St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-05-08

most horrible wrecks III the history of
railroading occurred on the Big -Four
road in this city at LOS this morning, as
a result of which ten men are now dead
and many more injured. The train was
the east-bound passenger leaving Chi
cago at 8 p. m. The accident was
caused by the failure of the airbrakeS
to work. The engineer undoubtedly
discovered this before reaching the cut
beyond the Wabash river, as the vlgor-
Gus whistling of the engine for brakes
could be heard when the train was
still a mile west Of the city. The en-
gineer's desperate efforts to stop the
train was shown by the large
amount of sand thrown by HIM in the
bridge through which the train came
lust before the fatal crash. The engine
dashed out of the bridge over the
Wabash river at a speed not less than
sixty miles an hour, crashing into the
depot building, cutting away a portion
of the depot and train sheds and carry
ing them several hundred feet. Inc
engine. when it left the track, was tOl-
lowed by the baggage car, two postal
cars and express car, and piled In one
promiscuous mass,
Total and Complete Wreck
burying a score or more Of victims IN
the awful pile of debris. The trucks ei
the first day coach were dragged out
and the side Of the car knocked iEto
fragments, but no passengers Ill thls
car were injured. The chair car
and two Pullman sleepers renamed
on the track. The wreck was most
complete one, the engine and cars being
torn to pieces and piled up together
with their contents. To add to the con-
sternation, fire broke out from the stove
in the baggage car, but the fire depart
ment speedily extinguished the lames'
A large crowd of citizens gathered very
quickly at the scene of the disaster and
assisted in rescuing the victims, and a
large force of local physicians gave the
necessary attention to the wounded.
Several victims of the wreck were per
sons standing In the depot waiting lor
the train, hackman, mail cart drlVer
and passengers. The
List Of Dead:
MICHAEL, WEIGH, engineer, Indianap-
oils. frightfully manged head crushed, limb
torn from his body, found under the engine
FIREMAN McINNIS, indianapolis.
ED. MEYERS, Logansport, mail clerk
MCMAHON. Cincinnati express messenger.
A.R. Chadwick, Cincinnati, mail clerk.
CHARLES MEYERS, Lafayette, hackman.
JOHN LENNON, Lafayette, mail cart
driver.
JESSE H. LONG. Lebanon, Ind. mail
clerk.
CHARLES SCHAHILL, passenger who
had just bought a ticket to Indianapolis.
OTTO JERELsERON, ,Alhambra hotel, Chi
cago, passenger, going TO train.
These were all frightfully crushed anU
maugled. their limbs being severed in several
instances and bodies terribly disdgured.
The Injured:
Jefferson Reese, Kempton, bruised and cut
about the head.
Richard Jones, Pontiac, H., cut about
head
Louis Lehier, Fowler, cut by glass from
broken windows.
Sophias Bergenhale, cut about head and
hand badly bruised
William Place, living near Frankfort, Ind,
bruised and cut.
Charles Rousb, Lafayette, leg broken in two
places.
William Bechtell. Lebanon, Ind, passenger
in waiting, arm and hand laceraled.
C. A. Wissel. A. W. Cornahan. l.. A. Wetz-
Ter, j. n. Vickery, mail clerks, all from Gin
cinnati, were more or less injured, but not
seriously.
Defective Air Brakes.
The damage by property destroyed
will be fully S3O,0 900, while the subse-
quent losses which will grow out OF the
disaster will make the total amount
very large. The accident, as stated
above. was caused by the failure of the
air brakes to work properly. High
bluffs rise on the west bank of the Wa
bash, just opposite the city, and there
is long and steep grade at that point.
The ill-fated train must have been
mile up the grade from the river when
the engineer discovered that there
was something wrong with the
air, for he began to shrilly
whistle for hand brakes. The speed
had by that time increased SO
CRITICALLY. however, that its control
was beyond human agency. With
almost lightning like speed the monster
engine dashed around the curves and
across the long bridge. although the
man at the throttle had reversed the
machinery and immense streams of fire
were being dashed off from the driving
wheels running in opposite direction to
that of the swiftly flying cars that fol-
lowed it. Just after leaving the east
end of the long bridge over the Wabash
the tracks describe a semi-clrcle at the
midway point Of which the union