The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1891-06-18
A TERRIBLE SCENE.
Over a Hundred Lives Lost BY the
Railroad Disaster Near Berne,
Switzerland.
Scenes Remin dful of the Heart-Rend-
ing Features of the Flood at
jamestown Pa.

B ERNE June 16-The total number OF
people who lost their lives yesterday by the
= collapse ola railroad bridge on the Moen-
chenstein & Bale railroad is now placed at
100, with hundreds more or less injured.
1t is feared that many others are dead,
whose bodies have not boen found.
Shortly after the first horror OF the crash.
Ing of the engines and cars through the
bridge and into the swiftly running stream
: had died away the survivors of the accident
saw scene which must have rivaled in
horror the most heart-rending features OF
the Johnstown disaster in the United States.
Beneath the bridge, or what remained of
1t, was a hideous mass Of broken car
: " heels, engines, railroad car upholstery,
: seats, mats, aXles, broken glass and twisted
tin work intermixed with still ouivering
heads despatched with blood and brains,
Protruding arms and legs, bloody gar
ments 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, sufocat.
ing, moaning gasps peculiar to the drown
ing.
After the first moment of partial paraly-
a" cation 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
81 OF great danger and difficulty and resulted
in number OF instances OF heroic conduct
In the meanwhile messengers were dis
patched on all sides for medical relief
which was most urgently needed by
THE HUNDREDS OF WOUNDED PEOPLE
whose distressing cries for he! p and prayers
to God asking him to relieve them of their
suherings were most heartrending. Then
everything possible was done by the sur.
vivors, but some sine naturally elapsed be-
fore the physicians reached the spot. The
troops and the fremen were the next to ar
rive, and they did good service in MANY
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
awful series of incidents. The widest
grief was expressed on all sides, weeping
and moaning filled the air. and several
people were with difficulty retained from
casting themselves headlong. rendered half
insane by grief, 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 Bale gath
cred around the fatal spot. There were
many hundreds of people who gathered
there solely in the hope of finding that
or ,10 mis- -Ip~ RI bod IL, i
by the crash, or. il such was the case, in the
desire to take his or her body home and to
prepare 1t for burial.
..-'' CRUSHED TO DEATH. ,...
AT the point where the accident occurred
the river is only four feet deep. ALI who
were killed, from seventy to eighty. were
-crushsd to death, filling the air with shrieks
ana groans. As soon as possible the fire
brigade OF Basic and detachment of artll-
lery arrived, and the search for the dead
was begun. Seventeen bodies falling close
together were first taken up and laid in an
adjacent orchard
AS the wreckage was cleared away the
bodies Of the dead and dying were found
crushed together In CHASTITY confusion amid
the almost inextrcable mass of debris
The whole night long the rescuers 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 mutllated. A dead mother was found
holding in her arms her lifeIess baby,
while another child lay across her BODY.
Several other family groups were seen
Joined by common fate
Relatives OF the victims have been crowd
ing the scene Of the disaster to- day trying
to identify the dead. Forty bodies. which
lay in the freight shed were recognized
mostly as those OF inhabitants of Basic.
An exact estimate of the number of the
killed is still impossible. There are several
persons. missing, and Others who are in
hospitals are sinking end will probably
have to be added to the ultimate total Of
the dead.