted of cuts about the face from con-
tact with the window. The
| Most Unfortunate Party
was the family of Oscar Fennely, of
| Louisville. KY. His wife, three chill
dren, mother and maid were in the
party. His mother was killed outright,
! two of his children have since died at
the hospital, and his wife is SO seriously
injured that she may die at any
moment, and his other child
and the maid are both injured.
Inc 1rlenQS OF MIS-. tIeOISe ". hdZellOu.
of Washington, wife OF Congressman
Hazelton, and her son John H., aged
nineteen, are ANXIOUS in regard to them,
although indications are that they are
safe. They were two of party of ten
stopping at the Springfield house,
Nantucket. and tried very hard to
get the rest of the party to come with
them but were the only ones who took
the Inflated train. 1t is thought they
took the Pullman and so escaped. tits
noticeable that the dead number more
men than women, and that there will
be about as many dead as seriously in
jured. Twelve bodies were taken out,
the last being recovered at 3:45; three
have died since and five more may die.
making twenty probable deaths as the
result.
Fire T,addies Meet in Detroit