The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1891-12-05
Nearly All Taken Out Dead or So Mangled
that Their Injuries Will Prove Fatal
Several Crushed TO Pulp.
Twelve Barges Upset in the Hudson
River and Thirty People Drowned.
Sixty at One Time in the Water, but Half Be-
lieved 10 Have Been Saved-Many
Buildings Wrecked by Storms.
REMARKABLE ACCIDENT.

Four Trains Come Together, Killing Three
Persons and Injuring Several More.
PROVIDENCE, X. l., Dec. "A most ex-
traordInary accident occurred at East
Thompson, Conn.,, q station on the New
York & New England & Maine line. just
before o'clock this morning. -Four trains.
two freights and two passengers were
piled up in indescribable confusion within
less than five minutes. and three lives lost.
while several persons were seriously In
iured, one of whom may die.
The passenger trains were the Norwich
boat train and the Long Island q Eastern
States express. The freight trains were the
local Southbridge and the through east
bound Boston. Both the engineer and fire.
man of the Long Island express were killed.
the engineer being decspitated. The other
fatality was that of an unknown passen-
ger, who was burned to death in one OF the
Pullman cars.
East Thompson is merely junction sta
tion for the Southbridge branch of the New
York g. New England road. THERE'S no vil-
lage near. and but few scattered houses
are in sight from the little station that
serves as a waiting-room for Southbridge
passengers, ticket and telegraph Office. The
local Southbridge freight makes mp here
just before o'clock every morning.
This morning it hauled out on the
west-bound track about Gas. Just below
the station there is q curve. This point.
on account of grade. is considered the fast
est stretch on the road, and engineers
usually let out here in order to assist them
in climbing up the steep grade just be-
yond. There was heavy fog lying close
to the ground. The local freight had
come to stsEN-still on the west
bound track, when there was q shrek
from locomotive. and in another
instant there was a. crash and two engines
were mixed together, while a long pile of
freight cars blocked both the west-bound
and the east-bound tracks. 1t was q special
freight, east-bouni for Boston, on the west
bound track, that had struck the local
freight.
The damage doIe thus far was compare
lively slight, but the men had scarcely
reached their feet, then there was another
locomotive whistle and in an instant
another crash. This time it was the over
due Long Island express. The engine
struck the wreckage on the track, bounded
IN the air and fell over on Its
side. A smoker, passenger coach
and two Pullmans, besides the baggage
car, remained on the track. The engineer,
Harry Tabor. had evidently seen the
wreck, but too late. He had reversed the
lever. but that was his last act. for his head
less body was found beside the ruins of
his engine, and that of his fireman, Jerry.
Fitzgerald, lay near by.
STILL ANOTHER CRASH.
The boat train ordinarily gets ahead of
ha,n A,,a in
utes earlier. On account of both trains be-
ing late, however. and as the express goes
through without a stop. the boat train
was held at Putnam several minutes 10 per-
n;t 1t to go by. There was no delay after
the express struck the wreck.
some one of the train hands snatched
flag and ran up the track. The engineer
of the boat train did not see the mar until
within one hundred feet of the wreck.
Quick as thought he reversed his engine.
put on the air-brakes ard with the fireman
jumped for his life. The engine of the boat
train went S;a Quarter rte ns.t way through the
the baggage car behind. There
were but, few passengers on either
train, twelve on the express and about
twenty five on the boat train. All OF these
land was the last car of the express. It
had four passengers. Three of them got out
quickly after the shock, one escaping
Through a window In his shirt
and drawers. The fourth man. il
is understood. started to 60 out.
but for some reason turned back. That
was the last seen of him, for a few sec
onds later the engine of the boat tram
crashed through the car A piece of skull.
an arm bone and a gold watch was all that
was found in the debris of the car.
Immediately after the collision flames
broke out from the Midland. which WAS
about the center of the wreck of the four
trains. The Midland was entirely de-
stroyed. as were several box cars with
their contents. The killed are:
HARRY TABOR, engineer OF the Long Island
express.
JERRY FITZGERALD Tabor's fireman
AN UNKNOWN MAN who was I'm the sleeper
OF the train at the time OF the accident At last
accounts the body had not been taken out OF the
wreck.
The injured are: Engineer Wild of the
night freight, 2l2. east bound; fireman
Boyce, also of the night freight-both of
the latter are seriously injured; engineer
Burley and fireman Lowden. OF
the boat train: man named
Chandler, of Chestnut Hill. Boston; ex-
press messenger Marshall, of the boat ex-
press. shoulder injured; baggagemaster
Chase. of the boat train. The four engines
are totally destroyed. Two of them were in
the center of the flames.
CRUSHED UNDER WALL