St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-06-16
A CITY OF MOURNING.
The Accident at Basle, Swift
zerland, Is Appalling in
It's Results.
One Hundred and Twenty Are
Dead, and Hundreds
Injured.
Narrowing Scenes Presented
at the Broken Mountain
Bridge.
The Full Extent Of the Dis
aster Cannot Yet
Be Told.

BAsLE, Switzerland, Jnne 15.-The
state of terrible excitement into which
the inhabitants of this city were plunged
yesterday by the railroad disaster con-
tinues this afternoon. People are still
hocking to the scene, the majority on
foot. others in ali kinds of vehicles. un-
til it may be almost said that every man
and woman of Basle and its neighbor-
hood have visited the broken bridge.
Shortly after the first horror of the
crashing of the engines and cars
through the bridge and into the
Swiftly running stream had died
away, the survivors of the acci-
dent saw a scene which must have
rivalled in horror the most heartIendlng
features of the Johnstown disaster in
the United States. Beneath the bridge,
or what remained of it, was hideOus
mass of broken car wheels. engines, rail
road car upholstery. seats. mats. aXles,
broken glass and twisted tinwork inter-
mixed with still quiyering heads be-
spattered with blood and brains, pro-
truding arms and legs, bloody garments
of all descriptions, hats and bOnnets,
umbrellas and parasolS, hands and feet,
while floating down the stream were
numbers of dead bodies and family
struggling men, women and children, a
few of them uttering
Horrible Cries of Terror
or emitting those fearful. gurgling, suf-
locating, moaning gasps peculiar to the
drowning. After the first moment of
partial paralyZation 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 posi-
tiOn in which they were placed was one
of great danger and difficulty, and re-
suited in a number of instances of
heroic conduct. In the meanwhile mes
sengers were dispatched on all sides for
medical relief, which was most urgently
needed by the hundreds of wounded peo-
pie, whose distressing cries for help
and prayers to God asking Him to re-
Heve them of their sutferingS were most
heartrending. Then 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
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
come of the victims there was another
most awful series of incidents.
The Widest Grief
was expressed on all sides, weeping and
M SlURr9l
pie, rendered half insane by grief, were
with difficulty restraided from casting
themselves headlong into the stream
which flowed swiftly, unconcernedly,
by the river banks Strewn with the
dead. As night drew near enormous
crowds of country people and citizens of
Basic gathered around the fatal spot,
taxing the power of the military re-
straint 10 the utmost in their efforts to
get closer view of the horrors piled
beneath the bridge. To such an extent
did this desire prevail that crowds of
people initiated the soldiers, fremen
acked for the night in the
vicinity of the remains of the
broken bridge. Curiosity, of course,
had 4 great deal TO do with this desire
to stay by the dead and dying excur-
sioniSts; but on the other hand, there
were many hundreds of people who
gathered there solely in the hope of
finding that some missing dear one
had not perished by the crash. or, if
such was the case, in the desire to take
his or her body home and to prepare it
for burial. Two engines and three car
TiageS. loaded with eXcursiOniSts, fell
into the stream which flow ed beneath
the iron bridge that gave way and
fISn VNinncn Oar ~ 1ac
and engines now form
Shapeless Heap of Wreckage
which its own size prevented two other
carriages, which were suspended pTac-
tically in the air, from falling and still
further increasing the number Of killed
and wounded. The bridge, or viaduct,
while collapsed and caused the acct
dent had only recently been built. and
had just been strengthened after sus-
tanning damage by the rising of the
river. The total number of people who
lost their lives is now placed at 40.
with hundreds more or less injured. 1t
is feared that many others are dead
whose bodies have not been found. The
victims are mostly leading citizens of
Basle and its neignborhood. Engineers
who have inspected the bridge since its
collapse say that the iron work of the
structure alone gave way and the ma
sonry work is intact. Scenes which were
truly heartrending were witnessed in
this city when the bodies of a large
number of the victims were brought
here by sorrowing relatives who had
gone in search of missing husbands,
fathers or brothers, wives, mothers or
sisters, as the case might be. for rep
resentativeS of the majority of the best
families of BaSle lett here 10 attend the
music festival. Wives brought home
the bodies of their husbands, and hus-
bands brought home the bodies of their
wives, and of their children. Several
families were practically wiped en-
tirely out of existence by the disaster,
the full extent of which is not known
sYen at this hour. Basle is now truly
A City of Mourning,
nplace of the dead. and the scene of
bitter desolation and mourning. Near
ly 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 acquaintances either among
the dead or among those who are mourn
Ing the loss of relatives Clergymen,
priests and physicians, a large force
Of troops and fremen, and scores
Of vehicles to be used as am
balances have been dispatched to
The scene of the wreck. The troops
and fremen are busily engaged in re-
moving the Wreckage, recovering the
bodies of the dead, and transporting
Ehe wounded to their homes in this city
pr to the hospitals. The physicians and
ministers of the gospel of all denomina-
tious are doing noble work In admins