Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-06-16
Switzerland Railroad Wreck.

I BEINE, June 15-The total number of
people killed by the collapse of the railroad
bridge on the Mpncheustein and Basic rail
| road is now placed at one hundred and
twenty, with hundreds more or less injured.
Another account of the disaster says fifty
! seven bodies have already been recovered,
IzRld forty persons are severely wounded It
| IS feared many others are dead whose bodies
have not been found. The victims are
| mostly leading citizens of Basic and its
neighoorhood The engineers who have in
| spected the bridge since its collapse say the
iron work of the structure alone gave way
| and the masonry work is intact.
Scenes which We're truly heart-rending
! were witnessed in this city to-day, when
the bodies of a large number of
| victims of the Moenschrein railroad
| disaster were brought here from the place
| where the accident occurred, by sorrowing
| relatives. who had gone in search of miss
| ing husbands, fathers. brothers, wives,
mothers or sisters, as the case may be, for
representatives of a majority of the best
families of Basic left here to attend the
music festival. Wives brought home
husbands brought back from the bodies of
their wives, and of their children Several
families were practically wiped entirely
out of existence by the disaster, the full
extent of which is not even known at this
hour. Basic is now truly city of mourning.
Nearly every family in the city may be said
to have been touched by the calamity, for
those families who have not actually lost
one of their members have dear friends or
acquaintance either among the dead or
among those who are mourning the
loss OF relatives, or sympathizing with
those who have friends among the W ounded.
The latter includes many serious injuries.
Almost each hour records another death or
another case in which physicians give up
all hope of saving.
Everything that the local and municipal
authorities can do to recover the dead is be-
ing done. Clergymen, priests and
physicians, a large force of troops
TO be used as ambulances.
have been dispatched to the scene of the
wreck The troops and firemen are busily
engaged in removing the wrecking, recover
ing the bodies of the dead, and transporting
the wounded to their homes in this city
OF to the hospitals. The work of
soldiers dragging the river was greatly
impeded by the fact that the stream was
considerably swollen by recent rain 0 This
carried the bodies away down the river,
so that 1t IS expected several days'
dragging will be required before the
soldiers work will be completed.
q There was an improvised morgue on the |
river bank where the dead bodies were |
taken, and laid in rows by the soldiers. |
Close TO the dead were two huge fires of |
fir trees and the bivouac of the infantry. |
who furnished guard from their
number, who, with fixed bayonets, form a |
square of sentinels around the dead, adj
hitting within their line only those who
were actually in search of miss |
ing relatives. Such people arrived |
there at all hours of the night from
So city and elsewhere, and were most |
Kindly received by the officers in command |
OF the troops, who gave the visitors every
facility to prosecute their search.
on The red glare of the biv-
with awful intensity, with the flashing
arms Of the troops surrounding it.
For . few moments at early dawn, when
the gray light Of the morning began to work
changes in these seems, troope, firemen,
priests, clergymen, physicians and Others |
rested briefly by the fires and partook
gratefully of soldiers frugal breakfast /
coffee and black bread-while preparing for \
a repetition of their efforts in behalf OF the
dead and wounded.
With the morning hours the wounded
were removed to this city.
Official consideration will have to deter.
mine the cause of the accident, and upon
whom to lay the blame.