The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-06-17
BASLE WRECK HORROR.
HideOus Blood Despatched
Mass Of Debris.
Mangled Remains and Por-
tiOnS Of Bodies.
Distressing Cries and Prayers
Of the Wounded.
One Hundred and Twenty
One Hundred and Twenty
Persons Meet Death.
All Possible Efforts Being Made 20
Recover the Bodies.

this city were plunged yesterday by the
MOenchenstein railroad disaster continues
this afternoon. People are still focking
to the scene, the majority on foot, others
in all kinds Of vehicles, until it may be
almost said that every man and woman of
Bale and its neighborhood have visited
the broken bridge.
Shortly after the first horror of the
crashing Of the engines and the cars
through the bridge and into the swiftly
running stream had died away, the survi-
vors of the accident saw a scene which
must have rivaledI in horror the most
heartrending features of the Johnstown
disaster In the United States. Beneath
the bridge, or what remained OF it, wac
hideous mass OF broken car wood, car
wheels, engines, railroad car upholstery.
seats, mats, axles, broken glass and
twisted tin work, intermixed with culver.
ing heads, bespattered with blood and
brains, protruding arms and legs, bloody
garments of all descriptions, hats and bon
nets, umbrellas and parasols, hands and
feet, while floating down the stream were
numbers of dead bodies and family strug-
Cling men, women and children, few
now and then uttering horrible cries OF
terror or emitting those fearful, gurgling,
sufocating, moaning gasps peculiar to the
drowning.
After the first moment of partial para
lization which followed the revelation of
this horror. the survivors did their utmost
TO rescue those whose lives were in
danger The work Of pulling those who
remained in the two suspended cars from
the perilous position in which they were
placed was one of great danger and diff
Guilty, and resulted in a number of in
stances of heroic conduct. In the mean
while messengers who despatched on all
sides for medical relief, which was most
urgently needed by the hundreds of
wounded people whose distressing cries
for help and prayers to God. asking Him
TO relieve their suTerings were most
heartrending. Though everything pos
sible was done by the survivors, some
time naturally elapsed before the physi-
clans reached the spot. The troops and
the fremen were the next to arrive, and
they did good service in many ways, SO
much so that by nightfall about sixty
bodies had already been recovered from
the wreck and from the mountain stream
into which the engine and cars of the
excursion train had plunged.
When the relatives of the dead and
wounded began to arrive and identified
some OF the victims there was another
most awful series of incidents. The wild
est grief was expressed on all sides; weep
ing and moaning filled the air, and sew
eral people were with difficulty restrained
from casting themselves headlOng-ren-
dered half insane by grief-into the
stream which flowed swiftly, uncon-
cernedly by the river banks strewn with
the dead.
As night drew nearer enormous crowds
OF country people and citizens OF Basle
gathered around the fatal spot, taxing the
power OF the military to the utmost in
efforts of these people to get nearer and
closer view OF the horrors piled beneath
the bridge. To an extent did this desire
prevail that crowds OF people initiated
the soldiers, firemen and railroad men
and bivouacked for the night in the
vicinity of the remains OF the broken
bridge. Curiousity, of course, had
great deal to do with this desire to be
near the dead and dying excursionists;
but on the other hand there were many
hundreds OF people who gathered there
solely in hope of finding some missing
dear one who had not perished by the crash,
or. if such was the case, in the desire to
take his or her body home and there pre-
pare it for burial.
The details Of the Moinchenstein disas-
ter prove that the bridge broke down
under the sheer weight OF the locomotives.
The first engine had passed over
the abutment safely but was dragged
back by the second engine when the
whole fabric collapsed, the en-
gines and train tOppling into the
water. The first engine went into the
river chimney frs. and turned over on its
side. The second fell vertically and re-
mains stnading upright in the stream.
Five carriages were thrown into the water
and we're reduced to a mass of wreckage.
At the point where the accident oc-
CURED the river is only four feet deep.
All were killed, from seventy to eighty
were crushed to death.
The saved In the cars remaining on the
line Immediately began the work of
resculng the sufferers who were filling the
air with shrieks and groans. AS soon as
possible the fire brigade of Basle and
detachment of artillery arrived, and
the search for the dead was begun. Sew
enteen bodies lying close together were
first taken up and laid in an adjacent or
chard. The wounded who were unable
TO move were placed in ambulances, and
attended by doctors, were sent to Basle.
From Basle special relief trains were
speedily sent to the scene OF the disaster.
As the wreckage was cleared away the
bodies of the dead and dy-
ing were found crushed together
in CHASTITY confusion amid the
almost inextricable mass of debris.
The whole night long the rescurers toiled,
cleaning An occasional survivor out OF the
ruins. The means of the injured heard
in the early hours of the night ceased as
death or rescue reached them.
Most OF the bodies recovered were dread
fully mutilated. A dead mother was
found holding in her arms her lifeless
baby, while another child lay across her
body. Several other family groups
were seen joined by a common fate.
Relatives of the victims have been crowd
ing the scens OF the disaster today trying