Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-07-28
MET A CRUEL FATE.
The Unfoitunates in the French
Railway Horror.
WRECK, FIRE AND WATER COMBINE

The Victims Held in the Debris While
the Inexorable Flames Advanced Upon
Them and Later Drowned by the Fire
men-Forty-Three Dead Recovered
Six Out of Seven Persons in a Carriage
Killed or Fatally Hurt at a Railway
Crossing in EImira, n. Y.-Other Fa-
tai Mishaps.
PARIS, July 2S.-The disaster at ST.
Mande Sunday grows more horrible the
more that is known of it. At least fifty
person were killed and $50 wounded. The
cars took fire, and for half an hour the
screams of the unfortunates caught in the
wreck, and doomed to die a horrible death,
filed the air and turned the blood of the
helpless spectators cold. Finally the fire.
men arrived, and even their presence and
work increased the death roll, for many
of the poor wretches We're actually
drowned by the floods of water it was nee
essary to pour upon the fire. The recov-
cred bodies were burned and mangled past
recognition. In many cases there was
nothing but a little heap of bones
LATER.-An official statement of the
dead and wounded in the railway accident
at Sainte Mande, Sunday, places the num-
Der IF dead at forty-three and of injured
nineteen.
Looking for Their Dead.
inside the building which was used as
temporary morgue the scenes during the
night were heart-rending, as in the dim
light afforded by the lamps the identified
ton of the charred and nangled bodies
proceeded. A man suddenly came upon
the bodies of his wife and daughter. His
cries attracted his brother-in-law, who in
turn recognized a grandchild lying dead,
and learned that his wife and his mother
were in hospital dying. a man who, for
a long time had been rushing about half
denented seeking his family, stopped a
litter entering the room and found that it
bore the charred bodies of his wife and
baby, the latter being only few months
old.
Four Out of Five Dead.
Five of this mans children were on the
train, and only one was rescued living
The bodies of the Others were picked from
the debris. Most of the bodies in the tenn
porary morgue were scorched beyond rec
ogn tion. They owe their Identification
to some special mark The fire that broke
out after the accident was fiercesJ in the
first class carriage, from which twelve
bod es were removed so badly charred
that Identification is impossible Among
the injured sent TO the hospital a number
dieC Immediately after admission, and
maIy are expected TO succumb.
Blaming the Engine Driver.
Inquiry into the cause of the accident
shows that the second train left Vim
ceunes at the regulation interval of five
minutes after the first train. The latter
train was delayed at St. Mande owing to
an enormous crowd of excursionists The
stat ION master at Nincennes blames the
driver of the second train for the accident
When this train was starting the station
master advised the driver to go slowly, as
there was train in front of him, but the
mdn paid no heed to the advice and went
ahead at full speed The driver says some
one had tempered with the air brakes so
that he could not stop his train in time.
A Charge of Train Wrecking.
lie Paris says that an investigation which
has been made into the accident has dis
closed the startling fact that the disaster
was Intentionally caused by some I'M
known miscreant, who deliberately altered
the signals so as to bring the two trains
into collision. This announcement has
caused the ID ost intense Indignation among
the relatives and frinds of the victims,
and has aroused popular feeling generally
to a state OF great excitement.